I've finished the first chapter of an adventure that I will be running with my current group. If it goes well, I might release all three chapters for other people to enjoy as well.

The first chapter focuses mostly on interacting with the environment.

The second will focus on interacting with NPCs.

And the third on combat, both in space and on the ground.

Now, each chapter has points that hit on each of these three things, but the primary focus, the main plot driving point) are each of those three respectively.

This adventure is being designed to help introduce new players to the game in an adventure that helps define who they are, how they interact with each other, and where they want to go in the future.

When playing a fan made adventure, what sorts of things get you excited? What turns you off? And what crucial elements have to be there in order for it to be worth continuing?

When playing a fan made adventure, what sorts of things get you excited? What turns you off? And what crucial elements have to be there in order for it to be worth continuing?

For me, the biggest turn on/off is whether the author has a solid grasp of the rules. Nothing irks me more than reading an adventure that deviates from the core concepts found in the CRB (not intentionally, but out of ignorance).

I also tend to like running adventures that have at least a "sense" of non-linearness. Semi-linear, as it were (in that you still eventually end up where you need to be, but may have taken several paths to get there - or encountered the plot in varying orders based on player preference).

For me, the biggest turn on/off is whether the author has a solid grasp of the rules. Nothing irks me more than reading an adventure that deviates from the core concepts found in the CRB (not intentionally, but out of ignorance).

Oh yeah, I can get that. House Rules need to stay out of these adventures until the GM running it decides to add it in. It's nice to leave your own mark on it, but a good adventure leaves plenty of room for individual groups to leave THEIR mark.

I also tend to like running adventures that have at least a "sense" of non-linearness. Semi-linear, as it were (in that you still eventually end up where you need to be, but may have taken several paths to get there - or encountered the plot in varying orders based on player preference).

Kind of like a "Choose your own Adventure" type of thing? Cause, there's parts of the adventure that I am running that will allow for that. In the first Chapter, there's a couple of points where players choices can affect how things go, either by making survival more difficult, or by simply changing where they are going to accomplish the same goal.

That was about as far as I could stretch it in the first chapter, as I needed to introduce a few things and that meant holding the players hands, but the second chapter will not be so constrained.

Optimistically, I want to have an adventure designed that could even allow a group of new players and a group of old players to play the second chapter and end up at the same goal by the end of it. Have enough content that, even if some of it is never used, the GM doesn't have to scramble to come up with enough things to keep a group busy during a session or two.

I've been working on an adventure module, and the toughest part is, for sure, trying not to pigeonhole the players into a single path, negating their freedom to tackle things as they see fit.

This is also, however, an extremely fun part of creating these adventures....just doing it WELL is the tough part.

I've been working on an adventure module, and the toughest part is, for sure, trying not to pigeonhole the players into a single path, negating their freedom to tackle things as they see fit.

This is also, however, an extremely fun part of creating these adventures....just doing it WELL is the tough part.

Another good point.

I saw one adventure tidbit posted awhile back where the players flew into the hangar and opened fire with their ship instead of taking things hand to hand. Pink mist....

Another one had most of the group inside, taking care of business, while one of the players was hanging out in one of their fighters. So, when a ship matching the markings of one they were looking for came flying in, he shot it out of the sky.

Over half of the adventure went into the garbage after that.

Always leave room for things to go horribly wrong or wonderfully right.

I've been working on an adventure module, and the toughest part is, for sure, trying not to pigeonhole the players into a single path, negating their freedom to tackle things as they see fit.

This is also, however, an extremely fun part of creating these adventures....just doing it WELL is the tough part.

Another good point.

I saw one adventure tidbit posted awhile back where the players flew into the hangar and opened fire with their ship instead of taking things hand to hand. Pink mist....

Another one had most of the group inside, taking care of business, while one of the players was hanging out in one of their fighters. So, when a ship matching the markings of one they were looking for came flying in, he shot it out of the sky.

Over half of the adventure went into the garbage after that.

Always leave room for things to go horribly wrong or wonderfully right.

No strategy survives contact with the party.

I really like the way Jewel of Yavin is built - each chapter converges to a defined stopping point (the race, the heist, the final encounter) but the party has a lot of latitude to decide how it gets to and how it tackles each of those challenges. Have a strong sense of where the PCs are headed and plan for their strengths in terms of figuring out how to get them to decide to do what you want.

