Come! Brainstorm order 66 (and whatnot) with me!

So after a couple of years of being away from the the goodness that is WEG, my groups gaming pendulum has swung away from Champions and back Star Wars. So I thought I'd come back and brainstorming some ideas with you guys and enlist some help to debate and discuss some stuff.

Ok, so my current game is an all Jedi game, starting a couple of years before Phantom Menace and running concurrently with the prequels (which was kind of cool, playing as the saga unfolded), but we're winding down now - so it's time to drop Revenge of the Sith and Order 66 on them.

Now I've got some ideas on how to keep them busy during the invasion of Courscant - a big knock down fight with the team's Dark Jedi nemesis while the invasion explodes all around them (or they have to let her go in order to help repel the invasion - oooh, moral choices!). It should be grand and pretty cool, so I think I've got the early part of the movie covered.

Now here's the kicker - over the years, the team has gotten to be good friends with Ani and Obi-Wan. When Ani goes all angst-y towards the middle part of the film, its possible - being the extremely nosey sorts they are - that they might stick their nose into his business during his inner turmoil moments and act as that stabilizing force that Obi-wan would have been if Palpatine hadn?t sent Kenobi off to deal with Grievous. In short, they might be able to keep the kid from unraveling at just the wrong moment.

Now I'm ok with them changing the events of the movie - what's the point of playing if you're locking into a story someone else told. But I'm at a loss on how Palpatine might react to not getting his Chosen One delivered on a platter when dealing with Mace and the other masters. "Unlimited POWWW - hey, wait! Where's the kid at?"

My thinking is that Palpy can still beat Mace without the disarming move (that he was suckering Mace into putting on a show for Ani), and he can still order up the troops to gun down the Jedi across the galaxy (and would send a ton of troops to the Jedi Temple anyway, and just accept bigger losses at the end of the day). But all his years of careful poking and prodding and guiding Ani into the right spot have come undone.

So what - perhaps kill Padme directly (well, through an agent) to get him royally pissed off in hopes of turning him that way? What do you guys think?

 

Mace beat Palpatine fair and square in the movie.

But there's no reason that has to happen in your game...

 

QFT. Mace had Palpatine on the ropes. He's probably the only swordsman in the order (rpg stats included) at that present time who could have beat the Sith Lord in a straight-up lightsaber duel.

I like your campaign idea though. It's kind of like an infinities RotS... I think the moment Anakin seriously started to unravel was the scene when he's standing in the Jedi Council tower, looking off into the distance as Mace and the others go to arrest the chancellor. If you want your PC's to intervene and change events, that would be a good moment. Have them intrude on Anakin as they're looking for a member of the Jedi Council (I don't know for certain if he was in the council tower or one of the four other towers in the temple, but you could find a plausible reason for them to intrude on ol' Ani) then they sense his inner turmoil and prevent him from intervening immediately on the chancellors behalf.

The thing of it is, if you want to try and keep events somewhat consistent with the movie, that is you want Order 66 to be brought about, and the extinction of the Jedi Order, then perhaps Palpatine has a nice long chat with Mace as they duel, and the master manipulator manages to talk some "sense" into Mace, who has always brushed the darkside with his lightsaber technique to begin with, then boom, you've got a master manipulating Sith Lord, and a incredibly powerful (now Dark) Jedi who's a badass with a lightsaber.

Just a general idea, anyway, if I wasn't sitting in my work truck right now I'd flesh it out a little bit more. As it is I'm freezing and hungry and want to finish my lunch.

 

Holy smokes - that's brilliant! And so obivous, too! I was thinking - if she got away - the team's personal nemesis hooking up with Palpatine (not as a Vader Apprentace sort of way, but in a Dooku "I'll let him think he's important until I dont need him" disposable tool sort of way), but Mace, now that's a humdinger.

Boy, now I have to go ponder what kind of button Palpatine would have to push to get him over. I dont see him tearing up the temple - but perhaps he comes after Ani? I must ponder. . . .

 

Mace has always thought the republic wasn't perfect, but it represented civilization, which helps to keep out darkness and chaos. Maybe Palpatine stresses that he's trying to bring about Order, and that he doesn't really care about the Jedi, he only wants to bring Order to the chaos. Something like a "New" Order?

Perhaps he sends Mace off to deal with dissident elements of the republic. Maybe he has some faked-up proof that some Jedi are spies for the Seperatists...? Just shooting off ideas here. Maybe he managed to kill a few Jedi that aren't PC's, going off of that faked evidence, and just after he's commited the act the truth is revealed, and Mace discovers he's done something horrible, which turns him to the darkside.

It's kind of hard to come up with a plausible method to keep a "good" Jedi Master like Mace in the darkside. You figure eventually he'd see reason. I'll let this germinate and post if I come up with anything.

 

Also - one other thing that might be worth considering. Palpatine might be able to get Ani back under his control (or at least on his side) by killing Padme and framing the players - or getting the players to actually kill her somehow, or at the very least blame them for her death. Suddenly Anakin turns on those who had just barely helped him regain stability and moral compass.

