Starfinder Campaign Idea - Stranded on a Planet - OG Myth-Weavers

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Starfinder Campaign Idea - Stranded on a Planet

   
Starfinder Campaign Idea - Stranded on a Planet

Okay, so I'm new to this side of Myth-Weavers, but I figured it'd make for a good area for ideas.

The hook I have in mind for this campaign (for my live group, the casual murderhobos that they are) is that the PC's are all on a prison ship on its way to a distant moon that holds the worst of the worst of the galaxy. However, the prison ship is attacked on the way there by space pirates trying to rescue their captain, and both ships crash onto a hostile planet filled with all sorts of dangers, horrors, and things that want to kill and/or eat the survivors. Thus, it's the PC's goal to survive on this new planet, and eventually escape (and from there, potentially avoid the law, since they're effectively escaped prisoners)

While this is a good set-up for a sand-boxy kinda game, my players are not used to sandbox campaigns, nor are they known for their deep characters (hence my murderhobo designation) or really their system mastery (even after 3-4 years of Pathfinder, I still gotta baby them through character creation).

Thus, I'm hoping to spend some time on the prison ship to get my players to flesh out their characters, with some NPC interaction (maybe a few 1-on-1 scenes initially).

My request, for the moment, is ideas on NPC prisoners and roleplaying scenes that will hopefully break the group out of their norms a little. I'm hoping that this will create re-occurring allies and enemies for the PC's to interact with after the crash.

Any ideas would help. Thanks!

a la Volturnus; Planet of Mystery from Star Frontiers I'm not buying into Starfinder, but I can definitely come up witn NPC's without knowing how to stat them up.

Prison ship NPCs; as i see it you got 2 kinds here....prisoners, and the other crew. I would not discount other crew. Having a non-prisoner crewmember or two would set up some good conflict.

Take inspiration from the Riddick movies, Guardians of the Galaxy, Earth 2, and a host of other movies.

So far, I like Starfinder's system (it's a streamlined Pathfinder in space, so if you don't like PF, you will not care for SF), although the setting doesn't wow me much. It's not bad, but frankly I like coming up with my own stuff. But I'll take a look at those links when I get off work. Inspiration is a good thing.

I will not need stats at this point (I'm good on that end), but need NPC ideas, like personalities, quirks, motivations, etc. that will help them shine. I have a few notes for notable prisoners at this point, along with events with them, although they're not particularly fleshed out.



I don't have anything on crew members yet, but I hadn't discounted them from the events prior to the crash (and certainly not after it).

You could have prison-transport guards with stun weapons and riot gear.

You could have native barbarians riding pterodactyls or something.

You could have a bounty hunter in power armor that lands after the other two ships crash. He would be looking for someone specific.

Obviously the space pirates would be there.

And you could have a bunch of npc murderhobos in the prison-transport.

That sounds pretty wild.

Additional new character ideas includes the Ship Warden, who will, during the first real day of the transport trip, will right out execute a (seemingly) random prisoner in front of the rest via holo-projector, then leave the body for everyone to see. He would be hoping to cut down on the chances of riots and jailbreak attempts during the 2-week trip. The executed prisoner is actually a serial killer with few known friends (the warden did his research and selected carefully who to put down, knowing full well that the wrong person dead can cause real problems down the line). Unless he's somehow killed before the crash event, he will survive to be a potential enemy on the planet Acuran (randomly generated name I think I'll use).

Most of the guards will be geared up in stun batons and light armor, although higher ranking guards (as well as the Warden) will have some lethal gear. The later will be important for the PC's after the crash, as they'll have to scrounge for gear to survive the hostile world they land on.


So, for now, I need potential event ideas for the transport ship. I think I have a decent rogue's gallery of NPCs that will give plenty of roleplaying material for my less social players. But scenes for them to act would help, as I'm not too good at coming up with these things (I tend to run more combat focused games, so I'm trying to branch myself out a bit more).

Also, ideas of the natives of the planet would be good too, which I would like to be fairly alien and a range of hostile to potentially friendly options.

Just use a random generator, like one of the many for Traveller, create a huge number of characters. Then only leave those you like, and stat them up on the fly if necessary (those for Traveller come with life histories).
For example, here's the first of 1001 characters I generated.

