I apologise in advance if this comes across as a ramble...

In a month or two, I’m going to be starting a fresh new campaign. Homebrewed setting, so I’ll avoid getting into little nuance details that will be meaningless to those not privy to my madness-laced mind until gameplay. Heck, if Genesys comes out before I actually start, I’d be looking through for some hack and slash if they work, but this will be primarily using the Edge ruleset.

Still, any thoughts and tips would definitely be appreciated. I want to do this, and I want to do this right.

Game setup will be going episodically; generally each episode will alternate between the furthering the main storyline (assuming the players don’t shoot my plot hooks in the face like murder-hobos), and filler episodes focused on the either the crew’s obligations, or their antics out in this big ol’ sandbox I’m shoving them in. They want to spend a filler episode robbing a bank, fine by me, but they better practice their Ocean’s Eleven heist planning, or else reality will likely introduce them to an incredulous ‘you tried to rob a bank by walking through the front door after casing the joint for only ten minutes!’

Yes… I have issues with such behaviour. I have, ever since another group decided that any tabletop experience required being their murder-hobos, and did just that in a Shadowrun campaign that I tried to run.

On the other hand, if I witness my players roleplaying themselves coming up with and fully planning out an Ocean's Eleven style casino or bank heist, I will weep with joy and probably reward them with far more XP than I should. Maybe I'll balance it out with a fat obligation value as the owner tracks them down and forces them to rob a... wait, that's Ocean's Twelve, didn't care for that one...

The filler episodes will give me the breathing room to work out what the various factions within the region have done, any repercussions for the player’s actions, and potentially write up a news report from the friendly regional news station. That’d be a fun surprise to present my players.

The Setting

The sandbox I will be letting loose my players is a region of space known as The Bleed, named such for the crimson nebula which surrounds the majority of the sector. Though lately, in setting, the reasoning has changed to reflect the fact that during a war mere decades ago, there was a lot of blood was shed at the borders.

The Bleed itself is separate, largely untouched and unaffected by the rest of the Known Universe. The setting’s primary FTL method is called Constellation Drive, which is dependant on a connection between stars. The Bleed is notable for having only three ways into the sector, choke-points of notable strategic value.

The Bleed is home to a number of factions and species. Seven major factions, followed by numerous smaller but no less present groups and organisations. Corporations looking at the frontier nature as an escape from confining ethics laws, minor nations looking to expand their national sphere of influence and at least three criminal syndicates, looking to further their agendas no matter who they step on in the process.

For the most part, worlds are random generated in advance, then I'll go over them and slightly expand upon them as needed. However, there are about a dozen worlds fully fleshed in advance.

• Faction Capitals - Even if the players opt to never set foot upon them, events will still be happening.
• Major Trading Hubs - Where players are very likely to set foot, and since the region's Merchant and Mercenary Guilds operate on these worlds, will doubtless become a home away from home if the players want to earn their pocket money through legal means.

The Premise

Prologue would be standard fare of introducing the reason that the cast are together, despite at most only knowing another by reputation or what have you. Planet under lockdown, only smuggler willing to get them offworld has them do a small favour as her fee. In the process doing this favour, the beginnings of the first story-arc should, in theory, be introduced to them in the form of a McGuffin and the knowledge that people want this bauble.

Cast get to leave the planet, something goes wrong, the smuggler’s ship is damaged and the only landing spot in range is a derelict battle-cruiser of unknown design. Cue a spooky ghost-ship scenario, before normality returns. Players now have an extremely damaged (stats heavily tanked) capital ship to taxi them.

The main idea is that on getting to the kickoff point of the actual sandbox, the cast will learn that their efforts and if not ownership then at least disrupting the efforts of others to acquire the McGuffin have put targets on their backs. Targets that at the start, they’re protected from because while the cast are aware that their new battle-cruiser can barely defend itself from a couple of fighter squadrons, the rest of the ‘verse isn’t in the know just yet. Until their reputations and the level of irritation the various factions of the Bleed has toward them reaches a certain level, while they’re targets of opportunity, they’re also not worth testing out the combat prowess of an unknown design of battle-cruiser.

Ideally, this means that the players, on top of their personal obligations and the knowledge that there’s strength in sticking together, will have a vested interest in slowly fixing up this new ship they’re calling home.

If I have my players gauged properly and they take the bait, eventually they’ll go beyond simply fixing up their ship and consider building up a mercenary/pirate organisation, using their ship as the mobile base of operations. The repairs and refits on the battle-cruiser will have to be at least close to finished before that’s a viable option however. No self-respecting soldier of fortune or pirate would look at a barely held together with duct tape cap-ship and think ‘cor, that’s a ship I want to trust my life to’.

I’ve read in a number of threads that letting the players have a capital ship is a bad idea, but I feel that the balance of the ship on first acquiring it being equal measure liability and security will help alleviate some of the risk factor. With most rewards for mercenary work and the like being put into building up their primary acquisition, by the time their reputation is such that a faction will outright send a capital ship after them, they won’t be completely helpless, though being a single ship there is always the risk of being outnumbered and outgunned.

