Hi all

in the forthcoming game session, my player will travel from Onderon to Dxun for a game hunt, and also install a radio repeater

apart from hunting big beasts (or being hunted by them), i'd like to put some special encounter on the Moon.

One of those "special encounter" could finding some ancient ruins of an ancient sith temple buried beneath the jungle.

That's nothing directly related to Freedon Nadd or some "big name" in ancient sith history, both because i'm not a huge fan of ancient legends' jedi/sith comics, and because the Jedi is not powerful enough to confront Nadd's ghost; however could be a good thing for a jedi-centric session, exploration of ancient myth and light/dark confrontation. And also a way to create some conflict ('cause in a AoR campaign there is not enough jedi situation to create real conflict...)

I was thinking about picking some inspiration from FaD beta adventure for that

Main problem is: this is an AoR campaign and i got only one Jedi in the party.

So the other ones (a sharpshooter, an infiltrator and a driver) probably will not be in the right place, there will be no real confrontation and/or motivation here. And i honestly don't whanna split the party 'cause splitting almost always drive one side to the boring side of the game...

so... some ideas?

oh and also: i don't whant a 3 session full adventure for sith exploration, just half a session of something different from standard "shoot the empire"...

Are you asking for ideas on what they could be doing while they are there? Or goals/rewards to give them that would make sense for them?

Well, some random stuff off the top of my head, since they are Rebellion.

Have part of the Sith ruins be computer systems. Let them explore the databanks, and find mention of some equipment/weapons that they might be able to acquire for the Rebellion. But they have to bypass some security systems, maybe drive/fly to another portion of the facility (giving the driver something to do), and maybe deal with some mundane security systems (sith battle droids for example). They can have their mundane adventure with a tangible reward that makes sense, while the other player is getting his Jedi on.

The sith temple isolates the Jedi through some trap doors and other features, making the rest of the party forced to try and get to him. Rerouting them to other parts of the temple, and other adventures/rewards, while the other player is getting his Jedi on.

A Rival/Nemesis force user is also trying to get whatever treasure is in the temple, and the other players have to hold off him and his army of swarm bots, while the other player gets his Jedi on.

Honestly...go watch the season finale of Star Wars Rebels, season 2. It's a great example of how you could engage a party in a sith temple with other objectives. Yeah, the only non force user in the group is Chopper, but it would still give some good ideas probably.

Nexus of Power has some good modular encounters that would fill out exploring a ruins. As for the motivation for the other party members - there's ancient tech, artifacts, and gear that will could fund the Rebellion for many months (not to mention the potential value to Skywalker if he's in the campaign). You could even have them get a message from their handler sending them there. After all, they don't know it's a Sith temple and not a Jedi temple, and if they report back as to the ancient structure, Skywalker (again if he's in your game's canon) could jump at the description of it.

Yes, Nexus of Power, totally forgot to add that in as I was typing my response.

As an aside, they are in luck, as the spirit of Freedan Nadd is not there; in those same stories, Exar Kun extinguishes his spirit, with his Sith Amulet, before even Meetra Suurik (the Exile, from KOTOR II: Sith Lords, canonically, gets there, after meeting Mandalore). So good news, there's no Force spirit to contend with. As for what could draw them there, it could depend on what sort of group they are, and what they know of the Force. if they don't have an active Mentor, preferably a failed Jedi, then some of their concepts of "the Force", and "the Dark Side", might be less, and the power of the site could call out to them. If they know little, and want to know more, say because the Empire is already after them, then they could certainly want to go there, and explore the site, maybe not understanding the peril their souls are in. There was once a strongish Force tradition on Onderon, the Beast Riders, so maybe they were there, looking for stuff, and heard the call to Dxun much more closely. If it is movies time frame, even the rulers of Onderon probably don't remember that the tomb is there; it's been ransacked, and abandoned, for 4,000 years, and these are the same peoples (most of the people in Star Wars, I mean) who forgot that the Jedi were ever real, after only 20 years. (Sorry to rant, but while on that topic, have you ever watched Demolition Man, and listened to the Taco Bell scene, where Dr. Cocteau talks about the "even worse" times, while Sly was frozen, but other people of a similar age, say the police chief, Earle, still act like it was all only an old story, to them, seemingly told to them by their parents? Yeah, sorry, I'm done now.)

