Hi all,

My next session is this Saturday and I'd like some tips advice for making it memorable in a good way.

The players are tracking down a copy of a data chip that contains the business dealings of Grondo the Hutt (who is paying them to retrieve it) they have retrieved the original chip and destroyed 2 of 3 copies that were made. The third one was being transported by a named gand from Corsucant to be delivered to the pyke syndicate, when it got pulled out of hyperspace by a gravity well projector mine/satellite on the edge of the onderon system by trandoshan mercenaries who were being paid to acquire the chip... EVERYBODY from rival hutts to black sun, to ISB, to CorSec, wants this chip. Anyway a space battle Gand ship vs. that of the trandoshans wrecked both ships and survivors from both made it to onderon in escape pods and the party tracked the ion trails and found the pods and the next session is going to be a slog through the jungle tracking the gand while fighting him, the dosh, and various beasties. How can I make it awesome (republic comando music for starters) but what plot points encounter design tips would make this shine? I'm thinking of having a beastie bite the hand off an NPC whose holding the chip and then the PC'S will have to decide whether to let it go or track and kill the vicious beastie. I'm particularly looking for advice on skill checks in the jungle tracking etc.

Ooh I have recently run a 4-session long jungle adventure! It was based on Trail of Cthulhu's "The Jungle God", found in "Shadows over Filmland" scenario book. If you can - get your hands on it, lots of inspiration.

But some points:

- At some point perhaps all the parties involved would have to cooperate in order to survive, while still plotting their move.

- The expedition (survivors) are attacked by two semi-intelligent 'lions'. Each night they creep into the camp and kill somebody... Or one acts as a decoy while another gets some food (it might be some time until the PCs realize there are 2 beasts).

- Crossing a river. Filled with nasties. This is actually a moment a mechanic can shine while designing a bridge. While the bridge is ready to cross add a thunderstorm.

- A stampede of ronto-like creatures. A day later:

- A march of fireants (or similar insects) - the PCs have to quickly make barricades with fire, moats etc.

- A giant snake

- a venomous snake

- a mysterious creature stalking them (or is it just in their minds?)

- showdown in mysterious ruins

I would keep the environment foremost in their mind, mostly by adding setback dice to nearly every check as appropriate.

Using Fear is probably quite useful too. Also, give 'em a nasty thunderstorm to deal with.

Beyond The Rim could provide you with some inspiration as well.

Oh yes - environment. Talents like swift are great help - remember that crossing difficult terrain costs 2 maneuvers. Setback dice for humidity, temperature and annoying insects. Food and supplies - pick a number - that is how much supplies they managed to salvage from the crashsite (in days). Pick another number - that is how much days they need to reach their goal. The supplies get lost during various crises, plus one point per day.* Hunting for supplies takes at least a day...

Another encounter idea: a rogue, forgotten assassin droid - it could attack any party on the surface, all of them or none, just be there, searching for its target, as it has for the last 20 years...

In my game the PCs had time to prepare for the expedition so they had all temperature cloaks, a perimeter fence, lifeform scanner etc. Plus 5 eopie and 40 bearers. None survived to the end. It was that hard.

*you could use edible small snacks. Have a bowl of them to represent their supplies (counted off of course) and then eat them as they dwindle...

The Fear Checks and Setback dice suggested by TheMensch are great. Fear Check at a new monster. Setback Dice and increased difficulty for obstructed views, jungle rain storms, and poor footing.

I think Resilience is for resisting the effects of heat. I'd look down the skill list and try to use all the obscure skills that you can. The use of a large river would be good.

One idea is to keep them guessing and off-guard. They EXPECT something linear in nature: track 'em down, fight monstrous beasts, catch 'em, and fight 'em. A surprise would be the arrival of a large mercenary force in the middle of the jungle, heavy armament, and vehicles so now they're all being hunted. Another idea is to run into a group of Rodian Big-Game Hunters and they unexpectedly have to use communication skills here in the middle of the jungle. But the hunters are just as likely to hunt THEM as they are any other game. So the idea is, "They are tracking the gand and run into something completely different." Another option might be a group of cannibals! Hope that helps.

I hear speeder bike races/combat gets a whole lot more exciting in the jungle.

If you have natives, they tend to be able to climb and move around easily. This adds a third dimension into combat which can change the way it works.

