Planning for my next SW d20 session -- am I insane?

[SurfMonkey01]

** cross-posted from rpg.net and holonet forums **

On the one hand, I feel like what I have in store could be killer, but on the other, I may be biting off more than I can chew...

Here's the story thus far:
Brakiss is back from the dead, and he's a Sith now. When the Shadow Academy went kaboom, Brakiss did die, but his spirit didn't pass on. Instead, he got snatched up by the spirit of a long-dead Sith Lord who wants a new body. Planning to use Brakiss', he led him to the Valley of the Jedi, where ol' Brak was reborn. Now here's the catch: while he was in the power, Brakiss saw a vision of the upcoming Yuuzhan Vong invasion. Feeling that Skywalker's Jedi were too weak to repel the invaders, he decided to rebuild the Shadow Academy and train students in the ways of the Dark Side, which he felt would be powerful enough to defeat the Vong. He soon realized that he couldn't train enough students in time, so he returned to the Valley and decided to repeat DeSaan's little trick (from Jedi Knight II for the PC) -- he began to create Reborn. Now he had an army. As for the Sith Lord, well, he's learned to be patient, so he's going to let Brakiss repel these invaders, and THEN take over his body. Less work that way. Now for the group: they're mainly Jedi, and one's a New Republic general. Thus far they've encountered Brakiss and escaped from his Shadow Academy, and they travelled to Rhommamool, where they met Nom Anor and one of their number (plus Mara Jade, natch) got infected with that pesky Yuuzhan Vong disease.

Now here's the fun part, what I have planned for the next session...
Brakiss is bringing his forces to bear on the Academy. He wants to try to get the Jedi to join him, but will no hesitate to slaughter them for their weakness if they refuse. So pretty much, I want to run a massive Jedi war on Yavin 4, while the general leads a group of commandos to the Shadow Academy itself and tries to destroy it. And as this wraps up, the group will get summoned to Sernpidal, where the Yuuzhan Vong invasion has begun.

So, am I mad, or what? Any ideas/suggestions?

 

[Mr Fidgit]

WOW!

ok, i'm curious; do the PCs know 'the story thus far'?

which part will PCs play in, the battle on Yavin 4, or the Shadow Academy?

 

[SurfMonkey01]

They don't know any of the Brakiss backstory yet... all they know is "Brakiss is alive, running the Shadow Academy again, is now a Sith, and may have a Dark Side spirit with him." It's gonna be fun when they find out the rest. The battle on Yavin, the PCs are gonna be the front lines and the leaders. The timeframe I've got it in, Luke, Mara, Jacen, Jaina, Anakin, and Kyp are all somewhere else. So the PCs are the most powerful people at the Academy right now. As for the Shadow Academy, well, that's up to them...

 

[Mr Fidgit]

i wish i had some good advice for you, but i've never run a large scale battle before. i would suggest creating another post asking the ENWorld vets how they would handle a battle of this size.

i think this is especially troubling because of the 'x factors' like;
terrain
flyers (people, ships, etc.)
jedi force powers
blasters! (as we saw in Ep II, blaster fire (and other long range weaponry) ripped up both forces before troops ever went head-to-head)

are you mad? hmmmm...yes. but this also sounds like alot of fun!

here's something else: if you divided all of the forces into separate units, you could pre-determine their fates before your gaming session begins. the only thing that could change this is the PC's intervention. this way, you'd have a lot less to concentrate on once the battle begins. for example, let's say the PCs defeat the first unit of bad guys they meet at the beginning of the battle, and this takes 5 rounds. on round 6, the PCs could assess were they're needed the most (if another good-guy unit is in trouble) or just rush off in a random direction to keep fighting bad-guys (which my players would most likely do). you would already have the results from these rounds of combat, and the only thing that would change is the PCs arrival to this particular skirmish. and so on...



now that i think on it all little more, go with my original suggestion. ask the ENWorld vets for help! good luck!

 

[Prince Atom]

I'd say determine the outcome of the battle WITHOUT the PCs -- that is, if the PCs were not there, who would win? It sounds like the Shadow Academy, because they've got numbers.

Then, determine several key points in the battle where the PCs' actions could influence the outcome, and develop those as encounters. Then, give each encounter an effect depending on the outcome.

i.e.

The Shadow Academy wins on Yavin 4, but the Skywalker forces give a good accounting of themselves. Only about a quarter of the Jedi under Skywalker's aegis survive and escape, fleeing Yavin 4. The Shadow Jedi destroy the temple and Academy, loot what they can, and abandon the moon.

This is all without the PCs' intervention. Now for an encounter that could turn the tide of battle.

The Shadow forces land on the moon of Yavin and deploy several scouting forces. Unless the PCs intercept and destroy a certain group of scouts, the Shadows discover a way to flank the Skywalkers and catch them in a crossfire. The scouts do not have to be completely killed, but they must be denied the ability to communicate with the main Shadow force (a combat encounter should suffice; if the scouts are defeated, and only one or two escape, this is sufficient). If the PCs prevent the Shadows from flanking them, then the number of Skywalkers surviving the battle and fleeing the system increases to half their total force.

Anyone else thinking speeder bike chase?

Other encounters present themselves; maybe the PCs have to take out a piece of artillery, or confront and defeat the commanders (I presume Brakiss is not actually here). Each encounter has a different effect. Destroying heavy artillery means the temple and academy won't be razed; obliterating a series of command relay stations stops the Shadow from reaching the temple so they won't loot it; and destroying the command team breaks their morale and makes them flee, so the Skywalkers retain the moon.

Still, prepare for the Academy to lose about half its people.


And as for the blaster fire cutting down troops; the battle in Ep2 was on an open plain with little or no cover. Yavin is thickly jungled, and there's plenty of cover and few good lines of fire out to any distance. I'd expect that a battle in the jungles will take place at fairly short distances.

Have fun!

TWK
Wow... I'm more of a wargamer than I thought....