So we are starting a fresh game and I have given my players freedom to choose their team profession. The party chose Archeologists, so that's going to be the focus of the campaign. Definitely thinking a bit of Indiana Jones in space (although Guardians of the Galaxy was pretty much that already), with ancient tech tombs and temples filled with Hutt and Jedi/Sith treasures and weapons.

For a linking element for the campaign I was thinking of having the party come across some Holocrons that will be found scattered across the galaxy. When the holocrons are brought together, at a particular ancient battle ground, the holocrons will reveal a powerful artifact that was once in the possession of a great Sith Lord.

Of course when they do put the holocrons together they will discover that it is actually the Sith Lord who returns, having been trapped in a stasis dimension by Jedi knights.

Not a very original plot, but I thought it might lead to some fun. What do you guys think?

Last time I checked don't they need to be force users to even access a Holocron?

Of course it needn't even be a Jedi or Sith Holocron but an ancient computer database with notes on long dead Sith Lords and ancient artefacts like an ancient Sith Warship believed to have been buried along with its deceased owner as their version of a chariot to use in the afterlife!

In itself just an interesting find until it becomes clear someone else is not only chasing the same information but someone long before the Clone Wars has been gathering up sith artefacts and the evidence points to a former Jedi who left the Order rather than allow the gathered artefacts to pass into the Jedi Order's Archives.

Sorry its an interesting idea and couldn't help wondering at what kind od adventures this could involve!

Love it. I can easily imagine them having to dodge Imperial agents who are after the same information to give to Darth Vader, plotting against some force users whose master warned about the dire consequences should this event ever some to pass. Good stuff. Especially if none of your characters start out as force users and cannot access the holocrons they're finding and/or "liberating" from the private collection of a Hutt.

I kind of want to steal this idea if I'm in the position to start a new campaign.

Could even be legitimate Jedi searching for the holocrons, but your characters want them for themselves perhaps for fame or they like to keep what they find.

Or perhaps they know a very neutral force user that can teach them more.

OR. If they are evil they capture a force user to read holocrons for them

I like the idea of a Jedi trying to track down the artifacts and being a rival to the PCs. It may not be clear at the start that he's a Jedi, as he probably suspects that the players are sponsored by the Empire. But even when that is revealed it may still be a strong temptation for the players to get to that treasure themselves. Even the Jedi will not know exactly what is waiting for them on that battlefield.

I also want to play around more with obligations this time around. More involving them into the storyline of course, but also utilizing flashbacks to give them some more meat.

As an example I have a Toydarian slicer in the team with the obligations Debt and Bad Reputation. We've determined that he took a job for the Black Sun which was going to be a credit theft from an Emperial bank. At the last minute the Toydarian tripped an alarm instead, causing months of planning to go to waste. Now the Toydarian is expected to pay back every cent that went into the operation, and probably so that they could have an excuse to bring in a bounty hunter later, the Black Sun started spreading the rumor that the Toydarian took a bribe from the Hutt Cartel and botched the job on purpose, making it even harder for him to find work. In a flashback I'll bring the player back to that moment on the job. He will receive a message from a Hutt crimelord offering a good sum of credits if he sabotages the mission. It will then be entirely up to the player at that point. He's going to fail either way (to keep to history), but he will get to decide if the bad reputation was earned or undeserved.

Last time I checked don't they need to be force users to even access a Holocron?

Not necessarily, but most of the time yes. There were a few holocrons that could be activated by non force sensitives, but those were specifically designed that way.

I'm still working out the details, but the first session is going to involve the team attempting to get coordinates for a hidden temple deep within Hutt Space. The seller will be eager to give away the coordinates for a song, which should be reason enough for the group to be a little suspicious. The truth is that there is a Hutt family very eager to get their hands on that information first (preferring to obtain it by force) and the seller honestly just wants to be done with the whole thing, feed his spice habit for a few months, and move on.

The party archeologist will be receiving funding from the Chiss Ascendency who are only allowing her this opportunity because of family ties. They have very little hope for the mission, and expect to be justified in their decision to cut off the funding when she fails to produce anything worth while. Typically the Ascendency has little interest in outside cultures, but since there is a possibility of gaining valuable information from a time period and galaxy that is notorious for being rewritten by Hutts hoping to idolize their own families and culture, they will give her this one opportunity.

