Help with a beginner scenario

[ZzaphodD]

Im starting my group with new characters (their old ones got a bit too powerful) after a few years of absence from SW rpg.

Can anyone recommend a good scenario/adventure (or a couple which could be tied together) with the following in mind:

-Characters will not be run of the mill 'rebels'. My group has a tendency for going with 'weird' characters (Mars Attacks aliens, Hitchikers, Space Orcs, etc).
-Characters are 'new' but will probably start with a few more skill dice and some extra equipment (nothing state of the art though)
-All players are very experienced roleplayers and often comes up with unexpected solutions.
-After these first few adventures I will launch a modified Minus Cluster campaign (Tramp Freighters) with a mix in of Otherspace (+no 2, but with Tyranids).

Anyone with ideas?

[cheshire]

How about this, the character bungle a hyperspace jump, and wind up in the middle of an old Clone-Wars era debris field. They think that they can do a little bit of salvage from some of the wreckage. Some of the things they can sell off are just good ol' ship parts. Nothing interesting, but it's a little bit of time for a fair payoff. However, in one of the ships they find a few goodies in terms of weapons and a droideka or two.

If they try to sell off the droideka, someone may want to verify that it's in working condition. Once activated, it's sheilds come up and goes hostile on all the organics in the vicinity. After the droideka has been shut down (probably though heavy ordinance), the buyers refuse to buy the scrapped heap of junk. Naturally the players will want their money for the thing that they had to destroy.

If they do successfully unload weapons, then they're obviously selling it on the black market directly. That means that they've just cut out the middle man, and the thing about black market middle men is that they don't take kindly to being taken out. They find some hostile folks who want their cut of the deals they've been doing on their turf.

Of course, all this clone wars stuff showing up on the market all of a sudden will attract imperial attention. A near miss with the Imps would be a good reason to relocate to the minos cluster.
_________________
__________________________________
Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[ZzaphodD]

Thats some really cool ideas.. However I dont think I want to start with a bungled hyper jump. Thats cooler when jumps have become routine. But I will definitely use the idea as a 'transition' into the Minos Cluster.

Apart from more good ideas, can anyone recommend an official scenario thats suitable for bringing characters from different backgrounds together?

[ZzaphodD]

No one who can recommend a SW adventure?

[bobenhotep]

if all of your characters are weird things like you said, maybe they all find out about weird items that could return them to their universe of origin. but in the mean time they have to pass themselves off as natives to the sw universe and survive day to day life by hauling cargo. hauling cargo would give them an excuse to travel world to world to find the gateway/device/ancient beings that could get them to their home worlds...

maybe someone catches on to them and hunts them. there arel ots of things that could happen. make up some npc's and weave the pc's into their plots...

[cheshire]

Can you give me some idea of how different these characters will be and how much variation in background we're going to be looking at? I mean, I can come up with ways to get a Corellian and a Wroonian together, but I can't tell you a way to get a Gamorian, a Jawa, a Gungan, and an Ewok together at a bar.
_________________
__________________________________
Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[bobenhotep]

i started a campaign with all of the characters hanging upside down chained up in a pirate ship, on their way to be sold as slaves or food. they had an npc with them that had a ship that was captured by the pirates.

the npc died in the escape but they got to his ship. it was half taken apart by the pirates stripping it down, but it still had enough systems to engage the back up hyperdrive and escape.

from here you could go different directions.

-the pc's know something (or stole something on the way out) that makes it worth the pirates' time and money to hunt and kill them.

-in a case of mistaken identity, someone thinks the pc's stole the npc's ship or killed him even. or bounty hunters who are after the npc may hunt the pc's. they may think they are hiding him, and not believe he is dead. this might be caused by the pc's faking that the guy is still alive. you get the idea...
_________________
D&D 5e DM and WEG Star Wars GM for two kids who will hopefully carry on with RPGs for years to come

The Chijawa said so, that's why.

