Hey all!

I hope this is the right location to post this... I am super new here!

I found this website https://sw5e.com, and was absolutely blown away. THERE IS SO MUCH TO UNWRAP HERE. I know other systems already exist for Star wars, but I couldn't help but be awestruck by this (100+ races?!). Anyway,  my friends and I have been Star Wars fans for an eternity, so it feels natural to start making the jump into the tabletop universe. I am the eternal DM of our group, and I'm having problems starting my campaign off. I know that I want it set in the Old republic right after the Great Sith War, before the Mandalorian wars. Though I suppose I'd also be open to something clone wars era. Just nothing with the newest triology. Does anyone have any hooks to get the ball rolling?

Thanks for your help.

Do you know what your players want to do? Are they more interested in being Jedi or in being Han Solo types?

If Jedi, you can just send them on missions, assuming the Jedi Council or some sort of Republic command exists in the period you pick. e.g. Retrieve the lost holocrons from the Sith agents.

I would recommend googling "Star Wars RPG d6 adventures" or similar as there is a ton of resources on the net beyond the site you already found. You can find the plots of old adventures that you could recycle. Or reskin the plots of D&D or other fantasy adventures. The dungeon becomes a space station etc.

If Han Solo types, it might work better as a sandbox.
Roll up or steal from somewhere half a dozen worlds (in Star Wars monochrome style, the jungle planet, the desert planet etc.),
set up some factions (Republic, Sith, a megacorp, a gangster syndicate, the Mining Guild, the mystical religious order of whatever),
give each faction an objective that conflicts with at least one other faction's objective, and one or two signature NPCs for the party to interact with,
give each PC a rumour of cool stuff going on (a ship crashed on X planet carrying rare tech), and make up a dozen other rumours for them to discover in play

- and you are off to the races. You might need to give them a mission or two to kick things off but the idea is they form their own objectives and the adventures more or less write themselves.

Stars Without Number, a popular OSR RPG, contains lots of tools for setting up an SF sandbox. You can get a free version on Drivethru.

I ran a short-ish campaign (not gonna lie, saw Last Jedi, cancelled the campaign, boxed up my Star Wars stuff.  Needed a long break from it.) with Edge of the Empire, so smugglers/mercenaries.

Game was set either right before Episode 4, or between 4 and 5, I don't recall.  Well, they got recruited/roped in to a pirate group calling themselves "True Naboo"; their leader was the chain death-stick smoking Queen Amadala...  who they found was a drugged up figurehead, and the first officer her lover was the real leader - most of the crew didn't realize it.

They were of course freaked out, wondering HOW MUCH I changed 'canon'.  A lit bit of investigation later, they started to realize that the queen was actually her handmaiden body double, and she didn't have a price on her head but was WANTED BY LORD VADER PERSONALLY.

Much pants-shitting ensued.

Quote from: Marchand;1139966Do you know what your players want to do? Are they more interested in being Jedi or in being Han Solo types?

Honestly, a mixed bag. I have a wildcard, two definite trooper/sniper types, and a FOR SURE Jedi.

Quote from: Marchand;1139966The dungeon becomes a space station etc.

I have no idea why that didn't click for me.

Quote from: Marchand;1139966Roll up or steal from somewhere half a dozen worlds (in Star Wars monochrome style, the jungle planet, the desert planet etc.),
set up some factions (Republic, Sith, a megacorp, a gangster syndicate, the Mining Guild, the mystical religious order of whatever),
give each faction an objective that conflicts with at least one other faction's objective, and one or two signature NPCs for the party to interact with,
give each PC a rumour of cool stuff going on (a ship crashed on X planet carrying rare tech), and make up a dozen other rumours for them to discover in play

This is an amazing place to start. Thank you.

Quote from: LiferGamer;1139969A lit bit of investigation later, they started to realize that the queen was actually her handmaiden body double, and she didn't have a price on her head but was WANTED BY LORD VADER PERSONALLY.

Much pants-shitting ensued.

oooooh. That twist is good. I'd love to incorporate something like that. One of my players is obsessed with Revan, so maybe something there.

That's an impressive amount of work for a free 5e conversion. I wonder how space fantasy 5e plays at the table. Please let us know how it goes. If you're not happy with the system, you can always switch out to Savage Worlds which does Star Wars quite well.

I think you've picked a good time period, with all the fallout from the Great Sith War. If there are any comic books  or novels set in this era, I'd hunt them down for additional fodder. Fanfic is 90% garbage, but its possible some fanfic authors have done stories in this era and perhaps they have cool NPCs and plots for you to borrow.