Ooh I have recently run a 4-session long jungle adventure! It was based on Trail of Cthulhu's "The Jungle God", found in "Shadows over Filmland" scenario book. If you can - get your hands on it, lots of inspiration.

But some points:

- At some point perhaps all the parties involved would have to cooperate in order to survive, while still plotting their move.

- The expedition (survivors) are attacked by two semi-intelligent 'lions'. Each night they creep into the camp and kill somebody... Or one acts as a decoy while another gets some food (it might be some time until the PCs realize there are 2 beasts).

- Crossing a river. Filled with nasties. This is actually a moment a mechanic can shine while designing a bridge. While the bridge is ready to cross add a thunderstorm.

- A stampede of ronto-like creatures. A day later:

- A march of fireants (or similar insects) - the PCs have to quickly make barricades with fire, moats etc.

- A giant snake

- a venomous snake

- a mysterious creature stalking them (or is it just in their minds?)

- showdown in mysterious ruins

I found "The Lord of the Jungle" which I think is what you meant. Thanks that helped for inspiration. Never read a Call of Cuthulhu RPG book before.

Fantastic! Just remember a few points: Call of Cthulhu games usually take place in 1920s, when technology was limited etc. Hence the whole 'expedition' with bearers, months difficult trek and so on. To adapt this scenario I had to create a new planet (Carcosa , it was only discovered a few years before the adventure took place), which was hidden in a nebula that damaged ships (I had to have a reason for the PCs not to have their ship there - if they had had it they would just fly to the ruins, which were their destination). Repulsorlift tech did not work there etc.

Another point: CoC scenarios are usually very deadly, but I found the suggestions in the scenario about supplies and the rate of consumption adequate. The beasts and NPCs you'll have to select and adjust to your PCs by yourself.

Good luck and let us know how the game went!

(I had to have a reason for the PCs not to have their ship there - if they had had it they would just fly to the ruins, which were their destination).

My solution to this has been, "Sure, you can fly right there. Where will you land?"

I suppose they doing do it Luke-style but unless there's some sort of ancient jedi master there to pull them out of the bog, they're going to spend a lot of time there....

My solution to this has been, "Sure, you can fly right there. Where will you land?"

My players: "We make ourselves a landing zone with our concussion missiles and laser cannons."

My solution to this has been, "Sure, you can fly right there. Where will you land?"

My players: "We make ourselves a landing zone with our concussion missiles and laser cannons."

Haha, I originally typed in a solution and thought, "nah, what are the chances someone other than my PCs would do that?" So I erased it.

My solution:

"The ground is too soft and uneven. Also it is on fire now."

But that's about as far as I'll railroad them. If they're being really clever, it's up to me to provide an equally clever path forward rather than penalize their ideas. That explosion they made? Surely that can be seen from space, or it upset an underground aquifer, or it is viewed as some sort of apocalyptic event by blue-skinned natives with savage xenophobia. I let a roll of a Force die inform what happens next. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's not....

I've often wondered why PCs would choose to take a landspeeder/airspeeder for these overland trips through the wilds of uninhabited planets, and the only conclusion I can come to is that there's some sort of environmental constraint that prevents them, or that there's some hidden expense we eschew for the sake of easy play - fuel use, for example.

This was just an example - if not with brimstone and fire, they would find another solution to land... But I agree - I wouldn't stop them from flying to that planet in their own ship. Only it would arrive there heavily damaged, and they hate spending money on repairs (plus, the planet having no starship facilities to repair it). I also needed it isolated for other reasons (the adventure was heavily adapted to suit my campaign).

Good luck and let us know how the game went!

