OR - How I accidentally killed off a villain by not paying attention.

The scene - Trex from the beginner game has been a constant thorn in my player's side. He chased them to Ryloth after the group stole his ship, where he lost his arm to a Lylek.

The group stumbled upon him again when they were attempting to take over an asteroid base, capturing him in the process. However one of his minions broke him out of the cell they were keeping him in, as they left him there with no one watching.

Months later, the group is impersonating an imperial officer and stormtroopers while transporting prisoners to an imperial naval yard and temporary holding facility. One of the prisoners is Trex, who immediately starts yelling that these aren't real imperials.

A frantic fight ensues, and though Trex is a nemesis and almost one hit kills the PC impersonating the officer, they are all armed and armored, and he's got no weapons or armor - the PC's get a few lucky hits and Trex doesn't make it to the escape pod. They stab him to ensure he's dead.

So one of my favourite recurring villains is dead because I made the following mistakes:

1. Should never have had Trex attack the group while in such a weak position. The group was willing to at least try and kill him off when no other imperials were around.

2. Let a couple things slide in combat in order to have it flow a little better, which ended with the group having a number of advantages over him (weapons picked up without maneuvers, etc.)

3. Forgot to increase difficulty dice when Trex was engaged in combat with the officer

4. Totally forgot my destiny token - by the end of the fight the PC's only had 1 destiny token left out of 7.

5. Didn't have the one "real" stormtrooper stop the fight after they defeated him (it was his shift to sleep) and prevent them from perma-killing him with a vibroknife. "Don't kill the prisoner! He's valuable!" etc.

Now the group is happy he's dead, but I feel it's anticlimactic given how much trouble he was. I actually had him slated to lead a pirate band against the PC's to take over their base, but when I realized they were taking over a prison shuttle I couldn't resist having Trex arrive.

Trex was an obligation for a number of PC's since they stole his ship, but I think I can make up for it by having some consequences from them murdering a potentially high value prisoner, so if anyone has suggestions I'm all ears.

I was thinking the following:

1. An investigation into the fight, as Trex killed a real stormtrooper and then he was killed. Perhaps there's video of the whole thing, which won't look good for the players as one of the supposed 'prisoners' is a Wookie PC who picked up his weapon and started attacking Trex, then was allowed to wander around (see point #2).

2. An Imperial agent wanted Trex alive for questioning in relation to the pirate gang he was running with, and is upset with the players (could also feed the players info about this pirate gang that's been harassing them).

3. The pirate leader is actually involved with Trex in some way (potentially from the same Trandoshan caste?) and is really upset at his death - but how does he find out the players are involved if the PC's are pretending to be imperials? There were other prisoners in the cabin at the time so maybe some of them are part of the pirate gang? I like the idea of him being even more powerful and vengeful than Trex, upping the ante.

In summary - before you put one of your main villain's in the PC's hands, make sure you have a couple of outs!

Heh, I think every GM can sympathize!

I'm pretty critical after almost every session and I spend time like you're doing, going through the encounters I wasn't as happy with, kinda rehearsing how I could do it better next time.

It helps me to come up with strategies for the next session.

Your post also helps, great things to keep in mind!

In summary - before you put one of your main villain's in the PC's hands, make sure you have a couple of outs!

When sending your groups nemesis against them, always either build an escape hatch for them, set the stage where they have to talk and cant fight or be prepared to have the nemesis die. Mind you, the escape hatch only works sparingly before the players start to get seriously annoyed, so keep your nemesis appearances to infrequent but meaningful instead of "Oh no, the Joker fell into the smokestack. Again. Nobody could have survived that."

A valuable post to learn from.

Its always hard to try to create a character that 'always gets away'. Especially when you have players like mine (We've literally coined one of them 'Loophole Dan'). I usually think I have all the bases covered, and have that "escape hatch" mentioned above. But then I discover the Mechanic welded the hatch shut, and the Marauder has ripped the guy's legs off.

Thanks for sharing.

In summary - before you put one of your main villain's in the PC's hands, make sure you have a couple of outs!

While that can be a bother, you could also see it as a great chance to create new characters and twist the story around.

"I'm Trax, Trex's identical twin brother! I will have my revenge!"

"I'm Trax, Trex's identical twin brother! I will have my revenge!"

I'd go with a spouse instead, especially if she actually benefits from Trex's death but is after the characters as a matter of honor. A coldly rational Trandoshan seems much more frightening to me than another hot-headed one.

"I'm Trax, Trex's identical twin brother! I will have my revenge!"

I'd go with a spouse instead, especially if she actually benefits from Trex's death but is after the characters as a matter of honor. A coldly rational Trandoshan seems much more frightening to me than another hot-headed one.

