Writing Your Own Solar Echoes Mission (part 2)

In a weird sort of way, writing a mission for an RPG like Solar Echoes is similar to writing a movie script. You're the director and you have the plot and the lines. Your main actors are going to improv their own lines the entire time, so you'll need to adjust to them and have your secondary actors respond accordingly. That part is up to you, too, since you are acting out the parts of every single one of the secondary actors! Write a mission like a story that is going to happen whether the players are present or not, but indicate how the non-player characters (NPC's) in the story would react if someone stood in the way of their scripted goals. For added depth, some of the NPC's should have priorities that outweigh their larger objectives—for instance, an NPC working for a smuggling ring might have a personal debt he needs to pay off, so if offered money to betray the smuggling ring, he might be very willing to do so. Another smuggler might have been branded by the Chiraktis Empire as a servant, and his resentment for them might outweigh his fear of them. Such a character could become a useful asset for the Union Guard! Whatever the situation, the NPC's in your mission can shape the story almost as much as the players' characters (PC's), so your imagination is the limit. Just don't expect all to go as planned once the players enter the story—it really is impossible to consistently predict what they might do!