In a few months, I'm going to be running a 4-6 week long Star Wars game for my gaming group. And several have decided to take piloting or gunnery related specializations (usually they dread / run from anything involving space combat). Lots of time to plan this out, so I thought I'd get started.
Recently, I read the Last Flight of the Harbinger storyline in the Star Wars comics, and thought that could be a fun RPG adventure - particularly with a party primarily interested in space combat.
For those that haven't read the story in the comics, here's a short summary: The Rebels need to get past an Imperial blockade to get supplies and relief to a Rebel allied planet. They launch an assault on a Star Destroyer, and manage to severely damage the power-core, which could cause the entire ship to explode. The Imperials abandon ship as other Rebels sneak aboard and then time a Hyperspace jump to coincide with ejection and detonation of the main power core. The explosion and then lack of Star Destroyer convinces the Empire that the ship was destroyed. The Rebels then put a skeleton crew aboard and use the severely damaged and under-powered Star Destroyer as a battering ram to punch through the blockade, and ultimately get supplies to the surface.
My idea is as follows:
6 Months after Order 66, the Empire is working on building the Death Star but needs to harvest Kyber Crystals from the moon of Jedha. Saw Garrera has contacts on the inside alerting that the Empire has "big plans" involving that moon, and as a result they are sending a Star Destroyer to the moon, with the purpose of subjugating the population and then to begin mining operations. Saw hires a group of smugglers to take a couple of his freedom fighters (aka some of the PCs) to the planet Haruun Kal. There they meet with resistance leaders there, and devise a plan to raid an old Clone Army Weapons Depot in the jungles (this resistance includes the rest of the PCs). The party is tasked with first raiding the base, stealing a handful of Y-Wings and other weapons/supplies. As they flee Haruun Kal, they witness the Star Destroyers in Orbit lay waste to the planet (Base Delta Zero), killing everyone in an effort to stop the PCs from stealing the Y-Wings.
The next phase may/may not be acquiring battle droids someplace for use as a skeleton crew.
Third, the party needs to raid an Imperial Space port to steal a Venator Class Star Destroyer currently undergoing refit. The basic plan is the same, make it look like the Star Destroyer is destroyed when they steal it.
Next, they take the Star Destroyer loaded with a squad of Y-Wings to Jedha, and launch an attack on the Star Destroyer. If successful they (briefly) liberate the moon, allow Saw to set up his base there, and delay the Empire's mining of Kyber Crystals.
Depending upon time, I may also have a reverse-Die-Hard situation on the Star Destroyer between the theft and the Battle of Jedha, with a group of Storm Troopers on board trying to retake the ship.
That's the basic idea for the adventure. Thoughts/Suggestions?
Also, I'm going to use this thread to start collecting stats for ships, creatures, and NPCs. Given that I'm setting this 6 months after the Clone Wars, I figure most of the vehicles involved will be clone-wars era stuff. If anyone has any good sources for Clone Wars era gear, that'd be really helpful.