The PCs have recently decided to go on a mission to transport a mysterious individual through a relatively uncharted area, to where he claims is his rich families vacation home, on a secluded planet solely there for the rich and prestigious of high society. He normally would not stoop so low so as to take the help of petty riff-raff like the scum the PCs are, but alas, his family has recently been framed as Rebel sympathizes, and he hopes to be able to meet them there and hide away until this all blows over.

At least, that's what he tells the group. Whether or not he is telling the truth is up to the individual GM, although having him be right that he hopes to hide away with his family but that he's actually a part of the Rebellion and trying to protect his family could be hidden from the players.

What is certain is that eventually, along the way, they comes across a sudden and unexpected magnetic field. It pulls them out of hyperspace, and crashes them into a jungle planet. Escape pods may be advised, although sticking to the ship might work for them, if the players wish to (or are forced to because of recent difficulties or GM espionage).

Upon landing, the PCs find themselves surrounded by a vast, crowded jungle, full of strange life. Every now and then, they can hear the recognizable blast of a sporting rifle, and may follow it to their destination. Alternatively, they may come across the individuals that it is imperative they find.

Eventually, they may come across a large mansion. As they approach, several droids come out and stop the PCs at gunpoint. If the PCs are friendly enough, they are greeted by a friendly seeming Trandoshan who apologizes for the droids, stating that they are necessary to keep game from attacking his mansion. If they attack the droids, skip straight to the hunt.

If the PCs found the Trandoshan in the jungle, he will at first seem to target them, then lower his gun and greet the PCs. He will speak of being a hunter, and tell a bit of his story, until they reach the mansion.

If the PCs are at the mansion, he will invite them to dinner. The Trandoshan, who is named Comadore Zagoroff, tells them he story of his life; he was of higher birth, and he learned to hunt very early on, shooting small birds, and one day killing one of his fathers prized dewbacks from his personal pasture. Instead of punishing him, Zagoroff's father praised him, and took him out on many hunting trips. However, one day, they were hunting in the forests of Kashyyk, tracking some of the indigenous life (not Wookiees), when they turned up in a cove. The cove resounded with the sound of distant blaster fire, and soon they found a squad of clone troopers entering the cove. The shot Zagoroff's father, and Zagoroff fled. The next day, he hunted down the clones who had killed his father, as they were a squad, and killed them all in the night.

After that, he became a mercanary, doing odd jobs in his career as the chaos of the rise of the Empire ensued, and eventually had emassed enough funds to begin hunting again. He started with large game, with got larger and larger with time. He started hunting rancors and Krayt dragons, but even they proved too easy. He started to hunt all creatures he could find across the galaxy, but one day he came to the shocking realization that he was bored of hunting, the sole purpose of his life.

He knew at that point that he could no longer hunt animals. He had to create a new animal to hunt.

He will go on for a while, maniacally explaining the fine details of creating this ship trap, always hinting at his true intention, but never quite stating it. Even if the PCs ask him directly, he will only explain his reasoning, and that it was only fair that he should remove what little share he could of inferior life. If you haven't guessed it yet, he is huntin people.

He will very calmly show them how it works, how he has set up magnetic satellites over the surrounding space to draw in weaker ships, such as freighters and fighters. He then gives them a fighting chance, of course, and allows them supplies and a short rest, and makes sure they land in the right vicinity of the planet so he need not travel far. But in the end, the matter is that he will try to hunt down and kill the PCs just for kicks.

The rest of the adventure should be straight forward. The PCs run away, and Zagoroff, who has amazingly high tracking and fighting skills, will hunt them down. He uses a sporting rifle, which is weaker but has longer range, and will always seem to be right behind the PCs. He will sometimes let them go, in order to keep on with the hunt, but in the end his goal is to kill them. He only let's the, go if he catches them without even trying, and even then injures them.

Note that this campaign sticks the players on a planet, and they may not be okay with the fact they are stuck with a madman in unknown space. But the point of this campaign, besides referencing a popular story, is to give the players a sense of "You could die at any moment." It's good if the players have gotten over cocky and need to be shown that you can't shoot your way out of any situation. Zagoroff fights from a distance, and will snipe you out one by one. He has a private army of droids protecting his mansion, and the planet is covered in dangerous, exotic life. Zagoroff is an opponent that gives the players a real feel for the world around them, and should seem friendly and helpful then evil and insane. This is overall a test of skill, as your main goal is not to kill Zagoroff, but to escape. The ship can be repaired, the remains of other vessels can be found, communications can be made with larger ships that can survive the magnetic satellites, over all, they are here to survive in the world of a madman, not destroy it.

