I'm realizing my players (for the most part, anyway) are looking for something totally different from our game than I am.

I posted this on another forum. The setup is my players are working for a Hutt and were tasked with collecting owed protection money. Before they can meet him, the casino owner gets kidnapped in a daring daylight raid on his casino. They manage to track him down and 'rescue' him before the Imperial authorities do, where we pick up...

I may have overestimated my players.

Last night's session started with the players interrogating one of the surviving kidnappers and the casino ownwer. It comes out that the kidnappers were hired by the business magnate for reasons the casino owner can only guess at, and that the casino owner is under the thumb of ISB and has been for months. He says he stopped paying the players' Hutt boss to isolate him from the ISB investigation, and that ISB has been monitoring his operation to find all of the loose threads of funds going to the Rebellion through his organization (something he wasn't aware was happening before ISB told him).

He's grateful for the rescue, but it quickly becomes apparent that he's escaped the pan and fallen into the fire. They demand a rescue fee, money owed to the Hutt, some sweetener on top of that, and a new ship, all told about 200k. He says he can't move much more than daily expenses (2-5k) without ISB being all over it. They are unrelenting in their demand for money and a ship, so he eventually agrees to a payment of 50k and getting them a ship I don't remember the name of. He asks to be taken to an upscale hotel where he has a room.

They get there and go through the freight entrance without arousing any suspicion and take the lift to his floor. As he gets off the elevator, he realizes the thugs took his key card, and they have no way to get into the room. They call down to the front desk and make their way to the door to wait for someone to come let them in. The casino owner tries to subtly knock on the door but gets noticed, then everything goes to ****.

Being under the thumb of ISB, he's been forced to stay at this hotel with ISB in the room next door doing their thing. So the next door over opens up, head pokes out to see my psychopathic rodian player leveling the giant sniper rifle he brought with him, then slams the door. Casino owner uses this distraction to make a break for it.

Chase scene! One player follows him down the stairs while the other two take the elevator. After several minutes, one of them catches him in a straight hallway and puts a blaster shot through his leg. Meanwhile, outside, their pilot quickly realizes the po-po are en route and coming in hot. The players agree to meet on the roof to try to escape with their captive.

Inside, someone shuts down the elevator as the players are 5 floors from the top, so they have to get out and hoof it up the stairs. On the roof, all at once, their ship lands, a transport full of stormtroops lands, and the players with their captive bust out from the stairwell. That's where we ended the session.

Don't get me wrong, it was fun. But, my players have consistently ignored any larger plot development, made enemies of almost every NPC they've encountered, and pursued money to the exclusion of all else. It's getting ridiculous. Introducing the ISB and the Rebellion elicited nothing .

So that's where we're at. We're still new to this system, but it seems like so far my players are interested only in getting credits, consequences be damned.

I almost think I should just give it to them. Shower them with more credits than they know what to do with, then see where they take it now that they have no allies anywhere.

So what's a good way to handle this kind of disconnect?

Penalties.

Realistic penalties.

They extort people for money, shake down business owners?

Sounds like a job for a Bounty Hunter / Merc corp!

If you all had fun you accomplished the mission pretty much imo as to why you sat down at the table. You can only dangle plot hooks in front of players. To get them to be interested in one in particular you have to put the game on rails. You want them to help the Rebels, then have their ship impounded. They quickly realize they can't get it out when they are approached by a Rebel Spy who says they'll help with their ship in exchange for their help.

Yep natural consequences. Don't punish the players for doing their own thing, but if they make enough people angry it will come back and bite them. There is a reason ISB and the empire is feared.

As an example. My group is playing beyond the Rim, in act 2 they pursued a enemy ship and blew it up, instead of breaking off once it became clear the ship was fleeing. As a GM this wasn't ideal as this group will be important later, but they suffered consequences for that. In act 3 they had to run from Tie fighters and their ship went down in one hit. I didn't pull punches nor did I got out of my way to take the ship down. Also once they have to pay ~500 creds per hull trauma (and a month or longer in dry dock) to repair the ship, they may be more careful in the future.

