After writing this up I now realize it is quite long, and anyone who sticks it out deserves a beer on me if you are going to be at Gen Con.

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I've always wanted to design a truly large campaign from scratch. My friends and I sat down last week to make a setting using the Session 0 rules from begging for XP, which are excellent:

http://beggingforxp.com/2013/session-0-our-player-generated-setting-for-star-wars-edge-of-the-empire/

After I wrote it all up, I had about 16 pages of a word document and realized this was going to be far too huge to keep track of on paper, so I started an Obsidian Portal campaign and have almost finished filling in all the content I wrote up (as well as some GM-only content like stats).

https://trouble-on-kwenn-station.obsidianportal.com

I've got a lot of work to do, but this is my general plan:

1) Finish writing up Colony 12. Essentially one of the PCs is out here to make contact with a small paramilitary anarchist group (RIFLE) that wants to take down both the Empire and Rebellion. This is their base that he can eventually find.

2) Create a narrative that would take place were the PCs to sit around doing nothing. The story will be shaped by how they impact that narrative at various points in time, and this allows me to have things happen 'off screen' that are at least semi-planned and make the universe feel alive

3) Create a TON of mini-encounters and larger modular encounters that the PCs can find, and that act as hooks for getting them involved in various important events.

Here's my progress on 2 thusfar, with the plot concurring in loosely defined 'stages' that just mean 'if I think it fits the narrative I have this stage happen':

Stage 1: Duke/Duchess have a falling out almost immediately. Duchess quickly tries to find a group to go request that Adda help her take over Kwenn to restore it's profitability. Intro encounter should lead to this being the PCs unless they do something totally crazy. This should get them to Nimban after a few sessions.

Stage 2: Zebb (slicer, GM only in campaign) reactivates droids, sends control keys back to black sun to turn droids against knights at their will. If PCs are off Kwenn at this time, the droids will have replaced most members of the Knights upon their return

Stage 3: RIFLE finds a streak of un-mined ore and sends off a freighter to make a large transaction for more advanced munitions/starfighter parts

Stage 4: Duchess secretly rallies the Knights that the duke fired in a TBA location while awaiting Addas assistance (probably a place she knows is abandoned but isn’t marked abandoned because she has better logistical data than the duke); Adda sends Thraak and a contingent of Nesters to Kwenn to help the Duchess take control of the station

Stage 5: RIFLE agent returns with munitions, receives information (from the black sun, but no one knows this) about imperial star destroyer on Kwenn and rallies troops for an all-out attack

Stage 6: Black sun transmits keys to droids, causing them to attack anyone armed on the station; RIFLE and Nesters arrive almost simultaneously and begin attacking their targets; Imperials assume everyone is attempting an attack on The Relentless, and turn the star destroyer's full arsenal on everyone

Stage 7: Should the PCs survive and return to Kwenn, they will find that the Black Sun has begun to rebuild the station and has taken over the drug distribution business there

I think the finale has the opportunity to be truly epic, but I have a lot of work to do to figure out how to make sure the PCs fit nicely into the larger narrative.

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Here's where I ask for help! I do not have a lot of modular encounters available to me other than those in Suns of Fortune, and I am going to need a TON. I see room for almost all of them, and am going to need a ton more. Especially mini encounters, like from page 420 of the core rulebook, to help make the world feel a bit more full. Are there any resources out there for modular encounters I could steal and re-skin for use in this?

I also would love any feedback if anyone is willing to slog through all the content I have up there. Any criticisms from other GMs that have run large campaigns and see me going wrong somewhere would be especially helpful.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out, I've always wanted to run something like this and am really looking forward to starting it next week.

Needs fleshing out, but I developed a pretty decent adventure flowchart for the campaign that I think would last my group a long time. Will do some edits tomorrow to flesh out the narrative elements, but here's the gist for now:

http://www.gliffy.com/go/publish/5959286

· KWENN

· First session: cantina fight start, then call from Norpo to come to his office where he offers you a smuggling job. If successful, Duchess meets you in Dock 96 on your return:

· Duke/Duchess Offers

· Duchess asks the PCs to bring an encrypted datapad to Adda the Hutt. Datapad contains proof of The Duke’s malfeasance in an attempt to break Adda’s implicit trust for him, a plea to send the assistance she needs to take the station back from The Duke, and a promissory note from her to Adda asking him to pay you for successful delivery of the message. If the Duke knows about this offer, he may intercept the PCs, offering them money to not bring it and promising that he’ll take care of Timmser. He also offers them another job to keep them busy, which would lead to yet more work (though the PCs could never know that last part).

