I have 9 year old twins who I have just started getting into roleplaying and we've decided to give EotE a shot. We enjoyed the beginner box and moved on to a homebrew campaign.

Opening Crawl:

Tatooine,

criminal backwater of the galaxy.

A place of lawlessness, cruelty, scum and villainy. In the wretched town of Eisley Sinks, three factions fight over the power vacuum left by the death of the former boss Rip Vakka. Hakko, Rip's former underling, tries to establish command of Vakka's organization. Posh Vantoo, loyal to the feared Jabba the Hutt, seeks to absorb Eisley Sinks into his own control. Bleebo Plug, an ambitious Rodian newcomer, has her own designs for the criminal future of the town.

As these rivals posture for power, two young Cathar bounty hunters have found themselves stranded in Eisley Sinks due to an attack on their ship. Bleebo Plug has offered to repair their ship in exchange for certain services. This offer is generous, but places the two in the midst of a gang war about to explode...

Basically, Bleebo feeds them bounty contacts worth varying amounts and Zippy and Shard fulfill them to work off the repair bill on their ship. The repairs are going to cost 12,000 credits, so they've got a bit of work to do.

On the GM side, I have a deck of event cards that list certain events in the gang war. I secretly draw two of these cards per game day. These events may or may not directly affect the bounty hunters' quests, but some of the events trigger additional, higher value (an higher risk) bounties.

For example: The first 2 bounties the kids took were Pewmal, an Ithorian sabaac dealer who works for Bleebo, but has been caught skimming chips from the tables, and Fattor Kut, an Aqualish bouncer at one of Bleebo's clubs whose been charging extra cover fees which he pockets for himself. The first day's events are that Posh Vantoo is going to try and hijack one of Bleebo's shipments and that Hakko's thugs are going to tear up one of Bleebo's clubs. While searching for Pewmal, Zippy and Shard witnessed the hijacking attempt, figured out what was going on, and was able to help gun down Vantoo's Gamorreans, saving the shipment. Later, when the Cathars go to confront Fattor at the club, Hakko's thugs will show up to tear the place apart.

The interaction between the event cards and my kids' narrative choices has been pretty fun to see and pretty easy to control on the GM side. I'm looking forward to seeing what develops!

I wanna play in your game!

Seriously, that all sounds very cool. I love the names and your set up is great. The gang war event cards is a very good idea, and I believe I'll steal it for my use. Thanks!

I want to hear more about this game.

The twins created bounty hunters, but what are they exactly?

I wanna play in your game!

Seriously, that all sounds very cool. I love the names and your set up is great. The gang war event cards is a very good idea, and I believe I'll steal it for my use. Thanks!

I want to hear more about this game.

The twins created bounty hunters, but what are they exactly?

Seconded!!

Sounds like a great game that you've got running there Found Myself Floating Home! Particularly like the way you've set it up so that they're stuck there until they can pay for the ship repairs... Lots of opportunity to flesh out the NPCs & make the place feel real

I'd be interested to know what kind of events you have on the cards as well... I had planned on running a crime syndicate war but never came up with a satisfactory way of carrying it off!

The twins created bounty hunters, but what are they exactly?

My son is Shard, a Cathar bounty hunter assassin tricked out to be deadly in a firefight with his blaster carbine. He also struggles with anger management issues. His sister, Zippy, is a bounty hunter gadgeteer. One of the gadgets she devised is a remote that she can use to switch her brother's blaster to stun in case he loses his temper and tries to blow the wrong person away.

Here is the list of events I devised:

Events (draw 2 per day)

