Righto.

So, my group are pretty much finished with Trouble Brewing, on their way to Thakba to claim the bounty.

At which point Thakba will rather pointedly explain that he knows they killed Teemo, and if they dont want him telling some other, rather more interested in this info, Hutts, they will do some work for him.

And then onto Debts to Pay. Where I will simply swap Bargos and Thakbas roles (As in DtP, its Borgos who won the mine from Thakba).

After they have finished with that, I start to run out of things.

I can run Beyond the Rim

I can run Tatooine Manhunt from WEG.

I can run Under a Black Sun (For which I am going to need to help fleshing out the adventure up to the point where the written adventure starts).

Or something else anyone could suggest.

What do you think?

Assuming they agree to do some work for Thakba, give them a couple simple one-shots to establish what their routine life is like. A simple smuggling run, or taking on a bounty. Of course they've never completely routine.

Like, maybe Thakba tipped off the Imperials or local authorities at the destination to the smuggling run. Or maybe he didn't tip them off, he just didn't buy them off as he promised. Or maybe Thakba's slicer is second-rate and the false IDs for their ship don't hold up. Or maybe Thakba stole the cargo from another criminal organization... like another Hutt, or Black Sun.

And maybe the simple bounty turns out to be an accomplished smuggler who is very slippery. Or maybe Thakba neglected to mention the bounty is actually an Imperial official. Or in Imperial prison. Maybe both. Or possibly the bounty ends up being a child, that Thakba wants kidnapped to put pressure on a rival. Or maybe not a rival, but an Imperial official.

To use a Firefly quote: "Why do things never go smooth?"

You could just make up some stuff. What your characters' Obligations? Maybe just make up an adventure dealing with one of those.

Part of my issue is I really really struggle to come up with my own adventures.

Ill be posting something about that at some point soon.

Suffice to say, I am rather limited to pre-published stuff, or fan made adventures.

So while Terghons ideas are great, its the detail, the who, the what, the what goes wrong, that I simply cannot seem to figure out.

Don't forget Jewel of Yavin. You could do that.

As much as I LOVE the adventure when I read it, I would not want to run it with my current player makeup. Certainly not yet.

We are all still learning the systems nuaces and gribbly bits, and one of my players is not... shall we say... all the interested in RPing (Shes there for the socialising, and was invited by a member whos not currently playing... and some of us are not all that happy about it, but we cant kick her out)... and she also doesnt like Star Wars (YES! I know! DONT ASK!).

She would probably get very bored and not pay any attention... shes the Marauder, and just likes hitting stuff.

We are all still learning the systems nuaces and gribbly bits, and one of my players is not... shall we say... all the interested in RPing (Shes there for the socialising, and was invited by a member whos not currently playing... and some of us are not all that happy about it, but we cant kick her out)... and she also doesnt like Star Wars (YES! I know! DONT ASK!).

She would probably get very bored and not pay any attention... shes the Marauder, and just likes hitting stuff.

Oh my goodness! I can't believe the girl we kicked out has found another group... Seriously, I know exactly how that can limit things.

We are all still learning the systems nuaces and gribbly bits, and one of my players is not... shall we say... all the interested in RPing (Shes there for the socialising, and was invited by a member whos not currently playing... and some of us are not all that happy about it, but we cant kick her out)... and she also doesnt like Star Wars (YES! I know! DONT ASK!).

She would probably get very bored and not pay any attention... shes the Marauder, and just likes hitting stuff.

Oh my goodness! I can't believe the girl we kicked out has found another group... Seriously, I know exactly how that can limit things.

Shes a lovely lass, but shes not a RPer, and definatly is not into SW.

I stated I didnt want to run a SW game if she wasnt into it, and she insisted I did, not wanting to be the one who prevented me running things.

She was included in the group by another player, who was GMing at the time, without discussing with the group, so we cannot really 'get rid of her', as that would be rude, unkind and horrid.

Shes done well, but if shes not 'into things' she drifts off, tangents, and plays on her ipad.. she doesnt even try and learn the rules for what dice she needs, and doesnt know anything about star wars.. she went off on one about "being able to travel faster than light, but you dont have mobile phones???!??!!????!"

Yeah... 1st World Problems

Can always make up your own missions.

