Okay, so I've gotten my campaign together now for Force and Destiny and I have run into some obstacles I wanted to get the community's feedback on.

First, the website for the campaign so you can read the wiki, the adventure logs up to this point (which contain the backstory so far) and the pre-gen characters (get more into that in a second).

The Force Unbridled

Next, the pre-gens. So, I have players who are first time FFG players, and whose grasp of the movies is not strong. I also have been wrestling with the conundrum of Force users in the OT. Obviously it gets to be a bigger problem the longer the campaign goes, as sooner or later the PCs get to the point that they won't rationally be able to be overlooked by the Emperor and Vader. Especially if they join the Rebellion. So I decided to kill the two birds with a single stone, by forging new cannon for the game. To this end, I decided to "play" through the prequels, a few sessions only per movie. To accomplish this, I am using Belated Media's awesome take on the prequels, whose links can be found below.

What if Star Wars: Episode 1 was good?

What if Star Wars: Episode 2 was good?

What if Star Wars: Episode 3 was good?

I asked all the PCs to roll up characters that they wanted to play for the Campaign, and once they did, I took the careers and specializations that they chose and made Knight level pre-generated Padawans that would take part in these updated Prequel movies. In Episode 1, they'll be Padawans ready for their Trials, in Episode 2, they'll be full Jedi Knights, and in Episode 3, they'll be closer to end-game Masters. This way, they players can see what their chosen specializations will look like at different power levels, and get a chance to change their minds before we get into story that might be disrupted by them switching characters.

A side benefit is that they will also be able to learn the system through controlled scenarios and learn the "history" of the Star Wars universe as a group. The pre-gen characters will also potentially make appearances in the campaign later on as Mentors, residents of holocrons, or even Inquisitors (should they fall or plot demands a twist). It also relieves to the pressure to some degree, as the Original Trilogy timeline will be totally intact, but we will also have established a separation of sorts from cannon. I'm hoping this will allow everyone to stay excited about operating in the same universe as Luke, Han and Leia.

K, so now you're all caught up (if you've survived my wall of text up to this point, thanks for hanging in there!) my questions for you all;

I'm planning on running the Beginner Sets adventures; Mountaintop Rescue and Lure of the Lost. I read over the adventures a little, and I'm thinking about having one of the pre-gens replace Romund as their mentor, but that would require Malefax to be considerable more potent in order to capture them. Do you think this would represent a mentor that is too powerful? Do you think it would be believable to have Malefax use trickery and deceit to overcome a more powerful mentor instead of increasing his power level (perhaps by showing the influence of Rav Naraan)?

Next, once the PC's get through those two, I'll be moving them on GM Kit adventure and Core Rulebook adventures, but at some point I plan on having them both complete the Jewel of Yavin and join the Rebellion. How long is too long to wait for these? I don't want them to be too powerful for the adventures, but I don't want them to feel "rushed" into joining the intergalactic civil war either.

Thanks for all the feedback!

I'd say it really depends on the XP rewards you plan to give, and how many sessions it takes to complete the Lure of the Lost. But in any case, after having completed that adventure, you should have an idea of how much your PCs can handle, and you will be able to accurately gauge the threats that are presented in the GM Kit (I've only skimmed the adventure, but it looks more challenging than the one in the CRB). Scale appropriately...add a point of Soak here or there, give slightly better weapons, add minions, etc.

This being the first Campaign I'm running beyond 5 sessions (my Edge Campaign fizzled when two of the players moved to Maine and a third had a baby), I've not seen the effect of long term sessions on the party's power level. I was thinking that I would hold off on the PCs joining the Rebellion until they had a taste of what the universe alone could give them. I wanted to maneuver it so that they would get the feeling that they could handle themselves, and then hit them with an Inquisitor fully supported by the might of the Empire. This would rock their faith in themselves as they get basically splattered and soundly defeated, then while licking their wounds they hear of a burgeoning resistance against the Empire.

This would take them into the middle parts of the campaign, and generally increase the power level of it - but I was curious if waiting this long would place the PCs at a point where the threats weren't as "threatening" as they needed to be.

Would help, but really hard to read pink on my phone while outside. Maybe when I get to a pc I can answer

First off, I think you are mistaken thinking about the rebellion. Its a Force game, so the inquisition is more interested in the jedi and less about their relations to the civil war.

The PCs should be encountering more Force encounters and mysteries, about the past and the future. Of course if you are looking for a mixed game, go for it, but I would highly advice on having focus instead of a mix.

Transition wise, I had my side campaign start from the box set too, and right now the players are exploring the village I put a lot of effort into, and the adventures in the valley., Hopefully mixing the other content when I feel the players maxed their interactions in the valley, moving on with the advice of the NPC master, to explore another interesting place and another arc.

This kind of pacing is strongly dependent on your style, I like keeping it focused in one place, develop it with the players as much as possibly/needed, and only then move to a new something (obviously still largely related to the previous content).

