Campaign Start Idea: 3 one-shots to select your PC

[Yora]

I've been thinking about a possible Star Wars campaign today and how to have the PCs from very different backgrounds come together and end up with the Rebellion. And I got this idea to set up three one-shot adventures. One story about a senator and his staff fleeing from Coruscant after the senate is dissolved, one about a hidden Jedi master and his apprentices deciding to offer their abilities to the Rebellion, and one story about some smugglers getting roped in making a delivery that turns out to be weapons for the Rebellion.

Then after the three stories have played out and all three groups have ended up at the same rebel base, all players have to pick one of the three characters they played as their PC for the rest of the campaign.

If their PCs die at some point during the campaign, one of the two characters they didn't pick at first would make for a great replacement. If all players decide that they want to take the character from the same adventure, that's also perfectly alright. Even if none of the PCs from the other two adventures end up getting played, all the players will know and remember the major NPCs and locations from those stories, and having them appear again later in the campaign helps tying everything together. If the players have PCs from each of the three adventures, then there will always be at least one PC who has a past history with the NPCs when they meet again, or knows things about the locations they've been to before but none of the other PCs.

I'm not a fan of the idea of having introductory adventures for the PCs played with only one or two players each, and thought that the other players could play supporting characters instead of sitting it out. But why have the players decide in advance what their PC will be, even if they might have more fun with one of the extras they played? No reason to not let them make their final choice after they played all three.

Obviously, this is all much more practical in a game where character creation is pretty simple and quick. That way you can make characters as relatively disposable for a one shot and don't have to go into excessive detail until later. Details which might be much easier to decide on after you already played a character once.

What do you think? Sounds fun or really stupid?

 

[Wicht]

If your group of players is consistent in their participation it is a great idea.

 

[aco175]

I like this idea and would like playing in something like it. I might steal it.

My session 0 mostly involves the players having PCs they would like to play and all deciding how to make up the group. Most of them have something in mind, but some inter the night with no idea and making 2-3 might be good.

 

[Yora]

Justin Alexander made a short video a week or so ago about first doing a one-shot practice run with the game before starting the actual campaign with new characters, so that the players will be better informed about their options and what the various stats mean.
In a way, this wouldn't be much different than doing two practice-one shot and the third adventure being the first campaign session for each PC. Of course you would lose many of the benefits of the practice adventures if you do them after you created your final PC. But you could always ask the players who of them are the most interested in each of these campaign starts and which of them think they need the most practice with the system to make their choice.
If you have one player who has played the system a lot before and really likes backound #2, and the other new players think background #2 doesn't sound very interesting to them, than that one would be an obvious pick to play first. If you have one player who knows nothing about the system but is really excited about background #1, then that would be a good candidate to go last.

 

[Hand of Evil]

My thoughts: have the players do the work for you and tell you how they got together, it can make for some fun (if farfetched) plot hooks.

Players do not have to be part of the rebellion they just have to work with them. The Empire basically forces people to go against them.

 

[payn]

I like it, sort of reminds me of a functional funnel (unlike DCC lol). It allows players to kick the tires of the system in a variety of characters, and leaves a stable of replacements. I'd play this and its doesn't sound stupid at all.