Star Wars: Sith Academy in the Old Republic (recruitment closed, game started)

[redkitsune]

Hey everyone,
I am a bit new to roleplaying and I have close to zero experience with system games, but I am thinking this would work best as a system game. The players would be the students of the academy and GM would (probably) be controlling the headmaster and the teachers.
The idea is - it would be set in a Star Wars EU with a little twist: not only anger and hatred bring dark side power but other emotions as well - such as envy, lust, humiliation, pain and so on. So a Sith that causes pain or lust can "siphon" those emotions and turn them into dark side power. The more lust students feel the stronger they are in the dark side. The caveat that such "siphoning" would need to be voluntary, or "relatively" voluntary, so things like blackmail, coercion and manipulation would work (because nobody in Sith academy will let part of their power to be transferred to competition, not voluntarily!)
Thus, there can (and will) be plenty of smut happening, both students x teachers and between cadets. Teacher wants to punish bad cadet? Steal some of the power their cadets posses! Cadet wants to get stronger in the dark side? No problem, cause pain, humiliate, seduce or enrage others. Cadet wants to have a "permanent" source of power? Enslave some other cadet and steal power whenever is convenient.

Combat and assignments that cadets are sent to could be resolved with a system but other interactions could be resolved by a mix of free-form and system - for example bluff success would be determined by dice rolling (I don't have much experience in roleplaying, the idea is what important, I think)

My intention is to have an interesting plot AND all sorts of BDSM related interactions, since some students may try to make other students to submit (and condition them for submition) or try to impress headmaster by humiliating others, teachers might introduce all sorts of smutty and not so smutty punishments for failure and so on. This could be a fertile ground for both dominant-minded and sub roleplayers.

Possible plot ideas: (I am open to other ideas as long as they make *some* sense in Star Wars universe!)

• Search for a Jedi spy in the academy
• Survive going through tombs of dead Sith Lords as a test of power in the dark side
• One of teachers takes several Sith cadets to a mission, for example retrieving ancient Sith artifact

So, what do you think? Any GMs that fancy this scenario? Anyone wants to participate in something like this as players?
And if you think that this idea is silly or wouldn't work, do tell me!

Some background information on the setting:
The idea is that it would be happening thousands of years before what happened in the movies, in the time where the Jedi Order and the Old Republic were opposed by a mighty Sith Empire - thus,  there is much more freedom to invent characters and events.

(The following is copied from Wookiepedia page (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Sith_Academy_(Korriban)) for convenience)

Sith Academy
The Sith Academy on Korriban was established in 3996 BBY during the buildup to the Great Sith War by the disciples of the Sith Lord Exar Kun. One of them, called Jorak Uln, became the Headmaster of the Academy.

Curriculum and faculty
Entrance to and life at the Sith Academy was difficult. To be admitted, prospective students were required to impress one of the teachers or students who was already in the Academy, receiving as proof a medallion, or to kill a student and take his or her medallion. Fallen Jedi usually did not have much difficulty in gaining admission, because they had already been trained in the ways of the Force. Prospective students were forced to compete against each other in a group; one would gain enough prestige to impress the headmaster and become a true Sith, while the others would be forced to wait a year before trying again, assuming they survived.

Competition was fierce, and many students were killed in their attempts to outdo their competitors. Further, the Sith held no qualms about killing students to either facilitate an acquaintance's acceptance of the dark side or preventing other students being held back. Some students preferred to engage each other in a lethal duel within the Sith training room. Even the Academy's headmaster was not immune to backstabbing. It was not uncommon for a headmaster to be overthrown by his or her second-in-command. Whenever this or other political intrigue hit the Academy, people had a tendency to disappear.

The cruelty was further demonstrated by the penchant of Academy students to visit the nearby colony of Dreshdae and torment hopefuls wishing to enter the Academy. The Sith also kept their own store of captive Republic soldiers for practice in torture and battle, and had a prison wing to detain and interrogate prisoners. It was also complete with an interrogation room, where Sith officers brutally interrogated their prisoners.

[Jayna]

Very interested!

[Darrow Huck]

I might be interested in GMing for a small group (2-3 players). Have you seen the Edge of the Empire system? I think I have the book for that one laying around.

[redkitsune]

I might be interested in GMing for a small group (2-3 players). Have you seen the Edge of the Empire system? I think I have the book for that one laying around.

