I had a idea for an Old Republic campaign that I am not sure I will ever get the chance to run, so happy to share the idea here in case you want to run with it!

The general idea was that it would take place in the prelude to the Mandalorian Wars. The idea was that the party would be a mix of jedi and some sort of low level diplomats or Coruscant Senator aides. The set up sounds a little humurous but it was that a group of naive wide eyed young bureaucrats decide to go on an unsanctioned diplomatic mission to negotiate with the Mandalorian Empire to get them to stop their expansion into neutral worlds. (This story is somewhat reminiscent of a somewhat humorous Greek story about a Athenian farmer who took it upon himself to go try and make peace with Sparta.) Obviously this plan will likely not go well. The idea further went that while out on this mission at some point war will break out and the Mandalorians will invade the Republic. I personally thought it would be fun if this happened while they were returning to the Republic and upon arriving at the Republic world of Onderon, finding it under siege or already conquered.

For context if you are not to familiar with this era, the Mandalorians began by expanding into neutral worlds before actually attacking the Republic, and I sort of decided for my own world-building purposes that most in the Republic dismissed any notion that the Mandalorians would be foolish enough to later attack the Republic directly, so most of the characters would not be anticipating a full out war being a possibility.

In addition to the player diplomats I had planned an NPC Jedi Master who is concerned of these events, and suspects sith or dark jedi lurking in the shadows, possibly behind the war, and either sends his/her former padawan or gets the Jedi council to sanction the diplomatic mission in secret and provide jedi escorts so they can try to discover what is going on. I think its an interesting context to have the players have different motivations and perhaps even have them sort of kept secret from each other. The diplomats think the jedi are just a security detail, with the jedi in fact being on this secret reconnaissance mission. The diplomat players also have a lot of options for motivations. Perhaps some legitimately believe in the mission of peace, perhaps the homeworld of another is threatened by the Mandalorians and they are looking to find evidence of the Mandalorian war crimes to bring to the Senate and force Republic military intervention. While a little quirky perhaps, I thought it could be a very entertaining premise that someone could have a lot of fun with. Might be a little dumb, I don't know, but figured I would toss it out there. Also if like me you are a fan of the Old Republic there are a lot of opportunities for run in's with favorite characters from the Old Republic, maybe you interact with young Malak or Canderous Ordo if you are a fan of the KOTOR games. Lots of options and enough stuff from this period for inspiration while enough gaps for flexibility.