Hi there,

my campaign will be soon have a climax of the current chapter. The game is set only a few months after Episode 1. One of the PCs is a Jedi youngling who was sent to the Agricultural Corps because she didn't found a master to take her as Padawan. On the way to the Corps she crash landed on Ord Mantell (this is where the campaign began). At the climax she will finally able to leave the planet and the Order already knows about her whereabouts. On Ord Mantell she shortly met Count Dooku who recently defected from the Order to start his own merry band of Jedis to form the Dark Acolytes. He only mentioned that he will sent someone to collect her (because he thinks that the talents of countless younglings are getting wasted by the Jedi Order) and left.

So the Jedi Order and the Dark Acolytes will both sent a Jedi Knight to the spaceport. My idea is that both knights meet each other in the spaceport and an epic Jedi duel starts. The PCs can't directly interfere in the duel but they could aid one the Jedis by creating advantages or disadvantages for the other one.

1. How would you handle the indirect combat?

2. From the perspective of the youngling, what are good reasons to stay with the Jedi Order or join the Dark Acolytes?

3. Any other insight?

Thanks in advance!

As far as indirect combat goes, perhaps look to the final duel of Episode I for inspiration. Despite lacking combat experience, Anakin still managed to help out Padmé's squad by destroying the Droidekas with an N-1 starfighter. You mentioned that the kinghts will be meeting the PC in a spaceport, so perhaps arrange for the fight to take place in an area with heavy machinery or ships that the PC can use to help out the knight she chooses, perhaps with the added responsibility of getting a means of escape ready in case the fight goes south.

The PC might believe that the Jedi, being a legal, state-certified institution, truly are the face of justice in the galaxy, and that this is her chance to prove her worth to the Jedi Knight (much as Obi-Wan did for Qui-Gon in the old Jedi Apprentice books). Alternatively, she may believe that the Dark Acolytes, as an unregulated organization, can do more good for the galaxy than the Jedi who are stuck behind red tape.

Be very careful to make sure that you're not simply narrating your version of duel of the fates to your player. Be willing to accept that you may need to make up scenarios on the fly (like a falling structure, à la Episode II), or that the fight will be short and rather anticlimactic due to a series of lucky (or unlucky) rolls. Even without a climactic ending, however, a fight can still have a lot of gravity. Perhaps, in the event of a short fight, the losing knight's allies are hot on the PC's heels, possibly leading into a frantic chase through the spaceport or even in space.

Aye. Episode 3 had the right with it on that one; either help Windu or Palpatine, neither of them consider you a threat as they set about dueling eachother, so the first blaster bolt/swing narratively blindsides them, dealing them a mortal blow.

Or alternatively this isn't the last meeting of these two people but merely the first; whoever is the other party prepared some extra assistance incase the Jedi order interfered/the acyolyte cabal was discovered. In which case what would happen would be a chase; which would then set up the first nemesis hurdle for your PC to overcome while immediately establishing a mentor figure. Perhaps given this force that it might not be immediately possible to make it to the location, in which case taking a few pit stops along the way can create an adventure of learning and evasion which can end up with the PC and the mentor facing up to the remaining chasers.