Hi !

I'll be the GM for my group of players, and I've just finished reading the "Debts to Pay" Adventure, which seems quite a good one to start a Campaign.

However, knowing my players, I've immediately think of a way for them to make easy money.

- Step 1: find the metal safe and gather 165.000 credits.
- Step 2: split the group in two. One group will go back to their ship, the other to the Sullustan ship on Landing Pad B.
- Step 3: take off and fly away, to a system far far away from Bargos and never contact him again.

=> 165.000 credits + a ship to share.
=> Bargos, having money problems and just being robbed, cannot afford to hire Bounty Hunters to track the PJ down.

So...

Anyone has an idea to avoid such a situation ?

Bargos's relative is a bounty hunter, and hears of his trouble, and decides to help him the party, maybe even out of other ulterior motives.

https://youtu.be/fPJZbrlXNOM?t=50s

Bargos could also bring a baby sitter to ensure the deal is done. It's possible they could dispense with the third wheel, but his presence might be enough to dissuade them.

Instead of credits have them a variety of alternative commercial oddities for example bearer bonds something worth something to a Hutt, but not to anyone unfamiliar with the Hutts culture as in your players.

Another is encrypted crystals requiring a cryodex to decode credit strips so they'd be worth 165,000 instead of 16,500 if they go to someone to decrypt them for them.

Maybe it's in gear, but they might not recognise it after all it's a mining camp, what would they mine that would interest Bargos?

Might look like rubbish unless one of them is an archaeologist now imagine if they found a buried funeral ship for a Sith dating back to KOTOR...

Instant adventure and a lure for them to stick around if there's a treasure ship buried nearby and the miner's are bringing up scraps that alone are worth thousands to the right buyer as in not Bargos...

To build on Copperbell's excellent suggestion, rather than simple credits. Maybe they are bars of marked ingots. The marking is recognizable and notorious. No one wants to get their fingerprints on it should they try and make way with it. Sure they can melt it, but the process and equipment makes it more trouble than it's worth.

Or finally, you allow them to take the money, and you make them pay the consequences anyway. A rival Hutt would jump (figuratively speaking) at the chance to offer Bargos a loan to reclaim his money and seek some vengeance. At a hefty interest rate and a small cut of the bounty as well. If Bargos fails to get his goods back, the Hutt will simply claim Bargos' resources, including any debts owned to him. And since this new Hutt is better connected than Bargos, he will have far more resources to devote to reclaiming that money.

Thank you all.

I like the last idea about the rival hutt "jumping"
Also, I'll probably lock the Sullustan ship computer to avoid it being stealed. A very good slicer would still be able to unlock it, but at least it would be an earned gift.

Thank you all.

I like the last idea about the rival hutt "jumping"

Also, I'll probably lock the Sullustan ship computer to avoid it being stealed. A very good slicer would still be able to unlock it, but at least it would be an earned gift.

That could almost be an adventure by itself,

step 1: somehow (sneak / fight / ?) into the space port.

step 2: make it to the command area of the space port

step 3: release the land lock on said ship

step 4: get back to the ship and deal with any guards and / or nemesis on the ship

step 5: slice the ship unlock the controls and fly away

If a player group could do that in my opinion they earned the ship.

When reading through that adventure I also thought about them trying to steal the ship as well.

Optionally you could have a tracker hidden away on the ship in order to transition into your own content. After they get off the planet a bounty hunter or group could come looking to retake the ship.

If anyone has seen Firefly I really like the idea of a stealth bounty hunter ship docking with the crew when they think they are safe and getting some boarding party fighting going on when they aren't expecting it. Maybe have one of the party members avoid capture and he has to disable the ship once the boarding crew steal it back then rescue the rest of the crew and retake the ship.

That was just my thinking

This actually seems like a structural problem more than a situation relating to this adventure.

PCs are doing dangerous adventures that pay out credits in the thousands. However, there are plenty of not too uncommon objects around like speeders or starships that are worth similar or greater totals. So even if you end up netting only a fraction of the value of the stolen items, it's still generally going to be more money for less risk than actually doing the missions (which is a shame).

When talking about the premise of Jewel of Yavin, my brother joked about pulling a classic heist movie misdirect by having the whole 'steal the gem' plan be a ruse while they actually just steal the would be buyers' ships. But instead of a way to pick on a softer but valuable target while security is distracted by the shiny, a few starships are probably worth more than the legendary gem.

I think the Payday 2 video game has some good ideas for helping solve this problem in a general sense. Essentially, your reward for a mission is split between a lesser amount of spending cash and a larger amount that goes to a basically inaccessible 'off shore account' (there are a few mechanics that use up or otherwise care about the off shore money, but not many). So you can create sufficiently large rewards that disincentivize going off task to steal anything expensive like cars or ships without destroying the whole treasure->gear power curve.

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I also don't see any support in the movies for land locks that need to be undone at a control tower, since we see several ships take off from hostile or at least contested ports without taking extra measures. People don't go the spacecraft control station to reset the switch on the lockdown when they want to stop a ship from leaving; they send guys with guns to the pad.

When talking about the premise of Jewel of Yavin, my brother joked about pulling a classic heist movie misdirect by having the whole 'steal the gem' plan be a ruse while they actually just steal the would be buyers' ships. But instead of a way to pick on a softer but valuable target while security is distracted by the shiny, a few starships are probably worth more than the legendary gem.

