Argh! What do I do now?? Star Wars campaign advice sought. [long]

[humble minion]

Crossposted to http://www.swrpgnetwork.com

Tonight's session was one of those ones where, even though it's a load of fun, all of your careful planning gets thrown out the window. So now I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do next, and I thought I'd try to tap the collected wisdom of this board...

Tai-San, Tav-Ri, Sidara, Shade, Randal - go away! Don't read any further! You've already caused enough damage for one day!

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The situation is as follows. The game is set in the Old Republic, and the PCs are working for the Jedi helping follow the trail of the Sith after the battle of Naboo. They tracked the evidence back to a secret research facility run by a Sienar Vice-Prex, but in the process they got caught. They made an escape bid with the help of a new PC - an agent for a rival firm who stowed away on the Vice-Prex's starship. And the escape bid almost worked. The PCs were recaptured, unconscious, badly hurt and almost out of VP. But, in the course of things, through a bit of poor planning on my part, a bit of luck on theirs, and the Force Adept accepting a Dark Side point, they managed to kill the Vice-Prex (she threw a STARSHIP at him, using Move Object!)

My problem is, what happens now? Ordinarily there would be a chain of command in place, but the facility is rather unusual. The Vice-Prex, Dorn, was enormously paranoid to the point of being certifiable, and everyone on site is a subservient clone of him, devoted entirely to obeying orders.

In other complications: one of the Jedi (the other was unconscious at the time) knows that the Force Adept called on the Dark Side to kill Dorn. The unconscious Jedi had been drifting towards the Dark Side himself, and is haunted by a Dark Force spirit, who appears to be protecting him and has intervened to save his life previously - although (and this is important) never where anyone else can see. The corporate agent called in a droid warship remotely, to act as a distraction, before the escape attempt went to hell, and it is due to arrive and start wreaking havoc in 50 minutes. The PCs have not achieved their mission goal, which was to gather evidence firmly linking Corporate interests to the presence of the Sith on Naboo. And there is only one functional starship left on the planet if the PCs ever intend to escape, and that is Dorn's ultra-capable personal transport, which I'm not too keen on them getting hold of.

This is the end of a major arc of the campaign, so I want it to be good and memorable. I had planned an epic confrontation on Dorn's ship with the PCs vs Dorn in his customised AT-PT, his bodyguards, and his soldiers. But the PCs played unsubtle and clumsy, so we didn't get this far. Hell, I don't like killing PCs but they damn near didn't give me a choice but to deliberately TPK. Dorn is already dead, but I don't want the remainder of this scene to be too much of an anticlimax.

So, what do I do now? How does a brainwashed clone react when his entire reason for living has just got squished in front of him? How do I pass on necessary (for the ongoing campaign) information about the Sith to the PCs when the only guy who knew it is dead, and is faaaar to paranoid to have written it down anywhere? How do I keep that damn tricked-out ship out of the PCs greedy paws? How do I run a dramatic final confrontation when the number one enemy is already paste and all the PCs are a) captured, b) unconscious right now and c) even when they wake up, wobbly enough that they could be knocked over by a bit of harsh language?

And, last but not least, is there any way at all that I can bring the AT-PT into it, because I was really looking forward to using that! I had a picture ready and everything...

 

[ragboy]

So, what do I do now? How does a brainwashed clone react when his entire reason for living has just got squished in front of him?

This is the crux of your solution. This creature is unpredictable and could either help the group (which is what it sounds like they need right now) or take over where his master fell, which could be bad for the PC's, but allow you to use your AT-PT... Additionally, it could freak (or have latent brain-wash programming), jump in Dorn's tricked out ship and run for the hills, saving the "ultimate confrontation" for later, leaving a semi-discernable trail to the guy that knows the campaign information you want to drop and allowing the group to heal a little bit. Throw them a bone (small transport that breaks down all the time) to follow the guy.

Additionally, you could have a snippet of Sith information somewhere in the general area that leads them to the same place that the Dorn-clone is going.

I'd save the AT-PT. Sounds like throwing a starship to squish the badguy should be climax enough.

Sounds like the start of a great campaign! In my experience, the PC's always screw up a good story, but make much more memorable ones all on their own. For some reason, this happens in Star Wars moreso than any other genre I've DM'ed.

 

[ledded]

Hmmm, a bit of a quandry there. Any time my group plays star wars, I have always tried to leave each encounter and adventure as open-ended as possible, as I have no idea what they are going to try or screw up at any given moment.

Ragboy has a good solution and comments there.

