#RPGaDay2021 - Day 1 - The Challenge Challenge

Day One of #RPGaDay2021 starts off with a single, simple word: Scenario.  After seven years of this activity, I'm certain I could recycle some of the classic posts, Favorite Scenario to Play, Favorite Scenario to GM, Favorite Scenario to Read, Favorite Scenario to Add Cannibal Goat-People to, I probably covered it in years prior.

I won't write up something entirely new, rather an update!  My Star Wars d6 Campaign has been a rousing success for my Monday night online group.  Instead of writing homebrewed adventures to accommodate my eclectic party, or obtaining and pigeonholing them straight into official published modules, I attempted a third way: The Challenge Challenge.   

The idea is simple, start with GDW's Challenge Magazine's first issue (#25)  and adapt the scenarios, NPCs, and fluff Traveller material into my Star Wars game.... and ultimately the West End Star Wars stuff as it was published.  I pondered the concept in #RPGaDay2019  and had just started proper indexing all the material and implementing it in #RPGaDay2020.

I can safely say, that after another year, it's a slow go, but I'm effectively through most of the material up and including issue #29. 

Why Traveller articles for Star Wars, you may ask?  This was going to be attempted regardless, but the characters lent to the more mercantile nature of Traveller.

Me: "What are you playing."

Player #1:  "A Brash Pilot."

Me: "Good, and you?"

Player #2: "A Wookie."

Me: "Good pairing, and you?"

Player #3: "A Twi'lek male merc, can I be enslaved to another player, and trying to earn my freedom."

Me: "I'll allow it, and you, Steve?"

Player #4: "I want to be a Galactic Exotic Animal Dealer!"

Me:  "Dammit Steve!"

So far, it's worked, and the scenarios are strangely plug-and-play.  A few NPCs have made casual appearances, ready to return, and I've inter-mixed some Starfinder and Star Frontiers material to mix up.

Once I complete the scenarios in Challenge #28 and #29, I have a difficult decision.  I had always planned on moving this neutral campaign down a different storyline, closer to either the Rebellion or the Imperial ties.  However, upon reviewing Challenge's predecessor, The Journal of the Traveller's Aide Society, issues #1-24 are so chock full of articles on new planets, and flora and fauna, that I might delay some events to allow for more diverse exploration and acquisition.  

And so far, the actual cost of acquisition for the material used for fifty-plus sessions  (including a Star Frontiers module) is less than twenty bucks.  

Disclaimer: I do not condone the use of third party sites to obtain protected intellectual properties without compensation. However,  a cheap American, I do recommend getting things as cheaply as possible, so look for sales/discounts on pdfs, or cheap copies at your FLGS/Conventions.  In reality, I've gone through five issues worth of material in a year.  Your mileage may vary, but a library of material like this, built up over time, is a sheer bargain.  

Disclaimer #2: I'm putting aside all the Twilight:2000 material for when Free League ships their Twilight:2000 Kickstarter