Greetings everyone,

I'm going to be running my first proper session for my group this Monday based on the fantastically succesful game Knights of the Old republic which I am writing up myself.

I'm new to GM'ing a Star Wars rpg but I'm really looking forward to taking the reigns on this one. I am still learning the rules but have a few experienced friends who are "holding my hand" through the early stages.

I hope to keep a session by session log of how the game runs and the issues and hurdles I encounter and hopefully overcome.

Suggestions are always welcome.

What are your plans for the first session?

I ran Session Zero last Monday for character creation and to go through the rules that differ to D&D (D&D is the ruleset my players are familiar with).

I ran the Endar Spire as the "Learning" encounters so my players can get to know how the dice "work" and to see the way combat works.

They managed to get into the escape pod with the help of Carth Onasi who i've included as a "guiding " NPC.

Session 1 will start with the character landing on Taris and Carth Onasi giving they the main story hook.

What's the main hook? What are the encountered planned? What's the character's are looking for (social, battle, investigation)?

I am sorry but you giving very dry details, its hard to help with suggestion if we don't know the crux of the adventures...

I was going to go through all the main stuff once we had the first proper session, which will be this Monday (Are you familiar with the KOTOR story). My players are still fine tuning their characters, so i'm in the dark about a lot of their backgrounds and stuff.

I will endeavor to do a write up of each session for those that want to know how it has been going.If you have any specific questions about it then please feel free to ask.

I think the questions I gave are quite specific

Anyhow, you should plan the encounters accordingly with what the players want to play, what they have on the sheet and be prepared for it.

If they want social encounters, be ready with the appropriate skill checks (social checks are usually opposed checks, meaning the difficulty is the opposing NPC's skill check converted to appropriate difficulty dice). Battles should be planned with interesting set pieces (cover, different heights, dangerous terrain, etc), making the scene more interesting then just a shoot out.

Also in planning, talents PC's have that remove Setback dice should be considered when the players ask "what's the difficulty?". Plan to have have all kinds of Setback dice added to checks because of various effects (hacking a terminal? its encrypted, 2 setback!).

Obligation, Duty and Morality should effect the game accordingly (which player's Obligation and Duty affects are according to roll in the beginning of session).

PCs are obligated to someone? Have them appear in the background of things or mentioned. Duty to preform a task? have such task a side quest of sort or make sure the PC with the Duty is aware he can preform such task during an encounter or story. Morality is more complex, you can have varies encounters have different outcome, depending on how morally handled and how the Morality of certain PC interacts with the encounter (found a cache in the woods? the locals probably use it, choice is to take a few items or looting it completely, etc).

Carth?!? Ah, so you're running the video game. Which means one of the players is Revan? Guessing you're not telling them who it actually is yet. There is SOOOO much on Taris alone from the game, and a ton more if you let your imagination run. You have quite a few sessions ahead for you and your group and thats just the starting planet. Sounds fun.

Are they all starting out as non force users? If you're using the link between Bastilla and Revan you'll be giving away some of the surprise. Come to think of it, what are you doing as far as npcs go? They include a pretty well rounded group in the game as it is. I'm guessing you're axing some of them? Only so much room on the Ebon Hawk to go around.

Kind of intimidating for a new GM I'd think. Be prepared to change things, a lot. Be flexible and don't get too upset when your plans get steampiled by the players. Speaking of plans, try not to railroad the players into too narrow a decision path. As the GM, you've chosen to play from someone else's script but the players might want to add a few embellishments of there own here and there. Several different ways of saying basically the same thing, but it can't be stressed enough in this kind of situation.

Either way, good luck.

I have decided to keep the MAIN story and the key parts the group need to get from plot hook to plot hook, but as far as that goes I'm pretty flexible with how they want to go about it. None of my players are playing a Human so Revan is now an Alien (Possibly a Force Illusion) until the final part then TA-DA!!

I ran Session one of my F&D Kotor conversion tonight and all in all I think it went really well.

I have 5 players, their character's are as follows.

AW-P (Gadgeteer)): A HK series driod that was created by ever since.a Republic Benefactor, upon his death Aw-P was "Donated" to the Republic and has been serving aboard a Republic ship.

Ezmi Atom(Pathfinder): A female Togruta Jedi Padawan. Who enjoys finding lost treasures and exploring different worlds.

