I just finished watching the Adventure Builder's Workshop which is eight 15 minute videos from Gen Con 2010 hosted by Rodney Thompson, Chris Perkins and Bruce Cordell. The information discussed is fairly basic (but still informative especially for newer GMs) but the biggest take away from me is how fun it would be to crowdsource an adventure. The task I set before the players and GMs of this forum is to build and outline a fully functional adventure that can be used in nearly any EOTE campaign.

Steps:

• Villain
• Locations
• Story/Agenda
• Henchman & Antagonists
• Allies & NPCs
• Reward
• Repercussions

Starting with the Villain we want an NPC with at least a few of the following traits:

• A defined goal and motivation.
• Conviction that what he wants or does is the right thing to do
• Defining traits, quircks and or characteristics
• Backstory

Once those are set we need to think about things like what the villain does when encountered by the PCs (directly or indirectly) his reactions and proactive actions against the party. Do the PCs meet the villain early on and if so is there an 'out' for the villain or even at the climax does the villain have a way to escape/return in a later adventure? If he dies early on is there an available NPC to replace the villain and carry out his plans?

http://dungeonsmaster.com/2010/09/adventure-builder-workshop-the-villain/ Additional reading on villains.

So who is up first with a seed for our villain?

Resources:

Playlist for Adventure Builder's Workshop

http://dungeonsmaster.com/2010/08/adventure-builders-workshop/ A review/recap of the workshop.

If he dies early on is there an available NPC to replace the villain and carry out his plans?

I'm at work and not really a lot of time to put thought into it, but instead of coming up with a replacement NPC bad guy, lets just build in a The Dragon straight away, someone to beat at the half-way mark so the players feel like they're making ground before they find out about The Man Behind The Man .

If he dies early on is there an available NPC to replace the villain and carry out his plans?

I'm at work and not really a lot of time to put thought into it, but instead of coming up with a replacement NPC bad guy, lets just build in a The Dragon straight away, someone to beat at the half-way mark so the players feel like they're making ground before they find out about The Man Behind The Man .

That also works in a similar vein and I'm not saying the PCs should directly confront the villain early on but if they do there is a chance he dies so if that is an option the adventure needs a backup plan. OR you could have both and The Dragon may or may not be the backup plan.

I like the idea of an Imperial Moff who is working the black market or crime-y stuff on the side. In a way that nothing gets traced back to him, 24 style. But I feel like his motive should be more than just profit, but it should be interesting.

Someone who isn't combat oriented, but is smart, knows how to get away, and knows how to pull strings. Maybe he has a Hutt working for him that players think is the Main enemy and don't find out about the Moff until they face the Hutt.

I like the idea of an Imperial Moff who is working the black market or crime-y stuff on the side. In a way that nothing gets traced back to him, 24 style. But I feel like his motive should be more than just profit, but it should be interesting.

Someone who isn't combat oriented, but is smart, knows how to get away, and knows how to pull strings. Maybe he has a Hutt working for him that players think is the Main enemy and don't find out about the Moff until they face the Hutt.

Very interesting. I agree that something other than 'greed' should be his primary motivation, maybe he wants to be governor of the planet or something of that sort.

The Moff should be the Man Behind the Man. Make the major danger guy that they deal with immediately some massive super strong and dangerous ******* pirate that shoots them down over X planet, and they have to deal with that, fix their ship, and take the guy down and get revenge.

Only to find out that he's on the local Moff's payroll, and he funnels credits directly to that smug jerk.


I vote that you make the huge jerk pirate a Gen'Dai, because those cats are scary.

The Moff should be the Man Behind the Man. Make the major danger guy that they deal with immediately some massive super strong and dangerous ******* pirate that shoots them down over X planet, and they have to deal with that, fix their ship, and take the guy down and get revenge.

Only to find out that he's on the local Moff's payroll, and he funnels credits directly to that smug jerk.

I vote that you make the huge jerk pirate a Gen'Dai, because those cats are scary.

Good stuff although jumping ahead abit. Right now we're focused on the primary villain.

Greed and a power grab seem so pedestrian. I'd be inclined to go with revenge - against the planet? A political defeat at the hands of a bitter rival made the Moff flee with his tail between his legs. He had to work his way up through the imperial chain of command so he could position himself to get "guardianship" of the system? Him working the underworld is laying the groundwork for his big, showy (and almost certainly indiscriminate) revenge.

