Ok, so I have a special case here, and need some advice from those who have run or at least read the AOR modules...

My group is ready to make a move towards AoR and start helping out the Rebellion. We just finished 'Rendezvous on Ord Mantell' where the PCs helped Renci Tosh and got their proverbial foot(feet?)-in-the-door with the Alliance.

What they have run through so far, in order...

Escape From Mos Shuuta

Long Arm of the Hutt

Under a Black Sun

Trouble Brewing

Debts to Pay

Enemy of My Enemy

Rendezvous at Ord Mantell

(Have yet to run: Crate of Crayts, Beyond the Rim, and Jewel of Yavin, or any of the Sons of Fortune modulars)

I recently picked up Onslaught at Arda I and read through the first six pages or so. I own all other published AoR materials (except for Rescue at Glare Peak), but haven't had the time to read through the adventures yet.

I'm looking for the most interesting path to take my party through everything...

I actually want my party to get assigned to the base at 'Arda I' fairly soon after joining the Rebellion, to make the events that take place in the adventure carry that much more weight and gravity when they finally happen. I'd like to run them through some of the other starter adventures first though and do 'Arda I' proper somewhere in the middle (of what has been published so far).

Possibly have them do a trial mission to prove their skills and commitment, then get assigned to 'Arda I.' Have them do maybe two missions while based at Arda, then after the events in that adventure possibly have them get their own (smaller) remote base to do the remaining missions.

I just need a logical order to string these together...possibly throwing in the EotE modules they have yet to do to keep things interesting (I could even see them getting assigned the job to search for the Sa Nalaor by their handlers/superiors to find/recruit the survivors/tech/wealth of the lost ship.

Anyway, for those that are more intimately familiar with the AoR adventures...what order do you suggest?

the Age of Rebellion GM Kit I wrote actually has a sidebar to suggest an order for all the AOR material that was out at that point.

That said, Arda is an excellent transition adventure for Edge characters that take a simple transport job for the Rebels, and turn them into full blown members of the Alliance by the end. I'd probably use Arda for that purpose, and then use the other AOR materials as adventures they can go on afterward (likely with some scaling up of difficulties).

Thanks for the advice KR, I wish I could pick your brain for stuff that is coming down the pipeline...I bet you've had your hand in designing several as-yet-unannounced Star Wars supplements. Would love to see another adventure module announced soon!

I guess I want to know which one to start with (not Arda) which gets the PCs to earn the Rebellion's trust enough to get them stationed on the super secret Arda I base....then which one or two missions to run while they are operating out of that base....then the events from Arda I module can go down, which will force the party out on their own...where I can have them run through a few more missions under a remote handler or some-such.

So what do we have...in order of being published...?

Operation: Shell Game
Takeover at Whisper Base
Operation: Shadowpoint
Perlemian Haul
Dead in the Water

Onslaught at Arda I

Rescue at Glare Peak

I haven't read through them all, but it actually seems like Glare Peak would be a good starting mission, based on the mission obective. Too bad I don't have access to it yet....FFG actually never sent the kit to the store I asked to request it.

The more I think about it, the more I want to have their new rebel contact give them orders to go see Reom on the Wheel and help him locate the lost ship in Beyond the Rim...with specific instructions to try to recruit any surviving techs (and Harsol?) and/or securing technology/treasure to aid in their fight against the Empire.

I liked Keith's suggested order from the GM Kit but in the end I decided to run them from Perlemian Haul > Onslaught at Arda I > my own filler adventure > Dead in the Water.

Couple of reasons for this.

• It allowed me to set up a transition to Dead in the Water that I felt would make an already awesome adventure have much more awesome ties to the PCs.
• It allowed me to get my PCs a slightly bigger bag of tricks to handle what can end up being a very tough adventure.
• But the most secret at overpowering reason is I just couldn't wait to run Onslaught at Arda I. It looked amazing.

No reason you can't split up the adventures though and run parts in various orders with your own stuff connecting it together.

Funnily enough, I'm in a very similar situation to you.

Like you I've decided I want the PCs to arrive at Arda before I actually start the Arda storyline. That way the NPCs will be more built up and hopefully they'll feel more invested. Since their only interaction with the Rebellion has been Tosh in Rendezvous at Ord Mantell, and even then she didn't reveal who she was, I've been thinking about how to use her.

Originally my plan was to run Beyond the Rim right after and have the Empire offer them a great deal on betraying Reom. This was basically my backup plan if the PCs didn't care about the Rebels or fighting the Empire. I was going to have the Empire "alter" the deal after, screwing them over once they arrive with the booty. Then I'd have them rescued by Rebels, who'll help them get their original reward in the process. Tosh would be involved in the rescue which would lead them to running a couple Rebel missions either for revenge against the Imperial who screwed them over or just to repay Tosh.

....but all that was just if they took the bait If they actually balked at working for the Empire then I was thinking of having them get help by Tosh in Act II of Beyond the Rim, once everything hits the fan. Then they'd be asked if they'd help the Rebellion out, Then leading to the smaller missions and finally being invited to Arda. Either way, my key idea was that Tosh would be involved as a familiar face and someone they left on good terms with.

