I know I'm REALLY late to the party, but have finally gotten the time and such to run a Saga campaign. I decided to run the premade free AP they put out. I was looking at ways to tie the game together and had a flash of insight. What if I were to make a Player's guide similiar to what Paizo does for it's APs? If I did that with suggestions of skills and races and classes and basic background info it could help to inform the players of the setting without the mandatory hours otherwise needed.
As an aside I also am considering "Campaign Traits" of which the pcs can take that ties them to the setting and adventures somehow... Although in a way Destinies do that already. This part I'm not sure of as much as the above. However I like the idea of a Pc who's trait was an agent of Maya, or Organa that gave them some sort of starting cred bonus and a bonus to deception or such. Or a trait that tied a pc to the hutts and gave some bonus on attack rolls or what have you. Any thoughts on this for Saga GMs? Specifically any that have ran the Dawn of Defiance?
I started this campaign a while back but schedules and life conspired and it didn't last very long.
I always give out what I call "boons" for each PC during character creation and in this case did something similar to what you're describing. I had a bunch of backgrounds that I wrote on 3x5 cards and laid them face down on the table. They rolled to see who got to pick first. It was a lot of fun and worked really well - providing each character with a nugget of backstory and an extra little boost.
You have the death sentence in 12 systems! Benefit: Choose either Persuasion or Survival - you are trained in that skill and it is a class skill for you.
Child of a noble house Benefit: You start with a basic astromech droid in addition to your standard starting equipment.
Imperial deserter Benefit: Choose one of the following - Initiative, Pilot, or Treat Injury. That skill is a class skill for you and you can purchase starting equipment requiring a military lisence.
You have a bad feeling about this... Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to a defense score of your choice.
The boons I presented were hugely popular and each of my players incorporated it into their backstory extremely well. I think you'll be pleased with the results if you do something similar like you are suggesting.
I started this campaign a while back but schedules and life conspired and it didn't last very long.
I always give out what I call "boons" for each PC during character creation and in this case did something similar to what you're describing. I had a bunch of backgrounds that I wrote on 3x5 cards and laid them face down on the table. They rolled to see who got to pick first. It was a lot of fun and worked really well - providing each character with a nugget of backstory and an extra little boost.
** spoiler omitted **
The boons I presented were hugely popular and each of my players incorporated it into their backstory extremely well. I think you'll be pleased with the results if you do something similar like you are suggesting.
Those are pretty cool. Any ideas for linking pcs to npcs? Like have one somehow looking for Maya, and a jedi to be Denia's padawan after her previous one "died", maybe even be a padawan she inherited as Jedi died in the war and padawans started outnumbering masters? Any other links for class/race combos and backgrounds?
The trick with campaign traits is they kinda have to work with any class/race - which is why focusing on skill or defense bonuses are a good angle to take; they work well with any class.
Examples:
However, if you wanted a campaign trait for Jedi specifically linked to Denia you could do something like this:
or
Personally, I'd also be ok with granting the Toughness feat as a freebie as part of a trait or two, it's a pretty sub-standard feat as it is.
Are there any other NPCs of note? It has been a few years since I've looked at anything for this campaign
I do this sort of stuff with fluff but if you want crunch, PCs receiving in-game advantages due to their associations, then look into the organizations rules and the backgrounds rules (replacement for destinies). I forget which books those are in but the rules look solid enough. I'm not sure if brand new characters can become members of an organization or if they have to work up to it...but the Organa family is one of the organizations detailed, so it could be fun to have one or more of the PCs work their way into the organization as the campaign progresses.
Good luck with it.
M