Hello, forumites. I'd like your advice and suggestions for a story arc I'm working on.

My players were en-route to meet with an important contact, but were side-tracked by some spur-of-the-moment altruism. That good deed has resulted in them stranded on a desolate planet, laying low to avoid an angry corporation and a band of pirates. I've set them up with what appears to be a straightforward task: Survive here until your friends are able to come back and rescue you. However, they've also heard that this world has many mysteries, and local legends say that the planet is haunted…

I've been playing with multiple possibilities: The planet's old inhabitants (see below) are hiding deep underground; there is some ancient relic/anomaly buried here; odd magnetic fluctuations cause organics/droids/both to go mad, local pirates use the planet as their secret base, some burned-out Jedi is hiding there, etc. Now I'd love to hear any of your ideas or suggestions.

Some info about the planet (this is what I've already established in-game):

"Glief 2 is mostly ignored or avoided, even by smugglers. The only Imperial presence is a network of orbiting navigation satellites, which serve as navigational guides and distress relays. Old Republic survey teams determined that the planet had once been habitable, but currently lacks sufficient atmospheric gases or water to support life. Strangely, surface geological strata and landforms appear to have been totally eroded away (some say "scoured," considering there is little to no trace of where it all went), leaving only the deepest layers and oldest fossils behind. Mild to severe dust storms periodically stir up, and the planet's magnetic field has odd fluctuations that can even affect ships in orbit."

"Most locals refer to the planet as being haunted, tales which are not helped by reports of scientific survey teams and ship crews going missing from time to time. The official cause for such events is hazardous weather, with a travel advisory in effect."

Some info about the heroes:

There are four PCs and one NPC. The PCs consist of two Humans (the pilot/medic and the gunslinger/leader), one Mon Cal (the mechanic), and one Droid (the muscle). The NPC is a wounded Human that the PCs rescued from illegal slavery; he is in rough shape, but should recover over time. Because they are being hunted by their enemies, the heroes will avoid trying to call for help as long as they can.

Their resources:

The PCs have access to basic survival gear, including comlinks, plenty of tools, a full medpac, and climbing equipment. The heaviest weapon they have is a blaster carbine. They also have a functioning escape pod and whatever supplies we want to say it was stocked with, most likely food, water, and life support (they have their own rebreathers and spacesuits, but an extra one or two wouldn't hurt). Oh, and for some reason they have the detached heads of six security droids.

1) Have they already arrived or are they about to wake up?

My reasoning is what if they wake up and find themselves on that world before it was wiped out?

All those disappearances are because they were shifted into the past prior to some event similar to what Sion does in the Sith 2 game, but the wound in the Force has a different effect.

2) Have you decided what caused the destruction?

Could easily have something like what was done to the Massassi on Yavin by whatever the fallen jedi was called who in the Jedi Academy books put Luke into a coma.

So maybe their escape pod falls into a chasm where loe and behold the air is breathable and there's water and maybe food although whether they'd risk eating it is a different question!

3) They pursued onto the world but as 2 are currently hidden but evidence suggests they can't wait for their friends to turn up since their foes will find them first so how do they handle that?

4) Want to try them finding a hidden Sith Temple and run your version of Star Wars meets the Mummy?

5) Could be a hidden Imperial Research Station and they're now considered a threat...

6) A long forgotten Separatist Droid Base and the PCs are mistaken for the Republic?

TCW has an episode set on Iego ("Mystery of a Thousand Moons"), where the ships can come in and land, but can't take off because of some abandoned Separatist energy grid the locals have decided is some kind of angry god or demon. Might give some good pilferable ideas.

• The planets previous population died out in a cataclysmic event, during which the atmosphere changed its composition and became toxic to them. There are still the empty cities left to explore.

1) Have they already arrived or are they about to wake up?

They haven't quite touched down yet, so it is easy enough to say that the escape pod gets caught in a storm on the way down. The time-travel idea is intriguing, though perhaps a bit too much for so early in the campaign.

2) Have you decided what caused the destruction?

Could easily have something like what was done to the Massassi on Yavin by whatever the fallen jedi was called who in the Jedi Academy books put Luke into a coma.

So maybe their escape pod falls into a chasm where loe and behold the air is breathable and there's water and maybe food although whether they'd risk eating it is a different question!

I was leaning towards the destruction being the result of the planet's natives wanting to isolate themselves from the rest of the galaxy (maybe they had powerful enemies). So they took all the planet's resources and biomass and buried it in their underground cave-cities. However, one of the PCs might eventually "turn out" to be Force sensitive, so the Exar Kun idea has merit.