Oho I like that a lot. I was trying to avoid the Trex 2.0 trap "Hey my name is Trax!"

I felt like I had done a decent job of having him pop up at the most inopportune moments, and he always had escaped in the past due to the players complacency and overlooking things (which made them look at the game more carefully - ie: guarding prisoners and installing security systems in their base).

The fact that Trex kept almost dying and then turning up even more badass than before (he went from a fairly lightweight character in the beginner game to a Rival with a bionic arm to replace his real one and an auto blaster during the base attack, to a Nemesis on the shuttle) meant that it was always: "Oh no guys, Trex is back!" and anytime I mentioned a Trandoshan my characters HATE them and are suspicious of them (which I plan to use as a twist at some point, with the human being the villain and the Trandoshan wronged).

As a new GM (well relatively, EotE is my first GM experience but we've been playing for almost a year now) this sort of thing always makes me go 'welp, that could have gone better, but on to the next one!'

I've got one player in particular who manages to consistently stumble across the plot far earlier than I would like, so I know how it goes. Anytime there's a boss fight, I get particular about the little things (i.e. the location of weapons). Obviously it doesn't help you now, but you probably won't let it happen again.

While it's cool to have long-running enemies, there's only so much use you can get out of them, especially when their threat to the PCs is primarily physical. Opposing PCs is dangerous business, particularly so when you do it in person.

Others have given plenty of good ways to take the story, here's my humble addition, which tries to work in some Trandoshan "culture", as it were.

"I'm Trax, Trex's identical twin brother! I will have my revenge!"

"I'm Trax, Trex's identical twin brother! He was weak, and died without honor. However, you were cowardly to strike him down while he was helpless. I wish to duel you to avenge him, but only once you prove your prowess. If you are not worthy, than I will crush you mercilessly, just as you did to him."

Also, for the record, Trex could survive. I've gotten a little tired of my PC's executing everyone and mutilating the bodies, so I've made it clear to them that characters can and will occasionally survive what their attackers consider a "lethal" blow. Since he's a Trandoshan, he could survive by virtue of his high Resilience and Regenaration used as plot effects, as well as some cybernetic reconstruction (which he's already started on, it seems) and a Destiny Point. An artificial voicebox is very thematic for Star Wars...

I've got one player in particular who manages to consistently stumble across the plot far earlier than I would like, so I know how it goes. Anytime there's a boss fight, I get particular about the little things (i.e. the location of weapons). Obviously it doesn't help you now, but you probably won't let it happen again.

While it's cool to have long-running enemies, there's only so much use you can get out of them, especially when their threat to the PCs is primarily physical. Opposing PCs is dangerous business, particularly so when you do it in person.

Others have given plenty of good ways to take the story, here's my humble addition, which tries to work in some Trandoshan "culture", as it were.

"I'm Trax, Trex's identical twin brother! I will have my revenge!"

"I'm Trax, Trex's identical twin brother! He was weak, and died without honor. However, you were cowardly to strike him down while he was helpless. I wish to duel you to avenge him, but only once you prove your prowess. If you are not worthy, than I will crush you mercilessly, just as you did to him."

Also, for the record, Trex could survive. I've gotten a little tired of my PC's executing everyone and mutilating the bodies, so I've made it clear to them that characters can and will occasionally survive what their attackers consider a "lethal" blow. Since he's a Trandoshan, he could survive by virtue of his high Resilience and Regenaration used as plot effects, as well as some cybernetic reconstruction (which he's already started on, it seems) and a Destiny Point. An artificial voicebox is very thematic for Star Wars...

I think my PC's would straight up murder me if I brought Trex back again. The droid doctor in particular is the one who delivered the killing blow - he even rolled a medical check to ensure he was dead

I'm ok with that - I have bigger villains already in play, Trex was just the one who was physically at odds with them. The group seems to brush off larger, more nebulous threats (they'll just go off and do whatever Jabba asks). I also introduced a high level imperial agent who is using them for his own designs in the outer rim - he sees the destruction of the death star as being a critical failure and will do anything (including using non-human smuggler scum) in order to preserve the empire. They just haven't felt the strings pulled just yet on that one.

However, it could tie into this - maybe the Imp agent was also using Trex in the same way, and the group has messed with his plans. It even works well because the group will be wondering *how* he knew it was them (the security agent they hired is actually an imperial agent, they never actually interviewed him when they hired him, he just helped them out and they hired him outright).

One of the artifacts of old game design RPGs is that there is a massive percentage of the playerbase with an unrealistic bloodthirst for killing off their enemies as quickly as possible. This is across all RPGs I've ever run or played in. That is why when I actually get my hands on people new to RPGs I make it an effort to teach them a different way.

