I finally found some time to work out a bit of background for the Star Wars game I’m running. I had kicked off the game with a short adventure that, true to form with my group, has take us over a month to finish. That was meant to be the exciting James Bond style intro to the campaign, though in reality all the stops and starts reduced the oomph considerably. When we started, I told the players that they worked for a secret Jedi organization they jokingly dubbed the Jedi Intelligence Agency. This was my way to dealing with the fact that practically everyone chose to play a Jedi (not that I can blame them for going with Jedi over some of those snoozer classes like Fringer). Anyway, I worked up a brief background document to give the game some context. I’m sure it will send Star Wars purists running away screaming, as it’s basically SW mixed with Mission Impossible. Nothing much else to report today, so I figured I’d post it here:
Ghost Knights of the Old Republic
It is 3,961 years before the Battle of Yavin (the climactic conflict at the end of the original Star Wars movie). The Mandalorian Wars have been raging for two years. They began when three Mandalorian fleets punched into Republic space and began driving towards the Core Worlds. The Jedi Order decided to stay out of the war, leaving it to the Republic military. This proved a costly mistake, and as a result the Mandalorians have won a string of victories that have humiliated Republican forces and caused huge losses of life and territory.
Recently, two young Jedi named Revan and Malak defied the Jedi Council and joined the Republic fleet. They also put out a call to other Jedi to join their cause. They are currently rallying Republican forces in the Outer Rim and hope to turn the war around. Revan and Malak are sure they are the only Jedi leaders that see the true threat of the Mandalorian war machine. They are wrong.
The Ghosts of Ossus
There is an organization within the Jedi Order so secret that even Jedi lords like Revan and Malak do not know it exists. It was founded 33 years ago, in the wake of the Sith War. In this conflict a renegade Jedi named Exar Kun fell to the dark side and attempted to topple the Republic. While he ultimately failed, the Jedi Order paid a high price. The great library of Ossus was destroyed when a nearby sun was made to go supernova. Countless irreplaceable artifacts and texts were lost, along with countless lives.
After the war the Jedi Order worked hard to renew its strength. Because Exar Kun had corrupted many young Jedi, a whole generation of knights was nearly wiped out. Amongst the survivors were three Jedi who felt it was time for the Order to evolve. In their minds, Exar Kun had been allowed to run rampant when he should have been taken to heel as soon as he fell to the dark side. The Jedi Masters, they believed, were so concerned with the purity of the Force that they often neglected the greater good. The loss of Ossus was a direct result of their shortsightedness.
The three mysterious Jedi (and to this day, no one knows their names) founded the Ghosts of Ossus, a secret organization dedicated to fighting the enemies of the Jedi Order. The ghosts go into the shadow places where other Jedi feared to tread. They do not shirk from using methods other Jedi would find distasteful. They do it because someone must. They do it for the greater good.
You are a strike team of the Ghosts of Ossus. You have been working behind the scenes to thwart the Mandalorians since the war began. If you are captured, the Jedi will disavow your activities and label you as renegades. Nor can you implicate your superiors in the Ghosts of Ossus because you’ve never met them and don’t know their names. You receive your orders via encrypted holograms and report back the same way. You pick up money and equipment from caches when needed. For the most part, you are on your own.
When the history books are written, you won’t be in them. You are, after all, nothing but ghosts.