STAR WARS campaign - story ideas for a Padawan party

[Random Axe]

One campaign idea I have been developing is where all the PCs are jedi padawans. They start in finding a Jedi Master who will take them as an apprentice; then over the course of several adventures they will gain the experience necessary to undergo the Trials and graduate to full Jedi knight status.

I have a couple of over-arcing storyline ideas for the setting (which happens to be a few hundred years after the Death Star's destruction). What I am looking for is a set of adventures for their low-level padawan days, where they are each still attached to their Masters. What sort of missions would they be sent on that wouldn't require the elder to be present, that could challenge them without forcing them to run back to the Masters at every turn.

Is there a resource out there that has a set of plot ideas like this? I have several of the Saga edition books (as well as the E.3 RCR books), but haven't closely examined them as we actually use the WEG d6 system for our SW gaming.

Or has anyone had a run of padawan-adventures that they have on hand?

 

[knightemplar]

I am not sure I would start with a master straight out, but maybe a knight that survived order 66.

How about missions to old places of jedi history to find relics like holocrons and such to help teach the knight to become a master and the apprentices to become knights.

Missions to Ossus, the old Jedi library. The library has an Imperial outpost built on it now, so they must find a way through the outpost and sneak down to the ruins of the library.

Finding Chu'unthor crash landed on Dathomir and dealing with the Singing Mountain Clan with a low level version of the witches.

Inquisitor Tremayne can come in as a repeating villian, tracking down the party to convert them over and present them to Lord Vader and the Emperor.

 

[Crothian]

What time period in Star Wars are you going to set this and what system are you going to use?

I'd start with a few rumors of places and people and then see what the players do. Investigating anything connected to the Jedi should be difficult and risk getting noticed by the Empire. I'd give them a few sessions of hiding who they are and just establishing the difficulties of being a Force User and make sure they feel the proper sense of paranoia.

 

[Andor]

The OP said a few hundred years after the movies. So this is the reconstructed Jedi order serving the Second Galactic Republic. Or whatever he decides the galaxy has ordered itself as. Frankly I could see it as a loose confederacy with the Jedi serving sort of the same role as the Lensmen did in Doc Smiths series. IE. Trustworthy interstellar lawmen.

I think it's key to recall that the whole nature of the force is changing in the course of the movies. Whatever the various "Old Republic" games might indicate, by canon Qui-Gon Jin was the first force user to survive death by joining the force. So you actually have quite a bit of leeway to alter the force and the Jedi order and the political structure of the Galaxy to suit whatever playstyle you want.

In fact the Lensman model may not be a bad one. Perhaps what was once a Padawan is now considered effective enough to serve the Galaxy in an assigned role, but once you grow strong enough to think you can survive the trials you return to Corusant/Arisia for the Jedi Trials/Second Training and them come out as a Jedi Master/Grey Lensman.

As far as adventures go it depends on how you are structuring things. Most of the existing SW adventures, particularly the d6 stuff, assumes you are Rebels always at risk of annihilation by the superior Imperial Forces. If the Republic is still strong that doesn't work as a story element, however if the Galaxy has fractured into opposed political entities then you can bring that in by having them operate in enemy territory. If it's a weaker confederacy then you can still use that as on any particular mission the locals might be strong enough to risk trying to kill Jedi to achieve whatever their goals are, even if technically it is the Republic. Sort of like a Federal agent in the days before instant communications when a local strongman might well get away with "disappearing" a nosy outsider. Which is exactly what happened to Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in Episode 1.

Without that element the adventures should shift more towards investigation and discovery. While the PCs can, in theory, whistle-up overwhemling force they are only Padawans and they'd better be right. The campaign would probably start looking a lot like Dark Heresy only without the angst, despair, pointless stupid brutality and general depressing dystopian edge. Unless you're on Hutta, then go nuts.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Kill 10 gundarks and bring back their ears.

 

[Random Axe]

The OP said a few hundred years after the movies. So this is the reconstructed Jedi order serving the Second Galactic Republic. Or whatever he decides the galaxy has ordered itself as. Frankly I could see it as a loose confederacy with the Jedi serving sort of the same role as the Lensmen did in Doc Smiths series. IE. Trustworthy interstellar lawmen.

A) thank you for noticing this key fact, and
B) this is correct, the New Republic can be as much on a downward spiral as the Old Republic had been, as will suit the purposes of the campaign.