In all off the movies and books that the RPG community draws inspiration from, the villains/antagonists are rarely immediately killed off by the protagonists/heroes. Instead it is usually a protracted ebb and flow between the two forces as their conflict eventually reaches a climax point.

Players seldom act with that kind of dramatic sensibility.

I have sometimes used a house mechanic to mitigate this player bloodthirstiness when the group warranted it. Treating it as "training wheels for good dramatic play" until that particular group of players learned how to curb their instakill tendencies.

Usually, I am able to manage it solely with in-game ramifications of their actions. A PC group that is known for showing no quarter will find that their enemies start finding increasingly clever ways to mess with them that do not involve said enemies putting themselves anywhere near the same room with the PCs. Enemies of such a group will also be likely to use tactics that show the PCs no mercy knowing that to let them live is risking their own hides. I provide a friendly reminder every time a player group decides to opt for insta-killing their foes that the universe responds in kind.

That sort of reputation also makes the PCs seem less trustworthy to others that would otherwise ally with them. People who resort to instant lethal violence against perceived enemies don't keep many friends. When they find themselves with few allies and no leads on work as they are deemed too risky to hire, the PCs have much more difficult lives. Their most likely alliances of convenience would then be with other ruthless types... and clever antagonists can work behind the scenes to make those sorts of alliances violently implode.

So that's the gist of in-game methods I've used.

If you want the "training wheels" in house mechanic, you basically let your players know that all the recurring antagonists run on an Antagonism Scale from 1 to 10. With 1 being both sides merely annoyed with each other and 10 being seething obsessive hatred. Every time the PCs foil the antagonist or vice-versa that rating goes up by 1. For a particularly egregious offense the rating might go up by 2 (killing off loved ones, etc.) and exceedingly rarely by 3. For every three or more sessions that go by without a rating increasing event, the rating decreases by 1. Make it known clearly when implementing this rule that the NPC antagonist will have whatever crazy BS reason necessary for them to survive death occur if ever directly combated while the Antagonism Scale with them is less than 8. Using this house rule forces players to work against their enemies over time to foster animosity and build to a more climactic showdown. As GM if using this you should start preparing possible massive showdowns when they get close to the 8 on the Antagonism Scale.

One of the artifacts of old game design RPGs is that there is a massive percentage of the playerbase with an unrealistic bloodthirst for killing off their enemies as quickly as possible. This is across all RPGs I've ever run or played in. That is why when I actually get my hands on people new to RPGs I make it an effort to teach them a different way.

This is why I think Rodians are a great species choice for PCs. They naturally gravitate to being aggressive and murderous - much like most PCs

.

My players hate Rodian NPCs because of what they are - a mirror that shows the ugliness of such behavior. When I pointed out to them that the Rodians don't act all that differently from their own behaviors, most of them shrugged and laughed. I noticed that in the new game I'm setting up, one of the players that most hated Rodians in the last game is making a Rodian PC. I find it amusing.

"I'm Trax, Trex's identical twin brother! I will have my revenge!"

This is hilarious! My current "deal with my murderhobo crew" nemeses is a pair of twin albino trandoshans...but they don't know they're twins. Great minds....

Somewhat related to the original post, Whenever PCs have killed of one of my uber villains I just twist the situation: "Great you killed him, how do you get away?" Or "Oh you thought he was villain? Nah, he was a puppet..." There's a place where anyone can die, no matter how B.A. he is.

As for this specific situation with Trex, I like the idea of the Trandoshan mate. The cool and collected Trandoshan is disturbing :-) Also, the camera's angle is great. "You got rid of Trex, good for you! Now you have some ISB agents after you. Here comes the Empire!"

"I'm Trax, Trex's identical twin brother! I will have my revenge!"

This is hilarious! My current "deal with my murderhobo crew" nemeses is a pair of twin albino trandoshans...but they don't know they're twins. Great minds....

The twins don't know they're twins, or the PCs don't know?

It could be cool to make it seem like this one guy keeps popping up in two places at once, but the PCs don't know why until they figure out it's twins.

I had three Rodian tripplets I intended to use as comic relief that ended up being in the picture more often than I suppose they should have, and as a result the player party is kind of intent to kill them off FOR REAL.

But I have a failsafe. Hopefully my players aren't reading this yet, but;

They've hijacked an alien vessel which essentially keeps them respawning, even in near-death, and now that the party has killed two of them the third is trying to carry on with the resuscitated corpses of his brothers. Hopefully their final end on a desolate, forgotten planet might squeeze out some final sympathy for these Rodians who in the end went waaay over their heads with technology they shouldn't have messed with in the first place.

After all it's kind of a hellish existence not to remember anything between now and when you first stepped into the chamber.

"I'm Trax, Trex's identical twin brother! I will have my revenge!"

