When to restart Star Wars?

Our KOTOR campaign.
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NukeHavoc
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When to restart Star Wars?

Post by NukeHavoc »

Cory posed this question ... somewhere, but I can't find the thread so I figured I'd restart the conversation here.

I think the answer is dependent on what you're looking to do. If folks would really like to play out the last scene of their characters' stories from Shadows of the Force, then the Mandalorian Wars makes sense. If they'd rather restart with low-level characters, then I think some sort of Legacy-style campaign set after the Mandalorian Wars is the way to go.

My vote would be Legacy; my sense is that the campaign had largely run its course and that the Mandalorian Wars were looking to be a long, hard slug that wasn't as interesting as we thought it would be (mostly because the outcome of the Mandalorian Wars is already known, where as the post-war era is largely a blank slate).

As for how to resolve the Mandalorian Wars storylines, I'd let the players write their own stories. For example, it was always my intention that Zulen Tek would eventually be at Battle of Malachor V, and would have played a part in building the Mass Shadow Generator. Like the Jedi Exile, he would be greatly disturbed by the horrors unleashed by that super weapon, and having survived the battle would likely have become a backwoods hermit dedicated to helping simple folk as a way of atoning for his his part in the battle.

In terms of the big campaign storylines that aren't resolved, the only one I'd want to keep going would be the Sith Ascendency. They would undoubtedly have suffered some setbacks in their attempts to gain true mastery of the Force, but I expect they'd still be out there ... somewhere.

What do you think?
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Forgive me. I'll try and be a tad more quiet as I desperately struggle to break free -- and save all creation!" -- Doctor Strange
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Lars Porsenna
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Re: When to restart Star Wars?

Post by Lars Porsenna »

If we were going to do the Legacy thing, I think it wouldn't make sense unless it was part of an ongoing campaign. But for the original campaign, we don't necessarily need to game out the Mandalorian Wars. After all, this is Star Wars; that stuff would be covered by some simple exposition and the crawl at the beginning of the "episode." Instead we can just declare everyone gains a level, make up some background for what we were doing in the interim, and then take up the battle vs the Sith. Quest would be ALL about that!

Damon.
"Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum"
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Hardcorhobbs
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Re: When to restart Star Wars?

Post by Hardcorhobbs »

The short term goal of my proposal was to dust off the rules and get a little Star Wars in. The long term goal is to re-familiarize ourselves with the rules enough that we could revisit our other characters and continue from their story into the legacy campaign. As I'm sitting here in my brand new Star Wars sweatshirt... I'm thinking I won't be the only one with the itch to return to a galaxy far far away.

With that in mind my thought was to run some periodic games to do just that. It would be a campaign... but not like we run normally. My vision is more episodic in nature. One off events that can be played in a few nights. The next game could be picked up weeks or months later both in game and in real life. I think this is the best fit for our schedules right now.

So I've come up with a plan that I think will help accomplish this. The basic premise is that the Jedi have contracted Binary Transports to send their newest ship, their first heavy freighter, on a galaxy spanning mission to collect force sensitives to join the order. The events of the wars have taken their toll, and the order needs to start replacing those lost. Of course BT will be using this to ferry cargo around to double up on their profits. The "homebase" will be the ship. It's a larger ship with a crew of about 40. So while the ship hierarchy will start out under NPC control, there is ample opportunity for it's newest crew to chip in. The jedi in the meantime will be padawan under a master or two traveling the galaxy to pickup those force sensitive already discovered by various Jedi watchmen.

I really like what I've come up with because it's pretty modular. It can be set in any timeline, with any makeup of crew. Because you are traveling it opens the doors up for lots of different games. Much like Ken's Planetorn campaign in 4e. So this could be a legacy game, but I was intending more for this to be a side story until we get there. Or maybe it will lead to the legacy campaign, it's ours to write.

So that was my thought. I could plan things out with the Mandalorian Wars resolved, or in the midst of the War. Or we could move on 5+ years and pass the Jedi civil war and go right into the shadow war where Reven and Malik are defeated and both jedi and sith are mistrusted. Small bands of sith roam the galaxy trying to reclaim ultimate power! What are your thoughts?
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NukeHavoc
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Re: When to restart Star Wars?

Post by NukeHavoc »

So either way, you're thinking of starting with 1st level characters to get re-acquainted with the rules, correct?
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Forgive me. I'll try and be a tad more quiet as I desperately struggle to break free -- and save all creation!" -- Doctor Strange
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NukeHavoc
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Re: When to restart Star Wars?

Post by NukeHavoc »

I think if the goal (or one of the goals) is to be able to play our high-level characters again, then running something with Binary Transport on the fringes of the Mandalorian Wars makes sense.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Forgive me. I'll try and be a tad more quiet as I desperately struggle to break free -- and save all creation!" -- Doctor Strange
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Lars Porsenna
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Re: When to restart Star Wars?

Post by Lars Porsenna »

Dibs on the droid hero character then!

Damon.
"Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum"
Modeling the Ecuadorian Military: https://ecuadorianmilitary.blogspot.com/
My Book Blog: http://bookslikedust.blogspot.com/
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Hardcorhobbs
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Re: When to restart Star Wars?

