Shell Game from Beta

By bsmith23, in Star Wars: Age of Rebellion RPG

So a member of my Edge group has a friend visiting at the end of the month and wants to sit in. I decided to run as a oneshot Shell Game from the beta with the pregens that were distributed. What Id like to know from y'all is what kinds of changes, improvements, suprises, etc. anybody came up with. I thought this was discussed before, but I can't find it.

Appreciations all around.

Skip the squadron-on-squadron battle at the end. It is cumbersome, and doesn't highlight the strengths of the system.

Edited by aramis

I would outright cut the opening scene. Every Star Wars movie and most Clone Wars episodes (and some comics) all open either in the middle of the action or other important scene or on the edge of something cool happening. Shell Game, on the other hand, starts out like every D&D adventure, where the party spends 2 hours screwing around playing emo (running around town and having people not talk to them). The whole experience at the base, the entire mission briefing, and any questions the party has can be summed up in the opening crawl and a reflection on the mission as they pull into the Hammer. The focus should be on the anxiety of an untested team flying in a stolen ship, using fake credentials, in order to steal a high security prototype, not how becoming besties with the base staff.

Once aboard, I would definitely change things up a little and change up the mission perimeters. I find it adorable that the Rebels think getting the prototype will make all of that intel and research go away. Have the players first mission be to track down the computer network and retrieve as much info on the project as possible (for a follow up mission) and then destroy the remaining data.

You can also change up the security proceedings. Instead of just needing a story to get past medium security, perhaps the pass is only good enough for a tour of the facility that takes them past the area (a la Austin Powers). It's then up the the players to sneak into or back to that area on their own. It makes no sense that a survey team would have assess to the engineering section or fighter bays, and the detention block should be nothing short of a daring heist.

I would work in a number of side encounters and branching stories with other Imperial staff. Perhaps almost every group the party interacts with, from the mess hall to the turbo lifts, drops an adventure hook for later or gives up some side info about the Empire that they can use later. This would be a good way to sandbox a little or let the party report some leads back to Rebel Command (possibly in exchange for some bonus Duty).

I'd also consider an escape plan for the Lambda they arrived in. I'm always a fan of the origin story, or in the case of these games, how the party gets their hundreds of thousands in credits for a ship. I'm trying to find a way to retrieve the ship for use later (I don't really want to run a Y-wing game, and a Rebel Base game is planned for when some more material is available to draw on) instead of just ditching it on the station when the party probably steals the prototype. Alternatively, the prototype could be a **SPOILER** counter shield generator instead of a ship itself at this point , **END SPOILER** so perhaps the party must steal it and return to their own shuttle.

Lastly, I would burn the ending to the ground. The thought that the prototype would simply disappear is BS. At least build in some closure, should it come up (maybe the prototype didn't work on the scale the Empire was hoping on, or perhaps the Rebellion just destroyed it and salted the land after the party destroyed the research in a follow up mission to prevent it from falling back into Imperial hands).

I'm not sure what the squardon concern is, but you could have the players play out the combat instead of run them as NPCs. That would allow them to try out space combat and be good at it without putting the mission at immediate risk (perhaps have a subsequent but easier fight with the actual party should the squadron fail, plus a possible Duty penalty, with the party escaping largely untouched if they win).

Yikes.

Ok, I haven't read the adventure yet, but I know there were some heavy opinions about it out there. With my life happening there isint much time to prepare. Maybe I'll consider scrounging through my weg and wotc stuff too.

Yeah. It's not a great adventure as written. What I've been pondering is to convert EoE adventures to AoR. Several, once you strip out the seedy underworld elements, could be about picking up Rebel weapon shipments, striking amnesty deals with crime lords, and establishing trade lines. The trick is making the Rebel struggle interesting and exciting. I think that's where Shell Game might fail. It's a cool idea for am adventure, but it's kind of half done.

Right now I'm leaning towards using the main premise: steal data, destroy ship, liberate prisoners, but letting the crew sandbox their way through it. I can usually come up with a response the the things my players try...

I'm not sure what the squardon concern is, but you could have the players play out the combat instead of run them as NPCs. That would allow them to try out space combat and be good at it without putting the mission at immediate risk (perhaps have a subsequent but easier fight with the actual party should the squadron fail, plus a possible Duty penalty, with the party escaping largely untouched if they win).

Running a ship battle with a dozen fighters on each side is cumbersome; it highlights how poorly the system works for large numbers of units on a side.

Further, the battle really adds nothing of value to the adventure (because the PC's become almost irrelevant, being aboard the stolen ship and/or their lambda.

Yeah for the ending I'm going to have the team be in the combat. Definitely make sure there's enough for everyone onboard to do. As I read the story, my mind started to flashback to Clint Eastwoods Cold War 80s movie Firefox, saw lots of similarities.