> The Ulic Qel-Droma reference I found particularly interesting, in that > they talk of Jedi losing their powers through weird circumstances. I've > experimented with this line of thought before when I was trying to make > Star Wars into a Horror game (see the Qural Halloween Special for a mild > example of both of these... BTW, Jae, is that going to get dropped into > the Resource Pool?), but I was wondering about other thoughts that people > had on the subject of Jedi losing their powers.Actualy, I've done a story like that, one of those long sweeping 7 week story arcs that put my players thru total hell. (if you're interested in the full details, I'll dig up my full notes on the game.
But in a nutshell, here's the main points.
About 9,000 years or so ago, there was this Dark Jedi called Zodin the Destroyer. She managed to get an entire quadrant in her opressive grasp before the (at the time) new Old Republic managed to finally capture her. Being the idealitic folks that they are, the Jedi of the time set out to reform her. After several years of work, the process worked and Zodin was returned to the light.
Zodin was determined not to allow another horror like hers loose on the galaxy again, and developed a way to take out Dark Jedi without all the muss, fuss and bloodshed. She eventualy developed the Heart of Zodin, a crystal that could remove the ability to tap the force from a target, leaving them managable. The Heart worked, and several Dark Jedi were sucessfully stopped. It appeared that Zodin had the Republic's best interests in mind.
This, of course was a lie.
In reality the Heart of Zodin dumped the stolen power into a main hidden storage unit. There she stored the energy until an opportunity presented itself.
Not everyone, however took Zodin's lies at face value. A group of Jedi kept their eyes on her, until finaly she slipped up. They had her. The battle that raged between the Terrible Zodin and the forces of the Republic were more horrable than before. Using all the dark power at her command, Zodin consumed the life force of an entire race to defeat the republic. It was not enough. Realising that defeat was at hand, Zodin used the last of her energy to hide her spirit in the main heart of Zodin, hidden away on the now dead planet.
(just so you know- I came up with the concept about 2 years before Anderson stashed his Jedi on Yavin)
The Republic was victorious, so it seemed, and the name of Zodin was fogotten in the mists of time. Little did they know that Zodin was working on her return. using the only tools avaible to her, a primitive race several planets on a world called Residia, located in the same system. She began to shape the race's evolution, making them stronger, faster and more hearty than if nature itself had a hand in their design. Only a vessle of perfection would do for the spirit of Zodin.
The cult of Zodin, a secret sect, kept the flame alive over the next several thousand years, despite the Republic's best efforts to crush them. This resulted in lots of holes surrounding the story- eventually serving her purposes better than she could hope. Eventually someone would come looking for and find her.
Anyway, fast foward over the next 9,026 years (and to the next post- this ones way too long...)
Anyway- here we are 9K+ years later. First a bit of information on the important folks in the game:
Ren Jones: My pc (when I'm not running the show), is a Jedi wanna-be who had loads of natural talent, and started out with alter (a natural ability), worked her way up to sense, and was in the process of getting Control before this mess hit the fan. She comes from Residia, an important plot point.
Leader Desslok: The PC's Dark Jedi nemisis. They (Desslok and the team) had an intersting relationship. Unlike most Evil Jedi, Desslok was polite and civil to the rest of the universe. He respected the team, and considered them to be honorable adverseries. They met several times without fighting (of course they did their share of that, too).
Dayana: Desslok daughter, A PC on a mission to turn him back. Currently with Leader D trying to turn him back at the time of the Zodin Incident.
Anyway, an archologist (an NPC I'd set up some time ago) had drafted the PCs into uncovering the last few steps to finding the Heart of Zodin. (the small one, not the big one- that one's a secret). They wander all over the universe for several real-time weeks, in a race with Desslok all the while. Desslok discoveres the location and gets to the Heart just before the players do. Not knowing what it is (aside from a powerful Force artifact), he messes with it in the Force, and gets all his ability shut off. Dayana does more or less the same thing.
The PC's find the temple, with the team Jedis feeling a distrubance, try some Sense with the Heart. They wind up getting sucked one by one, like a gang of Lemmings. (this was so easy)
Both parties wake up at more or less the same time- and both realise that a problem has occured at about the same time. A stand off happens, some people wanting to whack Desslok now, Dayana and Ren trying to stop that from happening, and both of the team's combat monsters (who didnt like the team's Jedi) thinking they could take EVERYONE in the room and get away with it.
Well, realising that they could start shooting or actualy do something about getting their powers back, everyone opted for getting the powers.
I jump them thru more hoops, and they eventualy wind back up in the Residia system, on that dead, extinct planet- at the main Heart of Zodin. Someone gets bright idea of just yanking it off the wall and seeing what'll happen (I dont have the most fore-thoughtful players in existance).
Anyway, Zodin got out (ala' the containment grid going in Ghostbusters), and next thing they know this nearly 10,000 year old Jedi has poessed Ren. Hey, she was Residian, was loaded with force potential, and didnt have Control to keep something like that from happening- if you didnt see it coming, you wernt paying attention!
Anyway, while Ren is ravaging Residia, they (with Desslok's help- he hates being used like that), get the plans for one of those force cages out of DE from Desslok's notes (hey, being an ex-imperial has it's uses) However, now it's plugged into a nearby reaator and on a MUCH bigger scale. So while the force users went toe to toe with the Destroyer while the non-jedi worked on the device. To make a long story short (too late), they bagged Ren, got Zodin out of her- killing 2 PCs in the process (both dramaticly, of course), and saved the galaxy again.
Whew. That took about a month of real time with 12 hour games to get thru. I ripped off plots from MacGyver, Dr Who, Indy- and one of my players said I did Lord of the Rings, tho thats impossable, since I've never read them (fantasy- bleh!).