i have a friend (who doesnt get to play that much due to family obligations) and he wanted to play Starwars, i was thinking of running chronicles of the gatekeeper as a long one off session as he loves all things jedi and force related, and have a few questions.

1) how is it, especially with regards to being a one off thing and not part of a campaign.

2) would group composition be an issue is it set up for all force users or does it not matter either way

3) whats the power level like, (i usually adjust encounters to make them a bit harder.) is there adjustments to make it a knight level campaign?

4) how long should it take to run, can i run it one one session (will be from 10am till 10pm)

cheers in advance for any help

Mate,

I havent played it, but I have read it cover to cover and have run other published adventures, such as perlemian haul, Lessons from the past and the full Beyond the Rim.

Chronicles is a full adventure module. Your looking at 6-10 4 hour sessions at least to get your moneys worth and tell the atory properly. They are not to be rushed through. I hear some groups spend up to 20 sessions on one book, depending on how much free reign the GM gives the party.

If your looking for an extended one shot, and Force related, go for something like Lessons from the Past from the F&D core rulebook, or the adventure from the GM kit. They are smaller and could probably be run in 1 extended session.

thats one of the reasons i posted as i havent read it, we did the Aor gm kit one and the follow up adventure and that only took a couple of afternoon sessions, without rushing but i didnt let them muck about too much.

thanks for the help though i will pick up the gm kit for force and destiny and see what its like and take it from there

I am currently running a mixed group of players through the module, although I've been adding other modules/adventures to expand upon the adventure itself, and made it into a campaign. Since the module introduces a new Force power, unless the PCs devote experience only for the power, you really can't reach the full extent of what the power can accomplish. Also, you travel around the galaxy a good bit, so the extra adventures help give training time, etc. That doesn't really help you in your situation.

To answer your questions, IMO:

1 and 4) It's a self-contained module that you don't have to pair with anything else. You could run it as a one-off, but due to time constraints, you would probably have to streamline it by cutting some sections out. Although, players being what they are, they may cut to the heart of the matter and streamline it on their own.

2) I'm running a mixed Crew of 2 Jedi and 2 EotE, and it hasn't really been a problem. Obviously, the module is designed for Force Users, so it will definitely have that slant, but the non-FU's have definitely contributed.

3) I've upped the difficulty in sections of the module as the Crew I am running are pretty advanced. There are sidebars that help you play at Knight Level, since it is a F&D module.

In all, I really enjoy the module and the two Force Users are invested.

cheers peeps its been very helpful. i am looking at running 1 or more of the smaller modules as i was prob being too ambitious wanting to do chronicles

I’ve run it, but I think it’s long enough that you won’t make it all the way through in a single game.

Our party was Knight-level, plus some extra in-game experience from the previous GM, before I took over.

CotG was the first thing I’ve run in a long time, and Knight-level players should be able to handle it fairly easily. You may want to beef it up a bit, if you want to give them a really serious challenge.

i have a friend (who doesnt get to play that much due to family obligations) and he wanted to play Starwars, i was thinking of running chronicles of the gatekeeper as a long one off session as he loves all things jedi and force related, and have a few questions.

1) how is it, especially with regards to being a one off thing and not part of a campaign.

2) would group composition be an issue is it set up for all force users or does it not matter either way

3) whats the power level like, (i usually adjust encounters to make them a bit harder.) is there adjustments to make it a knight level campaign?

4) how long should it take to run, can i run it one one session (will be from 10am till 10pm)

cheers in advance for any help

1) it's ok, silly, but ok and I do like the locations. I do like them very much.

2) Our force users in the group were needed to open a holocron and that's it. (And iirc the rules would allow this for non-force users too)

3) The campaign is certainly below knight level and for some reason it seems to ignore vehicles nearly completely, which lead in our case to a very iconic final.

4) 1-2 evening sessions per location with maybe 1 session overall for the stuff between the episodes.

5) It's an avalanche of loot, you get showered in starships and kyber crystals, at one location crystals are literally all over the floor.

5) It's an avalanche of loot, you get showered in starships and kyber crystals, at one location crystals are literally all over the floor.

It’s easy enough to make them only selectively available.

A PC that goes through the “Crystal Caves of Ilum” type of adventure once to get the “One True Crystal” for themselves, and that’s all that is available.

For everyone else, and for every other time that the PC tries, for whatever reason they just can’t find the opening to the cave.

5) It's an avalanche of loot, you get showered in starships and kyber crystals, at one location crystals are literally all over the floor.

It’s easy enough to make them only selectively available.

A PC that goes through the “Crystal Caves of Ilum” type of adventure once to get the “One True Crystal” for themselves, and that’s all that is available.

For everyone else, and for every other time that the PC tries, for whatever reason they just can’t find the opening to the cave.