Definitely built up an online album of photos that reflect the tech of the era. That will help the players visualize the setting easier.

If you don't have a ton of Star Wars minis, I bet some of the paper minis artists have Not-Star Wars space fantasy minis on DriveThruRPG.

Quote from: Sirfuzz;1139972oooooh. That twist is good. I'd love to incorporate something like that. One of my players is obsessed with Revan, so maybe something there.

There's a TON of [conflicting] legends about Revan.  

Hell, play them simultaniously through the plot of the computer games from a different angle - have them cross paths with a helpful republic dude, and when they encounter him later throw in one of the less popular/obvious companions (sadly, no HK-47), and have them cross paths a few times.

Specific to the Amadala bit, her bodyguard from the movies later became a Moff.  https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Quarsh_Panaka/Legends

So naturally, he was keenly interested in finding them.

-----

I've threatened to do a Star Wars game with pre-generated characters for my group.

Finn, the stormtrooper that rejected his indoctrination because of a growing awareness of the inteconnectiveness of all things, a feeling he can't explain...

Poe, the best pilot in years, loyal to the resistance but with a dark smugglers past...(and his cute on again/off again psuedo mando girlfriend will show up soon)

ray, the junker from a desert planet that can fix anything, flies pretty darn well and is looking for her family...[AND HAS NO FORCE POWERS WHATSOEVER]

BB-8 for the Asshole that min/maxes a skill monkey that most groups have.

Start the campaign right when the party gets together in the market, and steals that Corellean stock light freighter.  Poe's still injured from the crash, so they've got to steal a ship as the First Order troops swarm in from all sides (you know, instead of just sending two tie fighters, that'd be dumb.)

Try to squeeze a little lemonade out of those lemons.  Or blue milk out of a muppet.  Whichever.

Quote from: Sirfuzz;1139952Hey all!

I hope this is the right location to post this... I am super new here!

I found this website https://sw5e.com, and was absolutely blown away. THERE IS SO MUCH TO UNWRAP HERE. I know other systems already exist for Star wars, but I couldn't help but be awestruck by this (100+ races?!). Anyway,  my friends and I have been Star Wars fans for an eternity, so it feels natural to start making the jump into the tabletop universe. I am the eternal DM of our group, and I'm having problems starting my campaign off. I know that I want it set in the Old republic right after the Great Sith War, before the Mandalorian wars. Though I suppose I'd also be open to something clone wars era. Just nothing with the newest triology. Does anyone have any hooks to get the ball rolling?

Thanks for your help.

Have you looked into Dawn of Defiance? It was a free campaign for the SW D20 Saga Edition rules. Set between episodes 3 & 4, but shouldn't be an issue to adapt to the Old Republic setting (just make the Galactic Empire into the Sith Empire, Stormtroopers into Sith Troopers, etc). Deals with the early days of the rebellion as they attempt to stop the completion of a super weapon (not the Death Star).

You can find the 10 linked adventures around the internet. Been wanting to use it to do the same thing, but with my 30th Anniversary version of SW D6.

I would urge D6 star wars over D20.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1140011Definitely built up an online album of photos that reflect the tech of the era. That will help the players visualize the setting easier.

Good call! That'll definitely help with immersion.

Quote from: Eldritch_Knight;1140123Have you looked into Dawn of Defiance? It was a free campaign for the SW D20 Saga Edition rules. Set between episodes 3 & 4, but shouldn't be an issue to adapt to the Old Republic setting (just make the Galactic Empire into the Sith Empire, Stormtroopers into Sith Troopers, etc). Deals with the early days of the rebellion as they attempt to stop the completion of a super weapon (not the Death Star).

You can find the 10 linked adventures around the internet. Been wanting to use it to do the same thing, but with my 30th Anniversary version of SW D6.

Have you used Dawn of defiance at all? Was it good? I've looked into it, but only briefly.

Quote from: Sirfuzz;1140185Have you used Dawn of defiance at all? Was it good? I've looked into it, but only briefly.

I have not, but I read outlines of each adventure. Has a lot of cool ideas in it... stuff that has been done before. Sith ghosts, Hutt crime lord, Inquisitors, etc. I planned to shorten the first adventure and make the final part (a jailbreak) into the first scene (so it begins in the middle of the action like the movies do). Not sure when I will run it, but I planned to adjust based on my players' actions and change things to suit their individual arcs.

And if you end up playing in the original movie trilogy Era, hide a Bluetooth speaker on the other side of the room, so you can scare them with TIE fighter noises.