• Hakko’s thugs tear up one of Bleebo’s clubs
• Hakko’s thugs tear up one of Bleebo’s clubs
• Imperial patrol through Eisley Sinks (4 storm troopers, 1 sergeant, 1 armed speeder)
• Imperial patrol through Eisley Sinks (4 storm troopers, 1 sergeant, 1 armed speeder)
• Imperial patrol through Eisley Sinks (4 storm troopers, 1 sergeant, 1 armed speeder)
• Imperials raid suspected Rebel safehouse (TIE fighter air cover)
• Vantoo’s thugs try to seize one of Hakko’s shipments between the spaceport and a warehouse
• Vantoo’s thugs try to seize one of Bleebo’s shipments between the spaceport and a warehouse
• One of Bleebo’s smuggling shipments crashes on take-off. Suspected sabotage.
• Shootout between Hakko’s and Bleebo’s gangs
• Hakko’s thugs do a drive-by in Little Rodia
• Hakko’s thugs attack the Rodian Sun
• Hakko and Vantoo meet
• Hakko meets with Arcon Totalla, the Imperial Space Traffic Controller
• Vantoo meets with Bleebo
• Hakko captures Doocha Fallon, one of Bleebo’s pilots
• Hakko’s thugs try to sieze one of Bleebo’s shipments
• Flip Tween, one of Bleebo's pilots, defects to Hakko

Some of these events will trigger additional bounties.

Depending on the players choices, they may or may not be on hand to witness the event first-hand. On the first day, I was able to weave both of the events drawn directly into the narrative. In the future I anticipate more of the events will give more background flavor as they players hear NPCs discussing them after the fact.

The names really are great! I can just imagine Little Rodia.

The whole thing reminds me of the Star Trek episode, "A Piece of the Action."

Bela Oxmyx: "A syndicate makes sense to me. I'm a peaceful man at heart, but I'm tired of all these hits. I hit Krako. Krako hits Tepo. Tepo hits me. There's too many bosses; we can't get anything done."

I hit Hakko. Hakko hits Bleebo. Bleebo hits me.

For a more adult set of gamers, you could easily take the set up and pull in a bit more of a Yojimbo/Last Man Standing kind of feel to the game. For my kids, I wanted them to have the security of a patron who is more dependable.

Zippy's remote stun switch is a great idea. Is that something she built in-game using, say, Jury Rigged or the crafting rules, or was it more just a role-playing thing everyone agreed existed?

In your opening crawl, the twins' ship is shot down, and thus they are stranded on the planet. Who attacked the ship? One of the criminal factions, or someone else?

I find the encounter cards very intriguing. I want to brainstorm a little bit on that. Not in order to make suggestions for your game, per se, but just to sort out some ideas you've put in my head. I'll use your card examples, though.

There could be one deck with A, B, and C cards. At the beginning, the deck is nothing but A cards. There are, like, 20 of them. (Or more, or less, depending on how long you want the basic conflict to continue.) These are all simple hits going down between the three crime bosses and other unconcerned, outside factions. There are multiple copies of most, but not all of these cards. Most of the cards you listed above are As. Each time a card is pulled, it is removed from the deck. Replace it with a random B card. (The ratio of A to B cards in the deck begins to change.)

The B cards are more involved. They are specific sorts of things, or more complex hits. Your cards like "Hakko hits the Rodian Sun," "Hakko captures Doocha Fallon," "Flip Tween defects," and "One of Bleebo's smuggling ships crashed upon take off" are all B cards. Pulling one of these indicates the war is starting to escalate a bit. Again, the card is removed and replaced with another random B.

C cards are reaction cards. Some of the As and Bs will instruct you to replace the card in the deck with a specific C card instead of a random B. "Vantoo's thugs try to seize one of Bleebo's shipments" might tell you to replace the card with the "Bleebo wants to send a message" card. "One of Bleebo's smuggling ships crashes upon take off" might tell you to replace it with the "Bleebo wants a discreet investigation of the crash" card. They're like Part 2 of the original card. Replace a used C card with another random B card.

After X number of B cards are played, the end of the campaign is activated. This is where you would have a series of high-involvement encounters and stories plotted out instead of randomly pulled.

Alternatively, you could replace drawn C cards with D cards. A pulled D card activates the end-game. Of course, that has a small chance of happening as early as the third session.

The deck starts as just A cards but becomes As and Bs. Then As, Bs, and Cs. Eventually, nothing but Bs. If there are a finite number of B cards, and no cards to replace them, the deck will eventually be depleted. That could also be the trigger for the end of the campaign. That would take as many sessions as the sum total of cards divided by however many you want to pull per session before it begins.