Oh, and I'll let you guess what story this is based off of.

that kind of reminds me of a graphic audio story i have titled the serrano legacy not sure of spelling. but i do believe predator used that premise too if i am correct. and it escapes me but another popular story also uses that same plot.

Cool idea! This is "The most dangerous game", and I love this awesome movie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Most_Dangerous_Game_(film) . I already thought about a similar scenario based on the Japanese movie called "Battle Royale", but that is more interesting. Question is within this plot: In the mansion of the hunter, why don't the Players try to kill him? Too much security droids? As soon as they find out about his obsession, the fight would start immediately...

I also would not explain too much first. The hunter uses his power beam to catch new "prey". Simple failure of the ship electronics, it got into the gravity field of the planet and they crash. The sublight drive is damaged, they will need new parts. They got found by the hunter, he picks them up and tells them something about living on this planet as a rich guy, beeing bored of business on "The Wheel" . The next day together they start travelling to a wrecked ship to get the parts.

On the way Zagoroff tells him about his mad addiction to hunt and getting bored by normal creatures. That's when battle droids came in and the hunt begins. Later they may find another survivor who managed to hide in a cave for months and who gives them further informations about the satellites and where to find the parts for real. Deal is to get him off the planet alive...

I suppose I ought to add on a bit:

Zagoroff will tell you that he hopes to take you on a hunt. He wishes to have another to join in his new little game, and you seem the perfect candadite. If you accept, while traveling he 'loses' you and begins the hunt. If you refuse, he seems disappointed, then comes up who the idea that he will hunt you. Either way, you know he's hunting you and you get a head start.

He will give you one week; if you elude him (and his pack of nexus) he lets you go. If he catches you, then you die. If you do last a week, he will find you via scanners, then give you a large cash prize and fix your ship, and then send you away with the threat that telling on his maniacal little game will get you in trouble.

Because in truth, the Empire allows for this little game of Zagoroff's. They send hard to get enemies his way, and he deals with them. The reason the noble might have been going this way was because all other routes were blocked, and the only path led by Zagoroff.

I might think of more later, but that's it for now. Thoughts?

Only concern I have is how to prevent the PCs from immediately trying to shoot him when they find out his deal, i.e. if he launches into explanation at his manor. I suppose being surrounded by battle droids could make that harder but guaranteed PCs will try it.

Only concern I have is how to prevent the PCs from immediately trying to shoot him when they find out his deal, i.e. if he launches into explanation at his manor. I suppose being surrounded by battle droids could make that harder but guaranteed PCs will try it.

When the PCs first meet him, he talks about his private army of battle droids (that means over one hundred), and shows off his nexu pack and brags of a "modest degree of skill," meaning he's an expert at combat and tracking. He will immediately try to intimidate the PCs.

Also, this is a good time to make use of fear, considering that you are being hunted down by the best tracker in the known galaxy (at least, he plays the part).

I wouldn't suggest using this with a "kill-'em-all" kind of group, unless you through them fit into the hunt.

Still a work in progress, though. I'd appreciate any other issues that you may perceive. I know that this should work with my group, who I hope are mature enough not to immediately shoot their only hope for survival.

"Fallback to the ship, secure a perimeter. The mech will begin work on repairing the ion engines so we can break atmo. Harvest whatever parts you need to make it happen--even the refresher. We'll piss in a can if we have to. [turns] You take the turret. Blast any of those battle droids that come within range. Once we're airborne, we'll fire our last missile at that guy's dumb house because it'll make me feel better."

"Fallback to the ship, secure a perimeter. The mech will begin work on repairing the ion engines so we can break atmo. Harvest whatever parts you need to make it happen--even the refresher. We'll piss in a can if we have to. [turns] You take the turret. Blast any of those battle droids that come within range. Once we're airborne, we'll fire our last missile at that guy's dumb house because it'll make me feel better."

Sadly enough for our little mites, the magnetic field holds the ships in unless Zagoroff turns them off. He will only do this if the PCs win the game and survive, and at that point he will fix the ship.

And if at that point they bomb the house... Well, it's not like we'll ever use him again.

