(subtitles: Rocky Balboa trading blows with Ivan Drago from the awesome Rocky 4)

Wow you guys are awesome, already giving me some great ideas. To convert it I have to change the overall story, but I can keep the general progression of the game. I'm an experienced dnd GM so if they go off track I have many sneaky ways to get them back on track. I had always intended to use Force and Destiny(how could I not?). I was looking for a transcript of the game so I could just cut and paste narration from the game but sadly can't find it anywhere so i am going through Youtube tutorials and just copying them out, figure I would only set up about 2-3 sessions as I don't want to run the whole thing and they hate it after 2 sessions. Keep the advice coming it's all been great. I will hopefully be able to keep you all updated on how it runs if any of you are interested.

Having played through KotOR dozens of times (I'm being very conservative with my estimate), I would be comfortable with simply running with very little preparation on a session-by-session basis.

However, if you wanted to write something down, I'd make each planet its own adventure. Taris is easy:

First, I'd jot down a list of handful of adventure seeds.

Rakghoul Plague

The Dueling Ring

Apartment Scavenging (Upper City)

Apartment Scavenging (Lower City)

Bounty Hunting

The Lost Apprentice/The Promised Land

Then, I'd make sure I had an idea of the main "quest" line:

Getting to the Under City, where Bastila's escape pod has likely crashed

Getting into the Vulkar Base

Rescuing Bastila at the Swoop Track

Escaping Taris alive

Set appropriate challenges and use the narrative dice or Destiny Points to introduce complications (Gana Lavin the Spoiled Brat, Sith soldiers accosting the Aqualish in the apartment vs. off-duty Sith partying in the apartment, getting mixed up with the Duros & Sith outside your hideout, Black Vulkars & Hidden Beks gang war, etc).

Some problems to be aware of:

1. Be careful, in that you don't want to assume your players are going to look under X rock, even if that rock is painted gold and singing the national anthem. In other words, just give them information that they need to have to...don't assume they'll go looking for that information. KotOR kinda just stops progressing until you've found what you need to find, which is fine for a video game but can spell death for an RPG.

2. After Taris, on Dantooine especially, things get a bit hairy. Can you count on your PCs wanting to stay on Dantooine? Wanting to assist the Jedi council? After they get their quest to find the Star Forge, all is well and good (assuming they accept the quest and, on a player level, understand that this is the reason they've come together to play the game--and if they don't, then obviously the Sith end up taking over the galaxy and the game takes a different turn!); however, can you safely assume that things will progress to get to the point that the Jedi Council trains, equips, and sends your PCs on the quest?

3. At what point are your PCs going to meet up? Is Bastila a PC? What about Mission or Zaalbar? Just something to think about, since I'm sure not many players would be willing to wait around for their characters to be discovered or rescued

What I have decided is that the PC's are a group of republic Soldiers, Padawans, smuggler-types that are on the Endar Spire as there own squad. As the Events of Kotor unfold they take on the role of the main character from the game(with some plot changes of course), the original group-mates as they were from the game, Bastilla, Carth and mission and so on are all NPC's that they will get to interact for nostalgia and story purposes. I think the PC's will have an invested interest in playing through the game in this fashion mainly for nostalgia purposes for those that have played Kotor in the past. The others will get to play one of the BEST Star Wars stories ever released. Still unsure if Revan himself can be introduced. Considering making him a Party based Npc but I'm on the fence with it as I don't want it to ditract from the players experience of the game.

Freely plundering the games for ideas for an awesome OR era game? Great idea.

Trying to run the plots of KotOR exactly? Not something I'd want to do.

It's a typical Bioware 'you are a Chosen One Special Snowflake' Grey Warden / Jedi / Inquisitor / Herald of Andraste / Council Spectre / Bhaalspawn story, which is fine for a one-player videogame and total poison for a group game.

The inclusion of someone as contentious (and Snowflaky) as Revan is a disaster waiting to happen. If he/she's a PC, the rest of the players might as well go home. If he/she's an NPC, that instantly reduces all the other PCs to sidekicks at best. Might work for a one-off, won't work for a campaign where the players are invested in their characters.

It's been years since I played the original, so I don't remember the specifics of the plot - I wonder if it's possible to run the story arc, but remove the special snowflakey-ness from Revan. The players just find a bunch of signposts pointing towards the MacGuffin and have to chase it down. It'll remove the Revan/Malak dynamic, but you could probably take steps to introduce something similar in your game - especially if you play some set-up games before rolling out the KotOR story arc.