I also noticed my players still haven't caught on, not all combat situations can be won. Sometimes you need to run (they have a bad habit of opening fire willy nilly on large groups of storm troopers.)

I'm definitely not looking to put the game on rails. At the same time, though, the players have really gotten themselves into a pickle. They blew up an ISB investigation, they're about to get into a firefight with a dozen or so stormtroopers and then have a chase through the city, which will cause who knows how much collateral damage. The Hutt may decide they're too much of a liability to work with. They'll probably go straight from this encounter to hyperspace to try to start over on another planet.

I just don't know where to take the game if they're going to go from one half-thought-through get rich quick scheme to the next and just make enemies everywhere they go.

Do you have much in the way of obligation or motivation to play with? Otherwise you may have a group of that will want to play it fast and loose until the law catches up with them!

Better to shoot first and run away, to live, shoot first, and run away another day......

Do you have much in the way of obligation or motivation to play with? Otherwise you may have a group of that will want to play it fast and loose until the law catches up with them!

My psychopathic rodian assassin started with 20 bounty, but that's the only one that's really relevant. When we started nobody quite understood how Obligation was supposed to work and most of them rolled randomly for it (and motivation). The players kind of half-assed coming up with the backstory for their obligation so there's not much to work with.

Our sessions are short, about 2 hours, and working in relevant Obligation stuff is hard to do without having the game be all about that.

Lets start from the beginning who are your player's characters and their respective motivations, obligations and anything they may have mentioned to do with those characters?

Are they all in debt to that Hutt?

Do they have any links to the Empire or better yet wherever the casino they just rumbled is located?

And have they given you any background on their characters?

So far it seems like they're more focused on an edge campaign based on some video game where they don't expect reprisals... this should change but for now lets see what you think about this.

Our sessions are short, about 2 hours, and working in relevant Obligation stuff is hard to do without having the game be all about that.

You can also add Obligation. Especially if they are really turning up the heat on themselves, that can be additional bounty obligation, or just obligation to the empire (being wanted and all) etc. This can help you shape adventures a bit (while hopefully still letting them do their own thing).

Or you could set down with the group and redo the motivation and have each character come up with their own motivation. Even this late in the game it can be useful. And since the players understand the game and system better it get them thinking about what goals they want for their characters.

Our sessions are short, about 2 hours, and working in relevant Obligation stuff is hard to do without having the game be all about that.

What's wrong with having the sessions be all about the PCs' Obligations and Motivations? Give the players a chance to replace their Obligations and Motivations with something that speaks to them, then push those buttons hard.

As for what the players want from the game, don't guess: ask them. If you want a game with long-term consequences for actions, and they want a game of escapist fantasy, there will always be friction. Someone will have to give.

The players kind of half-assed coming up with the backstory for their obligation so there's not much to work with.

No, what that means is that the players didn't define it. There's a LOT to work with if they created rough sketches of Obligation. It just means that the details have to come from your head instead of theirs, and this is a great way to keep things exciting - you pretty much get to define their pasts, and they will discover it in play instead of knowing about it all along and reacting to it through the lens of their prior knowledge.

If you all had fun you accomplished the mission pretty much imo as to why you sat down at the table. You can only dangle plot hooks in front of players. To get them to be interested in one in particular you have to put the game on rails. You want them to help the Rebels, then have their ship impounded. They quickly realize they can't get it out when they are approached by a Rebel Spy who says they'll help with their ship in exchange for their help.

