With the current release window for the new Star Wars movie, the discussion about the kinds of stories you can tell in the Star Wars universe ramped up again, and this list was sparked by a discussion between Cameron Rice, Adam Hlavac, and Emma Fyffe on Hyper RPG’s Youtube channel. If you want to check out that video, or follow those awesome people, I’ll provide some links at the bottom of this article. Now buckle in, we’ve got some stories to tell in a Galaxy Far, Far Away.
Story/Adventure Seed 1: Protection Detail
This is a fairly broad plot seed. The protagonists/player characters have been hired/assigned/requested to provide additional security for an item of epic plot proportions. Whether it’s the newborn offspring of a powerful crime lord, a payment to an interstellar bank, or a particularly troublesome senator who refuses to accept that their life is danger, these all need a level of protection that you can wrap a story around. The more exotic the protagonist cast the better in my opinion because there are some truly neat options for aliens, droids, and vehicles you can break out in Star Wars.
This Seed likely features a couple of fight scenes to protect the item, a chase scene or two, some investigation scenes to try and locate the people who are coming to take the item, and then either a grand clash to end the threat completely, or a mad dash to get the item back to safety.
Option 1: With a subtle twist, this story can either move into a Smash and grab where the protagonists are out to steal the item from its guardians.
Option 2: With a bit of a rework, this story can turn into search and rescue/recovery.
Story/Adventure Seed 2: Treasure Hunt
This is also a fairly broad plot seed. The protagonists/player characters have come into possession of information that leads to something/somewhere of great value. Whether it’s a damaged cargo ship full of valuable components, a literal treasure map, or coordinates to an unclaimed world full of valuable resources, Star Wars lets you weave this story a thousand different ways. There are dozens and dozens of potential threats to oppose their efforts, and the story can go a lot of different directions.
Option 1: Like most of these stories, this one can get very interesting if the protagonists/player characters are attempting to take the information from another party.
Story/Adventure Seed 3: The Right Thing
Star Wars as a universe has a very well defined good vs. evil conflict between the sides of the force. However, the rest of the non force sensitive universe still has to struggle with what’s right and wrong. These stories can be vastly complicated like a group of engineers who discover their equipment is being used to oppress the population of a distant world or as simple as the bad guys are coming to burn down the town, what are you going to do about it? Right and Wrong are neat concepts for Star Wars, and you can explore a lot of those ideas with storytelling and adventure building.
Story/Adventure Seed 4: It’s a Family Affair
Star Wars is tightly wrapped up around a specific family in it’s primary episodes, but family connections can be their own plot. Whether it’s the story of the noble scions of an independent world fighting over the throne, or the children of a merchant shipper hauling cargo from place, family connections can draw everyone in a group together, and then you can explore how those relationships affect the interactions between the characters (and the larger story that’s going on around them).
Story/Adventure Seed 5: The Horrors of Conflict
Star Wars is a universe driven by conflict. Dealing with the aftermath of those conflicts can tell some amazing stories, whether it’s people attempting to rebuild destroyed regions, escort fleeing civilians to safe area, or any of a dozen other actions to make the situation better (or worse, as you like). These stories can show you a lot about the characters (and the players) that experience them, and that’s part of the fun of storytelling in the Star Wars Universe.
Honorable Mention: Any Western plot ever
No really, Star Wars feels a lot like a Space Western, and you can apply a lot of the same stories and plots to the Star Wars Universe and it doesn’t lose much in the translation.
Anywho, those are 5 Story Seeds you can tinker with for writing stories or building adventures for the many Star Wars RPGS out there. Game On, Game Fans.
Links
Here’s the video that triggered the writing of this article https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4clqH3c7kw8&t=0s
If you’re looking for these folks on Twitter, they are
Emma Fyffe https://twitter.com/EmmaFyffe
Cameron Rice https://twitter.com/jurassicalien
Adam Hlavac https://twitter.com/adamhlavac
Hyper RPG https://twitter.com/Hyper_RPG
And honorable mention for Bert Jennings https://twitter.com/Ninjanomics101 who runs Pencils and Parsecs on the Hyper RPG family of broadcasting stations and platforms.
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