We are all still learning the systems nuaces and gribbly bits, and one of my players is not... shall we say... all the interested in RPing (Shes there for the socialising, and was invited by a member whos not currently playing... and some of us are not all that happy about it, but we cant kick her out)... and she also doesnt like Star Wars (YES! I know! DONT ASK!).

She would probably get very bored and not pay any attention... shes the Marauder, and just likes hitting stuff.

Oh my goodness! I can't believe the girl we kicked out has found another group... Seriously, I know exactly how that can limit things.

Shes a lovely lass, but shes not a RPer, and definatly is not into SW.

I stated I didnt want to run a SW game if she wasnt into it, and she insisted I did, not wanting to be the one who prevented me running things.

She was included in the group by another player, who was GMing at the time, without discussing with the group, so we cannot really 'get rid of her', as that would be rude, unkind and horrid.

Shes done well, but if shes not 'into things' she drifts off, tangents, and plays on her ipad.. she doesnt even try and learn the rules for what dice she needs, and doesnt know anything about star wars.. she went off on one about "being able to travel faster than light, but you dont have mobile phones???!??!!????!"

Yeah... 1st World Problems

We had this same problem in our group a while back. The person was the girlfriend of one of the normal players and he brought her in without asking. She wasn't interested and pretty much refused to play longer than three hours at a time. Don't get me wrong, nice person, fun sense of humour. But not the kind of person you want in a game.

If you have difficulty with your own adventures (don't worry, this is natural despite the posters above) Don't feel bad about going with published or provided adventures for a little while. I find that, particularly for a new system/'group/setup it's easier to start with modifying/adjusting existing adventures, before diving into creating new adventures out of whole cloth. Of course, there are people were who will gladly help you when/if you do decide to dive that way.

There is a good question above involving: what is your team's 'normal life' - ie, what's their primary way of making money and living. Are they smugglers, bounty hunters, independent traders, hired guns, etc?

I personally don't recommend trying to play every day in the life of your team. We often have weeks or even a couple months between adventures, which helps make the accrual of skills feel more organic, gives us time to 'pay the bills' and allows us to kick of the next adventure in any location or circumstance we need to, rather then having to start on the planet they were just on.

I would use Under Black Sun. Thakba is actually a retainer for Black Sun, who send them on the job that goes wrong. From there you can establish the city in which the job happens, with encounters from various books. I would go from there to Beyond the Rim when the connection with Thakba is ripe for a big job.

Also, in the mean while you can throw hooks about the Hutt angle, they might want to switch allegiance.

I would use Under Black Sun. Thakba is actually a retainer for Black Sun, who send them on the job that goes wrong. From there you can establish the city in which the job happens, with encounters from various books. I would go from there to Beyond the Rim when the connection with Thakba is ripe for a big job.

Also, in the mean while you can throw hooks about the Hutt angle, they might want to switch allegiance.

Did you read my original post fully?

What you wrote in my other thread (Adventure Collaboration) is more what I need. I dont feel I need to change UaBS at all, whats there is fine, although I had considered swapping the Pykes for Thakba, but you presented an option that doesnt require that change.

Its everything leading UP to the point where they trigger the alarm.

How they got there

How they got in

How they learnt where to go

etc etc.

The Prep before the Crime stuff.

UaBS starts with them already in the facility, I need help on what they can/need to do up to that point.

UaBS starts with them already in the facility, I need help on what they can/need to do up to that point.

Actually (see my other post), UBS really starts at Chopper's. The facility and chase serve no story purpose at all. They only serve to introduce new players to the system, and start with action, but those are both unnecessary in your case.

As Wharfrog stated before, UBS starts in media res (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_medias_res), like EotE suggests in the core book. its very star wars'y and cinematic... There is a scene where the PCs get the job at the facility from Thakba, and then *screen wipe* they are already inside doing the job.

I usually use this, or if I feel the players want to establish some detail about getting in, I let each roll one die roll, corresponding to his role in getting to the scene I am starting with. In this case, Stealth, Skulduggery, Streetwise, etc. The effects of the roll and the description of the players, round up nicely the beginning of the scene.

While thats fine for your style, knowing my players, they would feel very disjointed, and want to play the build up.

I too, would want to run the build up.

Its ok, I understand. Jewel of yavin has a nice detailed "break in" scenerio with guards and stuff, that you can mod.