Thing is it sounds like the GM is not having that much fun. Though I think he should analyze if he's not having fun because his plot isn't going forward, or he's virtually being forced to tell a story that wasn't the kind he wanted to tell. The former is a thing I think all GMs have to constantly "get over" since it's inherent to collaborative gameplay. The latter is quite different, and the problem there is it'd require the players to get on board to help the GM get back into his sweet spot as well, if he feels like he's just there to run the game but is not having fun doing it. Other than that I like your ideas, 2P51. I don't think impounding the ship to get help from the Rebels is super railroady. Sure they might go there for one plot, but they might decide not to keep helping the Rebels after the Rebels help them, and then new consequences are born. EotE, like Firefly, makes it pretty clear that you can go it alone, but it's not necessarily going to be pretty. Burn enough clients and be big enough targets, and nobody is going to want to hire you for jobs because you're too high-profile and too much of a liability for deniable asset work.

Whether you're sitting down at the table to be a player or to be the GM, everyone sits down at the gaming table because they want to have fun. If the GM isn't having a good time, that's still just as much of a problem as a player not having a good time.

There are some good suggestions in the thread, here, mainly about upping the PCs' Obligation and hitting them with in-world consequences. If they busted up an ISB investigation, for instance, the Empire isn't going to just let that stand. Hit them with a Criminal or Bounty Obligation to reflect the fact that the Imperials are out to get them.

Also, I'd work with your players before the next session to hammer down the details of their pre-rolled Obligations. You don't need to write a novella of backstory for every player, but try to have at least one key individual "tied" to each of their starting Obligations. That way, if the PCs just want to go off to rob a bank or something, you can hit them with, "Well, your old smuggler buddy is in deep trouble with Black Sun and needs you to bail him out."

And then you, as the GM, can either run that "help the smuggler with his Black Sun problems" as a standalone side-adventure, or find some way to make all or even just some of the plot tie in with your "main arc," as it were.

Hope this helps!

I think my biggest issue is that I haven't been able to introduce a character that they haven't made an enemy of. I'd like to introduce the Rebellion, the larger Empire bureaucracy, and various criminal elements without all of them being antagonists. It was definitely fun, but I just don't see it being sustainable.

We're only a half dozen sessions in, so maybe I'm making a bigger deal of this than need be.

The suggestion to have an NPC as a tie to each player's obligation is a great one. I hadn't considered that, and it should make using it easier.

The Hutt may decide they're too much of a liability to work with. They'll probably go straight from this encounter to hyperspace to try to start over on another planet.

Well, the Star Wars universe is a galactic community, so that's like going to the next town in the Old West, but eventually the Federal Marshall is going to show up...

The Hutt may decide they're too much of a liability to work with. They'll probably go straight from this encounter to hyperspace to try to start over on another planet.

Well, the Star Wars universe is a galactic community, so that's like going to the next town in the Old West, but eventually the Federal Marshall is going to show up...

Oh, believe me, I know. We're coming from 40k, so they may still be under the impression that interstellar communication is spotty at best. In Star Wars, word of your exploits will arrive before you do.

On that note, they'll probably have the Imperial authorities on their ass. How do I hound them, without making it seem like I'm trying to railroad them toward something?

The Hutt may decide they're too much of a liability to work with. They'll probably go straight from this encounter to hyperspace to try to start over on another planet.

Well, the Star Wars universe is a galactic community, so that's like going to the next town in the Old West, but eventually the Federal Marshall is going to show up...

Oh, believe me, I know. We're coming from 40k, so they may still be under the impression that interstellar communication is spotty at best. In Star Wars, word of your exploits will arrive before you do.

On that note, they'll probably have the Imperial authorities on their ass. How do I hound them, without making it seem like I'm trying to railroad them toward something?

You essentially have to put your plot hook or direction you want them to go in place after they pick a direction. You can herd them, just let them pick the direction they're herded.

On that note, they'll probably have the Imperial authorities on their ass. How do I hound them, without making it seem like I'm trying to railroad them toward something?

If they have obligation to the empire and it triggers have a run in with Imperials maybe? Or an Empire loyalist recognize them and give them a hard time about it? If that happens, perhaps put them in a situation where they are gonna be over run by say storm troopers but the rebels intervene at the last moment to save them... Perhaps that will put the rebels on their good side.