Post by Hardcorhobbs »

NukeHavoc wrote:So either way, you're thinking of starting with 1st level characters to get re-acquainted with the rules, correct?
Yes. And we'll probably jump a level or two every game, depending on how comfortable we are with the rules.
NukeHavoc wrote:I think if the goal (or one of the goals) is to be able to play our high-level characters again, then running something with Binary Transport on the fringes of the Mandalorian Wars makes sense.
Sounds good to me!
Lars Porsenna wrote:Dibs on the droid hero character then!

Damon.
Will you be a ZT model? I.e. A Zulen Tek droid?
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Hardcorhobbs
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Re: When to restart Star Wars?

Post by Hardcorhobbs »

Here's another thing to consider:

I was going to make the ship your background. It will be a base of operations, a good reason why parties may swap out every game, and a nice consistency for a game that's running around the galaxy. Looking at the ships... I'm starting to lean towards the smaller capital ships. Maybe something like a Correllian Corvette. The reason is because the next level down is kind of too small for what I was thinking. They can only fit 20-30 people onboard. I was thinking this could be a larger ship with a 30-40 man crew. Then we could have a docking bay for a shuttle and some fighters. A large training area for the jedi. Plenty of room to pick up a bunch of younglings, and cargo.

Thoughts?
That's my old post but I think I'm going to re-consider this. Corvette may be TOO big, and it doesn't have any fighter hanger space (without heavy modification). I'm going back to something more along the lines of the Republic Cruiser. I came up with alternate plans should someone play a pilot who needs a fighter... if we even do that much space combat. We haven't talked about what everyone is playing yet!
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NukeHavoc
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Re: When to restart Star Wars?

Post by NukeHavoc »

Hardcorhobbs wrote:
Here's another thing to consider:

That's my old post but I think I'm going to re-consider this. Corvette may be TOO big, and it doesn't have any fighter hanger space (without heavy modification). I'm going back to something more along the lines of the Republic Cruiser. I came up with alternate plans should someone play a pilot who needs a fighter... if we even do that much space combat. We haven't talked about what everyone is playing yet!
So is a Republic cruiser larger or smaller than a corvette? I haven't looked at Starships of the Galaxy in a long time. Wasn't there an option for having a docking clamp to allow us to have a shuttle or fighter outside the ship?
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Forgive me. I'll try and be a tad more quiet as I desperately struggle to break free -- and save all creation!" -- Doctor Strange
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NukeHavoc
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Re: When to restart Star Wars?

Post by NukeHavoc »

Hardcorhobbs wrote:We haven't talked about what everyone is playing yet!
Heh. I got my book out Sunday and haven't looked at it yet. :)
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Forgive me. I'll try and be a tad more quiet as I desperately struggle to break free -- and save all creation!" -- Doctor Strange
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Hardcorhobbs
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Re: When to restart Star Wars?

Post by Hardcorhobbs »

NukeHavoc wrote:So is a Republic cruiser larger or smaller than a corvette? I haven't looked at Starships of the Galaxy in a long time. Wasn't there an option for having a docking clamp to allow us to have a shuttle or fighter outside the ship?
It's smaller than the Corvette, but larger than the Falcon. It's the ship that they land at the beginning of Phantom Menace. It's the same class as the cruizer you used for Deadstar Salvage. I wouldn't use the Republic Cruiser from the book though, I'll definitely modify it and add in a docking port. I think at the very least we need a sub-light shuttle like they use on Star Wars Rebels.
setanta14
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Re: When to restart Star Wars?

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Hardcorhobbs
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Re: When to restart Star Wars?

Post by Hardcorhobbs »

That's an amazing page! Thanks for the heads up Nate!
setanta14
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Re: When to restart Star Wars?

Post by setanta14 »

The "Republic Cruiser" ship from EP.I is: http://www.colonialchrome.co.uk/Ships/G ... sular.html

A corvette in the SW universe is MUCH bigger (it's in the capital ship class instead of the starship class), as here is the ship from the beginning of Ep.IV where Vader captures Leia: http://www.colonialchrome.co.uk/Ships/G ... rvette.htm

I'm kinda partial to the Doomtreader: http://www.colonialchrome.co.uk/Ships/G ... eader.html

Image
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Hardcorhobbs
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Re: When to restart Star Wars?

Post by Hardcorhobbs »

Doomtreader is pretty great. I'm looking for a larger ship though. Something with a 10-15 man crew, and a total capacity of about 40-50 people. The goal is to start anyone who isn't jedi as a junior crew member, while the jedi get their own space for training etc. Mainly the ship would act as a background/home base for the campaign. If there's enough interest from the party they can eventually take over the ship, or we can do things with smaller ships. That's why I was looking at the republic cruiser (crew 8, with room for 16 passengers), its larger than the freighters that we've been accustomed to, but not as large as the Corvette (which has a crew of 30 - 165).

I've been out of town, so couldn't access my library. But I should have some time tonight to go through books and see what other ships are of the right size.
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