[Yak Face]

If it's the start of a campaign and the characters are just too different to put together naturally, then I start them in prison or on the way to prison. The Empire picks of the detritus of society from all over the place and neatly consolidates it into manageable piles, seemingly without sorting it much. That can be a handy utility. Starting out that way forces alliances between folks who would normally have nothing to do with each other, and forges feelings of indebtedness/trust that hold the group together. If the rebels free the prisoners by raiding the facility that can be the hook into a standard rebel campaign.
_________________
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. -Sir Winston Churchill

[ZzaphodD]

Thanks for the input! I had to go ahead before I read this as we just finished playing for today. I have taken a few notes about how to proceed though, and several ideas are both interesting and also fits the background.

Basically I had to sort of railroad them into the rebellion (and start with the Scavenger Hunt adventure for some laughs), but all characters backgrounds fit in with looking to the rebels as their most logical 'allies'. Characters are not 'weird' in the sense that they are all different aliens, but mostly they usually come up with 'weird' backgrounds.

This time only one player chose the really 'strange' background though (the female jedi)..

One player couldnt come so I ended up with:

-One near human Tech Wiz (heavy worlder 'dwarf' appearence). Former Imperial Slave. Escaped.
-One 'military type' mercenary/outlaw with alcohol addiction and bad tempers.
-One Young female failed jedi (Former slave, made padawan until master killed in purge, fallen into despair and using force to manipulate others to get by (to put it family friendly). This was a partially 'random' background that stuck because of the incredible unlikeliness of it.
-One middle aged faile jedi (former young jedi in training, escaped order 66 by luck, but ran away instead of helping his master and now cant come over feelings of guilt poisoning his mind making him bitter and cynic).

All players are played with a very tounge in cheek attitude, which is common in our (and others I assume) SW sessions.

We use a modified version of the advantages/disadvantages background. All (exept the female jedi) are either in debt, hunted by criminals/the empire or both. This has forced them, together with some basically common interests, into the folds of the rebels. The rebels quickly understood that they were not military material in the usual sense, and uses for emergencies when the reliable spec forces are not availible. When they go into the tramp freighter role all those debts will come back to haunt them, and also is a good reason to stay out of sight in the Minus Cluster for a while.

I will use one more 'standard rebel mission' scenario before things will heat up so much they want to find a place to hide away for a while.

[schnarre]

...Looks good! How'd the Scavenger Hunt run go?
_________________
The man who thinks he knows everything is most annoying for those of us that do.

[hazardchris]

If you're looking for a really well-crafted beginning game there's an adveture in the Introductory Adventure Game that I've used with a couple of different groups that's really well made, I even ran this with Saga Edition once and it went really well.
_________________
"Don't you have to have mini-clorinies in your blood or something to be a jedi?"
"Oh no, that's just something we used to tell people."

Let me make you a picture!

[Nico_Davout]

I always start with a new group of players with an adventure in Mos Eisley. They are broke, penniless, working in the Mos Eisley cantina . One day, after throwing trash in the backyard, they find dead guy with....well that depends what you need and when is your campaign set. Maybe some imperial data? Maybe information about Jabba's treasure (good for campaign after Endor) and so.Information in datapada could say who still lives and knows where is part of Jabba's arts hidden. When they find the guy, he is near being captured by other party led by ex-Jabba worker (for example). After some shooting, they get to the treasure (hidden cavern, secret underground in some smaller village on Tatooine). There could be traps or some droid guard, or maybe Jawas, who accidentally found the place and are just in the middle of ransacking it. With the treasure they find some rusted, 3rd-rated space transport, who can make a fly or two before going down. Some more bad guys appears at the end and off they go to the starts .
_________________
Nico,

Han Solo shot first, midichlosomething do not exist, Rebel Alliance was created as in the WEG books and indoctrination theory is the true ending of ME3.

[hazardchris]

Off topic, but I just have to say:

Nico, glad that someone else here is rocking the Republic Commando.
_________________
"Don't you have to have mini-clorinies in your blood or something to be a jedi?"
"Oh no, that's just something we used to tell people."

Let me make you a picture!

[Nico_Davout]

Thanks, I`ve enjoyed Karen Traviss' books very much. I was surprised that *they* can still write such good books about Star Wars.
_________________
Nico,

Han Solo shot first, midichlosomething do not exist, Rebel Alliance was created as in the WEG books and indoctrination theory is the true ending of ME3.

[ZzaphodD]