Star Wars - Edge of the Empire Campaign: Making Credits and Surviving

Hi folks and welcome back.  So this post is going to be a bit long as I am posting aspects of my Star Wars Edge of the Empire campaign that I wrote up.  I'll break this up into sections and I also want my readers to keep in mind that this is not the full campaign and is only a part of it.

The idea is to craft an "Episodic" style game.  Now the first game ran 2 sessions to sort of make a "Episode 1 Pilot Movie".

So lets get the ball rolling on this.

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Character Creation

Characters can start at a normal level, but the idea is that the character actually have some experience in their respective jobs.

The GM will want to give players 80xp extra to represent their additional experience prier to the game starting.  Characters should still be built by the normal rules initially.  Once that is done the players may apply their xp to further enhance their character.

Characters will get an additional 1,000 credits with which to buy starting gear.  No starting vehicles are allowed.

Any race is allowed, though the game is taking place around 14 years after the rise of the Empire.  As such there are some things to consider;

• Force users are actively hunted by the Inquisition.  There are Imperial propaganda signs around showing if you see anyone do something unnatural or beyond normal human capacity it is to be reported.
• Aliens suffer a lot of discrimination.  The Empire is not fond if any alien possessing a weapon, or loitering around and such they tend to use such opportunities to harass normal citizens and will use what ever excuse they like to confiscate things.  This should not make a player feel that they are restricted to playing humans, but this is just a growing truth of how the Empire operates through out the galaxy, especially now that they are extending their grip into the outer rim.
• Players are playing characters who are Freelancers; essentially mercs but with no particular love for the Empire, and who aren't really bad people, their just trying to get buy in a galaxy that is making it harder for people to do their own thing.
• Player Characters will not know each other and will essentially be meeting for the first time.

Equipment can be used from any book.  And any book can be used with the GM's permission.  Though I would advise not mixing the character classes of other books per say (like those of Age of Rebellion).

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The Campaign

The game starts with the players each spending several weeks being interviewed over the comm by a man named Tervus Movain who is looking to set up a crew to assist him of finding something for a client of his.  He is unwilling to give details unless the PC's meet him in person.  He is offering though to pay for the trip and since it is to an Imperial controlled world he is willing to pay for all of the PC's equipment to be shipped to the planet without raising any red flags from the Empire.

The PC's agree since this is more of an opening explanation than other wise.  Tervus ships the players gear via an Imperial courier service in special containers which scramble the contents of what is in them so as to be able to pass though scanners.

The PC's will also have had a chance to look into Tervus's back ground too, from which they learn:

• Human Male, Age 46 yrs old
• He is a veteran of the Clone Wars as an Officer in the Republic Army.  After the war came to an end and the Republic was reorganized into an Empire he was forced to serve an additional 2 years until his replacement could be trained up.  Since then he has worked a lot of freelance jobs as an explorer, legitimate transporter of high class clientele, and sometimes smuggler.  He is decently well known though not wealthy, but well off enough.

The PC's will be going to the planet Telos and arriving in one of its space port cities. (If a name is needed make one up.)

Upon arrival the players will have to spend a little time waiting at a designated spot out side the space port for Tervus to arrive.

[Players who are playing non-humans will draw the attention of Imperials on patrol who will inquire as to what they are doing and will stick around to observe them until Tervus arrives.]

When Tervus arrives he will take the PC's to pick up their gear in a rented speeder truck.  From there he will take the PC's to a tavern to talk business.  As he puts it - talk of business is always more palatable when having a drink.

Getting to business Tervus outlines the following terms for the group:

• 10,000 monthly credit pay rate for the group.
• Everyday living expenses will be paid for by him - food, room & board.
• Individual bonuses will be paid upon quick completion of the job by the Tervus's employer, the employer does wish to remain anonymous and used a proxy to acquire Tervus's service.
• He has some petty cash (around 5,000 credits) on hand to handle a few extra expenses.  He can easily get more credits if needed, but would prefer to handle any such occurrences as they arise.
• Tervus is also looking to retire and this job will be his last one.  He is willing to hand the keys of his business over to the group if they decide to stay together when all is said and done.
• He will only tell them about the job if they agree to work for him.  The reason is because he had an issue with someone jumping a job he took.  After he offered the job and gave details on it the man backed out and then went and completed the job out from under Tervus, thus he is not looking for a repeat.

