Need help working out an adventure plot

Caveat: People who are intending on playing at Brisbane's Big Weekend convention, please stop reading now. Spoilers for the game ahead.

Also wondering if I might be able to copyright this story idea. I don't want it to suddenly turn up in a comic somewhere... If it's legal, then Copyright(c) 2003 Colin Smith. So there.

...

...

...

Okay, have we lost 'em? Good.

Here's my idea for a three hour convention scenario: Infinities: Return of the Jedi. No, not this, something different. Read on.

We set the scene first over the Pit of Carkoon. Luke gives his signal to Artoo, and the lightsaber is readied. Jabba barks his order, Luke leaps off the gangplank and somersaults back onto the skiff, holds his hand up to receive the lightsaber...

And nothing happens. Everyone is frozen by this daring manoeuvre, waiting to see what the bold Jedi has up his sleeve. Luke seems frozen too - until he looks to where the lightsaber should be shooting through its well-planned trajectory, and sees--

The lightsaber stuck in mid-air. Hovering. Doing nothing else. Sand whips around the edge of the pit, so there's ample evidence that time hasn't suddenly stopped.

Then the lightsaber starts moving again. Backward. Toward the barge. Artoo is heard to whistle nervously. It arcs faster toward the barge, angling away from the astromech to reveal--

A figure standing in the dark. Female, human, clothed like one of Jabba's dancers. Flame red hair and a viciously cold look in her eyes. She stares wilfully at Luke as the lightsaber lands softly in her hands. She smiles evilly.

"Mission accomplished," thinks Mara Jade.

A cry splits the air, and everyone unfreezes. One of the barge guards yells, pointing at Mara: "Look! Another Jedi! She's trying to free them! Stop her!!"

Mara curses, snaps the lightsaber on with a hiss, and deflects the bolts coming her way just in time to see a Nikto push the stunned Luke into the mouth of the waiting Sarlacc...

Okay, enough of the prose. This is a game for five players, playing Leia, Han, Lando, Chewbacca and Mara. (An optional sixth player can play the droids, or dead characters get a pick of either droid.)

Everyone's motivations are fairly basic, since they're just drawn from the films - apart from Mara. I'm a little stuck on her. I guess I need clarification on her history prior to ROTJ - does she have the "Last Command" yet, or is that post-ROTJ upon the death of the Emperor? What is her mission in Jabba's palace?

Plus, where do we go from here? The Battle of the Pit of Carkoon shouldn't take longer than an hour to play out if I'm efficient about it (use of Professional-class mooks on the barge, apart from Jabba and Boba Fett), but I plan on killing Luke, which should throw enough of a loop on the players to make them think about it.

The only strong idea I have at the moment is for the characters to examine the flight logs of Luke's X-Wing, find out that he went to Dagobah back in ESB, and have Leia remember that Luke said something about having to "visit someone" before the Sullust assemblage. If they decide to go to Dabogah, neither Yoda nor Obi-Wan will have much time to train Leia...

And then there's the question of Mara again - would she take pity on these poor saps and help them? Could she betray her Emperor? How about having Mara accompany an untrained Leia to a confrontation with her father? How would Vader react to this?

Anyways, any help to nut the scenario out would be much appreciated.

 

At that point in time, Mara would no sooner betray her Emperor than Luke would kill Yoda. The only plausible scenario I could see would be if the Emperor turned against her in some fashion, but if Luke Skywalker died on Tatooine he'd be lavishing her with gifts, not scorn.

Killing Luke is tough because he's got the mad skillz at that point. Even if he had to yank a blaster from someone's hand with the Force and shoot everyone, he'd probably be able to do it (with the collection of mooks that Jabba had ). As Tessek (the Quarren lieutenant of Jabba) discovered -- two EXTREMELY high-ranking Rebellion members don't just "let" themselves get captured by Jabba. He wisely avoided the sail barge party...

On the other hand, you have the perfect capability for a DIFFERENT scenario.

