Adapting "Chronicles of the Gatekeeper"

[kelpie 89]

Hi everyone

I whant my group to run Chronicles of the Gatekeeper; however there are a couple of problems:

a) the group is around 500 xp (around 480 now, and we got 1-2 session left before starting CoG)

b) there are only 1 Jedi (consular/niman). The other ones are an Ace (driver/hotshot), a Spy (infiltrator), a Technician (outlaw/scientist) and a Smuggler (scoundrel/pilot)

 

They all are an established Rebel squad (with a couple of outsider) and they are hunting (1) some 4.000 year old holo-diaries from Sith-Repubblic war, so i guess the Gatekeeper is a good choice to

a) give a more Jedi-centric quest in a group where the Jedi is a bit more than a weird-looking laser-sword fighter

b) show them the consequencies of Jedi teaching gone wrong (and thus pushing them into finding those forgotten holo-diaries before someone else does)

c) let them see there are something else than just Empire vs Rebellion mission

d) introducing the Force and Jedi teaching (one of PC is interested in an artisan specialisation sooner or later)

e) maybe let them found one of those holo-diary

 

So... what could/should i do to adapt the adventure to my group?

we are playing AoR but i got a rough mix of several book from different line

 

I did'nt completely read the book so far, just the introduction, but my concern at the moment are

- the Jedi is a 70-ish morality but the other are more... rogueish... and thus morality concern are not stopping them or forcing them doing something

- some of them could find Jedi-ish motivation boring and lacking what will push them through the adventure

- they can tap on some resources (the Rebellion) standard FaD chars could not

- some adversaries could be too much for not Jedi... or too easy for 500+ px chars

 

[gndmgp01 13]

My group did this adventure in our last campaign with 6 Jedi-ish characters and they still had difficulty with the adversaries, particularly in the 3rd act.  It was a challenge for the players, but not so much so that they were uninterested.

 

There are encounters with Imperials in the first and second act and the book provides places where you might be able to fit in a current Rival/Nemesis rather than the module's suggested NPC's.  This could help your AoR characters with their duty and keeping their interest.

 

There's a character who is introduced in the 2nd act that could potentially provide a challenge for 500+xp characters, particularly if you group him with a group of Rivals.

 

Sorry if I'm being a little vague, I don't want to drop spoilers without knowing how to use the hide function here.

[Vixen Icaza 317]

The main story follows a Character that was thick within the clones wars Milatary. It would not take much I think to swap out the holocron Maguffin for some other reason to track him down. Although the simplest is actually that the Force Power would be very useful for the rebellion.

There is more than enough places to swap in Imperial forces and add additional suff if you feel your players will not be stretched. How about using an NPC to introduce the idea of [CoG force power] as a way to track/find/predict the actions of someone who has the holocron diaries.

[Lareg 367]

The idea that the force power could be extremely dangerous for the rebellion if  learned by the empire should work as a good motivation for everybody. The jedi who created the holocron was also a very  comptenet general and the idea of finding him and recruiting him in the rebellion could also be enticing. There are plenty of imperial presence to keep the rebel minded characters interested i think. In the second act there specific penalties and problems for explicit force usage so the jedi could (or should) behave more like the muggles than usual putting everyone on same level.

The third act is goon be weird for non force sensitives, but it could be fun to have the jedi be seriously freaked out by the place. 

In general the adventure is heavily built about morality so i'm not sure how good it would work without it, but hopefully some duties, like recruiting or personnel, could be adapted to push the characters to do the right thing. 

Oh and you're goona have th opportunity to visit a location with a pre imperial period archive....that could be full of interesting informations for the rebellion.

[Fenrir423 30]

We had a 4 person party with 2 F&D characters go through and really the only major change the GM made was mentioning that since the Jedi was a General for the Republic, his holocron might have military secrets from the era that might still be relevant against the Empire even if we didn't end up finding the Jedi himself.

[Simon Retold 1,132]

Hm. I haven't read Chronicle of the Gatekeeper yet. How readily adaptable would it be to a campaign where the characters were dark side Force users?

[The Shy Ion 502]

Hm. I haven't read Chronicle of the Gatekeeper yet. How readily adaptable would it be to a campaign where the characters were dark side Force users?

Oo, are you running a dark side campaign too?

[AnomalousAuthor 506]

Hm. I haven't read Chronicle of the Gatekeeper yet. How readily adaptable would it be to a campaign where the characters were dark side Force users?

I think you could adapt it relatively easily as it presents moral choices throughout. Darksiders crave power, and the primary carrot being dangled for the party is a force power that led at least one Jedi astray. Just read it and you'll be able to figure out how to adapt it to your campaign pretty easily I'd imagine.

If you run it straight up you could have fun with the holocron telling the players to shove the dark side up their, ahem, dark sides.

Edited January 3, 2017 by ghatt

[Kyla 1,411]

Kelpie, it's a really good adventure! Your PC's will find the adversaries challenging, regardless of their experience (my group ran it when we were approaching the 650ish/700 level and it was still challenging), especially if you don't pull punches with the NPCs! As for the story, there are a lot of different aspects to it that can entice non-Jedi with the story.

 

For starters; the opening has you respond to a distress call from a civilian cargo hauler. The crew is attacked by mercenaries and assassins, and are (propably) dead by the time the PCs arrive. Righting this wrong can provide a motivating factor for the group, pushing them to not let the crew to have died in vain, especially should one of the crew be an old friend of a PC.

 

The second part of the adventure finds the characters on Cato Nemoidia, witnessing the hard times the people on that planet have been faced with in light of occupation by the Empire post-Clone Wars, and the oppression they face at being one of the Separatist Core Worlds. This can provide motivation for the Rebels to help the populace, which itself moves the plot along.

 

By the final act, the true power of Warde's Foresight becomes readily apparent, and the NPCs have shown what atrocities can be levied by those with the power. The PCs at this point should realize that if Palpatine were to control this power, the Emperor could make it impossible for the Rebels to hide, being able to ferret out the potential of any future dissident or spy from an early age. It would mean the end any hope for the restoration of the Republic and a free galaxy.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Kyla

[kelpie 89]

Oh thanks for all replies

Sorry if I'm being a little vague, I don't want to drop spoilers without knowing how to use the hide function here.

i dunno how to make an hiding block; in most forum you can use tag "spoiler" like saying

this is a spoiler

using spoiler tag:

[spoiler]
this is a spoiler
[/spoiler]

The holocron is not a real problem: they will get it at the end of a previous adventure (very loosely based on Beyond the Rim) and the gatekeeper will pop out with a skill roll/after a while

he could hint on some data about the lost holo-diaries, maybe telling them the complete holocron have some information, or could point out to some additional information on one of them. I started reading the book and probably i'll make some little change (ie arboona's cities for me are more like fossilized tree). And i see there are also some suggestion for knight level

 

the only real problems i see are a boring risk for not Jedi, and NPC balancing, but as far as i can see the latter is not really a concern, just need some tweaking...

Edited January 4, 2017 by kelpie