Greed and a power grab seem so pedestrian. I'd be inclined to go with revenge - against the planet? A political defeat at the hands of a bitter rival made the Moff flee with his tail between his legs. He had to work his way up through the imperial chain of command so he could position himself to get "guardianship" of the system? Him working the underworld is laying the groundwork for his big, showy (and almost certainly indiscriminate) revenge.

Excellent!

I would think the bitter rival would be a Rebel sympathizer who would also be the Patron who brings the PCs in. His convictions seem obvious, he feels he is owed the position that he lost out on and will usurp that authority anyway he can.

While we expound on his motivation and convictions some other things to begin thinking on are his quircks/traits/characteristics

If a Moff is the main villain, how about the idea that at the climax of the adventure the PCs discover that the big new crime syndicate that's dominating a planet is actually a front for the Empire? After all, what better way to control everybody than to be responsible for the law *and* the crime?

If a Moff is the main villain, how about the idea that at the climax of the adventure the PCs discover that the big new crime syndicate that's dominating a planet is actually a front for the Empire? After all, what better way to control everybody than to be responsible for the law *and* the crime?

Yes, that's good. That's kinda what I was originally getting at with a '24' feel. Something really conspiracy oriented. "hey, there's so much crime, look at how good I am at cleaning it up"

Sounds great!

Very much in keeping with Emperor Palpatine's original plan--he was behind the Separatists who started the Civil War as well as the Republic who were fighting them, controlling both sides in the war as a power grab.

Sounds great!

Very much in keeping with Emperor Palpatine's original plan--he was behind the Separatists who started the Civil War as well as the Republic who were fighting them, controlling both sides in the war as a power grab.

And, at some key moment, before the players discover this, there's a standoff between the Moff (who's actually running the crime syndacate) and the crime syndicate boss. And the Moff betrays the boss and kills him. Similar to Palpatine and Dooku in ep 3.

Or something like that, just spitballing.

Or Walter White and Gus Fring!

Having just binge-watched all 5 seasons of Breaking Bad, I was impressed by how interesting the stories of all the various players in its criminal underworld are, and how all of them have some form of normal lives that they lead, rather than just being generic criminals or villains.

Definitely a lot of inspiration there.

I'm going to start GMing my first EOE campaign tonight. I only started GMing earlier this year and my group are just as new to tabletop RPGs so luckily they have no-one to compare me to. I'm starting off with the beginner kit but I've changed the era to just a year after KOTOR 2 as its a period my party and I are fond of and faction wise, things are alot greyer.

I intend for my villain to be a republic soldier who attempted a coup d'etat during Malachor V and was written out of the history books and imprisoned for years.

What I'm hoping for tips on is his method. I want him to be a star wars equivalent of a low tech terrorist as I want to avoid superweapons and the like for my villain. What I want him to do is to be able to alter a ships astrogation chart so maybe at some point, multiple refugee ships enter lightspeed and rip through coruscant. Not destroy it but serious damage done. Is theer any official way this can be done? Like an astrogation master key so ships charts can be updated without it being detected? Maybe just give him an incredibly good slicer to help?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Quite nervous. Wont be introducing any of this tonight but I want a good headstart on how to set this up

I'm going to start GMing my first EOE campaign tonight. I only started GMing earlier this year and my group are just as new to tabletop RPGs so luckily they have no-one to compare me to. I'm starting off with the beginner kit but I've changed the era to just a year after KOTOR 2 as its a period my party and I are fond of and faction wise, things are alot greyer.

I intend for my villain to be a republic soldier who attempted a coup d'etat during Malachor V and was written out of the history books and imprisoned for years.

What I'm hoping for tips on is his method. I want him to be a star wars equivalent of a low tech terrorist as I want to avoid superweapons and the like for my villain. What I want him to do is to be able to alter a ships astrogation chart so maybe at some point, multiple refugee ships enter lightspeed and rip through coruscant. Not destroy it but serious damage done. Is theer any official way this can be done? Like an astrogation master key so ships charts can be updated without it being detected? Maybe just give him an incredibly good slicer to help?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Quite nervous. Wont be introducing any of this tonight but I want a good headstart on how to set this up

Take a cue from KOTOR 2. The Paragus mining facility was in an asteroid field. It would use it's scanners to chart the asteroids and upload the results to any departing or approaching ships. Maybe your villain sabotages such a concept (doesn't have to be a mining facility...but a system whose use is to upload nav data to ships) which causes a crap ton of ships to crash.