Mara succeeds in stopping the lightsaber and is attacked by Jabba's goons. Luke survives. HOWEVER, didn't Obi-Wan and Yoda both tell Luke that he was the last of the Jedi? He knows Vader's got the Force, but who's this chick? I'm sure Luke might agree to be taken back to her "master," not realizing it's the Emperor... then Leia, et al could still discover from Threepio (who's gotten the information from Artoo) about Dagobah and go from there...

 

And no, you can't copyright game stories in Star wars games, as they are all essentially the property of Lucasfilm.

 

Oh and another thing... the hero slipping, messing up and falling into the Sarlaac pit might be somewhat amusing, but it ain't Star Wars. Heroes go out in epic fights, not eliminated by minor, previously unseen characters.

There can be a strong urge to add all of the vagaries of real life into a Star wars game, because we are bombarded with these kind of stories al the time... dark stories, of rape and murder, mass destruction and poisonings... but these things must be kept in the place where they are now. They don't need to go into Star Wars.

I'm not syaing it has to be all fluffy bunnies, but it isn't all about moral dilemnas either.

When I started writing my star wars game, I was intending to make the Jedi morally dubious, because it would be cool to have the players questioning their loyalties... but then I realised that this was crap. The point of Star Wars is that the good guys are good, and the bad guys are bad. No one dies for no reason.

 

Thanks for your comments guys, but I have to stick with the original plan of killing off Luke - this is an immutable part of my plot, and your suggestions, while good, aren't a strong enough spin on the story in my opinion. Remember that this is Infinities, and aside from the fact that Luke was indeed killed by a wampa in Infinities: The Empire Strikes Back, this is a different timeline and anything can happen (although ultimately the good guys win). And who's to say that, Fett-like, Luke can't work up some Force-mojo and get out and have some part to play in the climax? This is the reason I'm turning to you, my peers, to brainstorm some ideas of where this crazy plot can go.

dp4m, I like the idea of the Emperor turning on Mara. Jabba's forces turning on her is my way of getting her to work with the other characters, so Palpatine could probably punish her for letting the others survive. Actually, even better now that I think on it, Vader would probably be a little p***ed off with the group, not to mention Mara and Palpatine, for letting his son die. There could be something in that. Would Vader feel his son's life-force slip away, and actively hunt down those responsible, shirking his duties on Death Star II?

Also thanks for the Threepio idea - more options for discovering Dagobah. The flight logs may have been a bit of a reach - I was pretty sure that Luke wouldn't have wanted information on Dagobah to fall into the wrong hands.

(And yeah, Yoda seems to be forgetting about a whole lot of Force-users and Jedi around the place, according to the Expanded Universe. What's with that? Just someone not keeping up with continuity, or Yoda just doesn't care? Or does he consider every Jedi character under 6th level not a "true" Jedi? )

Any other ideas from everyone?

One more question for interested parties: Mara's stats in the Rebellion Era Sourcebook put her at Scoundrel 6 - just so she has some skill with the lightsaber, should I give her a level or two of Jedi Guardian, or should I completely retool her character?

 

For Mara Jade, she would have the Emperor's Hand prestiege class, as per the Dark Side Source Book. I beleve (correct me if I am wrong, don't have the book with me) that the emperors hands don't usually have light sabre skills. She would definatly have the basic force skills, move object, force grip, etc.

 

i like the story idea...

lets take a step back... let luke go out like a hero.. have him take fett with him....
that assures any smart PC will survive.

i would also remove Mara from the PC list.. too convolouted to get her involved as a PC it wouldn't fit her character to have her help the rebels at this point..

perhaps you could pick another EU character..mabey say Kyle Katarn (( stifle the groans kids its just an example))

if you are intent on using Mara.. she needs to be betrayed by the emperor.. and she will need to give the rebels some type of goodie so they will believe her... otherwise chewie will break her pretty neck,,, like i said.. i dunno how to make mara work..

i think your best bet will be to use a different EU character... mabey Dash Rendar survived the shadows of the empire skyhook sequence

 

Dash Rendar did survive the shyhook battle. At least he did in the game, haven't read that book yet.