Ake sure that you explain that it is impossible to escape at the beginning, so that they don't feel like you're just stopping them from doing what they want. You may want to ignore some of my suggestions, so the players feel more free.

Feels a little too "railroad" for my tastes but if it works for your players, have fun with it.

I'd probably bring them to the planet under different circumstances. Somehow figure out a way for them to voluntarily get away from their ship, like perhaps a giant paintball (or blaster tag, or whatever) resort where everyone gets "beam markers" instead of blasters for an afternoon or two of fun. The arena is enclosed in a giant magshield that prevents entry or exit as there is dangerous wildlife on the planet. Things become serious when the PCs realize they're being shot at by real blasters by some other team. If they attempt to evade pursuit, they find a second entrance on the opposite end of the resort that caters to a different class of customer--one that wishes to hunt "dangerous live prey." The players then have decisions to make:

1. Attack their hunters and steal their weapons.
   • Very dangerous but it makes any of the later strategies easier.
   • Chances are, the players will have already done this. Some people just never run away from a fight no matter how stacked the odds are against them.
2. Attempt to escape to the "Blaster Tag Game" entrance and get back to their ship.
   • There is most certainly going to be hunters in the way as they expect the PCs to come back that way. Possibly even traps.
   • The resort owner likely doesn't expect the PCs to ever return and has already begun stealing valuables from the ship or harvesting parts. Getting spaceworthy may take time.
   • The hunters, wanting to "get their money's worth" do not stop pursuit and may even attack the staff on this end of the resort.
   • They players will still have to deal with the magshield to escape.
3. Storm the "Most Dangerous Game" entrance, take it, and then plan their next move.
   • Probably what the resort owners least expect. The players can start to get very creative or malicious now.
   • Maybe there are "upgrades" that the danger side offers to customers at a price to make their hunting easier? Speeders, heavy weapons, explosives, etc. Don't make it anything too big as you can expect your players to keep anything and everything they find as a "reward."
   • Probably best to have the hunters dropped off otherwise the players will just steal their ship, too. Could be part of the protocol for the facility since the resort owners want to limit the chance of some unhinged scoundrel having access to heavy ship-mounted firepower.
4. Find the shield generators (hidden guarded facility in the center of the arena) and disable them, allowing easy escape but now the indigenous life including some apex predators enter the game and start hunting everybody.
   • Heh. It's the "Jurassic Park" escape scenario. Cue MORE John Williams soundtracks!

There ya go. Now you've got story elements of betrayal for the setup and revenge for the conclusion. Each choice that the players make opens up new opportunities. That sounds exciting to me.

The trick is to make them want to play the game but make them believe that it was their decision to do so in the first place. In the original 1924 story of The Most Dangerous Game, (SPOILERS, but really, the story is almost ninety years old) Rainsford didn't have to return to General Zaroff's mansion... He wanted to. He wanted to sleep in that comfy bed and he was going to do whatever it took to make that happen. Well, ok... He probably actually wanted revenge. The bed was icing on the cake.

It needs work to somehow convince the players that they really do want to take a paintball vacation. Maybe drop adverts for the planet around the greater campaign metaplot and make this a side trip... Like the onsen episode that's in every anime TV show in existence--there's always that one hot springs resort that the main characters want to go to and now they finally have the time only it turns out to be more than they expected.

Like that but without the naked bits.

Only concern I have is how to prevent the PCs from immediately trying to shoot him when they find out his deal, i.e. if he launches into explanation at his manor. I suppose being surrounded by battle droids could make that harder but guaranteed PCs will try it.

You could always have the Trandoshan deliver the message via a holo, perhaps one of those walking holoprojectors that the Neimoidians use in Episode I.

-Nate

Only concern I have is how to prevent the PCs from immediately trying to shoot him when they find out his deal, i.e. if he launches into explanation at his manor. I suppose being surrounded by battle droids could make that harder but guaranteed PCs will try it.

You could always have the Trandoshan deliver the message via a holo, perhaps one of those walking holoprojectors that the Neimoidians use in Episode I.

-Nate

Good idea. I also had an idea where the Empire sends the PCs to find a criminal on the planet after they get in trouble, as a redemption, and then it turns out that Zagoroff is meant to kill them. If Zagoroff dies, then that's one more killer out of the way, and one less connection. If the PCs die, then mission accomplished.