I'm SO behind on posts these days, but hopefully this will get folks up to speed on my "
steal the Death Star plans" mini campaign (designed to be a two-parter) that I'm running for
Saturday Night Space Opera.
Before you go any further, check out the
opening crawl, which sets the scene and time in the Star Wars universe.
So in our first session, which took place in March, we had three beginning PCs (all played by veteran roleplayers though admittedly, none of us have played WEG Star Wars in a loooooong time).
- Chin Duo - Human smuggler, captain of The Betsy (modded YT-2000ish series freighter)
- Hera - Twillek pirate and her astromech companion R2-B3
- Zexy - Human cyborg pirate with protocol droid SPA-R3 (a.k.a. "Spare")
"The reward will be...more well than you can imagine."
They're individually recruited by a podracing team franchise owner named Daleu H'rndhar, a Bothan businessman turned spy. His team is competing in a race on Malastare (yes, Qui Gon, the races there are indeed
very dangerous). The PCs are being hired to become part of his team to pull of the biggest heist in the galaxy--stealing the plans to the Death Star! He's offering competent takers a spacecruiser full of credits to join his crew.
After bribing, charming, or conning their way into the VIP lounge to meet their future boss, they get a few details about their mission and then get their first test--chasing down a would-be assassin attempting to take out Daleu. See, there are a LOT of people trying to get these plans--including a rival Hutt cartel, run by Neku the Hutt. She's as ruthless as they come and keen on taking out the competition.
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| A much better racing movie, BTW. |
After some EXTREMELY lucky rolls, they catch up to her (something that was supposed to happen AFTER a really exciting chase which spilled into the giant, orbital corkscrew raceway filled with in-track booby traps and involved the characters taking over pods in mid-race to apprehend her ...BUT WHATEVER.).
Instead, they catch her almost immediately. :-( She offers up only clues to a deeper conspiracy (a strange tattoo, and a warning that "more are coming". The assassin bites down on a cyanide pill and dies, like a true professional.
The PCs have attracted a lot of attention and more of Neku's gang are on their way, plus racestation police. The PCs, uh, "hide" her corpse, in hopes of avoiding blame...in a space ficus plant. (What do you want? They caught her in a large, well-lit hallway!)
"We're in a bit of a rush, so if you'll be so kind to step aboard, it would be appreciated."
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| The Betsy |
They make it to Chin's ship, The Betsy - only to find more of Neku's thugs. Playing coy in a confrontation of scumbag posturing, the PCs take Neku's band by surprise--out scoundreling them to get close enough to set their blasters under the chins of the thugs.
Neku's crew is forced to disarm, give up their credits, their IDs and the keys to their ship in another hangar. Again, time is of the essence, so they board quickly and make their way out of system, leaving the Neku gang tied up with their own clothes.
The PCs hyperspace the hell out of there on their way to Daelu's private offices on an asteroid, picking up more mission details from him on the trip. When they arrive they begin making a list of the gear they'll need for surveillance on the secret base--a moon orbiting the gas giant Melaku. The base is heavily fortified and remotely placed in the middle of a giant megaflora forest of supervines and enormous bramble patches.
Daelu's technicians work for hours to install a state-of-the-art (that means untested) cloaking device on The Betsy. Along with some speeder bikes in case they run into Imperial entanglements on vineworld.
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| Daelu's homebase |
Before too long, another assassin happens along--the Bothan base has been compromised! This time the assassin gives up more details, but not before being "spaced" in a pressure suit with one hour of air. Pirates and smugglers know how to interrogate! The Bothans, being Daelu's gambling and race pals, of course take bets on how long the unlucky chump will last.
"I have a bad feeling about this."
Enough information is gained that they now know there's not much time to lose--they'll need to get to the moon and do some quick recon before the rival gang gets the prize. And worse, all these antics have attracted a big name bounty hunter, Bossk smells blood in the water and he's on his way!
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| Not a nice lizardman |
But is he working for the Imperials? Neku? Alone?
NEXT: Part 2 - New team members!
A few things I am (trying) to accomplish in every game:
- Fast character generation, using templates (sorta successful, but helped that the players were knowledgeable).
- Big damn heroes, doing leaping-before-looking action, preferably with blasters.
- Some scoundreling skills (bribing, conning, etc) to stay true to the Ocean's Eleven style of the premise.
- Name-dropping if not cameos from movie Characters to give the story a sense of connection and "bigness" while still including...
- Stuff you've never seen in the movies...like giant corkscrew raceways that are filled with all sorts of cool cinematic speeder action (sigh...).
