OK my next session (session 5 of this https://red-talon-wanted-dead-or-alive.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log campaign) will be Jan 3 or maybe Jan 10 (three of my 7 players can't make it on Jan 3, 2 have said that they could, and 2 haven't replied yet).

But the situation is that the party has recovered a data chip (that everyone, e.g. black sun, rival hutts, isb, corsec, the pyke syndicate, etc. Wants) and destroyed the only 3 copies that were made. I'm going to have the first real space battle as someone's last ditch attempt to get the data chip before they return it to Grondo the Hutt. Then they go to Grondo and each (except Andra who works for the hutt) collects 15K credits. I need an adventure on Nal Hutta, or Nar Shaddaa, to cement J-8 and Karsten Eshan as crew of the Red Talon (as opposed to extra muscle for this particular mission) I'm thinking having J-8's obsession about finding out about his past (rebuilt and mostly reprogrammed HK-50 droid) and Vaesha Tarn's sex tape/ex coming up and they need to work together to deal with them, and they stir up trouble have to leave in a hurry. Now if I only had Lords of Nal Hutta to help me figure out what kind of trouble that they could get in and with who, but in the meantime I am turning to you my fellow gm's and star wars nerds for help. Thanks in advance

One idea is to have someone (say a rival hutt) strike at a couple of them for revenge after they've turned over the chip. "you all pissed me off" kind of thing. Combine this with an opportunity for the two "extra muscle" character to aid and/or connect with your existent crew and you've got the building of a relationship starting.

A lot of crews come together because "I have no where else to go, need to get on a ship, and at least I can (mostly) trust you."

Could you introduce a detour? Maybe some Imperial trouble will give them something to do while you wait for the book. If they're in Onderon they're a long way from Hutt space.....

FWIW, the normal time for a product to be "on the boat" is 6 weeks, but I sadly didn't catch when it changed to that status.

Depending on how you run hyperspace, there's nowhere in the galaxy that's very far from anywhere else. E III makes it look like travel from Coruscant to the Outer Rim only takes hours, so the games suggested times are quite long in comparison to those.

Depending on how you run hyperspace, there's nowhere in the galaxy that's very far from anywhere else. E III makes it look like travel from Coruscant to the Outer Rim only takes hours, so the games suggested times are quite long in comparison to those.

That's only if you're using the power of the dark side. IV suggests days for a similar trip. So...speed of plot.

Depending on how you run hyperspace, there's nowhere in the galaxy that's very far from anywhere else. E III makes it look like travel from Coruscant to the Outer Rim only takes hours, so the games suggested times are quite long in comparison to those.

We've got a couple of examples of hyperspace time: Maul from Courscant to Tatooine in one day-isn, the Emperor from Courscant to Mustifar in what appears to be a couple of hours, and from Tatooine to Alderaan in hours. The Falcon we know has a wicked fast hyperdrive - so double that into a day or two for the average PC ship. Presumably the Emperor, king of the F'in Galaxy, has a sweet pimped out ride, so assume a comparable (let less prone to breaking down) hyperdrive. That just leaves Maul - who has a x1 at least. I can't see the Future King of the F'ing Galaxy letting his right hand man run around in a busted ass ship.

So from one extreme side of the galaxy to the other side - 5 or 6 days in a x1? Perhaps a couple more days if you have lousy and unpredictable routes?

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5294

the Emperor from Courscant to Mustifar in what appears to be a couple of hours,

I might need a refresher here, but how do we know the Emperor was on Coruscant when everything went down on Mustafar? It might be likely he was hanging out nearby in case Vader failed....

Pure conjecture, I know. Seems to me that if my 4-mile commute to work can vary by 10 minutes due to traffic and conditions, perhaps the same things exist in hyperspace?

He sensed Vader was in trouble just after Yoda slipped away. It was in the same scene if I recall.

Yeah, pretty much. I seem to recall he was talking to Blue Horned Dude in what was left of the senate chamber when he went "Hmmm, better go save Vader's bacon!"