Have you got any of the new books? Namely LoNH, because it has some information that could help with this kind of thing, or just run a modular encounter from the back of one of the books

Try interspersing canned adventures with ad hoc side quests, or add side quests during a canned adventure. They can be based on current events, obligation (rolled or chosen), character background, or anything really. If you need some ideas, look for "SWRPGAdventures" on Twitter. They have a bunch of very short adventure hook ideas that you can expand upon. Don't put a lot of planning into the side quests! Make it as off-the-cuff as possible and let the character's actions and the narrative dice tell you where to go next with it. This game system works really well for doing this, since its all about telling a story.

I've done this a few times in my campaign. Currently, the group is trying to rescue a freighter crew being held in a star destroyer. I've purposely kept the details vague, and I basically just came up with the crew, the bad guys (including generic Imperials, a Hutt envoy connected to the PCs and the crew via obligation, and a group of Inquisitors, also connected to the PCs), and some key locations on the star destroyer that they might want to visit (or disable). Everything else is pretty much them winging it, and me coming up with details as I need them.

The dice have already made a really cool contribution to the adventure. One of the PCs was going to try to pull off being part of the Inquisitors, with a stormtrooper escort (another PC), a Wookiee prisoner (yeah, I know...), and a personal assassin droid as a bodyguard (yet another PC). When a group of Imperial officers arrived at their stolen troop transport after they docked inside the star destroyer, the PC made a Deception check to convince them to "take me to your leader". The roll succeeded, but with Despair. So, the Imps were convinced that she was an apprentice Inquisitor, but they also immediate contacted the Big Bad Inquisitor via holomessenger! The group has history with this guy, so in the middle of him saying "I'm not expecting any...", he pauses and says "Bring them all to me" This was not how they had planned on doing this (this evil freak knowing they were aboard was the last thing they wanted), and on the way to the bridge, they were met by a real apprentice Inquisitor and a couple of Royal Imperial Guards who's orders were to take them to the Big Bad Inquisitor. Fun and combat ensued, and now they have a bunch of new options and plot twists that they didn't have before.

In a previous adventure (Perlemian Haul), even though it was canned, the group quickly went off into the weeds after sneaking aboard the ship. At that point, I just threw the rest of the adventure away and let them do whatever they wanted to do to try and take the freighter. Just with their crazy ideas, the narrative dice, and me making up details as needed, the group had the most fun session in the campaign so far. They played until 5am and everyone was still wide awake and pumped

Anyway... don't think about it too much, don't plan too much, just take a seed and let it germinate however it will, and let the PCs and the dice show you the way

While I wish i could 'hot seat' it like that, I find if I dont have a direction to work with, I just hit a brick wall, and my brain stops dead. My groups pretty good at 'following the plot' so it works quite well.

In a previous Warhammer campaign I was running, a former player (Not currently part of this group) made every single effort to burn down the Sigmarite Church, which would have resulted in a civil war in the empire. I could not find ANY way to resolve it on the fly, and despite telling the player his actions would result in the game ending entirely, he insisted he wanted to do this.... Campaign Ended, and I lost all taste for GMing for a year.

The 'making it up as I go along' eludes me, and this is a major issue for me. Small deviations I can manage, depending on the situation, but big deviations leave me totally blind... and its a massive confidence killer, not that I have much to start with.

Don't be so hard on yourself, man! I've read your other posts, and you obviously have a love for the game and a desire to make it as fun as possible for your group. You can do this, I have faith in you!

Try starting small. Just wing an encounter here and there. There'll be no "deviations" to worry about, since nothing is set in stone. Whatever happens, happens. The encounter doesn't have to involve a major plot twist or anything. Maybe your group comes across a group of smugglers, loading something into their ship. They attack and end up fleeing into their ship and taking off, leaving behind their cargo. What's in the crates? Where were they taking it? Who's their buyer? They'll want it back eventually... This could just be a one-off encounter, or you could expand it into a session or two of adventure and intrigue, with crime bosses, thugs, maybe some corrupt Imperial officials, and, of course, the mysterious buyer.

If you have trouble figuring out where to go next, trust the dice. Upgrade difficulty whenever you can to allow for the possibility of Despair being rolled. Despairs are your best friend when doing ad hoc encounters, and will generally also help the PCs in convoluted ways They're great for adding twists to the story and will help in taking it to places that nobody expected. Try being creative with advantages and threats, rather than using them just for setbacks and boosts. Remember that three or four threats can have almost the same cinematic effect as a Despair, just as three or four advantages can have a similar Triumph-like effect.