Meanwhile, the McGuffin of earlier would lead to a treasure hunt style story-arc – the bauble is part of a set, and there are claims even a single one has the potential to kill a god. There are six of them, and at least two factions of ill repute are trying to find the complete set.

And our misfits have unintentionally stepped into the crossfire.

When/if the players form up a merc group, things won’t become magically easier now that they have a full crew on the cap ship. Again, balance dictates that I be going ‘ok, you now have guns to back you if you get into one of those situations… who’s share of the profits is paying for theirs and who’s paying for the provisions?’ Hungry mercenaries don’t make for pleasant company, and now mutiny is a risk.

Battle-Cruiser Operational

The battle-cruiser I burden my cast with, which to spare me constantly writing ‘the battle-cruiser’ I henceforth dub The Burden . I’ve statted up The Burden , and then I slashed those stats until my beautiful Burden was little more than a hollow shell. Assuming the cast of misfits don’t try cherry-picking the weapons and simply opt to let the hired mechanics do as they will, I’ll slowly reintroduce those slashed stats to the ship’s sheet.

If they decide that they want to dictate the repairs and refit the weapons, the price will go up to base prices for the new tech, as the mechanics will be forced to rip out the old structural connections and completely rebuild and replace. However, the repairs being left unchecked, since the old structural connections and the like are still there, just degraded and damaged, are still easier to fix. As such, going baseline will have the equivalent of a ten percent discount on the tech.

Either way, the repairs will be a slow process, but this way, if the players are interested in building up their ship to the specs that they desire, it is still an option. They want these guns instead of those ones? Well great, that’ll cost more, but here you go: one month’s wages and now you have some fancy ion cannons instead of a heavy turbolaser battery.

The Spin Off

But wait, I mentioned a previous group of players, ones who are murder-hobos. Despite their antics, they’ve still been the group I’ve the longest experience playing alongside, and in their stride, they are pleasant company. Just flawed.

I don’t want them to feel left out, but I’m not comfortable running a campaign with them when their answer to a boat rental service charging too much is to threaten the owner’s livelihood. How do I get around that? How do I let them contribute to the setting without having sessions that can’t stay on topic?

Alas, I have a method that allows them to be murder-hobos and not have it be a bad thing.

It is called Imperial Assault!

The idea will be that I’m going to create custom missions for Imperial Assault, missions based around what the RPG sessions have done. The outcomes can also affect what’s going to happen to the RPG group.

An adversary was defeated and presumably killed? The Imperial Assault group are given a mission where a team from the adversary’s faction engage in a Search and Retrieval operation to find the body. They succeed and they find the adversary in time and give them medical attention, so they have a chance to return, more than a little peeved at the RPG cast for the experience. The Assault cast fail to reach the objective in time and the adversary is gone for good.

Or, a more direct influence: RPG cast are captured and session ends. One of the more influential NPCs they haven’t alienated might send the Assault crew to blow up a generator, cutting the power and shifting things in the favour of the RPG team while they are enacting their escape. Or maybe, if they’re unable to think of a way to begin the escape, the power cut from the generator sabotage is what allows them to get started on the escape. Of course, they’ll be in someone’s debt, whether they believed they needed it or no.

If the RPG crew reach the point of creating their own mercenary organisation, they can even set the missions for the Assault crew.

I like the idea of doing this because, as I said, murder-hobos or not, that group are generally enjoyable to game with, and they’ve been better with Imperial Assault than with RPGs, so this way I still get to enjoy time with them, they don’t feel left out, and the setting has been enriched with events happening beyond just the scope of the RPG crew’s actions. Everybody wins.

Is it extra work for me? Yes. Am I willing to do this? Yes.

f I ever get Armada or a similar game, I might find a way to implement them later - might be interesting for background space battles between feuding factions - but for now, Imperial Assault is the only game used in a spin-off.

Am I Over Thinking the Plot?

A fair question. I’m aware of the Prep-Situations, Not Plots articles. Am I possibly doing myself a disservice?

I don’t personally think so. I’ve made a fair amount of notes, giving me a vague timeline of events as they’d happen if the players decide to repeatedly boot my hooks in the face and just joyride about the sandbox, so events will be constantly working in the background.

Eventually, even if they ignore these events, they will gradually catch up to the players, the balance of power will shift, previously friendly planets will come under new management, factions will become emboldened by their off-screen successes and be willing to attack unprovoked, etc.

But, if that’s how the crew opt to go, that’s their choice. I have a setting, there are planets, and there are opportunities on them. They can play this Farscape style, or Firefly style, or Grand Theft Auto in space style if they so desire.

I’ll make it clear from the beginning the kind of theme I’d prefer they exhibit, but so long as they don’t do something completely outrageous, I’ll manage. GM-Player honesty is important. And as I said earlier, I think this group are of the role play variety, not the roll play or the murder-hobo variety. But time will tell.