So, here's a thing I thought might be interesting. Below are the notes that I made for the Jedi Night event on 1/18, mostly written up between projects at work. Generally ideas, concepts, names, planned structure that I created as a guide for the event, fully understanding that things would go off the rails.
And that last part's important. There's a military saying about how the first casualty of contact with the enemy is the battle plan, and that's often how it works with RP. You make a plan and watch how it utterly, completely falls apart... but it also means you have a plan, a structure involved that you can push things back to. Notes below on how things played out and how I compensate :).
Side-note: The below isn't "canon" (for lack of a better word). Stuff happened and changed things because I had ideas or had to react to situations. I just thought people might find it interesting. But yeah, since I'm having trouble sleeping tonight anyway, enjoy!
Corso/Carth Hemdall: Professional, welcoming to the Jedi, frowny and curt towards the attackers. Seems a bit tired. From Ord Mantell, ex-military, ran the Orell Medical Clinic in Kyri's stead during her exile from Coruscant.
Mostly as-is. Carth's been a very minor char for Kyri's stuff over the years, and due the the SHEER NUMBER OF PEOPLE he didn't have to do much overall :).
Clinic is in the Vadirean Sector, pretty typical for lower levels of Coruscant, step or two above Black Vulkar dominated sectors, local gang is the Dura-Steals. Kyri and Carth roll their eyes at the name.
Names are suuuuuuper important. Vadirean is just my usual "oh fuck I have to try to think up a name" attempt, a bit overcomplicated but it works.
But Dura-Steals... I just love this. It's so goddamn stupid a gang name that it kinda loops back around to awesome. It's not super-threatening, it's memorable, it's kinda fun and silly, for what I was going for (bad guys that aren't, you know, evil), it's a perfect fit.
Patients: Mostly quiet and thankful for the help, but a lot of... mysterious wounds, bruises, cuts and burns that seem consistent with combat, particularly on the young men/women.
A bit cliche of me, I'll admit. It didn't come up much, just trying to emphasize that the situation's rougher than might be expected from a standard hospital.
Other doctors: Nervous, young medical students. Somewhat overawed to see so many Jedi around.
Intent was that, if the students were pressed, they'd admit that they got threatened by local gang members. But the chaos of trying to manage 11 people doing things meant that I just had to kinda roll with events.
Gault/Gerak: Comes in friendly-like with ~10 people, demands one of the barrels of kolto after a bit of meandering. Makes it clear that he and his men will open fire on the crowded clinic if refused. Gerak and the others can be sent to be in a mix.
1: ...no idea what that last sentence meant.
2: He did not come in friendly like. This was partly because the chars were scanning the crowd (since so many of them, some were doing crowd control), and I had him be detected and getting nervous.
3: But yeah, the "holding innocent bystanders hostage" is a pretty good way to neutralize Jedi. All you have to do is hold the bluff longer than the Jedi are willing to push it. Thankfully, the Jedi didn't start fighting :).
4: In my habit of just throwing in random races wherever because people are people are people, Gerak was originally going to be Devaronian (with Gault as a stand-in)... but I had used Gault elsewhere in the instance and forgotten about him, so I had to improvise with Gerak. I might just retcon this and say he was always Devaronian (more on that relevance later), but yeah. Weirdness happens when you have to scramble :).
If handed over: Carth will reveal that the kolto barrel has a tracker in it, this isn't the first time someone's stolen kolto from their shipments, just the first time it's been this brazen. Tracker leads to a store not very far away.
So, this totally didn't happen!
Part of running an event with too goddamn many people is that you have to find places for everyone to shine... usually by seizing whatever opportunities were granted.
So, when Sibyl-ko separated from the group to follow the dastardly thieves, instead of having Carth reveal "hey, we can track them", I just let her go with it. Another person joined her (sorry for forgetting names!), and while it wasn't in my original plan, it made sense, rewarded a player's ingenuity, followed logically from the events of the scene and let two characters do some awesome things!
If attacked: Gerak and some of the others will open fire at the Jedi, but very inaccurate weapons means that, unless multiple people are going full defense one of the med students and a few patients are struck. Lethality depending on player actions. Rest run off. One of the slain people have weapons that one of the locals would say could only come from a "general equipment store" operating not very far away.
Also didn't happen! But for a good reason this time.
