WeaponsFree,

I really like that idea, requires no PC connections and allows for play freedom when creating their PCs.

Can you go into some of the scenes you went with? what worked, what didn't and how you might troubleshoot on the spot players getting into too much trouble in this type of start?

Thanks

KSWW

In my current campaign...

Most of the PCs started out as crew aboard the same ship, a small freighter. All except for the Young Jedi. The first three sessions was the crew being hired by a Senatorial Aide to go pick up this man (Hidden Jedi) and his boy (not really, but the PC Padawan).

I flipped back and forth between the Jedi Master teaching the Padawan lessons in the forest, and the crew having to duck Imperial Complications and Pirates while getting to the planet. The old Jedi hired them to take him somewhere first, and then to a third planet, all the way really impressing the crew with his talents. The kid wasn't too bad either, with their laser swords.

Vader was waiting for them. The old Jedi went down while fending off Vader, the crew barely made it out alive, but decided the kid had special enough talents to keep around.

Thus they set off to make their untold, and so far unattained, riches in the galaxy.

For my Age campaign, I had them all start as midshipmen serving onboard a Nebulon B Frigate. Different trades, but all the same rank, bunking together, off time together, etc. They then got thrown into some missions as their skills complemented one another.

My players met an a prison transport. They had been arrested by the Republic Army for loitering, instigation, theft or simply for existing. Getting out and some new IDs was fun.

Campaign started in Edge and moved into Force & Destiny.

En route to Toydaria from Nar Shaddaa, my PC's received a message from a wealthy private collector who had a proposition for them. He rerouted the ship (which he secretly owned), and brought them to his private yacht/museum. The collector (who I based on a mix of Willy Wonka and Benicio Del Toro's Collector from the MCU) told the PC's that a rival collector had commissioned a prototype hyperdrive from the Empire and it was being shipped out in a couple of weeks on a long convoy full of tech goodies.

The collector wanted them to steal that hyperdrive, just to spite his rival.

BUT

The Corporate Sector, the Empire, the Rebellion, Black Sun (posing as a shipping company), and Doorla the Hutt all had stakes in the convoy too, so stealing the hyperdrive would be a dangerous navigation. But ultimately they needed to return it to the collector who hired them and he would make it worth their while.

Campaign was a ton of fun. They ended up pissing off all five factions, and ultimately ended up in a ship graveyard over Boz Pity. The finale took place on a dead Separatist capitol ship (like General Grievous' command ship from Ep.III) that had been jammed into a Trade Federation ship and left to decay. They were trying to catch a Gand Master Bounty Hunter named Iggen, who stole the hyperdrive out from under them and ran with a pretty OP sniper rifle named "Dreamer" that was... well, it's OP AF. 1st campaign and we're almost done with our 2nd.

The PC's were all in the same lounge on an Outer Rim world. They were all there for different reasons, but some of their reasons pertained to each other (the swoop jockey was there to pull a publicity stunt, the journalist was there to try to get an interview with the swoop jockey, etc.) Then, with little warning, the city got sacked by the Hutt Cartels; and one particularly well-financed NPC stood up and offered a big sum of cash to anyone who would help him get off-world and back to his home. The PC's found that they made a good team and decided to stick together afterwards.

Hey guys, 1st time on the forums, been a GM for about 2 years now. We started in Edge and are now about to finish a major story arc using Force & Destiny.

My first campaign, I had the PC's all choose a completely independent backstory from each other, but all of them had to have a reason for ending up on a shuttle bound from Nar Shaddaa to Toydaria.

En route, the shuttle was yanked out of hyperspace and forced to change course. PC's discovered the whole thing was a drone shuttle on autopilot.

Before they jumped again on an unknown heading, a holoprojection appeared in each of their cabins of a young human man. He claimed he was a wealthy private collector, and he had the opportunity of a lifetime for them, but he was kidnapping them so they could hear it.

I modeled this guy on a mix of Willy Wonka and Benicio Del Toro's Collector from the MCU. He's a freaking riot to act out.

The guy, Darius Naharo IV, brought them to his private yacht/museum, where he had some crazy antiquities, such as a piece of the Death Star, antique battle droids, General Grievous' body in a case, and even an alpha rancor more than twice the size of Jabba's in Jedi.

Darius claimed a rival collector in the Corporate Sector had commissioned a prototype hyperdrive from the Empire, and it would be shipped to him in a few weeks. Darius wanted the PC's to steal it for him.