 

Okay, if I was GM, here's what I would do.

Episode 1. The PC's (Jedi Guardian/Fringer, 2 Scoundrels, and Scout,) are gathered on the skiff. Jedi Guardian gets "surprise" on this round and calls for the lightsaber.

Presuming that Mara is going to play the role of major NPC for this campaign, we'll assign the GM rule of instant success and pull the saber away as the plot device.

Now, if Luke is meant to be killed, then he'd be an NPC as well. So, in that case, once Luke looses the saber, the major NPC (Mara Jade) has been introduced, then the real "combat scene" begins.

*** NOTE ***

If you wanted an interesting plot twist for future games, have the scene described where Luke falls into the Sarlacc, but does NOT get killed. Only its implied that he's dead.

*** ***

Anyway, with the initiative rolls out of the way, concoct the story where the Scoundrel's and scout (3 players) duke it out with the guards, while dodging blaster cannon blasts.

If your having Leia (Nobel) play as Jabba's prisoner, have the PC make a will saving throw to resist the temptation to reach out in anger and begin choking Jabba with her chain.

Presume either way, the Nobel pulls this off, and eventually, the NPC's R2 and 3P0 show up and free her...

Wait 5 rounds before introducing Boba Fett into the fray.

*** Note ***

Consider that when Boba first bursts onto the deck, have a "NPC encouter" between Mara and Boba; Describe that Boba opened up on Mara, and she force leapt into a backwards flip and made a cinematic exit.

Next few rounds of melee continue, bring Boba into the fight. Have the battel continue a'la the film, only my suggestion is NOT to send Boba careening into the Sarlacc maw. Try to repeat history, only in this case, have Boba's jet pack fire him clear and away into from the maw, and have him make a "neck crunching" landing away from the battle area.

*** Note ***

During this Melee phase, the PC's hopefully should have been able to take care of the guards.

Unlike the movie, perhaps the scoundrel didn't fall over the side, and in this case, the Lando PC had freeed the others, and they took control of the skiff.

Using piloting skills, they re-position the skiff on the the other side, avoiding the Sarlacc pit.

Eventually, Leia kills the hutt, and runs to the topside with 3P0 and R2. R2 knocks 3P0 over the edge into the sand, only in the case of Leia, R2 is the one that takes her across, just before she personally pointed the deck gun towards the sail barge.

Grabing onto R2, the droid activates his (Episode 2 retro rockets) and carries her across to the others.

3P0 is picked up by a distraught company, and the skiff bolts away, as the Sail Barge takes considerable damage.

The PC's race for freedom to contemplate their losses and course of action.

 

According to the book, Rendar did not survive the skyhook battle. But in the scheme of the official literature, I'd say the video game comes as close to a 'movie' as we're gonna get for Shadows.

 

Hey Darth_Digital, thanks for that, you've described pretty much what I was going to do with Act 1. I'm having multiple GMs running concurrent sessions at the Con, so I might give them that as an outline. Remember that this is only a Con game though, so no extra episodes in this - it's gotta be all over in three hours max.

DarthArraKul, Mara has to be a part of it. If I remember correctly, the Tales of Jabba's Palace has her miss out on a chance to board the barge, which stymies her plans. This scenario was inspired by that, and is the "What If?" of her success in getting a place on the barge. Savvy? I thought perhaps the PCs might see her as an ally if she saves them at the barge, which is why my original plot caters for her fighting against Jabba's thugs; I don't think they need much more of a motivation to start trusting her. But what's her motivation? Does she see joining their group as an opportunity to do some spying for Palpatine?

Diverjkc, yep, I'd thought about the EH prestige class as presented there, but does it have enough lightsaber skillz? I can't remember off-hand - being at work means that I can't look at the rules right now. Something tells me that it isn't enough. I want her to appear to have Luke's consummate skill to the other PCs.

So yeah, what I'm looking for is: What happens in Acts 2 and 3 of this? How/why does Mara stay? Who will defeat Vader and Palpatine? Who is the galaxy's new "new hope"?