Fish tank

By Xalac, in Star Wars: Force and Destiny RPG

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Hi!

Im thinking of making an fish tank adventure in FaD. But I'm in a dry spott for ideas, I'd appreciate if someone could give me some ideas for a couple of factions. Or give me an examples of you have done a fish tank adventure :)

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Fish tank? Not familiar with the term. Is it just the opposite of sand box, or something else?

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Well how about that? It's what I've been doing all along. Didn't know there was a name for it.

In my case I have a "macro" fish tank: an imperial admiral is working with corrupt local officials to buy up all the mining and other resource extractors on the PC's home planet. The corrupt local officials buy the services of local gangs to intimidate and sabotage, so the Imperial connection is not readily apparent.

Then for each session I have a "micro" fish tank based on the information and actions in the previous sessions. It's very fluid because the players will often come up with ideas and connections of their own that get inserted into the campaign. Only the first session was a bit railroady, as in "a friend you've known since high school is in trouble, please help". After that it's just evolved from the player's actions.

What sort of factions are you looking for?

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The only thing that i have is the the PCs are part of an force sensitive cult of some sort. Thats it i cant figure out the storys foundation or goal. if i just have those two i can figure out the interacting factions and their respective relationship. So what im actually looking for is inspiration.

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There is no motion, only pieces.

Cults tend to form around a super hard line interpretation of a doctrine, or a super hard line misinterpretation of a doctrine. Or just a charismatic whackadoo who likes having influence over people. One of my favorite examples of a cult based on the Jedi code came from an old Star Wars Adventure Journal (Can't remember which one and I have all my old copies in a fairly inaccessible place at the moment), but they were super anti-technology because they had misinterpreted "There is no emotion, only peace" to "there is no motion, only pieces" and liked sabotaging any technology they could get their hands on. Now, that is a fairly literal thing and it doesn't seem to scale well beyond a one shot that ends with a face palm based on when the players figure out what they are doing and why, so I give you an apocalyptic take on the "There is no motion" cult.

It helps if you imagine the following with narration with a cheap microphone, low resolution blurry background video that is at best tangentially related to what is being said, and still pictures with such egregious compression algorithm artifacts that really, they could be of anything. Seriously, go look at what ever conspiracy theory you know to be absolutely wrong on youtube and swipe their style.

You have been told a great lie, but we know the secret. We will open your eyes to a truth that will shatter what you know about our galaxy. This hideous lie has been hidden in front of you your whole life and you've probably never once questioned it. It is a lie that has become a basic assumption about the galaxy we live in, and if we don't wake up to the reality of this lie it could very well kill you, your family, your friends, your loved ones, and everyone else in the universe. Faster than Light travel isn't possible. The Hyperdrive doesn't work the way we all think it does, and that is going to kill us all. No one remembers where the Hyperdrive came from. For hundreds if not thousands of years, we have always had the ability to cross the vast gulfs of empty nothingness between stars. But where did it come from? Some say it was the Corellians, the Duros, or the Sullustans who built the first hyperdrive, but if that were the case, where are the records? Why is there no proof? where are the stories of pre-lightspeed civilization? The answer is, there are none. NONE. Now, there are some rumors in lofty, academic circles of some truly ancient race of beings that they call "The First" or "The Builders" or "The Travelers" that actually built the first hyperdrives long before any currently living species even evolved but logically, that can't be true. The stars don't have enough fuel to burn that long! We would be traveling faster than light in a dark universe if that was the case. Now I can hear what you are probably saying. "Hyperdrive can't be a lie, I just got back from a vacation on Rodia, and we took hyperspace the whole way!" But did you? Did you Really? Are you sure? One clue that you didn't is you've probably never heard this theory before you came back, in which case count yourself among the lucky. It means you've finally returned to the real universe you didn't even know you had possibly never lived in. You see, almost all branches of math and science and biology agree that faster than light travel is just plain impossible. You could never burn enough fuel, you could never carry enough fuel to burn, it can't be done. Hyperdrives don't actually take you anywhere. not in this universe, anyway. Another piece of evidence that proves hyperspace is a lie is the "science" of astrogation. Why does it take so long to plot a course if the galaxy has been mapped for centuries? How long does it take you to figure out how to get from your home to your place of work? 10 minutes? 20 minutes? No, that's stupid. You can do it almost instantly. Logically, hypersapce should work the same, since we all know where Rodia is. But Pilots and Astrogators are in on the conspiracy. They are lying to us, or were taught by people who lied to them and just didn't know any better. You see, a Hyperdrive doesn't actually make a ship go faster than light. It's the most dangerous weapon ever built. It's a big bang generator. Every time you think you are jumping to lightspeed, you are, in fact building a new universe, and riding that shockwave of a nothing explosion into that new universe you made centered on what ever the astrogator plugged into his galaxy creating computer. Some hyperdrives even have an elaborate system that is capable of destroying this entirely new created for your entertainment galaxy to generate the power for you to return to the real universe, but of course "they" don't want just anyone to have access to those kinds of drives that can get you back to the real galaxy. A few have been lost or scavenged or stolen, so if you have ever jumped to light speed before seeing this message you won the lottery and your last trip through "hyperspace" destroyed a whole universe of people just to get you home to the real galaxy basically by accident. The danger of these so called "hyperdrives" is obvious. Space is filling up with fake galaxies, fake planets, and fake universes. We are running out of room. Our real universe will be crushed by these fake universes that people make every time the blow a chunk of our galaxy up to make it look like you've traveled further and faster than is even possible. We need to accept the fact that interstellar travel isn't possible. We need to learn what "they" have a vested interest in us not knowing. The Jedi Sorcerers knew, and they tried to tell us, to warn us, but they weren't careful enough, and look what happened to them! I am very sorry, but you are going to have to stay on what ever planet or moon or space station you are on unless there is somewhere near by you can get to by sublight travel. We don't know how long we have before the galaxy is crushed by all these bits and pieces that get blown off of our reality, but the scales are close to tipping. Do anything you can to stop hyperspace travel. Do it now, because trillions of lives are counting on you, and remember the truth! There is no motion, only pieces.