This is hilarious! My current "deal with my murderhobo crew" nemeses is a pair of twin albino trandoshans...but they don't know they're twins. Great minds....

The twins don't know they're twins, or the PCs don't know?

It could be cool to make it seem like this one guy keeps popping up in two places at once, but the PCs don't know why until they figure out it's twins.

The PCs don't know, and neither does the galaxy at large. They think they're looking for a single albino trandoshan that killed Lowrrhick's family.

if the players have gone to such lengths to ensure his demise i personally don't think you should revive him, even through a proxy.

let them have their victory. my guess is they don't feel it was anti climactic especially if he nearly 1 hit killed a pc.

i think the better course of action would be to follow up with the imperials tracking down these impersonators. that way you have continuity and repercussions for their actions. have there be holo images of those with their faces revealed executing a prisoner. make sure they see it and feel their notoriety. swap out the obligation from trex to a criminal one.

Your PCs broke several federal laws:

-Impersonating an Imperial Officer (Duh!)

-Killing or injuring military personnel (that poor poor, Stormtrooper)

-Damaging Imperial property (some blaster bolts did not hit people

-Stealing Imperial property (ammo and weapons and their target)

-Interfering with an ongoing investigation (Trex)

-Murder (Duh again!)

-Suspission of Rebel support (Wookie!)

Just replace all obligation they had for Trex and his ship with an Imperial Bounty.

Send a good team of Imperial Agents (rivals with minions) or a truely superb one (Nemesis) after them. I do not know how hot the Imperials were for them, but after that stunt there will be retribution.

Start building a plotline around a faction that is working on cyborg or clone soldiers. The twist in the end is that their test subject or genetic template is Trex's brain in a jar. Even in death, he haunts the PCs.

Your PCs broke several federal laws: -Impersonating an Imperial Officer (Duh!) -Killing or injuring military personnel (that poor poor, Stormtrooper) -Damaging Imperial property (some blaster bolts did not hit people -Stealing Imperial property (ammo and weapons and their target) -Interfering with an ongoing investigation (Trex) -Murder (Duh again!) -Suspission of Rebel support (Wookie!) Just replace all obligation they had for Trex and his ship with an Imperial Bounty. Send a good team of Imperial Agents (rivals with minions) or a truely superb one (Nemesis) after them. I do not know how hot the Imperials were for them, but after that stunt there will be retribution.

Haha for some reason, even though my group is a bunch of criminals trying to start up their own crime empire, I don't think it ever occurred to them just how much trouble they're in with the Empire now. Heck, even I didn't think about it quite like that until you laid it out like that.

Since you guys seem interested, here's the total list of charges based on what they've done SO FAR. Keep in mind they haven't even reached the naval supply yard, where their end goal is to 1. Steal a shield generator and any other station/ship-based weaponry they possibly can 2. Free at least one prisoner, probably all of them if they can manage it.

Crimes so far:

1. Breaking and entering (Imperial Hangars) x3

2. Assaulting and Impersonating an Imperial Officer (they had to get that somewhat ill-fitting outfit somehow!)

3. Assaulting 3 Imperial technicians and locking them in crates

4. Killing two stormtroopers who came to investigate noises from #3

5. Impersonation of said stormtroopers

6. Damaging Imperial property

7. Theft of Imperial property (Lambda Shuttle)

8. Treason and Sedition (helping Wookies

9. Interfering with an ongoing Imperial investigation (Trex)

10. Murder (Killing Trex)

Since they don't have transfer credentials showing that the new Lt. (one of the PC's) is supposed to be there, she's been getting by on *really* gutsy and lucky deception/charm rolls. Basically playing a dumb newbie Lt. But it can't possibly last. It hasn't occurred to any of them to hack into the datapad and make it look legit, mostly because the Technician PC couldn't make that game.

I think that given the fact that the Lt. is seriously wounded thanks to Trex, Trex is dead, 1 stormtrooper is dead and 2 are gone as they took him to the medical facility back at the planet they left, and she doesn't have her transfer papers, I'm going to have her and possibly the whole group taken to the security office. As soon as the video from the shuttle is shown, she'll either have to fast talk like a maniac or all hell will break loose.

Start building a plotline around a faction that is working on cyborg or clone soldiers. The twist in the end is that their test subject or genetic template is Trex's brain in a jar. Even in death, he haunts the PCs.

Ahaha I love this and will save it for later. I'm actually really tempted to do it, and have everyone get furious and angry, and then have it be ridiculously easy to defeat because the technology sucks.

Thats quite a list, should easily put a 10-15k bounty on each head.

And while i like the idea about the haunting cyborg, why would the xenophobic Imperials use a Trandoshan for their experiments? Would they not get faulty data?