New GM, New Players, Interesting Story Help?

By Tedward777, in Star Wars: Force and Destiny RPG

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I have lots of ideas for a force sensitive game, I'm not getting my F&D book until next payday but I've already got my framework for the first 2 seasons sorted.

I haven't got time to go into details now (about to go to work) but I'll post some details later.

The save the children / rebuild the order plot is the overall theme for the game.

Season 1 will have these 3 storylines:

Origins / a new beginning

New alderaan

The machine

Season 2 will have these 3 storylines:

Revelations / rebellion

Outbound flight

The unseen

Plus lots of module ideas and personal stories.

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outbound flight!? /drool. I'm just starting over re-reading the Thrawn Trilogy and I'd like to run something related to it. So cool. Yeah def post when you have time.

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The whole point behind the Death Star was that fear of it was supposed to keep systems in line. Once it was destroyed, the Empire claiming responsibility for Alderaan would spark all of the outrage without the fear. The X-Wing series has Corran Horn visiting an Imperial museum on Coruscant where the official line is that the Death Star was a mining laser, used for destroying uninhabited moons for easier mining, which was seized by the Rebels and used on Alderaan. So that justification is canon.

Obviously, if Tarkin hadn't gotten himself blown up, the official story would have been different, but once they lost the ability to destroy planets, the propaganda department had to do something to forestall even more rebellion.

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I had a similar idea except using a flashback instead of a 20 year gap.

The premise was that when alderaan was destroyed it sent out a shock wave through the force, "like a billion voices crying out and then being silenced".

This is a great idea - starting with Alderaan as the interruption is inspired. I'd have the players choose their Force & Destiny careers but give their choice a non-Force-related justification. For example, a sentinel character could work for CorSec, a warrior could be in the Imperial Navy, and as stated in the synopsis, Alderaan is their "awakening" - the point from which they "unlock" the talents on their skill tree. This would work for my players because they tend to leave talent purchase until after the first session. I'll keep this idea in my pocket :)

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outbound flight!? /drool. I'm just starting over re-reading the Thrawn Trilogy and I'd like to run something related to it. So cool. Yeah def post when you have time.

That arc is inspired by the outbound flight project from the thrawn trilogy but doesn't feature any of those characters.

That way the players don't feel like they are missing out by not knowing the EU stories.

Shortly before the clone wars several groups of Jedi were dispatched to the uncharted world's far beyond the edges of the republic, these were long term exploration missions (think star treks 5 year mission) but none of the ships ever returned... until now.

Decades later a rebel listening post intercept an automated distress beacon, on an old Jedi frequency, coming from a remote part of space. The party, now recognised Jedi knights, are sent to investigate.

The come across an old and battle damaged Jedi cruiser, docked alongside the cruiser is an unknown ship (probably a salvage crew) and they dock on the other side of the cruiser so they are not noticed. Shortly after docking the ship enters hyperspace leaving the party stranded on what appears to be a ghost ship.

This is a series of adventures set aboard the ship, eventual rewards include the cruiser, the flight plans of the other outbound flight ships (should the party like to continue with that style of mission) and information on the next emerging threat.

It starts as a creepy ghost story, with the party being forced to confront their fears.

The film's show force ghosts and the EU is full of Sith lords coming back from the dead to possess people, so a ghost story fits nicely with an all Jedi party. the jedi's ability to see spirits is something touched upon a few times over the course of the game.

Ghosts = flashbacks, which will allow the party to play out parts of the fateful outbound flight mission and get an understanding of what happened to the original crew.

Then comes the encounter with the salvage team, who don't want to give up the ship without a fight, but these are good people and hopefully the party can come to a peaceful solution. It's revealed that the ship stopped due to a problem with the hyperdrive and when the salvage team fixed it the ship resumed the journey to the Jedi temple on coruscant... It's only a matter of time before the empire detect the ship and it ends badly for everyone.

Next the race is on to get to the bridge so the ship can be stopped but it's soon apparent that something is trying to stop them.

Someone/something hostile came back with the ship from the unknown region of space, it's willing to do anything (even destroying the ship) to stop them.

On the bridge they meet a lone survivor of the mission, a Jedi knight who caries a warning about a group of force users (not Jedi or Sith) who plan on invading. Not much is known about their powers but one thing is clear, they've somehow removed the Jedi knights ability to connect with the force. With the party's help he wants to travel to a place strong in the force (think mortis from TCW) so he can try and reconnect with the force.

His attempt to reconnect succeeds when he transforms into a force spirit (dies) and a chilling prophecy is revealed to the party.

That concludes the important part of the arc, the party will have control of the ship and are once again free to come and go.

It sets them up 4 possible paths to choose from, some will delay the end of the arc and others will trigger the next arc at different starting points. It'll be interesting to see how they choose.

