Epic Campaign of Amazing Epicness
Back when I first read the first story arc of the Star Wars: Legacy comics, my very first thought was, "Holy shit, this would be an amazing setting to run an RPG campaign in."
I lent those books to tealfox, and he thought the exact same thing. We regretted not having enough time in our schedules to do more gaming, since we both had a number of campaigns going on already. Plus, there was the matter of trying to determine who would even GM the thing.
In the end, as we kept reading the comics, and they kept getting better, and as more sourcebooks for the Saga Edition kept coming out, we finally decided that, no, to hell with it, we were going to MAKE the time, and we were going to BOTH act as GM for the thing, and we were going to get together a group of eight players for a massively-epic mega campaign.
...
And oh my god, it WORKED. It worked so much better than I ever could have hoped.
Since I realize I actually haven't posted about it a lot in my journal, here's the skinny on what the campaign is like.
We started planning back in May (oh my god, was it really that long ago?). After that, we began actually running it in July and have been having monthly sessions (today was our fourth session). Two GMs, eight players, and a campaign set in an era where so much history has yet to be written. Rife with possibilities.
After some thought, we decided to set the campaign on Ord Mantell, in 140 ABY. The PCs come from all walks of life, and a melting pot like that served our needs perfectly.
There's Christoff Tarkanian (played by kohai_tiger, local crime boss who does what he can to keep his streets clean and protected from the planet's Sith overseers. Among those who serve him is medical droid KLDR-4077 (played by athelind), whose competence is marred only by a bit memory wipe-induced amnesia, to which he seems to have left himself clues. Hired to help investigate his own past is Nal Nuado (played by andreal), Nagai private investigator and information broker who tries (and frequently fails) to keep his business and his life away from Mr. Tarkanian as much as possible.
Also belonging to the same underground racket as Christoff are Tiis Kayot (played by Jericho), a Zabrak and former Sith stormtrooper who deserted during his first tour of duty upon seeing the galaxy for what it truly was, outside the grip of the Imperial propaganda, and Jaeko Raan (played by toob), a young Iktotchi, something of an upstart of a pilot--but quite a capable one. It's Jaeko who gets hired to pick up two passengers from offworld, who unbeknownst to him are two Imperial Knights (in training): one T'Rani Darklighter (played by kymri, and her comrade-in-arms Skavan (short for Kres'kava'nuruodo, played by hinoki), a Chiss determined to live up to the name of his ancestor, Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Last but not least is Whiphid Jedi Padawan Iluak (played by jakebe), trailing after his less-than-conventional master, Melinna, who sets the light to the whole powder keg of fun by coming out to look for the one thing, it turns out, everyone else has a reason to look for: a Yuuzhan Vong shaper named Qa'lana Drel who has gone missing, and who evidently holds the keys to several puzzles.
And from there, things get interesting: the Empire has dispatched a new Sith Lord to the planet--without replacing the old one--and the once-happy status quo on Ord Mantell rapidly starts to become less happy.
...
So yeah, given that as the setup, I am thrilled beyond belief that our group has been able to pull this off consistently. Seriously, it's awesome. This campaign has been, to me, gaming at its best.
Seriously, there are so many things that could have gone wrong in getting this campaign off the ground, but they didn't, and I don't know how we kept the reins on it during that crucial nascent period, but we did, and I just...
Seriously. This campaign has been a joy to run. tealfox and I have so much fun getting together to plan for it, to brainstorm ideas and to figure out where the story is going as our players give us the hooks to keep telling it. We only get to meet once a month, but when we do, it's for epic, nine-hour sessions, and each one has been better than the last.
This has been the hobby at its best. I hope we continue to get to run it for some time to come.
I lent those books to tealfox, and he thought the exact same thing. We regretted not having enough time in our schedules to do more gaming, since we both had a number of campaigns going on already. Plus, there was the matter of trying to determine who would even GM the thing.
In the end, as we kept reading the comics, and they kept getting better, and as more sourcebooks for the Saga Edition kept coming out, we finally decided that, no, to hell with it, we were going to MAKE the time, and we were going to BOTH act as GM for the thing, and we were going to get together a group of eight players for a massively-epic mega campaign.
...
And oh my god, it WORKED. It worked so much better than I ever could have hoped.
Since I realize I actually haven't posted about it a lot in my journal, here's the skinny on what the campaign is like.
We started planning back in May (oh my god, was it really that long ago?). After that, we began actually running it in July and have been having monthly sessions (today was our fourth session). Two GMs, eight players, and a campaign set in an era where so much history has yet to be written. Rife with possibilities.
After some thought, we decided to set the campaign on Ord Mantell, in 140 ABY. The PCs come from all walks of life, and a melting pot like that served our needs perfectly.
There's Christoff Tarkanian (played by kohai_tiger, local crime boss who does what he can to keep his streets clean and protected from the planet's Sith overseers. Among those who serve him is medical droid KLDR-4077 (played by athelind), whose competence is marred only by a bit memory wipe-induced amnesia, to which he seems to have left himself clues. Hired to help investigate his own past is Nal Nuado (played by andreal), Nagai private investigator and information broker who tries (and frequently fails) to keep his business and his life away from Mr. Tarkanian as much as possible.
Also belonging to the same underground racket as Christoff are Tiis Kayot (played by Jericho), a Zabrak and former Sith stormtrooper who deserted during his first tour of duty upon seeing the galaxy for what it truly was, outside the grip of the Imperial propaganda, and Jaeko Raan (played by toob), a young Iktotchi, something of an upstart of a pilot--but quite a capable one. It's Jaeko who gets hired to pick up two passengers from offworld, who unbeknownst to him are two Imperial Knights (in training): one T'Rani Darklighter (played by kymri, and her comrade-in-arms Skavan (short for Kres'kava'nuruodo, played by hinoki), a Chiss determined to live up to the name of his ancestor, Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Last but not least is Whiphid Jedi Padawan Iluak (played by jakebe), trailing after his less-than-conventional master, Melinna, who sets the light to the whole powder keg of fun by coming out to look for the one thing, it turns out, everyone else has a reason to look for: a Yuuzhan Vong shaper named Qa'lana Drel who has gone missing, and who evidently holds the keys to several puzzles.
And from there, things get interesting: the Empire has dispatched a new Sith Lord to the planet--without replacing the old one--and the once-happy status quo on Ord Mantell rapidly starts to become less happy.
...
So yeah, given that as the setup, I am thrilled beyond belief that our group has been able to pull this off consistently. Seriously, it's awesome. This campaign has been, to me, gaming at its best.
Seriously, there are so many things that could have gone wrong in getting this campaign off the ground, but they didn't, and I don't know how we kept the reins on it during that crucial nascent period, but we did, and I just...
Seriously. This campaign has been a joy to run. tealfox and I have so much fun getting together to plan for it, to brainstorm ideas and to figure out where the story is going as our players give us the hooks to keep telling it. We only get to meet once a month, but when we do, it's for epic, nine-hour sessions, and each one has been better than the last.
This has been the hobby at its best. I hope we continue to get to run it for some time to come.