Hi gang

The short version: I'm planning a story for my (300 or so XP) group of Edge characters where two of them can finally find a planet where they can find crystals for lightsabers. I have the planet figured out, the part I've been stuck on for a week now is how to allow them to find a "lost" planet, which has been "lost" for a millennia, since the Jedi/Sith wars.

The planet (which is my creation and can be placed where ever is convenient to plot) has a backstory. It is linked closely to the force and used to have a Jedi temple, but fell to the Sith. They broke down the temple and sort of did their own thing there for a while. Bottom line, deep under the Sith ruins the PCs might find crystals.

I would very much prefer for the finding of the planet to be an adventure (or at least a large chapter) by itself. Any ideas?

For those interested in more background the rest is in the spoiler. Wouldn't want to drown you in a wall of text!

AFB, but Nexus of Power has a suggestion on how to find Ossus, also a lost planet.

Interesting. I am waiting for the mailman to get that book to me...

It may be too much of a change to your plot, but what if there is another group looking for the planet as well?

The players bump up against them (or works with) and they have the missing info.

Players have how to access the temple info or what not but group 2 has the coordinates of the planet itself.

Here I was thinking the reason it was lost is because all mention of its location was either lost or altered following it being ransacked and converted into a Sith Temple.

Now imagine locating it involved using some hyperspace coordinates that eventually lead to the

system.

Do you think your players would be interested in plumbing the depths of an asteroid belt aware they're being pursued by both the Empire and other forces either keen on keeping looters out or just keeping the spoils for themselves?

The mostly broken navicomputer from an old Republic worship that's floating through space as a wreck from a battle millenia ago.

When I did something similar, that was what I did. It also housed a Sith Lord who had put himself into a protective stasis and had been waiting some kind of rescue for over 4,000 years. Became a real threat when he woke up aboard a small freighter speaking a dialect of Basic the party only understood small parts of.

Here I was thinking the reason it was lost is because all mention of its location was either lost or altered following it being ransacked and converted into a Sith Temple.

Now imagine locating it involved using some hyperspace coordinates that eventually lead to the Alderaan system.

Hm. That might be an idea. Not to find the crystals there, but perhaps a clue on the way. I could probably dig up the old Graveyards of Alderaan and see if there is anything there I could borrow...

It may be too much of a change to your plot, but what if there is another group looking for the planet as well?

The players bump up against them (or works with) and they have the missing info.

Players have how to access the temple info or what not but group 2 has the coordinates of the planet itself.

That is an interesting point. They don't know it, but they have an Imperial spy on their small crew. So my idea was to have the Empire follow them in to add to the complications. I do see a potential for some sort of "forced" cooperation with an archaeologist and his crew with Imperial sponsorship...

That's a cool idea. Perhaps with the wonderful ideas here I'll make it an epic quest where the PCs need to piece together the information from multiple sources...

Unknown Regions, Wild Space...

Based on the Title: Yoda and a class of Jefi younglings

He he, was waiting for that...

Yeah, those “Je f i younglings” are key to the process.

So, apart from the whole Yoda and the younglings, any more ideas for finding the way to the lost planet?

You run the risk here of a self-imposed bottleneck. You want the characters to find the planet. You don't want to make it too easy, but you can't set it up to prevent them if they fail critical rolls. So you need several "clues", but ultimately may need to simply make the information available, either as they make progress in space-time, or make progress in information gathering. Beyond the Rim has a good example of this kind of star search, but you could approach it in several ways.

You could make it an Astrogation challenge. The astrogation records might be 2000 years old, but the stars don't change that much on the galactic scale. Maybe they can use the coordinates of Planet X to find a more well-known nearby planet (Planet Y), and find the current location of that (Average check). From Planet Y they can observe the nearby star patterns and try to backtrack their movements (Hard check, upgraded). Maybe they can gather local information, surely there's a local Association of Amateur Astrogators who have logs dating back a long time or have noticed local anomalies. Or maybe the local business bureau or academic history department has records of visits between Planet X and Y. Success or advantage here could add boosts to other rolls.

You could make it a slicer/infiltration challenge. BoSS would likely have all the records they need, because BoSS has records going back a couple dozen millennia. But getting into and hacking a BoSS facility is no small task. Treating it like a standard heist, including bribes, quiet assault, and technical infiltration, includes everyone in the party. Even if they "fail", they might get old data that is 100 years old instead of 2000.

You could make it a Force challenge. Anyone with Sense, Seek, or Foresee might be getting "visions". These might lead them to people on Planet Y who can help them get closer to Planet X.

You could include any or all of the above, depending how much of a quest you want to make it. Note that at no point does failure mean "no arrival". What it means is "complications". Space debris, pirates, Sith cults devoted to keeping the planet hidden, smugglers or business interests wanting a cut...these are just obstacles, "helpful hinderances" along the way.