Picture the scene in your head as if you were watching a movie. See the blaster fire whizzing over the PC's heads. Envision the PCs gathered around the crate, looking at it expectantly with a tingle of excitement as they open it up for the first time to see what those smugglers were trying to protect. What do you want it to be? A shipment of rare antiques, sacred to the <insert species> people? Maybe its a strange animal nobody's ever seen (could be vicious, could be cute, could be both; group mascot, anyone?)? Maybe it's a frightened child with an unknown past, or with strange powers, or forbidden knowledge that the mysterious buyer needs.

The possibilities are endless, and the great thing about this is that you can't do anything wrong! You're making it up as you go, so it just comes down to your imagination. You can also take cues from your players and let their imaginations work for your benefit. They might come up with a cool idea that you can just run with. Maybe that kid really is the Moff's nephew, as player Bob suggests to the group.

So take a deep breath, have faith in yourself, and just try running a simple made-up encounter with as little planning as possible. And see where it takes you

OK!

After a chat with one of my players last night, and probably too much time wasted at work thinking about it, I think trying to 'write' an adventure setup for UaBS is going to be too specific for my group.

However, I have come up with some ideas that I do want to work into the setup 'adventure'

This has some cross overs with my Adventure Collaboration Thread unfortunately, but since this thread was specifically for this situation, I am keeping it here.

One of my players is a Scoundrel, with a number of 'Underworld' type skills, who has thus far not had a chance to really show them off... which I really want to change, I want to put him firmly in the spotlight for a change. And he is on board with that, and since a number of adventures I have planned, this is a good opportunity to do so.

So I figured, my players need to do some things to really feel they are preparing for this job. (Which I am aware, is not exactly a huge part of the overall adventure, but the player I spoke to also said he would rather play the prep work, as the in media res approach doesnt appeal to him).

So... my players are going to need to:
A: Probably make the ship appear legal, which they want to do anyway, but since they are going to Coruscant, it might be more important... ive had some ideas on this, and Fly Casual has also some info on Transponder Codes and the like, my player also suggested "why cant be just fake a bill of sale" to which I cackled internally, as they dont know who owned the ship... they think its Trex.. it isnt.

I was going to have the Scoundrel make some underworld type checks to find a suitable expert, whos abit shy and abit paranoid, so they will need to get on his good side (The Doc of the group has charm and social skills).

B: They need to find the Black Sun Facility... as mentioned by whafrog in the other thread, the Pykes can probably give them a good idea, if not the exact location.

C: Once on Coruscant, they are going to have to find out what kind of security the building has, along with the computer system they are breaking into.. more Underworld checks to find the computer systems provider (I Need help on this one!!).

D: Once they have a good idea of what kind of system they are going to break into, they need the tools. The Technician will have a good idea, so more Underworld checks to find both a Data Breaker, and a Computer Spike that will do the job.

E: Then they need to get into the building, but that should be quite simple. I might steal some ideas from other places.

Then UaBS stats properly.

Suggestions please... especially on the one noted above!

Cheers you lovely people!

Looks like a good outline.

For C:

- Computers or Mechanics to identify the brand of camera and how to spoof it. Getting the brand could require climbing a neighbouring building (Athletics), getting the right view point without getting spotted (Stealth), taking a steady hi-res picture of the cameras (Coordination), and properly processing the image back and their base (Computers).

- a bribable security guard might know the company that installed the server. Hiring him a Twi-lek for a lap dance might start him talking...

- for the physical security, if they can spoof the cameras as a test, then they can approach the doors at their leisure and see what kind of locks are used...be sure to have wandering patrols to drive them off again...

Looks like a good outline.

For C:

- Computers or Mechanics to identify the brand of camera and how to spoof it. Getting the brand could require climbing a neighbouring building (Athletics), getting the right view point without getting spotted (Stealth), taking a steady hi-res picture of the cameras (Coordination), and properly processing the image back and their base (Computers).

- a bribable security guard might know the company that installed the server. Hiring him a Twi-lek for a lap dance might start him talking...

- for the physical security, if they can spoof the cameras as a test, then they can approach the doors at their leisure and see what kind of locks are used...be sure to have wandering patrols to drive them off again...

See? Why cant i come up with ideas like that!! Fantastic... thankyou