So, I ran the adventure last night with my group and was actually extremely impressed with how well it worked.

I had pretty much figured out most options and accounted for them so that I could keep the railroad moving. And considering that I am working with a group that has quite a bit of experience using these systems, I think it worked rather well.

However, as has been mentioned, no strategy survives contact with the party.

Up until the main encounter of this chapter, everything was working rather smoothly. The railroad kept chugging along.

And then fecal matter hit the rotating blades and it was that part of the adventure where the characters need to decide how to deal with a situation.

Now, I should have kept in mind that this group is very combat oriented.... They just like to kill things. And I can't blame them. Nothing makes me happier than a dead Stormtrooper. However, the dialogue pointed out to them 3 specific things that needed to be done.

- Find out who all is involved

- Establish contact with base

- Keep them from pursuing

And it was highly suggested that they avoid combat. I had Troopers in test tubes ready to be grown; there would always be another minion group because plot. The idea was to give them an objective, find out how they wanted to approach it, and move along.

No.... They want to go to killing rather than planning. No thought about how to accomplish these things; just need a good view.

I had to hold their hands through this part as well in order to explain what the general idea was.

Finally, we get everything squared away, and they decide to check a comm's channel to see if there is any chatter. I hadn't planned on them doing that, but it was perfectly okay as it didn't change much. They got the same half conversation as they would have otherwise gotten.

Then they head up to the Command Deck. Since these are nub characters, I had 2 Minion Troopers per player. 3 players means 2 full Minion Groups of Troopers. I figured it would pose just a little bit of threat, but they would be dealt with easily. Which they were. But it could have been done so much faster....

My Minions rolled well despite rolling with a Set-Back because they didn't expect to be attacked. I got the first move, obviously opened fire. Got a pretty solid hit on the Wookie, but he speced as a tank. So, it was more like a tickle...

Then it's a players turn.

Immediately after someone in the group has been shot at, he screams 'Don't shoot! We're unarmed!'

I considered reaching through the screen and shaking him. It's been made clear they have been slatted to be killed; no talk of taking prisoners. Surrendering seems like a really bad idea from that position. But hey, maybe it's just because I sleep with a pistol under my pillow.

So, I had him roll Daunting Deception with 2 Set-Back incurred because he was under fire, and because the Troopers had kill orders. And a third Set-Back because the first Minions rolled 2 Advantage.

He fails. With a LOT of Threat.

So, I have him crap himself a bit, and give another Set-Back to the group.

And then because he drew attention to himself, he got shot next.

After that, the battle went fairly smoothly. There was a little damage taken, but no worry about dying.

So, at this point, I have to grab their hands and lead them through what they need to do again. They open comms and find out that their point of contact has turned off any transmissions in or out except for a single repeating message.

Now they need to disable the ship and get out of Dodge.

They check cameras. I explain the situation a little, but I count pretty much anything they see as somewhat irrelevant. After all, I can always cook up another Minion Group for the plot. Literally growing them in my backyard right now.

They want to check engineering to see who's in there. They see Troopers, and they seem to have sealed the door.

They turn off environmental control.

Now, at this point, I am shaking my head. I've told them that there's too many Minion Groups to deal with, trying to get them to take care of the objective and hop-along. And here they are torturing a room full of them.

Now they are considering filling the room with foam, setting the oxygen on fire, or just evacuating the oxygen through the vents. All of which sound like AMAZING ideas to clear out an area they need to pass through, but a waste of time at this point.

I had considered them just wrecking havoc on the piloting controls and grabbing an escape pod. I had not even thought about them putting all of the Astrogation data onto a Datapad, doing a total wipe on the system memory, and skipping off on their merry way.

Sure, they can still fly, but they aren't going to get very far.

So, we finally have all of the objectives completed, and now it is time to gtfo.

Luckily, I wrote in a dialogue train track here that the railplay train was able to jump back on and get these guys into an escape pod and then eject. Otherwise they probably would have started trying to find the most creative and imaginative ways to kill Troopers that they possibly could.

Point is, the first chapter went very well considering it was written for a newbie starter group to fill them in on the mechanics, reward them substantial experience quickly, and help define who they are as a team. I am expecting the second chapter to be a lot more fun for this group as there will be minimal railplay going on. I intend for MANY different paths to the same goal.

It's gonna take awhile....