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Star Wars: The Great Galactic Race - need suggestions
- Thread starter ReeboKesh
- Start date
Aww, now I feel old... my first thought was of the movie "The Great Race". (More brandy! More brandy!) I absolutely love the idea, although I probably wouldn't do it Star Wars, just generic space.
I especially like the idea of planet-hopping, with the PCs having to be win the coordinates to the next planet, one way or another. I could see this lending itself to a really episodic, fast-paced game. I'd probably divide it up into two 'phases'; the 'travel' phase (which I'd try to handle in the first fifteen minutes of each session as narrative), and the 'planet' phase, the actual game.
I'd set up my starting teams beforehand. Then during the travel phase (before the game), I'd use a percentile dice and a d20 to add or subtract X number of hours from that team's transit time. Actions on planet, say, stopping to help out that princess in distress or winning a faster engine in a gambling game or helping someone with a map to a shortcut, would also adjust the travel time. Maybe do another roll to see if any mishaps happen enroute.
The only drawback to this is that a few really unlucky rolls will put the PCs out of the running. I'd have a fallback plan in that case... if they're really unlucky and completely out, just once, there's an imperial blockade or something in the way that holds everyone up for two days.
For the 'planet' phase, I'd crib from TV/the movies, and try to always start off with a teaser or in media res. A set number of sessions per planet (I usually run two sessions as an 'episode', myself), and then it's off into space and a transit phase. And of course, you have to do at least one episode in transit (like that Firefly episode where the ship engines burned out) for a change of pace!
Oh, and if it's a media spectacle, don't forget to assign the team a reporter. Preferably nosy, female, hot, and a spy.
I especially like the idea of planet-hopping, with the PCs having to be win the coordinates to the next planet, one way or another. I could see this lending itself to a really episodic, fast-paced game. I'd probably divide it up into two 'phases'; the 'travel' phase (which I'd try to handle in the first fifteen minutes of each session as narrative), and the 'planet' phase, the actual game.
I'd set up my starting teams beforehand. Then during the travel phase (before the game), I'd use a percentile dice and a d20 to add or subtract X number of hours from that team's transit time. Actions on planet, say, stopping to help out that princess in distress or winning a faster engine in a gambling game or helping someone with a map to a shortcut, would also adjust the travel time. Maybe do another roll to see if any mishaps happen enroute.
The only drawback to this is that a few really unlucky rolls will put the PCs out of the running. I'd have a fallback plan in that case... if they're really unlucky and completely out, just once, there's an imperial blockade or something in the way that holds everyone up for two days.
For the 'planet' phase, I'd crib from TV/the movies, and try to always start off with a teaser or in media res. A set number of sessions per planet (I usually run two sessions as an 'episode', myself), and then it's off into space and a transit phase. And of course, you have to do at least one episode in transit (like that Firefly episode where the ship engines burned out) for a change of pace!
Oh, and if it's a media spectacle, don't forget to assign the team a reporter. Preferably nosy, female, hot, and a spy.
Last edited:
ReeboKesh
First Post
Hey guys thanks for the ideas!
Geez I like all of them and accipiter I actually was thinking of the Great Race (push the button Max!) when I came up with this idea so that dates me as well.
What I need now is a way to bring the characters together? I don't want to go with the old "you all know each other" schtick so I need a reason why a group of different characters would enter/get involved in a intergalactic race. More so for HOW to bring them together rather WHY they're together. I think RigaMortus2 came up with some cool motivations.
At the moment I'm leaning towards the idea of an "intergalactic race" rather than a race to get to the "prize" first ala Raiders of the Lost Ark. I feel the latter concept, the race to stop this or find that, has been done to death in RPGs while an actual game based on a race has rarely been done.
Anyway guys, keep em coming!
Reebo
Geez I like all of them and accipiter I actually was thinking of the Great Race (push the button Max!) when I came up with this idea so that dates me as well.
What I need now is a way to bring the characters together? I don't want to go with the old "you all know each other" schtick so I need a reason why a group of different characters would enter/get involved in a intergalactic race. More so for HOW to bring them together rather WHY they're together. I think RigaMortus2 came up with some cool motivations.
At the moment I'm leaning towards the idea of an "intergalactic race" rather than a race to get to the "prize" first ala Raiders of the Lost Ark. I feel the latter concept, the race to stop this or find that, has been done to death in RPGs while an actual game based on a race has rarely been done.
Anyway guys, keep em coming!
Reebo
Dark Psion
First Post
Episode 10 of Outlaw Star had a space race you can steal ideas from.
You could also make it part "Cannonball Run" and part "It's a Mad-Mad-Mad World" with colorful characters after a lost treasure at the end.
"It's on a planet under a big W" and he dies kicking an R2 unit.
You could also make it part "Cannonball Run" and part "It's a Mad-Mad-Mad World" with colorful characters after a lost treasure at the end.
"It's on a planet under a big W" and he dies kicking an R2 unit.
LostSoul
Adventurer
I see two ways to do this:
1) Win the race. Players attempt to figure out the best way to get to the end, with all sorts of GM-led opposition. They discover clues along the way, hopefully the first ones to get to the next "clue point" so that they can win.
On the planet, encounters will include the other racers who want to stop them, various people who are trying to rig the game (because they bet on someone else), and what is an important clue to follow up and what isn't.