· IF TAKING DUKE ROUTE

· Zebb needs the PCs to acquire some old restraining bolts that will properly fit old republic droids, The Duke sends the PCs out to a nearly-forgotten space station in search of them

o Encounter small band of pirates that have taken up residence there, trying to break through the security

o Deal with automatic security of the station & old republic droids

o Return to Kwenn

· The Duke (once he trusts you – perhaps right after the above mission, perhaps some time later) hires you to hunt down a drug dealer that sold him bad spice, and would have killed him had he not given a hit to one of his girls first. Perhaps the drug dealer is a Black Sun assassin (or the first swing from Adda depending on when this happens and if Timmser somehow still got a message to Adda) and has been cut off from all support after his failure. Five would have records of when he left (maybe have a tracer on the ship too), maybe more info. See Trouble Brewing for inspiration, perhaps adding a new planet

· Droids now active, Duke knows the Duchess is in hiding on Kwenn with a group of Knights that weren’t escorted off station. Find them and terminate them.

· Duke asks you to fly to Nimban to pay back Adda with resources found in Duchess' hideout as well as initial savings from firing most of his Knights

· IF TAKING DUCHESS ROUTE

· On route to Nimban, ripped out of hyperspace on collision course with asteroid. See the end of Corellian Shuffle modular encounter for inspiration

· Trouble on Nimban, problem needs to be addressed before Nesters are free to help out Kwenn

o Perhaps the sandworms have taken over Sarlacc circle and the tunnels behind the palace. Adda has evacuated the lower levels and his Nester guards refuse to open up until the sandworms are taken care of (may be too similar to colony 12 adventure)

o Perhaps some un-known local species (sentient or not) has come out from the desert and started terrorizing the Nesters/Florana

· After Adda has been met with, Adda sends you out to the Nesters with permission to gather a respectable sized party and head back to Kwenn, with the mission of assassinating the Duke and killing/ensuring the loyalty of all Knights/Templars to the Duchess

· After duke assassinated, Duchess asks you to fly to Nimban to pay back Adda

· COLONY 12

· Li’Shar or Li’Darsh went with some miners to check out a newly uncovered strain of ore and hasn’t come back. Large monsters need to be defeated. Could be initiation into RIFLE (Pull from Tunnel Delving in Suns of Fortune?)

· Potential end-of-campaign adventure: RIFLE convinces the PCs to help them run an attack on The Relentless. PCs would serve as initial strike force, setting bombs inside the ship and setting them off as RIFLE jumps out of hyperspace. Black sun would turn the droids back on the station at this point, taking advantage of the chaos to eliminate all authority on the station

Edit: Should mention I am using the profile for the 'border town cantina' in the Fat Bantha for things like the brawl, from this document: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xnlemhom1g5v736/EotE%20-%20Environmental%20Set%20Pieces%20v1.9.pdf

Here we go, I took a crack at making an initial encounter set that also acts as a hook to keep them interested in staying on the main story. It's essentially a re-skin of the corellian shuffle, and just needs to have the difficulty of the astrogation/combat worked out. I'll do some testing when I get home to see what they might reasonably be able to survive:

After a brawl in the Fat Bantha (how it begins will depend on a few intro checks, or obligation rolls. will figure that out on the fly), Norpo rings on comlink, tells the PCs to come to his office. He offers them a job, saying the higher ups just lost one of their regulars and need another group to take their place. To prove themselves, they need to fly a mission (inspired by the corellian shuffle) that is designed (unbeknownst to the PCs) to test both their skill and ability to not ask questions.

The cargo:

The goods are designed to test the loyalty of the three crew the Duchess knows about (the Drall is too new to the party).

A crate that is to receive seals at each destination and be returned to Kwenn after the jobs are done

Ten crates of death sticks. Can skim a few dozen off the tops of them with an easy skulduggery check. Any failure/threat generates varying levels of visible marks on the crates that will be noticed later

A twi’lek dancer, cuffed and bound – one of the duke’s used up girls hopelessly addicted to all manner of spice – if talked to she is withdrawing so badly all she can do is ask for more drugs and sputter nonsense about the Duke. If given drugs she goes into narcotic bliss and is unresponsive.