Alternately, and a bit of a stretch, you could say that he had a "personal assistant" droid, a protocol droid that is secretly an assassin droid, who upon his death activates programming to take the information stored by it's owner to the one person he may have trusted with it. It would then attempt to take his ship and go that way. If the weakened characters confronted it, it could show it's true nature and give them a bit of roughing up before flying away, leaving them to scrape up a busted transport like Ragboy said and following. Make the droid very annoying and you could have a good recurring enemy, plus if they do manage to somehow screw up and kill it, you can have the PC's recover the information in it's head for use, giving the PC's a chance to shine using those technical non-combat skills.

If you are looking for a cinematic moment, you could have the droid sic the Dorn clone using the AT-PT on them just as it boards it's ship and flys away. If the battle starts going very badly for the PC's (or they just refuse to run when it gets bad) you can have the Droid Warship bombardment start early, collapsing part of the hanger around them and closing them off from their enemy, allowing them a chance to escape.


Anyway, just some more ideas.

 

[JimAde]

How does a brainwashed clone react when his entire reason for living has just got squished in front of him?

Ragboy's right. This is the key. I think he might react by repressing the memory and convincing himself that he IS the original, and he saw a clone destroyed.

As far as getting the information to the PCs...I don't know the details of your campaign, but if this guy was really that paranoid he might have made a point of keeping evidence around. That way if everything went horribly wrong he couldn't easily be double-crossed by his co-conspirators.

Maybe the PCs can somehow take over the droid ship and use it to escape the planet, following the trail that Ragboy suggested.

Sounds like a great game.

 

[Dagger75]

A force user haunted by dark side spirits, and another jedi calling on the darkside, nows the time to introduce the new and improved Dorn.

The dark side spirits empowered by the call of the dark side have saved Dorn's demented spirit. Dorn probably has a cloning chamber or even a spare body of himself so he could some spare parts if he needs to. Well this dark side spirit infuses with Dorn's now you can add some force user levels to Dorn if you wish and use all you nifty toys he invented.

 

[Jim Hague]

Or...what if Dorn's brainwashing makes the clone(s) think they're Dorn? Or was that Dorn that really got squashed? If he's as ultra-paranoid as you say, a doppelganger isn't out of the question.

Don't stick with your original plan - it'll box you in more than help. The droid ship's showing up? What if the clones or a droid seizes control of it?

 

[humble minion]

Some good ideas so far - thanks! I'll elaborate more when I'm not at work, but just to clarify one thing. Dorn was a withered, freaky 90-year-old who used a hoverchair because he couldn't walk unaided. All his clones are about 30 years old. And there are loads of them - probably a couple of hundred on site and the same number roaming around the galaxy on various covert missions. They do everything important, because Dorn was too paranoid to trust anyone but himself - or a reasonable facsimilie thereof. They get different training programs depending on their roles - there are slicer-clones, mechanic-clones, scientist-clones soldier-clones, elite power-armoured clones, a bodyguard-ninja-clone, and even a raving mob of crazy frothing 'unfinished' clones who got released early from their nutrient tubes as a part of the security response to the PCs' escape.

 

[The_Universe]

Still, even if the man is a Captain Pike wanna-be, you've already said he's demonstrably paranoid. Why not make a clone (or a droid?) that looks like his well-known public persona to serve as a distraction for potential assassins? Seems plausible, anyway. Even if this *was* the original Dorn, it's still possible that he could have somehow stored his consciousness in another clone tube, ready for the moment he happened to die. Surely a mad genius such as this is at least curious about the potential for immortality.

The Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "The Sixth Day" is based on the clone/consciousness downloading gimmick. I wouldn't recommend the film, except that your story has some striking similarities to the one on the movie, and the movie gimmick can give you exactly the way out you need.

On the other hand, I really liked the idea of the haunting spirit joining with your Mr. (Dr.?) Dorn in one of his cloning tubes. That's frickin' awesome.

 

[edventure]

Here's what I would do...

Whoopsie! Too bad he got a dark side point mashing an old guy clone! The Actual Dorn is in his late 60's and still running about in his secret control room. The 90 year old was an early clone he uses as a puppet and a target for snipers. (Or starship slinging force adepts ) Seems he was still experimenting with artifically aging the clones and pushed this one too far.

Did I forget to mention the 2 escape pods off the the side of the bay? Each one is equipped with a medkit and 2 medpacks.

Now hurry up and interrogate the shaken younger clone and find the REAL control room before reinforcements arrive!

 

[humble minion]

Thanks all, for some very interesting ideas!

This is meant to be the grand finale of the Dorn storyline (now the PCs only have to deal with Drokopa and her little friend, Carita Cray, the Red Hands, Chow-Kar, Bok, Trina the Dark, the Gatekeeper, the Devouring Hunger, Borgo the Hutt, the Trade Federation, Shug and the Pit Lords of Yaghul, the Devil's Foundry, a considerable amount of personal angst, the fact that one of them is a spy, an invasion by cannibal insectoids, and a Sith Lord) so I don't really need to stretch things out or bring in another recurring enemy at this stage! The trick is going to be finishing things off in style.