Ahh, thanks kaosoe and Desslok. But I could swear the trip from Tatooine to Alderaan in IV was longer than a couple hours.

I would agree, canon sources are all over the place, so it seems like they moved at the speed of plot as well!

Still, that's not what OP was asking for, so I'll shut it.

Pure conjecture, I know. Seems to me that if my 4-mile commute to work can vary by 10 minutes due to traffic and conditions, perhaps the same things exist in hyperspace?

In LA, one mile can take hours, and that’s if traffic is slightly worse than usual. Really bad traffic can keep you out there for ten hours or more.

I wonder how you model that in hyperspace?

Pure conjecture, I know. Seems to me that if my 4-mile commute to work can vary by 10 minutes due to traffic and conditions, perhaps the same things exist in hyperspace?

In LA, one mile can take hours, and that’s if traffic is slightly worse than usual. Really bad traffic can keep you out there for ten hours or more.

I wonder how you model that in hyperspace?

Can you have traffic in space? I would imagine yes, but then again, space is big, even if there are trillions of lifeforms traversing the spacelanes.

The problem with hyperspace travel isn't other ships, it's the planets, stars, asteroids and other obstacles that cast mass shadows into hyperspace. Travel through a system at the wrong angle or at the wrong time (planetary-alignment wise) and your course will have to thread through some "congested" areas, or take a longer route around them altogether. Pretty much work the same as congested traffic, only on a larger scale. If you roll a lot of Threat on your Astrogation check, the stars just don't align well for you this time around.

Although to be fair of all the examples I cited, the Tatooine/Alderaan one is the one that's the least certain. We don't have a "Meanwhile" time frame to go from like we do the others - it's a pure gusstimate.

Keep discussing the space traffic http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xV7Ha3VDbzE

But regarding the original topic of this thread...

Because people couldn't make it on the 3rd or the 10th (I don't run a game unless at least 4 out of my 7 players can make it) the session got delayer to January 31. I heard that lords of Nal Hutta, will be released on January 28, but so far after the brief space battle (the pilot character is being rebuilt as a pilot/rigger), they will meet wit the Hutt, get a good job well done I will call on you again, collect their 15K credits each and have a chance to go shopping on Nar Shaddaa, i've talked with the player of the (salvaged from Raxus prime, rebuilt and reprogrammed HK-50) Droid gadgeteer about working in his back story obsession to find out more about his past, anyway when he walks into a czerka shop to buy say that flame thrower he's been wanting and mouths off to the proprietor meatbag, the proprietor will activate his internal restraiming bolt... that'said the player's idea after I suggested a few things to get the creative juices flowing and asked what he'd like to happen. Anyway this particular hk-50 used to be owned by czerka and used for assassinations, and they scrapped him after he he developed sentience and left to join a bounty hunter's guild (can'take have a rogue Droid on the loose who knows who you had him assassinate) anyway the pilot (hot blue female Twi'lek, who's obligation involves her ex lover who stranded her on tatooine, creditless, and released a sex holovid of them on the holonet/revenge porn... she's a minor holonet celebrity for the wrong reasons, we've got a running gag that she can't keep her clothes on, e.g. a despair had her fall out of a tree and have her top got torn off last session... and her holonet fame comes back to bite her at the most inopportune times) anyway her obligation is going to come up too and they're going to work together to save each other... so if you can give me some ideas about that (the Droid has 5 obligation, which isn't going to decrease and might increase this session, the twi'lek has 20 which I would like to decrease) so thanks in advance for your help

Keep discussing the space traffic

But regarding the original topic of this thread...