They are not very pleased with her choices in companions and will be sure to make mention of this in her briefing.

• A Toydarian Slicer with underworld ties and supposedly took a bribe from the Hutt Cartel to sabotage a Black Sun heist he was assisting with.
• A Selonian thief who is wanted by the Empire.
• A Human gambler from Aalderaan who never cared if he won or lost until all his fall back money was destroyed along with his home-world. He has since garnered a good deal of debt from his gambling.

The Archeologist hopes that the team will comprise of a front man with knowledge of Hutt Space and skilled with negotiation and deception (Gambler), a lockpick (Slicer) and the extractor (Thief).

In their first mission the team will find themselves being invited by their seller to a bathhouse on the world of NarShadda. Stripped of their items the team will be allowed entry into the bathhouse where the buyer will attempt to negotiate a higher price than agreed upon. During the negotiation a group of Hutt thugs, lead by a rather nasty Gamoreon (hopefully a repeating villain) will enter with the intention of obtaining the item (a digital scroll) at all costs. Their seller will likely end up dead, and their prize may end up in the hands of a Monkey-Lizard who decides to carry off with it in the fray. Both the players and their rivals will need to give chase into the streets of NarShadaa.

With the completion of this mission I suspect that the team will decide they need to add someone on for team security. They will find that in the character made by a player who will be unavailable the first game night.

• Klatunian Gunslingger who was once a hero of the Republic during the Clone wars, now just a washed up drunken has-been.

I run a campaign called Tales of the Ruby Queen, where essentially we're doing much as you've outlined above. A team of assorted specialists are assisting an actual Archaeologist in securing treasures and artifacts and keeping them out of the hands of a newly formed Imperial Archaeological Corps.

I set my campaign five years after the Clone Wars though to take advantage of initial Imperial fumbling and let my PC's grow into the tightened grip of the Empire.

Have a look if you like

https://star-wars-tales-of-the-ruby-queen.obsidianportal.com/

I also record all my game sessions and stick-em up on Youtube. I can direct you to those if you're interested.

...and the 12 Stones, aligned perfectly at on the altar at the moment of total eclipse shall awaken my master!

All jokes aside, its a good concept

We had our first official session. I think it went pretty well.

The Chiss Ascendency representatives first met with Kait (the group's Chiss archaeologist) to basically give her a nice pep-talk that consisted of "We think this mission is going to fail, but your father has done some good work for us, so we at least owe it to him to give you a chance. But if you do **** up (and you will) we owe you nothing afterwards." Kait's team that she put together was scrutinized and basically received heavy sighs from the reps. Kait was presented with an old YT-1000 that had been basically left behind by a smuggler who was carried off in a bucket by a bounty hunter a few years back, and given a less than enthusiastic thumbs up.

Their first stop was Nar Shaddaa. Kait had been in contact with someone who informed her that he had access to coordinates for a Hutt Throneworld and Hutt Temple that could potentially bridge a gap in Intergalactic Knowledge. Eager to find this information the group seemed eager to inform others that they spoke to about this matter, only to be stopped by the group's gunslinger (Rokar) and reminded that mentioning restricted Hutt space in Hutt territory is just about a good way as any to get one killed.

The group made their way to the meeting; A bathhouse called "The Pampered Hutt". To enter the party needed to pay a 20 credit entry-fee each and disarm/disrobe. This displeased the gunslinger most of all. Credits paid, the only person to stay behind was Gelt (Toydarian Slicer) who remained in the main foyer of the establishment.

The rest of the group made their way through the locker rooms into the main bathhouse. A large open area with pillars, and several baths of different substances. Making their way to a partially secluded mud bath, the group found their contact: Krieg. Krieg seems eager to sell the item (a metal scroll tube), but has changed the terms and demands 1000 credits over the previously agreed upon 500 that Kait's sponsors had provided her. Some coercion on the part of the gunslinger and Selonian thief (Acasia) and Krieg goes back to the original asking price.