Once the team agrees to accept the terms of employment they will set out to get started.

Tervus has been hired to locate a temple for his employer, a temple believed to have once been apart of the ancient Infinity Empire, but was later supposedly put into use by the Jedi Order.  The temple is known as the Temple of the Insightful and is said to have been a repository of knowledge that existed outside of the old Jedi temple on Imperial Center (Coruscant).

The Temple's location is not known, but Tervus has some leads.  Problem is that Tervus is just one man and he can't spend a life time tracking down every potential lead, thus the need for a crew.

The best lead Tervus has on the temple is a Hutt named Gorva the Hutt who operates on Nar Shaddaa.  The Hutt prides himself on being something of a big history buff and specifically is known to have a particular interest in Jedi.

• Tervus has a history with the Hutt unfortunately and can't get close to speak with him.  A fact the Players will not know, nor Tervus, is that the Hutt will also not speak to anyone working with Tervus - but going to Nar Shaddaa is the only way to learn about what it would take to get an audience with the Hutt.

But to get to where they need to go the PC's are going to need a ship, and Tervus has that covered.

[The ship is a heavily modified Starwind Pleasure Yacht.  Aside from an opulent design that appeals to wealthy individuals who are seeking privatized transport, the ship is faster and more maneuverable than normal due to a trade off in cargo space for additional Hard Points. (Rate of 1 Hard Point per reduction of 25% amount from the maximum capacity.)]

The ship also has a compliment of 5 Droids each capable of handling one of the ships various operations which allows Tervus to be more accessible by his clientele.

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NOTE:  Tervus has access to a number of other items not listed on his character sheet.
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At this point the GM can decide on how best the PC's should proceed on getting to Nar Shaddaa, and how easy/difficult of a time they have in learning what they need.

What needs to be learned by the PC's:

• Gorva the Hutt is still obsessed with collecting Jedi Artifacts and is currently one of the best sources of information about the Jedi out side of the Empire.  But he has a very good information network and will not speak or see the PC's as they work for Tervus.
• Gorva collects a lot of other things but would especially like a Lightsaber.  Since the weapons are near impossible to find Gorva would likely forget his spat with Tervus in favor of collecting a working one.  But he would likely enjoy any Jedi artifact that is rare and similar to that of a lightsaber.

As the GM you will need to decide on how the players will learn these things.  You will also need to work out how the PC's will acquire a lightsaber to trade with.  This creates a slight detour but is necessary.

• The players could try and go in and threaten the Hutt, but it should be outlined that this is a very bad idea as the Hutt is apart of a very wealthy and powerful Hutt family which is how he can support his passions.
• Getting an audiance with the Hutt normally takes months of advance notice to schedule something out.  Bringing something he is looking for however would negate this need depending on what is brought to him.  It should be implied that a lightsaber or other special piece of Jedi lore (like a Holocron) would give an immediate audience so he can try and buy the item.

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I don't want to do all the work for the GM on this.  How you wish for the PC's to acquire a lightsaber hilt is up to you.  But I will note down what I have done.

In my game I had the players happen upon some info:

• In "X" days time there will be an action occurring on the planet Bimmisaari.
• The auction is being held by a man named Lovis Turksus - he is a primary share holder of Sienar Fleet Systems, and often acquires rare things he likes to auction off.  This includes weapons, jewelry, clothing, furniture, even slaves (or tamed servants as he might call them).
• My players had very little time to get there and needed to make an Astrogation check in order to specifically calculate a trip that would get them there in time.  Note that here I allowed players to spend advantages to help figure things out but this would be in the form of a trade off in risk.  In this instance they had to fly through a dangerous ion storm which required a series of Piloting skill checks to make it through with out taking damage.  (The player flying aced his rolls, as I required only 3 skill rolls to get through the storm.)
• In order to even participate in the auction the players would need 100,000 credits to be verified before they could enter.  (Tervus provides it only if the players really want, though this comes out of his retirement fund and he would like it all back if possible.)
• There are a large number of wealthy individuals present for the auction, the PC's can always attempt to steal the credstick of one of them to use instead.
• The Empire will not have a presence at this en devour or in the near by tourist village.
• There is a large pavilian set up for the action as well as a separate but connected one for viewing the items for the auction.
• 4 security droids will be present to guard the merchandise, but nothing else.  Other droids and attendants are present for handling and showing the products.

