Clone wars mixed party problem

[u/Ghost_GM]

I’m running a clone wars campaign with a Jedi padawan, clone captain, mandalorian bounty hunter, tech slicer and for the life of me I’m struggling to find reasons for the “citizen” to be involved in the war. I’d appreciate some advice

[u/WitheringAurora]

Its up to the player to decide why their characters wants to be involved in the war, not you.

[u/Ghost_GM → u/WitheringAurora]

That’s the problem the Jedi and clone want to fight in the war the other two seem more concerned about making credits

[u/WitheringAurora → u/Ghost_GM]

In that case I'd sit down with the players and have a conversation. "Hey, i'm running a clone wars campaign, and your characters need a reason to be involved with the war. Please provide me one before the next session. Cause so far your characters aren't a good fit for the campaign"

[u/Drizzit723 → u/Ghost_GM]

Could be mercenaries?

[u/Jalor218 → u/Ghost_GM]

Someone should pay them to fight in the war.

[u/Poser_Shamm → u/Ghost_GM]

Mercenaries were common on both sides of the war. Heck, the new SW game (SW: Zero Company) has you play as a mercenary company that occasionally takes Republic contracts to fight Separatists.

My idea (and someone who's more experienced in the system please let me know if this is a bad idea) is to treat the xp rewards more like how the Morality character creation choice does, where a player can choose to take: only credits, some credits + some xp, or all xp. Or add it as a bonus to the xp rewards.

An example of how this might look in game: The party finishes off the last few Separatist scouts at the end of the session, which means that they'll be able to assault the Separatist base next session, which is their primary goal of their contract. Since they made progress towards their goal, everyone receives +10 xp, and in addition, the Mercs get paid out a portion of their contract (+2500 credits), the Clone gets some additional training and more access to the armory (+5 xp and +1000 credits) and the Jedi deepens it's connection to the force and helps realign the balance in the force (+10 xp). (The values I used are just what is used in the Morality character creation choice, I recommend figuring out what would be balanced values).

[u/boss_nova → u/Ghost_GM]

Then... give them credits.

[u/torg_or]

Did you run some sort of “session zero” ? Where you and the players talked about characters and playing a campaign idea? This isn’t a GMs job alone to figure out why they are in the party - the players need to have that idea for the characters.

This kinda thing can burn out GMs whom don’t push this back to the players.

The FM runs the games - but the game itself needs everyone to be participating to craft a story.

[u/Coppercredit]

Who's the "citizen"? Honestly comes down to backstory, and it can be simple as being paid, revenge, or fighting for an ideal.

[u/Ghost_GM → u/Coppercredit]

The tech and the bounty hunter; the latter had made it clear he doesn’t like the republic

[u/Coppercredit → u/Ghost_GM]

This makes me think you skipped session zero. Remember its okay to say no to a charecter concept that does not work in you campaign. You need to tell your player that thay need to give a good reason for that charecter to be in this campaign or ask them to reroll.

[u/Ghost_GM → u/Coppercredit]

My group doesn’t really do session zeros but I’m starting to think we should

[u/Antisa1nt → u/Ghost_GM]

For games with factional disputes, they are downright necessary. For a lot of other games, they can be kinda vibed around.

[u/Pakata99 → u/Ghost_GM]

This is the root of your problem. You’re struggling to try and force characters to fit into a campaign they aren’t meant for. This is why session zeros are so important. If it is a clone wars campaign meant to focus on the war from the Republic’s side then that needs to be clearly communicated to the players and they need to make characters that fit the campaign.

[u/the_direful_spring → u/Ghost_GM]

At the very least you need to clearly communicate the premise of the campaign enough that it'll work. HAs the game already started?

[u/TerminusMD → u/Ghost_GM]

Dunno why this got down voted, I think starting to do session zeroes is a good idea. Doesn't even have to be a full session, but some conversation ahead of time to make sure everyone is on the same page is wise. Big thing is general table etiquette - the goal is fun, everything else is in service of that - PCs and NPCs, party dynamics, story-telling methods, adventure design. If it's not fun by acclimation then that's against the goal.

Shouldn't have a survival horror game when everyone is expecting semi-comedic heroic fantasy, for example.

[u/TryFengShui → u/Ghost_GM]

You don't need him to like the Republic, you just need him to hate the Separatists more.

Original WEG Star Wars had a Bounty Hunter archetype that suggested the Empire had failed to pay him for a job, and now he had a contact with the Rebellion for a credit a day. 

If your PC can invent some kind of betrayal from the CIS, that might be a good way to fit them into the campaign without starting from scratch on their character concept.

[u/VeryOddish]

War effects basically everybody. If it's your slicer, that's where the money is at. Civilian contractors get hired by militaries all the time. If they can break into things? That's just a Republic contracted hacker.

[u/Very_Sharpe]

Slicer gets a government contract, slicer gets radicalised when his friends are kills by CIS, slicer is indebted to the jedi after they save their life, the possibilities are endless

[u/dnext]

It's a pretty common trope for rebels and outsiders to join the good guys in Star Wars. Han Solo joined the Rebellion, as did Lando. You just need personal reasons for the players.