The idea of the Inquisitors chasing them was more of letting things escalate naturally. In the beginning, they would be targeted only when they did silly things and brought attention to themselves, mostly the antagonists would be crime lords and thugs. Then, as they started to become the thorns in Black Sun/Hutt sides, bounty hunters would show hunting for them, with different Inquisitors or Imperials showing up only when they made a show of being Force Users on Imperial worlds (as they are the Inquisitor/Governor of that world).

As time when on though, and their power with the Force grew (all Force Ratings 3/4 area), a specific Inquisitor would show up hunting them, initially as a solo interest. The more they foiled this target, the more determined he would become. Finally, at some point, the PCs (because I know this group) will eventually go on the offensive, and when they do, they'll run into the full strength of the Inquisitor and Empire. This will be when I introduce the Rebellion into the campaign .. prior to that they won't hear much of it at all.

This is all merely the reaction and interaction of opponents - it doesn't speak to *what* they'll be doing actively (aside from when they put their big Jedi pants on and go after the Inquisitor). Most of this will be exploring ancients sites and amassing knowledge, training, and resources to combat the overwhelming strength of the Dark Side.

So, for those of you that looked at my Adventure Log, you'll probably see it is running similar to Belated Media's "What if Star Wars Episode 1 was good" webshow, and that's because I drew a lot of inspiration from it and it's sequel. Word has it that we'l get to see him retool Episode 3 sometime before December too! I'm not sure that my game will wait for it though, as the Prequel stories are only serving as "pregen" modules to teach the rules.

Which leads to my next question.

Obviously Episode 1 is ready, and will teach the players skill use and combat. Episode 2 shows advanced characters and power level, as well as teaching starfighter combat and rules, and then really wraps up the story with a final combat that resolves the different stories at play and sets up the Clone Wars.

Now, the question then becomes - is Episode 3 necessary? I had wanted to run another series of one shots through the 3rd episode to allow players to know the "history" of the world we're running in. The more I think about it though, I feel the story might be negatively impacted by this. Firstly, I would need to alter the "What if" stories so that they tie neatly into setting up Episode 3 and the Clone Wars as is - which isn't bad (since Episode 3 was the least troublesome of the prequels) - but isn't as fresh and satisfying as it could be by continuing the re-writes.

The flip side is, if I don't do Episode 3, then is it going to jar the narrative by leaving it out? I was thinking of revisiting it at a later date, as I was planning on using the Prequel NPCs as plot elements in the main story, so as they recover and interact with these plot elements, they "fill in" the adventure logs of Episode 3 and it's all done through narrative.

Thoughts are welcome!

You could always do a flashback episode/session when the third part comes out

I thought about that as an option - to kind of write it up and save it for when there's a new mechanic or something we want to explore in the game, then I have it to kind of cap off the prequel story and also set up training the mechanic. That is definitely an idea.

So, tonight is the first session! Wish me luck!

Also, as mentioned in the first post, there is a website on Obsidian Portal for those interested in following the adventure;

The Force Unbridled

There are a lot of prequel posts describing the set up to the first session here. The first session is going to be a retelling of the end of the Phantom Menace (as it is quite different in our universe - which you can gather if you read the prequel posts). After tonight, I'll add a session summary explaining what happened and put it into a version that is similar to a script (but with a little more detail in the actions).

My PCs decided they don't want to know what happens in "Revenge of the Sith" and would rather leave the fates of their PC's in the prequels a complete mystery to discover as they play the main campaign, which is very cool, so after the "Attack of the Clones" finishes up (which should be one or two sessions depending) then the characters for "The Force Unbridled" will replace the prequel ones and the main campaign will begin.

K everyone (not that I actually know if anyone is following this) Session 1 is over! It went pretty well, we explored both skill checks and combat, with a social scene involving planning an assault (so Skullduggery to find weaknesses in guard patrols and a way to break in, then Leadership, Charm and other social skills to convince the NPCs to accept their plan) and also a couple of combats to show different talents, skill checks in combat and of course damage and resolution.

The session was then converted to a script and put up on the website (The Force Unbridled at Obsidian Portal) for anyone who wants to follow along! The next session opens in Episode 2 Attack of the Clones and goes over my X-Wing Miniatures rules and also the standard space/vehicle rules (I plan to use the tactical game for combat itself, and the narrative rules for space chases and vehicle combat).

From there, if we have time, we'll do another combat to make sure everyone has it (the more practice the better) and then it's on to the actual campaign!

Session is over! So things went really well - they finished up a scene both in Narrative and Tactical space combat, then moved on to the final battle with Maul which used all the combat rules to get them ready for the campaign!

Everything on the Obsidian page is updated to reflect it, and throughout this week the characters from the Campaign will be getting introduced. The first official session of the campaign starts Friday! Woohoo!