On that note, they'll probably have the Imperial authorities on their ass. How do I hound them, without making it seem like I'm trying to railroad them toward something?

You can't.

What I mean is, any story has rails though there might be lots of junctions and side tracks, and the players might take a variety of routes to the end. Any thread of plot and any interpersonal relationship is a rail. Society itself is its own rail, and you shouldn't be afraid to use it. It sounds to me a bit like you're thinking about the universe "in character", but not acting on it. Just MHO, but I don't think you should hesitate, you should go for broke.

Your earlier thought about the Hutt wanting to disown himself would make an excellent scenario. Maybe the Hutt has contacts in the ISB: think of Frank Costello in the movie The Departed, crime kingpin who turned out to be an FBI informant. From the Hutt's point of view, these jokers he hired are making it more difficult to get things done. All the heat means his ISB contacts need to be more careful when helping him, and that's putting other business in jeopardy. He either needs to reign them in, or get rid of them.

I would make it clear to the players what the stakes are through the Hutt or his intermediaries. The Hutt can probably contact them any time and tell them they're making too much noise and costing him business. He might refuse to pay them or threaten reprisals. If the players up the ante, then there's nothing wrong with sending an army out. You're the GM, you can pull reinforcements out whenever you want. If they get ambushed, have shots from sources they can't see pinging around them, so they know there are more than just what they can see at the moment. Then take them down, take their stuff, and sell them into slavery

I say slavery because that's top-of-mind for me at the moment, it's where my group is at...not that they did anything to frustrate me, quite the opposite. I'm looking forward to the escape process because it will require them to make friends, find weaknesses, and discover clues, and have almost nothing to do with combat ... until it does

Btw, 20 Bounty is HUGE, that's a 1/5 chance to trigger every session! That should be worth a LOT of money and be attracting big-name hunters, not newbies or dabblers. Their ship might be put on a registry list of "immediately contact ISB if you detect this registry number, and do not allow landing at any spaceport."

Dangerous Covenants tells us that Bounty can also be interpreted as "the one that got away" and is effectively more like an Obsession in that the character feels compelled to chase down the target. At a high level, the character might be chasing down a major league psycho-badass (terrorist cell, fallen Jedi, Rebel spec ops team, etc.).

"You essentially have to put your plot hook or direction you want them to go in place after they pick a direction. You can herd them, just let them pick the direction they're herded."

...Like nerf.

Sorry, it was "just there".

L

As others have said real world, real consequences. Firefights tend to be deadly and if they can't paid for jobs because they are a liability then they'll find themselves running out of money, luck and help real fast.

Once the dust settles after the fight with the stormtroopers it might be an idea to find out what kind of game they want to play. I've had a disconnect with Star Wars before on the old WEG where everyone wanted to play a Jedi and they suddenly got pissy when everywhere they went the Empire were trying to murder them.

Shifting to more practical matters, what's a good ship to use as a stormtrooper transport? Our session ended with 3 inbound transports full of stormtroopers, one of which has landed. What's the Star Wars equivalent of a SWAT van?

I'm thinking of 3 groups of 3 stormtroopers (the minion ones) per ship. Too much or too little for five players in a firespray?

Landed where? What's the rest of the scene?

3 troops per transport is going to be more like Skyhoppers pulling up, not main troop transports like TIE Landers or LAATs, which carry full squads or companies.

Landed where? What's the rest of the scene?

3 troops per transport is going to be more like Skyhoppers pulling up, not main troop transports like TIE Landers or LAATs, which carry full squads or companies.

Yeah, exactly. Though atmospheric craft like that make a lot of sense if it's just the local garrison being called in.

Don't feel obligated to give your players an actual make and model number. Just describe the scene as "an airspeeder touches down to let out a group of three stormtroopers, and two more speeders appear to be inbound."