Teenage Alien Jedi Rebels

Player characters are a group of minor jedi (padawan) who were taken to a remote forest world (Se’War) and raised in a cave with an extensive set of escape tunnels (some 500 meters in length). The cave they live in is 100 KM from the town of P’Za, one of the largest towns on Se’War in spite of having a population of just 40,000 sentients and 10,000 droids (not counting the Imperial Garrison 20 KM off shore of the town).

Se’War has a total population of about a million, but none of the other towns have more than 10,000 residents. P’Za has a strong farming, fishing, and logging economy, but is still suffering due to the recent loss of the Lidium mine and the Imperial Governor insisting that tax revenues not only remain the same, but increase. Due to the lack of cooperation he has implemented martial law.

In response to the increasing tax demands the business owners have laid off as many workers as possible and severely cut safety standards making the logging and fishing industries particularly dangerous. The lost jobs from the mining and other industries has increased poverty at the same time taxes are being increased which is causing more poverty and violence. In many ways P’Za is a perfect place to build rebel sympathies, but the huge imperial presence just off the shore may make it difficult to encourage open rebellion.

In addition to their other problems the area is suffering frequent earthquakes due to the plasma fires raging in the old lidium mines. Imperial propaganda has suggested the lidium mines were sabotaged by rebel spies in an attempt to keep the Empire from gaining access to the fuel. Not everyone believes the story, but some do and as such revealing rebel ties could prove dangerous.

The main opposition characters in the early stages of the campaign will be ISB agent Burke and Governor Tekot though with characters being extremely low powered beginners they will likely not deal with either directly for some time. More important villains at the moment will be Imperial scouts, gangs, and Imperial sympathizers.

Quick and Dirty Encounter Tables

City – Daytime
1) Stormtrooper Squad looking for someone
2) Pickpockets plying their trade
3) Gang members giving passers grief
4) Hawkers trying to sell trinkets (20 credits for a wood turtle carving)
5) Street performers putting on a show
6) Fruit stand giving out samples to encourage sales

City – nighttime
1) Stormtrooper squad looking for someone (likely to be trigger happy)
2) Muggers plying their trade (1d6 thugs, average human stats)
3) Gang members roughing up passers (1d6+1 average humans)
4) Drunks staggering home (1d6 average humans)
5) Drunks doing a bar crawl (1d6 average humans, if engaged will invite characters to join)
6) Criminal on the run (will slip characters 10 credits to not remember them)

Wilderness
1) Encounter with dangerous predator (actions depend on circumstances)
2) Bad Weather/Earthquake (safe if travel time doubled)
3) Imperial Scouts in the area (1d6 scouts on speeder bikes)
4) Hunters in the area (1d6 average humans)
5) Game in area (search/survival to locate/identify)
6) Wild fruit/vegetables (if collected enough for 1d6 meals)

Resource Acquisition
Having very little characters can hunt and gather, beg and try to get jobs, or steal. Most player groups quickly turn to stealing, but with an all Jedi group there is the added caution that they should be aware their action may be hurting innocents (even stealing from the Empire may cause retributions to the local population).

Minimal Survival
The base survival roll to “stay alive” is very easy due to the rich resources of the forest environment (there is some danger of disease and predator attacks but those would only come up on critical failure). In general each category (5 points) the very easy roll is beat by allows the character to gather 1 additional day of resources so they can focus on other things on another day, otherwise it takes a day to secure all the resources needed.

Resource Gathering
If a character doesn’t need to make minimal survival rolls on a day they can attempt to gather resources (fishing, harvesting, hunting, mining, and so forth). A character with the proper tools will have an easier time than those using improvised tools (increase difficulty by 5 if improvising). Assuming no other factors it is very easy to gather 1 kilogram of anything abundant in the region (fish, small game, fowl, nuts and berries, tubers and fungi, wood suitable for crafting). Every factor of 5 increases the yield a similar amount.

Selling Resources
A character can usually sell their gathered resources for 1/2 of what the vendors in town sell them for (this is hardly a way to get rich), or they can attempt to craft them into something which might sell for more (cultures covers most art and cooking, a kilo of raw resources prepared may sell for more, but the character needs a venue – hard to peddle a cooked fish on the street but a carved burl might be easy enough to pass off). If the crafting roll was exceptional the character can get a bonus when looking for a buyer (VE: -5, E: 0, M: +5, D: +10, VD: +15, H: +20) pushing product on a buyer is Con/Persuasion (base of Very Easy to sell 1 item per day, increase potential sales by 1 per 5 points). Once a buyer is lined up the character can negotiate, generally a kilogram of well prepared items can be moved for character’s bargain roll in credits (just roll for each kilo and don’t worry about individual items).

