3rd or 4th time GM looking for ideas and advice.

[Darth Ebriate]

In my experience with WEG's SWRPG, I've usually been a player. Unfortunately, my old GM's are far away doing their own things now, so I've had no one to play with. After several years, I decided I needed to bite the bullet and just GM a campaign myself. I've GMed a few times in the past, but the campaigns never really got off the ground. So my experience is not very in depth. I've convinced my best friend, my wife, and a few of her friends that we should start a campaign. Apart from my wife and buddy, they don't have a lot of gaming experience, so I hope that will benefit me.

My players pretty much figure the campaign is going to be "Red Dwarf meets Star Wars", because I'm just that kind of guy. But I want to throw them for a loop and introduce some darker elements. Give them the full RP experience. Specifically, I'm taking ideas from some horror movies and kind of mixing them up whith more traditional SW elements, hopefully to make the goofy parts more goofy.

Here's the basic campaign idea. Takes place roughly 6 months post Battle of Endor. Luke Skywalker wants to reestablish the Jedi Order, but before he does, he wants to try to track down any useful information on the Order. He figures the best place to start looking would be Vader and/or the Emperor's palaces on Coruscant. A special infiltration team would be needed to get onto the Imperial-held planet. Enter the PCs....

So far for adventure hooks, I have:

- Zombies. The players have to set down on a planet for repairs and detected a building near where they landed that they would have to scavenge parts from. The facility is a secret Imperial chemical weapon testing facility. And you know what always happens at secret chemical weapon testing facilities. They'll have to fight through Zombie Stormtroopers, Zombie Wookiees, Zombie Gamorreons, maybe a zombie Wampa or Rancor to take the place of the Tyrant. I did a variant of this on my first GMing session several years ago and it seemed to be well received. I've read through some of the zombie threads here and scavenged some bits I liked (like the zombie Wampa). I'm hoping one of the players fails a dodge/melee roll so I can have them bitten.... >= D

- Screamers. I think that's the movie's name. Peter Weller movie about killer robots that self replicate and build more advanced models to infiltrate the human bases. Think Terminators, but less smart. I'm hoping this one will really creep the players out and make them scared of certain sounds and phrases.

- "I Want To Play a Game." I just recently watched Saw 3 & 4, and I'd like to work in some traps/tests like that (only less lethal), but really haven't worked that angle through yet.

- Vader's Fortress. This is going to be a good old fashioned Dungeon Crawl, complete with traps and encounters a plenty. I'm hoping at least one of the players will be a force sensitive character, because I want to mess with them using a Sith Holocron they'll unwittingly find here.



So I'm looking for other creepy movies or ideas I can throw at them. The more obscure, the better, as one of the players is a big sci-fi and horror movie buff, and I don't want him being able to guess the twists.
Also looking for advise with dealing with first time RPers.....

Darth E.
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I'm like a Jedi, but without any powers or motivation.

[Darth Ebriate]

A follow up question. Do you think there are Zombie Holovids in the SW Universe?

In the group I'll be playing with, at least two of them are zombie movie afficionados (sp?), who, the moment the word zombie is mentioned, will most likely shout, "Shoot the head!"

Would the average PC know to shoot for the head? I would imagine some sort of knowledge check would be required.

How would you keep that metagame knowledge from interfering with the story?



Darth E.
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I'm like a Jedi, but without any powers or motivation.

[Gry Sarth]

I would think there are some forms of Zombie holovids in the galaxy. There's some pretty weird stuff floating around the dark corners of space and some ancient Sith tales to feed such stories. However, the galaxy being a huge and diverse place, not everybody would be aware of such things.

So to know things like "shoot the head" I would have the players make a Knowledge roll. Not sure what skill though... cultures? arts?

I do like your idea of infiltrating Coruscant to seek Jedi knowledge. Besides the Imperial Palace, they should try and enter the old Jedi Temple, which we know is still standing. You could easily have some ghosts of the jedi massacre haunting the place.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Buttonz]

I have some zombie fans in my game which did lead to the "I'm shooting them in the head!" They all seemed a little surprised when the zombies kept coming. Even the Jedi slice-o-matic was a little freaked when the arms and legs he cleaved would try and snag his ankles.
My rule of thumb is zombie parts are active for around 10 rounds before they "die" after they fall off.

One great adventure i ran was with a Predator/Alien-like alien on a derelict ship the group happened along. Poor lighting and creepy sounds make surprise ambushes very easy as players will have no idea if that thumping sound is a loose panel or a very nasty alien headed their way.
One character got separated and he was trying to contact the group. His comms only partly worked with alot of static. Thinking clearly (for once) the character recalled his handy life-form scanner and whipped it out... to find a reading directly in front of him. The memory of his pathetic whimper still brings me joy.

This sort of game is best run in a dark room with a single small desk lamp in the middle of the table you can direct the light with. Make sure the powerboard is at your feet for when the lights go out. And spend alot of time on describing details.

Good luck and have fun!