BUT

The Rebellion, the Empire, Black Sun, the Corporate Sector, and Doorla the Hutt all had goods they wanted from this Imperial convoy, so getting the hyperdrive wouldn't be easy. Darius didn't care how the PC's acquired the hyperdrive, just so long as they brought it back to him when they did.

So he sent them on their way with only an idea of where they might find the shipping manifests that would detail where the convoy would be stopping and when it would be moving.

The campaign was a ridiculous amount of fun. My PC's ended up pissing off ALL 5 factions, and they ended up chasing down a Gand Master Bounty Hunter to a derelict Separatist capitol ship (basically Grievous' ship at the beginning of EP.III), where the bounty hunter had taken their hyperdrive. They had to hunt him down in this massive ghost ship full of inactive droids, pirates, and poisonous centipedes I came up with. In the end I also gave them the bounty hunter's sniper rifle "Dreamer" for their trouble. The thing is OP AF but still, such fun!

Loved WeaponsFree's idea, so I twisted it into my own and thought I would share my two PCs I sent to (Him) <-{didn't want to assume}. sorry it's so long, two separate PMs put together.

KSW

,

Loved your idea about the prisoners being setup for execution on the star destroyer. My campaign will be starting in about a month to 6 weeks.

My course of action is no PCs know each other but 2. Using the fan made spark of the rebellion, but set roughly 2 years before that. I asked players to not share PC careers, but select archetypes for their PCs and they can share that. I am only allowing a single FORCE user, players with the wish to play the FORCE must roll off, but won't see their own die rolls. All players will be rolling in the minimum to add tension to the determination of who gets that single spot even if they don't wish to play the prime force user. Even a player who plays a droids in the end. The resulting die pools will provide me as a GM insight into what kind of effects in the past the FORCE has had on their lives. It also will partially dictate what kind of influence the prime force user has been brought up on, Darkside or Lightside or some shade of grey. Other dice will determine the paths that have been offered to the PC as well.

In the first shot the players will be being transferred from various places on a prison barge-frigate to a Star Destroyer for transport to execution. They will be restrained, subdued and with black bags over their heads. They will also be gagged underneath. Amongst them is a imperial spy triple agent, whose lover is going to aid in the escape. The ships backup power core has been sliced to over load and surge the ships other power sources. However, the sudden jolt causes the engines to fire sending the ship into the frigate, destroying it, and the bridge of the star destroyer in the process. The ship commander isn't aboard the bridge, he was on the way down to review the prisoner exchange, wanting to pull the Force user out of line to pass onto the Emperor to gain favor.

He lives as do a number of his support staff via escape pods. The mortally wounded ship is heading into the uninhabitable moon of a mostly barren ice planet, there is also another moon with a small imperial outpost, the prison. It is more in habitatal, but occupied by imperial army, and a small contingent of storm troopers.

The lover, who dies had brought two large containers of cargo from the frigate-barge which is most of the PCs gear. They were the things he could safely get from the detention facility. The ship commander had the Force users light saber brought to her when the destroyer first arrived. Unfortunately, the lover never knew that the Imperial spy triple agent is still working for the Empire. Though upset the spy is still on task to exposes imperial intelligence leaks, while attempting to gain access to rebel rumors and looking like a trader to the Empire. She can sell some authorized imperial leaks, fabricate others, but at all costs must stay under all three covers.

Hope so, I'm a longtime gamer on both sides of the table, 37 years or so (since I was 9). I wrote up a basic guideline for my fellow players, asked them not to discuss careers only archetypes, instruction on not overstepping their roleplaying skills as players too. Nothing like have a player who can't play a face type PC or a crafty PC try to navigate the roles. I'm not saying it's bad for someone to try it, but some folks just can't or won't ever get it. I told them if you're interested in trying something new, don't play it because it sounds cool and bad azz, play something that will allow you to grow as a player but, will and can grow along with your roleplaying talents.

I came up with my mechanic to determine which player will have the opportunity to play the prime force user. Also, how and what they have been influenced by the Force. Successes still determines the main person, and based on triumphs or despair appearing in their respective die roll sets will be a main factor. Advantages and Threat can influence this as well. A player will require at least 1 Triumph or Despair to start will the most basic force user, either the Force Sensitive Exile or Force Sensitive Emergent with upto 25 XP for only basic Force powers and only the 5 XP options in those trees. Two Triumph or two Despair allow for the player to start a character using the Force and Destiny book, with some limitations. 1 of each allows for upto 50 starting XP be spent with either of the Force Sensitive careers (one of the other), down to the 2nd row.

