Everyone here is so great at throwing out ideas, and I welcome them all!

Next Saturday, I'll be starting a fresh, new campaign. My players have not yet played this game, but all are seasoned RPers, and all are Star Wars fans. I've got three players with possibly a fourth starting in a subsequent session. This will definitely be an Edge game overall, but I want to throw in nuggets here and there that there are bigger things happening in the galaxy than just their own concerns. It might lead into having dealings with the rebellion here and there.

I know one player is thinking she wants to have a twi'lek entertainer with thief or spy skills on the side - a regular femme fatale sort, a light combatant. So she will likely make her character as Colonist -> Entertainer, and Thief or Spy to begin.

Another player has a lovely idea for a gungan black marketeer - the group's "face" and social go-getter. He might go Smuggler -> Scoundrel, and Trader or Entrepreneur to begin.

The third player has no idea yet. (A gunslingin' pilot and mechanic would be a great fit.)

I'm starting their story at roughly the same time A New Hope begins.

Their ship will be a standard YT-1300 that they've won in a suspect sabacc game. (Really, the current owner, one Gryphon Starchaser, has found some easy dupes to unload the accurséd thing on and is cheating to lose.)

I have an idea of an opening scenario swirling around in my head, and I would love some ideas to make it a bit more concrete.

Variant #1. The PCs will be fooling about in their new ship on a little bit of a shakedown cruise. Sensors will go off that there's an object roughly in their course. Investigating it, they'll discover it's a lifepod with readings of some beings inside. They'll attach and rescue these people. These guys, all humans, have a BS story about their predicament. Once on board, they'll pull guns and take control of the ship. The PCs will be held captive, the bad guys will tell them to keep calm (and no one gets hurt). They've got a job to do... on Alderaan... and then the PCs and their ship will be free to go.

Variant #2. The PCs, after having registered their ship, will be checking out their fancy new acquisition. They'll receive some unwanted visitors, namely the guys from Variant #1 above.

And off to Alderaan we go.

First of all, which of the two variants is better? Or, do you have an idea for a better one? Essentially, I want to put the PCs on Alderaan with little to no choice about it. (I want them on hand to witness the planet's destruction.)

The hijackers. Their mission on Alderaan is to break into one of the Organa family estates, a retreat in the mountains, where it is suspected the rebel and traitor Leia Organa may be hiding along with certain stolen data. Retrieving the data is paramount, capturing Organa is secondary. Anyone who gets in the way, including the princess, are deemed expendable. They are to complete their mission with no evidence that might lead back to the Empire, thus they're willingness to hijack an easy ship and fly it directly to the retreat for a quick in-and-out assault.

So my next question is, are these guys Imperial agents on a mission, or are they hired bounty hunters or mercs pulling a well-paid job?

Will the players try to overpower the hijackers in their ship? Will the bad guys recruit the PCs (or coerce them) to help in their assault? Will the mission go as planned, or will the players try to sabotage it? Will the PCs be blamed for the assault on the estate? A lot of things can happen here. And, of course, Leia Organa and the stolen data are not on the premises anyway, and neither is the mighty Senator Bail Organa.

No matter how the story plays out, the PCs will be leaving the planet as the Death Star pops in from hyperspace. Then, of course, they'll have to dodge chunks of flying planet as they try to outrace the blast. Then the TIE fighters. Then here comes another YT-1300... And what the Hell was that giant-death-ball-moon?!

Jeez! Plot a course and let's get the frak outta here!

So, anyway, some ideas and opinions here can go a long way in helping me flesh this thing out.

Thanks!

Rich

1. Make the characters take the backgrounds as per the rulebooks. Then read the text with them and have them put 2-3 paragraphs down as to flesh it out. These are so clever, you will get a few ideas for adventure hooks.

2. Obligations, let the players pick them and explain why. Now you'll get even more aventure ideas.

3. Motivation, yeah common there is a trend here.

I quite like the beginners game, it introduces combat, skills, social interactions, chases and space combat in a nice structured way. The players at the end of this get a ship that isn't stock out of the book but a bit different.