Because people couldn't make it on the 3rd or the 10th (I don't run a game unless at least 4 out of my 7 players can make it) the session got delayer to January 31. I heard that lords of Nal Hutta, will be released on January 28, but so far after the brief space battle (the pilot character is being rebuilt as a pilot/rigger), they will meet wit the Hutt, get a good job well done I will call on you again, collect their 15K credits each and have a chance to go shopping on Nar Shaddaa, i've talked with the player of the (salvaged from Raxus prime, rebuilt and reprogrammed HK-50) Droid gadgeteer about working in his back story obsession to find out more about his past, anyway when he walks into a czerka shop to buy say that flame thrower he's been wanting and mouths off to the proprietor meatbag, the proprietor will activate his internal restraiming bolt... that'said the player's idea after I suggested a few things to get the creative juices flowing and asked what he'd like to happen. Anyway this particular hk-50 used to be owned by czerka and used for assassinations, and they scrapped him after he he developed sentience and left to join a bounty hunter's guild (can'take have a rogue Droid on the loose who knows who you had him assassinate) anyway the pilot (hot blue female Twi'lek, who's obligation involves her ex lover who stranded her on tatooine, creditless, and released a sex holovid of them on the holonet/revenge porn... she's a minor holonet celebrity for the wrong reasons, we've got a running gag that she can't keep her clothes on, e.g. a despair had her fall out of a tree and have her top got torn off last session... and her holonet fame comes back to bite her at the most inopportune times) anyway her obligation is going to come up too and they're going to work together to save each other... so if you can give me some ideas about that (the Droid has 5 obligation, which isn't going to decrease and might increase this session, the twi'lek has 20 which I would like to decrease) so thanks in advance for your help

If you wanted to tie in Obligations, maybe the droid finds something that seems familiar, but doesn't know where, but does contain some info on someone that does know about his past.

For the Twi'lek, maybe just decrease the Obligation gradually, narratively being that perhaps people are starting to forget or something

Keep discussing the space traffic

But regarding the original topic of this thread...

Because people couldn't make it on the 3rd or the 10th (I don't run a game unless at least 4 out of my 7 players can make it) the session got delayer to January 31. I heard that lords of Nal Hutta, will be released on January 28, but so far after the brief space battle (the pilot character is being rebuilt as a pilot/rigger), they will meet wit the Hutt, get a good job well done I will call on you again, collect their 15K credits each and have a chance to go shopping on Nar Shaddaa, i've talked with the player of the (salvaged from Raxus prime, rebuilt and reprogrammed HK-50) Droid gadgeteer about working in his back story obsession to find out more about his past, anyway when he walks into a czerka shop to buy say that flame thrower he's been wanting and mouths off to the proprietor meatbag, the proprietor will activate his internal restraiming bolt... that'said the player's idea after I suggested a few things to get the creative juices flowing and asked what he'd like to happen. Anyway this particular hk-50 used to be owned by czerka and used for assassinations, and they scrapped him after he he developed sentience and left to join a bounty hunter's guild (can'take have a rogue Droid on the loose who knows who you had him assassinate) anyway the pilot (hot blue female Twi'lek, who's obligation involves her ex lover who stranded her on tatooine, creditless, and released a sex holovid of them on the holonet/revenge porn... she's a minor holonet celebrity for the wrong reasons, we've got a running gag that she can't keep her clothes on, e.g. a despair had her fall out of a tree and have her top got torn off last session... and her holonet fame comes back to bite her at the most inopportune times) anyway her obligation is going to come up too and they're going to work together to save each other... so if you can give me some ideas about that (the Droid has 5 obligation, which isn't going to decrease and might increase this session, the twi'lek has 20 which I would like to decrease) so thanks in advance for your help

If you wanted to tie in Obligations, maybe the droid finds something that seems familiar, but doesn't know where, but does contain some info on someone that does know about his past.

For the Twi'lek, maybe just decrease the Obligation gradually, narratively being that perhaps people are starting to forget or something

I has hoping for more story suggestions/ideas

Right now I'm thinking that there is going to be a "teaser" of Vaesha Tarn (the hot blue sarcastic female Twi'lek pilot) and Ka'rin Bel (her ex a male blue Twi'lek) playing outside a very sleazy holovid theatre on Nar Shaddaa and a few people in the crowd recognize her, "that's Vaesha Tarn" and several want a private (or maybe not so private, a not so secluded alley will do) performance... I imagine that Vaesha will have words with the theater's proprietor and be interested in where he got the holovid (putting her on the trail of Ka'rin Bel who knew she were on Nar Shaddaa and holonet-mailed the holovid to the theater owner just to make life difficult for her). Part of her obligation is revenge against Ka'rin Bel.