All Force Sensitive careers will not have a light saber either. Those PCS with either 2 Triumph or 2 Despair have only a basic light saber. Now, having Advantages and Threat allow the players to gain perks. The rolls being blind to the players will really work great here. Advantages will allow players to spend XP on Force career & powers from their starting XP. Despair results will allow for light saber upgrades, or for a Force Sensitive career to gain a basic light saber. Also other gear Jedi/Sith related. A last tidbit, having equal Triumph and Despair gives the PC two Morality/Conflict selections. Lastly, should a player roll 2 Triumph & 2 Despair, they will have a wider choice of Force & Destiny careers. They may take a fighting style career & will receive the option to build their own light saber via the F&D GM screen.

The 3 Force dice will provide a kind of Force journey up till the start of the campaign, along with influences. The Triumphs mean Jedi/Light side based teaching and the Despair results mean Sith/Dark Side based teaching.

The die pool is 2 green, 2 yellow, 2 purple/blue, 2 red & 3 Force

My characters met on a transport to a casino ship. They were all separately hired by a mysterious employer to steal a ship from some casino patrons. Turns out the employer was the R2 unit from an old campaign with one of my players. He was stoked to see the crazy droid again.

The droid had become bored with his old crew and decided to hire a new one to steal him and his ship away from them. So my new players got to commit a heist against the crew from my old game. Almost a literal passing of the torch.

Had an opening crawl explaining some things about Hutt Space, talking about some treasure hunter who died and possibly took the location of a vast stash with him, then put them all waking up bound in a Zygerrian slaver ship without weapons, just their ingenuity to escape. One of them was a protocol droid and one was a tech, captured to work on the droid. The ship had technical troubles, too , because it was hit with ion cannons from an imperial patrol before jumping into hyperspace. So no power was holding those wallcuffs and doors down, the prisoners could quickly come together aas a makeshift team.

The campaign name? Hutt Space Hijinks

I'm currently running three campaigns, one in each setting.

In my EotE campaign all the players began aboard the same Ghtroc transport, which belonged to one of them, as it was crashing in the desert of Tatooine. Why they were aboard the ship I mostly left up to them - crewmembers, hired guards, passengers, whatever.

In the AoR campaign they all started out as Rebels aboard the same Bulk Cruiser that was tasked with establishing a covert base in a sector (not coincidentially, the same sector as my EotE campaign is taking place in). Since they worked so well together on their first couple of jobs, they've been given more jobs as the base is established and the Rebellion is getting a foothold in the sector.

And in the F&D campaign they all found themselves in holding cells in a mysterious covert facility where the Empire conducted unpleasant experiments on Force Sensitives. They escaped together and have been trying ever since to find out who's behind the facility and what they're up to.

Started the players as students in the Imperial academy.

Had them escape to join the rebellion where they where shot down on tatooine .

Then ran the starter box with some changes to meet up with their character.

So I had the empire call ahead and put a bounty on their heads.

At long last, after a flakeout by one player who was going to be important to my PC/NPC's* story, and a last-minute addition of a player whose character could fill that basic function and make it easier to logically keep mine out of the active mix, my campaign kicked off at long last today, and here's how they came together:

Our Zabrak Marshal, Twi'lek Smuggler Pilot, Mon Cal Mechanic, and Squib Heavy were already working together for some time on the ship my Zabrak Smuggler Pilot owns. While the ship was being loaded, they noticed a blonde woman seeming to be in distress, followed by a menacing looking Devaronian, while a human male was also being pursued by an angry Quarren and Shistavanen, while a Wookiee looked on. The humans and Wookiee came on board for passage. What the crew still doesn't fully know is that the blonde is a Scoundrel who stole a valuable artifact from her last mark, a minor lieutenant in a crime organization, because she's (mostly) successfully played the innocent damsel in distress. The human male is a former Imperial Infiltrator/Slicer who just took down a would-be syndicate run by that Quarren. And the Wookiee? He's a Survivalist/Medic interested in the bounties on the humans' heads.

And hijinks ensued.

*(Although I'm primary GM, the plan is for one or two of the other players to occasionally rotate through GM duties, allowing me to play, too.)