Ok so, my next session is either going to happen mid December or early to mid January.

And for those wanting more info, you can find a detailed/mostly complete campaign history

on my campaign's obsidian portal site

But the quick run down is, we just finished session 13

Session 1 started by having a data chip with Grondo the Hutt's and his clan's, Anjiliac's, business dealing being stolen (inside job, accurately suspected as a clan mate trying to discredit Grondo, jockeying for eventual leadership of the clan) to be auctioned off on Coruscant. The Hutt's fixer, Andra a PC, hired the rest of the original PCs to help her recover the chip and destroy any copies made. 4 PCs: Thad Bane (you've probably heard of his infamous uncle Cad Bane who killed Thad's father), his childhood friend and partner, Tal Lee (a.k.a. Tal Seario), their hot sarcastic blue female twi'lek pilot Vaesha Tarn, and their technician:mechanic/doctor droid M4-RK were the fairly successful bounty hunting crew of a heavily modified Loronar E-9 explorer: The Red Talon. For the initial job Andra also recruited another not so successfuly 2 being bounty hunting crew (enforcer thug styled after a shadow run cyber/street samurai) Karsten Eshan and J-8. Now Karsten and J-8 are pretty self serving, looking after their own interests first and foremost, with each other being their own friends. J-8 is an HK-50 gadgeteer turned sharpshooter who refers to most organics as meat bags. Those two had to sell their ship (a Jump master) in the first session to pay off their imminently due debt to a Tarisian crime lord that Andra needed info from (actually the info came from a Bothan, that operated out of the crime lord's territory), and became part of the permanent crew of the Red Talon. With the at-sniper-distance/remote assistance from Cad Bane and Ziggy (childhood friend of Vaesha Tarn and uber slicer extraordinare) the PC's recovered the data chip and destroy the 3 copies that were made. That storyline spanned the first 4 sessions, but they never determined who had masterminded the theft/auctioning of the data chip, although Grondo had his suspicions.

At this point the player of Tal Lee tells me what he wants his obligation/side story to be, the rightful heir of Czerka coorporation (or at least a ~10% share), who two factions have plans for, the faction currently in power killed Tal's family except for a second cousin twice removed who (or rather a human replica droid there of, where the HRD was secretly a double agent for a secret droid society at Czerka) they installed as a puppet CEO, and thought Tal was dead, and want to kill him so they can stay in power. The other faction lead by the Wertko's and Wertka's (no relation) wanted to install Tal as a puppet CEO so they can take control of Czerka.

And the player of Karsten Eshan tells me what he wants his obligation/side story to be. Basically it's inspired by "The Usual Suspects" where Emil Mola is star wars Keyser Soze, a mythical boogeyman crime lord, that everyone has heard of and no one believes in (galactic knowledge was that he was a minor human crime lord that Jabba the hutt fed to the Sarlacc two hundred year ago but despite this the Mola Cartel has continued to thrive while apparently still under Mola's direction, this bit was my idea)... and if Karsten had KNOWINGLY inconvenienced Emil Mola, he'd just be dead, but since Karsten (and J-8) only UNKNOWINGLY inconvenienced Emil Mola, he (and J-8) would be given the opportunity to work his (their debt).

The true scoop on Mola (which only got revealed in session 13) was that before Mola was fed to the sarlacc, he bribed the B'omarr Monks

still living in the basement of Jabba's palace, to remove his brain from his body and hid it among the jars of monk brains, and Emil Mola's brain had been issuing directions to the Mola Cartel over the holonet.

In session 5, Tal and Tad go back to their home town Dere on the planet Galtea in the Kathol sector. And the PCs lead a revolt by farmers against the "legitmate" (corrupt) authorities in their home town. They go up against and take down a team of bounty hunters and mercenaries hired by Czerka that was gunning for Tal. Thad goes up against a female falleen quick draw artist (she out draws him only thanks to 2 ranks of rapid reaction) but he stays up despite getting hit and she goes on his return shot. Then Cad Bane head shots her for shooting his blood.

In Session 6, on the way back out of the Kathol Sector they stop Pembric II in the next system over, where they meet Crev Bombassa, and Karsten and J-8 interfere with the theft of a 200+ year old blood oath dagger (with Emil Mola's blood on it) from Crev Bombassa's residence (the top 2 floors of the Grand Erwithat hotel), which is how Karsten and J-8 acquire their debt to Mola, but they don't know that yet. Crev Bombassa recognizes Tal as being his father's son and takes him to a safety deposit box at a mafia bank where Tal gets a superior autofire pistol and his father's nearly unlimmited funds credit stick, which Tal is afraid to use because Czerka will certainly be monitoring the accounts for use.

