Star Wars, how do I gather the party?

[braveheart]

So I am currently planning out a star wars campaign, but I'm not sure how to gather the party to start the adventure. I'm having the campaign take place in 5 BBY so the jedi are almost nonexistent, as a result no jedi players. My original plan was to have them receive a request from the empire to hunt down jedi X who is in hiding, however I talked to my players and they all seem to be coming up with backstories that would make them unwilling to hunt a jedi. so now I need ideas for what to do to bring everyone together, right now I'm thinking that it will be basically the same but with and escaped separatist war criminal.

[Hyena]

Well, duh. What have you expected? The Empire are the bad guys.
We need more information - who are the PCs? What do you want the campaign to be about? Gathering a party in Saga is tricky in general, because, unlike in DnD, the world is largely civilized, and everybody you murder usually has an ID and tax papers, as opposed to a club to bludgeon travellers with.

[braveheart]

None of the players have finished their characters yet however one said that he wanted his character to have been about to go to the jedi temple to begin training in a month when order 66 was given resulting in his character not becoming a jedi, that was the most extreme case.

My goal for the campaign is to have the first job have been a setup that puts makes them criminals to the empire. after that I plan to just see how they deal with it and survive, ie. join the rebellion, seek help from the huts, hide in the outer rim. basically sandbox once they are outlaws.

[Mando Knight]

What level are they? The Empire doesn't send bottom-rung bounty hunters against Jedi, it sends Inquisitors or galaxy-renowned elites like Boba Fett or Bossk.

Now, the usual method for gathering a party is to drop a quest hook that forces them to find each other, though doing so automatically makes them criminals. Something like superweapon blueprints and rebel-sympathizing senators.

[LibraryOgre]

None of the players have finished their characters yet however one said that he wanted his character to have been about to go to the jedi temple to begin training in a month when order 66 was given resulting in his character not becoming a jedi, that was the most extreme case.

My goal for the campaign is to have the first job have been a setup that puts makes them criminals to the empire. after that I plan to just see how they deal with it and survive, ie. join the rebellion, seek help from the huts, hide in the outer rim. basically sandbox once they are outlaws.

Then make them outlaws. Have them be going from place A to place B on a freighter or something... a freighter that is carrying contraband. They get scanned and ID'd, the passenger manifest is noted, but the captain rabbits (taking the only escape pod).

They now have a ship, a cargo going to SOMEONE, and a load of angry Imperials. Who do they ally with?

[braveheart]

that is a really good idea thanks, I think I will use at least part of it

also about the level thing, I am making them all include one high level NPC in their backstory and he was the one to receive the job... then get killed by Bosk (funny you chose him as your go to bounty hunter)

[AMFV]

So I am currently planning out a star wars campaign, but I'm not sure how to gather the party to start the adventure. I'm having the campaign take place in 5 BBY so the jedi are almost nonexistent, as a result no jedi players. My original plan was to have them receive a request from the empire to hunt down jedi X who is in hiding, however I talked to my players and they all seem to be coming up with backstories that would make them unwilling to hunt a jedi. so now I need ideas for what to do to bring everyone together, right now I'm thinking that it will be basically the same but with and escaped separatist war criminal.

Have them get pressganged into the Imperial Auxiliary. They get captured and then forced to try to hunt the Jedi, but they're working to avoid it the whole time. You get intrigue, the fun of a bunch of strangers being thrown together (by force no less). They are both trying to work to complete their mission and trying to sabotage it. And they're the good guys, but working for the bad guys.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

that is a really good idea thanks, I think I will use at least part of it

also about the level thing, I am making them all include one high level NPC in their backstory and he was the one to receive the job... then get killed by Bosk (funny you chose him as your go to bounty hunter)

You can also pick a place - say for the sake of argument that one bar on Onderon - and ask them to include in their backstory why they might be there. Then, presto bingo, there's a raid and everyone in the place is swept up in the Imperial net and plot hooks are dispensed. Tim Zahn actually does quite a bit of this sort of thing in Dark Force Rising and the Hand of Thrawn series. Person X is surprised by his nemesis Y who makes him a generous offer of Z, which X is forced to accept because otherwise he'll be murdered horribly. Then X goes off and tries to turn Z to his advantage somehow. Probably half of his plot developments come through that mechanism, and there might be one worth nicking if you skim through.

[Silus]

Just a tip from experience, keep things on hand to throw if one of the PCs tries to blackmail or extort a player when they try to joint the party.

"Sure, I'll let you aboard [the only ship leaving the planet right now with the rest of the party on it]. 500 credits first."