3) They pursued onto the world but as 2 are currently hidden but evidence suggests they can't wait for their friends to turn up since their foes will find them first so how do they handle that?

Ah, now I'm thinking that perhaps one of the pirate ships hunting for them also gets brought down, leading to a choice between conflict and cooperation.

4) Want to try them finding a hidden Sith Temple and run your version of Star Wars meets the Mummy?

5) Could be a hidden Imperial Research Station and they're now considered a threat...

6) A long forgotten Separatist Droid Base and the PCs are mistaken for the Republic?

Gold, gold, and... gold. Great ideas! I actually just got a copy of the Mummy, so I'll mine it for ideas tonight.

TCW has an episode set on Iego ("Mystery of a Thousand Moons"), where the ships can come in and land, but can't take off because of some abandoned Separatist energy grid the locals have decided is some kind of angry god or demon. Might give some good pilferable ideas.

Thanks, I'll definitely queue that up tonight as well!

You two rock!

The haunted place is a left-over from a movie made hundred years ago. The eccentric director insisted in true-to-life sets. Some of the props (fog machines, chimes, ...) are still working.

Genius! I could tie that in with some of the other suggestions, and even use it to hint at other ancient mysteries. Thank you.

Thanks for starting this. One of the players anonymously requested ghosts in the story, but I've been trying to figure out a way to bring it into the Star Wars setting without making an enormous departure from canon. Thanks for the tips, all!

Thanks for starting this. One of the players anonymously requested ghosts in the story, but I've been trying to figure out a way to bring it into the Star Wars setting without making an enormous departure from canon. Thanks for the tips, all!

You mean like force ghosts? That's definitely canon.

• There is a hidden base (Imps, Rebells, Pirates, whatever floats your boat), and their sentries are using the old ruins and some costumes to scare trespassers away. Those that can't be scared ....

*gasp* You mean it was Old Man Withers running the haunted theme park all this time?

And i would have gotten away with it if it had not been for you nosy kids and your dog!

*shakes fist in rage*

• There is a hidden base (Imps, Rebells, Pirates, whatever floats your boat), and their sentries are using the old ruins and some costumes to scare trespassers away. Those that can't be scared ....

*gasp* You mean it was Old Man Withers running the haunted theme park all this time?

You mean it was really Neil Diamond instead of Gene Simmons all this time?

Golly.

For some reason, the "detached heads of six security droids" line caught my attention. Maybe a Sith force ghost, or some other spiritual entity that requires a vessel to speak through, that uses those heads as its communication device. Maybe have the characters wake up to see all six heads staring at one of them?

For some reason, the "detached heads of six security droids" line caught my attention. Maybe a Sith force ghost, or some other spiritual entity that requires a vessel to speak through, that uses those heads as its communication device. Maybe have the characters wake up to see all six heads staring at one of them?

That is a wonderful image, and now I'm going to work it in. I think I'll have it be seen "corner of your eye" at first, only for the heads to be totally inert when examined, until it is time for the big reveal. Thank you.

For some reason, I'm thinking of a scene from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, where Aki 'wakes up' in the midst of a battle before the cataclysm happens. Maybe the planet was the location of a huge force battle between Jedi and Sith, where all of them died in a devastating explosion. Now their ghosts are locked in an endless spectral conflict, where they keep playing out that battle for all of eternity? The downside for the players being that the ghosts are aware of them and can actually harm them. So maybe the players can help the Jedi ghosts with finally obtaining victory over the Sith, and therefore ending their eternal torment. Think of the ghost army from Lord of the Rings that thank the heroes for finally freeing them, and then dissipating before their eyes.

Maybe the players find out that the Sith used some sort of explosive device that wiped out both armies, and the players can try to prevent the explosion by finding the now ancient remnants of the device. There is still some power left in the device, and by shutting it down completely, the 'ghost version' of the bomb will no longer go off and wipe/reset the ghost battle.

Or, if you don't want to use Force ghosts (as they might be too lethal for your players to face), make them an extinct species that had a civil war and are now 'living' on as ghosts.

My 2cents.

Now what was the name of that old movie where a pair of kids see a ghost who died in a fire and it shifts from the present to the past with another two kids who encounter the original two kids who find themselves shifted through time and manage to rescue the pair from the past since they originally were thought to have died in the fire.

The ghost they encountered was of the man who died in that fire believing the other two kids were still in there and the story amde it seem that he waited a century for the original two to turn up and helped them travel into the past so they could rescue the two he died trying to save.

I believe there was a bit at the end where they discovered the two kids in the past were ancestors of theirs but I could help wondering how that would be handled in a Star Wars game!