Re-writing is always an options, but CotG as written has dozens, maybe hundreds of kyber crystals on the floor. Already activated ones, relics of the jedi. We picked

deliver most of the crystals to the alliance next session. Guess we have now an explanation why Luke and Ezra had such easy times to get new crystals for their new sabers. The alliance as an abundant supply of crystals. ;-)

cool thank for all the help i will def run this in the future but for now i think i will stick to a shorter adventure to make sure it gets all the time it needs. especially with the cave of crystals i would like the characters to be higher level before finding that much, so hopefully we can get him playing slightly more regularly.

As this is the GM forum und spoilers should be fine. So huge spoilers now.

It not really a cave of crystals, but an old Jedi Sanctuary from the clone war area. Together with an Aethersprite in the hangar and a jedi library with broken holocrons swimming all over the floor. Each holocron has at least one Kyber Crystal within and it does not matter if the Holocron is broken from 20 years of sea water, the crystals clearly are not. On top of it you are on a quest to rebuild the holocron of an old jedi masters and search for the hidden kyber crystals to restore all the memories of the gate keeper, the AI of the Holocron. So, you find tons of crystals along the journey … and it seems like the adventure is written in a far which tries to make sure that the group has enough lightsabers for the final confrontation with an old fallen jedi master on Moraband. For some unknown reason weapon damage still matters, we have trigger happy 3 rebel aces in the group.

They could have written the final a lot more like Yoda's visit on Moraband, making willpower and discipline the central element and render starships and torpedos irrelevant, instead the dark phantoms of the planet can still be overcome with pure weapon strength. It something I would definitely rewrite. Moraband is the perfect opportunity for horror elements from beyond the veil of reason and science.

Anyway, it is quite possible that your players overlook all the opportunities to enrich themselves or you just write them out. Not every ancient jedi sanctuary needs to have holocrons, jedi starfighters, etc and not every sith ghost needs to be impressed by force of weapons …

But as I said, in general the locations are gorgeous and the adventure is cool. If you want to reduce the re-writing to a minimum, i would run the modules before your group reaches knight play as well.

As I recall, the Jedi Sanctuary in question had lots of scrolls and written books, but no holocrons or crystals or lightsabers.

And the scrolls and books were mostly destroyed or unreadable.

There previously had been holocrons there, I’m sure — but when the Jedi evacuated decades ago, they took all those with them. Leaving behind only scrolls and books that were too bulky or too unimportant to take with them.

As I recall, the Jedi Sanctuary in question had lots of scrolls and written books, but no holocrons or crystals or lightsabers.

And the scrolls and books were mostly destroyed or unreadable.

There previously had been holocrons there, I’m sure — but when the Jedi evacuated decades ago, they took all those with them. Leaving behind only scrolls and books that were too bulky or too unimportant to take with them.

I have (not yet) read CotG myself, but our GM was complaining about broken holocrons floating in the water (still used them as we more or less surprised her, which is always a good moment to rely on pre-written adventures). Broken Holocrons means perfectly fine kyber crystals. Can't rule out some mistake of my GM here, but I kind of doubt it.

I have (not yet) read CotG myself, but our GM was complaining about broken holocrons floating in the water (still used them as we more or less surprised her, which is always a good moment to rely on pre-written adventures). Broken Holocrons means perfectly fine kyber crystals. Can't rule out some mistake of my GM here, but I kind of doubt it.

Well, it depends. If the holocrons are broken, then the crystals might also be broken. The whole object is intensely bound with and protected by the Force, which explains why only a light side user can open a Jedi Holocron and a dark side user can open a Sith holocron.

So, if the holocron is broken, then why isn’t the crystal inside also broken?

What could damage a holocron so severely that it is broken, but not also do likewise to the crystal inside?

I have (not yet) read CotG myself, but our GM was complaining about broken holocrons floating in the water (still used them as we more or less surprised her, which is always a good moment to rely on pre-written adventures). Broken Holocrons means perfectly fine kyber crystals. Can't rule out some mistake of my GM here, but I kind of doubt it.

Well, it depends. If the holocrons are broken, then the crystals might also be broken. The whole object is intensely bound with and protected by the Force, which explains why only a light side user can open a Jedi Holocron and a dark side user can open a Sith holocron. Personally I was not a fan of the destroyed scrolls either as printing on synthetics would make the library a much more logical under-water base and survive those years easily. Data-crystals, etc might suffer from data corruption indeed.

So, if the holocron is broken, then why isn’t the crystal inside also broken?

What could damage a holocron so severely that it is broken, but not also do likewise to the crystal inside?

Saltwater should have no trouble to break any technical components needed for projection and reading data, while the there is little indication that kyber crystals themselves are bothered by high pressure nor salt water. Though the fact that the holocrons are broken seems indeed not very fitting either.

But its all no big deal, can easily rewritten or will not be noticed by players anyway. The primary reason why it bothered me a little was just that I recently started printing on synthetic paper for X-Wing reference cards and planning to print soon a pack of adversity and vehicle reference cards on synthetic. It so nice when you can just wash up your cards instead of bothering with card sleeves and the haptic feel is good too. On top prints like that are so robust that they are an environmental problem in hundert of years to come … unless you burn them.