I'd use a combo Astrogation check using old data, where the results don't determine. yes, they do find it, or no, they do not, but rather, yes they find it, but........they crash, gravity anomaly blows out their hyperdrive, someone also interested notices a hyperspace signature they've been waiting for, or they not only find that, but they discover a hereto unknown hyperspace lane leading to another lost location for next session, or they just happen to arrive at the same time an old Jedi in hiding is passing through, etc.

He he, was waiting for that...

So was I. If it hadn't already been said, I was prepared to say it.

It's going to be in the last place they look, obviously.

So many great suggestions, thanks so much for the help guys. With your assistance I've puzzled it together. Since you helped me greatly getting there (and made me chuckle with the Yoda and the younglings references) I owe you a quick rundown of how I plan to solve this.

Warning: Wall of text

First of all I'm planning to have their Holocron lead them to Ilum. I'm using a slightly alternate Star Wars universe where Luke and the rest are no longer alive. The Empire has found Ilum, and in the first years after the Clone Wars used it to trap several Jedi who survived the purge by changing it onto a trap. On Ilum I plan to introduce them to the second ever force-used baddie, an Inquisitor who's job it is to guard Ilum with his company of Snow Troopers. They have a nicely hidden base and a trap waiting in the crystal caves.

I hope my PCs have the good sense to run rather than confront this rather large force of Imperials, but they'll have to get out of the trap in the crystal caves first. I'm hoping for an epic chase to the starship, but players being unpredictable creatures I'll try to plan for several eventualities. Probably everything except the one thing they decide to do... At any rate, this Inquisitor will be given a chance to ratify the situation if the PCs escape, by hunting down the PCs. Hello big baddie...

After the PCs and the Holocron in their possession realize that Ilum is lost, and that probably means other "known" crystal sources are closed to them, they need an alternative. Here I have two options. Either I can let the Holocron guide them some more, or (hopefully) one of the two force-using gits in the party will have progressed enough down the Sense/Seek/Foresee trees to get hints via the Force. How ever it happens, their new target will be a planet known to be strongly connected to the force. It housed a small Jedi temple about 5000 years ago, but fell to the Sith a little under 4000 years ago in the Great War. If the holocron is needed to point them in the right direction it will have data on at least one Jedi Master of old who had a crystal from this planet, found under the temple.

Now the part where you lot helped me out. The need to find the planet. I'll set up at least two options for them to explore.

1) A "ghost ship".

This is an old Harrower-class Sith cruiser that led a task force that came from the lost planet to Korruban to try to relieve the defenders there during an invasion by the Republic in the Sith wars. The cruiser was nearly destroyed, but managed to jump into hyperspace. It was presumed lost, but then resurfaced in a certain location every 20 or so years, dropping out of hyperspace for a short while before jumping back. The navigational computer on board this ship would have the route to the planet.

In fact it also houses a powerful Sith Lord, who had a stasis chamber altered to hold himself and several of his most trusted servants once he realized the ship was too damaged to keep life support active for much longer. The ship's computer malfunctioned and did not wake the sleeping Sith even after the sizable droid workforce on the ship had repaired it somewhat and cleaned out the dead crewmen.

The PCs have to find the ship, board it and deal with crazy droids and possibly a weakened 4000 year old Sith Lord and his buddies. Fortunately for them he will be most interested in escape, but if they let him they'll have unleashed a terror into the world they might have to deal with later.

2) The Ancients

The planet used to be inhabited by a peaceful race with a fairly advanced, but peaceful, civilization. As the Sith invaded they started to exterminate the useless inhabitants. Some fled to a remote planet, where they cut off contact with the galaxy. Over the nearly 4000 years they have regressed to a stone-age hunter-gatherer culture, shunning technology completely.

The PCs can try to find ancient documents detailing the location of the planet with some accuracy. The city built by the settlers when they arrived has been empty for thousands of years. Unfortunately for the PCs they will find that a private archaeological excavation has beaten them to it. The information they need can be found in two places. Parts of it are in a museum, but in an ancient text (yes, a book, how novel) and another part in the collection of a very wealthy man from some rather secure core world. Cue social hacking and/or a heist.

There will be another way the PCs can get the information directly from the people. The might have regressed, but they still have detailed origin stories of how the Ancients traveled among the stars to find their home. If the PCs try to gain their trust they might find out just how accurate the stories are. It will be a hard astrogation challenge to piece together the route, but it can be done.

3) The Force

I am inclined to use this as a last resort, but if the force-users in the party are at this stage fairly deep in the sense/seek/foresee trees they can try to "use the Force" to find the planet via visions and so on. That could get them fairly close, digging in records and some fairly difficult astrogation checks could get them to the planet. They would, in essence, probably not be able to fail, as per whafrogs good suggestions, but they could run into all kind of trouble the longer they wander about "using the force" to get there.