And now the complications to this en devour.

• Corporate Sector Security is present with a Citadel Class Starship.  There are some oddities about this ship though that the PC's may take notice of as well as the security staff - applicable skill rolls are called for.  

1. Corporate Sector Security does not typically operate outside of their sector.
2. The ship (only upon close inspection and successful skill roll) looks to have had a lot of cosmetic work done to it to hide damage done to it.  The security do not want anyone getting close to the ship or else people might see this.  The damage indicates the ship is not space worthy.  The main laser cannons appear to not be real but look decent enough to an untrained eye.  The ion cannon turret on top does work though.  There is an access code to the ramp of the ship but this is a false pad and it can be opened with a single button press.
3. If a security guard is pressured they aren't able to come up with detailed answers to questions about the Corporate Sector, and will become aggressive about stopping questioning.
4. The guards are there to rob the place.  Lovis sub-delegated the task of figuring out security to someone else and these guys intercepted the contract and stepped in figuring that no one would question them looking like corporate sector security.
5. The guards won't execute their plan until the action is roughly half way through.

• The next set of issues comes from the tourist town that can be gotten to via a speeder (which were complimentary for use.

1. In the small tourist town there are a number of people around who are "patrolling" and looking as if they had a stick up their rears.  The general feeling is that these people are Imperials in plain cloths so as to maintain a presence, but not be visible.
2. It can be learned through some means that this is a local gang that has taken the task of putting on the elaborate show so as to rob the event themselves, this makes 2 separate groups planing the robbery.
3. They plan to instigate their robbery once the auction is half way through.

• Both groups initiate their robbery with one group starting first followed by the other.  Body guards for the wealthy individuals are also present.  The two groups immediately start trading fire with each other, though both sides are trying to avoid hitting any people and things too as the wealthy people can be taken captive and ransomed off.  The droids that were protecting the merchandise however soon enter the fray as well and trade fire with not just the thieves but anyone they see as being armed.
• Opponents should be either lowly Pirates or Thugs, or a mix of both.  The real danger to the PC's is if they decide to participate in the fire fight.  The chaos is great enough that they could slip away and steal the lightsaber and what ever else they can carry.  Slaves are present (or were in my game) and when freed they took the the jewelry as it could be sold to help them rebuild their lives.
• The Empire has a response team on standby in the event this happens (which is outlined at the start of the event.  The auction will take several hours to get through, and a Tie-Fighter response is inside of 5 minutes, while a troop transport will have a slower response of 10 minutes.

Once the players are back on the ship Tervus will denote that he made a deal with the Imperials that they will be allowed to take off and leave the site if they take out the Citadel's shields which are up and functioning.  Bringing the ships cannons to bear is easy, and the Citadel won't be able to take much.  The Tie-Fighters will disable the ship once the shields are down.

From here the PC's are free and clear to escape with their swag.

Note that selling stolen goods is doable but the slaves would like to have their freedom, and enough credits to start their lives over.  Tervus suggests taking them to Alderan which is known to help those people who are in similar situations as theirs.


As for swag - the stuff is hot, as in traceable (except the slaves) and can be difficult to move as such the best the PC's were able to get was 210,000 credits.  They gave the 6 slaves they saved the majority of their credits, keeping only 10,000 credits each for their troubles.

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This is the cut off for the start of the campaign.  Its at this point that side adventures involving the PC's "Obligations" can come into play resulting in some side adventures.  What happens next for the main adventure - that will have to wait until next time.

Enjoy and off I go to make dinner - Broccoli Beef (home made).