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How do you Start your new adventures or campains?
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Barrataria
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 10:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

garhkal wrote:
One of the 'stranger' intros i have seen.. Everyone owed money, and had little work capacity/were hobos/down on their luck etc, and had accepted an invitation by a company for 'testing'....


So... was it a break-out-of-the-lab scenario?

My favorite character template for Dark Conspiracy was the "Psychic Test Subject"!
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 7:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

More like an investigation into the lab, then breakout...
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Esoomian
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 7:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I recently used the cliched everyone is in prison (or in this case a secure lab facility as experiment subjects) because I was running a one of game with pregenerated characters and this way I didn't have to come up with an interlinking backstory.

It worked pretty well.
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TheDoctor
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:52 pm    Post subject: Re: How do you Start your new adventures or campains? Reply with quote

Lancil wrote:
....while. Just looking for some ideas from some of you out there that have been doing this for like ever.


Originally the way Tatooine Manhunt was written, the PCs are Rebels competing against Bounty Hunters to find Adar Tallon.

You could have the PCs play in this adventure as the Bounty Hunters, with their adversaries being rival Bounty Hunters, Rebel Agents (as NPCs) and other Imperial Agents.

If they wish to be Imperial, you could run the adventure having the PCs playing Imperial Agents reporting to a political adversary to the Imperial Captain that put out the bounty in order to show him up so to speak.

Additionally, Smugglers or Mercs might be involved who are hired by Adar Tallon and company to get him off planet before the bounty hunters and Imperials find him.

I know this is an older post, but hope that helps!
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BSDOblivion
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 12:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

FRAKIN CHEAT
there is always one or two who just dont gell with the others no matter what. the jedi in the imperial campaign or paladin in the barbarian hordes. i know its a cop-out but dear god are some people a pain in the arse.
so the big pain in the arse wants to play a big wookie who likes to kill things. fine, guess who just saved your life and is now life bound.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 1:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Esoomian wrote:
I recently used the cliched everyone is in prison (or in this case a secure lab facility as experiment subjects) because I was running a one of game with pregenerated characters and this way I didn't have to come up with an interlinking backstory.

It worked pretty well.


I like this one from a GM perspective because the characters start with no money, no possessions, and they are on the run. Smugglers either have to steal back their ship or (more likely) have to steal a new one, bounty hunters have to acquire new weapons, Jedi have no lightsabers, etc. It's a good way to start a long-term campaign.
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TheDoctor
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 5:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

BSDOblivion wrote:
FRAKIN CHEAT
....fine, guess who just saved your life and is now life bound.


BRAVO!
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Rerun941
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 5:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This isn't always possible, but with my recent gaming group I tossed them headlong into one of the events described in The Star Wars Sourcebook: the decimation of the Batiiv Pirates (whose remnants became the Khuiumin Survivors)

In media res they started aboard one of the pirate Corvettes and were immediately on their way to an escape pod. They had to figure out a way to get off planet, avoid the Imperials and commandeer a ship to get out of there.

It was a good way to start and it gave them an immediate reason to hate the Empire.
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TheDoctor
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 5:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think a good source of inspiration would be movies surrounding the concept of a group of unlikely characters being strung together for whatever reason. For example, The Odd Couple, The Inlaws, The Breakfast Club...ok scratch that last one.

Tarkin: You want another?
Leia: Yeah, blow up Dantooine too!
Tarkin: You got it, you want another?
Leia: How about Endor?
Tarkin: Fine, and another?
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Whill
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 1:48 am    Post subject: In Media Res indeed Reply with quote

My next campaign will start out like this...

Background before play begins: The campaign starts out 2 years before Ep IV. The PCs don't have to know each other before the game starts. All but one of them are out-of-work mercenary/smuggler types who need a job. The other one is the first mate on a smuggler ship whose captain has a high paying job he needs a new crew for (and maybe some "specialists"). Through contacts the captain instructs all the rest of the PCs to meet his first mate at a specific time and place on the planet Calamari (Dac). The first mate is tasked to meet them, authenticate their identity, and take them back to the ship while the captain takes care of other job planning details. That's all the players will know before the game begins.

The opening crawl (of course set to the Star Wars musical theme): The crawl establishes that as soon as they all met up, they were all captured by goons of the Quarren crime boss Tessek who has a grudge against the captain. The PCs are taken in a repulsor-skiff to a sail barge on a river in a forest island nature preserve where Tessek intends to feed the PCs to vicious sea monsters in a violent display meant to impress his new business associate, the visiting crimelord Jabba the Hutt.

