My first time GMing Edge of the Empire will be in a few days, and I wanted some thoughts on what I have planned.

About six years before New Hope, a derelict cruiser drifts into Hutt Space near Nar Kaaga. The PCs are part of an archaeological expedition hired by one of the lieutenants under the hutt Muurstan, whether as security, slicing, whatever. One of the serious archaeologists recognizes the ship design as one that fell out of use well over two thousand years ago.

So the PCs and the rest of the expedition board the ship to find several hundred bodies, a few fighters/shuttles, and between 31 and 35 cargo containers with the contents frozen in carbonite. There's just enough juice left in the ship to download the databanks, so everything that isn't bolted down is taken to one of Muurstan's research facilities on Nar Shaddaa.

The first priority is to decript the databanks, rather difficult when the basic programming language is no longer used, which is to be done before any of the containers are opened up. Eventually the data is deciphered and reveals that the derelict ship, the Star of Alderaan, was transporting supplies for a Republic colony on the frontier world of Belsavis.

So one of the NPCs working at the facility opens up one of the containers. Out thaws a female miraluka. Now here's the part that I am having trouble with.

All but one of the containers contain convicts and Sith Lords en route to a prison world that officially doesn't exist. What I want is for all of them to get loose and most to escape. I am having a hard time deciding how to do that. I am currently thinking that around the time that the miraluka is thawed the facility is attacked either by imperials or a gang, but I'd be interested in hearing the thoughts that others have on the matter.

I would keep the idea of a malfunction or an attack as a backup and first try to convince the party to thaw everyone. Perhaps the data from the computer is only partially recoverable such as a list of "cargo" with names and a destination. The thawed miraluka could try to convince the players that they were captured as slaves and being taken to auction. That or a similar cause that the PCs would support and be likely to free the prisoners over. Or since the PCs are working for a Hutt he orders them released as a way of collecting "favors" to be called in latter (Im thinking demolition man here). There is always the influence force power that you can use also to "pursuade" the players to unthaw the cargo.

My thinking is that if the players are responsible they will feel culpable and want to correct the issue. Or if they are not that kind of group an imperial officer finds out they were involved and forces them to help.

I would keep the idea of a malfunction or an attack as a backup and first try to convince the party to thaw everyone. Perhaps the data from the computer is only partially recoverable such as a list of "cargo" with names and a destination. The thawed miraluka could try to convince the players that they were captured as slaves and being taken to auction. That or a similar cause that the PCs would support and be likely to free the prisoners over. Or since the PCs are working for a Hutt he orders them released as a way of collecting "favors" to be called in latter (Im thinking demolition man here). There is always the influence force power that you can use also to "pursuade" the players to unthaw the cargo.

My thinking is that if the players are responsible they will feel culpable and want to correct the issue. Or if they are not that kind of group an imperial officer finds out they were involved and forces them to help.

I like this a lot! Thanks. There's also a post on another thread that I can use, it's on the first page of the 'ideas for a derelict ship' thread. It talks about turning a harrower-class dreadnought into an entire adventure.

I read that thread there is a lot of good infromation on it. My advice on this game would be to give the players and dice considerable control over the story. using the die results fo success and advnatages to describe why things happens helps a lot. you rolled threat on that computer check? well that is because the control pannel started sparking and flickering on and offf. this system really helps creating the details if you allow it.

If your true plan is to have the prisoners thawed and escape, consider starting with that having already occurred. Perhaps the party isn't the first recent group to find the ship and the previous group (pirates) started looting before downloading anything. Before they knew anything, Sith are force-choking people and all heck is breaking loose. You could use some anachronistic oddities to add to the mystery -- a modern blaster here, a DataPad there, a MedKit spilled open on the floor. Use your imagination. Just make sure that they don't encounter more than one or two of these clues before they get to the main control room. Once the put the pieces together, they figure out that pirates landed here a few days ago (almost immediately after the Hutts figured out the ship was there), defrosted (most of) the cargo, fought a pitched battle that someone cleaned up as best they could, and left in the ship. There are a few individuals who were frozen in carbonite that have been sliced in half by what looks like a fusion cutter. If they thoroughly search the cargo hold, they'll find one or two individuals who are still frozen and still in one piece. Hijinks ensue.

