First, I'm brand new to pen and paper RPGs overall. I've played 4 full sessions of FFG's Star Wars RPG (3 in an EotE based campaign, and the Rebellion Day adventure). I was kind of there for an online session, though technical difficulties kept my participation limited.

However, I've enjoyed the game so much, and my friends seemed interested, I thought I would try my hand at GMing with them. I started with the beginner game. There was only 3 players and myself. They ran the Bounty Hunter Twi'lek, and the two downloadable additions (found on the Beginner Game page on this site).

They were a little beat up when they got to Trex at the end, but they handled the Storm Trooper encounter really well. Unfortunately, they were unable to successfully convince Trex to leave his ship.

Basically, they lied to the droids outside and said they were here to install the part. That worked, like the book said it should. Then, they changed their story when they got to the ship. They tried to bribe Trex to take them off planet. When he refused, a player blurted out, "Sorry, we are a little drunk from the cantina. We are here to install the part for your ship." I made him roll the deception, with setback for starting his terrible lie with "we're drunk!" Well they failed the deception check.

A fight ensued. Trex and 4 droids. Trex in Nemesis level, with a Soak of 5, a WT of 16 and a ST of 11. He's rolling 2Y1G on a 7 damage heavy blaster pistol that needs 3 advantage to critical. The 4 droids are rivals (I guess... the book didn't say to run them as minion groups) with a soak of 3 and a WT of 8. They are rolling 2Y1G on a 6 damage blaster pistol that crits with 3 advantage.

Trex had run up and taken cover at the top of the loading ramp to his ship. The PC's were losing badly. Their next combat roll shooting Trex missed, but had 3 advantage. I encouraged them to use that advantage to shoot the controls to the ramp, which I narrated as causing the ramp to close and breaking the controls.

I thought that was a stretch for 3 advantage, but I wasn't sure how to handle it if they all got wiped. Good, I thought. This takes Trex out for at least 2 rounds, right?

Then on his next turn, I made it a formidable mechanics check for Trex to open the ramp again (they had the part he needed for his ship so he couldn't fly away). He succeeded, but had 4 threat. So I used that threat to have the boarding ramp drop down on two of the droids standing outside, effectively killing them.

Again, I thought this was a bit of a stretch, but the PCs probably wouldn't have lasted another round.

At this point, Trex and the Droid were each one hit away from KO, so the PCs ended up prevailing after two more combat checks.

Was I too generous? I know the goal is for everyone to have fun, and they did, but I don't want to get in the habit of bailing out the party at the first sign of trouble. I think if we were not running a set encounter, I would have come up with some sort of narration to give them a little break or something. As it was, I couldn't think of a good reason for Trex to hide in his ship, and they had no alternative way to complete the encounter other than steal the ship.

Sounds like you handled a difficult situation effectively with good imagination. I'd say you did fine. I might agree for a more experienced game that you gave the players more than the benefit of the doubt, but it's hard to learn how to scale things appropriately, and even once you have experience the dice can always throw you for a loop. Nothing wrong with fudging a little, especially as you're learning. Really, as long as everyone had fun, then it was a success.

A couple of things to keep in mind for the future. First, it's okay for the players to learn to run away. Players are often very reluctant to do that, but sometimes it's a good lesson. Second, it's always good to have a backup plan for when things turn against the players (assuming, of course, that the general intent is for the players to succeed...which isn't always the case... ). If the players aren't backing down and it looks like they'll be taken out, it doesn't mean they die. They could be captured, or left in the dust, or a third party could arrive to make things more chaotic, or...whatever. Having some idea of the motives of the opposition can help you devise a backup plan that lets the PCs "fail forward" (to borrow a term from Desslok).

Was I too generous? I know the goal is for everyone to have fun, and they did, but I don't want to get in the habit of bailing out the party at the first sign of trouble. I think if we were not running a set encounter, I would have come up with some sort of narration to give them a little break or something. As it was, I couldn't think of a good reason for Trex to hide in his ship, and they had no alternative way to complete the encounter other than steal the ship.

Well, it’s no fun for anyone if the PCs get wiped off the map. So, if you’re a GM and you find yourself in a situation where that’s a real risk, then I think you have to decide what you’re going to do.

One way to handle it is for some of the bad guys to "disappear", or get taken out by friendly fire, etc…. When you can rationally explain that through the dice rolls, that’s great!

Another way you could handle that is to have the bad guys decide to capture the party and not kill them. Then they get a chance to break out of jail and maybe complete the adventure, but in a different way.

However, in my experience you want to avoid lying to the PCs. And you also want to avoid Deus Ex Machina situations where you have one or more NPCs save the day — D.E.M. on rare occasions can be okay, but you at least want to avoid it as a regular thing.

I think you handled it with grace and creativity. You used Threat and Advantage very well, and I think you modeled for your players the sort of creative uses the dice results can be put to--make sure they know they can suggest these results as well!

As has been said above, losing a battle (even by having your Wound Threshold exceeded) doesn't mean death unless the GM specifically decides to kill them, and Trex would probably want to keep them alive anyway.

A few miscellaneous thoughts--it's within your authority to simply narrate when Trex comes back into the fight. There's nothing wrong with having him make a Mechanics check, and that was a clever way of handling it. However, if you're concerned about the flow of the fight, you could also keep him trapped in there until the party has dealt with the droids and is breathing a sigh of relief--only to have the ramp suddenly start lowering...

