A resounding yes.
It was literally the last STAR WARS I GMED. I used to play WEG star wars like mad. It was one of my core three games for a decade. Bbut then one day i had enough of it. I figured I had "outgrown" it - as in told all of the stories I needed to tell there and was ready to move into other games and stories. Then The Phantom Menace came out, which I really enjoyed even if others did not. It was so... STAR WARS. And it opened up the Old republic to me. As it happend I was also in the middle of a massive "horror" streak - naturally the two merged in my head, and I ran a massive weekend adventure that really worked well.
The Setting:
The Old Republic thousands of years before SW:TPM
Backstory:
There was an incredible Jedi by the name of Tantis Jon-Ra. He was the best of the best. he was the brightest star in the sky. It was assumed that he would become one of the great figures in the Jedi Order. But like all bright stars, he was destined to fall. When the Jedis heard rumors of possible Sith activities, they sent him to investigate. And after a few communications, he vanished with out a trace.
Campaign:
The characters played Young Jedi newly graduated, who were sent to invistgate and discover what happend to Tantis Jon-Ra. In true Star Wars Tradition I envisioned a swashbuckling pulpy campaign that would begin to grow more "smothering", desperate, and hopeless every hour. The goal was to take the players from the light deep into despair. I was hoping to take them through Tantis Jon-Ra's journey from light into madness.
It worked incredibly well. In the beginning, the players were all busy enjoying Star Wars thinking that this was any old campaign. They followed the clues that took them to world after world as they traced Tantis's journey.
The first world (was a beautiful blue pristine island world where they engaged in some underwater chases and battles. The second was a modern city world, where they got caught up in a block by block battle, which included them bumping into people carrying apocalyptic "end of the world signs. This drew questioning eyebrows from players - that was different...
The third world was a post industrial dump world, in which they got involved in a speeder chase through the disgusting sewers of the place. It ended in a room filled with decayed bodies untouched since Tantis Jon-Ra had been there. It was obvious that the figures had experienced death by lightsaber.
Next they journeyed to a desert world of dunes, where they located Tantis's ship which had been buried under the dunes. As they finally dug a path to the ship, a massive sandstorm overtook them, and they began searching the ship room by room finding bodies and sensing the Dark Side all around them. They eventually checked the logs, and in true lovecracftian fashion, Tantis had left personal logs of what was happening to him. Five in all, which I read with increasing desperation. Each one taking him a notch closer to his breaking point. The last one having him screaming "The cave! The Cave! I found the cave! It was waiting for me... Sarnath! Sarnath! Sarnath!" The charaters used the ships sensors and located a nearby cave. The braved the fierce storm and found the unholy place. An ancient Sith Temple was buried inside, and they were assaulted with the dark forces inside. Once they gained control, they found crude starmaps on the walls.
When they returned to their ship, they plotted the starmaps into the nav computer and the system they were looking for didn't exist in any of the records. They set course anyways and traveled into the deep dark to a place that wasn't supposed to exist.
They found it. One world - Sarnath. Orbiting a black sun, that gave off black light, and bathed the world in eternal night. They scanned the world and found several deserted cities, but located on temple where there was a power signature. They landed ion the forest nearby. Sarnath was a world of nightmares, and if came alive sending foul sithian spawn after the PCs who fled to the Sith Grand temple... right into the waiting arms of Tantis Jon-Ra. They then engaged in the fight of their lives, all of them facing the master jedi. Arms were lost, people were cut in half, heads flew, but eventually they defeated him. The survivors retreated back to the ship and left the accursed planet behind them. with them were tantalizing clues that these strange Mad Sith were awakening and moving silently across the Republic.
For those that know any Mythos stuff, you can see it riddled with ideas and concepts. Sarnath, the slow decline into madness (king in yellow - Tantis was even an king that gave up the throne to become a jedi. he even shrouded himself in yellow robes), the Sarnath beasties were very lovecraftian, the "journals" that chronicled a desent into madness, slow decay of the settings, etc.
It was to be the start of a grand campaign, but in the end it was really the final adventure I ran in Star Wars. The players loved it and begged for more, but I was right in the middle of an epic horror/cthulian campaign set in modern times, and I felt the two would be two close in tone. I never went back to star wars after that, but let me tell you. It was one of my best run adventures ever (easy top five). Ever.
Horror and Star Wars can be merged - to frightening depths.
If you want to do it, do it. Just have a clear idea what horror elements you want to include. Also, be sure that you maintain the starwars feel. Toggling between the two is pretty essential. Balance my young padawan. Balance.
