Star Wars: How to seperate the Padawan from the Master

[Corsair]

Premise: The campaign will be set near the end of the clone wars, with a few adventures happening before Order 66. The premise is that because the Jedi have most of their forces dedicated directly to the war effort, many things they used to do (peace keeping, special missions, etc) have been delegated to less able Jedi. To reinforce these less experienced Jedi, the Council has begun hiring non-Jedi to go along for assistance.

Party:

Miraluka Padawan (guardian 2), 13 years old
Bothan Scoundrel 2, demolition expert
Arakanian Fringer/Soldier, pilot and backup tech
Human Fringer 2, tech type (I think he's going for chief engineer)
NPC - the Padawan's master (jedi Consular 7, race undecided)

The Rub: I want to keep the master alive long enough so I can off him/her when Order 66 comes along. Until then, how can I make sure that the NPC jedi doesn't dominate play (or even better, how can I get the NPC out of the mix completely?). I have a hard time just splitting them up considering the age of the padawan.

How can I make sure that the higher level NPC has little or no effect on play without relying too much on ham fisted means? I plan on having at least 3 solid adventures before Order 66, so preferably I need 3 different ideas.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Consider what the character is like. The padawan is rather young, so there may be some of that teenage rebellion creeping in. Perhaps there's a mission the rest of the party is requested for. The Master at first denies the character permission to participate. The character pushed back, insisting on some autonomy. The Master gives in. It's a little weak and maybe too dependent on how the player will react, but hopefully it will get the ball rolling.

 

[Dalamar]

Rayshields, collapsing tunnels, armies of droids to hold back while the others do the important stuff, a Dark Jedi of considerable skill (not a Sith, though), an officer of the separatist army to deal with, or other such things that a high-level character can do but the low-level ones can't.

Collapsing tunnels can be used either to block the Jedi Master from the others, or better yet, "tie up" the Jedi Master as he keeps the collapsing tunnel from crushing everybody/the only exit from closing while the rest of the party frees the hostage/disarms the bomb/arrests the target/destroys the shield generators.

Other means include having the Master leave somewhere for a while (to report to the Council, to scout ahead, to try and find a place where the commlink works so backup can be called, etc) or have him/her severely wounded after a barrage of blaster shots.

 

[scourger]

Perhaps the master is needed by the Jedi Council for other duties altogether. The order for the padawan and the others to attend to other, more minor affairs, comes from the top. Perhaps the master must stay with a body of clone troops in combat and must send the padawan and others off on certain missions, such as peacekeeping, special missions, etc. as you premise. Then, you could have the drama as the padawan tries to return to the master not knowing that Order 66 has been issued and executed successfully on the master. Perhaps the padawan et al. have to fight some clone tropers sent to execute Order 66 on them. The master will dominate the action if "on screen" with the players characters. So, leave the master in the background for the most part.

 

[Gospog]

Well, most of my advice would echo what other people have said, so I will spare you the repeat.

I do have an idea specifically for your third game, before The Jedi Purge.

The Jedi Master (Teacher?) gets reports of a dark Jedi fighting on the side of the Sepratists. Reports are blurry, but this "bad guy" in definitely using lightsabers. Must be a Dark Jedi.

The Master thinks this is too dangerous for the Padawan to be involved in. The Master is hooking up with some other experienced Jedi to investigate. The Padawan is to wait for him until he returns.

The next the Padawan hears from him (audio or video message), the Master is in deep doo-doo. The "Dark Jedi" turned out to be General Grevious. The Master tells the Padawan to go get help, right away!

Lucky for the Padawan, a Clone garrisson is very close by. Order 66 is given...

Have fun!

-Tom

 

[Khorod]

Is it really necessary the Padawan be that young? Even 15 would loosen up the dynamic.

You might select one of the non-Jedi as an "Old Friend" of the Master, made his proxy over the kid if the situation demands it.

Star Wars is also full of the need for delaying actions... so the Master can delay opponents out front while the party does some necessary sabotage or rescuing.

 

[AmorphousBlob]

Hmm, I seem to remember a few incidents in certain video games similar to the delaying tactic idea. Also, remember what happened on the first Death Star? Obi-Wan went off to deal with the tractor beam, leaving Luke, Han, Chewie and the droids alone. Once Luke is informed that Leia is on the Death Star, he, Han and Chewie go off to rescue her. A similar situation is easily workable, all you have to do is alter a few words and names to fit the situation.

 

[SWBaxter]

The Rub: I want to keep the master alive long enough so I can off him/her when Order 66 comes along. Until then, how can I make sure that the NPC jedi doesn't dominate play (or even better, how can I get the NPC out of the mix completely?).

Some ideas:

- since the Jedi are spread thin, the missions assigned to this master and padawan are probably going to be both critical and complex. So there's plenty of opportunity to split the two up - the master handles whatever seems most important, the padawan goes off to deal with some secondary issue that can't wait. Example: a world with a strong secessionist movement, maybe the master concentrates on getting the political leaders to sit down and talk with each other while the padawan deals with violent extremists trying to disrupt the talks.

- if the master has some special skillset, then he can be sent on missions where the Padawan may be a hindrance. The council would then find the padawan something else to do, probably related to the master's mission. An example straight from the movies, Obi-Wan the Jedi Investigator tracks the assassin while Anakin sneaks Padme off of Coruscant.

- if the master sees some kind of learning experience in a situation, he might send the padawan off to handle it and merely observe discretely. Particularly good if the padawan had some role in causing the situation, and now has to fix it.

- quite possibly, there's some area in which the padawan is much more skilled than the master. That presents a logical reason for the master to leave the padawan to his own devices when an appropriate situation comes up, while the master handles some other aspect more suited to his talents. Say the padawan has technical skills and the master doesn't, and they're hunting secessionist terrorists; the master might leave the padawan to investigate evidence or track them via computer records, while the master takes the more direct approach of questioning shady characters in bars.

- there's always the old saw of having them separated by some disaster - accident, an attack, or whatever. For example, they happen to be in different parts of a space station when it's attacked by wardroids.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Is it really necessary the Padawan be that young? Even 15 would loosen up the dynamic.

Exactly my thoughts. If the Padawan was older(more like 16 or 17, really) then its more likely he'd be able to do things on his own. But the Master is responsible for the child(and 13 is a child) just like any parent would be...but with the added need to teach him in the Force and guard him. That age is just a little too young for the Master to have a good reason not to be around.

 

[Corsair]

Khorod + Ankh : I talked to the player(s) in question about your observation, and they agreed. They've decided to raise the age of their characters to 15. They want to keep the "young and naive" angle going, but at least now I won't have to play the NPC as their mother. I say "they" because the fringer player has decided to play a consular as well.