I was thinking since the ship is in poor condition that when they thawed the Miraluka the rest started thawing too.

I like the idea of someone else getting there first which would allow some to be already free before your players decide what to do with the rest, my question is does the Sith and their surviving followers flee using the pirate ship or steal either the players ship or a Hutt vessel thereby increasing their obligation as they're obviously blamed for the loss?

Or one of the scientist call the players from the lab. And tell the players he have managed to crack the code and bring the old system back online. Then he pauses and say.......... what have I done....The containers....they are all beeing opened by the computer.................................... Hey guys there are People in the containers................Hello I am...What are you doing to me.........aaargh.....Then silence in the com.

Thanks to everyone for replying. There are some great suggestions that I'll be gladly using. If you will excuse me, I have some writing to do!

The first session was last night and all things considered I think that it went well. The PCs arrived in system with a whole fleet, and began investigating. The technician of the group had a great deal of amusing difficulty in trying to turn the artificial gravity, life support, etc. on (the first attempt resulted in one success, two threat, and a despair so I ruled that the gravity turned on for five seconds then shut itself off).

The PCs and the expedition that they were a part of found a grand total of 37 containers, all but one of them had the contents frozen in carbonite. The odd one out was empty and the writing on the side of it read: Dromund Kaas brandy. The expedition managed to get a basic idea of the basic underlying programing language, and so while I was originally planning that they wouldn't be able to understand the language until Nar Shaddaa, a quick call behind the screen determined that most of the data on the ship was corrupted. All that the expedition was able to determine of the original destination was Bel*****.

Now, in addition to the multitude of mummified bodies the expedition found two relatively fresh corpses. One was a human with a circular, cauterized hole through his chest and the other a wookie with its head physically torn of without any sort of grip marks on the body.

Now, what the PCs have yet to learn is that there were thirteen containers that pirates had taken between a smuggler's crew finding the vessel and the archaeological expedition arriving. The Dromund Kaas brandy container was opened by accident and the sith lords that had been within killed most of the pirates and stole both their and the smugglers' ships. Next session will have the PCs learn just what exactly is in those containers that they took to Nar Shaddaa.

Well, the last two sessions didn't go according to plan. The PCs managed to avoid arrest from the Imperials, but the Empire has declared war on the Hutt Cartel due to the awakening and release of nearly a hundred ancient Sith lords, including one that was an infamous Dark Council member for rising to the position from slavery. I look forward to running a F&D game in this setting.

I've always wondered, and this thread has got me to ask, what keeps there from being more than 2 Sith?

I'm familiar with the declaration of Darth Baane who decided on the two Sith rule. I believe he felt that more than 2 Sith would make them less powerful. But how exactly is this enforced? Especially in a situation such as the one above where several Sith are suddenly released into the Galaxy?

It is "enforced" by the fact that any students beyond the current two Sith are not considered to be Sith. Like with the Inquisitor from SW Rebels, in any other era he would be a Sith Lord, but under Rule of Two he is simply an agent that happens to be a Dark Side wielder

I've always wondered, and this thread has got me to ask, what keeps there from being more than 2 Sith?

I'm familiar with the declaration of Darth Baane who decided on the two Sith rule. I believe he felt that more than 2 Sith would make them less powerful. But how exactly is this enforced? Especially in a situation such as the one above where several Sith are suddenly released into the Galaxy?

It's not enforced, except by those who want to enforce it. If you watch TCW, Maul and his brother declare they are the "true" lords of the Sith...and then Maul learns, to his chagrin, that he is not...

Basically they all agree that they get more done when they're not fighting each other all the time, but that doesn't mean they won't take their chance when they see it (or think they see it).