Good Evening/Morning All GMs,

I have a session coming up tomorrow, and I am totally stumped right now for ideas. Call it writers block - and I need some ideas thrown my way.

First, the PCs makeup:

Jedi Padawan - Ran away with the Clone during Order 66 at the command of her master

Ex-Clone Commando - Charged with protecting the Padawan

Advanced Droid Prototype - Was an Imperial experiment until merged with a crystal and gained sentience

Smuggler - A slave of the Hutts. Works for the Hutts doing transport runs and smuggling.

Technician - Twi'lek with a family who demand more than they give. Lost her former job when the Empire turned up. Started working on the ship about 3 months ago.

Con Artist - The smuggler's best friend and swindler. Has seduced more women than he can count, many of which who's husbands are now after him.

The first two adventures started with the Padawan and the Clone meeting the rest of the crew as they wanted off planet. But the Clone was being hunted, and Bounty Hunters turned up to capture their quarry. The crew basically helped the clone and the Padawan escape. It was then that the Padawan learned that a mysterious statue that she had been chasing had turned up on the planet, and she asked the crew for assistance in getting it back.

The smuggler stayed out of it, as did the droid (who is acting as the smuggler's body guard) and the technician. That left the Con Artist to help the Padawan and the Clone to infiltrate the base where the statue was. Problems happened and the statue was resued, but not before the ship had to blast out of the system.

My PCs have just arrived at Treska the Hutt's planet where she recently organised to have a Black Sun Vigo dethroned. She has now filled the void.

The problems are:

• The Padawan and the Clone have no funds to pay for the journey they just employed the crew for
• The smuggler (through 4 threat - at the behest of the player) knew what a Jedi was but their version of events was more akin to him listening to Imperial Propaganda and believing it than the usual "Jedi are the good guys" that we normally see in the films and TV shows. He wants payment for the trip, and knows they have nothing to offer other than the statue which the Hutt wants.
• I rolled the Obligation at the end of the last session and it came up with the Clone's "Hunted" Obligation.

Any suggestions on what to do from here?

The biggest problem I see is inter-party strife. They're not acting as a party so much as a group of individuals who occasionally work together if their goals are in line. While this can work with a very skilled GM and exceedingly mature players, it's very tough to pull off successfully.

In this case, I would suggest that the smuggler get in touch with the Empire (by the Empire reaching out to him, if necessary, but give him a few obvious opportunities to contact them first). When he does, they tell him to keep an eye on the Jedi and that he will be paid if he can dig up more details. This will induce him to actually participate and support the Padawan in their actions, thus bringing the party together.

This will also give the character the opportunity to see that their ideas are either misguided or spot on.

W/R/T the hunted obligation, this contact between the Empire and the Smuggler can actually work for that trigger. At the tail end of the session, have an unrelated encounter with the Empire (with no one having any idea why it happened -- but the reason is the Smuggler contacted the Empire) wherein they attempt to capture the trooper.

Deus ex ATM-machina in the form of the Rebellion

Unknown to everyone but a handful of Rebel operatives, the statue has a microdot-style information chip somewhere on it. I don't know why the Padawan wants the statue or why they'd want to keep it instead of "selling" it to the Hutt. With this, that becomes a secondary issue and no conflict.

Before the critical decision is made to hand over the statue to the Hutt (or not, and create a potentially permanent party-split), A bounty hunter shows up gunning for the clone. This bounty hunter is known to be disgustingly and unashamedly no more than an Imperial puppet. Your smuggler may have heard of the bounty hunter's reputation for extortion and graft using Imperial contacts to enforce his theft and whims. Basically, make sure in some way that nobody has the least bit of respect for the bounty hunter. Then, some Rebels show up and kill him, disable him, make him flee, etc.

At this point, you could have the Rebels explain and then neatly exchange credits for the microdot. It might be more fun for the PCs to flee the Rebels, since they don't actually know they're friendly rebels and all they've seen is that these guys showed up, took out the bounty hunter and are now coming after the PCs. A few dogged pursuits later, the Rebels will run down the party and then disclose that they're friendly and only wanting the microdot. You don't even have to let the PCs know the other group are Rebels. They might just act as a smuggling group, maybe even posing as ISB or some such (though the offer of payment would then be suspect). If the players don't seem to realize that the rebels are rebels, then the parting words of "May the Force be with you" should have the players going: "Hey, wait, did he just say...?"

The end result is the padawan and clone have some credits now. Enough to pay for the trip at least. Perhaps enough to keep the statue from the Hutt (if needed, again, no idea what the statue is doing in the story). Also, the current set of thugs after the clone are at least temporarily out of the picture.

Clearly I didn't explain my campaign as well as I'd have liked:

Setting: 5 years after the events of Episode 3

Statue: The statue is a powerful force artifact, and 1 or 12 such statues which will play a part in the campaign.

