Greetings all. I'm a very new GM who's in the process of making his first ever RP campaign (first RP game as well, besides the beginner game). I have an overall skeleton of the story I'm working on but I'm seeking help with a specific item of value. The object itself is some kind of ancient doohickey that the Big Baddie wants to unlock/use/own/etc, however I have no idea what it does or what it is used for at this point in time. I personally would like to keep it semi-canon, but I'm up for simply making a thing work. One of my first thoughts was, as this is a combat focused campaign, it's some kind of key or map to a hidden ancient droid army or a super-weapon of some kind (like a lost battleship). Other ideas are greatly welcomed, though I'm keeping this a non-force campaign.

Some extra info on various elements within the story that may help:

- Main Big Baddie is a 'Jedi' Pirate lord (or maybe not a pirate lord, however he does control a group of pirates)[not actually a Jedi, uses a lightsaber as a fear weapon]

- PCs make friends with a veteran Merc, his pet R2 unit and another NPC who's secretly an Imp Agent

- When they search for info on the item in question, they seek an info broker who works for a local hutt who wants it for himself

- General plan is to have a big final fight scene between PCs & a faction of NPCs vs the Big Baddie & his minions

Any other tips in relation to making a campaign or running one are also appreciated.

Like a slightly smaller Malevolence Separatist warship as seen in the 1st season of the Clone Wars animated series?

Greetings all. I'm a very new GM who's in the process of making his first ever RP campaign (first RP game as well, besides the beginner game). I have an overall skeleton of the story I'm working on but I'm seeking help with a specific item of value. The object itself is some kind of ancient doohickey that the Big Baddie wants to unlock/use/own/etc, however I have no idea what it does or what it is used for at this point in time. I personally would like to keep it semi-canon, but I'm up for simply making a thing work. One of my first thoughts was, as this is a combat focused campaign, it's some kind of key or map to a hidden ancient droid army or a super-weapon of some kind (like a lost battleship). Other ideas are greatly welcomed, though I'm keeping this a non-force campaign.

Some extra info on various elements within the story that may help:

- Main Big Baddie is a 'Jedi' Pirate lord (or maybe not a pirate lord, however he does control a group of pirates)[not actually a Jedi, uses a lightsaber as a fear weapon]

- PCs make friends with a veteran Merc, his pet R2 unit and another NPC who's secretly an Imp Agent

- When they search for info on the item in question, they seek an info broker who works for a local hutt who wants it for himself

- General plan is to have a big final fight scene between PCs & a faction of NPCs vs the Big Baddie & his minions

Any other tips in relation to making a campaign or running one are also appreciated.

Pirate you say? Well, what do pirates love? TREASURE! I just happened to finish reading the old Han Solo book Han Solo and the Lost Legacy and it gave me some great ideas. Specifically, finding a lost treasure ship of the ancient Xim the Despot.

I second treasure, actually.

The item could be an ancient remote, and I mean ancient, that has hyperspace coordinates and a map. It belonged to hutt from way, way, back to right after the supernova that ruined their hyperspace lane and weakened their empire in relation to the Republic.

The coordinates lead around a previously unknown route to the old treasure palace of a Hutt from that time.

Maybe do some research on Nym's Starmap, The Rakata Infinite Empire and some of their long lost tech, or (the fan favorite and sort of cliche at this point) Sith/ Jedi Holocron of Infinite Wisdom (or w/e).

A holocron might be a good choice, they are fairly common in the EU and have featured in both the clone wars and rebels animated shows.

It's a holographic data cube that can only be accessed by someone who can control the force, the map to the real treasure may be stored inside one.

The Jedi were generals during the clone wars and it would make sense that they stored military secrets in these devices.

Greetings all. I'm a very new GM who's in the process of making his first ever RP campaign (first RP game as well, besides the beginner game). I have an overall skeleton of the story I'm working on but I'm seeking help with a specific item of value. The object itself is some kind of ancient doohickey that the Big Baddie wants to unlock/use/own/etc, however I have no idea what it does or what it is used for at this point in time. I personally would like to keep it semi-canon, but I'm up for simply making a thing work. One of my first thoughts was, as this is a combat focused campaign, it's some kind of key or map to a hidden ancient droid army or a super-weapon of some kind (like a lost battleship). Other ideas are greatly welcomed, though I'm keeping this a non-force campaign.