So... cult! Goal: Stop the use of hyperdrives! Oposing factions: The ubiquitous "them." "They" in this case being anyone who sells space ships, engages in interplanetary travel or... you know... "Them." While this may not be what you are looking for, hopefully it can at least grant some inspiration.

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What place in the cult are they? What level of intrigue and double cross do you like? Straight off the bat here is a cult based who dunnit.

The Cult

An open and friendly cult extolling the virtous of living in peace and harmony. The cult performs much charitable work in the "area"

The cult consists of Five distinct circles;

  • The Associated Member or the outer circle are minions/helpers/believers but effectively non force sensitive in the main - the PCs start here having recently been inducted.
  • The Members are the force sensitive folk and well respected helpers, as well as associated members who have been invited into full cult initiation.
  • The Leadership The High Lord and the 3 priests; Of Body; Of Mind; Of Soul.
  • The Inner Circle - consists solely of force sensitive folk, this group of 7 believe they run the cult and control the appointments of the leadership all done behind closed doors and in masks. The general idea being that each member does not know the other)
  • The Three - the High Lord and 2 others, all dark force users control the cult and use classic dark/sith style tactics of manipulation to ensure their goals are met.

The Plot

A murder of one of the cult members, a well respected and gentle force sensitive cult member (high morality), and also an inner circle member.

Initially there is little concern from the cult and obviously only the inner circle few know the murdered was part of the inner circle after a meeting of 7 only has 6 members

The PCs are invited to find the killer to be invited to join as a member.

A second murder of a cult member, one known to have had different views to the first murdered person has got a few twitchy, is it coincidence or more to it? More so this was also an inner circle member.

The Motive

Each member of the inner circle has a piece of information passed down from the predecessor as part of the initiation rite, a rite that takes place when one of the members leaves the cult (usually through a peaceful death). When this information is pieced together tells the location of an ancient artefact from a time of conflict before the Old Republic.

The murderer - can be someone from the cult, or from the outside who has discovered the purpose of the cult - which is to hide this artefact.

This is the brief, and obviously very loose and will need some work, settings, individual cult members, the cult ideology etc.

This allows you to play F&D with a hint of the empire (perhaps Sideous has tasked one of his many minions with recovering the object), rather than a smack the stormtrooper with a lightsabre game.

Edited by FatPob
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What if you gave them aquata breathers and threw into an actual fish tank ? Factions are a group of Force-sensitive Quarren assassins and their allies-of-necessity, the Mon Calamari resistance. The secret meeting in which you're being sent to take part is in an "endangered aquatic life" reservation on Giju, where the ownership-transfer of a certain valuable artifact is being negotiated. But when the PCs get there, every Mon Cal is dead, and the Quarrens are nowhere to be seen...

Not sure if that's fish tanky enough :-D But it's what popped into my head as I was reading.

Edited by awayputurwpn
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I must say WOW really WOOOW!!! So much inspiration I have gotten and a lot to think about! Thank you so much!