I just started running a Star Wars Saga Edition game with a new group this weekend. We had our first session, in which I ran the players through a quickie homebrew "prequel" to get them accustomed to the new ruleset, as well as to get to know their play styles, etc...
Cast:
Vaan (Soldier 1) - A young Alderaanian freighter pilot. Inherited an old junker (Dynamic-Class) from his father, who disappeared many years ago.
Bowie (Scoundrel 1) - A force-sensitive Corellian from Nar Shaddaa on the run from a Hutt gangster. A few years before the beginning of the Clone Wars he was contacted on Nar Shaddaa by Jedi Master Denia (we'll see her later), who was searching for potential students for the Jedi Academy, but he was already too old to begin training.
Koth Rayl'skar (Scoundrel 1/
GMPC) - Vaan's Bothan co-pilot and tech specialist. Mostly keeps the ship from falling apart and upgrades the PCs' gear.
Session 1: Enter the Heroes
I decided to start the campaign with individual backstory, and had the players decide why their characters were both at the Burning Deck cantina in the Corellian Sector on Nar Shaddaa.
Bowie had been working odd jobs for a couple of low-tier gangsters; Sarli the Hutt, and a yet un-named Bothan. The Bothan had Bowie hijack a shipment, which turned out to be a fairly nice credit transfer (10k). Sarli doesn't know who did it, but suspects Bowie and a few others. Bowie needs to get off planet quickly and quietly, so he heads down to the Burning Deck in search of non-public transport.
Vaan and Koth were on a stopover looking for shipping work, so Vaan approached the bartender and asked if there was any work available. The bartender had nothing for him, but said he'd let them know if anything came up while they were still there, so Vaan ordered a couple drinks and sat down in a corner booth with a good view of the doorway.
Bowie is referred to Vaan and Koth by the bartender and buys a round of drinks to help start his negotiation. Eventually Bowie barters Vaan down to 8000 credits for transportation to a small space station orbiting the core world of Brentaal. Aside from some mutual distrust, the party gets underway.
Koth gets the latest astrogation data from a shady dealer (who the PCs don't know works for Sarli), and they leave the spaceport without any problems and make the jump into hyperspace, however the astrogation data has been tampered with. Sarli's new racket seems to be out-of-system piracy. The tampered data plots a route through the planet Circarpous V (AKA Mimban).
When the navicomputer detects the mass shadow, the failsafes suddenly drop the ship from hyperspace, killing the hyperdrive. Lying in wait are a few of Sarli's Corsairs, piloting a pair of Z-95 Headhunters and a Cloakshape Fighter. Opting for escape, Vaan steers the ship down into the atmosphere and lays in a collision course for the jungle floor, pulling off a beautiful slip to bring the ship in for a rough, but safe landing just under the jungle canopy. Due to Vaan's expert maneuver, the pursuing craft are unable to pinpoint the exact location of the ship.
While Koth works on the hyperdrive, Vaan and Bowie decide to explore the surroundings and make sure the jungle canopy is adequately covering the ship from sight. While trudging through the bog, they hear the sound of a tree crashing down and a high-pitched scream from off in the jungle. Hesitantly, they investigate, and discover a
Wandrella has trapped a young
Mimbanite against a cliff.
I used D&D's Purple Worm mini for the Wandrella and created my own stats for it. I'll post them up later.Vaan fires at the Wandrella, drawing its attention away from the Mimbanite while Bowie attempts to sneak around the other side to get her away from the beast. The Wandrella begins to close on Vaan, so Bowie takes a shot to draw it away, but his plan works too well and he almost becomes lunch. Eventually the two heroes are able to drive the beast away with their painful blaster fire.
Being unable to communicate in Basic, the Mimbanite beckons the PCs to follow her. She takes them past a small Imperial mining camp, and deeper into the swamp to a hidden Mimbanite village. The village elder presents the PCs with a stone pendant (
thaissen crystal) for rescuing her daughter. Upon placing the pendant around Bowie's neck, the crystal begins glowing a faint blue.
Before they can find out more, Vaan's comlink crackles between static and Koth's urgent voice saying that the corsairs had found the ship and were attacking. The PCs quickly sign that they have to leave, and are escorted to the edge of the mining camp where they spot a few speeders. I had expected them to simply steal one, and had planned out a chase sequence using the rules from Hot Pursuit, but instead they walked into the Pick and Tankard miner's bar and bartered with the miners to rent one.
One of the miners pilots the PCs out towards their ship, which is being bombarded with blaster cannon fire from the Cloakshape Fighter. The two Z-95s are nowhere to be seen. When the PCs reach the clearing, they spot Koth standing on the ramp exchanging fire with two men who are slowly advancing from the two Z-95s. Again, the PCs opt for escape and after blasting one of the pirates, they rush onto the ship and take off. Using the same astrogation data, they manage to jump into hyperspace before too much more damage is done to the ship.
We stopped there, next we'll begin Episode 1 of Dawn of Defiance.