The deck starts as just A cards but becomes As and Bs. Then As, Bs, and Cs. Eventually, nothing but Bs. If there are a finite number of B cards, and no cards to replace them, the deck will eventually be depleted. That could also be the trigger for the end of the campaign. That would take as many sessions as the sum total of cards divided by however many you want to pull per session before it begins.

That's a really slick idea. It reminds me a bit of the Rebel mission progression in FFG's Rebellion game. Of course, it adds a fair bit to the GM prep time, but it would be a cool player experience of getting sucked deeper and deeper into the criminal underworld of the place.

The campaign setting also sounds (to me) a little like Corran Horn's infiltration and one-man insurgency on Courkrus in I, Jedi. The particulars are different, of course, but I like the feeling of all these rival factions vying for primacy while the indigent local population tries to stay out of the way.

@FMFH - Your event deck is brilliant, and it sounds like your kids have an awesome... parent. Dad? Mom? It doesn't matter... I hope you'll share some more of your adventures with us.

RLogue177, that's a fantastic extrapolation of the event deck idea! My only suggestion would be to eliminate the C cards and just add them as sub-text on the event. I'd suggest adding two to each appropriate card, allowing the GM a choice. You could add complexity by tracking reputation with each faction and making some of the choices reputation-dependant i.e. "Bleebo wants a discreet investigation of the crash - Reputation 10+" or "Vantoo’s thugs try to frame the PCs for a hijacking - Reputation 5 or less." That could be fun for a long-running campaign, trying to balance rep with each faction against the opportunities for jobs. Personally, I think it would be simpler to just go with a "if this , then that " diagram, where each major choice leads the PCs in a slightly different direction. Nonetheless, I really like your idea!

Tales of Tatooine, Day 2

The young Cathars managed to bag 2 bounties on the first day; Pewmal, the sticky-fingered Ithorian Sabaac dealer, and Fattor Kut, the thieving bouncer. They also were part of a shootout with Posh Vantoo's Gamorreans as well as a run in with Hakko's thugs who had showed up to trash Bleebo's club Deathstick .

On day 2 they set their sights on Hollis Bron, a Corellian smuggler who works for Bleebo but is suspected of flirting with switching over to Hakko. They are also trying to locate Sos Grandoo, a Bith musician with a gambling problem. Sos ran up a big debt at the Rodian Sun and then disappeared. Hollis proved hard to find and Bleebo had given them a warning that this contract needed to be solved without resorting to blasters. The twins found out that Hollis's ship Lady Luck was laid up for repairs at the spaceport. After an extensive search of the neighborhood flop houses they located Hollis. A number of Charm, Deceit and Negotiation rolls later, Hollis agreed to go see Bleebo with them. On their way, they heard a firefight break out a few blocks away. After delivering Hollis to Bleebo's lieutenant, the young Cathars headed over to see what the shooting was about. It turned out to be a shootout between Bleebo's Rodians and Hakko's thugs led by an Aqualish hired gun, Hosan Kruk. Zippy and Shard managed to take down Hosan together as well as a few other baddies and the rest fled. Hosan also had a bounty on him so they have already score 2 bounties today and they still have the evening to see if they can find Sos Grandoo.

(There will be another attack by Hakko's gang on one of Bleebo's clubs tonight, but they don't know that yet.)

So Zippy and Shard are doing great, but their also rapidly moving to the top of Hakko's sh%t list.

After the shootout in the street, Zippy and Shard rode their stolen speederbikes over to Dooner's , a seedy dive bar in the no-mans-land between Little Rodia and Hakko's territory, to try and get a lead on the whereabouts of the Bith debt-welcher Sos Grandoo. The pair were effectively stonewalled by the eponymous Dooner, a Toydarian bartender who sees no need to give strangers information on any of his customers. The Cathar were out of ideas and headed back to Little Rodia. On the way back they saw one of Bleebo's clubs, Laserburn , engulfed in flames. Seems that Hakko was tired of losing foot soldiers to gun battles and opted for a firebombing this time.

From the GM side, we had a little brainstorming session after the game about creative ways to get information out of someone who doesn't want to tell you anything. It's kind of cool as a Dad to see them getting into this kind of creative problem solving. (Just hope they never use it on me!)