In Session 7, Andra told them about the 2 Czerka factions, and that Grondo had a job for them for Baron Alto Endel (lead exceutive for Macander Heavy Ores on the the planet Aleron in the Tapani free worlds region) in exchange for Grondo getting an monopoly of illicit activity on Aleron. They were told it was to intercept a weapons shipment to terrorists, actually it was kicking Black Sun's first drug foray on Aleron off the planet, WTF? Endel reveals he's the consigliere for Emil Mola and Karsten and J-8 owe Mola and are being given the opportunity to work off their debt. And that they'll be given a series of tasks one at that they must complete.

next several sessions

Ask Crev Bombassa for the blood oath dagger (which he gives them), and obtain a Ysalamir from Mykrr, then need the help of Talon Karrdre to get one alive off planet, and to get it they have to do a job for him, "corporate espionage"/"insider trading info" about Gowix computers on Correllia.

Steal an "experiemental bacta tank" (actually a spartii clone cylinder, but they didn't know that) from Arkanian Microtechnologies corporate headquarters on Vohai (after a run in with Black Sun aboard the Vohai monorail)

Session 11: They delivered the "experimental bacta tank" to a Macander heavy ores facitlity on Tallaan (in the Tapani free worlds' region), where they get to enjoy the Tapani Sector/Shipwright's Trace annual star ship show. While there a Czerka hit squad blows up the Red Talon in the docking bay, there's a running gun battle, Cad Bane snipes Czerka hit men, Tal uses his father's unlimitted funds credit stick to make a 5 million credit impulse buy of The Redshift Raven (a heavily modified CEC consular class light cruiser) at the "collectors/enthusiasts" portion of the show, and make their escape (taking down about 4 out of 12 z-95's luached from a Czerka Marauder class corvette) This convinces Tal that he needs to deal with his Czerka problem. So he goes back to Nar Shaddaa (where in my cannon where the Czerka head quarters is in the original trilogy era) to take control of Czerka with the help of the Wertka Wertko faction, he's being "handled" by Arica Wertko the very attractive junior executive daughter of the leader of the faction, with her trying to get Tal to fall in love with her. But her and Tal get kidnapped and replaced with Human Replica Droids by a secret droid society at Czerka, while they are being held captive in a plush apartment for study their interaction to inform the "in love" behavior of the replica droids, and Arica and Tal begin a real relationship before they get rescued by the rest of the PCs. They kidnapping and replacement was discoverred by the HRD Tal getting head shotted assassinated and the HRD Arica memory wipes itself later to prevent more info about the secret droid society from being revealed.

In session 12: Czerka faction tying to kill Tal really ups the bounty, several attempts on his life including one led by by Boba Fett . In this attempt Thad Bane wins a quick draw against Myria Vondin, a fairly famous female mandalorian gunslinger. He got 2 triumphs plus 5 successes on the quick draw, she got 1 tirumph and 6 successes on the quick draw. Basically this was quite possibly the fastest quick draw ever recorded (and it was recorded by 5 different hovercams) and propelled Thad to holonet celebrity and quite possibly the most recognizable sentient in the galaxy. Thanks in part to Andra manipulating Sincade Carald, Tal Seario gets elected as the next CEO by the board of directors. He marries Arica and gifts the Redshift Raven to Thad Bane. (Character written out, with an option to return because the player got married and playing the game wasn't on the top of his priorities list).

In session 13: Thad acutions off the blaster, holster and Kamperdine armored tailored jacket (same auction house as in session 2) for mucho credits (his HALF share was 65K credits, used Biggest Fan talent on this). The PCs deliver the real Ziggy (who is dying from a degenerative disease) clones of a blue male Twi'lek (Vaesha's ex) and a clone of Emil Mola frozen in carbonite, hidden among 50 other carbonite slabs (holding people Jabba put bounties on) officially as a gift from Grondo but really as a distraction to help them sneak the 3 slaps into the B'omarr monks. Ziggy and Emil Mola get their new bodies without Jabba being the wiser. But Han Vane (new PC) Karsten Eshan, and Gamorrean guard Ke'Vin , got dropped into a giant sand crab pit (this was before the Rancor) accidentally along with a thawed out of carbonite bounty. They have to replace the giant sand crab they killed (Han Van's first attack roll of the campaign was a 153% crit that killed the giant sand crab) with a Young Krayt dragon. The PC's buy Ke'Vin's contract off of Jabba (the PC's now have their own guard pig run as a 2nd sidekick PC by the player of Karsten) Vaesha (player had left campaign a while ago) "flew off into the sunset" with now twi'lek ziggy aboard his J-type star skiff. Karsten and J-8's debt to Mola is repaid.

