Help Me Prep An Adventure: Pirates!

[Zulgyan]

I share my quick notes for the adventure I'm preparing for tomorrow's game. Help me out if you please.

Cast of PCs:
Maxias Ube-Kai - Jedi Initiate (most experienced PC, has lightsaber and a nice array of force skills)
Mel'Kor Garrin - Minor Grey Jedi (has lightsaber, low force skills)
Samadhi - Diplomat Princess type (good social skills plus medic)
Matilda Erso - female teenage Rebel (beefed up "Kid", good sneaker)
Nieve - Zabrak Warlord (good close-quarters combatant with potent command skill)
UB0 - Assault Droid (frontal combat oriented, with superb blaster, dodge and grenade skills)

Adventures of the campaign so far: Tatooine Manhunt (5 sessions), Rebel Breakout (1 session), Treason at Yavin* (1 session), Starfall (2 sessions).

*homebrew: player's must bring a rebel traitor to justice, who had revealed key Alliance information to the Empire. He is hiding in a cave somewhere in Yavin with other rebels gone rogue.

Time to take a break from the Rebels vs. Empire. "The Pirates of Prexiar", found in the 2E R&E book (p.172) is a great alternative. So now it's rebels vs. a pirate company. Problem is, the adventure is too short and introductory. Goal: Expand this adventure.

Tatooine Manhunt is such a masterpiece. The module has it all: good action, good story, good exploration, cool NPCs to role-play with, sandbox section (Mos Eisley), space combat, even a "dungeon" with Tusken Fort. The module challenges all the skills from the list and provides very varied challenges and makes the players think creatively. This is the model to follow for homebrew adventures.

 

[Zulgyan]

Adventure Goal: same as module, recover stolen rebel supplies (change: maybe something really important was concealed in otherwise mundane cargo).
Bad Guys: as module, Vangar the Pirate Lord and his gang.

Way to expand the adventure: instead of starting the adventure right at the pirate's base, have the base be a secret hideout. Player's must travel to the planet where the hideout is located and arrive to some sort of town not entirely controlled by the pirates (sandbox section). Through investigation and role-playing, PCs can learn how to get to the pirate hideout, transverse the jungle and finally recover the goods, to then escape.

I need a jungle planet with a neutral town full of ruffians and lowlifes.

[boot]

For the jungle planet, take the PCs to Rodia. It is lower tech, tropical, and full of ruffians and lowlifes. Make up a town.

Goo daa doo daa, Solo?


If you want a very secluded place, I just posted in the Worlds thread not too long ago about Varonat.  I think it would suit your needs nicely.


On page 106 of the Gamemaster Handbook For Second Edition, there's a nice little adventure that you could use to expand the one you are using.  It's called Tales of the  Smoking Blaster, and it focuses on shadowports, smugglers, and pirates.  Looks like a fun adventure.

[boot]

If you really want something different, an adventure that could hook into the lost supplies motif is on page 55 of the Star Wars Adventure Journal Vol. 1, No. 1.


This will take the PCs into the Core Worlds!  And, it's a resort planet--Club Caribbean Imperial Style.  Canto Bite in the Core, on a water world.  Casinos and resorts.  Underwater action.  All centered on reclaiming some Rebel supplies dropped on the planet.

The adventure is called, The Spira Regatta.  This is definitely a bit of freshness from your standard PCs vs. the Empire style stuff.


Heck, you could connect all three for a good sized, and adventure varied, mini-campaign.  Pirates of of Prexiar + Tales of the Smoking Blaster + The Spira Regatta.  That, together, could make for a refreshing yet interesting and exciting adventure.  

Why am I feeling that you should throw in the Kuari Princess (See page Galaxy Tours advertisement after page 208 in the 1E core rulebook) as well, as a feature in the adventure?

If that Kuari Princess idea seems neat, then you should check out the WEG adventure, Riders of the Maelstrom.  That would probably serve as a grand climax to this mini-campaign.

Pirates of of Prexiar + Tales of the Smoking Blaster + The Spira Regatta + Riders of the Maelstrom.

[Zulgyan]

Great advice and info. I'll go with Rodia, a devastated version of it. Only a small town is left of that civilization and it's a crime hideout.

What can this town have to make a good sandbox?

[boot]

I was thinking, if you do The Spira Regatta (or, even Riders of the Maelstrom aboard the Kuari Princess), you could throw in a neat scene with Lando Calrissian.  Catch him playing cards, or obviously working a con, maybe looking to make a deal for Cloud City.  This is all pre-Empire Strikes Back, of course--just a fun cameo. I'd keep Lando's involvement to a minimum, but you could use him to quickly same the PC's bacon.

I don't know where you are in your timeline, but if you are getting close to The Empire Strikes Back, you could run the WEG adventure Crisis on Cloud City.  That adventure takes place concurrently with the movie.  It would be a good way to advance the timeline past Episode V.

There's another Cloud City adventure called Freedom No More at the back of the 2E version of GG3.  That one takes place around the same time as Episode V, too.  The Rebel Fleet is massing outside the galactic rim.  You could hook the two Cloud City adventures together, or have the PCs make two different trips to Cloud City, separated by some time.

[boot]

May 25, 2019 9:19:39 GMT -6 Zulgyan said:

Great advice and info. I'll go with Rodia, a devastated version of it. Only a small town is left of that civilization and it's a crime hideout.

What can this town have to make a good sandbox?

