Advice on a Psi-Wars Campaign: The Privateers

[DAT]

Someone in one of my gaming groups lobbied for a Psi-Wars short arc campaign. He sent out the Primer for others in the group to scan, and received a quorum of “Yeah, I’d play” responses.

I’ve been causally following Mailanka’s post for years now, and was in the mood for a science-fantasy spacer opera, so I said sure, I’ll GM.

We bounced around a couple ideas of what kind of campaign theme, and the final answer came up “Privateers”, with “Smugglers” being a close second.

So with a Privateer campaign in mind, I need to develop/select: ships, space stations, and planets to raid; treasures and MacGuffins to be stolen; Space Princesses and slaves to be rescued; new alien races and planets to be found; a relic or two to be liberated; a few mysteries to be solved; big bad guy(s) to be thwarted; and one or more galaxy wide conspiracies to be exposed … all in a days work for some cinematic space privateers.

The rest of the group started thinking up character concepts and I started refreshing my memory of the Psi-Wars setting, by reading the Wiki and Blog posts …

******************** IF YOU ARE IN MY GAMING GROUP *********************
********** PLANNING TO PLAY IN THE PSI-WARS PRIVATEERS CAMPAIGN **********
**************************-STOP READIN NOW!!!!! ************************
-Dan




And I’ve been reading, … and reading, … and reading, and … Holy BLEEP!

Mailanka dude, … uber impressed.

And a lot overwhelmed.

I need some help/advice from folks more familiar with the setting.

[DAT]

The center point of this story arc will be the Captain of the ship and her story.

Captain’s Backstory Summary Outline:
A former aristocrat and naval officer on the independent planet <<Name #1>>, in between Alliance and Empire space. The planet was recently (within a few months/years?) taken over by an unknow force (<<Empire/warlord/dark space knight/Slavers/Cultist of the Mystic Tyrant/others>>?) who wanted something on the planet (<<control of an ancient ruin/relic secured in a vault/newly found resources/other MaCGuffin>>?). The Captain and crew, just barely escaped the takeover in their former naval ship, called The Iron Raven (a Tigershark-Class Corvette). They have been taking on mercenary/privateer work to earn funds and allies to discover who exactly took over their home planet and why. Along the way they have gathered a few new crew members (the PCs).

Is there a good planet to use in the already written background, or should I just make one up?

Any specific place the planet should be in (e.g., a specific Rim area)?

Any good ideas for the bad guys?

Any good ideas for what MacGuffin the bad guys want from the planet?

Plan for the opening scene is The Iron Raven drops out Hyper and surprises a yacht and its escort(s).

Does a Tigershark Class ship seem like a good commerce raider, that can hold its own with the occasional escort ship?