So do any of you have ideas about that?

Keep discussing the space traffic

But regarding the original topic of this thread...

Because people couldn't make it on the 3rd or the 10th (I don't run a game unless at least 4 out of my 7 players can make it) the session got delayer to January 31. I heard that lords of Nal Hutta, will be released on January 28, but so far after the brief space battle (the pilot character is being rebuilt as a pilot/rigger), they will meet wit the Hutt, get a good job well done I will call on you again, collect their 15K credits each and have a chance to go shopping on Nar Shaddaa, i've talked with the player of the (salvaged from Raxus prime, rebuilt and reprogrammed HK-50) Droid gadgeteer about working in his back story obsession to find out more about his past, anyway when he walks into a czerka shop to buy say that flame thrower he's been wanting and mouths off to the proprietor meatbag, the proprietor will activate his internal restraiming bolt... that'said the player's idea after I suggested a few things to get the creative juices flowing and asked what he'd like to happen. Anyway this particular hk-50 used to be owned by czerka and used for assassinations, and they scrapped him after he he developed sentience and left to join a bounty hunter's guild (can'take have a rogue Droid on the loose who knows who you had him assassinate) anyway the pilot (hot blue female Twi'lek, who's obligation involves her ex lover who stranded her on tatooine, creditless, and released a sex holovid of them on the holonet/revenge porn... she's a minor holonet celebrity for the wrong reasons, we've got a running gag that she can't keep her clothes on, e.g. a despair had her fall out of a tree and have her top got torn off last session... and her holonet fame comes back to bite her at the most inopportune times) anyway her obligation is going to come up too and they're going to work together to save each other... so if you can give me some ideas about that (the Droid has 5 obligation, which isn't going to decrease and might increase this session, the twi'lek has 20 which I would like to decrease) so thanks in advance for your help

If you wanted to tie in Obligations, maybe the droid finds something that seems familiar, but doesn't know where, but does contain some info on someone that does know about his past.

For the Twi'lek, maybe just decrease the Obligation gradually, narratively being that perhaps people are starting to forget or something

I has hoping for more story suggestions/ideas

Right now I'm thinking that there is going to be a "teaser" of Vaesha Tarn (the hot blue sarcastic female Twi'lek pilot) and Ka'rin Bel (her ex a male blue Twi'lek) playing outside a very sleazy holovid theatre on Nar Shaddaa and a few people in the crowd recognize her, "that's Vaesha Tarn" and several want a private (or maybe not so private, a not so secluded alley will do) performance... I imagine that Vaesha will have words with the theater's proprietor and be interested in where he got the holovid (putting her on the trail of Ka'rin Bel who knew she were on Nar Shaddaa and holonet-mailed the holovid to the theater owner just to make life difficult for her). Part of her obligation is revenge against Ka'rin Bel.

So do any of you have ideas about that?

Being stopped by "fans" would certainly be a valid story point! But otherwise, maybe she finds Ka'rin's trail, perhaps she catches him on another planet, or, if you wanted to introduce a recurring Slicer NPC/PC, maybe she hires them for their services?

I already have a recurring slicer NPC "Ziggy"

http://www.mediafire.com/view/3a0ob565u86l3dy/Ziggy.pdf

at least that's the name Vaesha knew him by when they were street rats on Coruscant boosting speeders as kids working for a Toydarian. The imps shut down the operation, used a bait car, err "bait speeder", To escape the imps, Vaesha hid in a crate that got loaded onto the ship of a human smuggle Garren Tarn who raised her as his daughter

here's what Vaesha's player wrote about her

https://red-talon-wanted-dead-or-alive.obsidianportal.com/characters/vaesha-tarn

Anyway Ziggy remotely (meaning from a distance, but they wouldn't have been able to save her without him) helped the PC's rescue her and J-8 in session 3. He grew up to be probably one of the top five slicers on Coruscant (on a planet with a trillion people that's saying something) and routinely scrubs the holovid of Vaesha and Ka'rin from holonet, and has kept Garren from seeing it (who has been trying to see if that really was his daughter, but he keeps getting broken links), but the holovid keeps popping back up almost faster than even Ziggy can remove it. Ziggy is the one who told Vaesha about the holovid (she wasn't even aware of it before then), which made her want to "kill" (figuratively speaking) Ka'rin even more.

