[SW Saga] advice needed on upcoming adventure

[Ancalagon]

Hello

I'm looking for some feedback on my next adventure I run for my star wars campain. While I have most of it laid out, there are holes in need to fills. General feedback would also be good.

Background: The heroes come to a space station located within an asteroid in a system with a lot of asteroid mining. Recent pirate problems are plaguing the system and the heroes help out (in their underarmed light freighter) and hire a snub fighter to provide themselves escort. After acquiring a cargo of quanadium armor plating, the hero leave on their freighter with their escort, only to find an imperial ship (carrack light cruiser) outside the station - the imps have showed up to clear out the pirates. Unfortunately for the PCs, their cargo is illegal and their forged cargo manifest is not up to snuff.


So the ship gets inspected by imperial soldiers, and they are asked to go on board the Imperial ship for clarifications. The ship's captain ask them about their cargo, where they got it etc, but then said that they were clearly the victims of criminals, and simply lets them go with their ship and cargo.

I am guessing this will make the heroes suspicious, and with good cause - a probe droid has been attached to the back of the ship. This droid will sense when the ship lands on a planet, detach, explore and then report. At this point the adventure forks.

1: the PC discover the probe droid (perhaps with the help of their escort). Since these droids often have self-destruct mechanisms, the only safe way to get rid of it is to trick it into detaching - some trial and error will probably allow it to discover how. The star fighter pilot knows of an abandoned planet nearby they can use. Unfortunately, due to some ionization storm or some technobable, they have to land for minor repairs (after speeding away from the probe droid).

During this time, they are attacked by ... swarms of wolf size insects? Degenerate savages? We haven't tried the character combat system yet so I'm looking for a fight that I can plug in here...

After fighting off the X, the heroes leave (before more show up!) and reach their destination: a secret ship yard, hidden inside a very large sinkhole on another uninhabited planet. Here they deliver the cargo and get their ship improved (I'm guessing: use some of that armor, get better weapons on the ship). Some of the area of the ship yard are cut off - because they are assembling a dozen starfighters for the rebel alliance (the PCs may discover this or not - the yard doesn't advertise that it's doing a lot of work for the rebels). After picking up some scrap metal, they return to their home port.

2: The PCs don't discover, or fail to disable, the probe droid. They reach the yard, get their ship fixed etc, but just as they are about to leave, they realize they have been followed into the system: the Carrack light cruiser is there (their freighter's hyperdrive is much slower than the Carrack's so after the probe droid spots the yard the imperials can get there relatively fast). The yard must evacuate, including their valuable star fighter complements. However, most of these starfighters aren't battle worthy and there isn't enough pilots to fly them anyway. (There are people who can sit in the cockpit and tell the astromech droid to "take us there please", but they are unable to fly the ship into combat). The Carrack sends its Tie fighters ahead to intercept, and the heroes must stay behind with the few other battle worthy ships to give time for the transport and unarmored fighters the time to escape.


so... is this any good? Any idea for that fight on the abandoned planet?

Ancalagon

[Bagpuss]

So for option 2, have you done any practice space combat's first to get use to the rules? That would be my biggest bit of advice, since it can be very deadly if the TIEs get a critical hit.

[Ancalagon]

So for option 2, have you done any practice space combat's first to get use to the rules? That would be my biggest bit of advice, since it can be very deadly if the TIEs get a critical hit.

There has been a fight in space already. At that time, their freighter squared off against something that basically had the stats of a tie fighter, crappified. They lost half their hitpoints and inflicted ONE point of damage until the pirates were forced to retreat. (the guy with the snubfighter was there and he lost patience and started lobbing proton torpedoes around).

However, this time it will be a bit different - their gun will be bigger, better armor and, more importantly, their gunner will be proficient with their ship's gun...

But yeah, critical hits in space are sick. I roll behind the screen for a reason.

Since we are here, for gunning... you add the intelligence of the ship as a to hit modifier. Do you still add the gunner's dex? The same question applies to piloting.

cheers,

Ancalagon

[Bagpuss]

I don't get why the Imperials would let them go with clearly illegal cargo, if the players know they know.

I can see the Imperials saying "everything appears in order" and letting them go while tracking them because they know it's not really in order. But if the they know the players know they are letting them off then they know the players are likely to discover the probe droid and it would be better to impound and interrogate them.

[Ancalagon]

I don't get why the Imperials would let them go with clearly illegal cargo, if the players know they know.

I can see the Imperials saying "everything appears in order" and letting them go while tracking them because they know it's not really in order. But if the they know the players know they are letting them off then they know the players are likely to discover the probe droid and it would be better to impound and interrogate them.

I really want them to have a chat with the captain, who will be a reoccurring villain of some sort. He's there to deal with pirates, and is a bit surprised by this development. The imperials could pull this (the "oh we didn't see anything" trick) off with advance warning, but they don't have it, so the captain whips up a quick ploy. He's much more concerned about the source of the stuff than the destination - so if the heroes are let lose, the supplier will assume that they fooled the imperials somehow. A few tons of armor plating won't cause the Empire to fall apart.