Having played that level of KOTOR 2, there could be some good swag, and weird smoke that just ups your DS score by crossing in it, but skip that bit, and even if you assume other grave robbers have gotten all the easy loot, there are some computer systems, possibly with useful, old data, and they could find the one impossible lock, that always has a random, high-end lightsaber crystal (pick something else, if you don't want to be that cliche), possibly a Sith holocron (actually, more of the holocrons people find should be Sith, pyramid-shaped ones, as the Sith have much more time where they need to preserve their history, and the Jedi actually forgot how to make them, certainly never felt like they'd be wiped out, even though the Order has fallen about five times), or maybe even some of the weapons, and armor, that any of the warriors who died there, even millennia ago, maybe happened to leave. Left over Mandalorian crap might be on other parts of the moon, if you don't feel like only pandering to the Force-user players, or if they don't feel like just "being Jedi". Hopefully, though, even without the actual spirit of the fallen Sith Lord there, what they really come away with is an idea of how dangerous the Force, and their usage of it, can be, and how compelling it can feel to just "do what you want", regardless of the consequences; it's a site permeated with the Dark Side, and if they aren't pillars of order and justice, it should have some pull on them.

Okay, I babbled, and if none of that actually pans out to anything you wanted, sorry. It was probably my third favorite place in KOTOR II, since I wanted to maximize the time to Jedi-tize the other characters, so, since the only one you get there is Mandalore, and he CAN'T become a Jedi, due to Mandalorian stuff, this was usually my last visit, before the end. Some of it, too, is good to be over-leveled for. Due to this, I might not be giving the locale the care it deserves. It does contain some very interesting history, if your players are interested in it, and if you are less strict on what EU material counts, now. As a player, I might be able to leave the planet happy, if I got the remote-operated Sentinel droids, and could tune them up into some interesting NPCs, maybe have them guard the ship, in other places, if we survived. Droids can exist for ages, and be easily repaired, while, even after 4,000 years, more often tech was just forgotten, and later "rediscovered", making it not so hard to fix some old stuff.

Make it a sprawling ruins, not just a single building or cave complex. Put the temple at its center. Then, add that the dark energy of the site has attracted the local wildlife. It draws them in and changes them. Even the local "cow" now has red-tinged eyes and will attack you at first notice.

Since it's a sprawling ruin this allows your driver to get involved when the hordes of creatures attack. Something like a jeep scene out of a Jurassic Park movie. The sharpshooter has an obvious role. The infiltrator could be involved in a plan to sneak into the temple itself once the players realize it is the source of corrupting the local wildlife.

I am probably two sessions away from running the exact same plot, so thanks for all the suggestions guys. I was planning on having it play out like an Indiana Jones session, lots of climbing, avoiding pits and traps etc, dealing with beasts living in the ruins, all with a building sense of dread as they get closer to the centre and then a show down with a dark side user and her apprentice backed up by their pet monsters. A serious fear check should make it more difficult for them. I want the finale to be hard enough that the PCs have to consider running but also I want to give my force sensitive commando a chance to grab a lightsaber if they are successful.

Not sure how I will incorporate any Duty into the session. Maybe I won't and it will be one of those side sessions that doesn't really help the Rebellion much directly.

As Recruit illustrates, sometimes they're just glad to have qualified members, who know how to do stuff, and that takes XP, which the party will certainly gain. I know it's a lame answer, on my part, but it's true; the Rebellion is only as good, only as capable, as the people who conduct its activities.

Thanks for ideas

the problem is i can give the Jedi something to chase after, sith ghost vision, etc. and the dark/light conflict thing

however, the other in the party could get bored so i need to throw something them, like an encounter (the outdoor area is filled with old basilisk war droid so maybe some sort of lesser war droid, or a sith mutated beast, can keep them busy)

honestly i was thinking about making that a little dungeon crawling with a "creature in the dark" horror theme... wondering if throwing some fearsome adversary could be a good or bad idea :\

If feature downed ship, Sil 5, maybe even two of them. Remnants of an ancient battle, or perhaps marooned treasure hunters. They will have tech the Players might like...Mods for Vehicles, Gun, Armor and such; maybe a nearly burned out stealth suit or something the infiltrator will be gaga for. Of course the ship is now populated with weird critters hostile to the PC's invading their home. Maybe there is a broken but difficultly repairable lightsaber (only then will they discover it is red), maybe it's a Cortisis Vibro-Sword. The ships computer core is offline, but in good repair, but only activated only by a missing Holocron.

In the Temple complex, have something high up on a cavern roof only the sharpshooter could knock town with an expert shot. Sets of traps and security the Infiltrator can get past. You definitely want a chase scene with the driver racing the party away in an ancient speeder while the sharpshooter picks off the flying creatures pursuing the group before they can close, while the Jedi deflects their acidic spit, or something like it. Maybe the whole chase scene is on a boat on an underground river. This fits with your Indiana Jones Idea. You could have an Ewok equivalent culture, or maybe descendants of some of the crashed ships crews are now the primitive natives, and only the last of the Dark Side Adepts really understand the technology.

