Has anyone run this? How did it go? Do you have any tips or things to watch out for?

(Even though this is a AoR adventure, I thought I'd put it here due to their being no subforum for GMs in that forum.)

I ran Episodes I and II.

It's likely the man who wrote this adventure will poke his head in if you have any questions, but I'll offer my experience.

I rewrote some of the elements in this story to have it fit into the Legacy era so I can run it in my ongoing campaign. The first two episodes are very solid, but episode 3 feels much like the ending to the Return of the King novel. After the ring was destroyed, there was a final and much less exciting conclusive battle in the Shire. In both cases, it brought the stories to their conclusions, but not as climactic as the events that preceded them.

Episode II is the real meat here. It's fast paced, it's exciting, and it'll definitely put pressure on your players. First, take a look at the load lifters and at your PCs stats. The load lifters will take forever to destroy (their soak is crazy and their wounds are pretty high as well). Determine if they may be too strong for your PCs. Keep in mind they're often paired with another load lifter or a couple of groups of other armed droids.

Second, make sure you have a decent idea on where everything is on the Shadow Raptor . You don't have to have an exact map (the diagram in the booklet is pretty handy), but you'll need a good idea on whats fore and whats aft.

Next, make sure you have a good grasp on the event timers, and come up with a plan on how you'll track time during the episode. For me, I made a note on how long an encounter should take, how long it takes to traverse parts of the ship and made easy-to-follow tally marks as the PCs worked through the ship.

My group went into full self-preservation mode, they did some things to help the crew, but mostly made a bee line to the hangers to bail. So you'll want to be mindful on how you present the situation to your PCs. They'll be taking their cues from you on how dire the situation truly is.

In the end, since the PCs bailed, they didn't find out where the location of the saboteur was, but they have a vendetta against her now. So I'll likely have a chance to reuse Episode III in the future.

Cheers, that's very helpful. I totally agree with the ending. I ran the Edge GM adventure and the load lifters in that were super tough as well.

Specific question: How did you handle the negeotiation in Ep. 1? The opposed checks and how they actually affect the negotiation is not clear to me...

I don't remember exactly, since that was several months ago and I don't recall what the adventure said.

I remember that I told them ahead of time what the Imperial Remnant (the faction I was using in place of the Rebels) was willing to pay (it was much less than what they were originally asking for). From there, I think I had them roll knowledge, perception, or mechanics check to see what they were worth. Based on those results I told them what kind of deal they were getting based on the asking price. From there they could make a counter offer and make the appropriate Negotiations check.

Thanks for the response.

My issue comes with how the opposed checks affect the overall bidding process... It's laid out like so.

1. Alliance spending limit is 4 million, Pirate's lowest price is 3 million.

2. Pirate opens negotiations with a 5 million price. Makes an opposed check.

3. PCs make counteroffer by initiating opposed check. Pirates do not accept.

4. Pirates makes opposed deception check for counter offer.

5. PCs final counter-offer may use any skill. Pirates accept whatever offer is made...

So, my question is, how do the checks affect this? Do you do them preemptively to advise the PCs on what they should offer? Do they actually change the final prices? Do the pirate checks then affect that knowledge?

In the core, it states that extra success increases the profit by 5%... But what number do I modify? Start dropping the alliance price? It seems if you skirt around the 4 mil mark you may end up in a place where the PCs can't afford it...

I'm just confused how to directly apply the checks to influence the end price.

I cast Thread Necromancy... uh, wait, wrong system. Use Heal power with multiple triumphs and light side points, maybe? :-)

Anyway, I'm in the middle of running DitW for my group - well, they've completed the first episode, anyway. I ran into that problem with the bidding as well, TheBoulder - only I hadn't read it properly before we started playing, so my negotiator player is sitting there grinning at me over a successful roll with triumph and I'm re-reading the section to figure out what it meant...

So, my question - how long did your groups take to play through the adventure, and how many XP did you award? The only mention of XP in the book is a mere 15 points at the end of Episode 3 - I assume that's intended for the whole adventure, but using the usual 5XP per hour of play, that implies 3 hours to complete the whole adventure. My group took nearly that long to complete Episode 1 (actually, a fair bit longer, as I added an encounter at the end - still, as written it would have taken nearly 3 hours by my guess). We have a session planned this weekend and I'll be starting them with Episode 2 - I anticipate needing two sessions to get it completed, and a third to complete Episode 3. 15 XP seems rather paltry for 3-4 sessions of play...

First session was about two hours and we got through the spaceport stuff and headed back.

They took two sessions to beat the ship and the imp facility. Both four hour sessions.

I gave fifteen per session I think.

I was actually curious about trying to work this adventure into my ongoing campaign just yesterday, except only one of my players has a connection to the Rebels, and it's not a pleasant one (ex-soldier left to die while officers bailed during a battle kind of thing). They ARE however trying to build up a drug empire so getting paid in credits or in some of the extra droids may be an incentive. I just know that if I try to run this not heavily modified they are going to either flee or go on a murder rampage ._.

You could always change the rebels into a crime syndicate, and then use the adventure as-is.

Ran the first half of episode 2 yesterday, it went pretty well. Of course, the first thing the party did was assault the bridge and clear it of enemies (which is annoyingly quick when the jury-rigged heavy rifle equipped sharpshooter opens up on minion groups) - reading the book the impression I get is that the author wasn't expecting the players to do that, but I think it would be pretty obvious in most cases.

Ran the first half of episode 2 yesterday, it went pretty well. Of course, the first thing the party did was assault the bridge and clear it of enemies (which is annoyingly quick when the jury-rigged heavy rifle equipped sharpshooter opens up on minion groups) - reading the book the impression I get is that the author wasn't expecting the players to do that, but I think it would be pretty obvious in most cases.

Well, there's a part when the PCs are in the briefing room that the module has them make a Vigilance check, with each success allowing the PC to identify one piece of gear they have on them.

When my GM ran this, two of our PCs were stuck using their back-up weapons (a light blaster pistol and jury-rigged brass knuckes) instead of their primary weapons. Only reason our party didn't have a hard time of it was my Shii-Cho Knight had his lightsaber tucked away on him (carries it Kanan-style) and so he was able to plow through the opposition pretty quickly. Of course, once our bounty hunter got his mitts on his blaster rifle, his damage output went up considerably.