Mos Eisley Sandbox

[boot]

MOS EISLEY SANDBOX







Resources



Rebel Breakout - short adventure in the 1E Core Rulebook



Tatooine Manhunt



The Battle of Wayfar - short adventure in Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope revised



Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope revised



Galaxy Guide 7: Mos Eisley







This idea came to me yesterday. I think it would be an interesting adventure. First up, use the above resources, plus some plain old creativity, to create a sandbox for players. Set up lots of little adventures and possibly use other resources. Mos Eisley is ripe for intrigue and adventure.



Set the game concurrently with the movie, A New Hope--or slightly before it.



Have the players create whatever character they would like--use all the Alien books--with the restriction that, whomever the character is, he is currently planet locked on Tatooine with no way to get off the world. If the character owns a ship, then it has been impounded. Whatever job they have, it doesn't take them off world.



Encourage players to play "bland" non-adventurous characters--like Luke starting as a farm boy and then getting caught up in the Galactic Rebellion.



If the player wants to be something adventurous, like a bounty hunter, allow that--but make it so he works for Jabba the Hutt, or something like that, and so far, Jabba has only used him for local, surface work. Surface Smuggler is another idea--running guns or water or whatever to different buyers on Tatooine.



Some ideas--



Bounty Hunter

Surface Smuggler

Gambler.

Information Broker

Pod Racer







Some mundane ideas--



Moisture Farmer

Works at the Mos Eisley cantina

Works at some of the various shops described in GG 7 and in the adventure, Tatooine Manhunt.

Sky Patrol

Guard

Speeder Truck Driver

Works at a junk shop.

Works at a docking bay.



This is just the tip of the iceberg. Allow the player to invent a family, if appropriate. Maybe the character owns a shop or otherwise has some sort of business. You could even tie this a Star Wars version of the player's real job. I've got a player who works for IBM. If he wanted, he could develop some sort of Slicer character, or someone who manages the computers at the spaceport. Whatever.







As the game begins, play it like a sandbox. Maybe the characters don't start the game knowing each other. It's up to them. Allow them to be creative. Whatever it is, it will be something that they will lose--their family, their ship, their business--whatever. Don't tell the players this early, but at some point, the Empire will take something away from them--pissing the player off--so that hatred for the Empire burns in their hearts.



For ideas, some of the non-main plot adventures in Tatooine Manhunt could be used, along with original ideas for adventure. The idea is to build the game, following the characters wherever they go, playing on Tatooine, until it gets to the point to where the characters will be motivated to contact the Rebellion.









Now, here's an important point. At an appropirate moment, I want to spin the campaign by having some scene from a A New Hope (while on Tatooine) play out in front of them. Maybe they're in the cantina when Obi-wan cuts off that dude's arm. Maybe they see the shootout when the Falcon lifts. Maybe the see, over their shoulders, Obi-wan do his mind funk on the stormtroopers when he and Luke arrive.



They could come across the Lars homestead or the burning remains of the Jawa sandcrawler. There's lots of moments that could happen so that the players see the events are happening concurrently with the film.







Then, the adventure could segue into The Battle of Wayfar adventure, Tatooine Manhunt, or Rebel Breakout. I think it would be interesting if they encounter Obi-wan in Mos Eisley just before Kenobi and Luke lift ship on the Falcon. He tells them to seek out the general from Tatooine Manhunt--maybe even doing it using his Force skills.



Then, we play out Tatooine Manhunt, maybe followed by Rebel Breakout--which leaves the PCs with Y-Wings to fly.



The PCs then end the adventure by taking the Y-Wings to their pre-recorded destination, the Rebel Base on Yavin, just in time to participate in the attack on the Death Star.



The PCs go from regular people on Tatooine to being in the Rebellion on that world to making it to the main base and being some of the Y-Wing pilots that attacked the Death Star.



If they get blown up in the engagement (which should be hairy), have them blow a Force Point in order to save their lives--they ejected and are picked up after the battle.



I think this would all be pretty cool.

[Falconer]

Yes, I have been interested in the idea of a Tatooine crawl ever since I saw Jeff Rient’s ideas along those lines. But I would definitely use Tatooine Manhunt (which I do own) and whatever other of those resources I could scrape together.

[boot]

I'm not really working on this sandbox, but I am leisurely reading through GG7. A story in the book caught my attention. I morphed it and came up with an encounter idea.



