So I want to use a crime lord of my own making as a BBEG in one of my upcoming campaigns, I have a problem though I can't decide between having the crime lord being a former Jedi who survived the purges or to have it be a droid of some sort.Please Help me my fellow GMs you are my only hope.

Well I've never liked droids as masterminds - typically in Star Wars, droids just aren't that creative. So of the two options, I would go with a Dark Jedi. I would try to make her interesting though, not just "I am teh EVILZ!" A Jedi, even a fallen one, should have some broader goal than simply power. Perhaps her criminal empire is directed towards undermining the Empire or ridding the universe of some group that she feels wronged her (perhaps they betrayed her master during Order #66). Also, perhaps make her less of the standard lightsabre-wielding warrior and more on the Sense, Foresee, Influence side of things. That's where Palpatine mostly is for comparison and he is tremendously effective.

Her organization will be far more terrifying to the PCs when it always seems to mysteriously know when they are coming and have cleaned out a place just hours before they hit it; or people who should be trust-worthy turn on them. A spider in its web is what she is, essentially.

As to species, I have no idea. Anything from human to Hutt could work.

I'd go for BOTH!

Seriously though what kind of background have you come up with so far for your eventual nemesis?

Nothing says you can't just have a succession with each one either being the next higher up or the replacement for the one they killed last time could even have them jockeying for the leadership with your PCs being the way they settle the argument!

There was a Darth Maul graphic novel where he's sent after Black Sun and it turns out their leader was a Failed Jedi, maybe you should allow for rumours that this mysterious leader is something of that sort and have him being protected by something like Magna Guards to reinforce that idea.

Still would need to know more to be able to help though.

Personally, and it's a matter of taste and how many times one has been through this, but I'm growing a little tired of every important character in the setting being a Jedi. I would be inclined to make the Dark Jedi the second in command, rather than the first. Perhaps the PCs can redeem her somehow, reminding her of her past ideals. It might be their only hope of defeating the real villain of the piece. It could be a nice twist for the PCs. Just a thought.

I have no issue with a Droid mastermind, for those who remember the Jedi Knight PC game, 8T88 the information broker. Remember that there are several droids in canon who went beyond their programming to become real characters. The obvious one is R2, but the droid in charge of Jabba's doid maintainance was a real sadist with delusions of granduer.

Largely though it depends on what you want to achieve and how you want the group to need to deal with the Nemesis. If you don't already have it, the GM kit came up with some interesting tips for a campaign Nemesis and is well worth a read.

An alternative might be someone who thinks that if they collect enough Jedi relics they will will be able to unlock their sensitivity to the Force (seeing images of glass cabinets filled with old Jedi training toys, burnt out and damaged Holocrons etc). Instead of having them as an actual Force user have them be unstable but with a dedicated infrastructure who likewise believe that the boss is a powerful Force user (Jedi,Sith or other). You might even have them have some spark which means that if they obtain a specific McGuffin they will successfully become a Force user (though they will need to learn how to use it). Of course your group will probably only learn of the masterminds delusions after a while.

G0-T0 from Kotor 2 is a good example of a droid being a criminal mastermind. As for the fallen Jedi idea, I'm reminded of the Jensaarai that aided Tavira's Invids in the novel I, Jedi. The Jensaarai's function was essentially a long distance trip-wire as they could detect future threats directed at the ship they crewed on. However they could not detect a random patrol that stumbled upon one of their raids as they patrol group was not actively searching for the Invids.

Why not a former Jedi that's a droid (sort of)?

He was critically injured in O66, survived miraculously, but ended up a cybernetic brain-in-a-box all Robocop II style? His connection to the force severely (if not almost completely) damaged, he's since stopped caring about light and dark, and now only cares for his own longevity and persistence and the power to maintain it.

An accounting droid obssessed with controlling all markets in the galaxy.

An accounting droid obssessed with controlling all markets in the galaxy.