2) Character-driven stories, episodic in nature like a TV show or mini-series. Each character has his own issues and goals and reasons for going on this race, and you explore these issues on each planet.
Encounters on the planet will explore these various tensions and you see how the player reacts and how the character changes based on his decisions.
Example: Mav is taking part in the race because it's the only way he can make enough money to buy his sister out of slavery. He also hates the Empire for taking away his bantha burger shop (which is why his sister ended up as a Hutt's slave), so he's joined the Rebellion. And let's say he's in love with a rival racer.
On the planet, he might find out that the imperial garrison has some secret plans that could really help out the rebellion. But he's also got a lead on a great clue that might lead him to take the lead in the race. And the racer in the lead, the one he's in love with, is targetted by sabotage. What does he do?
1) Win the race. Players attempt to figure out the best way to get to the end, with all sorts of GM-led opposition. They discover clues along the way, hopefully the first ones to get to the next "clue point" so that they can win.
On the planet, encounters will include the other racers who want to stop them, various people who are trying to rig the game (because they bet on someone else), and what is an important clue to follow up and what isn't.
2) Character-driven stories, episodic in nature like a TV show or mini-series. Each character has his own issues and goals and reasons for going on this race, and you explore these issues on each planet.
Encounters on the planet will explore these various tensions and you see how the player reacts and how the character changes based on his decisions.
Example: Mav is taking part in the race because it's the only way he can make enough money to buy his sister out of slavery. He also hates the Empire for taking away his bantha burger shop (which is why his sister ended up as a Hutt's slave), so he's joined the Rebellion. And let's say he's in love with a rival racer.
On the planet, he might find out that the imperial garrison has some secret plans that could really help out the rebellion. But he's also got a lead on a great clue that might lead him to take the lead in the race. And the racer in the lead, the one he's in love with, is targetted by sabotage. What does he do?
ReeboKesh
First Post
LostSoul said:
Huh?! Really?! All these years as a DM creating the starting adventure to bring the party together and this was really the player's job?! Geez I've been duped!
Seriously I've never heard that before. Players coming up with their own motivations and backgrounds sure, but coming up with an actual reason to be together? That's news to me.
Reebo
LostSoul
Adventurer
I don't see how you can tell them why they want to be together. Especially if they create their own backgrounds and motivations.
Maybe I am looking at it differently. When you say, "Make up guys who will take part in the galactic race," I don't see that as telling them why their characters have to be together. I see that as getting player buy-in for the game.
This is the sort of thing that I usually hash out with the group during character creation. "My guy is an intergalactic smack dealer and he has to run from the Empire while visiting his clients!" "Cool, my guy is a mole in your operation that uses you for cover as I do jobs for the Rebels." "I'm the guy with the ship and you guys heard how fast it was and how awesome a pilot I am." "I am a Jedi who is looking for a secret Jedi temple and I'm working on the ship in order to explore the galaxy on the down low."
Sweet, done, let's play. You guys are coming up on what's called "The Blockade", a narrow passage through an ion storm at the beginning of the race that weeds out all the losers. You're jockying for position among a pack of racers, approaching an asteroid field, and covering that asteroid field is an IMPERIAL STAR DESTOYER that is launching TIE fighters.
Roll for initiative.
Maybe I am looking at it differently. When you say, "Make up guys who will take part in the galactic race," I don't see that as telling them why their characters have to be together. I see that as getting player buy-in for the game.
This is the sort of thing that I usually hash out with the group during character creation. "My guy is an intergalactic smack dealer and he has to run from the Empire while visiting his clients!" "Cool, my guy is a mole in your operation that uses you for cover as I do jobs for the Rebels." "I'm the guy with the ship and you guys heard how fast it was and how awesome a pilot I am." "I am a Jedi who is looking for a secret Jedi temple and I'm working on the ship in order to explore the galaxy on the down low."
Sweet, done, let's play. You guys are coming up on what's called "The Blockade", a narrow passage through an ion storm at the beginning of the race that weeds out all the losers. You're jockying for position among a pack of racers, approaching an asteroid field, and covering that asteroid field is an IMPERIAL STAR DESTOYER that is launching TIE fighters.
Roll for initiative.
atomn
Explorer
ReeboKesh said:
It depends on how into creating background your players are but what about having them each come up with their own background (or backgrounds if some of them want to have past histories together). Then you and they can brainstorm on how that could draw them into this galatic race. Since it's an actual race, perhaps the organizer puts people together randomly (or seemingly randomly but actually for some greater purpose if they are a manipulative type). That would give you the enemies that the party would face and if kept secret in- and out-of-character would give the players an ingame mystery of "who are my shipmates and what are their stories"? So as the washed up swooprider who's trying to regain his fame wonders why they were on the bad end of a drive-by from a spice drug lord, the "business man" is trying to stay alive and win the race so he can pay back the drug lord for the shipment of spice he lost last month. And if you'd want the organizer have an overarching goal or just be especially manipulative, he could have a hand in what drew each character to the race. (ex: he caused the spice-dealer's shipment to get lost, which pushed the dealer to the race because that's the only way to make up the needed cash in such a short timeframe.)
Here, my friend, is a great link from a like-minded Star Wars GM.
The Great Space Race
At the very least, its a good read.
Peterson
The Great Space Race
At the very least, its a good read.
Peterson
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