Five crates of miscellaneous mechanical parts, perfect for repairing or upgrading a starship – same rules as the death sticks

The destination:

Three locations that serve as bases of operations for less than scrupulous individuals looking to remain hidden. They are all located inside clusters of asteroids scattered around the Kwenn system space, most of which is riddled with ion storms. It will require average to hard astrogation checks to jump through the storms and asteroids to land perfectly at the destinations.

At each destination, if the NPCs deem the goods to be in good condition and not tampered with, they will put a seal on their crate.

The first location is a group of rowdy pirates that do business with Kwenn for drugs and food and other miscellaneous supplies when in system laying low, typically after a rather conspicuous and profitable job. They are partying hard on their ship, and are unlikely to notice subtle tampering with the death sticks they ordered (for instance, if someone skimmed a few off the top with an easy skulduggery check). Any visible markings on the crates would draw their attention, and while they won’t open full combat, they will be quite upset and refuse their seal unless compensated for the missing death sticks at triple the going rate (regardless of if the death sticks are returned).

The second location is a small base on an asteroid that serves as an out of the way base of operations for a large slaver group working with forced prostitution and sex slaves. The girls here seem in good enough condition (they do need to look good, after all), but are enslaved and have no real freedom. If the PCs deliver the girl unmolested and willingly, they receive the seal. If they want to fight to free the slaves, they will have a hell of a fight ahead of them. If they win the fight, they can take the seal and apply it themselves and the Duchess’ informant will not notice. Eventually it will become clear what happened, but the Duchess will decide that she respects your balls and ability to get things done the hard way if necessary, and will forgive the affront as they were pretty small-time customers anyway. She may dock your pay on the next mission you do for her if she finds out though.

The last location is a trap set by the duchess to test the PCs ability to take care of themselves. When they come out of hyperspace and reach the final destination, they are beset by two starfighters piloted by droids, and a larger ship piloted by one of her intelligence officers. Upon sufficiently damaging the main ship and/or destroying both smaller ones, the officer will turn towards a small facility on a large asteroid and hail the PCs to cease firing as ‘they have passed the test’. He requests that they land and upon finding the mechanical parts in good condition as well as the other seals in place, he will inform the PCs that their reward is in the crate, and may throw in extra credits/other rewards (must think this part through better) if the PCs were particularly quick. He also informs them that the Duchess herself will be awaiting them in the Duke’s Archives upon their return to Kwenn. She has a special job for them that promises to pay handsomely…

It's a ways off, but I will most likely use the session 0 material when I get around to running my Star Wars campaign. Thanks for posting it as well as your campaign!

Session 1 is finally tomorrow (we've had a lot of travel come up lately but should be good for several weeks until Gen Con). I've got a first encounter very well planned out, and have sub-plots now for each character:

Vis : He will meet a drug dealer that has created what he calls "Murder Sticks". This very powerful custom drug will blow his mind and this will become a recurring character that leads him down the path of addiction and into trouble

Frochit : He will recover from a bender and go to the local bar, remembering that he did...something there. He actually trashed the place and (if he rolled Oath) killed someone. The bartender is obviously pissed but easy enough to pay off. The real trouble is the group of smugglers he managed to piss off by beating their biggest member badly. They start another fist fight outside the bar, and regardless of the outcome they become a regular thorn the the PCs' side (basically any time I need a good reason to screw with them)

Mar'Toch : He will encounter (depending on where he is) one of a few pockets of Klatooinian revolutionaries. Obviously he will be wanting to help, and will end up getting drawn into a recurring series of mini-encounters that typically involve ruining pieces of Adda's business ventures.

Gorbo : He has a whole sub-plot unto himself with Colony 12 just from the world creation, so I wasn't as worried about giving him a spot-light. I've got bounty hunters of varying difficulty ready to come after him depending on his current reputation, and a very rough idea of how he might remove some of his obligation by boarding the RELENTLESS and hacking the imperial databases.

That's been the bulk of the work since I planned out the first encounter. I've got a general flow of the rest of the campaign but am leaving it deliberately vague so I can match whatever the PCs end up doing. Will post writeups as detailed as possible on the OP campaign.