Overall ideas for Jawa one shot
I don't entirely know what I want the overall story to be for this, so this document will largely be me thinking through the kind of story that I would want this little doodad to do. Also, that I think I could tell since this would be my first foray into DMing so yeah.
If someone dies early, they get to play a droid.
Themes
The themes are a small group of Jawas has to protect their business interests, so the theme is probably family, helping your friends.
Visually, they're on Tatooine, so lots of sand around, continual problems with the gear they have because of that, and there's a gazillion things that want to kill them so that's not going to be much fun.
Structure
Exposition
Where they're coming from should be straightforward. There are two options with how I set up the beginning:
- They know each other already and have been working together for a while (in which case I'd want to set up something like MotW where they all list how they feel about each other based on a preset list that I give them)
- They just met (in which case I'd have to figure out why they are now working together. Perhaps they just found a sandcrawler abandoned and a bunch of tribes contributed a member each or something like that. Or they all broke off and started working together.)
- Literally related. Siblings, parent/child, etc. They decide how functional that relationship is.
- They work together but that's about it
- One cheated another one
- One looks up to another one
- ???
- The state of the sandcrawler
- Other jawas in the sandcrawler? No. It's just the party, they're on their own. Why? Because a bunch of people died recently? Or they're off visiting relatives or helping with a really big haul. I like that one better.
- The droids they have
- The people they recently pissed off
- The people they recently sold to
- Where they were headed before the other buddies went off and did their own thing (might need to meet up with them by a certain time)
- Ah! They're all younger or inexperienced jawas, and so they only have so many days to offload the droids and still meet up with the others.
Conflict
Ideas for the primary problem that will drive the campaign (as it turns out I had one already)
- One of their droids has secret information on the Empire/a crime family/etc and now the Jawas are being hunted by bounty hunters and have to work out how to get away with it (either with the droid, handling the information problem, handling the bounty hunters, etc; lots of potential solutions, potentially)
- Sub-point to this: I can start the story by having someone offer them the droid (having already introduced the idea that they are meant to make as much money as possible, so taking this droid will be a good idea include they could steal it, or bargain, or however; can also refuse it (because I will make this guy shady), but then I'll just make people assume that they have it, or else have the guy put it on the sandcrawler being sneaky
- Someone steals one of their droids (probably a moisture farmer, not someone super powerful or anything)
- They have to get back and pick up the other jawas before they start getting mad, so there's an implied deadline
- Must sell all the droids and also get new salvage to sell
- Potential interpersonal: someone is going to be chosen as new chief (is this a thing for jawas?) and they're kind of competing to do the best. This can be one of the PCs that I inform of this ahead of time, like Jesse or something.
- Repair some part of the sandcrawler (make a map for myself, and what things could break down and what it would do)
- Wildlife; probably not a krait dragon, but I know there are other problems out there
- Tusken raiders; can negotiate, but could also be just attacked
- Salvage opportunity: will slow them down, but will also get more money
Climax
The rising action (tbd) will lead them to a confrontation with the people the information was stolen from (probably a minor Hutt) and the people who stole it (why? I don't know, but they're probably not great people). All the action will eventually lead to this point, somehow. It will end there, and what happens on the way will depend on choices made and what on earth I do with the stuff in the middle. Need to time it out.
So there's basically going to be three choices: Hutts, other, or choose the information for themselves. And the below items are all just maybes depending on how the situation plays out, but they represent options for me to remember as a DM so I don't accidentally back everyone into a miserable corner.
- Siding with the Hutts: winning will get them out of there with some really good connections but the overall sense that this is probably going to end in betrayal somewhere down the road, also get the wiped droid out of it depending on how much they help. Losing the battle will end up with them having a chance to run for it or somehow negotiate to get out of there.
- Siding with the others: winning will get some fairly solid allies but not as much in terms of resources. Losing means run for it or else negotiate, with an easier chance on negotiate because the Hutt doesn't see the jawas as all that dangerous.
- We choose ourselves: ???. I don't know. This is obviously the harder choice. I'll have to see. It would be fun, though.
Components
Goals
The goal of the Jawas in the party is to sell droids, find more droids, and then sell those, so that they can keep on going and make money and do all that fun stuff. They're not looking to save the universe, and they're mercenary enough that keeping each other safe won't necessarily be a requirement.
What I need to introduce is an external threat to make them have to draw together and work together or else they all die. Make it clear that cooperation is a thing.
Stakes
If they fail, the sandcrawler will break down and they'll all die. If they suffer an attack greater than what they can manage, they will all die. Jawas are fairly fragile when compared to other stuff out there, but there are a million of them and they're sneaky and tricky and they seem harmless enough that most people leave them alone. But if they're in the way, the bad guys also won't think twice about destroying them utterly.
Plot type
Overview
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