Long Arm of the Hutt is quite an interesting adventure and follows on, however there is quite a story being told and you can have a few balls in the air at various points. That said I used the Mining Camp as a base for my players and have kept B’ura B’an on an ongoing basis to act as their fixer. He is also a rebel and has sent the PC's on one mission to assist the rebellion.

At the end of this from where I sit the players gain a ship, base and contact. I have also started adding NPCs for each of them to befriend.

I know this is me just saying this worked for me, and I understand that you may have a different approach with a similar outcome. I like that you are dangling memorable parts of the movies at you players but making them the main protaginists.

After seeing the pilot for Rebels I want to have a bit of tension form between the PC group and the Imperials. Just throw in a scene or two where the players see an unjust arrest, hungry people being bullied and some imperials turning a blind eye to slavers.

I seriously doubt that players would kowtow to a couple of npc's. Why try to coerce players and plot-hammer them in going to Alderaan? One SURE way to know if your ideas are flawed is if you rack your mind trying to come up with a way to FORCE the players do something. Better to chart another course. Why not start them out on Alderaan?

Maybe it's a convention of sorts, or a trade meet, or they run a business or a scam. With a big 'convention' in town, it would be ripe for trading, scamming, or legitimate business transactions. Some sort of annual swap meet, trade meet, etc... the Jawas have an annual swap meet on Tatooine where they trade items and marry off their family members to other tribes. Maybe some nobility have a great annual meeting on Alderaan...and it is infiltrated by Imperial spies and unsavory types. Maybe you're the unsavory types? Plus, announcing that your are STARTING on Alderaan has all of the players on-edge waiting for the hammer to fall and the planet to explode. Maybe they win the ship in an after-hours game?

Alternatively, why not just entice them into going there with a great offer? Then, pull a "2,000-now, 15,000-when-we-get-to-Alderaan" deal and have them leave Alderaan (on a mission given to them there) with a promise of a HUGE payment when they return. funny.... I think they'd enjoy that. Maybe try to use Negotiate to get more money up-front (knowing what they know may happen soon, as players).

By the sound of it, you really, really want that exploding-Alderaan experience. And winning the ship on Alderaan and finding out they need to do some repairs would be fun (with the looming destruction playing with their minds). They know (as players) they have to repair that ship soon! Maybe that impending doom pushes them to act in a more unlawful and immoral way? Put out the temptation of thievery, murder, or immoral sexual behavior as ways to get what they need sooner rather than later and see what they do.

DS, I think you have a very valid point there in that the players would hate the under duress part of my idea. I am thinking they are hired to transport that team to Alderaan.

They win the ship at cards, and almost immediately they are approached by a contact or one of the men from the strike team. They need passage to Alderaan for some sort of illicit deal. They aren't too forthcoming with a lot of details, but the money is too good to pass up. "If the money is there, we do not care." Depending on what they end up with for Obligations, the promised money might really be too good to pass up.

I'm leaning in favor of the strike team being ISB agents in civvies.

And yeah, I want to tie the players' story into the movies' story, at least as some parallel moments.

How about those Imperial ISB Agents set up the PCs winning of the ship along with a "cargo" for delivery to the Organa Estate on Alderaan.

Ordinarily this would have to be delivered after landing at the spaceport but apparently it was "arranged" to go straight to the estate.

That cargo is actually an ISB Agent along with a unit of Stormtroopers with the intention that upon delivery they would storm the estate to capture Leia's father Bail Organa.

Of course PCs being PCs may force them to take control of the ship early, but this should mean they're imprisoned aboard the ship unless pushed since they need at least 2 of them to keep up the pretence behind their "delivery".

Now once they hit the estate the PCs should have a chance to escape and figure out Grand Moff Tarkin has Princess Leia captive, he ordered Bail kidnapped in case Leia was lying about Dantooine.