Master and Padawan: The Padawan and her master were given a mission during the Clone Wars to track down rare artifacts, and information led them to the sector the campaign is set in. Then happened on some leads around the time of Order 66, and when they got a strong lead, all hell broke loose. The Clone was given an instruction holo-vid with coordinates of potential sites for more of the statues and instructed only to give the Padawan the disk when he felt she was ready. The Clone had received a serious head-wound during the Clone Wars which deactivated the bio-chip responsible for the rest of the Clones going all Anti-Jedi when Order 66 was issued. The Padawan's master held off the onslaught of clones and told his student to run. The Clone and Padawan fled into the underworld and have been hiding ever since.

The Hutt: In recent times, Treska the Hutt was approached by one of her lieutenants (who is actually another Jedi in hiding) and told of the significance of the statue. She has told the Hutt that it would be better in her hands than the Empire's and the Hutt agreed - secondly the Hutt has a penchant for the exquisite. The Hutt has told the smuggler of the existence of the "artifact" and that rumours exist that the "artifact" turned up on Haenat (where the campaign started). If he caught wind of the artifact, he was to obtain it if necessary, and bring it to her. This was supposed to be the link that brought the party together, but has actually splintered it a little.

The other issue that I have is that the Clone player for personal reasons has left the group and so I am happy for him to go out in a blaze of glory.

So for your narrative it sounds like you need them to keep the statue, but you've set up half the group on wanting to sell it. If this is correct, I'd suggest killing the Hutt. Say, a BBEG Hand of the Emperor has been given the task of hunting down these artifacts directly from Palpatine. He found out that the Hutt was looking for one, but on flawed intelligence believed he was already in position of 1 or more statues. He goes to buy it, and when the deal goes sour, storms the Hutt's holdings. He discovers there are no statues, but one is on the way, and so sets up an ambush. Clone dies during dramatic escape, smuggler et al now have no buyer, and you've created a nemesis that can recur.

OK, so based on the comments above and from the D20Radio Forums, I rerolled the Obligation trigger as the player of the clone is leaving (plus its more fun to have the player who's Obligation triggered be part of the group rather than be an NPC). Here is what I came up with:

TRIGGERED OBLIGATION: Smuggler (Doubles)

SETUP: The planet of Qi'Ibre is the former headquarters of Black Sun Crime Syndicate in the Dominus Sector. After recent events, the headquarters is now the home base of Treska the Hutt. Treska is hoping to "buy" her way into Black Sun after assassinating the former Vigo. Recently, Treska has been searching for an artifact at the advice of one of her colleagues and lieutenant, a former Jedi named Iela, who is party of Treska's Court. Treska has ordered her minion, the smuggler of the party, to be on the lookout for such an item, enticing him with the notion that its recovery will pay off part of his debt to her. As fate would have it, the smuggler has ended up involved with a young woman and a former clone trooper who had found the statue on the planet Haenat, also in the Dominus Sector. After recovering the statue, the crew of the Star Wanderer have have travelled to Qi'Ibre so the smuggler can check in on his master.

PART 1A: Black Sun has seen through Treska's plan, and learned of her ambitions. Demanding loyalty of its Vigos, Black Sun has order one of their best operatives, a mercenary named Ertan Scellan, to deal with the Hutt. Shortly after the party arrives, Scellan, along with his Assassin Droid Companion T.O.B.U.R.K. arrive to take control of the Hutt's holdings. Meanwhile, the Empire has put a low level APB on the Star Wanderer after it blasted its way out of Haenat. Several small time bounty hunters have accepted the bounty, and learned that the Star Wanderer is owned by Treska the Hutt. Consequently, they have made their way to Treska's palace to investigate. Through some brutal tactics, the bounty hunters have learned that the party's smuggler was the main pilot of the ship, and hope to take the smuggler into custody. They have decided to approach the Hutt directly to have her permission to arrest her pilot. When Scellan triggers his plan, the party smuggler is already inside the headquarters. As he goes to escape, he runs into the hunters who have come to arrest him.

PART 1B: The Padawan and Clone have learned where they have been taken, and are considering their options. They spot some unusual activity in and around the landing platforms, including a black/red Firespray with a Black Sun logo. They also notice several other groups arrive and speak with the cone headed mercenary, who was clearly giving them orders. This is obviously the lead up to Scellan's attack.

PART 2: The crew will have to break the smuggler out or rescue him from the ongoing melee. During the escape, the Clone orders the Padawan to safety, and the Clone goes out in ablaze of glory, but not before giving the Padawan the chip containing the message from her master.

PART 3: Once free of the area, the party may do a number of things such as rescue the Hutt, find a place to lay low and get the ship repaired. Of course, they still have the statue, and can work out where to go from here. This does the following:

• Removes the statue as a payment and the debt since the Jedi and the Clone helped the smuggler escape (and the Clone gave his life)
• Removes the Hutt from the equation for the time being (or until the smuggler's obligation triggers again)
• Introduces Black Sun as an enemy that is a player in the overall plot.

