Ideas for a Star Hero solo campaign

[Jhaierr]

I'm considering running a solo Star Hero campaign with one of my old high school buddies (via Skype, as we don't live near each other). It's Star Hero because if/when we play anything, it's usually high-powered fantasy or superhero, and I wanted something different.

 

I plan on using the Terran Empire setting since I have all the books right here (Terran Empire, Worlds of Empire, Spacer's Toolkit, Scourges of the Galaxy). I have Alien Wars as well, but that time is more military-oriented and grittier than I'd like for this campaign.

 

I haven't run Star Hero before or any sci-fi campaign (whee!), and now I can't think of any ideas! I plan on doing some sort of standard "you have a small ship with (probably) a few NPCs" and maybe "your ultimate goal is to [do some particular thing]." None of that is set in stone. I think one of the NPCs is probably going to be a Malvan female (not a love interest, though).

 

I'm seeking any ideas from anyone that would like to help! Also, any advice on running a Terran Empire campaign would be much appreciated as well.

[Nolgroth]

Re: Ideas for a Star Hero solo campaign

 

You could go the Mass Effect route with the PC being in charge of a small ship of unique commando "hero" NPCs and a support staff. Depending on the era you wish to run your game in, you could work for the Empire, a rebel faction, corporation, or even an alien government. Figure out if there is going to be a metaplot to tie the whole campaign together and how prominent that metaplot is. To continue with the Mass Effect analogy, the metaplot can be a constant, in-your-face kind of thing. It could also be like Burn Notice where the metaplot is certainly present from episode to episode but does not necessarily take front stage.

 

Starship combat can take a looonnnng time as you whittle shields down and whatnot. ghost-angel made up a Starship combat tracker for that purpose. I thought I had it handy, but I will have to go look through old archive DVDs. Maybe g-a will have it readily available and can point you to it.

 

Decide early on things like psi powers (whether or not they exist and at what level). By default, they do exist in Terran Empire. Also take a look at how to do technological based powers like cybernetic implants/replacements. Having a good grasp of what you want to allow with those is a good idea.

 

If you need ideas for a ship deckplan, I would suggest the Future Armada series. Each installment is around $5 and some of them come with up to 3 different ships. There are also two space stations that you can use. If you don't have the cash to spare, try the Cartographers' Guild (http://www.cartographersguild.com) to see if they have any ship maps in the forum there.

 

For the recent space opera campaign I ran, my opening adventure was to have the space station the characters were staying on get rammed by a spacecraft coming out of hyperspace. There was little in the way of combat, but there was still the challenge of getting to the escape mechanism (lifepods or whatever). Turn up the dramatic descriptions of systems failing and all of that as the character makes his way through the station. I also threw in a shadow ops team that was looking for something that my PCs found first. They didn't even know what it was at first. Some sort of Top Secret Plans to Something as I recall. The characters had to engage them at least to a degree. It was sort of a merry, slow-motion chase through sections of the station that were habitable, some that had lost life support and some that had actually been breached and exposed to hard vacuum. In the end, the characters made a fighting retreat to the CnC of the station and made off with the Captain's yacht. The shadow ops team withdrew to their own ship and escaped.

 

The characters were then basically hired on as expendable asset operatives to track down the few clues that they had. From there, madness ensued. The campaign ran on and off for about three years with a whole slew of interesting events. It grew way beyond what I had pictured for it and we had a great deal of fun.

 

Hopefully something I typed will spark an idea. Good luck.

[Jhaierr]

Re: Ideas for a Star Hero solo campaign

 

I found ghost-angel's tracker here:

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/62001-TerranEmpire-Space-Battle-Tracker

 

Very cool! Thank you. And thank you for the ideas... I'll try to post a follow-up later today.

