Has anyone done any adventures in the underbelly of Coruscant? I could use a bit of inspiration for my Clone Wars campaign.

The game I'm running tomorrow will be set on Coruscant, as the three current players will be returning to the Jedi Temple to give a report on their current mission. I'm also using the opportunity to introduce two new players, one is a Clone Captain, the other a Jedi Padawan.

The Clone Captain will be easy enough to introduce. The players will be meet him in 79's Cantina, where he is currently enjoying medical leave after suffering an injury in his last mission. He's now recovered enough to be reinstated into active duty, and is being assigned to the Clone Legion connected to my players' group.

For the Padawan character, I decided to spice up the introduction a bit. Coruscant is a fun planet with a ton to do on it, and I don't want to waste the opportunity visiting such an interesting planet by only focusing on the temple and a cantina. So I thought it'd be fun to have her be assigned to the party as part of her Knight trials. This will be her first time leaving Coruscant since becoming a Jedi. However, instead of her just being tossed with the party in the temple, I thought it'd be fun if she was currently on a mission in the underbelly of Coruscant, with the party having to locate her after she missed her last check in.

So, with all that said, what do you think would be some fun challenges in Coruscant's undercity? Naturally, there will be a few armed thugs here and there. But I'm looking for a way to really challenge my players mentally, with some fun investigation or puzzles to solve, instead of basic murder-hoboing until they find the Padawan. Any fun ideas for what mission the Padawan has been assigned?

There's the Free RPG Day adventure Under a Black Sun, which you can grab off FFG's EotE page, found under resources I believe. It's fairly narrow in scope, but does deal a good bit with Coruscant's underbelly, so that's something.

I recall somebody did a prequel adventure to the above, but don't remember who it was or the adventure's name. It's possibly in the stickied thread for resources, so searching there under adventures might help you track it down.

17 hours ago, Underachiever599 said:

So, with all that said, what do you think would be some fun challenges in Coruscant's undercity? Naturally, there will be a few armed thugs here and there. But I'm looking for a way to really challenge my players mentally, with some fun investigation or puzzles to solve, instead of basic murder-hoboing until they find the Padawan. Any fun ideas for what mission the Padawan has been assigned?

I would suggest watching the show Altered Carbon, for inspiration on how to make it look. Obviously that show is far more adult rated than most people like for their Star Wars, but the "massive city so large that the lower levels never see the son, and exist in a perpetual darkness only lit by neon holograms" is done REALLY well. Another great one would be the show The Expanse. Both of them really do well to visualize the cyberpunk grime of a massive city and complex of people. Also, both Bladerunner films of course.

I would make sure to point out the near constant hum of people and machinery, the street dwellers eeking out an existence by siphoning resources from the various pipes and conduits heading up to the surface dwellers. The constant sheen of wetness and grime on a lot of the stuff.

As for challenges/objectives to give them, you have a wide range of options. You could have them encounter various street groups that need help of one kind or another, either in the form of direct resources, or dealing with some group that preys upon them. This group might be part of a larger crime organization, and by standing up to them on behalf of the downtrodden, you could introduce some recurring villains later on in the campaign. Sure the thugs they fought were just street level toughs, but they were beholden to the Black Sun Syndicate (though the PCs/Players don't know that), and now that they've been removed, their pit boss has to answer to the next in the chain about why they've lost a source of income/resources.

Perhaps they simply get lost in the ever-winding alleys and tunnels that make up the "streets" of the underbelly, and they have to do various survival/coordination/athletics challenges to try and get their bearings again, and stumble into problems on the way. Like having to go through a landfill/recycling center, and fighting off creatures that live in the detritus (you know, like that eyeball monster that somehow got onto the DEATH STAR and was living happily in their filth. Seriously that makes no sense. )

Stuff like that would be a good place to start.

They could discover a plot to kidnap someone important, maybe this is where the padawan is. They need to unravel the details to stop the kidnapping, but in doing so discover the intended victim is doing something illegal and/or dangerous, but has money and political connections to protect himself. If the group helps him, they earn some favor with the dirtbag. They could also just quietly let him get what's coming.