Han Van is a newly added PC (new player new character) who is a Gank out to avenge the death of his "murder" (yes a pack of Ganks is called a "murder")

And in the epilogue of session 13 (between sessions 13 and the to come session 14) the self-memory-wiped HRD Arica got linked to the Redshift Raven as the physical avatar of the ship (as in how "Rommie" from Gene Rodenberry' Starship Andromeda was the "ship made flesh" gynoid avatar of the Andromeda Ascendant's AI), which renamed itself Raven, (being run as a 2nd sidekick PC by the player of M4-RK).

So the question is what should I do next?

it's a little too early to start in on Han Vane's obligation/sidestory (meaning I plan in obligation instead of rolling), I want to give the player more time to get used to the system first. So I'm thinking about having Tal Seario present info recovered from the secret droid society AI back up computer, about a protocol droid spy in the court of the rival Anjiliac hutt giving the codes to the data chip to the guy who stole it from Grondo but I want more intrigue in there, and catching/proving the guilt of the hutt, and I want it to last a 5 hour session.

So what ideas can you give me?

Gangs of gung-ho Gungans.

Gangs of gung-ho Gungans.

How would you fit them into Hutt on Hutt intrigue establishing the rival Hutt as the one responsible for masterminding the theft of the data chip when all they have is a brief segment of holovid, showing say a trusted agent of the Hutt giving the perpetrator of the conjob/theft the password to the section of the chip covering joint operations within the Hutt clan?

So 73 people have read this thread and only one besides me has posted a response. I am really just looking for "spitball" ideas to "throw up against the wall to see what sticks" as it were

You’re already way beyond anything I can think of, so I don’t have anything to add.

At least, not at the moment. Sorry! ;(

I'd love to help but struggling a bit as to how to properly help you brainstorm. What exactly are you looking for from us?

Are you thinking about a short arc of something new before you go into Han Vanes story? Or an extension of the stuff that has happened in the past?

I'd love to help but struggling a bit as to how to properly help you brainstorm. What exactly are you looking for from us?

Are you thinking about a short arc of something new before you go into Han Vanes story? Or an extension of the stuff that has happened in the past?

a short story arc before going into Han Vane's story,

preferably related to the data chip, establishing that the rival Anjiliac hutt is the guilty party,

maybe working in character development of M4-RK (an emergent AI that believes in droid rights and struggles against his behavioral inhibitors) and "Raven" (gynoid/HRD avatar of the Redshift Raven's (the ship's) AI, the blank state HRD that previously thought she was a human female with amnesia, but willingly merged/synched with the ship's AI, Raven is a 150 earned xp ace:rigger sidekick PC run by M4-RK's player), and "Ke'Vin the pig guard" (his name is a stealth pun, as in Kevin Bacon, the name was my suggestion, we as a group collectively name previously nameless bit NPCs that convert to important NPCs, and ships although I just picked the Redshift Raven, but I was expecting it to get renamed by the party; he's a newly introduced 150 xp soldier:commando sidekick PC run by Karsten Eshan's player, he's basically intended to be a meat shield, that can be left to guard the ship, or provide extra muscle as needed)

BTW Ke'Vin loves gamorrean opera... back when I ran the EotE beginner game/the long arm of the hutt, I merged a mp3 track of pigs squealing with some music, for the gamorrean opera that TREX liked, I also had an mp3 of an alarm going off and an mp3 of the gamorrean opera and alarm going off at the same time, I figure that I'll dust these off for the next idea

I'd like to work in the players repelling boarders from their ship The Redshift Raven, a CEC consular class light cruiser, which I got deck plans from colonial chrome for, the deck plans are on the character page for the Redshift Raven.

I do want to work in a VERY HAPPY TO BE ABOARD THE REDSHIFT RAVEN and messy "Ke'Vin the pig guard" adapting to his new environment and the rest of the crew and vice versa.

But any and all ideas are welcome, even for a new story arc that goes off in another direction. I really am just looking for ideas. Aurin's question post was helpful because it got me to think about some plot elements to work in (which I mentioned in the last post), the point of this thread is spitballing/whiteboarding/"solving a problem by talking through it/explaining it to other people" (that's part of my creative process)/stimulating ideas/and yes actually being given ideas is good too

A couple of ideas from pre-written modules that you could work in to your story.