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The new alderaan plot (season 1 act 2) is the point where the story diverges from the movie timeline.


The rewards for this act are the foundation of new alderaan (a moon where the survivors can rebuild) including a safe location for a new Jedi temple. It will also introduce the big bad guy for the first time and give the party their first real brush the dark side.

Two characters from a new hope join the story.


At this point in the story the party are hidden Jedi, having learned the painful cost of blatant use of powers/lightsabers, and have acquired a ship, gear and are hiding a couple of force sensitive children. Most will have learned something of their origins (some of which they'd rather not know) including that one of their parents was alive and on alderaan. Origins get moved to personal stories instead of main plot, once the alderaan connection has been made.


Over a billion lives were lost when alderaan was destroyed but millions of survivors remain, people who were off world working/studying/travelling at the time. The empire has set up make shift refugee camps and is collecting the survivors. Once the truth about alderaan comes out the refugees will become hostile to the empire, the empire knows this and has a plan in place to take care of them before that happens. The clock is ticking.


Enter the PC's, they know that a former Jedi master was on alderaan prior to its destruction and are checking the camps for news of his survival. They will be introduced to a people who have lost everything and are given plenty of opportunities to be good guys and help them for no promise of reward. A few short missions helping out will earn them some respect and a meeting with some refugee leaders who can help with their search in exchange for their assistance.


The leaders explain that they fear that the empire is planning something horrible for the refugees and before that happens they want to establish a colony (New alderaan) away from the empire. They've been getting ships to scout out of the way moons for good locations for the colony and want to give the party a list of 3 moons to explore.


They also freely give the information the the Jedi master is alive and his last known location.


This is a series of exploration missions featuring pirates, monsters and Sith.

There are also two origin stories that can be explored, "redemption" and "the lost master".


"The lost master" is the tale of the surviving Jedi master, he was a peaceful man who never resorted to using a lightsaber. A healer, wise man and diplomat who never took the role of general in the clone wars and was able to escape the purge because he wasn't surrounded by clones.


Every man has a breaking point and the destruction of alderaan was his, his family, friends and home being destroyed (for the second time) was too much. He went darkside and insane and is rampaging around an imperial training camp.


There is no good ending here for the party, if they could redeem him from the dark side he would still be insane.

They could leave him alone, and the empire would suffer, put him out of his misery or set him on the long road to recovery.

There are other options but none that end in a happy family reunion.


"Redemption" is where the party can attempt to redeem an inquisitor.

One of the PC's was previously revealed as the secret love child of two inquisitors, the mother hid the birth because otherwise the emperor would have taken the child to be one of his own. She also fled a recent conflict so she wouldn't have to kill her own child.


She's clearly a conflicted NPC in a difficult position, the party can attempt to force a decision out of her and make her choose between siding with her child of staying an inquisitor. The outcome isn't guaranteed and will depend on good role playing. Whether she switches sides or not the attempt will get the attention of the PC's father, a more badass and evil inquisitor.



The first of the scouting missions finds a good location for a hidden colony, but unfortunately a band of pirates had the same idea. This is the party's first real space combat but also includes a ground combat segment and a chance to reclaim some stolen goods.


The next location is the forest moon of endor, before death star construction began, and is a chance to pinch some of the plot ideas from the ewok movies. A crash, helped by ewoks, fighting a giant gorax and assorted monsters, a force witch with unusual force powers, escaping the moon. While leaving the moon they see an imperial scouting mission, the empire is clearly scouting endor for some reason and that rules endor out as a colony location.


The final location is yavin :) the empire/rebellion chose these locations because they were out of the way and unlikely to draw any attention, which is exactly what the refugees are looking for. It's also good to drop in a few classic locations before heading off into uncharted territories.


Yavin happened like it did in episode 4 except only one of Luke's torpedoes went in the tube, the destruction wasn't as complete and the shell of the death star can still be seen in orbit and only 95% of the crew were killed. Some of the energy from the beam destroyed the base but wasn't powerful enough to destroy the planet.


Just like the death of a billion innocents awakened the force across the galaxy the death of 100,000+ in orbit above some Sith ruins had a similar effect, on the planet below an ancient evil is rising.


Nothing is amiss as the party approaches yavin, it's only as they enter orbit that the remains of the death star rises from behind the planet and the blast mark can be seen on the ground below. Ships can be seen around the wreckage salvaging parts, shield emitters and the biggest hyperdrive engines they have even seen.


As they turn to leave the ship is caught in what feels like a tractor beam pulling them to the planet below. A wave of emotions pass through the party and they realise that they are in the grip of the dark side of the force, by focussing they get an image of the source.


On the planet below, standing atop a pyramid surrounded by kneeling stormtroopers, is an imperial officer holding an ancient lightsaber. His free hand is reaching to the sky, as he begins to squeeze the troopers collapse into withered husks.... and the hull of the PC's ship begins to buckle and break.