Thoughts?

The biggest problem I see is inter-party strife. They're not acting as a party so much as a group of individuals who occasionally work together if their goals are in line. While this can work with a very skilled GM and exceedingly mature players, it's very tough to pull off successfully.

In this case, I would suggest that the smuggler get in touch with the Empire (by the Empire reaching out to him, if necessary, but give him a few obvious opportunities to contact them first). When he does, they tell him to keep an eye on the Jedi and that he will be paid if he can dig up more details. This will induce him to actually participate and support the Padawan in their actions, thus bringing the party together.

This will also give the character the opportunity to see that their ideas are either misguided or spot on.

W/R/T the hunted obligation, this contact between the Empire and the Smuggler can actually work for that trigger. At the tail end of the session, have an unrelated encounter with the Empire (with no one having any idea why it happened -- but the reason is the Smuggler contacted the Empire) wherein they attempt to capture the trooper.

I definitely have experienced this and understand though at the same time I get confusedif its good to have interesting social dynamics and having these ddifferent personalities can make things interesting.

But yeah characters having goals they aren't allowed to accomplish is a challenge.

Sorry off topic but yeah I guess confused how different or the same characters should be

Well as they say, no game ever survives contact with the players, and so too was this the case here. This was the end result:

The smuggler and the droid went into the Hutt's nightclub headquarters. There the smuggler spoke with the Jedi in Hiding "Cadence", as she was one of the Hutt's more respectable advisers. He advised her that he had a Jedi aboard to which she seemed interested. He wanted to gauge her reaction to the mention of the Jedi (kind of a sense motive type check). This resulted in multiple successes with a triumph which I promptly used to reveal she was a Jedi (i.e. "...she moves slightly uncomfortably when you mention this, and as she does so, her robes move slightly, and you catch a glimpse of what you think was a lightsaber. She notices, frowns, and pulls her robes over her hidden weapon"). Mid sentence, the Jedi stopped, sensing something (the imminent attack) and excused herself. Then the big fight broke out.

Meanwhile the Clone went into the headquarters to follow the smuggler and the droid, while the Jedi, mechanic and con-artist stayed on the ship (yes there seems to be a lot of that). The Jedi left a short time later to help the Clone and the other two, and the con-artist and mechanic had a nice encounter with two individuals who had every intention pf stealing the ship whilst fleeing the melee in the club. This resulted in the best quote of the night when the mechanic (Twi'lek) manned the guns, whilst the Con Artist attempted to negotiate. When that seemed like crazy talk to them, the Twi'lek double aimed at them with the ship ventral turret, allowing the Con Artist to say, "Aw come on guys. Look what you've made me do. You've forced me to use my Twi'lek." OK, it was funnier at the time

Meanwhile the battle raged inside, and lots of fun was had. The interesting part was no matter what obstacles I put in front of them (including two Nemesis), they decided to help fend off the intruders, and protect the Hutt. So instead of running, they actually defeated the Black Sun forces.

"Black Sun best rethink their attempts to defeat the omnipotence of Treska the Hutt and her minions!"

I had the Clone take a serious stomach wound during the fight which resulted in him dying in the Padawan's arms. The interaction between "Cadence" and the Padawan was very intense with one player saying, "[the player] came across as an angry young Padawan who isn't sure of herself and wants answers but doesn't know who to trust". The Padawan is played by my partner who has only been playing RPGs for about 18 months as opposed to me who has been playing for 30 years. She totally blew me away. During the combat, she used the fear element of Influence in an attempt to scare off the bad guys. "Cadence" counseled her for that. That didn't set the tone well for the interaction - but all was totally in character. She was asked directly if she had the statue and blatantly lied to the Jedi. This was later asked of the smuggler, who, playing to his Dutybound trait, confirmed they had it (which the Jedi said, "Lets keep that to ourselves. We best not disturb Treska with this information".)

Possible the weirdest result was during the interaction with the Jedi was when she lied. The roll succeeded, but still ended up with a despair. Now even after only 4 sessions, the players are starting to interpret their own threat/despair which is great, and can come up with unexpected results. The Padawan used the despair to realise that although she seemed to have convince the Jedi of her lie, she realised that she would have little choice than to work with these people. THAT is the sort of thing I love about this system. No longer was it a mechanical despair, but ACTUAL despair. I ran with it.

So, at the end, Black Sun was forced back, the Padawan was part of the party, the smuggler agreeing to have her aboard (and keeping a watchful eye on her for "Cadence"), and the Clone dead (which means the Padawan is now completely alone).

Me thinks this sets it up with some amazing Role Playing opportunities.

So thank you all for the feedback, it helped in a massive way to move the story forward.