A couple of ideas from pre-written modules that you could work in to your story.[/size]

Perhaps Grondo is now unsure who to properly trust after the whole chip incident, or maybe he's happy with the PCs work so far, and he wants to reward them. Therefore he invites them to a Boonta Eve event where the PCs fight to the death for his pleasure and prove their worth (Rubbing Slippery Elbows in Lords of Nal Hutta).

Maybe the PCs are sent by Grondo to check out the new mine he just won in a game of sabacc from his no good, sometimes ally, Bargos the Hutt. Maybe Bargos is actually the guy who was working behind the scenes against Grondo, and he purposefully lost Grondo the mine to set up a trap. Once the PCs investigate the mine, they run into a bunch of lunatic droids on the loose (The Debts to Pay module from the EotE GM kit). Probably could do an interesting tie in to one of the AI's or Ma-RK from the background.

The debts to pay eote gm kit module does have potential, I could tweak the motivations/tie-ins to the secret Droid society and the being boarded by pirates on the way there or back could work. Thanks a lot for the idea... what else you got.

Okay, two more ideas for you ->

1) There is a boarding action modular encounter in Lords of Nal Hutta including a cool pirate and his ship. Worth taking a look at.

2) there is an old WEG encounter called "abduction of the crying dawn singer." (it's on the D6 Holocron). While I haven't reviewed it, so I can't give you more details, it may make for a very entertaining encounter. Change the plot a bit and make the singer *the* famous gammorean opera singer! Maybe you can also change the plot so the rival Hutt is trying to frame the PCs so he is the one who abducts the singer.

Okay, two more ideas for you ->

1) There is a boarding action modular encounter in Lords of Nal Hutta including a cool pirate and his ship. Worth taking a look at.

2) there is an old WEG encounter called "abduction of the crying dawn singer." (it's on the D6 Holocron). While I haven't reviewed it, so I can't give you more details, it may make for a very entertaining encounter. Change the plot a bit and make the singer *the* famous gammorean opera singer! Maybe you can also change the plot so the rival Hutt is trying to frame the PCs so he is the one who abducts the singer.

Again excellent ideas, but these I will need to spend more time looking into before seeing how I can use them. Thanks again.

Anyone have a narrative justification about why a Hutt would send his personal protocol droid to his newly acquired mine, leave it there, and then months later get rid of the mine (this part's easy, he discovered the mine wasn't hugely profitable and gives it to another Hutt, i.e. Grondo to settle a debt) and doesn't get his Droid back first? Hmmm, maybe the protocol Droid isn't actually a protocol Droid, maybe it's the alternate version of ev-8d3, and it failed to sufficiently motivate the worker Droids into being efficient enough to meet revenue projections, and the rival Hutt decides that the failure could either be due to the Droid (in which case the droid's not worth retrieving) or he should get rid of the mine, or some combination there of. And Grondo wants to buy the mine, not for the mine, but for the motivator/task master droid, which he knows (but the rival Hutt does not know)/strongly suspects contains evidence that the rival Hutt masterminded the theft/auction of the data chip. So Grondo buys the mine, the rival hutt thinks he just pawned off an unprofitable assest onto Grondo, and the PCS got to the mine to take stock of the mine which Grondo knows won't be that profitable but maybe Baron Alto Endel (chief executive of macander heavy ores on Aleron) can help with that, pick up the droid, and pick up a shipment of ore.

The at the mine, droid rebellion happens mostly according to the module, but given new meaning because the taskmaster droid was already a spy for the czerka secret droid society. And on the way back pirates (possible hired/tipped off by the Rival Hutt to the fact that the PCS would be hauling a shipment of valuable ore) attack The Redshift Raven for the ore shipment (they don't actually know that it's Thad Bane's ship or for some other reason aren't afraid of retribution from Cad Bane... maybe the pirates just up and leave after boarding when they figure out that it's Thad bane's ship, or maybe the pirate captain tries to and the pirate crew mutinies because they want to get paid for the boarding effort and figure that they'll pin the death of Thad Bane on the pirate captain who they'll just execute so he can't tell a different story. Maybe the pirates get away with the taskmaster droid, maybe the pirate captain was secretly after the taskmaster droid because the rival hutt figured out that was why Grondo really bought the mine, but he didn't know why grondo went through such a great effort to acquire the droid but figured he ought to find out, and the rest of the pirates (who executed the pirate captain) don't know that the Droid was the real objective so they don't know what they have, and the next session after that is a mission to recover the taskmaster droid that the pirates stole.

Does anyone else have ideas/plot twists to add to this post?