Point generally was... yeah, the PC's might not like thieves coming in and stealing shit. If violence is possible, plan for violence, if only because it makes things better when they figure out a way to avoid the bad shit.
If refused but not attacked or handed over: One of them will move towards the barrels and take it if not physically impeded, at which point tussel, then firing.
Middle grounds! And also what ended up happening. Just figured there was a chance this would turn into a stalemate, and wanted to have the antagonists force the issue.
Carth would tell them to investigate. He'll call CSF and knock a few heads together and get some proper security.
Wasn't needed, exactly, since SO MANY PEOPLE, but just being ready with an explanation of "why the players should move on instead of sticking around" is a good thing :).
==Kaly's General Equipment Store==
Kaliyo/Kaly and Bowdarr/Fluffy: They seem calm, actually nervous. Pretends not to know where the weapon comes from or where the Kolto is, she and Fluffy occasionally do technical stuff or repair equipment. Shocked to see Jedi, they stonewall wherever they can.
If sufficiently threatened/persuaded, they'll reveal the hidden doorway to the underground(er) clinic. Can also be found by inspecting.
I forgot to add this to here, but the 2V droid was originally detritus from the Sacking that they had repaired and reprogrammed.
But generally, yeah, obvious place where crime-type-stuff would happen. And again, random races thrown in because screw it why not. Fluffy and Kaly have nothing about them that requires them to be Wookiee or Rattataki, aside form Fluffy trying to be the muscle to Taelios and...... nope.
But this section got pared down a lot, mostly because the party had real good knowledge that they were connected, no point in delaying.
==Underground(er) Clinic==
Risha/Rin: Treating two small children, boy and a girl, ~8-10ish, while two men are standing nervously nearby. Children are afflicted with a disease, dark spots on their faces, coughing fits. A trained doctor would be able to identify it as Helaxian Blight in the late stages. Easily treatable in the earlier stages, definitely lethal now.
And the point of it. I don't like writing "Evil" characters, mostly because... I find them dull. Evil for Evil's sake is easy, doing bad things for good reasons is... a lot more human. And stealing medicine from a fairly well stocked clinic (was always the intention that they only steal
some of the Kolto) to save the lives of two children that, for whatever reason, they don't trust to the outsider clinic?
Similarly, the “they’re Force Sensitive” twist regarding the kids was added in to better justify why they weren’t just brought to the clinic. For whatever reason, the gang members would’ve heard about Kyri’s connection to the Jedi, and that whole “Jedi Recruitment” thing... even if it weren’t 100% true, it’s believable enough to make people afraid.
It can be an ugly reminder about how things can be.
Important bit? It wasn't my intention that Gerak was related to the kids, not when writing it up. It was only during the interrogation by the Jedi that it became clear that... there needed to be something more personal. It didn't need to be blood relation (I debated a bit in the moment about making them adopted children instead of younger siblings), but there needed to be something to explain how far they were willing to go.
(oh, and Helaxian Blight was 100% "I need to think up a suitably lethal-sounding name. Blight usually works...)
If Kolto was stolen, it's being used to treat the kids, and is right there. Being applied a bit wastefully (using more than needed), but still effectively. Rin refuses to deal with the Jedi until the children are treated. Won't stop the Jedi from taking the Kolto, but will spit on them for doing so.
If Kolto was not stolen, she'd be trying to ease their comfort and won't turn their back on them. Asks for help.
Rin makes it clear that she doesn't trust Jedi, they ran off for years and didn't give a shit about anyone. She doesn't trust the free clinics either, no one does, no one from high up gives a shit about anyone down low. Can be calmed and reassured the Jedi are not the bad guys, but the Dura-Steals do more for the people around there than Coruscant or the Republic does.
First part, well, mostly what happened. Duh.
Second part... it came through a lot, and it's something that we too often forget about. Why should people trust the authorities if the authorities do little-to-nothing for them? It's easy to be optimistic about it, but cynicism can win out so easily, but how many times has Coruscant been attacked? How often has the Republic run off? And the Coruscant planet quests are like 95% "the authorities don't give a shit about any part of Coruscant where the sun doesn't shine". Gangs as a form of informal authority and protection, in lieu of an official authority actually doing their job... it's kinda inevitable, people need to feel safe in their homes.
Jedi know how things should be. But that's not how things often are, and that gap is some of the most interesting story material for the Jedi that I can think of. Here's hoping we have more fun with it in the future :).
