What's the best way to begin a space opera campaign?

[Jack Daniel]

(Feh. No Alternity prefix.) This is an open-ended question for all you clever refs out there.

The last several long-term campaigns I've run have all been high fantasy. It remains my favorite genre, but we all need some variety after a while (especially those of us who chronically DM and hardly ever get the chance to play, but that's a topic for another post). I feel like I'm starting to get burned out on Tolkienesque fantasy worlds, and I have no desire at all to dip into Conanesque low fantasy or any flavor of superheroes. As far as popular RPG conceits go, that leaves some brand of sci-fi.

Space opera would have to be my choice, because it shares something fundamental with high fantasy: it's got clear-cut good-aligned heroes, evil-aligned villains, and just enough gray area in between for lovable rogues and scoundrels. Darker styles of low fantasy or hard sci-fi tend towards black and gray morality and crapsack worlds, both of which I find obnoxious in the extreme. I want to run a campaign that feels more like Star Wars. (What can I say, I'm one of those nerd heretics who just didn't care for Firefly very much.)

For the moment, I have a setting in mind, something that I'm slowly home-brewing and adding detail to. I have all the major factions, organizations, and alien races ready to go. But I'll also likely lay out these two conventions or table-rules before I sit down with my players to begin the campaign.

1) In space opera, the protagonists are good guys. The player characters can be what D&D usually thinks of as good or neutral, but if anyone turns evil, they get NPC'd. I think this is a reasonable rule for most any campaign where the DM doesn't want to deal with evil PCs, but especially for certain genres that just demand it.

2) In keeping with genre convention (I'm thinking of both Star Wars and Star Trek here), the majority of the protagonists should be human. Aliens, robots, and other special snowflakes are the exception, not the norm. To model this, players must start the game with human characters. If a player character dies, the player may then opt to roll up an unusual character, drawn from among all alien races (&al.) that the party has so far encountered in-game.

All of this is fine and dandy, but I'm having a bit of trouble now deciding precisely how I want to begin this campaign. If the players roll up a typical set of characters, and I'm sure they will, I'm liable to see a spread of variously good- and neutral-aligned mercenary soldiers and pilots, rogues and scoundrels, techies and psionicists. (Have you noticed how, when playing Alternity, the diplomat is by far the least-played class?)

What, in the opinion of all you GMs out there with sci-fi experience, is the best way to draw a rabble of player characters into a heroic space opera? Drop them in the middle of a firefight between good guys and bad guys, and hope they side with the good guys? Mysterious stranger in a bar who wants to hire them for an interstellar treasure-hunt? Start them on a planet under the thumb of an oppressive empire, and hope that they start sticking it to the man? Archaeological dig on a remote planet releases an ancient, alien darkness?

Help me, EN-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope! (...sorry, that was lame, I apologize.)

 

[Plane Sailing]

I've done this a number of times. Inthink the most successful has been when the pcs are created S part of a team, an organisation which gives a reason for them to be together and do stuff.

Otherwise you have to answer the question of why they want to work together! Throwing them in media res can work to alleviate this, putting the onus on them to make up the reasons afterward.

 

[Sorrowdusk]

GM- "...You all meet in a cantina..."

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

What's the best way to begin a space opera campaign?

... in a space tavern.

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Seriously though, the best way to determine that is after a bit of group dialog about what generalized theme they are collectively hoping for.

If you formulate a preconceived notion of having them be idealized rebels against the oppressive empire and they are interested in a low-key Travelleresque kinda thing... the campaign stands a good chance of floundering... especially if you've wasted effort creating a bunch of background story and characters that they're specifically avoiding.

 

[bobhayes]

Tell them what you want the campaign to be like, first off. That gives the players who really want to play a brooding, evil Dark Lord the chance to find a game that suits them better.

Create an organization in-game with a wide mandate and a lot of interesting action going on - the UN in space, maybe - and require all PCs to be part of that. "The Jedi Council will be the source of all your plots and missions. Pick a character role that has some reason to work with or for the Jedi Council, please."

 

[Razjah]

What kind of campaign do you plan to run? For example, if you want a military campaign make them a unit. The party could be a special task force.

They could meet in a cantina/bar.
They could be thrown together when pirates attack the vessel they were on.
The party could be formed from childhood friends.
They could meet when some alien give them a quest, and then dies from his wounds. Think the opening of Animorphs or the Green Lantern.

Hope that helps.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Tell them what you want the campaign to be like, first off. That gives the players who really want to play a brooding, evil Dark Lord the chance to find a game that suits them better.

Create an organization in-game with a wide mandate and a lot of interesting action going on - the UN in space, maybe - and require all PCs to be part of that. "The Jedi Council will be the source of all your plots and missions. Pick a character role that has some reason to work with or for the Jedi Council, please."

This, mostly. And decide what kind of ship they are going to have! (Preferably with their input.) I'd be inclinded to start with the digging something up scenario, but the thing dug up would be a piece of alien high tech (maybe even their ship), and then the bad guys would show up and try to take it from them.

 

[Bluenose]

Start them off on a space ship. They have to band together to deal with a problem - pirates, engine failure, catastrophic reality dump - and having succeeded (or failed, and that has interesting optins for escape) they've attracted attention. From the media, who want them as a group for interviews; from the organisation behind the failed shipjacking; and from a law enforcement agency or two. Someone's going to want to give them a job, probably more than one.

 

[Jack Daniel]

Okay, first of all, let me clarify something. The "player buy-in" conversation would ordinarily be a given, except that my circumstances don't really require it. I don't game with a small circle of gamer friends these days, I just run whatever I feel like running at my FLGS. There happens to be a chronic shortage of DMs and a similar overabundance of players there, so filling a table with decent players who want to play whatever I'm willing to run is no difficult task.

What kind of campaign do you plan to run? For example, if you want a military campaign make them a unit. The party could be a special task force.

They could meet in a cantina/bar.
They could be thrown together when pirates attack the vessel they were on.
The party could be formed from childhood friends.
They could meet when some alien give them a quest, and then dies from his wounds. Think the opening of Animorphs or the Green Lantern.

Hope that helps.

This does help. I quite like the idea of putting them together on a mass/public transport ship of some kind, and having it be attacked by pirates. Naturally, the pirates are trying to steal something from the most mysterious NPC passenger aboard, who could also be an alien or whatever with an artifact or quest all ready to go. Being the lone survivors of a disaster is indeed a good excuse to bring the player characters together and launch and adventure.

I'd be inclinded to start with the digging something up scenario, but the thing dug up would be a piece of alien high tech (maybe even their ship), and then the bad guys would show up and try to take it from them.

Ah, the Outlaw Star method. Everybody wants the XGP...

 

[1Mac]

I'm not sure space opera is going to get you different answers from other RPG genres to your general question, which is on how to bring random PCs into a coherent party.

In Medias Res is a pretty good way to wrangle together a bunch of disparate characters. Prisons and shipwrecks are particularly useful. Spontaneous curses/temporal distortions that randomly bring the characters to some plotworthy place are also good.

Or, think of situations where a large group of different sorts of folk would naturally meet. Festivals, markets, pilgrimages, conventions, that sort of thing. Then have the plot happen where everyone is at the same place. Public assassinations or kidnappings, or dramatically revealed Macguffins that turn up missing, or some sort of raid or attack; these have the potential to bring PCs together.

In either case, you are dropping your players into a situation not necessarily of their choosing. I'd make a point of asking them why they are in the situation you put them in. How did you wind up on this imperial yacht? Why did you decide to go to Coruscant for the Life Day festivities?