It's been years since I played the original, so I don't remember the specifics of the plot - I wonder if it's possible to run the story arc, but remove the special snowflakey-ness from Revan. The players just find a bunch of signposts pointing towards the MacGuffin and have to chase it down. It'll remove the Revan/Malak dynamic, but you could probably take steps to introduce something similar in your game - especially if you play some set-up games before rolling out the KotOR story arc.

I am intending to run the main story arc as much as possible, the issue with Revamn is a big one and I agree with Maelora's post that Revan is just too much of a "Superstar" to include in anything but a fleeting manner so may leave it until the end. Currently just going to run through the story arc using the PC's as the main focus changing the original dialogue and "Cut scenes" to fit the changes. If I encounter any big continuity issues, I'm sure one of you lovely people will come up with something to help me out.

Revan is just too much of a "Superstar" to include in anything but a fleeting manner so may leave it until the end.

A potential red flag I see? Just make sure that the players are the ones in the spotlight at the end. As a player it would piss me off beyond words if we did all the heavy lifting for the whole arc only to have an NPC come swooping in at the last second to finish off the game and save the day. The players are the point of the game, so they should remain the focus 100% of the time.

Now, mind you - you are probably nowhere near the writing stage to worry about that. Just wanted to mention it now so you don't paint yourself in a corner two weeks down the road.

Revan is just too much of a "Superstar" to include in anything but a fleeting manner so may leave it until the end.

A potential red flag I see? Just make sure that the players are the ones in the spotlight at the end. As a player it would piss me off beyond words if we did all the heavy lifting for the whole arc only to have an NPC come swooping in at the last second to finish off the game and save the day. The players are the point of the game, so they should remain the focus 100% of the time.

Now, mind you - you are probably nowhere near the writing stage to worry about that. Just wanted to mention it now so you don't paint yourself in a corner two weeks down the road.

that's good point, I will keep that in mind.

An idea - Revan doesn't know he's Revan until someone tells him, right? Well if Bastilla takes an NPC role, and the council doesn't spill the beans, you can wait until basically the penultimate session to even decide who Reven actually is - randomly select a non-droid PC, knowing that there's only a couple hours of having 'The Chosen One' in the game before the character is retired.

An idea - Revan doesn't know he's Revan until someone tells him, right? Well if Bastilla takes an NPC role, and the council doesn't spill the beans, you can wait until basically the penultimate session to even decide who Reven actually is - randomly select a non-droid PC, knowing that there's only a couple hours of having 'The Chosen One' in the game before the character is retired.

Ooooooooo!!! I really Like THAT! Keeping it all "No Revan" to everyone who is playing and then is the last session reveal that player to be Revan. That is Just a genius Idea.

Well, I'm back and currently in the process of doing a F&D (Force & Destiny) conversion of the beloved KOTOR game. Things are progressing well, but I would like to run a few things by you all.

In your opinion, what in the KOTOR is good enough to keep in a F&D conversion and what should be left out?

Answers on a postcard.....

Like, what aspects are you asking about that hasn't been covered above already? Characters? Events? Mechanics?

Lastly, I suggest finding any prewritten adventure and redressing as KotOR. Here's a free one published by FFG . It takes place on Coruscant Nar Shadaa, where you are working for the Pykes Vogga the Hutt and have to track down a bounty hunter that is working for the Black Sun Exchange. At the end of the adventure, the PCs have a chance to find the bounty hunters Z-95 Headhunter S-250 Chela -class starfighter. A lot of the time, it's that easy to re-purpose a canned adventure.

This is what I do all the time (even when my campaign is in the same era). I do it just to make things fit better. For example, players from my D6 converted campaign, already worked for Jabba, so I converted the whole Long arm of the Hutts to Jabba with a Black Sun operation muscling in, that I connected to actually the Black Sun adventures... so all of them felt like one connected story.

Guys I think he's talking about literally adapting the plot of the KOTOR video game, not just setting a game during that time period.

Whoa... errrmmm...

First, I'd jot down a list of handful of adventure seeds.

Rakghoul Plague

The Dueling Ring

Apartment Scavenging (Upper City)

Apartment Scavenging (Lower City)

Bounty Hunting

The Lost Apprentice/The Promised Land

Then, I'd make sure I had an idea of the main "quest" line:

Getting to the Under City, where Bastila's escape pod has likely crashed

Getting into the Vulkar Base

Rescuing Bastila at the Swoop Track

Escaping Taris alive

Awayputurwpn... great minds think a like sir...

I was going to simply say Pick out Key parts of the story instead of actually trying to convert the whole thing.

