So my friends tricked me into running an Edge of Empire game for them. (Double crap!) The published missions look excellent, so those are in the queue. HOWEVER, this idea came to me and I'd like to do it. It just has some problems, so feel free to lay on the constructive criticism thick. I'm not 100% married to any of these ideas.

At the mission's commencement, all the PCs are arriving at the starting point for an illicit space race/treasure hunt. Some short time ago, they saw a pirate holonet broadcast by the legendary Smuggler King, Sejad Qadir Khan. After refuting rumours of his untimely demise and adding some support to the one rumour of that castle full of treasure, he announces that he is retiring for good this time, and that he has a legacy to pass on. Therefore, smugglers and adventurers of all types are urged to test their skills in a grueling and dangerous race across a vast section of the galaxy in order to deliver a small high-value load to the finish point and claim the ultimate prize. (Not specifically mentioned.) In the end, it turns out that the whole thing was just a promotion stunt for the Khan's newly-constructed resort/casino. However, some of the biggest names in the biz are there, and anyone who manages to finish the race has just accrued some serious cred. The reward is a treasure of a sort, but not the treasure anyone expected in the first place.

One thing I'd like to do with this is split my players up into groups of two. (Singles would also be allowed, with a Rival-level supporting NPC as needed- a supporting NPC which can be used by me in plot points further down the road.) The reason for this would be to cause a bit of PC-on-PC competition for a short time and provide an opportunity for some on-the-fly creation of shared history between the players. They're quite experienced with RPGs and unlikely to undermine the game- I trust them without question. However, this creates some minor problems with character generation. I'm on the fence about this and am still considering whether or not I should just stick them all together on one ship and be done with it. (I expect about 6 players.)

The last thing is encounters along the way. In addition to navigation/piloting challenges, there's a number of other things planned in order to give everyone a chance to shine: Imperial/Hutt Cartel checkpoints, pirate attacks, a couple of clue-finding events, sabotage efforts and ambushes by other racers, and some limited out-of-ship scenes. Like that lovably crappy movie that inspired this whole thing, enough of the racers will be in the same place at roughly the same time in order to facilitate wacky hi-jinks. Still in the process of writing up a bunch of competent-but-wacky and cool-but-dangerous NPCs which I'd be happy to list for anyone interested in hearing about them. A lesser goal of doing this is to make recurring characters of any of the NPCs that the players happen to like. We play a lot of Shadowrun, so we are all about the Contacts and Enemies.

So there you have it. Thanks for reading all that nonsense; feel free to layer on the criticism and ideas. I just want to make a fun pulp space adventure with a variety of challenges.

I am always reluctant to split the party long term. The main problem is player downtime. What are the other groups gonna do while you are narrating for one group?

Now the story idea seems solid and if you can handle that then go for it! If not then one ship could easily work. However I have another idea for you.....

If you can get this down to a short introduction or can do a long price with each player during or post Character generation, then this would be a cool way to get the characters together.

Yeah, splitting up the group can cause the whole session to derail. If you do groups of two, that means 4 people are sitting their twiddling their thumbs, which is not fun for an extended amount of time.

I think you need to figure out a way to put them all together. A group of random Outer Rimmer's thrown together who dont initially like or even hate each other but have to work together to succeed. It can facilitate great RPGing by your players.

Also, I've been GMing this system for about a year and a half now and it can be daunting and your PCs will do crazy stuff. Let it happen as best you can and you and your group will have so much fun with the random stuff that can happen. Good luck.

Just don't do it. Rewrite so that you the group is together and their "rivals" are going against them for the treasure. You will be amazingly glad you did it this way as even the best of players recoils when 5/6 of the session has nothing to do with them.

Maybe just add a little bit of a solo race into the first session.

The cargo to be delivered could already be waiting in ship's, which require a crew of 6, and once 6 contestants reach a ship they form a crew and go onto the next step of the race.

I'm thinking a bloody race across the city to the starport with only enough ship's for half the contestants, the party can either team up on the way or just meet up at the last ship.

Maybe just add a little bit of a solo race into the first session.

The cargo to be delivered could already be waiting in ship's, which require a crew of 6, and once 6 contestants reach a ship they form a crew and go onto the next step of the race.

I'm thinking a bloody race across the city to the starport with only enough ship's for half the contestants, the party can either team up on the way or just meet up at the last ship.

This.

Maybe set it up that the PC's know each other, but go into the competition planning to compete individually. Then towards the end of the first leg, they find that they need to form teams for the second leg, and they have to scramble to find a team they can trust. Since they already know each other, it would make sense to work together (plus maybe an NPC if they need a hole filled in the party).

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Galaxy

For the second part of the race you can use the modular encounter "The Corellian Shuffle" in Suns of Fortune. It fits the theme of your campaign perfectly and IMO works well for a "selection" for the competing teams

.....Actually.... I think you can do this....

OK, so this is gonna be a little tricky, but if you pull it off, it'll be amazballz.

Get "Jewel of Yavin". There's a race featured in that that applies a mechanic that uses a combo of piloting, speed, and other results to generate a winner from a race based around only 7 turns (too much for this, but work with me here). The thing is, it allows you to run not just a race, but a close race. So the players can all be competing with each other, but you can still have them all arrive at a location at "about the same time" and enable a more cooperative encounter at certain points. As an added bonus the system also allows you to have player action help their standing in the race (more on this later!)

So the Race Kahn sets up isn't a simple race, but more like a kind of "Spacer's Competition" that's loosely based on smuggling concepts and features of his resort. (To add some smarmyness have the holo show Kahn sitting on a beach or something, again we'll come back to this.)