[Rakaydos]

Edge of Empire presents the party as (mostly) Fait Accompli, like the crew of the Serenity in Firefly. Having a group identity before play begins lets you have each player drag the rest of the party into their troubles, making for a better story.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Worst case, maybe they could respond to a Help Wanted advert for rustlers, cutthroats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperadoes, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, half-wits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwackers, hornswagglers, horsethieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, **** kickers and merciless-*falls over gibbering*

Maybe that list is better for a Firefly campaign. And yes, I am watching Blazing Saddles.

[Silus]

Worst case, maybe they could respond to a Help Wanted advert for rustlers, cutthroats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperadoes, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, half-wits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwackers, hornswagglers, horsethieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, **** kickers and merciless Methodists!-*falls over gibbering*

Maybe that list is better for a Firefly campaign. And yes, I am watching Blazing Saddles.

FTFY there =3 He kinda screams the line so it's hard to make out

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Fair enough! I always put that down to him simply running out of breath.

I'm also doing paperwork that my employer lost and needs new copies of, so I'm watching stupid movies to pass the time. I've seen Jaws three times in the last two days. You wanna know about a shark's eyes, chief? Black eyes, lifeless eyes... like a doll's eyes.

[Thrudd]

So I am currently planning out a star wars campaign, but I'm not sure how to gather the party to start the adventure. I'm having the campaign take place in 5 BBY so the jedi are almost nonexistent, as a result no jedi players. My original plan was to have them receive a request from the empire to hunt down jedi X who is in hiding, however I talked to my players and they all seem to be coming up with backstories that would make them unwilling to hunt a jedi. so now I need ideas for what to do to bring everyone together, right now I'm thinking that it will be basically the same but with and escaped separatist war criminal.

Ask them to decide why they are all together, before you start the game. Everyone knows the game is about a group of characters doing stuff together. Give yourself a break trying to plan every detail, and let them help you. Tell them their backgrounds need to include all of them coming together as a ship's crew or a bounty hunting team or whatever.

[Sagitta]

Ask them to decide why they are all together, before you start the game.

Yup. That's more or less what I did for my Star Wars game. Our sessions were 2 hours at most, and I didn't want to spend the first one on contrivances to force characters together.

[KillianHawkeye]

This might sound kinda crazy, guys, but bear with me okay?



How did they do it in the actual Star Wars movies?

In the original film, Star Wars AKA "A New Hope", two of the characters (C-3PO and R2-D2) are already comrades and get sent on a mission by an NPC (Princess Leia) to find another NPC (Obi-wan Kenobi). By sheer chance (or fate, or the Force) they are quickly put into the custody of a third player character (Luke Skywalker) who they manage to drag unwillingly into their mission. After finding Obi-wan and returning to find Luke's family dead (setting up a common enemy), they head off to find transportation that happens to be crewed by the other two PCs (Han Solo and Chewbacca) who have their own history together and a personal nemesis in the form of a powerful local NPC (Jabba the Hutt). After this prologue which unites the party and sets up the rest of the campaign, the PCs travel to the destination indicated by their NPC companion and the adventure continues from there.

Similarly, in "The Phantom Menace", two of the characters (the young Obi-wan Kenobi and his master Quigon Jinn) are sent on a mission by the organization they are members of (the Jedi) to negotatiate with some aliens who are planning an invasion of a peaceful planet (the Trade Federation who are clearly set up to be the villains) which quickly goes sour forcing the PCs to escape to the planet below (Naboo). By sheer chance (or fate, or the Force), they are immediately joined by a third player character (Jar-Jar Binks) who leads them to a place where they rescue the important NPC (Queen Amidala). Although the group escaped and is joined by another PC, one of the ship's mechanics (R2-D2), they are forced to land somewhere for repairs where they meet up the last PC, a slave who works in the repair shop (Anakin). Knowing (AKA metagaming) that they need to free the last PC before they can really begin their adventure, the party leader (Quigon) initiates a complicated ruse whereby they can garner the last player's freedom and get all the repairs done to their busted ship, and finally they can travel to the destination indicated by their NPC companion and the adventure continues from there.



So breaking this down, because honestly they are both very similar, you start off with two of the PCs already knowing each other and sending them on some kind of mission that (whether they know it or not) will involve finding some NPC. They encounter a third PC at the location, and then find the NPC they're supposed to find. Establishing the general villains or villainous group also happens at this time. Now their objective turns to leaving the location but there is some complication that is only solved by the introduction of the last two player characters. Once the party is united, the prologue ends and the party (with NPC tag-along) moves on to a new location where they learn more about the rest of the campaign. Simple, right?

[Knaight]

Ask them to decide why they are all together, before you start the game. Everyone knows the game is about a group of characters doing stuff together. Give yourself a break trying to plan every detail, and let them help you. Tell them their backgrounds need to include all of them coming together as a ship's crew or a bounty hunting team or whatever.

Exactly this. Getting the group together is the players' job as much as the GM's, and while it helps to get some sort of group template worked out before making characters, the players can modify their character backgrounds to get it to work.