Hello, fellow GMs!

My PCs had some fun deciding that they would band together with some pirates (who were supposed to be the campaign bad-guys) against their Hutt employer (Bargos from Debts to Pay ), which has led to a lot of fun. Several players have noted that they want to acquire some better gear prior to the final battle against the Hutt, so I thought a nice arms-smuggling job was in order.

Here's the plan right now:

- Their pirate contact directs them to the Sepan system (of TIE Fighter fame) where a civil war rages, and where weapons should be plentiful, for the right price. The pirate give them a large sum of credits and a list of weapons that should be available from the dealer on Dimok. My PCs are not the kind to take the money and run, as they know they will be hunted for it.

- Once they land on Dimok, they have to carouse and pass some checks to find the supplier, as he won't want to attract a lot of attention. This could lead to an encounter or so, but generally they will find him.

- The buyer has the weapons they need, but offers them at a price higher than the credits they have from the pirates. The PCs then can bargain him down, or he offers them a side-quest to collect salvage in-system from wreckage of warships. Either way, they should eventually get the guns.

- If they take the salvage route, it should lead to some fun, perhaps with other salvagers or local law enforcement.

- When they finally make it back to the pirates with the weapons, they are rewarded in credits and/or weapons for the upcoming battle.

Knowing my PCs, some of the above will happen, eventually ending with the weapons getting to the pirates, but the way we get there will be far different than what I've planned.

So, any thoughts on the above? Anything you'd throw in, remove, do differently to make it more interesting/fun?

Seems solid.

You might want to figure out exactly what type of weapons they're smuggling, that might matter. Blaster Carbines are generally risk-free from any shenanigans that may occur from such an adventure.

If you have them smuggling Disruptors or Heavy Repeaters, things could get silly, but their payout should be higher.

Also consider this outline yanked for my groups' use, except in our game, Bargos just died.

Yeah, I have a specific list of guns, from a couple crates of carbines and grenades to a missile tube, pair of disrupters, and a few repeaters. Calculated encumbrance (modified for packing for shipping) and price (raised by black market, etc.) for all of it.

A couple complications you might want to use (my players run guns too)

Have the dealer try and upsell them maybe a little "You know, I can throw in some bipods for only 200 more credits..." or by a lot "Ahhhh T-88 heavy repeating blasters, good for anti infantry... but you know what else I've got? Espo-91 light walkers... much better, and only a little more expensive...Oh no, I get it, you've only got so much credits.... shame though, they have blaster cannons, grenade launchers, and heavy stun cannons... lots of tactical flexibility you'll be missing out on..."

The players talk the dealer down and get the guns for a reasonable amount (leaving them with some extra pocket money) but then they get caught by local law on their way out. The boss pulls some strings and gets them out, but their weapons load is still impounded. They must either break liberate their load, or use the change to buy a new one at a quarter the cost...

The dealer doesn't have the weapons on "the list" he's got something else that's close...or not (Carbines instead of rifles, Riotguns instead of heavy rifles, grenade launchers instead of missile tubes, one heavy repeating blaster instead of four light repeaters, holdout pistols instead of heavy pistols, no grenades but plenty of demiled novelty grenades and a box of primers and detonite [it's the same thing, just some assembly required is all]).

The dealer's weapons are junk (all have inaccurate and/or inferior special rules)

The dealers weapons are not junk... not even a little... like frighteningly not junk... "Sepan is on the brink and this guys got a load of brand new only been factory test fired E-11s in the original shipping container with that new blaster smell and everything?"

What if your players find something amongst that salvage they don't want to pass on and might actually want to keep?

I remember an actual play podcast I think it was Dice Heroes where they encountered the wreck of a small star destroyer and was able to land inside finding a lot of it was in fairly decent shape maybe not able to move without a lot of repairs but a good enough base...

Would they fancy finding a potential new hiding place but one with lots of potential salvage but the risk of the Empire coming back at any point?

You could always have them complete the deal, then the dealer takes them to the nearby cantina to seal the deal with a round of drinks while his people load the guns on their ship.

They have their drinks but a criminal rival of the arms dealer spikes all their drinks. They black out and wake up a day later on their ship with no memory, the guns missing and a drall locked in their refresher. Then proceed to have all kinds of Hangover shenanigans including finding out what happened to all the weapons they had bought but are now missing.

My favorite thing about criminal enterprises is that anywhere you go, there's probably someone already engaging in the illicit business the PCs are trying to conduct. That leads to my favorite tactic, which is: having these criminals find out that the PCs are selling to their clients, and come looking for a piece of the pie.

So when my group started selling guns, it wasn't long before a prominent arms-dealer in the area decided to prevent them from lowering his profit margin. I've had people try to coerce half the profits from the group, force the group to become part of their organization, or try to scare them away.

Great advice, guys. My wheels are definitely spinning. Thanks!