This is what I'm currently thinking. It's something of a mixture of the various ideas people have suggested, with a few twists of my own. Opinions?

Oops, forgot that some of this won't make sense unless you know a bit more background. The Dark Force spirit is haunting the Dark-leaning Jedi Guardian, Tai-San, in particular, not the party in general. The spirit is Xanatos, Qui-Gon's fallen first apprentice, who turned from the Jedi to the dark when his duties came in contact with his family loyalties. Tai-San, unbeknown to him, is Xanatos' half-brother, a by-blow from an affair that his father had with Tai-San's married mother on Coruscant. Tai-San has recently met his parents for the first time. They both know he is illegitimate, but the subject still brings up painful emotions with them obviously, so they haven't told him the truth. He knows something weird is going on, though, and his abandonment issues, (from them and from his master, who mysteriously disappeared just after Tai-San's final trials) are fuelling his fall to the Dark Side. Xanatos is encouraging this. Xanatos wants Tai-San to leave the feeble Jedi Order and strike out on his own, ruling a nation, planet, or sector with an iron fist, as is his birthright.)

Anyway.

The PCs wake up in forcefield shackles (ie, what Dooku used to imprison Obi-wan in Ep 2) in what was once a medical lab (I've established that all manner of research goes on here, so this isn't too much of a stretch) with an eerie mob of identical faces crowded in, watching. Dorn's body is floating in a bacta tank nearby, and all the life-sign indicators have flatlined. A medical clone speaks to them (the bodyguard-ninja clone keeping an eye out for anyone who tries anything funny) Doctor-clone tells the Jedi Counsellor that "the Father must be saved!" and he is going to perform a dangerous operation. He tells the Jedi to use his healing abilities on Dorn when ordered to do so, or his friends will be killed one by one.

Doctor-clone calls one of the other clones to the operating table, then takes Dorn's body out of the bacta tank. He then removes the (willing) clone's brain, and replaces it with Dorn's. Then he orders PC Jedi to heal the new Dorn. Jedi (presumably) does, especially after I explain that refusing to heal when it will mean the instant death of all his friends is probably DSP-worthy...

At this very moment, the droid ship makes its attack. It launches a full volley of proton torps that knock down the protective shields and cut the power before the ship is engaged by the fighters on patrol outside. Cue blackout, screaming, exploding machinery, sparking short circuits, falling beams, and general chaos.

After about five seconds, the backup generator cuts in. Yes, in a rare show of foresight, I included one on the plans that the scoundrel sliced last session, aren't I clever? The PCs are free - the forcefield shackles having been deactivated by the power cut and dropping them to the floor. Franken-Dorn is awake - but so is Dorn's original body, blood streaming down its face. Both claim to be the real Dorn. Doctor-clone follows Franken-Dorn, having done the damn operation himself. Bodyguard-ninja-clone follows zombie-Dorn, saying something along the lines of "Father! It is as the Sith promised! You shall indeed live forever!" (I'm assuming that Dorn was bright enough to bring his bodyguard to a meeting with a Sith!) The once-united clones break down into ferocious rival factions, as intent on killing each other as the PCs. Seeing Dorn (aka Father, Number One) die hasn't done anything for their mental stability, after all.

What really happened is that Xanatos used his Possession ability to animate Dorn's (thoroughly dead) body. He wants to a) keep Tai-San alive and get him off this rock, b) keep the rest of the party ignorant of his existence, and c) kill the other PC Jedi if possible, to remove a rival for influence over Tai-San.

What happens next is largely up to the PCs. They know full well that they're down to only a handful of VP and/or WP, so if they're smart they'll try at least to negotiate with one side or another. If they come up with something good, then I'll let it work, at least a bit. They may well get away with Dorn's ship, but it's quite likely to get damaged considering there's still a space battle going on outside, and it may not be worth salvaging - especially since it is so recognisable if/when they get it back to civilisation. Franken-Dorn knows where the AT-PT is, and I suppose could use it, but on second thoughts I might have to leave that for some other bad guy to play with. With the PCs in their current fragile condition, that thing is a TPK waiting to happen. It could be a good tool for herding PCs where I want them to go, though.

This gives me a zombie, a ninja, a mad scientist, a giant robot, five wounded PCs, and a civil war of crazed clones, all in a burning building with a space battle going on overhead. If I can't come up with some suitably dramatic climactic scene out of this scenario, then I might as well hand in my GM license right now...

Suggestions, opinions, abuse?