Well, I'm back and currently in the process of doing a F&D (Force & Destiny) conversion of the beloved KOTOR game. Things are progressing well, but I would like to run a few things by you all.

In your opinion, what in the KOTOR is good enough to keep in a F&D conversion and what should be left out?

Answers on a postcard.....

The KotOR game is a great story! Keep as much of it as feels appropriate to your game.

What can be left out? The multitude of munchkin-y crystals, armors, weapons, programming spikes, security tunnelers...I mean, the RPG already does a lot of that for you. Just reskin what's in the RPG as appropriate, don't reskin the things that don't need to be reskinned, and then leave the rest out.

Or are you talking specifically about story elements to keep or to leave out?

When technically is this considered necrmancy?

When technically is this considered necrmancy?

Seeing as it's the OP...

One thing I have been looking at is the Rakghoul plague. The ones that I have seen have been INSANELY powerful which I don't think leave much opportunity for player survival. That's something I would need to adjust.

The involvement of the Game NPC's such a Carth, Mission, Zaalbar. Would they accompany the group or would they just get to meet them as a "Nod" to the game?.

I'd like to have more information on my hands on some of the organisations like Czerska corp and the Exchange but I haven't found much other that wiki pages that I would need to write up myself.

I'm not a great writer and I feel i've signed myself up for a herculean task but I'm enjoying it and want it to be done well.

I think i've started to just rant so i'm gonna stop.

Any suggestions would be great.

I would consider evaluating all of the game's side quests and removing the ones that don't directly contribute to the story. The Taris bounties, the arena matches, looting apartments and so on. A lot of the dungeons have rooms and areas that only exist to give experience, fight enemies and find goods; streamline this stuff and focus on plot and story. Keep a few to affect the PCs relationship with NPCs, or to introduce conflict, if necessary, but remove as much side stuff as you thing important.

Keep the rakghouls -- those are kind of Taris' shtick, along with being bombed. I would keep the game's companions as a important NPCs (they usually have at least one instance of plot importance), but not have them travel with the PCs constantly. They can be support and mission control, and assist where important, but otherwise keep the focus on the player groups.

Reduce instances of combat to times of vital importance, one off encounters, or the result of Despair. Crossing Dantooine isn't going to be constant fights with kath hounds and kinrath, Taris won't have rakghouls and swoop gangs every other step, etc. Although there is an abundance, you probably don't want to throw packs of Dark Jedi at the party like the game does.

Not much to Czerka and the Exchange than what the game offers, or what you'll find on Wookieepedia, though.

I think the KOTOR game can be translated into an RPG campaign fairily easily.

It seems like the biggest challenge is whether or not the players have already played the game.

My recommendations would be:

> Keep the basic plot structure - party tracking Revan/Malak's footsteps piecing together their history and finding the star maps to find the location of the Star Forge.

> Consider asking one of the players to play as Bastilla as a normal PC 0 they don't need to accurately recreate or portray her, the key here is that they are playing a Jedi Knight (in concept if not in XP at the start) who through her own investigation, use of the force an final encounter with Revan learned something vital

> Remove the Revan plot twist. Revan died. The players are on the ship above Taris, as it's going down the captain gives the players orders to make sure Bastilla makes it back to Dantooine because she's got information critical to winning the war.

> Bastilla discovered that Revan/Malak started their journey by visiting an ancient structure on Dantooine - she reports this to the Jedi Council once the players rescue her (or she may even be played by a player) and the Council asks the players to investigate and off you go into the basic plot structure of the game.

> Use each planet pretty much as created except for the Bastilla and Revan specific stuff (like Bastilla's mom showing up). Each planet has it's own "generic" conflicts going on and NPCs to use that are tied to discovering the Star Map.

http://swse.xphilesrealm.com/Iridonian%20Darkness.pdf

I just ran "Session 0" tonight with the Endar Spire part of the story being my intro. Everyone enjoyed it especially one of my players who nearly spat out his drink when he realised we were playing through KOTOR.

Just one big advice, take as you will:

Do not hesitate to break off from the game's plot. Do not hesitate to tangent off, and seize the "off the rails" moments your players will offer you.

Just one big advice, take as you will:

Do not hesitate to break off from the game's plot. Do not hesitate to tangent off, and seize the "off the rails" moments your players will offer you.

I won't. I know at some point they will want to go "Saber crystal" hunting while on Dantooine.

Just ran my 3rd session and teh group are just now heading into the Lower city. It's going great and i'm loving it Check out the thread KOTOR Session Zero for the highlights thread.