There's lots of info of Rodia on the net, since it is the homeworld of the Rodians.  I'd read up on the Rodian race in the Alien Book.  There's usually some info about the homeworld in those write ups.

I know that Rodia is featured in the animated shows, like Clone Wars.

This may be helpful:  CLICK HERE.

I'm sure that you can browse the net and find all sorts of ideas for your sandbox.  I like to browse Google Images.  Seeing a pic inspires ideas, for me.  For example, check out this pic.  Given that, what type of encounter comes to mind?

[Zulgyan]

I need some big jungle beast for a combat encounter.

EDIT: Found it, a Ghest.

[boot]

Time to consult Creatures of the Galaxy.

I bet Rodia is populated with all sorts of beasties.  Rodians are hunters, after all.

As for other sandbox ideas, I like to set up gambling games.  There's always a tavern (maybe a hunter's lodge) where people gather.  Time for Sabacc or some other game.  Check out Fizzel, a gambling game I designed for the SW RPG.  You can find it starting HERE, the post from Sat Mar 31, 2018.

Gambling games like this lead to roleplaying, adventure, interesting NPCs, and a memorable romp at the tavern.  Fun times.

[boot]

Also, let's not forget droids. Maybe you can come up with some interesting NPC droids. I keep getting this scene in my head with the PCs, deep in the Rodian outback, trying to elude these droids that are hunting them. Flying droids, using a repulsorlift disk instead of legs. Sensors. A swiveling read eye that can turn 380 degrees. It locks onto you, using laser targeting in the ultra UV that human's can't see (maybe some aliens can).

Domed head with central red eye. Dome swivels completely around.

Then, the body of the droid containing brain, extendable manipulator arms, power cell, tibanna reservoir, sensor computer, public address vocoder, internal comm, etc.

Then, the repulsorlift disk that the droid uses for locomotion.

And, finally, a repeating blaster that sits on a pipe that serves as a turret. The blaster can angle straight down, up to a 45 degree angle, and around 360 degrees.

I'll call it: HUN-C units. HUN-C4, HUN-C8, HUN-C9, etc.

Using the quick rules in the core rulebook, it will be a snap to add some stats to this droid.

[boot]

Or...

Sometimes I'll find a pic on the net that I like, then add in the droid's capabilities.  Like this.  It could serve the hunting droid purpose.




Just looking at this pic, I'd say it's "head" is place at the lowest part of the body, below the gun and locomotion section.  The droid has four "eye" sensors.  Two face forward, and two face backward.  The blue strip between the rear facing "eyes" is another sensor.  The long anntena is for comms/control.  This droid can be run with human input from a far-off station as a drone, or it can act independently.  The square blue section on the top aft of the droid is a human-interface screen for the droid.

The two circular blue rings to each side of the droid provide a large amount of thrust or lift.  This droid can fly and scan from high above, or it can hug the ground.  It's normal operating mode is to move about at about eye-level or just above.

The big flaw in this droid is its droid brain.  It's not a sophisticated droid.  That's why there's a human interface option to use the droid as a drone.  There's not enough room in the upper chasis for much beyond the droid's basic needs to operate and the three heavy blasters.  Therefore, the droid can be fooled much like a human guard can be fooled.

[boot]

The drone option on the droid above could be a Rodian thing, too. Rodians are hunters. Maybe they think of hunting by droids distasteful and require Rodian input.



Now, I'm remembering Episode VI.  I'm thinking, "chase scene".  Dense, Cambodia-like foliage.  Speeder bikes?  CLICK HERE.  With these drone/hunter-killer droids racing through the leaves, trying to acquire a target on the PCs.  CLICK HERE.

Thick foliage.  Quiet.  Then, from over head, ZOOM.  ZOOM-ZOOM-ZOOM!  Three speeder bikes race into view from behind us.  They disappear quickly, as line of sight in not far.

It is quite again.  Now, a hum.  Mechanical.  Four floating droids, roughly spherical with blaster weapons jutting from the design, raise from their camoflaged positions in the waist deep undergrowth.  All are now fixed on the speeder bikes that just zipped by.  

CHEW!  CHEW-CHEW!  CHEW!  All four of them accelerate at incredible speeds, darting off in the direction of the bikes.

Can you imagine this cool seen.  The droids catching up with the bikes, beginning to fire on them.  A speed chase and combat through the dense jungle!

In this jungle, maybe the speeder bikes need more protecting.  CHECK OUT THIS ONE!

[boot]

Here's a couple of ideas for jungle beasties.  Throw some stats on them.

Big one:  CLICK.

Smaller one:  Click.




Also, for the sandbox, I'm thinking of that scene in Romancing the Stone where Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner come across the downed smuggling plane.  Maybe do something like that, Star Wars style?  A downed ship, lost in the jungle for years?  Maybe it has supplies that the PCs desperately need, like a medpac.


And, let's not forget weather and natural disasters.  Tropical rains can be incredibly severe.  Remember the mud slide scene in that same movie?  You could set up some sort of throw that the PCs have to make every so often if on foot.  If they fail it, zoom, there they go!  Down a slide!

[boot]

I found these maps.  They're perfect to develop into a sandbox.




I think this was created for Kashyyyk, the Wookiee homeworld, but there's no reason that you can't use it for the outback of Rodia.  You can develop the areas (what's in the Dead Forest?) for your game.  Your players will just think it is cool.

[boot]