Koras Valaan(Shien Expert): Male Togruta Jedi Padawan. Grew up on Shili (Togruta Homeworld), Koras was raised in a clan environment but was injured while hunting prey and exiled himself when he could nolonger "Contribute" towards the clan. He survived in the wilds using his force powers to stay alive until a Jedi found him and brought him to train as a jedi.

Nya'Teth (Advisor): Male Twi'lek Jedi Padawan. Grew up on Ryloth to a fairly well off family who grew disillusioned with the planet's use of it's own people as slaves. He was found by a Jedi and brought to to train at a Jedi temple, and found that although his commitment to the JEdi was strong he couldn't help be constantly reminded of his people's suffering throught the galaxy.

Vintar Kes(Shadow): Male Dug Jedi Padawan. Grew up on his homeworld of Malastare where he battled for survival as many of his race did from the mighty Silo Beasts that were native to Malastare.

Before the group made it onboard the Endar Spire, the Jedi were on the planet Danthomir studying Rancor in their native habitats. They were under the care Kyleya a Jedi consular who supervised this outing. Once they had finished their studies they met up with the Republic ship the Endar Spire on their way back to the Jedi enclave on Dantooine.

SPOILERS!!!! SPOILERS!!!!! SPOILER!!!! SPOILERS!!!! SPOILERS!!!!!

SESSION "0"

From this part onward I will be giving details of my groups adventures which contain a lot of the original KOTOR plot, so please be aware of this before reading on.

I decided the Endar Spire part of the Mission would be a great opportunity to get the players familiar with the ruleset.

The group all began play withing the "Dormitory/Barracks" area after being told to stay there by Kyleya after the ship was attacked by Darth Malek close to the planet Taris.

After so interaction by the players Kyleya appeared and ordered the group to follow here as she needed to get them off the ship as it was overrun by Sith.

The group make their way through the ship killing various Sith minion groups as they went, The dark Jedi that appears just after the Bridge encounters, Kyleya recognizing the dark Jedi as a former compatriot charges him holding him at bay just long enough for the group to escape. The group are now on their own and they hear the voice of Carth Onasi over the internal comm system guiding them to the very last Escape pod. They see the Endar Spire begin it's uncontrolled decent into Taris's atmosphere jst as they begin their Extremely bumpy decent.

This is the point I chose to leave it as it gave the group pause to tweak their characters if they wanted and also was a good stopping point in terms of story.

I will post what happened in Session one "Tomorrow" as it's currently 1am here.

Any questions please feel free to ask.

Hi everyone,

Sorry this is late I have been really busy lately.

All my group are running with Morality, yes, even the droid! I decided that I would run it in the same way but when AW-P incurs conflict the "Party" get it on his behalf.

Unfortunately, Ezmi Atom couldn't make it tonight so she was helping out Carth back in the Apartment building.

I have decided that instead of writing up the whole session "Word for word" I will write up the differences my game has to the Kotor game in regards to mechanics and gameplay. This will make the entries far more manigable for me to continue to write up my sessions.

Session 1 - SPOILERS!!!!

The group awake to find themselves in the rundown apartment building With Carth Onasi who rescued them. This is where the group ask all the relevent question regarding adventure hook which is to "Find Bastilla and get her off world somehow".

They exit the apartment and straight into a Sith patrol who has begun harassing a family of Duros, the Sith attack the PC's on sight believing them to be "Republic spies".

The ensuing battle results in poor AW-P accidentally shooting one of the Duros men (Gaining conflict). kya'teth also incurs himself a critical but only a minor one. After the battle the group attend to the injured Duros man and administer 2 of their stimpaks to help him. The group are told about Dr Zelka who has a small medical facility in the South of the city that could help the injured Kya'teth.

The group begin exploring Taris. They are told my a helpful protacol droid about the Sith occupation and more importantly that only authorised people acting on behalf of the Sith army may enter into the Lower City.

(All my players decided to play Non-humans so that means the usual "Sith uniform" disguise won't work to get into the Lower city, So i desided the Junior officer Party in the North apartments included the next mornings shift)

The group went to see Dr Zelka and they negotiated the use of one of his Kolto tanks to heal the injured Kya'teth. This took a while, Vintar Kes and Koras Valaan decided they would go check out the Upper city cantina while they waited for Nya'teth to heal up, AW-P decided to stay behind in the medical facility and watch over his companion.

