So, I have an idea for the first session of this campaign.
The era is sometime between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. The PCs start out as prisoners in an Imperial labor camp. Each player is encouraged to tell me why he’s in the pokey…maybe seeds for future sessions could come from their backstories.
First “room”
The party is being driven from the barracks to the worksite in an old retired turbotank (just like how we were introduced to the Felicity Jones character in Rogue One). Suddenly, the turbotank drops and crashes to a halt! The stormtrooper guards lead the manacled prisoners out of the vehicle to stand around while the driver figures out if it’s safe for everyone to get back on. It seems that the ground has collapsed under the turbotank and the vehicle is trapped. Right away, there’s a terrible sound from underground as a gigantic worm monster erupts through the soil near the crashed vehicle! It immediately swallows one of the stormtrooper guards and the other begins firing at it. The players are not only unarmed, but are cuffed! The surviving stormtrooper guard has the key to the manacles, but he’s busy with the creature. Being shot at only makes the monster angry and it ducks back underground for a round, but she’s not alone; her eggs have recently hatched and the little wormies are hungry! 1d6 Wormies crawl out of the hole their mother just vacated every round. After staying underground for a turn, the mother worm erupts from the ground in another location, leaving the first hole for her brood to crawl out, and she’ll attempt to do this one more time so there will be eventually two holes in the ground each spawning 1d6 Wormies every round. I expect the players will try to get the stormtrooper’s key. The trooper is trying to fight off the local fauna, but he’s not going to willingly give the PC’s the key. If they decide to cower in the turbotank, they will be overrun with Wormies, however, there is a medkit in the turbotank if anyone get too hurt.
I could use some help on the stats for these creatures. I’m seeing the baby Wormies only having a single point of health each and dealing just 1d4 damage per hit. But the mother worm should be pretty hearty. My hope is that she is more likely to be escaped than killed. 4 hearts health? 5 maybe? Maybe she has +3 Stats and deals 1d6 per bite. Room DC 12. Unarmed PCs are not likely to beat the Mother Worm so they’ll likely need to just run off.
Second “room”
I could use some inspiration from my Shieldwall Brethren here. My idea is basically just that there is some sort of supply depot here where the PCs can gear up, though what the obstacle is, I’m not too sure. Perhaps it’s guarded by just a lone officer and some droids who could easily sound an alarm if the PC’s are found out? Could be a good place for a timer… a platoon of stormtroopers arrive 1d4 rounds after the officer hits the big red button? Maybe the PCs can bluff their way close enough to prevent the officer from sounding the alarm? Did they manage to get the stormtroopers blaster from the last room? Are they still manacled?
Third “room”
I know that for this last scene I want there to be a space ship ready to be stolen. However, that’s about all I have thought of yet. I’m not sure i want another monster fight, or another chance to bluff a guy. I’m trying to think of a great obstacle for the third section that sets it apart from the other two but I’m having trouble thinking up anything really memorable, so I’m open to suggestions.
Assuming they do steal the ship and get in the air, there will be a brief chase by some TIE fighters before they are able to jump to light speed and we call it a night. At least that’s the intention.
We play Saturday! The group will be one of my friends who I’ve been playing with since the mid 1990s, his 14 year old son (who’s a good player too) and my own 10 year old boy, who’s only ever played a role-playing game once before. So it should be great fun even if I do gum up the ICRPG works.
Any game mechanic suggestions you folks have would be appreciated, as well as any ideas for my second and third encounters.
–Thanks!