The session did not go according to plan. The PCs split into two groups (3 in one group 4 in the other). The group of 4 was tracking the 12 trandoshan mercenaries (who were attempting to track the Gand and leaving an easy trail to follow but also destroying any evidence of the Gand's tracks that the might have been following). The other group (who had a fringer/recruit PC survivalist type, this session was designed to be his turn to take center stage/the spotlight) were off to the side trying to track the Gand directly (heading roughly in the same direction but in a region that the trandoshans hadn't trampled). The group of 4 PCs only encountered 2 beasties one being a herbivore (i used houjix miniature http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NjAwWDcxOA==/z/-bQAAOxyHltSTzpv/$T2eC16ZHJG8FGs0FPJcuBSTzpvjqqQ~~60_35.JPG ) the other was a lion like beastie (I used the nexu mini), and I had a shoebox lid worth of beastie minis ready to use. The PCs had used a triumph on a perception check to find a "mule like animal" (the houjix miniature) that could carry their gear and use it's keener senses to detect predators. It wasn't a tame animal so the decided not to use it as a mule in case it ran off with their gear. The houjix mini's strong sense of smell detected the nexu mini and bolted alerting the PCs to the nexu mini which was a pretty strong rival. This letter them roll cool or vigilance for initiative (some of them were much better at cool) but the nexu mini scored a triumph on initiative and went first it pounced on Thad Bane (Cad Bane's nephew who is a lawman turned bounty hunter hunting his uncle for killing his father who was also a lawman who tried to bring his brother, cad bane, for accidentally killing an innocent bystander while pursuing a bounty). In the first two rounds the 4 PCs had done enough damage to the nexu mini that it decided to search for an easier dinner (besides the 2 Droid didn't taste good), but they had fired 6 shots which had alerted the trandoshans, who came back. The 12 trandoshans were split into 3 groups of 4, the group of 3 PCs wiped out one group (2 melee minions and 2 ranged rivals) but the fringer/recruit and enforcer both got hit once which brought them down to about half wounds. The leader trandoshan (a heavy/mercenary soldier who had most if the heavy talent tree about a third of the mercenary soldier, 22 wounds, 13 strain, 6 soak by 4 on demand extra soak from the heroic resilience who was carrying a sidewinder [mini gun style heavy repeating blaster] let loose in their general direction against 4 purple and a setback (armor from the fringer/recruit) and was one advantage short of activating autofire. The hit tagged the undamaged PC, which brought her down to slightly less than half (would have brought either of the two to zero wounds). they dropped a grenade (which took out the 2 melee minions) and ran back towards the other PCs, who had climb a tree to ambush the trandoshans. The gadgeteer Droid (4 yellow 1 green for ranged light) was hoping for 2 triumphs to destroy the sidewinder but didn't get any triumphs and after the 10 soak did exactly zero points of damage. the mechanic/doctor Droid with 3 ranks in brawl (2 yellow 1 green), 4 ranks in medicine, and pressure point and built-in mountaineers armor decided to swing down Tarzan style and pressure point the trandoshan nemesis, and succeeded with a triumph decided to slap a repair patch over the trigger of the sidewinder (my suggestion) to keep him from using it for this encounter. Over 3-4 rounds of combat those 4 PCS killed the ranged rival trandoshan critted the nemesis 3 times (one strain from the first critical but did only one wound, and the doctor Droid managed to do 7 more strain to the nemesis (but second wind 2 brought him down to 6 strain) before he decided to regroup with his 4 remaining troops. There were about 3 rolls with a triumph and a despair (trandoshan nemesis had adversary 2), the hot blue twi'lek pilot who can't keep her clothes on (running gag) rolled a despair and fell out of the tree of course her top caught on a branch and tore off leaving her bare chested (this was right after the players wife texted to ask if his character had been naked yet this session). Well after a few more tracking etc. Rolls the party decided that they had had enough of this and remote controlled (beckon call) there ship to come down from orbit, the gadgeteer droid, used his jet pack to fly up to it, then lowered a rope to get the pilot up. Loud then the rest went up. The pic's tried to loud speaker the gand (survivalist/assassin/recruit with 4 yellow and 5 blue for stealth) to make a deal with him (no response), the wilderness ninja gand killed the 2 trandoshan melee minions, the trandoshan nemesis was using his sidewinder to mow down trees with his sidewinder while attempting to hit the gand. The PCS used the lower quad guns to wipe out the trandoshans, because conventional weapons just weren't effective then 4 of them (Thad Bane, the fringer/recruit, the two droids) went down to check if they had also gotten the gand they hadn't, he knocked them on their assess and stole a Comlink and negotiated a sale of the data chip for 100,000 credits and a ride to iziz, (the only city on onderon). They didn't double cross the gand because (I'm holding a thermal detonator, yes a gand who refers to himself as I), he didn't kill them because he recognized Thad Bane (the duros bounty hunter who wears a Kamperdine armored jacket), and didn't want retribution from Cad Bane