The party may recognise the man as tarkin, now possessed by the spirit of a Sith Lord.


The ship has 2 3-man escape pods, forcing the party to split, and one lands near the blast crater and the other near a Sith pyramid.


This is a series of behind enemy lines encounters with the 2 groups struggling to rejoin and escape the planet.


After the destruction of the death star the survivor fled to yavin by any means, tie fighters, shuttles and escape pods landed in clearings throughout the jungle. The scattered imperials were met by Sith spirits and now groups of possessed and unpossessed imperials are running/fighting/hiding in the jungle.


Encounters may include the possessed, a rebel S&R team, a Sith spirit, local wildlife and various death star crew including civilian staff, droids and a death star gunner (someone who pulled the trigger on alderaan) etc. Not all will be combat encounters although the temptation to kill will always be there (especially for the gunner).


The team that lands near the crater could explore the ruins and find out that the command bunker was shielded and largely intact. There may be survivors and Intel to salvage.


The team that lands near the pyramid could choose to face the figure that stands atop this one (not tarkin) and after the fight can use the vantage point to spot a shuttle in the jungle that can be used for escape later. While atop the pyramid the power of the dark side is almost overwhelming, any pc could choose to use the dark side here to nudge the death star remains out of orbit (by draining the life force of of the surrounding imperials) and strike a huge blow to the Sith before they leave yavin (at great personal cost).


Among the darkness both parties feel an unfamiliar but strong light side presence, in a great deal of suffering, following this beacon the two teams unite in time to save Leia (boss fight).


Due to previous rebel scouting missions Leia knows the perfect location and "queen" Leia takes charge of the foundation of new alderaan. She may even be convinced to train at the new Jedi temple, built in gratitude for the PC's actions.


Tarkin seems like a bit of a cheap bad guy, instead of building an entirely original bad guy, but he'll serve two major functions. He gives the Sith a way to quickly establish a fleet and control some outer rim planets (before the empire realises what's happening). He's also vital to the end of season 2 epic social encounter "the trial of tarkin" where the fledgling Jedi order is put in charge of holding a public trial and the decisions they make in and out of the courtroom will shape the fate of the galaxy.

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I have enjoyed where this has all led, some interesting ideas out there.

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I am thoroughly enjoying these, mullet cheese. The what-if-ness is super cool. i love the Yavin-Sith connection. I always forget about that.

Do either of you guys do audio recordings/podcasty things? I would love to listen in.

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We are making our Characters on Monday and my group wanted to start immediately after creation with the story. I guess that means I need to start construction!

Session 1: I think I will begin with the team of young younglings being chosen to go an a special training mission to a planet with a special Clone trooper squad. Things go wrong when a terrorist group working for the CIS bombs the village. There will be a mix of rescuing/saving lives, fighting off the terrorist, village interactions, exploration, and problem solving. In this session they will deeply bond with this (at first) stubborn group of Clone Troopers, and work together as a group to help a village.

Session 2: The session I described much earlier in my original post where they get their lightsaber crystals... or at least try to! Anything could happen here.

Session 3: (May do something interesting on their way back! -- Pirates? Space Battle Action? Ship Breakdown? Black Hole encounter which they either escape or discover a new world?)

Session 4: Return to Temple at order 66...

Session 5: 15 years later! Who knows!!!

I read a friends FB post about old D&D players telling their horror stories about games and DM/GM's. So I know what not to do!!!! Any other helpful hints or tips as I prepare my first session as GM?

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My advice is don't rush the republic era sessions, you can't turn back the clock once you skip the 15 years.

If there are any NPC s that might also survive this is when should be introduced.

Any Jedi/Sith artefacts, location of a hidden Jedi vault, holocron with location of force sensitives, knowledge of Jedi history/sites of interest or other plot hooks can be introduced here.

If the pc's have families they will have to be recognised at this point, they may be separated for 15 years but that doesn't mean they can't affect the story. A toddler at the time of the purge could have grown into an inquisitor or Jedi in those years.

Any background stuff you create could be useful later, start building a world in case you need a plot hook.

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My group has been knocking around a campaign with a similar core concept to the one you presented. The party would be Old Republic Jedi-in-training (probably on Tython, even). At some point, possibly while on a training mission where they are expected (but not necessarily guaranteed) to get their lightsaber crystals,, something happens that leaves them stuck in a stasis field. It's not until thousands of years later, when some unlucky pirates make landfall to repair a busted hyperdrive that they end up being freed from stasis. They'll have the opportunity to get a (very) basic overview of what's going on in the galaxy before they get cut loose in it, but it's *certainly* not the galaxy they know anymore.

The trick will be to *not* jump ahead in time too quickly, as mulletcheese pointed out. Let the characters get established first, so that everybody knows what their personalities, and individual schtick will be.