Maybe the in the follow up session the taskmaster droid gets destroyed and they can'take salvage the info they want from it but are able to establish that the taskmaster droid backed up it's AI to a computer at the mine, and the PCs go back for it and then the bit about the storm shield generators starts happening but because of a saboteur at the mine that was paid by the rival hutt, who also ñearned/suspected about the ai backup.

My past brainstorming threads (most of them I found through google rather than the forum search)

Session 13

Sessions 11 & 12 (didn't get through all the material so I stretched it out into 2 sessions)

also Session 11 also Session 12 also Session 11 also Session 11

Session 10

Session 9 also Session 9

Session 6

Session 2

Session 1-4

Ok here's what I have as a "basic outline" for my next session, it still needs to be fleshed out, please make suggestions for tweeks/improvements/additions.

Tal Seario, has had his people doing digital forensics on the secret droid society AI back up computer that memory wiped itself after the AI’s had been transferred elsewhere. The memory wipe was fairly thorough but his Czerka techs were able to reconstruct some information. Among which was a grainy (due to unrecovered bits) holo-recording by the photo receptors of an EV series supervisor droid of a not-definitively-identifiable (due to data corruption) twi’lek, believed to be the major domo of Zordo Anjiliac (a clanmate and frequent rival of Grondo the Hutt) talking to Var Aruru in person. The voices of both parties were also distorted, but the gist of what they were talking was the passwords to the lowest level of encryption on the data chip that Var Aruru was going to steal, i.e. had not yet stolen. The quality of the recording is too low to be useful as legal evidence in identifying the majordomo, or tying him to Zordo.

Another recovered report, dated about 6 months ago, and believed to be from the same supervisor droid, tentatively designated EV-8D4 (a bit or two could be off), indicates that Zordo Anjiliac took as payment for a debt from another Hutt. What is clear was that the mine was not as profitable as Zordo was led to believe, and Zordo was going to send this supervisor droid to the mine to make it more efficient/boost the profit margin.

Tal’s people were not able to find/recover another holo-recording or report that could even be tentatively attributed to this droid which suggests the droid actually was sent to the mine and has not been able to communicate with the droid collective since then.

The take away is the secret droid society had a EV series supervisor droid spy in Zordo the Hutt’s palace whose memory banks very likely contains proof that Zordo orchestrated the theft of the data chip, and that droid now likely resides in a mining facility on Gavos. Gavos is a small planet just coreward of Hutt Space.

Tal passed this info along to Grondo through Andra.

Andra did some additional research (?make a roll of some sort?) and establishes that Zordo did acquire an oridium mine about a year ago, back checking the mine’s output, it had been a good producer, until about 9 months ago when it took a sizeable dip, and it partially/mostly recovered 5 months ago and then started a slow decline, with cyclic variations. The recovery 5 months ago could be explained by the arrival of the supervisor droid. The EV series supervisor droids are particularly nasty buggers, they have a reputation for motivating organics and other droids under their authority by causing suffering and distress, but they do get results. That there has been a slow hard to detect due to fluctuations decrease in output suggests that the mine is close to exhausting easily accessed ore. And inquiries from back channel contacts indicate that Zordo has been trying to offload it quietly.

If Grondo were able to acquire the mine, he could get the droid as part of the deal without arousing Zordo’s suspicions. Even if it was a different EV series droid spy for the secret droid society, one not associated with Zordo, that had recorded evidence of someone orchestrating the theft of the data chip, the one on Gavos likely contains useful inside information about Zordo, that had been protected from memory wipes; information that Grondo could exploit.

If an Emissary from Grondo, approached Zordo about buying the mine, that would almost certainly tip off Zordo that Grondo thought there was something valuable at the mine, which would cause Zordo to re-examine his assets there, which could threaten the data on the droid. So we need a way to get Zordo to think that transferring the mine to Grondo was Zordo’s idea. Boonta’s eve was approaching, a Hutt holiday that celebrates the Hutt’s military victory over Xim the Despot in the Third Battle of Vontor (circa 25,100 BBY). Grondo could arrange a sabacc tournament, on Nal Hutta, where vassals played and the Hutts bet on the outcome. If the stakes were suitably high, Zordo would put up the mine as ante. We just need a vassal capable of winning the tournament.

Cue Thad Bane (presence 3, cool 4, unrelenting skeptic (with 2 ranks of vigilance), improved unrelenting skeptic, biggest fan), or maybe cue a professional ringer, that Grondo brings in to play, but he gets poisoned or shot (because Zordo got suspicious that Grondo organized the tournament, brought in the ringer, and stipulated that all ore, equipment, and the contracts of the staff currently at the mine, come with the ante) during the tournament because he’s winning and Thad Bane has to step in as a substitute at the last minute.

