Have I bitten off more than I can chew with my Star Wars campaign?

[Talley Darkstar]

So I originally created this campaign as a way for my home group to know how we all met. Jake, Jedrek, Yona (Yonayawisgi), and myself, have all been playing our characters for years, in D&D, Star Wars, and who knows what else. Kerrek, we never really had in our Star Wars games, but did in our D&D games, almost the same with Seeguar (these names will be . Back in the mid to late 90s, I used to LARP and play tabletop Vampire: The Masquerade, in the LARP (left the Official LARP and created our own), the other lines were also played. And I thought it was really cool having such different aspects of the World of Darkness going on at one time, and while the published aspects of the game made playing together difficult in the established story of the system, out of game, I loved the fact that the base mechanics made playing together easy, so when FFG announced how they were doing the Star Wars line, the pieces just lined up to have multiple storylines going at one time.

I had originally written what follows as a way to explain the campaign to a potential player and/or GM.

The Will of the Force campaign isn’t like your everyday campaign. Will of the Force takes each individual line and combines them into one story. Each group, will write up their character backgrounds like normal, then work together to determine the story of how they met, and then, based upon that work together to determine how they each came to be in the position of their individual Beginner Box adventure.

For example, for Edge of the Empire, two smugglers, and two bounty hunters all have their individual backgrounds, then the players work together to determine how they became an adventuring party. Lastly, they all determine what happened to make them all work for Teemo the Hutt, the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game.

The catch is, one of those players of each group, will GM one of the lines they aren’t playing. For example, an Edge of the Empire player, will GM either Age of Rebellion or Force and Destiny. In the end, it’ll look like this:

Edge of the Empire (Balmorra Runners): Game Master Jon from Force and Destiny
Jake – Smuggler/Pilot
Jedrek – Bounty Hunter/Assassin
Kerrek – Bounty Hunter/Gadgeteer
Seeguar – Smuggler/Thief

Age of Rebellion (Cobalt Squad): Game Master Jake from Edge of the Empire
Talley – Commander/Tactician
Mika– Soldier/Medic
Yonayawisgi – Spy/Scout
Zuko – Spy/Slicer

Force and Destiny (Order of the Lost): Game Master Talley from Age of Rebellion
Ben – Consular/Sage
Nathan – Mystic/Seer
Murray – Seeker/Ataru Striker
Jon – Guardian/Protector

There are only two players, in that list that actually are playing, myself, and my soon to be real life wife Mika. The Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion players, are from my home group, while the Force and Destiny players are actually the members of the Dicestormers I used here as an example. The overall goal here is to bring all aspects of Star Wars into play. The mechanical aspect of the Will of the Force is rather than just 4-6 players and Game Master shaping the world, there are more. Another mechanical aspect of how this was created is, each group works to help one another. For example, the Edge of the Empire group smuggles (adventure) blaster rifles to the Age of Rebellion group who then proceeds to clear out a forest of Imperials guarding a temple (adventure), once the outside of the temple is cleared, the Force and Destiny group goes in defeat the Sith trying to take possession of a Jedi Holocron (adventure). Three different adventures for 3 groups to tell one story, each group helps the other, or any combination. Or, two members of each line all play together, two from Edge of the Empire, two from Age of Rebellion, and two from Force and Destiny. Or, each GM can run their own group through different adventures. And on the rare occasion, all three groups get together to fight one big battle.

Obviously, there are a lot of issues that can arise out of this idea. How to talk to other GMs who are also players, how often to schedule games, how big of a game to do, etc. In the end, the GMs will need to get along and work together.

So, now that you have the gist of what the structure I'm attempting to go for is, is this idea even feasible? Have I bitten off more than I can chew? The reason I ask is two-fold. One, is it to large of an idea, and Two, I ask because the home group is pretty, well, to be blunt, lazy. We've started many tabletop games and they only lasted one session before we moved to anything else (Star Wars Saga 1 level, then moved to D&D and played 1 game, Shadowrun 1 game, Pathfinder 1 game, I think I made my point) and I'm wondering if for some players, the scope of this idea is just to large to even be advertised either at home or through FG. The sad part is I've spent over two years writing up the story up until the start of actual game play has already been written, for a new group, all that would need to be changed are names, and maybe add in some information to adjust for individual backgrounds. What do you think?

