My aspirations may have outstripped my capabilities but learning as you go is a thing right? Or maybe Courage Wolf put it best: Bite off more than you can chew. Then chew it! '

I came up with this plan after spending waaaaaaaaayyy too much time playing The Division, mostly because the story of the game is pretty decent once all the side stuff is collected. I've decided to combine that plot mixed in with Freespace and Freespace 2 in regards to the Shivan threat. As of now My group has been doing pittly side stuff to gain some street cred and at last I had an opportunity to present them with a dude of enough stature and wealth to get into the main bits of the plot. Last sesh we played through the scenario in the EotE book, I'm thinking maybe toss another pre-fab at them before revealing their contact is either A: well off politician from a nearby planet to Corelia or B: well off non-politician from a planet near Corelia. Yes the planet has a name, the name is in the book on the galaxy map, and canon has what I need.

Mission starts with the crew and planetfall to a domed island in the middle of the ocean. The dome being added to contain the plague that infests the local. Upon entrance to the dome (hope everyone remembered a respirator or is ready to flip a destiny point heehee) I plan to make them roll either reliance, discipline, or maybe cool to represent a fear/reaction to the stench check. Two members will not need to do this, one being the Shadow the other being a Mandalorian 'doctor' who has a really sick (both good and bad!) back story. Those who pass, pass. Those who fail are notably shaken, will probably suffer a setback die, maybe a full upgrade to ALL checks made until a point is reached not sure what yet. This plague is 85 - 95% effective, and the population of this island is quite high.

​In cliché fashion there will be factions, one who is trying to purge the area, one who's going to be general underground scum, and not sure who the third will be. May toss in a 4th that will be actively hunting the group cause they're sickos who enjoy the chaos.

​I'm thinking that the head of the underworld group will know our group's 'Pirate Princess', and be willing to ally with us because of it. The others may be able to be intimidated or deceived into joining.

The central governmental building will be the link to the main plot of a long forgotten gate system. The upper levels have been used for centuries/millennia to serve the planet. The sections below however hide the gate in question, a large hanger, and other things necessary to establish a base of operations to take on both the plague and the as of now unknown enemy.

Upon activation of the lower levels a group from the Republic will pop through. A handful of commandos backed by Jedi Shadows. This will gain my other two Jedi members the start of a recon force and my Shadow a black ops unit.

​As there will be plenty of damaged vehicles my Outlaw Tech can use them to beef up the BOO, build transportation, or the like. The Doctor's job will be to find the cause and cure this thing before it either A escapes or B....not sure what B is but he needs to fix it.

While exploring the city there will be a plethora of opportunity to gain additional forces, I should probably find and or make a chart to roll on for this to really keep it random. Also to gain or remove conflict by way of saving people, stopping vigilantes and looters or other things. Maybe another table.

If things play out successfully the group will receive the island, the remaining population, and whichever factions they recruit.

Assuming that an overall threshold is made of rolling for a cure, and a few perception checks it will be found this plague was set upon this planet by the invading force.

Okay, I'm not familiar with your source material, but overall it sounds like a good solid plot line.

And as for the scope of your project, I have two useful sayings for you to consider.

Q1) How does a Pygmy eat an Elephant?

A2) One bite at a time.

One of the tricks that I learned in college to writing huge papers, was to get a stack of 3x5 cards and put down a relevant idea or topic on each card and just pull out each idea and point until I had a stack worthy of a term paper.

The next step was to sort the cards into a logical order. After I had that all sorted out, I could then write the paper by simply starting at card 1 and progressing through the stack, discussing each point, until I'd touched on each card, until done with the stack. (Next, I'd spend hours editing the paper).

You may want to use a similar tool or ideas to organize this grand adventure. I think my GM uses PowerPoint org charts to organize these kinds of plots and this might work too.

And to muddy the water, you may open up some other competing factions. Usually there's more than one "gang" per local and they compete with each other fiercely. You may consider several similar factions, with similar goals, but they want to be in charge. For example, in real life, if you have a crime committed, the first thing the cops do is figure out if the City Police, Sheriff's Officers, State Patrol, or Federal Bureau [Yes, I'm citing USA examples] are going to handle the case, and there are often good cases for all of them to do so!

In your case, you could have the local hospital, who first started dealing with the issue, with a specialist medic who has limited resources but a lot of practical knowledge competing with the municipal health department, who has lots of resources, doesn't want to share, and is run by a myopic bureaucrat who is less than helpful.

But only if you want to make things more complex.

My only concern is that most groups will be overwhelmed by too much information, so be careful with this.

Second Question:

Q2: How does a Pygmy pet a Giraffe?

A2: Either with a poisoned blow dart or a very tall ladder.

Okay maybe not really relevant, but it's my other go-to "Pygmy dealing with 'too much' analogy."

Still, this sounds like a lot of fun.

We generally play for between 8 - 14 hours. Yes a decent chunk of that time is just having fun. Maybe overall the scope is a bit large for a single day session.

I really dig the note card idea, I'm going to steal it.

I hadn't even considered bringing a local hospital vs another medical group. This is effing briliiant plus can lead forward to the big bad enemy I have planned too. I don't know if you've ever played Exalted, late game the players are throwing armies at the plot line and I think I can do a similar thing with FFG's system. I was going to allow each PC to have some form of force under their direct control, our pilot to have a small fleet, pathfinder to have a r econnaissance force, warrior to have regular forces, soldier-medic to have a medical team, outlaw tech to have an engineering group, and my PC/NPC shadow to head covert ops.