I plan on running these two adventures when we start playing SW.

However, I dont plan on using the pre-gens at all, we will play it with original characters as the start of something hopefully on-going, using the various pre-written adventures.

Now, I would like to ask.... what would you would be the best way to really encourage the players to head for Ryloth.... instead of say... going to Mos Eisley. As I know my group, and this is something that might want to do. And I dont want to waste the pre written stuff as I quite like how it all pans out.

I have considered heavily suggesting that Teemo would be very hot on their heels if they dont leave Tatooine, but this might not be enough.

Equally, while LAotH does have suggestions on how to deal with the players not helping the miners, I worry they might refuse ANY interaction with the Ryloth underground entirely. Short of blackmailing them to get their ship fixed, assuming it crash lands and needs fixing at all.

(I am aware that I can force them towards Ryloth simply due to a fuel issue... but this doesnt stop them turning around and heading for Mos Eisley, Mos Espa, Mos Whereever)

Cheers

RD

You could certainly hit that Teemo would hunt them down if they stayed on Tatooine. If they do head to a different outpost, it would make sense for some thugs to show up. I imagine Hutts have crew all over the planet, even outside of their own territory. By the first or second ambush, it should be clear that the planet might not be the safest for them.

You could possibly put a Macguffin on the Krayt Fang that would make them want to go to Ryloth. Honestly, I have not actually read LAotH (despite having run the beginner box), so I'm not sure what would be best. But a promise of credits is usually a simple enough carrot.

Another thing that you could consider is as they blast out of the docking port, have Teemo send them a communication threatening them if they ever show their noses on Tatooine again.

I imagine going anywhere but Ryloth (the only place they have enough fuel to get to) would be a bad idea. For one thing, it's Trex's ship, probably well known, maybe even with a distinctive paint job...you know, like a Krayt fang painted on the side. Since the characters were under the employ of Teemo, the characters might know a few things the players won't, which you should feel free to fill them in on, such as: Trex works for Teemo, so anywhere closer to Jabba is a no-go zone because Teemo and Jabba aren't on good terms.

More simple though is that Teemo and the Imperials are in league. So once they take off, they'll be pursued by TIEs. They can't get away by going to Mos Eisley, they're already on the radar. Hyperspace is definitely the safer bet.

That said, if they decide to ignore your advice, let them have it. You can't railroad, it's counterproductive...in fact it sounds a bit like they like to shake things up just to get under your skin. So let them go *towards* Mos Eisley...unknown to them, the TIEs (lots of TIEs) are already on the way, and before they get there there is a space battle in the air, and if they don't turn and head for hyperspace, they get shot down (because...remember, lots of TIEs), cratering somewhere in the desert. A shot down ship doesn't mean it explodes, it means the ship is out of control and the pilot has one last-ditch attempt to make the crash landing "softer". (See the first bit of LAotH, that's how it pans out if Thweek shoots them down...might as well borrow that bit.) The TIEs take off ("Should we check if we got them?" "Nah, ship's in flames, and the sand people will get them...besides, I don't wanna get sand in my flysuit..."). So now you have a desert-survival story on your hands.

Sure, it's not what you planned, but now they have time to find Bura ban in the back, who will offer to pay them to return him to Ryloth, plus the Geonosian shell clue, etc. And now they have to get into Mos Eisley, penniless and thirst-crazed, find another ship to steal and get the heck out.

Another thing that you could consider is as they blast out of the docking port, have Teemo send them a communication threatening them if they ever show their noses on Tatooine again.

In LAotH, Teemo isn't just content with that, he's actively hunting them. There are a few plot hints in the ship that would lead them to Ryloth, but the players probably won't have time to find them before having to decide whether to jump or not.

I feel I need to follow up a bit on my last post, because it sounds like what I'm advocating is a version of railroading, which is "take my hints or burn". It's not about that at all, but it is about keeping some sense of balance between you and the players. If the players decide to go to Mos Eisley, and make it unopposed, then anything goes. If they don't make it clear to you what they want out of the game, then you might as well throw up your hands, pull out random "encounter" charts, and just roll dice all night. The alternative is you have to be extremely creative on the spur of the moment with whatever they decide to do, and not everyone can handle that.

What stranding them in the desert does (and it's just an example, other ideas could work just as well), is, first, control the environment. There is more balance between you and your players because there are fewer random things that they can inject, and you can introduce all kinds of challenges that are finite in scope.

The second thing it does it lets you find out what they want out of the game, what are their plans after they get to Mos Eisley, penniless, parched, and desperate. This gives you time to prepare for what they want to do.

That all said, sometimes you have to remind your players that you can't be expected to just respond to everything they want to do. It's simply a lack of courtesy to destroy the GM's endless planning by running off willy nilly for no other reason than "because you can". I said this to my son one time: he had told me what he wanted to do, I had a session planned, and the first thing he says in the next session is he's going somewhere else. "So I dreamed up all this stuff, made maps, NPCs, etc for nothing? Why would I bother doing that again?" He understood the point, but ... the flip side of course is allowing the players as much leeway as possible, and sometime, yes indeed, all that prep goes out the window. In my son's case, he had a good reason for changing his mind, and through the dialogue I started getting ideas (including ways to incorporate with slight modifications some of the things I'd done) and was able to run the session anyway and we had a blast.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is the main point of the desert-stranding would be to have that conversation, not as vengeance because they didn't follow the script.

My biggest problem was the players didn't want to leave the spaceport after killing Trex.

The fact that some TIE fighters show up should encourage them to leave. and they will likely end up with a Damaged ship, and not enough fuel to get much of anywhere.

B'ura Ba'an is the key to the next part. He can offer them free repairs, refueling, and even might help them scrub the transponders and get the ship registered to them if he helps him with his problem on New Meen.