"If it weren't for those silly organics messing with the supply and demand of silly things like food and inefficient luxury speeders I'd have had every market in a state of sustainable stabilized growth three centuries ago!"

She is a dark Force user and currently the steward of the reigning crime lord, but her insight and influence have been the secrets to his phenomenal success. Over the past standard year, she's been quietly building her own power base within the organization, and the time for a coup is ripe. All that's left now is to lure a band of disposable trigger-happy patsies to execute her masterstroke...

How about using the main crime lord communicate through droids. IE they have a long range communicator built in. Of they get destroyed he sends out another.... Using this method is have the bed be a kid or perhaps it is a series of kids how think they are playing a hologram that is actually real with all the profits being deposited to an anonymous bank account.

Why not a former Jedi that's a droid (sort of)?

He was critically injured in O66, survived miraculously, but ended up a cybernetic brain-in-a-box all Robocop II style? His connection to the force severely (if not almost completely) damaged, he's since stopped caring about light and dark, and now only cares for his own longevity and persistence and the power to maintain it.

Interesting, but why should he have less connection to the Force - he's still alive. Vader lost multiple body parts and is kept alive by cybernetic machinery. He is still very powerful in the Force. This seems to be an idea that gained currency (possibly from Shadowrun players, I don't know) but I don't see a basis for it in any canon source. In fact, I find it vaguely disturbing that someone would think losing body parts makes you less of a living person.

I've always loved the shadow fighters from dark empire.

Tie fighter pilots don't have a long life expectancy, when the best pilots died the empire would salvage their brains and plug them directly into the shadow fighters (tie fighters with more goodness squeezed in because they didn't require all the gubbins to support a "living" pilot). The brains would be infused with the dark side of the force so they would hate the enemies of the empire.

I can't help but wonder what kind of machine the empire could have made from all the Jedi brains left over from the purge. The knight's were killed all over the galaxy and probably couldn't be salvaged but Vader killed a whole bunch of younglings just ripe for brain harvesting.

Maybe a machine to predict the future, summon force storms, sway the population, read the minds of suspected rebels etc.

But the empire underestimated the power of the machine and the entrapped Jedi were able to take control of the scientists, with their help the machine was able to disappear into the underworld.

Now the group of inexperienced Jedi brain cases are using their powers to take over some underworld groups and enacting their plan to take down the empire.

Why not a former Jedi that's a droid (sort of)?

He was critically injured in O66, survived miraculously, but ended up a cybernetic brain-in-a-box all Robocop II style? His connection to the force severely (if not almost completely) damaged, he's since stopped caring about light and dark, and now only cares for his own longevity and persistence and the power to maintain it.

Interesting, but why should he have less connection to the Force - he's still alive. Vader lost multiple body parts and is kept alive by cybernetic machinery. He is still very powerful in the Force. This seems to be an idea that gained currency (possibly from Shadowrun players, I don't know) but I don't see a basis for it in any canon source. In fact, I find it vaguely disturbing that someone would think losing body parts makes you less of a living person.

Just thought it seems like an interesting point to help his motivation while tagging a sadly common opinion about the importance of the Force.

and yes, Dunkelzahn may have been a factor...

An interesting topic with a lot of good suggestions. There are some definite similarities to a campaign and villain(s) I've been thinking of lately to run with.

In my idea, Jedi Master Ima-Gun Di doesn't die at Ryloth (The Clone Wars, episode 303). He gets shot up pretty badly, but hangs on long enough to be scooped up off the battlefield by droids. He's put on life support and made a prisoner of war. Once Wat Tambor hears about the Jedi in custody, he make Ryloth his special mission. He's got a secret lab set up deep beneath the capital city where he interrogates Master Di using all sorts of unsavory methods. Sometimes he doesn't even ask him any questions... Meanwhile, Tambor keeps adding cybernetics to Di's body to keep him alive and torture him. The machinery is very crude and might look like something out of WW2 - very dieselpunky.