Later, after they defeat the Nemesis do they gain the Holocron. The Holocron spirit, whose skill sets match the kinds of things the other PC's might want or need to do, is of course Sith. Don't let any PC know he's Sith until they decide the Spirit of the device is really useful to have around. Maybe she's a Sith Armorer who can teach them about making amazing weapons...

Another option is to have a nice juicy wrecked starship, floating in orbit, just begging them to explore it. While the Jedi goes down to the surface on their own.

I've always enjoyed the idea of derelict cap ships floating in the middle of nowhere, just begging to be a dungeon crawl of their own.

Another option is to have a nice juicy wrecked starship, floating in orbit, just begging them to explore it. While the Jedi goes down to the surface on their own.

I've always enjoyed the idea of derelict cap ships floating in the middle of nowhere, just begging to be a dungeon crawl of their own.

I don't wish to down your idea, and in other locales, it it would work, but Dxun is the moon of an important, heavily populated world (Onderon). I'm not sure any ship, or similar object, could orbit it, and remain unseen by the people of the world, below. On the moon, things can be hidden, forgotten; the people of Onderon sometimes rightfully fear the terrain, and history, of their own satellite, and might avoid it, out of tradition, but a ship circling it would be investigated, and, if trouble, shot down/destroyed. Certainly could be a good adventure seed for an alternate locale, if they survive the twilight jungles, though. One of the original draws of 40k was Space Hulk, and done right, that could be fun, and/or terrifying, in Star Wars.

I was just tossing out a random idea in the theme of "stuff for other players to do at sith temple". If it doesn't fit that specific situation, then don't worry about it. Given how modular this system is, I find it easier to just throw out ideas, and let whatever sticks stick.

You could always have a beastie, modified by Sith Alchemy and mad after a thousand years of isolation be the sole resident of the Temple. Sith do tend to leave guardians for their treasures.

You could always have a beastie, modified by Sith Alchemy and mad after a thousand years of isolation be the sole resident of the Temple. Sith do tend to leave guardians for their treasures.

This is what i thought... a classic low-budget horror movie action, where the big beastie is out of screen most of time, and using scream, awful noises and flash appearence to cause fear and like

Ok

i found some info in the beta adventure Lost Knowledge about exploring a sith ruin and confronting a sith ghost

however a little problem with non Jedi: what can i give them in lieu of conflict points?

for failed Fear check, i can give them setback dice.

but in the end, if "Dark Side win the match" (it ends up with all dark side token), for Jedi it says they gain 8 conflict point... but what the ends for non Jedi? some critical injury-effect? a daunting suspect the Jedi could be a traitor? a weapon malfuncion next time they need it? nothing?

i found some info in the beta adventure Lost Knowledge about exploring a sith ruin and confronting a sith ghost

however a little problem with non Jedi: what can i give them in lieu of conflict points?

for failed Fear check, i can give them setback dice.

but in the end, if "Dark Side win the match" (it ends up with all dark side token), for Jedi it says they gain 8 conflict point... but what the ends for non Jedi? some critical injury-effect? a daunting suspect the Jedi could be a traitor? a weapon malfuncion next time they need it? nothing?

i'm trying to run with conflict for everyone. All living things are connected with the force, not all have natural talent to use the Force though. If your PC's stray too far down that path they can become quite evil bastards, with all the benefits and penalties that apply.

Ok

i found some info in the beta adventure Lost Knowledge about exploring a sith ruin and confronting a sith ghost

however a little problem with non Jedi: what can i give them in lieu of conflict points?

for failed Fear check, i can give them setback dice.

but in the end, if "Dark Side win the match" (it ends up with all dark side token), for Jedi it says they gain 8 conflict point... but what the ends for non Jedi? some critical injury-effect? a daunting suspect the Jedi could be a traitor? a weapon malfuncion next time they need it? nothing?

"Though you cannot feel the ebb and flow of the force like your fellow companions. Even you can feel the cold emptiness of the Dark Side's taint."

Next session remainder of this session, reduce your strain threshold by 2 for the remainder of the session

Have you ever felt depressed or anxious for no reason? That's kind of how I imagine the Dark Side taint feeling. It kind of sticks with you for a while.

I like kaosoe idea

however, they managed to fight the dark side ghostly presence and clean the temple (who suddenly started crumbling into ruins).

they did some fear test, but Jedi rolled a triumph on his first roll, so far skipping his future fear tests. And even inside a sith temple, i was unable to let him gain conflict points

but the exploration was a triumph (and i like to note here: huge success) so i can't be disappointed. Also, being a light side paragon is not such a big deal, and higher he rise, bigger will be the noise when he'll fall... <grin>