I don't have the adventure at hand, but the stat block for the droids ought to indicate if they're minions or rivals. In my experience, a Nemesis and 4 Rivals is going to be a wickedly difficult fight for three characters. I suspect they were intended to be Minions.

Sounds like you did a great job, though!

One of the things people forget is a little gem listed in all 3 Core Rule Books. If you are worried about the outcome, or want to change the outcome there is nothing that says you have to play every single round of combat until someone is "eliminated". Combat can end whenever you want. If the fight is going poorly, have a puff of smoke and the baddie escape while the good guys decide on a plan then go at it again.

I have had stories where the battle started 15-30 minutes before the end of the session, when the end of the session comes, I have a final roll and just let the story resolve itself regardless of the outcome.

So, I guess the main thing to keep in mind is you are a GM not a video game official. =)

I don't have the adventure at hand, but the stat block for the droids ought to indicate if they're minions or rivals. In my experience, a Nemesis and 4 Rivals is going to be a wickedly difficult fight for three characters. I suspect they were intended to be Minions.

They are actually rivals, which threw me for a loop the first time I ran it, as I expected minions.

I'm with the others above:

1) You did well in creatively and more-or-less realistically working out the difficulties of the session. Not every escape or way out in the movies makes total sense, but it works well enough in the context and keeps the adventure rolling.

2) That's a good example for your players of using imagination with the dice results. Encourage them to think outside the box and come up with their own crazy uses of advantages/triumphs.

3) Having a back-up to "fail forward" is a good idea, and remembering that failure isn't necessarily death is key. Also, maybe the baddies want the characters to think they've escaped, like ANH with the tracking beacon on the Falcon.

4) It's also good to keep in mind that the real possibility of failure makes the game interesting and dynamic. Star Wars would be pretty boring if the heroes never had setbacks and obstacles that they overcome for epic comebacks.

5) Keep to Rule 0: it's a game; have fun! Everything else should go toward that goal.

Keep up the good work! We look forward to hearing more, and we're always glad to help.

I think you handled it with grace and creativity. You used Threat and Advantage very well, and I think you modeled for your players the sort of creative uses the dice results can be put to--make sure they know they can suggest these results as well!

As has been said above, losing a battle (even by having your Wound Threshold exceeded) doesn't mean death unless the GM specifically decides to kill them, and Trex would probably want to keep them alive anyway.

A few miscellaneous thoughts--it's within your authority to simply narrate when Trex comes back into the fight. There's nothing wrong with having him make a Mechanics check, and that was a clever way of handling it. However, if you're concerned about the flow of the fight, you could also keep him trapped in there until the party has dealt with the droids and is breathing a sigh of relief--only to have the ramp suddenly start lowering...

I don't have the adventure at hand, but the stat block for the droids ought to indicate if they're minions or rivals. In my experience, a Nemesis and 4 Rivals is going to be a wickedly difficult fight for three characters. I suspect they were intended to be Minions.

Sounds like you did a great job, though!

Thanks. It didn't really occur to me to just keep him in there until it was more opportune to come out. And unfortunately, the stat block does not indicate they are minions. It does not specify rivals, but it also is not worded the way the storm trooper minion group (indicating stats are based on the full group) was worded.

Overall I think were I not running things "by the book" I probably would have been more flexible and more ready to think of alternative ways to end the battle. Having them captured by Trex and and him getting ready to turn them back in to Teemo when they wake up would have been pretty awesome!

I have 2 more friends that could not make it and want me to run it again for them. I'm likely going to make some combat adjustments. Maybe only 2 droids. Trex is fairly formidable on his own.

Sounds like my encounter in Long arm of the hutt, when the players were ambushed by the Bounty hunters on Ryloth. I had three players, and I knew i had a potential PK on my hands when 2 of the players were severely wounded, and The wookiee was stunned unconscious with only one bounty hunter down.

I have the Twi'lek "BB" pull out a holdout and take one out, and then the Gand with the rifle dragged the stunned wookiee in the Lylek den. Leaving 1 Bounty hunter who also fled into the caves.

The players heard some primal scream in the cave, and when they investigated they found the wookiee, a broken blaster rifle, some rubble, and the Lylek coving up it's den again.

You did fine. THo I would have left two droids as guards when the players were wounded. or even having the droids remain as guards at the entrance, and only when combat starts, do they start making their way down the ramp so they can get a shot.. delaying them for a turn or two.

Sounds like my encounter in Long arm of the hutt, when the players were ambushed by the Bounty hunters on Ryloth. I had three players, and I knew i had a potential PK on my hands when 2 of the players were severely wounded, and The wookiee was stunned unconscious with only one bounty hunter down.

I have the Twi'lek "BB" pull out a holdout and take one out, and then the Gand with the rifle dragged the stunned wookiee in the Lylek den. Leaving 1 Bounty hunter who also fled into the caves.

The players heard some primal scream in the cave, and when they investigated they found the wookiee, a broken blaster rifle, some rubble, and the Lylek coving up it's den again.

You did fine. THo I would have left two droids as guards when the players were wounded. or even having the droids remain as guards at the entrance, and only when combat starts, do they start making their way down the ramp so they can get a shot.. delaying them for a turn or two.

That was the thing. The droids did come from the entrance (2 of them). It took them until round 3 to take a shot. Haha.