To say the Togruta and the small Dug stood out in the upper city cantina was an understatement, if Vintar Kess could have done anything to make his silhoutte enter "-" figures i'm sure he would have. They were feeling extremely out of place with all the stares from the upper city citizens unti the Duleing battle was announced over the Cantina. Very intrigued they went to investigate and met Ajuur the Hutt. This was a surprise to say the least.

(I decided it best not to allow the PC to enter themselves into the battles as I felt it would detract from the story and turn into an ego fest over who was the strongest fighter among the PC's)

Koras decided he would try to place a bet but didn't follow the correct procedure (Despair on his Charm) and innadvertantly triggered Ajuur's guards to step in and nearly kill him. He managed to talk his way out of a good beating and they left and went back to their drink.

They noticed a group of junior officers who were drinking and talking loudly where they found out not only was there going to be a rowdy party that evening in the North apartment building but these officers were the next days guard shift at the Lower City Elevator.

They decided to go meet up with the others to discuss their options. They went back to Carth and a plan was hatched.

They went to the Cantina and managed to but four bottles of high class Ithorian brandy. Then they went to see Dr Zelka to procure four vials of powerful sedative which they used to spike the bottles of rum in order to get it to the revellers and knock them out so they missed their shift so the Elevator had minimal security.

This is where the session ended, 10xp awarded to each player as I felt it went very well.

Next session........The group decided how best to get into the apartment building without attractiong too much attention.

We last left the group up in the Abandoned apartment block hatching a plan to get the spiked alchohol into the party so the guards missed their shift at the Lower City Elevator which would allow the group easy passage into the lower City.

I forgot in the previous session that Carth had given the group a commlink that they could use to call him for guidance if they needed it. (This cost a destiny point to activate)

Again, unfortunately Ezmi Atom couldn't make it again so she again is with Carth.

It took a long time but the group decided to pose as a cleaning crew to get into the North apartments and into the Officers party. They searched the abandoned apartment and found some old maintenance overalls that would fit the group (Destiny point was used to find a set to fit the dug).

They headed over to the North apartments avoiding patrols, at one point the group were spotted but a destiny point was used to direct the patrol towards a rowdy group of drunk citizens coming from the other way.

At the North partment door they found it had a security keypad, AW-P managed to unlock the door and gain entry. Upon reaching the correct floor they heard the party but also saw a security probe patrolling the area did used a few destiny points throught the encounter sending it the other way or returning it to it's recharge port.

Theyreached the party and managed to charm their way in (Nya'teth's charm skill is YYYG) using the Ithorian Brandy as an icebreaker, soon all the revellers were past out having all sampled the drugged alchohol.

An extremly awful perception check by the group only turned up minor credits and gear, Vintar Kess did however manage to pocket a rather nice looking Sith medallion that was dropped right infront of him.

The group left the room, and made their way back to the elevator where they saw a Sith officer with an obviously unwilling female Twi'lek in tow and four Sith guard all exit from the elevator and head to an apartment on the otherside of the corridor.

Nya'teth was immediately unhappy as his Morality weakness was Anger, also he is a staunch petitioner for Twi'lek rights and abhors the treatment of his race throughout the galaxy. (Mwahahaha!!!)

The group decide that the bigger picture is more important and the continue to the Elevator, just as they get there, as if destiny it's self interveined (I flipped a destiny), a scream could be heard from down the corridor where the Sith soldiers had gone, and angry shouts could be heard.

Nya'teth immediately ran to the damsel's aid, the rest of the group reluctantly followed, AW-P even using their cleaning trolly as a barricade incase reinforcments came up the elevator.

The battle was swift with the Sith perishing in a hail of blaster fire and knives. On two seperate occasions, the Twi'lek woman through her actions caused Vintar Kes to miss two attacks, which made him consider if this woman was really worth saving.

The Twi'lek's name was Kyanni, and she told the group that if they could get her to the Lower city she could get them in with the Hidden Beks.

They found in a quick search a data pad in the officers room, this pad contained the authorisation code to get past the lift security.