If you want to read the story before making a decision, here's the link to Will of the Force (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wSYImtasiqb2BcBmL2YUFhE_Zpd1ZTvKUFoTdxYY03U/edit?usp=sharing). If you have questions, just ask. I do start my new job on Wednesday the 15th and who knows how it'll go, so if there's a delay in my response, that's why.

[Valarian]

In order for parallel campaigns to work, you're going to need player buy-in and commitment. For a start this means giving you, as the GM, adequate detail in motivations and backgrounds. You've got to be able to tie all of these threads together and, without this information, you're just going to be sending them down three parallel railroads. You'll also need to coordinate and discuss the path of the campaigns with your fellow GMs. As some of the GMs are also Players, this could mean spoilers ... and they've got to be able to distance their GM knowledge of the campaign path and their character knowledge as a player.

[damned]

If you have got lazy player/GMs its not going to work because they dont sound like they will put in nearly as much effort as you appear to be looking for... sorry...

[Talley Darkstar]

At least with the home group Valarian, that's what I've attempted to do partially, using the home group's backgrounds, openings and such to fill the story and create adventures based around their stuff. Since I've had one character who was just around for giggles and grins and the world was full of stuff that he/I could have done, yet the GM never really created anything that was of interest to him/me, yet, everyone wanted me to play that character. Strange that in political intrigue games, the GM wanted an archaeologist. One of the players has a great story that should provide for many interesting games. Another character has a former mentor that could be both friend and foe at the same time, and either. The last character in the Edge of the Empire group is the thief. How much trouble could he get in to? Ha!

You're right damned. We've played through the Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion beginner games, and only about halfway through the follow up adventures. Now, granted, part of the reason we never finished the other GM who I've known for 15 years started up a business, but, even before the business was even thought of so to speak, gaming was an on again, off again thing.

But what about the premise, without the home group consideration? Feasible?

[Valarian]

The thing I've found is that no matter how carefully crafted, the campaign plan does not survive first contact with the players. If you've spent two years writing a campaign, it could still end up as a railroad unless you are willing to flex and bend with the player actions. I tend to map out relationships and goals, then come up with a scenario premise (start) and rough idea of where it may go (in terms of possible encounters or scenes).

My feel is too big and too complicated, but I could well be wrong. If you want to give it a go then go for it.

[Talley Darkstar]

Oh I agree absolutely! That's why I've avoided writing any storyline that takes place after that initial storyline. The initial storyline that I've written is to give a GM the ability to craft stories from what's given. Basically, it's a roughly 7 page background for the character(s). For example, Jake and Jedrek. Their parents company was taken over by the Imperials and Jake and Jedrek want the company back, all the while trying to dodge the Empire who wants them dead. Kerrek, is after some information that Teemo has and could find a piece of that information in Teemo's posession, but finds a clue as to where it might be, which only leads to another clue, and maybe a dead end, until another clue is discovered, etc. Since I only barely mention Talley's parents, they could end up missing, or one of Talley's early exploits might have come back to haunt him or maybe Talley left someone for dead (former friend or foe), and now they're wanting revenge. Maybe one of Talley's missions something happened and has come back to haunt him.

If I haven't mentioned, that all this is background for the GM to work with. Bring in an old, or new, BBEG, explore part of a characters past, whatever. All that I've done is provide the GM plot devices in the character's lives in addition to the ones they have provided themselves. It's up to them to decide when, how and why it burns, or provide different fuel that in addition can add to the old fuel. Maybe the Imperial that's after Jake and Jedrek, Talley had humiliated in a battle somewhere. Who knows.