Some extra info on various elements within the story that may help:

- Main Big Baddie is a 'Jedi' Pirate lord (or maybe not a pirate lord, however he does control a group of pirates)[not actually a Jedi, uses a lightsaber as a fear weapon]

- PCs make friends with a veteran Merc, his pet R2 unit and another NPC who's secretly an Imp Agent

- When they search for info on the item in question, they seek an info broker who works for a local hutt who wants it for himself

- General plan is to have a big final fight scene between PCs & a faction of NPCs vs the Big Baddie & his minions

Any other tips in relation to making a campaign or running one are also appreciated.

Pirate you say? Well, what do pirates love? TREASURE! I just happened to finish reading the old Han Solo book Han Solo and the Lost Legacy and it gave me some great ideas. Specifically, finding a lost treasure ship of the ancient Xim the Despot.

The best part about this and this is a SPOILER for the 36 year old Han Solo and the Lost Legacy :

.

.

.

.

.

.

The treasure is worthless! It's a 25,000 year old treasure ship filled with "precious" metals. Well, in the ensuing 25,000 years, the galaxy found those metals to be not so precious anymore, just common metal. It's genius.

I pulled the same sort of switcheroo on my PCs. Had them discover Queen Rana's vault on Duro. Rumored to contain a massive collection of Rakatan artifacts. When they opened the vault, just dusty, rusted, broken, "worthless" artifacts. Nothing useable. Nothing recognizable. The payoff came from shopping the archaeological dig rights to the universities around the galaxy.

I'm a GM living overseas and don't currently have a group. To keep my head in the game, I occasionally do GMnastics. This has proven to be a lot of a fun, and I particularly enjoyed working out this Campaign.

Anyway, I was bored at work and here's what I wrote up today. I call it "The Super Legit and Totally Worth It Treasure".

https://app.box.com/s/f9hkt2bhuaxhbknpdtprmb9ytnblsl5w

Hope you enjoy it, and thanks for the opportunity to develop the idea.

Greetings all. I'm a very new GM who's in the process of making his first ever RP campaign (first RP game as well, besides the beginner game). I have an overall skeleton of the story I'm working on but I'm seeking help with a specific item of value. The object itself is some kind of ancient doohickey that the Big Baddie wants to unlock/use/own/etc, however I have no idea what it does or what it is used for at this point in time. I personally would like to keep it semi-canon, but I'm up for simply making a thing work. One of my first thoughts was, as this is a combat focused campaign, it's some kind of key or map to a hidden ancient droid army or a super-weapon of some kind (like a lost battleship). Other ideas are greatly welcomed, though I'm keeping this a non-force campaign.

Some extra info on various elements within the story that may help:

- Main Big Baddie is a 'Jedi' Pirate lord (or maybe not a pirate lord, however he does control a group of pirates)[not actually a Jedi, uses a lightsaber as a fear weapon]

- PCs make friends with a veteran Merc, his pet R2 unit and another NPC who's secretly an Imp Agent

- When they search for info on the item in question, they seek an info broker who works for a local hutt who wants it for himself

- General plan is to have a big final fight scene between PCs & a faction of NPCs vs the Big Baddie & his minions

Any other tips in relation to making a campaign or running one are also appreciated.

Pirate you say? Well, what do pirates love? TREASURE! I just happened to finish reading the old Han Solo book Han Solo and the Lost Legacy and it gave me some great ideas. Specifically, finding a lost treasure ship of the ancient Xim the Despot.

The best part about this and this is a SPOILER for the 36 year old Han Solo and the Lost Legacy :

.

.

.

.

.

.

The treasure is worthless! It's a 25,000 year old treasure ship filled with "precious" metals. Well, in the ensuing 25,000 years, the galaxy found those metals to be not so precious anymore, just common metal. It's genius.

I pulled the same sort of switcheroo on my PCs. Had them discover Queen Rana's vault on Duro. Rumored to contain a massive collection of Rakatan artifacts. When they opened the vault, just dusty, rusted, broken, "worthless" artifacts. Nothing useable. Nothing recognizable. The payoff came from shopping the archaeological dig rights to the universities around the galaxy.

This is exactly how I felt doing Nym's Starmap quest in SWG the first time...