The way the race runs, you don't have an actual map, what you get is at each leg you pass a nav bouy and that beams the location of the next few buoys to your nav computer. Also every 2 or 3 buoys there's a smuggler themed event of some kind.

So like you go to the Start bouy and everyone stands by, when it turns green, it beams you the coordinates of 2 or 3 more bouys that you have to follow in order. Between each buoy you do piloting checks, some with environmental effects, some without, just like you would in JoY, just with narrative tweaks to make it more space and less bespin. At the end of each Buoy sequence there's a place to do something. When you complete that, the next bouy leg is unlocked and off you go. Rinse repeat say 3 or 4 times and you've ended the race.

So something like you start, go through the first three buoys, and arrive at a small space platform. There you pick up some "cargo" in a little event of some kind. Next leg, you navigate some more problem areas and link up with a freighter where it loads you up with some "contraband" (good one here is the ship is in motion and you have to pick up the cargo via EVA and power harpoons sliding the crates along a cable). Next leg, have these buoys be about blowing past customs, so the player have to dodge a "customs corvette" fly nap f the earth on a planet to "avoid sensors" and so on. Final point the players unload the "contraband" via dropping it out the hatch while on the fly trying to hit a lake or something, and then touchdown at a landing field and unload the "legit cargo" but "the law" shows up and you have to blast your way out. Once airborne you're given a microjump coordinate to the next planet in the system and make one last buoy run before arriving at the finish line (which also happens to be the resort, and the beach Kahn was sitting on, convienient!). Winners get some cash and cred, losers get refueled and two free nights in a midrange suite .

Now mechanically...

The JoY race mechanic works by having you roll difficult terrain checks between buoys modified by the situation at each. At the end of each buoy you write down the speed the player was going. You also use various Threat/Advantage effects to the piloting checks applying a numerical value to each, positive for good, negative for bad and write these results down too. As you're flying use the Speeds of each ship to delineate rough positioning at those specific snapshots in time should the players want to interact. Always narrate the race as being fairly close though, with the various results and effects including the ships moving up and falling back as needed to make it all match. When you get to the end of the race, you add up all the speeds and roll result numbers. The highest number wins, and you narrate the final finish as that ship winning.

Now... at each leg you have that special event. Here you can also use that whole Threat/Advantage thing to apply an additional modifier or two to the final score. So a Triumph while picking up the crago might also be a +3 on the final tally, illustrating an especially speedy loading.

The thing to reiterate though is to ALWAYS describe the race as if it's near neck and neck with ships constantly moving forward and back in position. Not only does this help jive the final conclusion, but also you can use this closeness to cover the events and allow all the ships to land at each special event point at roughly the same time.

This allows you to break up the race and party up the players as you go by allowing the race to accommodate teaming on the fly. So you can do something like sabotage Player A at location 1 and give him the opportunity to link up with Player B and his ship. Allow each event to include a bonus prize of it's own, so if Player A and B both load their cargo onto the same ship they are both in the running for the 500 credit cargo loading prize, even if Player A's ship is no longer in the race.

If you want to have fun with it all, have the entire event turn out to be technically legit, with Kahn being dead as a doornail, but the resort using his likeness as part of the theme (Pirate/Smuggler hideout... that also happens to be on a nice sunny beach.... it actually is a legit method, though usually at the real smuggler hideouts there's no room service and it's BYOEverything)

Also.......I was trying to come up with a smuggler street cred adventure for my AoR game.... This will now happen. Thank you.

You beautiful crazies. That's all good, solid advice- thanks a lot for your help. Hope you don't mind if I pick and choose a bit. (It also occurs to me that I should ask complicated questions when I'm better-rested, because some of the stuff I wrote looks misleading. My fault- the whole race story-line is supposed to take about one game session.)

So here's my outline:

-During character creation, I'll try and get an idea of how much competition people are interested in having, and try and push them in the direction of three teams of two or two of three. As far as ships go, one person's asked for a cheap ship, and another has asked for a Sorosubb luxury yacht that's in a state of partial disrepair. Could easily balance this out by a hit to the ship's stats, or by asking the player to take an associated obligation. (He would likely do this.) If they end up together, they're on his ship.

-In the opening scene, everyone arrives at the meet. They have time to socialise with each other and the NPCs, and to size up the competition and start planning how to undermine or overcome them.

-The race begins, and each team receives their cargo: A small, heavy brief-case that they are to bring two three checkpoints- two along the way and one at the end. They are advised not to let it fall into the authorities' hands; as well as to never open it on grounds of immediate disqualification. (It's just a sensor/transmitter package. Without proper care, it'll set off certain security alarms.) This scene gives everyone a chance to show off in front of everyone a bit as they peel out. From there, we progress to the challenges:

-The two check-in points in TBD smuggler hideaways. (One on a station and the other on the surface of a planet)

-The various interim piloting / astrogation challenges. Botching too many of these stacks complications rather than taking teams out of the action scenes.

-The Empire pulls everyone out of hyperspace with an interdictor at some point and they'll need to talk or fight their way out of that one.

-One of the contestants (unknown even to their partner) coordinates with pirates to set up an ambush.

-Some "fun" getting through Hutt space.

-At one of the checkpoints, everyone runs afoul of some Rebels who think they've just been jumped by bounty hunters on the Imperial account.

-Whatever kind of other stuff people decide to do.

-Last, the end scene. Some more time to socialise and look at the Big Jobs that are available.

So that's it. Will certainly check out "Corellian Shuffle" and take a closer look at the race scene in "Jewel of Yavin." As it's planned now, all the players should be together in every scene (albeit in different ships) unless something REALLY bad happens to someone and sets them back.

Honourable mention to Ghostofman: Wow. I'm still trying to decompress all of that. So... how can you see inside my brain? Heh. Anyway, let's compare notes.