Di now hates the twi-leks and the Jedi order, the Republic, and everyone he thinks left him for dead. He also hated Wat Tambor and the droids, but he has a special mad on for those he feels like should have come to his rescue. He wasn't even found when Ryloth was finally freed. He spent years surviving in the twi-lek underworld. From the shadows, he witnessed the coming of the Empire and Palpatine's transformation. Di's hatred has made him cold and insane.

I've decided he's an artisan and knows mechu-deru. He's embraced his metal bits and has even improved on them, but has kept the scary, clunky, retro look. He watched and studied and waited for opportunity and purpose. At one point he learned of one of General Grievous's safehouses and raided it. From spare parts he found there, he built two droids and powered them with the Force. They serve as his chief henchmen: SM-L8 and NI-L8. He also employs a human bounty hunter named Bors Aich as a hitman and enforcer.

He has found a purpose. He has reasoned that he can control the galaxy by merging his mind with all machinery everywhere. He plans to use the Holonet to spread his consciousness and infect computers and droids. In this way, he can become more powerful than the Emperor. But first he needs to build a super computer to house his mind!

Di has his people begin recruiting smugglers to bring in the spice muon gold. He's building up a large quantity of it and also looking into ways its effects can be magnified. In his madness, he has devised a way to turn twi-lek minds into the core of the super computer he needs, and the spice is the key!

The campaign begins with the PCs being hired to smuggle some muon gold to Ryloth. From there, they can meet the scary people who work for Di, and be brought in deeper into the madness. Over the course of adventures, they'll figure out what's going on and want to stop Di from completing his goal. They'll face thugs and slavers, the hitman Bors, the droids SM-L8 and NI-L8, muon gold zombies, and eventually Ima-Gun Di himself.

Anyway, that's what's been going through my head recently for my next EoE campaign... Maybe some of that is useful to your ideas too.

Rich

I'm still working on a big finale of a deranged robot factory that keeps spitting "wrong" cybernetic-robotic creations while the PC's try everything to make it stop.

Maybe as suggested, both? http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Skippy_the_Jedi_Droid

or on a more serious note, A robot that is fixated by the Idea that he can become a Jedi, like his Master.

If he could create the nanotech equivalent of midichlorians maybe he could become a droid Jedi.

They originally fought together during the clone wars, then they were betrayed when the Empire was founded as a former leader bitter about being replaced framed them so he could earn a high rank in the barely formed Empire.

All bar 5 of them were killed now lead by a former Inquisitor (who still answers to Lord Vader occasionally) they've rebuilt their organisation and established bases throughout the Outer Rim seeking to take advantage of the chaos surrounding the destruction of the Death Star to plot their eventual revenge.

Two are mechanical prodigies who had a hand in developing the Empire's mechanical might, the third is their underworld specialist with links to the various criminal organisations including the Rebel Alliance, a fourth is their medical specialist insuring their access to bacta and the latest medical advancements especially geared towards biological weapons insuring they have the antidotes ready to sell when its to their advantage. Finally their leader is a mercenary and former Inquisitor who tracked down the Jedi who murdered his family because of their powerful Sith ancestry his dark secret is that he's still an agent of Lord Vader but hides a scrupulous and honourable nature behind a grim mask.

These are the people you go to when all hope is lost or the Empire wants something done quietly... they're not the people you want to find trailing you because the only thing you're less likely to survive is a face to face meeting with Darth Vader himself!

The party's nemesis should be boba fett.

After the rise of the empire the aging clone army was disbanded and replaced with the imperial navy and stormtroopers.

Due to their accelerated aging the clones were expected to die off in a couple of decades. Some of the clones tried to find a cure for the aging, they found that the aging could be cured but only if they had access an unaltered version of a clone (boba).

This gave boba power over the remaining clone armies, he not only offered a cure but convinced them that they deserved a homeworld(s) of their own.

Now boba fett and his clone armies are approaching a cluster of outer rim planets, including one where a small group of PC's have made their home.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Iron_Knight