That is great to hear!
I don't have the book (unfortunately I don't own system rule books at all) , but I will happily go along with a system game that makes sense for the setting.

[Darrow Huck]

It's a Star Wars RPG system.

[redkitsune]

It's a Star Wars RPG system.

Then it will work well, I think. Now, my next question might seem silly, but since I have very little experience with system games I am still going to ask: if me (and perhaps other players) don't own the rule book, will we still be able to run with it?
I mean, character sheets can probably be found online somewhere, I mean the details of the system.

[Darrow Huck]

I have PDFs of the book.

[PixelatedPixie]

I would potentially be interested as a player.

[redkitsune]

I have PDFs of the book.

Oh, that is great. Then everything will work, I think.

I would potentially be interested as a player.

This means we have 3 people interested. Darrow Hucks, what do you think? Would you like to GM?

[Jayna]

Edge of the Empire and Force and Destiny are both solid systems! Most of the books that have come out of the new series have been good.

[Darrow Huck]

How about you guys draw up some quick character profiles and answer a few questions? I've got some basic plans for NPCs and a plot, although I'll need to see what the group is looking for before filling out too many details. (We can worry about full character creation once we're all on the same page).

Basic Prompt: The Sith are at a low tide. The Jedi Order has grown powerful since the last great war, forcing the Sith into exile in the outer rim. This, of course, must change. A sith temple has been established on the sunless world of Vekkdra, run by a group of five sith masters. This temple will be a new wellspring of sith power, destined to bring down the Jedi order and place its masters as the new rulers of the galaxy.

Your characters have just arrived at the temple, ready to begin your training.

Name:
Age:
Background:
-Any previous rudimentary force training
-How you came to be brought to the temple
-Any family/friends/connections that you may have left behind
Character:
-What are your character's goals?
-What do you have in mind as a character arc?

Questions:
-What pairings, level of smut, and kinks are you looking to play out?
-What level of NC are you comfortable with?
-How sexually aggressive are you willing to play your character?
-Are you interested in occasionally playing an NPC/secondary character? (This will help a lot with making sure everybody has a chance to be active).

Naturally, given the premise, your characters should not be gentle, submissive types. You could play such a character as something other than a student (possibly as a secondary character), but the game will need the main PCs to be strong and ambitious enough to survive the cut-throat halls of the temple.

[Jayna]

Will get you something this evening!

[redkitsune]

This is a rough and not so detailed concept which I might tweak a bit, but the major details should remain the same

Name: Vestara Syn
Age: 22
Background:

    "Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me."
    ―The Code of the Sith, authored by Sorzus Syn

Vestara a proud daughter of the House of Syn, influential and feared family of direct descendants of Sorzus Syn, one of the Dark Jedi who enslaved the native Sith of Korriban.
Syns have a small domain with multiple star systems under their control and a small but formidable defense fleet. Unlike other Sith domains, they care for well-being of their citizens, providing housing and education for all, but not for the reason any sentient being from outside the Empire might think. Syn family were famous for creating fanatically loyal soldiers, ready to die for their masters. They used the housing and education provided for their citizens to brainwash and coerce them for loyalty, ensuring proper order, allowing power to remain at the hands of Sorzus Syn descendants.
Usually Syn members are trained in the ways of the Dark Side in-house. Vestara is the first Syn ever to be sent to train in the Sith Academy of any kind. But not because of her accomplishments in the Force.

Vestara, a fifth sibling out of six, unlike all of her family members didn't have huge force potential, but as her father discovered not so long ago, she had some... other talents that made up for her lack of Force abilities.
Since the young age, Vestara yearned for power, craved it and slowly but surely gained it. She was the youngest sibling, destined to remain with scraps, her older brothers didn't want. She was treated like a nobody, like an ornament to be married for a political alliance with another domain when she comes of age. Vestara wouldn't have any of it.
She killed her elder brother at the tender age of twelve, stealing a poison from her mother stash, only to inject it into her brother's prized Alderaanian wine. Nobody discovered who was the killer, despite a few month long investigation. Over the next decade, three of her brothers died one after another - two had unfortunate... accidents which seemed totally random and one was killed when apprehending a Jedi spy. Of course, there was no Jedi spy, only a smiling Vestara at the edge of the spider web.
Now all she had to do was to remove the last competitor for power when she was discovered. At first, her father wanted to execute her but Vestara convinced him that she'd be more useful alive than dead: she might not be as strong in the Force as her older brothers were, her skill with Sith alchemy - a rarity these days was a useful thing indeed for the House to have. Instead, her father offered her a chance to prove herself - Vestara has to become a full Sith within two years in the academy, otherwise the Hose of Syn will execute her.

