In all my years as a GM, I have never taken a canned game out for a spin without some kind of tweaking or twiddling or customizing. Sometimes it's pretty extensive (some of the chapters of Dawn of Defiance needed some serious work), sometimes very, very little.

Now, I haven't had a chance to look over Lost Knowledge yet beyond just a brief skim a couple of days ago - but I thought I'd see what you guys had in mind, what needs fleshing out, what needs pruning and explaining.

I haven't ran it, but I have read it. The biggest hitch is setting the adventure up. The adventure does not make it clear what the PCs are supposed to be after. I believe they are supposed to explore the ruins for someone tied to their collective stories, but the adventure does not make it clear how much you are supposed to tell them or for what reason they are supposed to investigate the ruins.

I figured the setup was intended to be vague to give the most power to the GM and allow them to determine what is best for their story. But as I said, it is a hitch.

Yeah, it's a little fuzzy (intentionally, as the GM is supposed to tailor it to the players) but the jist is:

Somehow, be it through a mentor, friend, holocron, old book, rumor, or refueling station restroom wall, the players are aware the ruins exist, and have a rough idea where (somewhere in the neighborhood of the resort), but they don't have a solid location pinned down.

I got the feeling the adventure was meant to start in media res , with how the PCs got started on this particularly quest being a background element and not really critical to the adventure. Sort of like how ANH starts with Leia's ship under attack, with the reason (stolen Death Star plans) being explained via dialogue after the battle has been resolved.

I had the adventure start on Nar Shaddaa with the player(S) training under Elaiza (JOY) when a imperial Inquisitor showup killing there master so they follow her last instructions to head to Athiss to find the lost (Jedi as they think temple)

and if they have one its a great way to get rid of thoses AOR/EOE lightsabers

Sort of like how they start the Age of Rebellion Beginner Game where you start off

Jewel of Yavin link?, thanks now I have a reason to pick that up!

If someone in the party has Forsee, boom! instant excuse. They see where to find the information about it, and then they find the info, and then follow on from there.

I've sort of parsed it out for tonight. Players are getting introduced to Arda base. Then asked to do a mission for the Alliance in exchange for new gear they lost in the last session. They're going back to Yavin to retrieve an item inadvertently left in the evacuation and investigate what happened to another earlier recovery team. I'm going to use the temple portion as the basis for the encounter there under........the temple.....and then segue into how I want to run my beta test.

I like to think that Jedi Masters are always kind of vague. You may receive instruction to go someplace without explanation, and be left to your own devices to figure out why.

The Force should guide them, right?

Good topic Desslok.

For us, it's become 'Jedi Girls Gone Wild'.

(technically only two, maybe three characters are actual 'Jedi', but it sounds better...

It's a resort, at the ass-end of the galaxy. So I pictured it like Point Lookout in the Fallout universe, a sprawling resort that's seen better days, filled with run-down elements of its glory years. The weather is really warm but tropical and stormy. Most people come for the hunting, and it's all become a bit degenerate - the local guides and hunters have been corrupted over the years, and are into some pretty nasty stuff. The other resort guests are obnoxious wealthy frat boys wanting to kill stuff. The whole place has a bit of a horror feel to it, invoking 'The Shining' or even 'Hostel'.

We've only played two sessions (both by email), both purely role-playing at this point; the players are the students of Lucas Lars, who sent them to the place to acquire some kickass 'saber crystals (they're starting off more potent so they will get something well above the baseline; these will essentially be their signature items for the game). Thus far, they've taken in the sand, sea and storms, talked a lot to one another about their backstories and the game set-up (some of them are former Jedi, or former tribals). They've flirted with the guides and frat-boys, who've invited them out on a 'hunting trip'. The players know what's coming, but obviously, the corrupted holidaymakers aren't any match for lightsabers or people who can kill you with their brains. (It's been a lot of fun; one of them is a 50 year old Consular who was a life-long Jedi and is very flustered at having wealthy young guys hitting on her...)

The whole thing is something of a test; Lars wants to know how they work as a group, how they handle their own Light and Dark sides. Do they just slaughter the frat boys? Do they surrender to their dark sides when they reach the caves? I'm going to run it as a bit of a Dagobah thing, when they reach the heart of the place, they'll each have their little dream scenario based on their individual Morality.

And because our game is run on a Yin/Yang, Paragon/Renegade basis, the Dark Side options are not necessarily the wrong ones...

I've also thrown out a vague rumour that Jedi or Sith Inquisitors might be heading there - they won't be, but the players don't know that...

Oh I hope they release the Beta to buy this week, I am so looking forward to finding out more about this!

