My players are stuck in a city under Imperial martial law. There is no way off planet, due to the Star Destroyer, which is hanging over the planets only city.

I'm running this game as episodic because I know I have players who can't make it every week. This should make it easier to deal with player absences.

I have the big story, but I was hoping some of you guys had ideas for some smaller modular encounters.

Thanks.

And if you're in this game at Whose Turn Is It, go away already.

what is your party like? Do they have a ship? What is the city like? What is the city's major industry? what does the city provide the empire?

Watch some old WWII movies.

free a local rebel cell, civilians, slaves

Steal something from an imperial facility, base, warehouse, etc.

Smuggle a force sensitive child, ambassador, admiral to the rebels

break into the local imperial base to access the ion control shoot the star destoyer and get picked up and escape while the star destoyer is ionized.

Do they have their own ship?

Have the imperials isolated them from it if thats the case?

Could have them contact the local underworld to find a way to get past the blockade through say forged or bought documents?

How are the local populace handling the new embargo?

Is there a rebel cell or a resistance on this world?

What details can you provide about the world and its star system?

What obligations or duties do your PCs have?

Why are they there?

Why have the Imperials shown up?

Have you asked your players what they want to do in this situation?

Has any of them suggested sneaking aboard the Star Destroyer and disabling it at a certain point so they can flee offworld?

Does this world have the means to move the PC's ship outside the city/spaceport so it can be launched safely on the other side of the planet or at least far enough away to stand a chance escaping the Star Destroyer's pursuit but not its TIE Fighters?

Heist-style missions (against local imperial government or criminal organisations):

...for cash (to keep alive and establish bolt holes while they're in hiding)

...to bug a place (for intelligence to stay one step ahead of the local imperials)

...to steal/sabotage enemy weapons (to even the odds)

...to free political prisonners (gaining allies)

...to capture and interrogate imperial personnel (again, for intelligence)

(Though episodic they can link. Perhaps from the bug they hear about an officer who the others don't like because they're always questioning orders. That could lead them to a "capture" mission to see if they can be turned.)

If they have a good face, these can be done as elaborate con-jobs.

If they're jar heads, they'll be raids.

If they're stealthy, plan for thievery.

To a significant degree your choices will be determined by theirs. If they plan to make a deal with local smugglers, perhaps the criminals will want them to help them with a criminal operation first (maybe more than one, given the risk). If they plan on stealing an imperial shuttle and bluffing their way out of the system they'll need uniforms and codes and a valid mission ID and the vessel itself - each of which can be a mini-adventure by itself.

Things start to get hairy, and the Imps deploy probe droids and remotes to augment their foot patrols looking for the rebels. The players will need to find a way to mitigate this threat.

A couple methods might be

Mapping their patrol routes and times, allowing the Rebels to conduct ops in between patrols. You can take other modular encounters and just modify them to have a time limit, with a droid showing up if you aren't done by then.

Disable a probe droid (you got one round to disable the self destruct! or if you want to be nice the droids aren't carrying the high level encryption package the self destruct system is there to protect, so they disabled the self destruct system for safety reasons) and rig it to feed info to the rebels, either through a hack, or by bugging it and letting a recovery team pick up and put it back into circulation...of course they'll need to make sure the recovery team doesn't suspect anything other then a normal malfunction....

Disable/destroy the droid control center set up in one of the Imperial controlled buildings down town.

What about a thing where Mon Calamari characters get free AT-STs to drive around in and a squad of Droidekas to do their bidding?

If you want to keep a Star Destroyer around, that's fine but those things carry prefabricated garrisons that they can drop on planets for just this type of occasion so the Star Destroyer can move on. Consider it as an alternative.

If you want to keep a Star Destroyer around, that's fine but those things carry prefabricated garrisons that they can drop on planets for just this type of occasion so the Star Destroyer can move on. Consider it as an alternative.

And that base is for "open" locations. For more urban locations the Empire doesn't strike me as a Third Amendment kinda government... might make for a neat "Green Zone" type location.

- Political Prison break.

- Party sees storm troopers harassing a local shopkeeper. If they don't intervene the troopers execute him and trash the stall.

- The garrison is getting lazy. They've left a supply of arms / explosives / fuel unattended or lightly guarded.

What about a thing where Mon Calamari characters get free AT-STs to drive around in

Like my mate Andrew in the AoR beginner box.

Droidekas to do their bidding?

Like my mate Andrew in EotE.

...I'm starting to see a pattern.