Meanwhile Gelt witnesses a group of burly Gamoreons entering the foyer, fully armed with virbo axes, and not in any way hindered by the human manning the desk. The Toydarian attempts to distract them with conversation, but when that fails he eventually just follows them into the bathhouse in an attempt to warn the others. Just as the transaction is about to take place, the Gamoreons approach and Krieg attempts to hide deeper in the mud. This fails to keep him safe as the leader of the guards hurls his axe, imbedding it in Krieg's head, which begins to sink (along with the scroll) into the mud. The party unarmed, do their best to find weapons. Gelt throws his blaster to Rokar, who starts to attack the guards. Acasia goes for the axe that downed poor Krieg and with the force of her yank knocks the scroll case out of the mud bath.

While a few of the guards attempt to attack, the others scramble for the tube, as do a few of the player characters. Keeping a hold of the scroll becomes difficult as the mud it is coated in requires a moderate coordination check to hold onto, and any attack that generates three advantages against someone holding the scroll can cause them to drop it. All off this plus the low lighted conditions of the bath house make for an interesting scramble for the treasure.

Gelt uses his slicing skills to gain access to the security system for the building from the main foyer. A few good roles and he turns on the fire extinguisher mechanisms and closes the doors as the group makes their way out, supposedly leaving the Gamoreons to suffocate inside the bath house.

Looting through some of the lockers the group finds that Krieg's uniform matches the symbol of the uniforms of the Gamoreons who killed him. Uncertain what organization the symbol belongs to, the group heads to their ship to prepare for the next step. The digital scroll they recovered now gives them the exact coordinates for the planet they want. But since the planet lies within restricted Hutt Space the party will have to decide how they wish to approach the situation.

Next session isn't for a few weeks, so I'm looking into some options for where to go with the adventure next. The group has the map and coordinates of the Hutt Throneworld in their possession. Getting there will be the trick since it lies in restricted Hutt space. I'm guessing that the group will either try to get a Hutt's permission to enter, or try to sneak in. Either could be tricky. A Hutt would only be able to give permission for their own Throne World to be visited, and the family line with ties to this one certainly isn't going to give permission. They may be able to get a Hutt's permission to enter the space, but from then on it's still a gamble to sneak down to the planet they want. Entering Hutt space without permission will also be difficult, due to the number of patrols in the area and the fact that the PC's lack a decent pilot.

I'm also thinking to run a variation of the pirates module thats in the Nal Hutta book while they are within Hutt space. If they do venture on to the "derelict" ship, and defeat the crew waiting for them in ambush, they will find an RX-series pilot droid that the crew had "acquired" earlier in their career. The droid will be happy to pilot for whoever gives him access to a ship. If this is the case I think I'll do my group a solid and NOT try to annoy them with my worst Pee-Wee Herman impression. I could definitely have a lot of fun with an RX behind the controls of their ship though.

I don't know how much the books are going for these days, but you might do well to pick up some of the old WEG Indiana Jones books. They had a couple where they expanded on the events of Raiders and Temple of Doom, how you could use the movies without Playing the Movies. There was also one about artifacts and relics, giving you history and background and some game hooks. They could easily be stolen and adapted for this EotE game.

I don't know how much the books are going for these days, but you might do well to pick up some of the old WEG Indiana Jones books. They had a couple where they expanded on the events of Raiders and Temple of Doom, how you could use the movies without Playing the Movies. There was also one about artifacts and relics, giving you history and background and some game hooks. They could easily be stolen and adapted for this EotE game.

I actually have the base WEG Indiana Jones set. Comes with the MasterBook system players guide and the Indiana J. campaign guide. I never got around to playing it with anyone cause most of the kids I wanted to play it with at the time just had no interest whatsoever. I have the WEG Star Wars book somewhere as well. I just grabbed the Indiana Jones set off the shelf and cracked it open for the first time in years. Been such a long time there is a 1.44MB floppy desk in there labeled "Junk" in my hand writing. I have no idea what's on that thing.

Checked Amazon and there are quite a few of the sourcebooks and adventures available for pretty cheap. I'll probably be okay without them, unless I can find a cheap digital copy somewhere.

Marvel's Darth Vader #3 introduced an Indiana Jones style archeologist of shady morality named Dr Aphra . That issue may offer some insight and inspiration.