Question: what did Grondo put up as ante? Maybe Zordo asked for Andra’s contract? Seek ideas from the forum and the player who will take over as GM in 7-8 months (my wife is pregnant in real life)?

So Tournament, plays out, in “final” hand Zordo’s gambler tries to bluff fails, Thad flips a destiny point to add a despair, and Thad wins the mine (“final” is defined as, GM is rolling opposed deception checks against Thad, in addition to the sabacc gambling checks, wait until Zordo’s gambler fails a deception check, and have that be the “final” hand if Thad hasn’t already won by sabacc cool checks).

Once Grondo has the deed to the mine/planet in hand, he sends the PCs, to Gavos, with a representative from Macander Heavy Ores (i.e. Mola Cartel associates) to nominally (as in the cover story) to assess the profitability of the mine (while that’s true, it’s more of an assess the sale price of the mine/planet to Macander heavy ores, who has the experience and equipment to extend the profitability of the mine) and pick up the current ship. Real, primary mission, is to recover the EV series supervisor droid.

Run a modified version of “debts to pay” adventure from the EotE GM kit, just the Gavos portion, and focusing on the droid uprising, with increased attributes skills (make the droids mostly rivals and/or increased numbers, particularly of battle droids). Depending on time, i.e. if we have lots of time left DO NOT have the atmospheric shield generator being sabotaged, if the tournament took a lot more time than expected then have the atmospheric shield generators be sabotaged (this is not a typo).

After the situation on the planet has been resolved, and the PCs have obtained the EV series droid (with a restraining bolt attached to prevent it from memory wiping itself), and loaded up the current stock of oridium ore at the mine onto the Redshift Raven, then they take off (depending on time you may have refugees from the mine on board).

On the way back to Nal Hutta/Nar Shaddaa, the ship is pulled out of hyperspace by a gravity well projector “mine” and the ship is immediately fired upon with ion weapons by pirates who are after the ore. The ore on board the raven is “payment” from Zordo to the pirates for obtaining/destroying the EV series droid.

After Zordo got suspicious about Grondo’s “hidden” interest in the mine, he had his fixer make some inquiries and found out that Andra had been investigating the mine previously. This meant that Zordo losing the mine to Grondo, had been Grondo’s motivation behind setting up the Sabacc tournament during the Boonta’s Eve celebration. And since the mine itself was really not all that valuable, and Grondo had to have already known that, then Grondo was really after something AT the mine. And Zordo had guessed that that something at the mine was an asset that Zordo had transferred to the mine, and looking back at records, had guessed the asset was the EV series supervisor droid that had previously served in his court. He knew it had been given memory wipes, but Grondo/Andra would have known that too, and still went through a lot of effort to acquire it on the down low, so they must know something about the droid that Zordo didn’t, and it was that something that made the droid so valuable.

While the pirate crew is after the ore, the pirate captain, and maybe a select few trusted crew know that the real target is a droid. So these guys are packing ion pistols and other droid disabling gear, and they are preferentially targeting any and all droids over organic opponents. After they disable a droid have one of them pull up a hologram of EV-8D4 and say “this isn’t the droid we’re looking for” OR “this is the droid we’re looking for” depending on the droid in question.

Boarding action encounter(s) on the Talon (have approx. minis scale map(s) of 4 decks of consular class cruiser), this requires a bit of development to make it tactically interesting. Want to work in “when pigs fly” as a recurring meme/running gag (for Ke’Vin the pig guard) so maybe have Ke’Vin have not been using his aerosol deodorant and work in a zero GM combat encounter using the aerosol deodorant as propulsion. Pirates will board through engineering. Raven (gynoid/HRD avatar of the ship’s AI) has a chance to shine by controlling some still functioning ship systems, maybe locking pirates in rooms, high gravity, low gravity, trying to bring the ship’s engines back on line remotely.

Maybe have Raven/M4-RK play Ke’Vin the pig guard’s Gamorrean opera over the pirates’ comlinks, but want it to be Mark’s idea to have Ke’Vin’s music feature earlier in the session and say how distracting annoying it is (imposing set back dice on some earlier task), maybe Ke’Vin was trying to play his music over his head phones earlier and it instead broad casted over the Talon’s crew’s comlinks, and then M4-RK had to teach Ke’Vin how to use the commlink/music device so only he could hear it. That would drop a strong hint that it could be used as a “weapon of mass distraction”(hah hah a pun, use the pun earlier, in the initial intro, to help drop the hint) and away to disrupt the pirates’ communications ahead of time. Play the mp3(s) I created for use in the beginner game.