[Darth Ebriate]

[Darth Ebriate]

[Gry Sarth]

As for the security around the Jedi Temple, I think it could be really whatever you would prefer for you adventure. The temple could have been converted into some sort of "Remember the Jedi Betrayal Museum", in which case it would have normal museum security. Or it could be considered a sealed off area, with some top military security. But it could just as much be just an abandoned building, a pityful monument to the folly of the Jedi, with grafitti on the walls and weird homeless aliens hiding in the corners.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[masque]

There's a scene in I, Jedi, IIRC, or possibly one of the X-Wing books, where Corran Horn is in an Imperial Museum full of revisionist "historical" exhibits. Might be something to check out for inspiration on how the post Republic Jedi Temple has been "preserved".
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Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

[Gry Sarth]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was thinking of. That "revisionist history" museum was great. If I'm not mistaken it was somewhere in the Imperial Palace, wasn't it?
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Orgaloth]

No it was near the Senate Hall and it was in X-wing Wedges Gamble
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"I take orders from just one person: Me!"

"You know, sometimes I amaze even myself."
Du Cass' Dream

[Darth Ebriate]

After reading the comments, I think I've figured out how the Jedi Temple will work in my campaign. Basically, the actions of Anakin and the Clone Troopers will have left a huge dark side stain over the temple, such that even non-force sensitives could almost feel it. Most people stay away from it, considering it haunted. But Palpatine installed automated defenses inside and stationed guards outside to keep away the truely adventurous. However, since Coruscant will most likely be in relative chaos in the months following Endor, the Temple guards will have been called away to assist in quelling uprisings, leaving only the internal defenses - droids, turrets, etc.

Palpatine will have scoured the temple to remove anything of use, but I intend for one very cleverly hidden holocron to remain for the party to find, most likely recorded by one of the council members.

I also will want the party to come across some Jedi Ghosts, most likely younglings, that will cause them to really question the ramifications of their actions.

YOUNGLING GHOST: "Master Skywalker did this!"
PC 1: "Wait, what?? SKYWALKER? As in the Master Skywalker that sent us on the mission to find artifacts that will help him train more Force users?"
PC 2: "No, it can't be the same guy, he's to young to have been involved with the destruction of the Jedi...right?"
PC 1: "Well, he is a Force user, he might be able to disguise his age...."

I do like the idea of having them go to the revisionist museum too. My wife's character is going to be a Indiana Jones-esque scholar type who specialized in Jedi history....so such a place would be an affront to her. Will have to dig up my copy of Wedge's Gamble to check it out.


Darth E.
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I'm like a Jedi, but without any powers or motivation.

[Darth Ebriate]

Okay, I've figured out how to work in my "Saw" ideas in a roundabout way.

I was reading Marvel's "Secret Invasion" and was pondering a way I could work elements from that into a campaign, when I came up with a brilliant idea.

Besides the Emperor's Hand, there is also the Emperor's Eye, Reach, and Voice. Not much is known about the latter two (at least not that I could find). But I figured, if the Hand were the Emperor's Assassins, and the Eyes were know for their portent reading abilities, then the Emperor's Voice would be similar to Prophets, sent out to relay the word of the Emperor and show his "great works". (Haven't quite figured out how the Emperor's Reach would work.)

Now, my campaign takes place 6 months after the Battle of Endor. What if one of the Voice was so fanatical, he believed Palpatine to be a deity? How would he react to news the Emperor was dead and he was not receiving the Word of his God anymore? It would most likely send him around the bend, driving him to seek out and punish the unbelievers while still trying to spread the word and find his God.

I've dubbed him "Citri Noll" for now, one of the Skrulls in the Secret Invasion. Thinking about changing that. As for the Skrully aspect of the character, I've devised a helmet he will wear under a hood with the SW equivelent of LCDs embedded in the faceplate, allowing him to project images across it. An image recorder on his hood clasp will allow him to record images of people he comes across. I've sketched up a design for him that I'll try to toss up on here sometime tonight.

Hopefully, this will be a creepy recurring character that the players will keep running into, or at least coming across the scenes of the Voice's punishments, finding his calling card, the phrase "He loves you.", scrawled on walls or repeated by the victims. They'll actually be pursuing him without meaning to (unless, of course, they actually abandon their mission to try to solve this mystery).

Thoughts?


Darth E.
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I'm like a Jedi, but without any powers or motivation.

[Xynar]

Drop a hint about the "Voice" and make it seem that this being has important information and must be arrested and interrogated. Then have him do some questionably safe "demonstrations" that puts himself and others at risk. This way the group is saving people that may want to die for their Emperor. It may be a good moral twist.
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Xynar
The Great Adventurer

[Darth Ebriate]

Here's the promised pick of the Emperor's Voice....




Darth E.
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I'm like a Jedi, but without any powers or motivation.

[mastereji]

Your ideas are pretty sound but you could also add rogue dark siders that now are masterless searching for the same type of knowledge. Also, you could have one or more criminal organizations also in on the search. If any in the group are force users they can have force visions as revealing and/or as obscure as you would like them. I like using zombie runs when i don't have much time to plan an adventure but they are always a hit. Old and or recent imperial research facilities are always good ways to go with guardians, "new residents", etc., especially on far away remote worlds. I have found with the star wars universe and the willingness to incorporate any and or all of your ideas into an adventure that anything is possible in an adventure.
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"Remember the PCs are just putty in your hands"