I was figuring on having Ziggy scrub the computer of the theatre owner just before she got there (and work in how Ka'rin had to go to extreme lengths to avoid his original copy from being deleted, for example he makes a copy on a disconnected system and takes that copy to holonet cafe where he holonet-males the file, and discards the media afterwards to prevent a "virus" with a seek and destroy mission for the holovid from infecting the machine holding the original copy).... but I could have him leave a note for Vaesha on the theater's computer.

Do you have any other ideas?

Maybe Ziggy finds that the master copy is to heavily firewalled or something very restricting that means that he has to go to Ka'rin's and secretly wipe it from his computer. Make it so that it's a time-consuming process and that there are guards wandering the grounds. Just when the end is in sight, release the dogs of war and watch as the PCs scramble to protect Ziggy and fend off guards. At the end, there could be an encounter with the big man himself, Ka'rin. This could also tie in with the droid, maybe there's some data related to purchases, which includes it.

Or maybe her father finds out and demands that she explain herself. Obviously, that would put a strain on an ongoing storyline. Maybe he comes all the way to Hutt Space to demand an explanation, perhaps at the end of a drawn out rant, he agrees to assist in taking down Ka'rin.

Ka'rin isn't a criminal mastermind/evil genius, he's a conman and a ****** bag, he's scum not villainy, he's a stooge for probably a rival hutt crime lord. He's an recurring side story, where they "almost catch up with him" multiple times, but narrowly miss him, and when they do catch up to him he's under the protection of a criminally important somebody (likely a Hutt) who the PC's won't risk crossing because their Hutt patron doesn't want to start a war with Ka'rin's Hutt, but the protection works both ways, then the story becomes how to convince that important somebody (Ka'rin's Hutt) that Ka'rin isn't worth protecting, which will involving proving to the rival Hutt that the conman Ka'rin is at least in some small ways working counter to his interest (He's a conman, he's likely skimming of the top of the profits he's earning for his Hutt).... so I need to figure out how Ka'rin gets away this time... any ideas?

edit: seriously, that word is censored??? ok then I'll call him a d-bag (feminine hygiene product) and let you figure it out.

Maybe he hijacks a ship (or uses his own.) This could result in an epic dogfight to take him down or board him. Then let your PCs take the reins and watch as they inevitably decide to torture/interrogate/kill him.

Another idea, maybe this guy made some other enemies, just as he tries to escape, have the place raided by Stormtroopers, then make it so that he's in even more of a hurry to get away, and this could lead to the PCs chasing him through dirty streets. This could allow for him to pull some classic chase gimmicks on Threat/Despair, like tipping over barrels of grease, threatening a nearby bystander, or stealing a speederbike

I'm thinking that ziggy sends the equivalent of a text message to go to the theatre at x location, bring the Droid that protected your virtue. They go to the location, essentially a pobox/safety deposit box, locker where they find a space USB drive, then go to the (sleazy holovid theater), j-8 saves her from her fans, they confront and coerce the proprietor into letting them insert the flash drive into the theater's computer which wipes it and checks whether copies of the holiday were made, one was they confront the proprietor, they scrapped that copy, and there's a map to a holonet café and a video of Ka'rin Bel at a computer... they call in the rest of the party... go to the holonet cafe interrogated the proprietor... then what

Maybe, they find a note (he's clearly not above doing such a thing.) Maybe he did it on purpose and left some coordinates, and he's luring the PCs into a trap, or he's trying to bait them into a red herring that gives him some kind of advantage.