The adventure begins: The scene is briefly set, the mood is somber and the PCs are about to be made to walk the plank when... another skiff comes flying out of the forest in the direction of the evening sun and stops with a controlled crash into the skiff the PCs are on, causing a big splash! The skiff is being driven by the captain who has come to rescue the PCs from his nemesis on this planet! The PCs will naturally jump to the captain's skiff, but some of the goons will jump on too. The captain takes off down the river while the other skiff and the sail barge begin their pursuit! So the PCs may try to wrestle weapons from the goons, brawl with them and push them into the river while the sail barge and other skiff start shooting at PC's skiff. Occasionally paths in the riverside forest open up and the skiff can evade fire from the sail barge in there but are still in trouble from the other skiff. And the path the captain takes them on will alternate between the river and the forest so they'll be zig-zagging from one problem to another as a part of one big chase. They may need to dodge tree branches and even encounter a wild animal in a forest part of the chase.

And I thought it would be funny to have some crazy spice-addicted Ewoks manning a heavy weapon on the skiff (like three for a one-man gun or they just hoot and jump around taking turns shooting at the PCs/getting shot down by the PCs). No, the PCs won't know the species and there will never be any explanation provided as to why there were Ewok goons on Calamari, but I just thought it would be fun for the players. And Jabba, just being a visitor and not really caring about Tessek's vehicles and goons, is just having the time of his life, very entertained by all the violence no matter who is getting hurt or nearly defying death, laughing all the way through the scene.

The PCs may completely take out the other skiff. Eventually they will get out to sea and have a chance to outrun the skiff due to a skillful shot or other creative heroic action to slow the sail barge (or the actions of the captain if needed), but right as the PCs begin cheering in celebration of their victory from escaping death by sea monsters, spice-crazed Ewoks and underworld goons, Calamari police vehicles from the nearby city fly out of the sky and surround the skiff...

...and the PCs are then taken into custody and put in jail while the captain and his first mate are brought before archnemesis of the captain, the respected political leader Ackbar...

...but I don't want to give away the whole adventure! Fairly linear, but in media res all the way! And since their cash, weapons and equipment had all been confiscated by the goons when they were captured, the PCs will start out the campaign with only the clothes on their backs (but there will be some basic adventuring supplies for their use on the ship). But who wouldn't think that's not a fun way to begin an adventure or campaign?
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 5:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice... gives a reason for them to work together!
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Bren
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 6:32 am    Post subject: Re: In Media Res indeed Reply with quote

Sounds like a very exciting beginning. And I love the
Whill wrote:
archnemesis of the captain, the respected political leader Ackbar...

Ackbar is one of my favorite characters and it is an interesting twist to have him as a nemesis for the player's patron. Very Happy
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Whill
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 9:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ackbar is one of my faves too.

And I guess I should have clarified that in my Star Wars Universe, the planet Calamari is not yet occupied by the Empire at this point. After the Clone Wars, Calamari Space was allowed to withdraw from the Empire and remain independant, but the plot of this adventure reveals that Empire mysteriously considers them to be a client state and somehow the region has representation in the Imperial Senate that Calamari's government was also not aware of..
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Dustflier
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 3:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The campaign that I just started running began as follows:

The PCs are unrelated gamblers at a cantina during an unsanctioned sabaac tournament, for which a CEC YT-series light freighter is the winner's prize. The tournament is taking place aboard a space station orbiting Ord Mantell. Suddenly, a blaster fight erupts in the station's primary hangar bay, where the PC's respective ships and transports are docked.

The blaster fight spills into the hallway, and it becomes apparent that the invading force is made up of Imperials. The defending outlaws, smugglers, pirates, and Rebels rout the initial strike force, resulting in a drastic response from a Star Destroyer lining up broadside with the station: opening fire on the hangar with a portion of the SD's turbolaser batteries.

As the space station rocks with the concussive blasts of the SD's assault, the PCs must quickly make their way off the station. The only ship left unscathed? The CEC YT-series freighter to be awarded to the gambling champion, in the locked secondary rear hangar bay: an aging YT-700 that is held together with unprofessional welds, space tape, and rust.

Not only are the players forced to work together, but the ship holds its own secrets, and drives the campaign's early plot line.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 5:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very nice. I'd play in if I could.
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