#RPGaDay2024 - Day 20 - Amazing Adventure

Day 20 of #RPGaDay2024 continues a week of stores:  "Amazing Adventure"

As today is the meat to the "cool story" sandwich of Sensational Session and Classic Campaign, an Amazing Adventure should be a multi-session story arc within the larger campaign.  

I had a pile of adventures to consider for this post, but one savvy suggestion from my player survey made me realize just how much mileage I got out of the material I used.

From Star Wars d6 Campaign  "The Trapper Safari"  Episodes 27-41.

Timeframe: Roughly 5 or 4 BBY. 

Our "Heroes":  The crew of the Pretio, a Ghtroc 720 freighter.  

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.

Evus - Twi'lek free mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a keen eye and a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio.  Brother of potential terrorist and rebel  Latorna Savvn.
Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.

The initial premise:  The crew is hired by Kafla Thingvellir, a stupid-rich technocrat, for a near impossible task:  take him to a particular world and obtain a specific species of "Translucent Chromium Trapper" (spider) so he can present it to the Imperial Zoological Symposium and Exhibition on Alderaan and possibly get it named for him... all of this in a mere two months.  

For the amount he was willing to pay, Ne'vets was willing try... really hard.

With limited data, they arrived on the unsettled word, and began searching haphazardly, landing the Pretio, and doing more intimate travel with their speeder transport, the Piscopo. They were accumulating extra animal samples, over time, but no sign of the Trapper.   They had some unfortunate encounters with some of the native sentient lifeforms, and as players are want to do, saw the big island in the big sea and decided to investigate that. 

(This front end was Traveller adventure Simba Safari by Judges Guild.  It's very sandboxy, and I think everyone enjoyed that portion).  

The island had a system of caves, an odd assortment of cultists and pirates, and a strange complex to investigate.  They got involved in the politics of the complex, and , eventually, got double crossed.  In the process they escaped and managed to free a new alien:

Duk'k: The Bounty Hunter

Together, they escaped the complex, complete with a new, one-man fighter that was unknown to everyone.   

After spending about half their time exploring the planet, collecting some of the local flora and fauna, other times shooting at it if was too intelligent. 

Finally, they found a canyon, cornered this elusive Trapper, and in a series of heroic and foolhardy acts, successfully captured the 400kg spider.

Again, a great sandbox experience, a little space dungeoneering side-quest, which allowed me to bring in a new character/player (Duk'k/Hoyce)

The second part of the adventure is where things go sideways.  The ship arrives on Alderaan, and Kafla disassociates himself from the crew the moment his precious cargo was offloaded the ship.  Ne'vets admits that their setting up a table at the Imperial Zoological Symposium and Exhibition to display "Unknown Lizards of Uninhabited Worlds" to put to use all the other samples they collected and Kafla didn't want.  Hopefully they would make academic, and hopefully some professional leads in need of their services. 

Our tough guy trackers, pilots, and mercs were forced to sit behind a display in a convention center and talk about their finds... and possibly the big reveal for "Thingvellir's Translucent Chromatic Trapper," held at the local sports arena.  Even worse, Ne'vets admitted late that their they also had a formal presentation in front of academics due.  

There was awkward role-playing, legal troubles, and even Tarrie (the pilot's) complete disappearance seemed tiny compared to the presentation.  Evus and Frokazza panicked, sending the A/V equipment into a nosedive and threatening any chance of a competent presentation.  Right when they were at their lowest, Tarrie returned, dressed like a Zygerian, and made.... an impromptu musical number about the Lizards of Planet 576-908.

Zygerian, or "Space Cat"

It would come to be known that Tarrie went on another one of his epic benders, and ended up spending time with the Alderaan Little Theatre, realizing his dreams of drama on the stage.   After celebrating (responsibly) they headed over to the arena for the Trapper presentation.  

For those of you hearing large beast, large crowd, and presentation and immediately went to King Kong, you would not be disappointed.  Kafla's hires for his presentation were incompetent, the Trapper escaped.  Half the crowd panicked, the other have were mesmerized by its powers.... the trapper mesmerized food before encasing it with the beast's webbing.  

There was crowd control, Tarrie running around, a la Shirtless Kirk to save the day, and defeat the monster.  All the while the Wookie maned the sound boards and dropped some dope tracks to highlight the battle.  

The Trapper re-captured.  Kafla was forced to be friendly to the crew again, covering the legal expenses they had that weren't covered by Ne'vets immaculate and comprehensive paperwork when they arrived on planet.  

Thingvellir's Transluscent Chromatic Trapper:  The Musical!