Quote:
1. Underboss Geetha Vedi (Female Human) 986A55 Age 46
Rogue(7) Cr35000
Archery-1 Bludgeoning Weapons-1 Bribery-1 Carousing-0 Computer-1 Energy Rifle-1 Gambling-1 Mechanics-0 Natural Weapons-0 Piercing Weapons-1 Recon-1 Slashing Weapons-2 Slug Rifle-0 Streetwise-1 Wheeled Vehicle-1
Dagger, Low Passage, Annual Pension from being a Rogue: Cr14000
Character Event Log:
<-- Qualified for being a Rogue.-->
- Gained all Service skills at level-0 for being a Rogue as this is the character's first career.
> Skill gained as a result of reaching rank 0: Streetwise
Term 1 in being a Rogue:
> Skill roll on the Personal Development table: gained +1 STR
Term 2 in being a Rogue:
> Skill roll on the Service Skills table: gained Melee Combat
Term 3 in being a Rogue:
- Commissioned. Rank is now 1
> Skill roll on the Personal Development table: gained +1 DEX
> Skill roll on the Service Skills table: gained Gun Combat
Term 4 in being a Rogue:
- Advanced to rank 2 - Soldier.
> Skill gained as a result of reaching rank 2: Gun Combat
> Skill roll on the Specialist Skills table: gained Bribery
> Skill roll on the Specialist Skills table: gained Computer
At age 34 there was no effect from age.
Term 5 in being a Rogue:
- Advanced to rank 3 - Lieutenant.
> Skill roll on the Specialist Skills table: gained Vehicle
> Skill roll on the Personal Development table: gained Melee Combat
At age 38 there was no effect from age.
Term 6 in being a Rogue:
- Advanced to rank 4 - Underboss.
> Skill roll on the Personal Development table: gained Gambling
> Skill roll on the Personal Development table: gained +1 STR
At age 42 there was no effect from age.
Term 7 in being a Rogue:
> Skill roll on the Service Skills table: gained Recon
At age 46, reduced STR and END by 1.
Mustering Out Benefit: cash of Cr10000
Mustering Out Benefit: +1 INT
Mustering Out Benefit: cash of Cr5000
Mustering Out Benefit: received Dagger
Mustering Out Benefit: took skill in Slashing Weapons because Geetha Vedi already had a Dagger
Mustering Out Benefit: cash of Cr20000
Mustering Out Benefit: Low Passage
Mustering Out Benefit: took skill in Slashing Weapons because Geetha Vedi already had a Dagger
Mustering Out Benefit: Annual Pension from being a Rogue: Cr14000
<-- Career in being a Rogue ends. -->

Here's a few archetropes (my own word, the benefits of being a DM) that have worked well for me before in somewhat similar scenarios.

The Beast
As they walk through the planet they discover a box filled to the brim with state of the art security, eight destroyed guardian droids, and most worrisome of all, nothing else. This prisoner is a virtual unknown and whether the players even get to see him or her is up to you. They could be one of the survivors, hiding in the jungle, or even a PC with a split personality! The key is to avoid engaging in combat with them at all if possible. Knives in pillows, dead guards hanging from trees, all the usual stalker horror tropes.

Noble Guard
While the rest of the guards may have been corrupted scumbags, not this guy. He sees the players as victims and is sensitive to their plight, helping them out when he can. While murderhobos don't make friends easily, have this guy be a source of weapons and other gear, stuff that makes their character's stronger and present them with the moral dilemma. The guard will be a target for other prisoners due to his uniform and will be focused on getting everyone off the planet. Unfortunately, he'll still probably insist that the prisoners go back to prison.

Ancient One
An impossibly old alien, droid, or even artificial intelligence is still on the planet from eons ago and they've got a mission for the players. If they can get it off planet they'll receive a treasure trove of ancient tech (powerful stuff, but possibly limited and malfunctioning). Now failure means more than just rerolling a character and if you can make the ancient compelling enough they might even have it stick around as a sidekick.

Thank you Gaul - those where the kind of ideas I was hoping to get. I may end up using some of those.

Okay, so gonna bump this thread to ask for different advice now - I'm not used to the sand-box method of GM'ing, so any advice about how to prepare (somewhat) and how to keep things sane would be helpful.




 

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