[Blorn]

Re: Ideas for a Star Hero solo campaign

 

That is so weird! I was considering doing the same thing with my friend. I was planning on using Skype and RPtools. I've never ran a Star Hero campaign either. I bought and watched all of the episodes of Firefly, which I highly recommend. I plan on making my friends character the captain of his very own scout/merchant ship with only a robot as his crew... I like the idea of the space station crash/tragedy... maybe, as people are running about trying to get off of the space station, some people are forced to ask for a ride on the player's ship (can't get to an escape pod or other ship in time before the station explodes). Of course, these refugees are not exactly what they say they are... think the doctor and River from Firefly (sort of) and possibly a few more refugees for flavor. At any rate, they become NPC crew/source of adventure ideas...

 

I really like the idea of this thread, as it will help both Jhaierr and me at the same time.

[Ranxerox]

Re: Ideas for a Star Hero solo campaign

 

If you are still taking suggestions, I would recommend Sam Spade/Rockford files campaign set in the 25th century. Solo campaigns are much easier if you do them in a genre where a lone protagonist is part of genre conventions.

[Jhaierr]

Re: Ideas for a Star Hero solo campaign

 

I'm mulling over the "group of NPCs plus the PC" idea, although that might be a little unwieldy for me. Not sure I can handle the antagonists and other NPCs and the protagonist NPCs' interactions all at once. Maybe there could be two other NPCs, one a good friend of the PC and another the Malvan female I mentioned.

 

The PC will be a human scientist, possibly a xeno-botanist. He'll have some combat experience. A few years ago he and a group of scientists were on a planet gathering data, and they were attacked by a group of aliens (not sure which race yet). Apparently the aliens were looking for something on the planet. The humans had to fight to survive this for several weeks (months?) until they could escape.

 

I'm thinking that the aliens eventually found what they were looking for. And now they are looking for 5-6 other pieces of this thing. They'll use this to construct something (?) that will cause a Bad Thing to happen (conquest, destruction?). And perhaps PC has decided to find these objects ahead of the aliens in other to prevent this Bad Thing from happening. I believe the Malvan female might have ESP and is how the PC can determine where the objects might be, sending them to various places around the galaxy.

[Jhaierr]

Re: Ideas for a Star Hero solo campaign

 

On second thought, maybe the friend of the PC will have ESP, and the Malvan female is someone who wants to help them, so she provides the ship to get around in. Actually, maybe these things are Malvan technology. It would make sense that a Malvan might get involved then.

[Blorn]

Re: Ideas for a Star Hero solo campaign

 

I agree that the NPC's could become a hassle if you are constantly running them for every encounter, but you wouldn't have to use them every time the player leaves the ship. Some could be sent off to restock supplies while the player takes care of business, for example. Maybe a repair needs to be made so one NPC has to stay on board the ship. Maybe the Malavan gets shot on a previous mission and has to stay on the ship to recover... You wouldn't have to have every NPC constantly active... but what I like about having them over not, is as a source of adventure ideas and as a resource. Maybe the robot (if you have a robot NPC, that is) is the only one that can withstand toxic fumes to recover one of the pieces you mentioned. The NPC with the ESP is needed to communicate to a psi-alien to get another part (or put up a psychic shield so the player can survive to get it). The mercenary NPC is needed to help with storming an enemy compound where another piece can be found. The NPC stowaway kid can help with sneaking into another location to get another piece.

 

The biggest problem with solo campaigns is that the player character has to be everything all the time, which seems unrealistic and very point intensive. He could possibly be good at many things (a jack-of-all-trades) or be an expert in a few areas, but he's not superman (that would be a different genre)... so he should always be needed, he just needs a little extra specific help during certain missions.

 

I would make the NPCs only good at one thing so they don't steal the show (after all, they are not the main character). The ESPer should be of minimal help during combat, for example. The robot is really good at astrogation or stopping trash compactors , the mercenary is great in a fight but a bit too trigger happy when it comes to negotiation.

 

As I said, without NPCs, the player has a limited amount of resources to call upon, with them, a ton of possibilities open up... But care needs to be taken to make sure that this is the player's show, not the NPC's.

[feralucce]

Re: Ideas for a Star Hero solo campaign

 

I would recommend something along the lines of a farscape campaign or a hitchhiker's guide... lone protaganist lost in a universe of endless possibilities... either that or a post apocalyptic traveller