Help with finding extra Milestones (Alt-Kotor Universe)

Game Masters
#1

TL;DR I have eleven locations drawn out in my campaign. Due to the nature of the campaign (detailed above) I’m trying to get it to thirteen while still feeling natural and not railroady. I’ve got starting world, end world and the nine “Objective” worlds figured out. But I need help thinking of ways to add the other two. Any advice?

So I’m in the planning stages of a new campaign.

It’s an Alternative-Universe Kotor, where due to altered history basically a 2nd Mandalorian War breaks out, and the Sith Lords active at the time are Exar-Kun and Ulic Qel Droma (and they’re fighting the Mandalorians as well as the Republic).

I’m trying to keep the campaign feel Kotor-like, while allowing for the free-reign that tabletop rpg’s are meant to offer.

I decided as a way to keep a general “main story” going on while opening things up to the players, I’d do a Star Map/Jedi Master sort of collection deal, but in this case it’s force artifacts (as Exar-Kun was big on those).

I’ve already decided to create 9 different artifacts (meaning nine planets to host them). The reason for 9 is it allows them to be evenly distributed on a “Force Axis”. One Axis being “Light, Neutral, Dark” and the other being “Alter, Sense, Control” (akin to how the Force is traditionally divided in the older RPGs).

I likewise have four main factions fighting over the Galaxy. The Republic, The Sith, The Mandalorians, and The Hutts/Criminal Syndicates. I want the campaign to have an even distribution across all the factions, for players to get a relatively equal look at all sides of the conflict. As a result, I want the planets I have prepared to be equally divided amongst them.

That leads me to 12 Planets total to figure out (13 if you count the Starting Planet. I want the Starting Planet to be a neutral world. So the players start with no initial bias). And I think of general milestones to expect, I’m stuck at 11. One being the Starting Planet, Nine being the Planets with the Artifacts, and One more being the “Finale” planet, the place Exar-Kun needs to be once he has all the artifacts (or the players need to go to control or destroy the device should things play out differently).

In essence, I need help figuring out two more milestones I can naturally fit in so that the campaign spreads out across the total of 13 planets.

#2

Could your other two locations be the locations of your major milestones in-game? If there is a BBEG in this game, it could be good to have locations which are exclusively for confrontations that mark important moments of plot development, which either require or unlock travel to some of the other worlds in your existing plan?

Sorry if I’ve misunderstood and this isn’t helpful. Please do share more details if I’m on the wrong track. I always like when campaigns are deliberately designed with non-linear plot locations and love the effort you’re clearly putting into this.

#3

That’s really the question, I already have effectively 11 Milestones. Campaign Start, Campaign Finale and the locations of the Relics.

I actively chose against the Kotor Model of having a fixed 2nd planet after the Starting one (Dantooine and Telos) respectively, because I felt that would be too railroady. One set starting planet, for the purposes of getting the wheels turning was good enough.

You strike a good point though also, for instance in Mass Effect (another Bioware game), there’s a place called Virmire that’s unrelated to the other “gather all the objectives” but something you HAVE to do to stop the BBEG from doing something. So I could look at something like that. :thinking:

#4

Perhaps I’m just missing something, but I feel like your question is missing some key details.

You need X many planets, why can’t you just have that many planets? What is preventing you from adding those milestones?

Am I right in understanding that you are essentially presenting your players with a map of “relevant” planets, or that the map will be revealed overtime as they get clues pointing them to certain places, and then it’s essentially a sandbox?

I’ve never played KotOR, so I may be lacking a basic level of understanding that would make this clear to me.

#5

What are the criteria for your choices? Do you need just planets, or specific goals on those planets? What have you chosen already?