We will be adding a new player to the next game. The players are in orbit of Cholganna, so finding a suitable place to add the player will be crucial considering the limited options. I want to work with him on figuring out a few details. If he wants to play one of the survivors from the Sa Nalour that is definitely an option for him. It may delay the party in meeting up with him until later in the session, but it would tie in nicely with the story. Another option is he is floating in a disabled ship (due to the nebula) in orbit around Cholnagga, and the PC's can pick him up. That will give him the option to be pretty much anyone he wants, although it will be hard to explain what he's doing in the ship if his character doesn't possess piloting skills.
Running Beyond the Rim
...although it will be hard to explain what he's doing in the ship if his character doesn't possess piloting skills.
Hope you don't mind me popping in. As a new GM I was planning on making a thread for Beyond the Rim since I'm preparing it for the next session. The group didn't quite finish with Trouble Brewing so they'll be starting off with some downtime meeting Thakba, then head to the Wheel due to Reom calling in a favor. I'm realizing there is going to be 0 action in the first session. Even if the group rushes through the role playing as they tend to do, I've only prepared up to the investigation. I don't see the sled chase happening until next session. I know I can grab one member's attention early on, but I'm afraid the others are going to rip it apart looking for some conflict.
Any suggestions as to how I can fill that need and keep the investigation on track? I'm thinking the snooping Yiyar clan member is the best option, but other than a minion template and "he gets away", I don't have much to work with and its probably too soon for me to try some improv.
Perhaps some of your combat PCs would be interested in participating in The Big Game .
If I'm reading the right thing, it's just a gladiatorial competition, everyone in a ring and last standing wins? I could see that working. Especially if there is appealing loot as the prize. And I could just toss in some generic minions and a rival for them to fight through.
When I ran BtR, I also ran a speeder race round the outer ring. I had various scenes happening each round that would determine the difficulty. It was a load of fun and the PC won.
Surprisingly in my BtR game my players got to the sled chase by the end of the night. Usually we play about a 5-6 hour game. Sadly I wasn't very prepared for the sled chase. The rules on vehicle combat was a bit over my head at the time. We improvised and we got through it okay though.
It is possible that your players may skip ahead though. I found that none of my players did any kind of investigation before hand and skipped that step entirely. Well with the exception of one of the players playing around with the message pod in Roem's office. When they had the opportunity to prepare for the delivery of the droid my players did some quick shopping, then went back to the ship to wait. I didn't have much of a choice but to continue the story. I could have baited them into something else, but either way I would have had to improvise something.
My players tend to do very little investigation, so I'm expecting them to plow ahead. One player is good at that if allowed to. The other two are okay but don't really know what to ask sometimes. There is one player who steamrolls the others though. It happens so often that many times the others just let him win, but sometimes it just devolves into an argument that brings the game to a halt.
On Saturday I had one of the okay players almost get a question out about IT-3P0, but was stopped when the steamroller said (OOC) they'll just jettison the droid once they are underway. The question was dropped. He tends to role play the same character in every game: distrust everyone and screw them before they screw you. So he's also already planning to make off with all the money. I think he was talking when Reom mentioned survivors, so he may think this is just a salvage op with a bunch of treasure at the end.
I don't want to get into the play style of this player though. He's having fun, and it's not affecting anyone else's fun that I can tell. However he is definitely too much to handle for myself and the other GM. It would be interesting to see how an experienced one handles him.
But to digress: I'm tempted to let them ditch IT and experience the repercussions. But I could easily add a quick line from IT or Reom about his purpose to snuff the plan. I think getting bitten hard will ease up the steamroller enough to allow the other players to contribute more. Maybe then they will gain more experience investigating/roleplaying.
Thoughts? I mean, Reom does say he'll make their life hard if he's double-crossed. That has been perceived as an empty threat, but that could be easily remedied.
had a gem of a line from my newest player:
"If things go bad, the first thing we do it shoot the droid"
The problem is that the droid is really the only thing that is going to stop the survivors from killed the players outright. And also the only way you might even convince them to leave cholganna. But it is hard to keep that a secret from most players.
In my game I had to have Shira tell them how important the droid was.
But also, the "Contract" includes a passenger.. the droid. If the players lose the droid Reom could justifiably refuse to pay the players, kill them, and take their ship when they try to collect a finders fee at scraphead point
Tell the players the repercussions of their actions, and be the voice of common sense
But to digress: I'm tempted to let them ditch IT and experience the repercussions. But I could easily add a quick line from IT or Reom about his purpose to snuff the plan. I think getting bitten hard will ease up the steamroller enough to allow the other players to contribute more. Maybe then they will gain more experience investigating/roleplaying.
Were the other players listening? If so you could subtly remind them at the start of the play session with a "So when we left off you were starting a mission to use IT-3PO to help find the Sa Nalaor and any survivors..." and then maybe subtly remind them that their Obligation won;t be decreased (possibly increased) if they double-cross Reom and run with the 10K.
You could (if the PCs weren't already given the co-ordinates) have the Droid be the only one with them and he won't entrust them to PCs.
Have you seen this thread?
I have put a lot of suggestions from here into my game, as well as adding a bunch of my own side content, and it has lengthened the campaign by a lot. I think we are ten sessions in or so, and we just reached the Retreat. My characters have around 320 earned XP at this point, so they easily outclass the module, but it has been fun to scale things up and challenge them a bit more.