The PCs are to be either killed or left behind on Alderaan and the Imperials return to the Death Star with Bail as their prisoner to witness Alderaan's destruction.

So either the PCs escape with or without Bail Organa the first means they're now being hunted by ISB the other means they got a decent reward and a contact and patron in the Rebellion let alone the satisfaction of having done something the movies don't contradict!

After all they never said Leia's father is dead, but being assumed dead with only your PCs knowing otherwise...

Yes well its just an idea!

Solid ideas there. I actually already have something planned for Bail Organa in my game. His fate is not to die faceless among the countless millions on Alderaan. But having the PCs rescue him during this scenario might be a very cool bonus!

I was also going to suggest having them hired to go to Alderaan, rather than hijacked.

This doesn't mean the people hiring them need to be honest about their motives, but yeah, PCs never want to give in or get captured or be placed under duress for more than a scene.

So I ran my game today. It went very well, and the players loved it and had lots of fun.

They met Lando posing as a scout named Gryphon Starchaser. Even though they definitely caught the Lando vibe from the character, they have no idea who he really is. Lando pawned off a YT-1300 on them by losing on purpose at a game of sabacc.

Then they were hired by a Lutrillian merchant to transport some cargo to Alderaan, to a mountain retreat owned by Senator Bail Organa. Once there, Organa was confused by the merchant's presence and the furniture he supposedly bought. So the senator and the merchant went inside to figure out what was going on. Meanwhile, the players decided to take a closer look at the cargo crates as they began suspecting some very foul foul play.

Secret hatches in the two large shipping containers opened up and four ISB infiltrator guys busted out. There was a very cool pitched battle on the ship, but the players eventually prevailed. At this point, one of the players ran out to warn Organa about the attack and to tell him he's not safe while the other two threw the infiltrator bodies out the boarding ramp.

There was a brief and tense stand off with Organa's security guys, but they talked it all out. They convinced Organa to get on the ship and they could fly him to a safer place, reasoning that he was not safe on Alderaan.

As they were leaving the planet, the Deathstar popped in from hyperspace. Minutes later, the pilot was making frantic rolls with Full Throttle to try and outrace the shockwave and incoming planet chunks. The pilot succeeded, but there was some hull and system strain damage.

They were pausing a moment, at Organa's request, to look at the destruction when they saw an incoming TIE fighter. Rather than stick around and fight or be the next target of the space station, they fled. The TIE gave pursuit and fired on them a bit. Once they got to the jump point, they went into hyperspace. But just as they were punching the button, another YT-1300 was entering the system nearby. (Unfortunately for the new arrival to the system, they got to deal with the TIE.)

We left the session with them in hyperspace on their way to Hutt Space to sort everything out.

All in all, a very promising start!

Sounds like a very cool story! I’m glad you and your players had fun!

Throwing out the big guns in session number one, very impressive. Hope the session goes well. I plan on starting an Edge of the Empire campaign with my group here soon, so was interested in reading how yours went.

Yep yep! I really want my players to feel like they are *part of* the Star Wars story and not just other characters in the same setting. They will have their own story, of course. But by involving them in tertiary ways, they get to be a part of the bigger tale.

I'll have them meet Gryphon Starchaser again at some point, perhaps on Cloud City, where they'll learn his real identity.

The thing I have planned for Bail Organa may or may not involve the players - that's totally up to them. However, Bail will have a couple small, but important, jobs they can do for him to help him get his purpose going. The pay will be decent. He's going through quite a crisis of his own, and I'm going to play him up as very despondent. The senate was disbanded days before the PCs arrived at his mountain retreat. He had literally just learned the Tantive IV was destroyed with all hands on board including his daughter, and good friend Captain Antilles. (That's what the news is anyway, right?) And then his planet gets destroyed!

I've been spending this past week jotting down a lot of notes about the PCs' Obligations, so I'll be ready to spring some side adventures on them when next we play.