I'll admit, it's not perfect.

Any ideas for the possible planet fight?

thanks!

Ancalagon

[Bagpuss]

Ah the cargo is armour plating.... I could see the Captain saying something along the lines of...

"Hmm, technically this cargo is illegal without a proper imperial transport warrant, your appears to have recently lapsed. Still I can see why you might want to improve your ships defenses what with the pirate problem in this sector. Since you've aided the Imperial cause by helping out at this mining station, I think I can let this one slide. I'll have your transport warrant validated in case you meet a less understanding Captain. I'm afraid the there is no official bounty you can collect, so this is the least I can do."

As for the ground fight, what about some of the monstrous beasts in that section of the rules? Failing that what D&D miniatures could you use as monsters? What level are the characters? Are you looking to fight one or two large beasts or several smaller ones?

[Ancalagon]

Ah the cargo is armour plating.... I could see the Captain saying something along the lines of...

"Hmm, technically this cargo is illegal without a proper imperial transport warrant, your appears to have recently lapsed. Still I can see why you might want to improve your ships defenses what with the pirate problem in this sector. Since you've aided the Imperial cause by helping out at this mining station, I think I can let this one slide. I'll have your transport warrant validated in case you meet a less understanding Captain. I'm afraid the there is no official bounty you can collect, so this is the least I can do."

As for the ground fight, what about some of the monstrous beasts in that section of the rules? Failing that what D&D miniatures could you use as monsters? What level are the characters? Are you looking to fight one or two large beasts or several smaller ones?

I like it! thanks!

I've made a fight with a bunch of insectoid creatures I designed quickly. They are 2nd level (jedi, scoundrel, noble, soldier), with one NPC (their escort, a trandoshan pilot). They will attack in wave. They are capable hand to hand fighter, but they tend to hop around flying clumsily (they can't concieve of ranged attacks) so the PCs, if they notice this, can shoot down a good number of them before they get close.

[Bagpuss]

You do realise I'm going to have to ask for some help with my adventure now...

[doc]

Well since you already got Option 1 taken care of you won't need my sex starved Ewoks beserkers :(.

As for #2- Does it have to be the same Carrack that launches the TIEs ? You're going to make the Captain A a recurring villian, but have him ask the PCs to do something for him first Sorry about the mix-up with Captain B, but I'll repair some of the damage if you'll do this for me... It'll set up anouther asventure as well as seting the PCs for a possible fall (that they avoid due to ???) puttin egg on Cap As face, and after that they'll KNOW not to trust Cap. A, and he has a reason to go after them thats personal.

[Ancalagon]

You do realise I'm going to have to ask for some help with my adventure now...

go ahead, I will be glad to assist!

FYI, the thing went well. The players went through a *very* impressive effort to talk their way out of it, so it was very natural for the captain to let them go. They were suspicious though and search the ship top to bottom... but not the *outside* of the ship.

As a result, the base was found out. Luckily for the heroes, they wisely chose to spend almost all their money, acquiring some computer upgrades (+2 int), a second blaster (so their ship now has a 4d8X2 gun instead of the paltry 2d8X2) and armor (DR increased to 15 from ten). They couldn't afford a better shield, but their SR 10 is still much better than nothing... and that's what the TIE fighters have.

As the rebels made their way out, they screened their escape. On their side was the Redwood 1 (a snubfighter, with the fighting power of a sub-par Y-wing), the frying pan (yt-1210 with strong shields and ion guns not calibrated to fight starfighters) and the hero's ship (the ithorian's luck). On the other side, the Carrack's (I called it the Sentinel)'s complement of 4 TIE fighters.

I thought this would be a fight that would work in the heroe's favor, but man... not this heavily! On the first round of engatement, the Redwood fired a proton torpedo... that missed, but tracked and blew up the tie on the second round. 3 rounds later, the remaining 3 Ties were destroyed (with no more proton torpedoes used).

In near to equal numbers Tie fighters are hopelessly outmatched by ships that aren't that potent themselves. And proton torpedoes are freaking scary.

Doc: I wish I had read your message more carefully before the game, this would have been an interesting angle indeed!

[Bagpuss]

How are you finding healing in SAGA edition? The one thing that struck me was that weapons deal a lot of damage, but there didn't seem to be a great deal of healing available within the game (other than natural healing).

[doc]

Anc: Save it for another encounter then, pirates or a shifty Rebel leader

[Ancalagon]

jedi can heal pretty quick... and there are medpacks. But since all the battles so far have been in space, no one has actually taken any damage, so I can't really comment


Doc: I came up with a good bastard move for next time they meet the captain: He "invites" them aboard his ship for a "cup of tea". He thanks them for infiltrating a rebel base and for helping him find it. Unfortunately, he lost all his TIE fighters, so he's having a big of a hard time clearing the pirates out of the asteroids (his original mission). He's glad he's run into them, because he's sure they, as loyal sons of the empire, will volunteer to help him flush out the pirates!

He's a bastard. But a polite bastard.