Anyway! I decided that my loose plan would be to run Dead in the Water first and say they were selected for their experience in the underworld, after (hopefully) helping or being helped by Tosh in Beyond the Rim. Afterwards I was going to modify the Whisper Base scenarios so that they're sent in as an emergency B-team after the main team of Rebels failed, as kind of an excuse why these newbies would be given such an important mission. Which leads to them impressing the Rebels and being given command of the base. After that their good work gets them sent to Arda as a new mini-squad, where they'll run the Beta rulebook mission, the Edge GM kit module (modified to be for the Rebels of course) and then finally the actual Arda storyline. That way it's like a gradual upgrade, first they work as part of a single ship, then their own mini-base, then finally they're brought into Arda as trusted members of the Rebellion.

That was my original plan but I've since veered off into an original storyline instead of Beyond the Rim, but the old plan is still there as a backup. But I may modify it so Beyond the Rim ends up being a mission for the Rebellion instead of Reom. If they don't make friendly with the Rebels in this original mission, then it's back to Beyond the Rim and what I had planned before. The main thing I want to do is try promote a sense of advancement, that they're being trusted more as time goes on.

This has all been a really long way to show how much I over plan everything...

Short version: I'm going for Dead in the Water first, then the Whisper Base missions, then they arrive at Arda but they get sent to complete Shellgame and any other misc. Rebellion missions I can find before Arda's story actually begins.

Telmia, that does sound a lot like where I am at with my group. Since I'm running the session like 4 hours from now...I think I will be running the Whisper Base mission...anything else will require too much prep, which I don't have time for. I like your idea of sending them in as plan B because Alpha team botched the mission and they simply have no other option. I want to spend a bit more time working out the details I need to change in Beyond the Rim to make it work as a Rebel OP...also, I think it's too early to trust them to recruit for an organization they were just barely introduced to....the Onderon mission sounds like an expendables type mission anyway..."send in these new guys, if they get offed - Meh - no loss of investment....if they succeed, we salvage the mission objectives and stick it to the Imperials in that sector, and we can give them some better training and more responsibility."

The ONLY problem...is that one of the PCs is in my group happened to play in the Beginner Box game when I ran it at a local games convention (which is how I met him and subsequently invited him to join my campaign). So he knows how the mission plays out...oh, and the marauder assassin droid PC wont be there tonight....

Edit: I also want to make a full size map of Arda, maybe using some of the images I got from Christopher West's recent kickstarter (we like to use the maps and minis in our games when we can)...

We left off last session with the PCs taking Tosh to a set of coordinates she entered herself into the Navacomputer...where they rendezvoused with a Neb-B to drop her off....interestingly enough, they still have 'Stim' on board their ship from when they got away from the Imperials in Enemy of my Enemy. They were going to double cross the Hutt and hand over Stim to the Rebels so they can do some tests and discover what it was the IMPs were doing to him (

). I hadn't read the beginning of dead in the water at that point, but I skimmed it last night...so the ship they are on right now will be the Shadow Raptor, and they will get their orders to Onderon from Captain Sortuli and General Cracken...

So, the session last Friday went really well! I had a couple of players say that it was their most enjoyable yet.

I started them out in the forward docking bay of the Shadow Raptor where Renci Tosh (from Rendezvous) made her recruitment pitch to the party. After the PCs unanimously decided to throw in with the Rebel Scum, she called over the deck officer and asked him to contact Captain Sortuli. The Cap shows up and welcomes the new recruits...who make the decision to screw over Muraga the Hutt by turning over their withdrawal-stricken passenger (Enemy of my Enemy). A few med techs arrive to wheel Stim up to the Med....tech....bay (er, don't have the book in front of me). Yay - tech procurement! The Captain continues to brief the new recruits on how they can help. She mentions formal training, and a few ops they have in the planning phase (Dead in the Water and Beyond the Rim) that they may be of use on. During the speech, an officer runs in and interrupts, saying Operation: Silent Whisper is FUBAR and that she needs to report to the briefing room with her backup SpecOps team immediately to speak with General Cracken...

General Cracken appears on the holo-projector and, right away, relays an encoded transmission from a Bothan soldier under heavy fire. "The Imps have us surrounded....Aurek 2 and-*STATIC*-are KIA, Aurek 4 is not respond-*STATIC*-----*STATIC*-are cut off! Silent Whisper is-*STATIC*-----*STATIC*-say again, we have NOT taken the ba-*STATIC*" The recording ends in continued static. "Captain Sortuli, I need your backup team geared up and on their way to Onderon in 15 minutes."

Sortuli spends a few minutes explaining the plan to take the secret listening post on Onderon called Whisper Base. The PCs are asked to take this 'Trial by Fire' assignment, because all available teams are currently on assignment or MIA....and how many Bothans died to get you this window of opportunity...then they get a few minutes to assemble their gear and board the insertion transport.

Long story short....they landed, snuck in and took the base....with loads of great cinematic moments...I will have to do a full write up on Obsidian Portal soon.

On to Operation: Shadowpoint tomorrow night!

Don't forget to have Bonebark, her giant pet lizard making people trip over him all the time! Especially around the briefing room. Sounds fun though!

I actually read a modified version of that 'read-aloud' box and read that part verbatim...it really was a nice touch

Keep the great stories coming Keith!