This is something I have rolling around in my head that may or may not ever become a campaign story:

First, a little history. Still canon or not, it's in the wookieepedia. The Pius Dea Crusades happened 11-12,000 years before the battle of Yavin. Essentially, a xenophobic faction of humans managed to wrangle their way into Republic politics, even putting one of their own in the Supreme Chancellor's seat. These fanatics molded their hatred into religion and began a series of crusades against other species. They used huge "cathedral ships" as battleships and they were the ones responsible for all the "Ord" planets, like Ord Mantell. (They were Ordnance/Regional Depots, bases of operation and resupply, as the cathedral ships went further and further from the core during the crusades.) The Pius Dea also caused a schism in the Jedi order, and a bunch of splitters joined the crusades, calling themselves the Order of the Terrible Glare. Eventually, a bunch of folks within the Pius Dea turned on their own religion in a movement called the Renunciation. This started a civil war within the religion. The clever Renunciates had BoSS (that's how old that bureau is) sneakily reprogram all the cathedral ship hyperdrives. The ships went into hyperspace to disappear forever. Without their battleships and their forces, the Renunciates won. (All really fascinating for me!)

For my campaign idea, I'd like one of these cathedral ships to come back. I'm not entirely sure yet if the Big Baddie in my story will be someone who wants to use the ancient battleship to their own ends, or if the Big Baddie is perhaps the head cardinal/bishop who was on the cathedral ship (and is somehow still alive after 11,000 years), or possibly one of the Terrible Glare Jedis. I have different ideas and approaches for all this swirling around.

However, as it lends toward your story, Charter, you mentioned the possibility of the doohickey/coveted thing being a lost battleship. Several factions would certainly be after it. It could be that your pirate lord found the ship floating in space where it reappeared or maybe buried under the sands of a remote and unamed O/RD world that slipped by unnoticed after the Renunciation. The ship has nothing but dead guys on it, and it's where the pirate lord got his lightsaber (from the remains of a Terrible Glarer). The secret Imp agent in your story could actually be a BoSS agent who knows about the return of the ship and wants to follow up on the 11,000 year old trap his ancestors pulled. The big, final fight scene could take place on the ship as the PCs are trying to take control of it from the pirate lord, or from the Hutts, or from the Imperials...

Thanks for all the ideas! This thread itself has become a 'treasure trove' of ideas...

Bad jokes aside, I now have more than enough to work with to finish this campaign and even more ideas for future ones. Much appreciated guys & gals!

If I recall correctly the Katana fleet are still up for grabs if following the new EU; 1000 battle ships, even from a older era could be salvaged by a priate lord to make 100 almost entirely automated ships, boosting one's reputation to legendary status overnight! Or can be sold off piece meat for immense value.

Otherwise theres ton's of ideas already!

This is something I have rolling around in my head that may or may not ever become a campaign story:

First, a little history. Still canon or not, it's in the wookieepedia. The Pius Dea Crusades happened 11-12,000 years before the battle of Yavin. Essentially, a xenophobic faction of humans managed to wrangle their way into Republic politics, even putting one of their own in the Supreme Chancellor's seat. These fanatics molded their hatred into religion and began a series of crusades against other species. They used huge "cathedral ships" as battleships and they were the ones responsible for all the "Ord" planets, like Ord Mantell. (They were Ordnance/Regional Depots, bases of operation and resupply, as the cathedral ships went further and further from the core during the crusades.) The Pius Dea also caused a schism in the Jedi order, and a bunch of splitters joined the crusades, calling themselves the Order of the Terrible Glare. Eventually, a bunch of folks within the Pius Dea turned on their own religion in a movement called the Renunciation. This started a civil war within the religion. The clever Renunciates had BoSS (that's how old that bureau is) sneakily reprogram all the cathedral ship hyperdrives. The ships went into hyperspace to disappear forever. Without their battleships and their forces, the Renunciates won. (All really fascinating for me!)

For my campaign idea, I'd like one of these cathedral ships to come back. I'm not entirely sure yet if the Big Baddie in my story will be someone who wants to use the ancient battleship to their own ends, or if the Big Baddie is perhaps the head cardinal/bishop who was on the cathedral ship (and is somehow still alive after 11,000 years), or possibly one of the Terrible Glare Jedis. I have different ideas and approaches for all this swirling around.

However, as it lends toward your story, Charter, you mentioned the possibility of the doohickey/coveted thing being a lost battleship. Several factions would certainly be after it. It could be that your pirate lord found the ship floating in space where it reappeared or maybe buried under the sands of a remote and unamed O/RD world that slipped by unnoticed after the Renunciation. The ship has nothing but dead guys on it, and it's where the pirate lord got his lightsaber (from the remains of a Terrible Glarer). The secret Imp agent in your story could actually be a BoSS agent who knows about the return of the ship and wants to follow up on the 11,000 year old trap his ancestors pulled. The big, final fight scene could take place on the ship as the PCs are trying to take control of it from the pirate lord, or from the Hutts, or from the Imperials...