Depending on time:

· if we have a lot of time, have the pirates destroy EV-8D4, before the PCs drive them off, but the PCs discover that EV-8D4 was backing up his AI at a computer on the mining facility, and have the players go back to Gavos to obtain the backup and run an organic sabotaging the weather shields (bribed/bought off by Zordo to do it)

· If short on time, the pirates do NOT destroy EV-8D4, before the PCs drive them off, have the twin turbolaser’s back up and running before the Raven’s engines, so the PCs can blow up the pirates’s two ships (probably both sil 4’s) while their shields are down.

They may or may not capture the pirate captain, or depending on whether the pirate captain acquires EV-8D4, and if the boarding action is going poorly he says “we’ve got what we came for, let’s go” and after that the pirate crew may mutiny because they really wanted the oridium.

So at the end of the session, the PCs get EV-8D4 (with a restraining bolt attached) or a copy of his AI on a drive back to Grondo and he pays them EACH, 10-15 K.

Seriously, any idea about what Grondo cut put up for ante that another Hutt would salivate over/(proverbally) "jump at the chance" to win in a bet?

I've just read the thread and got lost in all the words, the ideas were coming too thick and fast for me to string them all together.

So my random thoughts, which may or may not have been of relevance.

Grondo has been running a long term scam involving black market upgrades, a hack that can be applied to a droid that prevents its memory from being wiped. The memories will instead be hidden away, possibly still accessible via dreams.

He seeded lots of protocol (and other) droids with this hack, possibly using a czerka factory to do it. His goal was to have the droids accrue sensitive information and he would collect them later and use the information for theft, blackmail, etc. When he discovered one of the droids had been purchased by a rival hutt he knew it had to contain a goldmine of criminal secrets, he has to have that droid at any cost.

A side effect of the droids not losing their memories was that unique personalities started to develop and became part of the reason for the droid rebellion.

Zordo won a mine and sent a droid to survey his winnings, this droid was part of the droid rebellion. The droid recognised that the ore in the mine is a key component for making human replica droids and scammed zordo, he falsely reported that the mine was unfit for organics due to radiation and that only a full droid workforce could be used. Enough ore was given to zordo to keep him barely happy but most was redirected to the rebellion. The target droid remains at the mime because a human can't do the job.

Sub plots could be:

(I robot) where the HRD merged with the ship has the hack and the purged memories can be accessed via dreams. What happens when the PC's ship has dreams, or nightmares?

(Blade runner) a HRD has a fixed life span and the HRD merged with the ship starts to show signs of degeneration. If the party wish to save the ship then need to make a deal with the droid collective.

(Escape from New York) an organic PC is diagnosed with HRD degeneration (as above) and has to go on a desperate quest for answers and a cure. The PC isn't actually a HRD but has caught gammorian swine flu from being in a confined ship with a filthy pig, the symptoms are almost identical. The quest was pointless but leads to interesting HRD plot information.

(2001) the ship AI has trouble handling the emotions that a HRD was programmed for, the merge has made the ship emotionally unstable. Maybe falling in love with a PC, getting jealous, shooting another ship because it didn't like the way it was looking at her.

(Terminator) upon capturing the protocol droid it convinces the ship to instead return him to the droid rebellion against organics, the ship jumps there instead of where the PC's want to go. The party must convince the ship to choose them over joining the droid rebellion. Justify yourself meatbags.

Seriously, any idea about what Grondo cut put up for ante that another Hutt would salivate over/(proverbally) "jump at the chance" to win in a bet?

Thad bane. He's famous and one of a kind, what hutt collector wouldn't want to own him.

Seriously, any idea about what Grondo cut put up for ante that another Hutt would salivate over/(proverbally) "jump at the chance" to win in a bet?

Thad bane. He's famous and one of a kind, what hutt collector wouldn't want to own him.

Unfortunately no one is willing to piss off his infamous uncle Cad Bane. What other ideas do you have? I thinking some sort of money making business.

I've just read the thread and got lost in all the words, the ideas were coming too thick and fast for me to string them all together.

So my random thoughts, which may or may not have been of relevance.

Grondo has been running a long term scam involving black market upgrades, a hack that can be applied to a droid that prevents its memory from being wiped. The memories will instead be hidden away, possibly still accessible via dreams.

He seeded lots of protocol (and other) droids with this hack, possibly using a czerka factory to do it. His goal was to have the droids accrue sensitive information and he would collect them later and use the information for theft, blackmail, etc. When he discovered one of the droids had been purchased by a rival hutt he knew it had to contain a goldmine of criminal secrets, he has to have that droid at any cost.