Afraid I'm not up on Smith's Lensman series; though I did watch the early-90's anime film, I suspect this might not be an accurate representation of what you are getting at. It is a reconstructed Jedi Order, with a few twists thrown into the mix. Some Jedi traditions have been preserved, some discarded at the whim or inspiration of those few Force-sensitive leaders at the end of the Empire era who dedicated themselves to rebuild the Order. But the essence of the original Jedi Order has been maintained, to preserve peace and justice throughout the galaxy, through the efforts of the Jedi Knights and its Council.

What I have currently in mind is that, perhaps the PC's Jedi-Masters are off on an official mission as dictated by the Council, leaving the PC padawans occasionally on their own to investigate or pursue unofficial / off-book leads related to the original group mission. My only worry on this is, how many times can I keep pulling this structure off while they are still in their training/apprentice period.

 

[Umbran]

Or has anyone had a run of padawan-adventures that they have on hand?

I've been playing through a campaign (Saga Edition) with this as the basic premise.

The time is about 5000 years before the battle of Yavin. The Jedi Civil War has ended. The Jedi Order is at an all time low. The Republic has decided the Jedi, through inaction, brought about the defeats of the war, and has shunned them, and closed the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. One half-crazy Jedi knight, following prophecy, scrapes up a stack of force-sensitive students that he thinks are the ones to rebuild the order from scratch. It has been... interesting. We have just reached 11th level. Due to one thing or another, there are only four known surviving Jedi Masters (that the party has scraped together), so they've decided that, no matter that none of us yet qualify for the prestige class, the PCs are now "masters", and they've stuck us with students.

I think the elevation was as much to make it so that the PCs don't have to keep going back to the Council, or maneuver around the Council to do things.

That, in general, is an issue you'll have to deal with - chain of command. Any time the PCs are all part of a hierarchical organization, you have to give careful thought for the balance between hamstringing player initiative, and plausibly representing the action of the organization. If the PCs are students, they must follow orders of teachers. If they are knights, they must follow orders of masters, and so on.

 

[Andor]

Afraid I'm not up on Smith's Lensman series; though I did watch the early-90's anime film, I suspect this might not be an accurate representation of what you are getting at.

You suspect correctly. Aside from some names there is basically no overlap between the two.

The lensman series has fast starships but no other form of interstellar communications. Due to alien interferance they also have no computers. So they had a problem of how to identify lawmen in a galaxy spanning civilization when there is no foolproof way to double check what might well be forged papers.

The answer was the lens. A group of aliens, the Arisians, were uniquely psionic. Applicants to the patrol went to Arisia and either emerged as incorruptible lawmen with considerable telepathic powers enhanced by the Lens or or did not emerge at all. The Lens was a psionic crystal which could not be faked or stolen. They evaporated when removed from their Lensman.

A Grey Lensman was trusted enough to operate as a free agent, they had basically unlimited power up to and including "I'm commendeering this entire planet. Bill the Patrol for your services when I'm done."

Eventually two of the Lensmen, Kimball Kinneson and his best friend Worsel the Velantian figure out there must be a second phase of the training and return to Arisia and become Second-stage lensmen.

 

[GSHamster]

I think the key is to deal with the Master. Here's my idea:

The Jedi Master is an older woman, a great scholar and healer. However, one day her connection to the Force was suddenly and violently severed. No one knows how or why. After falling into despair for a while, the Master decides to go on a pilgrimage to several older Jedi worlds, seeking answers from forgotten lore. She refuses an escort of Knights, deeming herself unworthy of their time.

So the Jedi Council assigns her a group of padawans, insisting that she is still a Master and still has a duty to teach. The padawans are to protect her and learn from her and the knowledge she will uncover on the pilgrimage. The Council also feels the padawans will keep the Master interested in the world, keep her from despair and the Dark Side.

So now you have a Master, who can contribute advice and maybe some non-Force healing, but cannot really affect the combat. You have a purpose and goal for the early adventures, as well as a good excuse to wander the galaxy.

 

[Andor]

Another thing to remember is that the Jedi Order, after the movies, was reconstructed by Luke Skywalker. Luke's Jedi training consisted of 1 starjumps worth of lessons, and then free training until he was ready to go to Dagobah for the Master level training.

The school founded by Luke based on his own experiences might be very much into independant growth and self-study, where Padawans are expected to sink or swim on their own until they are ready to earn the title. "You kids today have it soft with your 3 weeks of lessons and your books. You know how I learned telekinesis? Hanging upside down by my feet in an ice cave! With a Wampa trying to claw my face off! You youngsters and yer formal classes... soft. ... Harley, bring me my soup."