Anakin still falls, and those pesky Jedi who nearly thwarted his plans are now target number one.

 

Oooh - how about this: Palpatine claims that he was really the secondary Sith and that it was all Dooku's idea. Now that he's out of the way, all Palpatine wants to do is clean things up and restore some sense to the galaxy. Sure you might need to break an egg or two, but it'll be better in the long run?

Hmmm, not sure how that would fly tho - nice, but not quite there. . . .


****EDIT****
Here, let me tell you a bit about the team - perhaps that'll generate some thoughts:

There's Caton, my character (and NPC for the end of the game, since I'm running things). He's probably closest thing the Jedi order has to a car salesman or game show host. He's the smooth talker security specialist. Think a more serious Peter Venkman with the Force and you're getting close.

There's Arhi - she's the diplomat of the group, the one you want at the table hashing out deals and treaties. She's also got a crazy thirst for knowledge and is always hitting the books in the Jedi archives for one forgotten tome or another. If anyone of the group is going to fall (not that any of them are in danger of that, mind you) it would probably be Ahri in pursuit of some forgotten tidbit of knowledge that was forbidden for a reason.

It also seems that Ahri happens to be the one who gets all the visions and farseeing and whatnot of the group. She'll probably being the one that's the soothing influence on Ani.

There's Rax, probably the most straight foward of the group, and probably the strongest fighter. He's a big dumb brute without the big, dumb or brutish parts. He's biggest flaw is tunnel vision. Once he sets his mind to something (like, catching a smuggler or something), he doesn't let go. He's got a bulldog tenacity.

And lastly there's Tegan. He the weakest of the group with the Force, but he's a martial arts master - and part of a secret order that watchdogs the Jedi - kind of a who watches the watchmen sort of thing. The others in the team know about his secondary duities, but not many more past them.

 

Ok, a brilliant idea struck me as I was driving home - a two part plan from Palpatine -

1) Push all of Windus' buttons getting him to overextend his Vappad style and fall - or if not quite fall, come very close to the edge. He'll play the "It was all Dooku's idea, I'm just intrested in stability and a return to order" cards. Now Mace wouldnt take up arms against the Temple, so Palpatine will get him to go to Mustafar to deal with the CIS heads. "Take them out and we can talk about a progressive age of enlightenment between our two ideals when you get back."

So Mace goes off to drop the hammer on Gunray and his goons. Meanwile Palpatine tells them that Mace is coming and that they need to hide behind all manner of droids and defensces and hostages and whatnot - basicly he'll encourage anything that'll piss off Mace even more.

2) Kill Padme, frame the players so that it looks like they did it. If it's convincing enough that the players cant talk their way out of a jam, then Ani falls to the dark side tearing them up. If it's NOT convincing enough, Ani will draw the only logical conclusion - that it must have been Palpy behind this. Off Ani goes in a rage for a showdown.

That's of course when Mace gets back from Mustafar, still hopped up on Pissed Off, running headlong into Anakin. Immovable Object meets Irresitable Force in a big saber fight between the two.

Hmm, not quite there, but kind of running in the right direction. Must ponder this more. . . .

 

I like where that goes, it's a much more logical conclusion for Mace to undertake.

Okay, Mace goes to Mustafar, taps waaay into the darkside to overcome the upgraded defenses of the planet (how about Palpy just doesn't give Mace the same access codes that allow him clearance to land like he did for Anakin? So Mace has to fight his way in instead of just waltzing in and going chop-happy like Ani).

Mace comes back to Coruscant with enough darkside points to be completely fallen. What's he going to do? Probably try and kill Palpatine and claim the Republic for himself, because he's so stepped in the darkside and powerful now he figures he doesn't need a master. Meanwhile, while Mace was on Mustafar, Palpatine has executed Order 66, and has Anakin attempt to kill your party in a rage over the death of Padme.

The temple's already been stormed by Ani, just like in the movies, but instead of being sent to Mustafar he's gone after your party, while an epic battle between Palpatine, Obi-Wan, Yoda (who don't need to split up now, since Ani hasn't left Coruscant) and a dark Mace takes place in the Senate chambers? Would be kinda cool if you could also incorporate the party somehow...

 

It looks like you've already figured out what you want to do, but here's my input. (I've written a partial fanfiction here that goes into detail, but here's the main gist)

If your heroes convince Anakin not to attack Mace, then Sidious may still kill him with the unexpected, redoubled volley of Force lightning. If Palpatine managed to elude Anakin (and your PCs) and get to a HoloNet terminal, I imagine tha the has some sort of emergency access code that allows him to override normal HN activity and broadcast at least across large portions of Coruscant. Thus, he gets to a terminal, appears on holoterminals all over the city and says to any clones listening: "Execute Order 66"

As the 501st converges on the Jedi Temple, Anakin and your PCs can rush back rally the defenses of the Jedi Temple in order to fascilitate an evacuation.