A side effect of the droids not losing their memories was that unique personalities started to develop and became part of the reason for the droid rebellion.

Zordo won a mine and sent a droid to survey his winnings, this droid was part of the droid rebellion. The droid recognised that the ore in the mine is a key component for making human replica droids and scammed zordo, he falsely reported that the mine was unfit for organics due to radiation and that only a full droid workforce could be used. Enough ore was given to zordo to keep him barely happy but most was redirected to the rebellion. The target droid remains at the mime because a human can't do the job.

Sub plots could be:

(I robot) where the HRD merged with the ship has the hack and the purged memories can be accessed via dreams. What happens when the PC's ship has dreams, or nightmares?

(Blade runner) a HRD has a fixed life span and the HRD merged with the ship starts to show signs of degeneration. If the party wish to save the ship then need to make a deal with the droid collective.

(Escape from New York) an organic PC is diagnosed with HRD degeneration (as above) and has to go on a desperate quest for answers and a cure. The PC isn't actually a HRD but has caught gammorian swine flu from being in a confined ship with a filthy pig, the symptoms are almost identical. The quest was pointless but leads to interesting HRD plot information.

(2001) the ship AI has trouble handling the emotions that a HRD was programmed for, the merge has made the ship emotionally unstable. Maybe falling in love with a PC, getting jealous, shooting another ship because it didn't like the way it was looking at her.

(Terminator) upon capturing the protocol droid it convinces the ship to instead return him to the droid rebellion against organics, the ship jumps there instead of where the PC's want to go. The party must convince the ship to choose them over joining the droid rebellion. Justify yourself meatbags.

The escape from new York (gamorrean swine flu) and 2001 ideas are awesome, since Raven (the HRD) is a sidekick PC I don't have control over her, bUT the gamorrean swine flu is definitely something I can run with

I'm looking for 2 pirate ships, large sil 4 or small sil 5, they need to have decent bit of cargo, large crew/passenger total, a speed of 3 or 4, not be complete push overs but when their shields are down, I want them to be able to be taken out (can be just disabled) by a single attack from twin light laser canons firing at close range. Any suggestions?

First thing hat comes to mind is the Marauder-class Assault Corvette (Sil 5, Spd 3, Crew 177, Pass 80, EtE-CRB:267). Not sure about the second one.

Edit: What was I thinking? You could add some weapons to the CSS-1 Corellian Star Shuttle from SoF: 11o.

First thing hat comes to mind is the Marauder-class Assault Corvette (Sil 5, Spd 3, Crew 177, Pass 80, EtE-CRB:267). Not sure about the second one.

Edit: What was I thinking? You could add some weapons to the CSS-1 Corellian Star Shuttle from SoF: 11o.

The Marauder is too powerful, a ship that my PCs in their "highly modified" (as in not official stats) consular class cruiser had to run from in their first starship encounter with the new ship.

However, the CSS-1 is PERFECT!!!! thanks so much!!!! I may not even need a second ship, with only one adversary ship, both turret mounted twin light turbolasers can hit it once each, and presuming they get linked on both attacks that should be sufficient to exceed the CSS-1's hull Trauma.

The escape from new York (gamorrean swine flu) and 2001 ideas are awesome, since Raven (the HRD) is a sidekick PC I don't have control over her, bUT the gamorrean swine flu is definitely something I can run with

You do have control of the HRD while she is asleep. Sleepwalking and acting out scenes from his forgotten past can freak out the party while providing plot hooks.

As could having a nightmare about a historic incident only to wake finding out he had accidentally jumped the ship to the scene of the incident. Maybe the construction of a HRD requires some organic parts harvested from living beings and after having a nightmare about being dissected they jump to this horrific facility.

Here's what I've got for the pirate captain and his ship (it's an oggdude character sheet). loosely based off the Dread Pirate Westley ... err... Roberts. He was a force sensitive found and being trained by a padawan who escaped order 66, their ship got attacked by the Pirate, Robert Dread, who killed the padawan but kept Westley as a cabin boy, Westley took over once the previous Robert Dread retired. Westley prefers non-lethal piracy (but kills slavers and imperials outright).

His consort will be a female named or based-off-of Buttercup (she's the real brains of the operation). First mate will be based off of Inigo Montoya, hello you killed my father prepare to die (he's after the imperial captain turned admirable who ordered his star destroyer to obliterate Inigo's city from orbit, I'm thinking maybe a soldier: vanguard/infiltrator), Fezzik will be there too (maybe a wookiee). Can you guys suggest species and builds (name the spec(s)) for them?