Begging
Begging requires less prep work than selling items, but it’s harder to convince people to give you money just because. A day of begging in P’Za will only wield Persuasion/Con roll in credits.

Busking
Street performers are generally considered the same as beggars, but a character with a professional quality instrument (500 Credits) or other performers bag of tricks (stage magic kit or the like) can try to build a crowd with their performing skill (Base difficulty is Easy, if it fails or rolls even treat as begging if beat by 5 or more add another con/persuasion roll per extra 5 points rolled).

Vendor Conditions
The three activities above rely on selling items or persuading passers buy, before the day of work begins the GM can roll for the daily conditions and players may opt to pass up the day if conditions are especially bad (just roll 1d6);
1) Miserable Conditions (-10 from all rolls, on fumble get attacked by 1d6 average people)
2) Poor conditions (-5 from all rolls, on fumble get pelted with mud/feces/rotten fruit)
3-4) Normal conditions
5) Good conditions (treat rolls as 5 points higher, on critical get a free meal also)
6) Great conditions (treat rolls as 10 higher, on critical offered free lodging for the night)

Jobs
Finding a job is difficult in P’Za, but the characters are exceptional. Hiring is normally done in person and peruasion/con is used to secure a job, negotiation/bargain is used to determine salary, and actual job skills will influence job available (can be bluffed) and job performance.
Base difficulty is difficult (very high, but characters are convincing the employer to fire someone else and hire them, there is a job shortage). Technical and Knowledge jobs will generally pay 10 credits/day per D of skill (assuming bargain 15 is made, raise or lower rate by 1 credit per D per 5 higher or lower). Most jobs require a minimum skill of 3D and have set days of work the character is expected to be present (generally 3-6 days a weeks). Mechanical, Dexterity, and Perception skills generally aren’t in as much demand (hiring roll is the same but pay is 5 credits/day per D of skill). Missing more than 1 of every 10 days scheduled will lead to being fired.

Stealing
Pickpocketing yields the same results as begging but uses Stealth instead of Persuasion/Con and doesn’t yield the shelter critical on great conditions (can get food by stealing a meal, on a great critical character lifts a common item worth under 100 credits such as a chronometer, comlink, glow rod, or datapad).

Breaking and entering requires a little more work; generally a search roll is advisable to determine if a person or pet is at the location. Stealth to avoid notice. Security to bypass locks and alarms (locks can be broken instead, but alarms are set off if broken). Then another search for valuables and guard animals/droids may need to be dispatched. Poor people tend to have very easy to bypass security. Middle income people and small shops tend to have easy to bypass security and have a 50/50 chance of droid or animal security. Well off people and medium businesses tend to have moderate security systems and normally have animal or droid guards. Wealthy individuals, Imperial Locations, and corporations tend to have difficult (or higher) security, and usually have human guards in addition to droid and/or animal patrols. A poor house likely has 1d6 common items worth under 100 credits and 1d6 days of food. A medium income home or small business is likely to have 2d6 days of food, 2d6 common items and 1d6 uncommon items worth 100-500 credits with 10d6 credits stashed somewhere (moderate search to find). Well off houses and medium businesses likely have2d6 days of food, 3d6 common items, 2d6 uncommon items, and 1d6 hard to find items worth 500-1000 credits. Likewise they will normally have a hidden vault (moderate search to find, difficult security to open) which likely holds 1d6x100 credits. Wealthy Homes and Corporate offices will yield 3d6 days of food, 1d6x10 common items, 4d6 uncommon items, 2d6 hard to find items, and 1d6 rare items worth 1000-5000 credits each. A vault will be well hidden (search 20 to find, security 25 to open) and will often hold 1d6x1000 in credits as well as 1d6x1000 in jewelry or precious metals.

The theft listing is a bit generic, but isn’t intended to be character’s first option. Characters can also try to salvage items from the mines (mostly risking cave ins and earthquakes) or try to sneak into specific locations like salvage yards, farms, or logging camps rather than rely on the generic lists.