Razuur
It was literally the last STAR WARS I GMED. I used to play WEG star wars like mad. It was one of my core three games for a decade. Bbut then one day i had enough of it. I figured I had "outgrown" it - as in told all of the stories I needed to tell there and was ready to move into other games and stories. Then The Phantom Menace came out, which I really enjoyed even if others did not. It was so... STAR WARS. And it opened up the Old republic to me. As it happend I was also in the middle of a massive "horror" streak - naturally the two merged in my head, and I ran a massive weekend adventure that really worked well.
The Setting:
The Old Republic thousands of years before SW:TPM
Backstory:
There was an incredible Jedi by the name of Tantis Jon-Ra. He was the best of the best. he was the brightest star in the sky. It was assumed that he would become one of the great figures in the Jedi Order. But like all bright stars, he was destined to fall. When the Jedis heard rumors of possible Sith activities, they sent him to investigate. And after a few communications, he vanished with out a trace.
Campaign:
The characters played Young Jedi newly graduated, who were sent to invistgate and discover what happend to Tantis Jon-Ra. In true Star Wars Tradition I envisioned a swashbuckling pulpy campaign that would begin to grow more "smothering", desperate, and hopeless every hour. The goal was to take the players from the light deep into despair. I was hoping to take them through Tantis Jon-Ra's journey from light into madness.
It worked incredibly well. In the beginning, the players were all busy enjoying Star Wars thinking that this was any old campaign. They followed the clues that took them to world after world as they traced Tantis's journey.
The first world (was a beautiful blue pristine island world where they engaged in some underwater chases and battles. The second was a modern city world, where they got caught up in a block by block battle, which included them bumping into people carrying apocalyptic "end of the world signs. This drew questioning eyebrows from players - that was different...
The third world was a post industrial dump world, in which they got involved in a speeder chase through the disgusting sewers of the place. It ended in a room filled with decayed bodies untouched since Tantis Jon-Ra had been there. It was obvious that the figures had experienced death by lightsaber.
Next they journeyed to a desert world of dunes, where they located Tantis's ship which had been buried under the dunes. As they finally dug a path to the ship, a massive sandstorm overtook them, and they began searching the ship room by room finding bodies and sensing the Dark Side all around them. They eventually checked the logs, and in true lovecracftian fashion, Tantis had left personal logs of what was happening to him. Five in all, which I read with increasing desperation. Each one taking him a notch closer to his breaking point. The last one having him screaming "The cave! The Cave! I found the cave! It was waiting for me... Sarnath! Sarnath! Sarnath!" The charaters used the ships sensors and located a nearby cave. The braved the fierce storm and found the unholy place. An ancient Sith Temple was buried inside, and they were assaulted with the dark forces inside. Once they gained control, they found crude starmaps on the walls.
When they returned to their ship, they plotted the starmaps into the nav computer and the system they were looking for didn't exist in any of the records. They set course anyways and traveled into the deep dark to a place that wasn't supposed to exist.
They found it. One world - Sarnath. Orbiting a black sun, that gave off black light, and bathed the world in eternal night. They scanned the world and found several deserted cities, but located on temple where there was a power signature. They landed ion the forest nearby. Sarnath was a world of nightmares, and if came alive sending foul sithian spawn after the PCs who fled to the Sith Grand temple... right into the waiting arms of Tantis Jon-Ra. They then engaged in the fight of their lives, all of them facing the master jedi. Arms were lost, people were cut in half, heads flew, but eventually they defeated him. The survivors retreated back to the ship and left the accursed planet behind them. with them were tantalizing clues that these strange Mad Sith were awakening and moving silently across the Republic.
For those that know any Mythos stuff, you can see it riddled with ideas and concepts. Sarnath, the slow decline into madness (king in yellow - Tantis was even an king that gave up the throne to become a jedi. he even shrouded himself in yellow robes), the Sarnath beasties were very lovecraftian, the "journals" that chronicled a desent into madness, slow decay of the settings, etc.
It was to be the start of a grand campaign, but in the end it was really the final adventure I ran in Star Wars. The players loved it and begged for more, but I was right in the middle of an epic horror/cthulian campaign set in modern times, and I felt the two would be two close in tone. I never went back to star wars after that, but let me tell you. It was one of my best run adventures ever (easy top five). Ever.
Horror and Star Wars can be merged - to frightening depths.
If you want to do it, do it. Just have a clear idea what horror elements you want to include. Also, be sure that you maintain the starwars feel. Toggling between the two is pretty essential. Balance my young padawan. Balance.
Razuur