Saltwater should have no trouble to break any technical components needed for projection and reading data, while the there is little indication that kyber crystals themselves are bothered by high pressure nor salt water. Though the fact that the holocrons are broken seems indeed not very fitting either.

Again, that depends on how the holocrons in your game are constructed. In my game, they are nigh-on indestructible by any means, short of being cut by a lightsaber or destroyed by a star or black hole, or maybe thrown down a shaft to a anti-matter based power generator built for a spacestation that is the size of a planet. Joining an open Sith holocron to an open Jedi holocron would also be a good way to damage or destroy them both.

So, water would never be a risk for holocrons in my game. Not even at the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench.

And that’s also why I would make sure that players never, ever see or get a single holocron, except under very limited circumstances.

But its all no big deal, can easily rewritten or will not be noticed by players anyway. The primary reason why it bothered me a little was just that I recently started printing on synthetic paper for X-Wing reference cards and planning to print soon a pack of adversity and vehicle reference cards on synthetic. It so nice when you can just wash up your cards instead of bothering with card sleeves and the haptic feel is good too. On top prints like that are so robust that they are an environmental problem in hundert of years to come … unless you burn them.

Yeah, makeplayingcards.com can do pure plastic cards that are very resistant to damage, if not totally indestructible.

And yes, there’s a good chance I’ll be using them for exactly that purpose, at some time in the near future.

However, I am sorry that you didn’t get a chance to get your cards made. That sucks.

1) how is it, especially with regards to being a one off thing and not part of a campaign.

This is up to you. All modules are a template that provide plenty of opportunity to adjust for your own story and campaign. When I got this one, I flipped through it and took note of one of the key adversaries. I introduced him four months before actually running this so that by the time the party was going through Chronicles, he was already an established archvillain.

2) would group composition be an issue is it set up for all force users or does it not matter either way

Doesn’t matter. The vast majority of the two parties that went through this adventure in my campaign were non-Force users.

3) whats the power level like, (i usually adjust encounters to make them a bit harder.) is there adjustments to make it a knight level campaign?

There’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to difficulty. You have to take into account not only your individual party members, but how some of them synergize. My campaign had many people 500XP+ at this point, and some over 1K. However, balancing was less about XP and more about who was specialized in certain roles and for particular checks.

4) how long should it take to run, can i run it one one session (will be from 10am till 10pm)

Your choice, really . Some campaigns like to split things up and run multiple sessions for each of the three parts. I did a marathon session once for another adventure, which worked well. However, if you do it in one session, you may need to omit certain things. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.

In Mask of the Pirate Queen, I had to skip a big chunk of the first installment, but it then formed the basis for a later mission, which is something all the modules discuss near the end for extending/revisiting the adventure.

Here's a look at my run through Chronicles of the Gatekeeper if you want to skim through and see how it went:

1) how is it, especially with regards to being a one off thing and not part of a campaign.

This is up to you. All modules are a template that provide plenty of opportunity to adjust for your own story and campaign. When I got this one, I flipped through it and took note of one of the key adversaries. I introduced him four months before actually running this so that by the time the party was going through Chronicles, he was already an established archvillain.

2) would group composition be an issue is it set up for all force users or does it not matter either way

Doesn’t matter. The vast majority of the two parties that went through this adventure in my campaign were non-Force users.

3) whats the power level like, (i usually adjust encounters to make them a bit harder.) is there adjustments to make it a knight level campaign?

There’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to difficulty. You have to take into account not only your individual party members, but how some of them synergize. My campaign had many people 500XP+ at this point, and some over 1K. However, balancing was less about XP and more about who was specialized in certain roles and for particular checks.

4) how long should it take to run, can i run it one one session (will be from 10am till 10pm)

Your choice, really . Some campaigns like to split things up and run multiple sessions for each of the three parts. I did a marathon session once for another adventure, which worked well. However, if you do it in one session, you may need to omit certain things. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.

In Mask of the Pirate Queen, I had to skip a big chunk of the first installment, but it then formed the basis for a later mission, which is something all the modules discuss near the end for extending/revisiting the adventure.

Here's a look at my run through Chronicles of the Gatekeeper if you want to skim through and see how it went:

That video covers only episode 1 of chronicles of the gatekeeper, correct?

It's a playlist vid link. Parts 2 & 3 are right after in the sidebar.

It's a playlist vid link. Parts 2 & 3 are right after in the sidebar.

Right, thanks.

Can you explain what do you mean by the teams? Also (if i am not mistaken) you seem to have added quite a lot of content, correct?

My campaign has a rotating cast of 12+ people. Normally, we have 2 sessions every weekend with a standard party of 5-6. However, every now and then we do a big 12-PC, 2-GM mission where there are two teams on different parts of the map in the same adventure. We've even done 3 teams (Operation: Shadowpoint and Onslaught at Arda I, Part II)!

As for content, yep, I always add a lot to make sure villains, subplots, Obligations, etc. from the campaign are explored right alongside the new content .