This is awesome. I may be using this in the future.

I ran a series of Edge adventures where the PCs retrieved really, really ancient Rakatan artifacts. These included a Rakatan mapping crystal (the precursor to Jedi holocron technology), the Wakazashi Atlas (originally discovered by the Sith during the Great Hyperspace War and taken to Empress Teta) which is designed to hold the crystal, and the Chu-Gon Dar Cube, a key created by the Celesitals that works with the mapping crystal and atlas. They also searched for the Gauntlet of Kressh the Younger, an ancient Sith lord.

Edit: typo.

They also searched for the Gauntlet of Kressh the Younger, an ancient Sith lord.

Do not! I repeat: Do not give it to them!

They also searched for the Gauntlet of Kressh the Younger, an ancient Sith lord.

Do not! I repeat: Do not give it to them!

Too late. They got it. But they handed it over to their Matukai patron who promptly destroyed it.

In our upcoming campaign, such a McGuffin is how I'm going to explain the continued presence of my wife's character. She's a con artist (think Saffron from Firefly) who narrowly escaped with what's supposed to be something to lead her to a great, mythical treasure of some kind. Turns out to just be the first piece of a puzzle to it, so she's sticking with the crew to help her hunt it down (and be cannon fodder, as far as she cares) and extra muscle for when she gets to the endpoint (which will probably be a worthless haul). All for a "fair cut," of course...

They also searched for the Gauntlet of Kressh the Younger, an ancient Sith lord.

Do not! I repeat: Do not give it to them!

Too late. They got it. But they handed it over to their Matukai patron who promptly destroyed it.

Good, the last thing a GM needs is invincible PCs.

Hello again, I'm back wanting some more help as I've hit a bit of a block. Below are a couple of things I need help with. Note, all ideas I currently have are subject to change, particularly if a better idea crops up here.

McGuffin

Quick update for the McGuffin: The McGuffin is now in 3 parts, first part is retrievable by the PCs in the Prologue, second part is retrieved from Bandin Dobah in the 'Trouble Brewing' adventure in the Edge of the Empire rulebook and I have yet to determine where the third one is.

I am considering 2 options for the third part of the McGuffin; first being in the hands of our Jedi Pirate friend, who by this time should be familiar with the PCs and vis-versa. Only problem I have here is that he's got a particularly nasty sized fleet and various dangerous connections. While an infiltration mission could work here, I have a pretty good feeling one of my players will end up just charging in through the front door. The advantage with this is that it places the Jedi Pirate directly on the PCs tail, hopefully bringing in tension as they attempt to flee to the location of the treasure while being chased by a very angry pirate.

Second option being that it's located on some planet/station/asteroid/etc in the Outer Rim. PCs arrive there first, deal with local resistance then get chased by the Jedi Pirate's crew. I'm drawing a blank as to what is special or hidden about this place, if used.

The Legend of 'the Ancient Pirate lord/Treasure'

Plan is to have PCs get to the treasure location and the Jedi Pirate's fleet jumping into the system after them (either immediately or after a certain amount of time). Then, to save the PCs, either the Ancient Pirate lord had a couple of devises or ships that could aid the PCs in some way or have an Imperial fleet 'rescue' our heros from the pirates. Either way, the Imps will be coming in full force to display dominance and perceived importance of the prize.

In order to get a better idea on how to create this grand finale, I need an idea of how the legend of this Ancient Pirate lord or his/her treasure was important or impactful on the galaxy. Was he a pirate or stole billions of credits worth of hardware or items from both the Republic or CIS forces? Was he a pirate that was known for stealing untold numbers of ships during the Old Republic era? Or was he a pirate with a gimmick? For example, was he a revolutionary droid who worked alongside organic beings with similar distaste for law-enforcement? Was it a pirate lord who trusted no-one but droids? Is he a genocidal pirate, murdering a specific race or faction at any given opportunity? Or is he related to our Jedi Pirate? Maybe he was a force user? Ultimately, what I want is what are the legends that are told of him and what is the reality? What has he/she/it left behind to protect it's treasure, why didn't the pirate spend his treasure, etc.

The various ideas one could come up with has actually overwhelmed me, I can't seem to figure it out what idea to stick with.

Thank you for reading and thank you again for any help you provide.