They decided it was best to get the hell out of there asap before more guards turned up. They got back to Carth and decided they should rest up first before just dashing down into the Lower City.

They headed out early in the morning, AW-P needed to recharge himself and Kyanni told them about a Droid shop in the North part of the city where he could recharge.

AW-P and Koras headed to the Droid shop whereas Vintar and Nya'teth decided to head to Dr Zelka with Kyanni to hel her and their wounds.

On the way to the droid shop the Togruta and the driod met the hate preacher, spouting vile comments on the state of Taris with all the "vermin" alien species that now occupy Taris.

I had them roll Disipline checks to not get baited into retaliating which they passed.

Jan'ica's Droids was like the inside of a Jawa Sandcrawler, Jan'ica the Twi'lek shop owner was immediately facinated by AW-P's design and origin so much so she allowed him to recharge for free.

She fussed over him the whole time he was there, offering upgrades and tune ups where ever possible. While checking is date engrams she noticed something curious, AW-P had several large encrypted files with an encryption she had never seen before, she made him aware of this but so that the others didnt know.

Once finish in the medical facility, Vintar and Nya'teth left with Kyanni to meet up with the others at th Droid shop.

They also met the hate preacher on the way, and Vintar failed his disipline as did Nya'teth, both their morality weakness is Anger and they began trying to intimidate the crowd around the preacher gaining lots of conflict in the process. They avoided a major confrontation and had to make a hasty exit when one of the women they scared tried to report them to two Sith guards.

Once they were done in the Droid shop, they decided to head down into the Lower City. They headed to the lift again passing the hate preacher and his mob of follows. Nya'teth again failing his Disipline, chose to barge his way past the group again gaining conflict.

The two Elevator guards (Usually six) stopped the group, and asked for authorisation. They gave over the datapad with the military clearance on it and were addmitted to head down into the Lower city.

This is where the session ended, I believed Nya'teth was was going to lose lightside points after getting a total of 8 conflict in that session but no, he rolls a 9 and continues to creep up.

Hope you all enjoyed it sorry if you didn't, but it has been a blast so for.

The ensuing battle results in poor AW-P accidentally shooting one of the Duros men (Gaining conflict).

Wait - okay, putting aside the whole "why is a droid getting conflict" thing, why are you handing out conflict for an accident? Was the player just irresponsibly shooting into a crowd or something? Okay, there's plenty of reasons how someone could get some conflict in a fight, but if it's just a straight up exchange of gunfire and the dude missed, I wouldn't hand out conflict.

The ensuing battle results in poor AW-P accidentally shooting one of the Duros men (Gaining conflict).

Wait - okay, putting aside the whole "why is a droid getting conflict" thing, why are you handing out conflict for an accident? Was the player just irresponsibly shooting into a crowd or something? Okay, there's plenty of reasons how someone could get some conflict in a fight, but if it's just a straight up exchange of gunfire and the dude missed, I wouldn't hand out conflict.

It was more to do with no care was taking to try and avoid the civilians. They just all basically went to war on the Sith patrol, not taking into the account that there were civilians nearby. If my players were more experienced and had done the same thing I would have doled out more conflict for it.

Its a carrot and stick things, more stick then carrot with Conflict

My players are used to resolve everything with violence from their exploits in EOTE, and its just not the light side way. They got in the 3 first sessions about 4 conflict a session, until they got it that they can't just attack anything, even if its "sith". They need to consider things, use social checks first, and almost always go for stun and disarm...

I noticed that there are a lot of points where "they failed their discipline checks, and so gained a lot of conflict.". Was this actions they had preformed in response to failing a check willingly? Or an action that was imposed on them as a direct result of failing the check? If it's the former, that is pretty awesome though I would exercise a little caution for overusing that trick in the latter cases. Not everyone is trained in that skill so it's not hugely fair to force them to gain too much; often I find with the right probe at right player will provoke a response.

Otherwise it sounds fantastic! Do away with the cannon regards to Revan though; don't mystically transform a member of the party into him, the fact is Revan is the PC, not the other way around. Revan can be whoever you want him/her to be to be.

I noticed that there are a lot of points where "they failed their discipline checks, and so gained a lot of conflict.". Was this actions they had preformed in response to failing a check willingly? Or an action that was imposed on them as a direct result of failing the check? If it's the former, that is pretty awesome though I would exercise a little caution for overusing that trick in the latter cases. Not everyone is trained in that skill so it's not hugely fair to force them to gain too much; often I find with the right probe at right player will provoke a response.