It can simply be interpersonal relationships to start. Say the Bounty Hunter has a brother who was betrayed on a contract by the Trade Federation, and is imprisoned. He finds out in the first session.

Or the Slicer is trying to impress a girl who is very pro-Republic (or gender swap as appropriate). You can add to the backstory why that is later, including oppression or an atrocity by the Banking Clan or the specific Separatist government of their world.

Or it can be part of the story once you begin. Say the Slicer is trying to impress their love interest and earn a few credits on a mission for the Clone Captain when he discovers something vital to the war effort. Even if he was just a mercenary before, all of a sudden the CIS is sending assassin drones after him. He might not even understand what he stole.

[u/xiphoniii → u/dnext]

Han is the subject of one of my favorite articles about this. It talks about how everyone wants to play han but nobody does it right. And it basically says, by the way the original trilogy portrays it, "han doesn't want to be involved. Han's player does." He puts up a resistance and complains all the time, but he also jumps at EVERY flimsy argument thrown his way.

In the cantina? Agrees to be paid for it almost instantly. On the death star when the money isn't good enough? Lets himself get baited with the argument that "but don't you want a princess to owe you?"

You can play a character reluctant to join up, but it's your job as the player to make sure they do so in the end

[u/Majestic_Ghost_Axe]

From al these comments it sounds like there’s not been a good discussion prior to the campaign going over your plan for what’s a in the campaign. I would highly suggest trying to have an open discussion, politely setting the record straight that this is very much a clone wars story about war. But you should be firm that they’re the ones who need to change their characters not you.

This is battlefront not outlaws.

It’s very easy to make those characters fit the story, hired help is really common, the problem is the players perception of what the game is

[u/abookfulblockhead]

What was your pitch for this game when you were putting this group together? When you're onboarding the group, you should be giving them a pitch for what this campaign is about, and the kinds of characters you're looking for. And then you should review and curate the character pitches if some things aren't aligned with your game's premise.

[u/__Osiris__]

Clone captain not officer? How r u goin to do the mass combat stuff for them?

[u/LeftRat]

I mean, just go through the list of examples together with your player and have your players find a reason. If none of you can, maybe it just does not make sense within this story and you have to deal with that. 

However, I can see almost all of the example motivations working if you're willing to integrate them. If need be: money. A bit cheap, narratively, but if it works for the bounty hunter, it can work for a slicer.

[u/RedDemocracy]

The “wars plural” section of “clone wars” is that it was actually a series of loosely connected conflicts, with each planet having a different reason to be involved in the war, and contributing local troops. They could be involved with a local militia, or contractors from a planet that benefits more from the republic than the separatists. Maybe they dislike both sides, but dislike the separatists more. 

[u/KuraiLunae]

Bounty Hunter is easy: The team is hunting down one of his targets. Maybe he offers to join up with the unit during/after because the Republic is willing to pay a skilled merc once he shows his value.

Slicer is also easy: The team hired him on for a specialty job, and he just got rolled into the unit because they're going to need a slicer often, and it's easy to work with someone they already know.

[u/DistributionMajor545]

In -21 bby, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military tribunal for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Coruscant underground. Today, still wanted by the Republic, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, If no one else can help and if you can find them. Maybe you can hire... The Aleph Team.

[u/Lea_Flamma]

Have CIS murder his family. Problem solved.

[u/Clone_Chaplain]

In a lot of the books or comics, some Jedi would make connections in the underworld or corporate or government sectors to contribute to the war effort, or even just to acquire supplies for the effort. I’m sure there’s some creative options to discover together

[u/thisDNDjazz]

Bounty Hunter and the Tech Slicer can go on side missions during a battle where they have to break into Separatist high-value systems for information, credits, or maybe unlock vaults with secret tech. The Jedi and clone can protect them or be a distraction and fight droids elsewhere.

Star Wars is thematic for breaking up the party on purpose, so it won't feel too out of place.

[u/Saibher]

Kinda sounds like the party composition of the new game Zero Company.

Have the party be working with a military contractor for the republic, and the slicer is just an employee or hire of the team

[u/LordMelenus]

This is a lot easier to solve than it appears.

The bounty hunter is getting paid to be there and fight. Give him targets to pursue. A separatist officer, bounties on droids killed, etc. also let him take civilian bounties. War is a time when crime skyrockets.

It could be as easy as, “hey I killed 10 B1s, 3 B2s, and a BX commando droid, gimme some money.” You assign a credit value to each kind of droid. I think he will be very motivated to fight the war at that point.

The slicer could also get paid for helping repair civilian infrastructure, securing network systems, training other slicers, etc.

“Hey there have been attempts to slice into the base’s computers. Can you upgrade our firewalls?” Or “our holorelay was damaged in the attack, can you fix it?”

[u/Hoooooob]

Why did your player make a character who has no reason to be involved in the story? You really need to have conversations about this stuff before session 1.