I have a game this evening. Second to last for the summer before two of my table return to school.

I want to do something different. They're all at 500xp over starting now, and I have to toy with:

Kel Dor ranged combat behemoth.

Mirialan melee monster.

Togruta social butterfly.

Chiss long range ghost.

I know they want to make a stop on a planet, and they're leaning toward Dantooine. I have an idea for an adventure to happen, but I'm hitting some stumbling blocks.

There is a colony they group encounters, and they find that the people are not friendly to outsiders and are trying to prevent them from leaving the docks, but, of course that dog won't hunt. Further into the town there is a commotion, and it's revealed that the town is sending their droids into exile.

I have no idea why.

Who has ideas?

The group tends to force conflict since that's what they excel at. I wouldn't mind, maybe, a mystery. Or a socially centered adventure.

Some extra information.

They're leaning toward Dantooine because one of them wants a lightsaber crystal, and they have had a tip that there might be some on that planet.

I don't think either the colonists or the droids should be completely right in this matter.

Given Dantooine's connection to the Force and the Jedi in the past, as well as the crystal caves it's been known to have, I have toyed with the idea that the droids have helped a runaway former Jedi or Force sensitive and brought sanctions (or the threat thereof) from the Empire.

Another, very simple idea I had was for it to revolve around good old fashioned racism. The droids happen to be a lot of old battle droids, and the wounds of the Clone Wars are not fully healed.

In advance, I appreciate any assistance.

I have no idea why.

Who has ideas?

The group tends to force conflict since that's what they excel at. I wouldn't mind, maybe, a mystery. Or a socially centered adventure.

Few ideas:

1) Religious leader, who dislikes droids because his or her homeschool teacher droid was a strict teacher who never allowed him/her to play as a child? (His/her trauma where riggered when droids started to restrict peoples actions in some way? Because people were endangering themself?)

2) Towns de facto leader wants to banish droids because they opposed his newest ideas. (Is the leader mutated "monstrosity"? Maybe his ideas were really good, but droids opposed him because he is not normal. I somehow got Insmouth wibes from your description.)

Maybe some droids organised an armed resistance and took over another town a short distance away not too long ago, and the townspeople fear the same will happen to them?

Maybe these people aren't exiling their droids. They're LIBERATING them. That religious leader Kuja mentioned believes he's been in touch with some overmind. An AI. They migrate from place to place, repair scrapped droids, buy when they can, reprogram them for a liberated existence and, in some celebratory ritual, set them free.

But even most of the flowers of this faith don't know that the leader ensures that these liberated droids have every intention of destroying their would-be slavers in a revolt to free even more and see biological life replaced by more perfect technological life forms. Many of these reprogrammed droids go to join with others to wait for something that will tell them it's time to fight. But many others simply return to perform their normal duties and wait right under the noses of the enemy.

The AI might be an ancient droid brain, massive in size, abandoned and forgotten by its own creators and having gone mad or simply deduced that the galaxy was simply better off without people, their conflicts and, particularly, the destructive users of the Force.

Whatever it is, you get to let your friends go back to school with some closure but a cliffhanger, too. When they finally destroy this cult, they can savor the victory only to find out that this was only one cell... there are others. And there is some droid army massing somewhere... and there are "infected" droids living amongst the beings of the galaxy... waiting for some droid overmind to say, "It is time."

Hm. I like the idea of a cult being behind it, cults (such as the Jedi and the Sith) do have a center stage place in the story of the galaxy.

Possibly a cult has taken up a foothold in the community, a group of people who found an ancient ship, or an old computer, or an unfathomably crazy droid from a forgotten age.

This device could be directing the cult in the township to take the droids, to memory wipe them and reprogram them to serve the group and their purpose. Spread them across the galaxy. A droid plague that would threaten galactic economy and safety as who knows what these droids will do when their numbers are large enough.

So the towns people have seen the droids rebel recently, seen them break the presumed laws of their programming, and are exiling them to keep themselves safe from further displays or problems.

Ah. Yeah. You folks are wonderful.

"Go forth, power droid, and be free!"

"GONK!"

They are worshippers of (insert general variation on the Force/lifeforce here) who see droids and AI as an affront to their deity, as droids mimic life but don't have an innate connection to (The Force/lifeforce/whatever).

Also, is there any jobs they can take up in the area? What is their main occupation? Maybe the two can be worked together.

Also, is there any jobs they can take up in the area? What is their main occupation? Maybe the two can be worked together.

Well, as I said, this is likely to end up on Dantooine, and it's set during an alternate timeline just about when the Battle of Yavin should be approaching. So the main jobs on Dantooine should be:

Archaeology

Security

Farming

Mechanics

Helping the Rebel Alliance finish their move out

Off planet, they've been working for a Polis Masan information broker who they really like and who rather appreciates them, so they could be looking for information about the former rebel presence on Dantooine and why they suddenly left.

They're also sleeper agents for the Chiss as I'm playing them up as a galactic power to be.

How about an approaching magnetic storm, the droids and other electronics are being sent away to hide in some (crystal) caves until the danger has passed.

It may seem like a cult a work driving away the technology and trying to get the party to leave, but it's only small minded townsfolk protecting their stuff.

The storm renders the ship's, blasters and other electronics inoperative.

The players need to earn the trust of the townsfolk to be guided to the cave where the electronics required to fix the ship are held (and possibly score a lightsaber crystal).

It could also explain why the rebels left in a hurry.

If you want a nice conflict, replay the dantooine mission from kotor 2: the colonists are threatened by an attack of assassin droid that want to kill the organics (they follow the same revolution of the droids in Debts to Pay), and the pc must help the settlers by recruiting them, repairing turrets and other defensive opportunities, motivating them and leading them in battle. Ambushes and scouting would prpvide boosts. This should keep your player entertained with social checks and rp, mechanics and knowledge checks, some sneaking and a final battle to show how badass they are.

Alternatively the droids are the private army of a cybertech mercenary who has a beef with the settlement, and part of your mission is convincing then settlers to stand and fight instead of running or surrendering.

So...yet another Seven Samurai ripoff? I thought Star Wars already had one. That Clone Wars episode on Felucia, right?

Well in kotor 2 it was three samurai so it was twice as difficult

Anyway the seven samurai is such a good plot hook that can be reused time and again.

I don't disagree that it's a great story, there's a reason it keeps getting reused! But seeing it over and over and over and over again starts to get stale. They've another Western remake coming to theaters soon; maybe let it lie for a little while before revisiting it for the five thousandth time?

Training locals to defend themselves is one of the primary roles of US Special Forces (and presumably similar units in other nations). The US calls it "foreign internal defense" and it's often included as part of counter-insurgency in a region. It's a reality. If anything it's Seven Samurai that was derivative.

(To be fair, Kurosawa conceived of the film when researching samurai history when he was planning to make a different kind of samurai film, and found a story that inspired the film in the process.)

Now, copying the Seven Samurai scene by scene is another matter. That has definitely been done to death. But the idea of training locals for self-defense goes way beyond that film.

For a different spin, read about real life FID tactics and adopt them to your campaign:

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a470867.pdf

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a272302.pdf

http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/AIWFC/COIN/repository/Matelski-SAMS%20Monograph%20Final-18%20NOV%2008.pdf