As I have to put together a new group and start up a new game, I've been wondering about Far Horizons (still waiting for that), a colony focused game set on Athiss... could be a good setup perhaps ...

As I have to put together a new group and start up a new game, I've been wondering about Far Horizons (still waiting for that), a colony focused game set on Athiss... could be a good setup perhaps ...

The resort/lodge is practically the only point of civilization on the planet. But I could see that being a homestead business owned by the PCs,

I ran the first two Encounter/Acts of this last night via Skype.

Other than the basic structure, I pretty much deep-sixed the majority what had been written, and let the players figure out their own way to go about finding information about where the ancient temple might be (they'd been sent to find it as a "test" by their mentor), and figuring out difficulties based upon their approach, with setback dice added to account for "covering their tracks." They pretty much managed to talk down the expedition group, though I did throw in a quick combat encounter with a couple of the twisted beasts to at least have one combat encounter. It was pretty impressive to see the one player that's usually very quiet step up (he was playing a Nautolan Mystic/Makashi Duelist) and put his Charm skill to very good use to defuse potentially bad situations.

The players had fun with it, so I count that as scoring one for the good guys.

Just ran it yesterday. It went pretty smooth.

One of the PCs was a Sage and had the Foresee Power, which fit the adventure like a glove, both helping me give them information and set their motives, as well as giving the players a great resource.

For the preparations phase, I've set the story so that the characters had been trained by Master Ondell, a Jedi Exile from the Clone Wars who had some conflicting views on the Force, thus helping justify two of my players starting with 70 as their Morality and one of them being on the brink of falling to the Darkside. Early on, Master Ondell had been captured by the empire, sacrificing himself to protect the PCs and letting them escape their home planet in a ship.

The players then were trying to find more resources and a means to complete their training when the Sage had his vision, setting them en route for Athiss.

Having left their ship at a space station, they boardeod the shuttle to the planet and disguised themselves as executives trying to forge a commercial partnership with the resort's owners for expanding their business.

Early on, they Charmed the staff into sharing some of the local news and went on to speak with the Ithorian owner of the place, learning of the missing expedition and offering to look for them as a token of good faith. They got access to the maps with the owners' permission and decided to try to find a faster way of transporting themselves to the temple, since a three day hike was out of question.

This was the part where I had to mod the adventure and let them steal a Landspeeder from the hotel. It went fine, but forced them to earn some conflict, as the group's Makashi Duelist had to disarm and incapacitate one guard, putting him in the speeder's luggage compartment.

They went into the woods and I replaced the Survival Check for a Pilloting Check, which they failed and led me to spend some threat into poisoning the Sage with a bug's bite, which was hilarious, as he roleplayed having visions and hallucinations.

They met the missing expedition and I made it so that the hunters had placed their speeders in a way that blocked the trail, forcing the PCs to make a decision or collide with their quarry.

They tried to talk their way out, but failled badly, which forced the duelist to take on the leader with the Nautolan Shadow shooting the minions while the Sage tried to talk them out of helping the rival antagonist. The sage made it and both the Shadow and the Duelist managed to kill a minion group and the leader. Three more characters were bound and entered the speeder's luggage compartment.

The shadow also stole the Hunter Leader's Hunting Blaster, acquiring a weapon to go with his handout Blaster and stun grenades.

For the third episode, the players ran straight into the temple, the Sage having converted the Beasts using his Discipline and attuning to the Light Side. Each then rode a beast into the tomb, where they met three alphas and the Sith Lord's spirit.

The last encounter was difficult, as only the duelist had combat skills and the Sage was incapacitated before he could meditate in the tomb and flip the last dark side influence point. The tide turned and the players almost lost it until, In a heroic effort, the Duelist healed his companion while the Shadow got to deal with the beasts, dealling some critical hits and placing himself between his companions and the evil ones.

They beat the spirit and drove the darkside out.

As I have to put together a new group and start up a new game, I've been wondering about Far Horizons (still waiting for that), a colony focused game set on Athiss... could be a good setup perhaps ...

The resort/lodge is practically the only point of civilization on the planet. But I could see that being a homestead business owned by the PCs,

I don't have the book yet, but how large is the settlement/colony? Are any other colonies or settlements mentioned in the adventure? Or the reason for the resort/lodge thingy?

Also, what do we know of the planet? I mean, I played swtor a while back, but I can't seem to remember much more than the name and a flashpoint. Wookiepedia is pretty useless it seems, so any useful information someone has gleaned from playing swtor or made up for themselves would be nice to get my hands on

They got access to the maps with the owners' permission and decided to try to find a faster way of transporting themselves to the temple, since a three day hike was out of question.