Alright, here's my most recent Wild and Crazy Idea:

I'm going to work backwards on this one. The Pirate lord who owns the treasure and is supposedly dead is a droid. However, he is not dead! He was shipwrecked on a deserted moon and has been stranded for how ever many years fits your story. He has of course gone completely mad (think Castaway, but make it last 50 years). He has sent several "messages in a bottle" (ie clues) to his whereabouts in hopes of rescue. This has given PCs and the Jedi Pirate Lord the clues to his location.

Your 3rd piece of the puzzle is what I call IG-88's Last Holdout (you don't have to use IG 88 if you don't want to bring such a famous character in). This is a space station where all free droids gather to live in peace and harmony, away from their masters. Obviously they are not welcoming to non-droids. Somewhere on the station lies the last clue to the Droid Pirate's last known location. Rumor has it that no one who's ever visited this system has returned alive.

As for the treasure, I would tailor it to what your players want. Are they after riches? A badass ship? The deed to a farm? Let their motivations, obligations, and desires determine the loot.

I am considering 2 options for the third part of the McGuffin; first being in the hands of our Jedi Pirate friend, who by this time should be familiar with the PCs and vis-versa. Only problem I have here is that he's got a particularly nasty sized fleet and various dangerous connections. While an infiltration mission could work here, I have a pretty good feeling one of my players will end up just charging in through the front door. The advantage with this is that it places the Jedi Pirate directly on the PCs tail, hopefully bringing in tension as they attempt to flee to the location of the treasure while being chased by a very angry pirate.

Go with your first instinct. If you think the pirate fleet is the way to go, do that. If you're worried about a player going in guns a'blazing, you can always preface the encounter with your role as omniscient GM narrator by heavily hinting that that would be a bad idea. But you should be ready for them to do it anyway and have an escape option for them for when it all goes t*ts up.

Plan is to have PCs get to the treasure location and the Jedi Pirate's fleet jumping into the system after them (either immediately or after a certain amount of time). Then, to save the PCs, either the Ancient Pirate lord had a couple of devises or ships that could aid the PCs in some way or have an Imperial fleet 'rescue' our heros from the pirates. Either way, the Imps will be coming in full force to display dominance and perceived importance of the prize.

I don't know about this. I get what you're trying to do buuuuut... As a player, I'd rather escape from a scenario with my wits rather than being reliant upon an agency-removing Deus Ex Machina to rescue me. You could keep the pirate/Imperial fleet in your pocket in case something goes wrong for the players.

In order to get a better idea on how to create this grand finale, I need an idea of how the legend of this Ancient Pirate lord or his/her treasure was important or impactful on the galaxy. Was he a pirate or stole billions of credits worth of hardware or items from both the Republic or CIS forces? Was he a pirate that was known for stealing untold numbers of ships during the Old Republic era? Or was he a pirate with a gimmick? For example, was he a revolutionary droid who worked alongside organic beings with similar distaste for law-enforcement? Was it a pirate lord who trusted no-one but droids? Is he a genocidal pirate, murdering a specific race or faction at any given opportunity? Or is he related to our Jedi Pirate? Maybe he was a force user? Ultimately, what I want is what are the legends that are told of him and what is the reality? What has he/she/it left behind to protect it's treasure, why didn't the pirate spend his treasure, etc.

If you can answer how a pirate acquired a Jedi's lightsaber, you've answered most of your own questions. He's either a badass or, more interestingly, incredibly lucky. Perhaps he's a Force Sensitive with some sort of precognitive abilities that keep him ahead of the law and his rivals. Or perhaps his Destiny points always come up light side.

Pirates don't want to be pirates forever. It's too risky and too stressful. If he was a successful pirate, he would have cashed in his space-doubloons and hung up his space-pirate hat a long time ago. If he's been around since the Republic, something probably went wrong. Maybe he struck it rich, lost it all, and sees the PCs' activities as his last chance at wealth. Perhaps his crew is ready to mutiny or he's old and becoming infirm.

If I was writing this character, I would have the legend be of Jedi-killing cutthroat. The reality would be a bit more sad. He's running on borrowed money, perhaps from both Black Sun and the Hutts, and they're starting to send bounty hunters after him. He still has control over a ship or ships and a group of hyperspace highwaymen but there's no room for error and the bounty hunters are closing in.

I like the idea of the ancient pirate being a mad droid on his crashed ship of goodies, probably will work with something like that. I also like the idea the jedi pirate is running on borrowed money, hence why he wants the treasure.

I'll also take Concise Locket's advice and avoid the Deus Ex Machina scenario. Thanks for the help guys!