- Any previous rudimentary force training : meditation training from in-house instructors, basic telekinesis and ability to siphon emotions to fuel force powers
- How you came to be brought to the temple : Vestara's family arranged her studies to begin so she didn't need to go through "impress the cadet" routine
- Any family/friends/connections that you may have left behind : House of Syn would not help Vestara as she had angered her father, the leader of the House. She has multiple reliable contacts in Syn domain systems where she can get safe house, can make black market deals, hire bounty hunters and so on. She has small monthly stipend from her family, but no access to vast funds her family posesses.


Character:
- What are your character's goals? - The main goal is to gain power. Vestara wants to rule the house of Syn and that means at the very minimum killing her remaining brother who by this time is a full Sith lord. Its possible that she would need to overthrow her father as well.
-What do you have in mind as a character arc? - roughly - Vestara goes through academy, gains power and achieves her goals. Possibly, she can enter temporary alliances for achieving shared goals. She would not hesitate to subjugate other cadets to further her goals and would not hesitate to serve those who are much stronger than her if it can benefit her goals. Of course, she'd betray if it further her goals.
Questions:
-What pairings, level of smut, and kinks are you looking to play out? - both male and female pairings are fine (though I'd prefer males to be in a focus), "exotic" humanoid aliens (that look like humans) such as Twi'leks or Zabraks are good too. It would offer also some potential for drama since Syn family is xenophobic and Vestara would consider non-humans beneath her. About kinks - D/s (probably dominant AND submissive side of it at different points but since one of my major kinks is being at the subby side of things, I'd like to see Vestara dominated if she loses a combat, for example), some bondage sprinkled on top would be nice, dub-con (considering evil nature of Sith Academy it is likely to happen at some point) and possibly non-con (where it fits the plot). Of course looking forward for opportunities to try and "coerce" others and get "coercion" attempts but prefer my character to get "coerced" more often than the other option. Body fluids that belong to toilet should... stay there. Vore and anything related is yucky. Torture and senseless violence - in this context it may be unavoidable, but I'd prefer to minimize as much as possible or even leave it in the background. Other than that, I have not that many offs.
-What level of NC are you comfortable with? I'm ok even with rape scenes where it fits the plot but wouldn't actively seek such. Dub-con is totally fine :)
-How sexually aggressive are you willing to play your character? For Vestara, sex is one of tools to achieve her goals - she is not stranger to sex but she is too ambitious to consider it a leisure time - she'd consider such a leisure to be unproductive because it doesn't advance her in her quest for power. She'd try to coerce and dominate if she has the chance, but she'd like the psychological aspect of domination more than sexual aspect of it.
-Are you interested in occasionally playing an NPC/secondary character? (This will help a lot with making sure everybody has a chance to be active) - I rarely played NPCs/secondary characters but I am ready to try :)

[Darrow Huck]

Still just waiting on character profiles while I work on my plot ideas.

[PixelatedPixie]

Name: Celes Diniz
Age: 19
Background:
Celes was taken in by the Jedi at an older age than might have been ideal.  She was fifteen when her Master found her and offered to train her, a mistake that he wouldn't live to regret.  He was a diplomatic sort, and Celes resented the slow pace of their adventures.  She hated talk, she wanted action, she hated diplomacy.  Why prattle on when it could be solved in five minutes with a lightsaber?  An impulsive teenager, Celes likely would have been sent to a different Master if her own had not feared the path she might take, or what her new Master might do if she stepped out of line.

A negotiation on some planet that Celes can't even remember the name of turned sour when a Sith got involved.  Celes betrayed her Master, an action she still feels some regret for, but did not strike him down.  That honour lay with the Sith who 'rescued' her from his teachings.  The Sith, sensing some of what lay in her, sent her to the Academy for further training. 

Celes old Master was a methodical sort and Celes has only limited training.  Her family were Merchant Nobles on a backwater world of the Outer Rim and Celes was glad to be rid of them when her Master took her in.

Character:
Celes doesn't specifically want power.  She would rather have excitement, adventure, and similar.  She doesn't want to lord it over other Sith, rather, she wants to strike them, or Jedi, down in glorious battle.