Otherwise it sounds fantastic! Do away with the cannon regards to Revan though; don't mystically transform a member of the party into him, the fact is Revan is the PC, not the other way around. Revan can be whoever you want him/her to be to be.

I was playing into the characters Morality Weakness's of Anger. I made them make Discipline in order not to give in and react badly, they failed hence they got conflict for "giving into there passion". I do have plans for the Revan Twist not sure if I'm keeping it in tho

Has anyone using that game as the basis for their campaign ever tried going the route that Revan died and Malak unable to accept this ends up hunting Bastilla believing she knows where he is except because the PCs stymie him he ends up believing one of them IS Revan?!

After all being all darksider isn't great for your mental health after all!

I really like that idea, if i decide not to use Revan as a PC I think I may use that approach as it sounds awesome, But not sure malek would care if Revan was dead as that was his plan when he opened fire on the Endar Spire in the first place

(Continued). Perhaps Malek believes Revan did escape from the Endar Spire even and hunts down Bastilla believing she knows his whereabouts, when infact Revan was killed by Bastilla and her strike force before they could capture him?

I really like that idea, if i decide not to use Revan as a PC I think I may use that approach as it sounds awesome, But not sure malek would care if Revan was dead as that was his plan when he opened fire on the Endar Spire in the first place

Of course he would care; if there was any doubt in Revan being dead he could potentially still have a power rival out there somewhere. Revan working with the Jedi could undermine the entire foundination of the Empire he and Malek had formed together thus far, along with knowledge of the Star Forge could prove critical in shutting down his ambition before he could make full use of the advantage that station afforded him in the long war.

If Revan is alive then Malek cannot allow him to live. Hence Revan doesn't have to be alive in order to trigger these events; Malek only has to suspect.

I really like that idea, if i decide not to use Revan as a PC I think I may use that approach as it sounds awesome, But not sure malek would care if Revan was dead as that was his plan when he opened fire on the Endar Spire in the first place

Of course he would care; if there was any doubt in Revan being dead he could potentially still have a power rival out there somewhere. Revan working with the Jedi could undermine the entire foundination of the Empire he and Malek had formed together thus far, along with knowledge of the Star Forge could prove critical in shutting down his ambition before he could make full use of the advantage that station afforded him in the long war.

If Revan is alive then Malek cannot allow him to live. Hence Revan doesn't have to be alive in order to trigger these events; Malek only has to suspect.

What I meant was I don't think Malek would care about Revan's death enough to seek Vengeance on Bastilla. Of course he would care if he thought Revan might still be alive.

Or what he may have told them?

I guess. In either case there is still plenty of reason for conflict. Malak is looking to expand his power base rapidly and she, like all Jedi, stand in his way. The reasons can be rejigged to serve the narrative.

Session 3 -Lower City.

This post WILL contain spoilers to the KOTOR game.

The group exited the elevator to the sounds of pitched battle up ahead so tried to be cautious as they had Zuranni, a Female Twi'lek in tow who they are helping to get home.

Vintar Kess attempted to make a dash with her and get her to safety which failed and he was attacked by several members of the Black Vulkar gang.

Vintar put up a strong show of force killing one gang member in his first assault, but the Vulkars hit him back hard with their shock sticks, knocking him prone, his left leg paralyzed by the strike which caused him to drop both his trusty knives.

The rest of the group rushed to the defense of their companion, Koras who had taken cover for the first barrage of blaster fire rushed in to protect the downed Vintar while Ezmi and AW-P both gave covering fire to distract the Vulkars. Nya'teth aided his allies by giving them orders and strategic help.

Unfortunately for Vintar Kess, while he was on the floor recovering a stray blaster shot from one of his allies struck him in the back while he lay prone on the floor. Ezmi rushed to him using the force to heal some of his wounds, unfortunately his left leg was still paralyzed so he continued fighting with just one of his knives.

The fight was soon won and the group searched the bodies of the Black Vulkars and the Hidden Beks for much anticipated loot.