High Road, Low Road

This encounter would take place outside of Mos Eisely, in the desert. Why the PCs are there, I'm not sure at this point. Maybe they're running a water speeder from Mos Eisely out to (or from a moisture farm to Mos Eisely) Toche Station or another village, or whatever. These water speeders have to be guarded. Lots of things, not the least of which are Tusken Raider parties and groups of Jabba's bandits, will take your water from you if you let them. There's plenty of room for several PCs or just a few. A driver, and his back up (like the old west stage coaches, where the back up is armed with a blaster rifle). Maybe a droid. There can be other PC guards, too (heck, maybe it's a larger caravan instead of one vehicle).

Whatever. The PCs are out in the desert and they come upon...

A very large creature surrounded by Jawas. The creature is snapping and pissed off. The Jawas have a rope around its neck. Maybe have one or two Jawas clinging to the rope, being swung around by the creature, "Ayyeee-yaaaahhh". The creature's snout jets in and clutches a Jawa at the waist. It shakes its head viciously, hacks a hunk out of the Jawa, and parts from the feast fly off in different directions.

But, the creature can't move. It's paw is stuck in a fissure of the old, volcanic rock. It's scales and paw are damaged, bleeding. All it really wants to do is get away.

The little bugger Jawas, though, are determined to kill this thing. They're brave little idiots. They surround the creature and poke it with spears. One Jawa produces this massive looking blaster rifle. He marches up to just out of range of the creature's darting snout, heaves the rifle to firing position with a lot of effort, then pulls the trigger. He misses and blows a hole in the rock behind the creature. The Jawa is knocked back to the ground, on his butt, from the rifle's recoil. Three or four Jawas instantly turn on this one with the big rifle, waving their hands, "Noooaaahhhh. NOOOoooooahhh!" Negative. Don't do that again!

The creature can be something new that we haven't seen on Tatooine before. Just create a new beastie. Call it a Sand Cat, or give it a local name, like a Jigger. Or, you can use something more familiar, like the Krayt Dragon (though I think that one is a poor fit--but could work).

The idea is to have a fairly fierce, pissed off animal being tormented by the Jawas.

But, the Jawas shouldn't be B&W enemies for this scenario. They've got a POV, too. This scenario works best if there is no "right" and "wrong", where the PCs can see why each side is doing what it is doing. The Jawas have a right to rid themselves of dangerous animals just like a settler in the old west would go out to kill the bobcat that had been tearing up his chickens.

The players won't know this, but this entire scenario is a test. If the PCs figure out a way to save the creature, let it go, and do this by not harming the Jawas, then they get a new, bright, shiny Force Point.

Otherwise, they don't.

Play up the creature as fierce, but also make it sympathetic. It was probably just out hunting or looking for water when its foot got stuck. The Jawas heard its struggle or its cries and decided to take the opportunity take it down. Maybe its hide will make a lot of Jawa robes. Maybe the thing's meat tastes pretty good after being cooked on a desert coal fire.

Make it a bit pitiful. The poor thing. Paw hurt, and these damn Jawas screaming in their high-pitched banshee language poking at it from all directions with spears. Maybe it's a moma creature, trying to get back to its cubs. If you're having trouble getting the PCs to feel for the beast, then maybe have one of them make a roll--some appropriate Knowledge roll--for them to realize that the creature is pregnant. That might melt some ice cold hearts that players sometimes get. It's all in the description.

But, don't make the creature too sympathetic. This is a snapping, hurt, cornered, pissed off desert beast of Tatooine. It'll flat out kill ya.

If the players can solve this very dangerous situation in the most peaceful way, then it's the coveted Force Point, all around. The path to the Light Side.

[boot]

MOS EISLEY SANDBOX


Another thing that's got to be part of this are the B'Omarr Monks!

From the moment I saw this creative, interesting, and very "Star Wars" description of a weird droid seen for a second in Return of the Jedi, I've been fascinated with them.

Remember this thing?



When the two droids enter Jabba's fortress at the beginning of the film, 3P0 is startled by this spider-looking droid walking behind it. It's just on screen for a moment. Blink, and you miss it.

So, this one sight gag has been turned into this awesome idea where this order of monks, who are based on Tatooine, have an ultimate goal of having their brains transplanted into these spider-droids.

READ ABOUT THE B'OMARR ORDER HERE.

I mean, how cool is that?