I am undecided on character arc.

Questions:
-What pairings, level of smut, and kinks are you looking to play out?
I prefer M/F (or M+/F).  I prefer nonconsensual.  I am fine with most content (M/M and F/F I don't tend to be that interested in).  I might see her torturing others to some degree, I would generally not see her as particularly interested in sex (other than when others might take advantage of her). 
-What level of NC are you comfortable with?
Any.  I am fine with most content through extreme.
-How sexually aggressive are you willing to play your character?
Generally not very.  I don't see sex as being her focus.  I don't see her as being femdom, or interested in any sort of (twisted) romance. 
-Are you interested in occasionally playing an NPC/secondary character? (This will help a lot with making sure everybody has a chance to be active).
I can on occasion depending on the situation and the character.

[BlackStone]

Removed

[Jayna]

Still working on my girl! Had a busy couple days of work. Will have something up tomorrow!

[DrMcQuark]

Oooo… This sounds interesting. I might be a bit slow in responding, but I would love to create a character.

[Darrow Huck]

Okay, so Jayna has PMed me a work-in-progress profile. I'll post the main NPC blurbs and some more set-up details when I get some time tonight.

Does anyone need any help with the book pdfs/character creation? I'll PM links if anyone needs them. I'm going to restrict everyone to the force skill trees in the core EoTE book at first, since you'll be learning the more advanced powers at the temple. We'll also have to decide on how to roll dice. The Elliquiy dice add won't work. There are online dice rollers, but we'd have to be on the trust system. I might be able to mock up an online roller that sends me an email whenever someone uses it.

I want to keep this as a small game (2-3, as I noted), so I'll be closing recruitment and starting an OOC thread. Red, could you edit this thread title to say that its closed?

[redkitsune]

Does anyone need any help with the book pdfs/character creation? I'll PM links if anyone needs them

Since I don't own the system book, I'd appreciate a pdf link.

Red, could you edit this thread title to say that its closed?

Sure.

[BlackStone]

Removed

[PixelatedPixie]

Okay, so Jayna has PMed me a work-in-progress profile. I'll post the main NPC blurbs and some more set-up details when I get some time tonight.

Does anyone need any help with the book pdfs/character creation? I'll PM links if anyone needs them. I'm going to restrict everyone to the force skill trees in the core EoTE book at first, since you'll be learning the more advanced powers at the temple. We'll also have to decide on how to roll dice. The Elliquiy dice add won't work. There are online dice rollers, but we'd have to be on the trust system. I might be able to mock up an online roller that sends me an email whenever someone uses it.

I want to keep this as a small game (2-3, as I noted), so I'll be closing recruitment and starting an OOC thread. Red, could you edit this thread title to say that its closed?

Who all are you going with for the game?  With Jayna that puts you at 4 character concepts, not counting people who expressed interest.

What are the creation rules beyond the Force Powers?  I assume everyone needs a force rating specialization (so the two in the back of Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion, plus all of them in Force and Destiny, plus a few others like Padawan Survivor in Dawn of Rebellion)?  Are there limits on specializations or books used?

[Darrow Huck]

The OOC and Character Profile/General Information threads are up. I'll still working on adding details and figuring out what faceclaims I want to go with. Given the nature of the RP (Sith are kinda back-stabby) I'll also be delivering details that only one player would know via PM, and I'll let you guys decide what to share.

https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=315643.0
https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=315642.0

Who all are you going with for the game?  With Jayna that puts you at 4 character concepts, not counting people who expressed interest.

Well, it was you, Jayna, and redkitsune when we decided to go forward and I asked for profiles, so I'll keep to that group.

What are the creation rules beyond the Force Powers?  I assume everyone needs a force rating specialization (so the two in the back of Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion, plus all of them in Force and Destiny, plus a few others like Padawan Survivor in Dawn of Rebellion)?  Are there limits on specializations or books used?

I don't have any restrictions on career/specializations in mind, as long as they make sense with your backstory. Looking at Force and Destiny a bit more (back when I played the game it wasn't out yet) it looks like it's probably better if everyone uses that books character creation, since it's more specialized toward force users. Since the career specializations themselves have force talents, I'll say limit yourselves to those for character creation instead of putting any points into the actual force power trees yet.

We can move any further discussion over to the OOC thread from here.

[BlackStone]

Just....wow.