One of the Black Vulkars had a heavily modded Vibrosword on him, there was a heavy blaster pistol and about 100 credits altogether. The group beleiving Zuraani to have fled home (Which she had) decided that they should press on to find out information on the Hidden Beks and speak to their leader.

Jayvar's Cantina- Yje group approached the Cantina where they saw a large Besalisk male acting as a bouncer for the club, Vintar used to the underworld strode right in, but when Nya'teth tried to enter the large Besalisk stepped in his way holding one of his large hands out as if awaiting an entry fee.. Nervous but not totally put out Nya'teth asked if he could pass, the Besalisk simple replied "30 credits to enter". Nya'teth calmy pointed out that he had let Vintar in without payment which the Besalisk simply replied "What Dug?" (GM LoL)

Nya'teth decided enough was enough and he resorted to charming his way past the doorman whci he succeeded with lost of advantage. The Besalisk relented saying he was only "Funning him."

The group entered the cantina and saw the famed bounty hunter Calo Nord end the lives of three rather stupid Black Vulkar gang members, for not leaving him alone. As Calo Nord left, each of the players left him alone and got out of his way (****! I so wanted there to be an issue)

The group headed to the bar to get drinks and try to get some information on the Hidden Beks and the Black Vulkars which after several drinks and a few well made Knowledge underworld checks the groups found out the best gang to go to was the Hidden beks and that they had a base near by. Nya'teth and Koras spotted a young Twi'lek girl being harassed by two rodians, the shocking language of the girl almost had Nya'teth ready to denounce her from the Twi'lek species but soon the problem sorted it'self out when the Twi'lek's friend, and enormous Wookie came over to scowl at the two Rodians who quickly left while the girl laughed in their faces. They spoke to her briefly learning her name was Mission Vao and her Wookie friend was Zalbaar or "big Z" as she affectionately called him. She gave them more info on the Hidden Beks and when she found out the group were headed to their base she told them it was very important that when the arrived they asked for Zaedra. Nya'teth swore he could hear them laughing as the group headed to the exit having decided not to see the rest of the cantina.

They soon arrived at the Hidden beks where Nya'teth who has YYYG on his charm decided it would be better to lie to the Beks about having an "Appointment" with Gaddon who he had learned was the Leader. The guards contacted non other than Zaedra, they were brought into the base and into a small room where the room was locked. For over an hour they were kept waiting, finally a very suspicious and annoyed Zaedra (Female Twi'lek) entered with six other heavily armed gang members and proceeded to interrogate the group. Finally, after many opposed skill checks they group succeeded and Gaddon himself arrived and saved the group from the tyranny of his Security chief.

Gaddon told them that he believed that Brejik,Bastilla up as the Vulkar share of the prize for the upcoming Swoop race tournament that was coming up. Gaddon also told the group that the only way for them to win was if they stole back a unique engine accelerator that the Black Vulkars stole from them, but they would have to break into the Black Vulkar base.

The only way they could do that was to get help from Mission Vao who knew a back way in. Gaddon gave them a security pass that would allow them to head down into the Undercity in exchange for six Sith uniforms which the group spent two destiny points to "Find" rather than head back up into the Upper-city to find them. unmolested. The group agreed and left and proceeded straight to the Elevator that would take them down into the Undercity.

just as they step off the elevator two of the Undecity citizens try to extort credits from the group but the PC's are not intimidated and the two men resort to begging instead, and in a move that surprised even me, Kintar offered them the Modded Vibro Sword. A young woman named Shaleena arrived and chased the two men away. She showed the group around the village introducing the group to The village doctor where they learned first hand how bad the Rakghoul threat was. They also met Rukil a very old man who is the only person in the village to have ever lived in the upper city. Hendar the leader offered his help telling the Party that he had seen Mission Vao come through the village sometime ago with her Wookie companion.

The group also helped a young man escape from a group of Rakghouls chasing him. It was a tough fight with at one point Vintar being hit for nearly 14 damage in one hit from a rather impressive minion group. Koras again jumping into the fray to save his padawan friend. Koras channelled the force to help protect himself from the Rakghoul infection (Enhance: Resilience- GRRRRRR!!!!) Everybody was lucky to not be infected.

This is where we left it..........see you all next time. Merry Christmas.

L+oving this! do you have any of it left written out? I want to run a game like this with my friends!