This was the part where I had to mod the adventure and let them steal a Landspeeder from the hotel. It went fine, but forced them to earn some conflict, as the group's Makashi Duelist had to disarm and incapacitate one guard, putting him in the speeder's luggage compartment.

They went into the woods and I replaced the Survival Check for a Pilloting Check, which they failed and led me to spend some threat into poisoning the Sage with a bug's bite, which was hilarious, as he roleplayed having visions and hallucinations.

They met the missing expedition and I made it so that the hunters had placed their speeders in a way that blocked the trail, forcing the PCs to make a decision or collide with their quarry.

Hiyas:

Whilst reading this adventure, my thoughts drifted exactly to this topic: there's no accounting for the PCs getting a vehicle, thusly canning the whole "hike" part of the adventure... I kept looking for info about this but found none. Was wondering what to do about it myself. Now that I've read your post it fills up any improv I was looking for: Thanks for the ideas!

MTFBWY

A

Lete

Well, I'm getting ready to give the game a spin this weekend. The game is pretty light and fluffy and not much too it - but that's fine. It's not suppose to be an epic, and we're still getting out beginners legs under us (what - 4 or 5 games so far? Still pretty early stages here).

My biggest issue - getting the characters actually to the game. Getting them hooked up with the hot lead without looking like "Look! Here's the game!" is tough. But I think I've got a wrinkle that should make things interesting.

I just read it, and my lens is from the point of view of a potential Edge of the Empire adventure with some heavy F&D overtones. At the moment, only one of my players is Force Sensitive, but that could change.

I think a good starting angle is a potential prospecting for crystals, completely unaware that there is a sith temple/tomb at play. The players could be hired by a shadowy individual asking them to follow a prospecting claim on Athiss. Alternatively, one of their contacts who is always on the make provides them with this lead. I think there's a lot to mine from that angle... after all Kyber Crystals are worth money far beyond their usability in a lightsaber.

Well, I might have to do some serious overhauling to the game - that or take the cheap way out. My group had just gotten to the "Hey, you have to go to Athiss for stuff and things!" part of the game, just before we knocked off for the night - and then someone said "Wonderful - that's the planet from that flashpoint in SWTOR where the archeologists all went crazy!"

See, the problem is - since we're playing in a TOR era game, smack in the middle of the Sith Cold War, what the printed game presumed to be ancient events are actually modern day happenings to my table. And of course I never played that Flashpoint, so I didnt know about the connection. I thought it was just some random planet with a lost sith on it,.

Great.

So I could hand wave it, call Athiss something like Planet Schmoe and just present the game as written, or I could keep it Athiss, ditch the Hunting Lodge, place a republic expedition there instead. That'll kill all the social interactivity and the overland search for the lost temple, of course. Perhaps make it a mystery why these guys went nuts? Make it a tangible threat from possessed archeologists instead of some phantom Sith ghost?

Hmmm, I'll have to think on this. . . . .

Okay, total change of plans - I'm going to steal heavily from the 4th Doctor episode Planet of Evil:

- which in itself stole heavily from Forbidden Planet. But all the pieces are there - freaky ghost monsters, lost expeditions, mad scientists obsessed with dark knowledge, a base under siege. Okay, this is a much better game than just your standard hunting lodge/walk through the woods.

Sounds awesome. Would love to see the final product.

I got the feeling the adventure was meant to start in media res , with how the PCs got started on this particularly quest being a background element and not really critical to the adventure. Sort of like how ANH starts with Leia's ship under attack, with the reason (stolen Death Star plans) being explained via dialogue after the battle has been resolved.

I like this idea. In fact, I would probably start the adventure with the characters in the middle of one of those big game hunts. Well, actually as having the tables turned on them from once being the hunter to now the hunted. Shortly after the skirmish was over, I'd throw in a clue concerning the whereabouts of a temple or drop them right outside of it if the threat was dealt with or in it as a means to take shelter 'all of a sudden-like' from the aforementioned threat.

Is it me, or is Indiana Jones written all over this adventure?

Is it me, or is Indiana Jones written all over this adventure?

It's not just you.

With the "exploring the temple ruins" part, there was very much an Indy-vibe to the scene that a couple of my players made note of, with one even mentioning that the Bothan Archeologist she plays in another game would have a field day exploring the site.

Having finally read the last page of this adventure today and therefore the entire Beta book, I have decided that I rather like this game. Despite my earlier objections, of the three Star Wars offerings, this is the best. It was the adventure that pushed me over the edge (no pun intended) and revealed to me what is possible for a Force and Destiny-style game. I love it.