Anyone who is flying ships into an event like that is going to have very high-grade security on their ships. They know that the jewel would be at its most vulnerable while in transit, and so those ships would be seriously locked down, and they would have escort flotillas waiting off-station to pick them up the moment they left. Were it me and I was a major Hutt or Black Sun Vigo, I would also rig a self-destruct option into the ship that could only be deactivated with a DNA-based switch (and various other technologies).

Then there would be the huge bounties that would be put on the heads of the PCs if they did manage to steal the ships. Bounties on the scale of more money than the original retail price of the ship(s) they stole, because this is an honor and pride thing and not just a property/money thing.

IMO, I don’t think those ships are going anywhere.

I also don't see any support in the movies for land locks that need to be undone at a control tower, since we see several ships take off from hostile or at least contested ports without taking extra measures. People don't go the spacecraft control station to reset the switch on the lockdown when they want to stop a ship from leaving; they send guys with guns to the pad.

I think that feature might have been added in “Long Arm of the Hutt” and similar adventures. Definitely makes a lot of sense.

Bonus points for bringing up marked ingots. Bit o' trivia: Back in the old west days, they would build a stamp mill right outside the mine. The ore would come out of the mine and go into the mill as a bunch of rocks. There it would get smashed, washed with chemicals, and melted down in a crucible, then stamped into ingots of electrum- a mixture of gold and silver- that were sent by wagon or train to a secure processing facility, run by a third party. Much of the process could be done right in that stamp mill, but the process of separating the electrum into silver and gold was much more difficult, and they didn't even know the gold/silver ratio until they had been finally separated. Here's the thing: Those big shiny bars of gold/silver? Bandits wouldn't touch them. They were worthless. Anyone trying to pass off electrum in the wild would be identified as a thief instantly. At best you could try to make counterfeit coins, but that's starting to sound an awful lot like work.

So, in Debts to Pay, sure they can just empty the safe, steal a ship and bounce. Have the safe contents be something valuable to the right owner, but risky to a thief. Rare ingots, crystals, unworked spice. Let them sell a bit to their usual fence, who can only buy a bit at a time. Meanwhile, all the Hutt knows is that he sent some freelancers in to assess his new property, then without warning, the property is destroyed, his employees are dead, and the freelancers are nowhere to be found. Not only is the Hutt going to send hunters after them, but the miners' families will pool their money to see the alleged murderers brought to justice. The fence starts to catch wind of this, looks a little more closely at the rare goods he's being sold, and contacts the Hutt, eager to absolve himself of suspicion.

So just how close is that Obligation Meter to 100, anyway?

I say let them do it. Even if Bargos can't hire bounty hunters (note that he could pick up some Obligation in order to get revenge), he still could ruin their reputation.

Once that haul runs out, who will work with them? Either they are forced to take on piracy or they will be forced to work with the worst the Outer Rim has to offer, many of which can very well afford bounty hunters.

If that is how they want the campaign to go, then let them take it there.

My players tried to do this in a very tense moment. However since they failed to find the money themselves, they needed the head miner to get it. A failed deception check meant that the miner wouldn't hand over the money until the safety of the mine was assured.

The adventure says very specifically that players only find the safe if they mention looking under the desk.

I really liked this adventure. The trick is to make the players think the place was already attacked and possibly robbed. I had my players fall for the Supervisor droids story, that pirates attacked, and were going after the miners. it was glorious. but the other side is the safe is hidden, and can really only be found if they find the survivors, and the droids are suppose to use the Freight hauler to escape while the hero's are in the mines

Also, regarding trying to hijack and pilfer ships. Without contacts in the black market, chop shops, and slicers to redo the BoSS registry and mechanics to change the transponders, it isn't easy to do. If there was an easy option for profit without any risk everyone would be doing it. My players ran into that with the Krayt Fang. Sure they could get it all done. But it costs a lot of credits, and you wouldn't be able to do business around the area anymore.

It's a pleasure reading your answers, there are a lot of good things here.

Plus, it made me think that the Sullustan's ship signature could be read by anyone knowing him. They will try to make contact just to say hello or anything, and any response or lack of answer will lead to thinking the ship was stolen and its owner killed. By the PC, it seems...

As Kinnison stated, modifying the ship to alter its signature would require black market contacts and a lot of credits.

Credits PCs might have, depending on how the safe content was handled. But if we throw in The Grand Falloon's idea of trackable goods, then PCs will have to overcome a lot of problems before they can use those credits.

I believe I have now a good hint of what my players will have to do if they really try to screw up that Hutt

Thanks again !

Regarding those ships all you'd actually need to do is have someone on the inside have them transferred to another hangar under the premise of handling an odd chemical spillage.

If they make sure to secure some less valuable ships they swap the ship transponders over and during their return to their original hangar after the cleanup is complete stage an accident that results in the ship's colliding and crashing preferably blowing up making it look like an error in the computer system guiding all of these ships.

So before anyone can complete a careful examination of the wreckage the actual ships following a bit of cosmetic modification is flown out under their alternative transponder with noone the wiser but probably better they all take separate routes out of the system to meet at a pre-arranged point if they're going to be sold off or stored until the heat dies down.

Can't believe I typed that!

So many ways it can go wrong and dependent on the Imperial authorities being more interested in a jewel theft then a con of that magnitude!

Good luck by the way!!!

Edit: what they said a few messages before this one!

What I'm wondering is how long you need to keep the charade up,

If they make sure to secure some less valuable ships they swap the ship transponders over and during their return to their original hangar after the cleanup is complete stage an accident that results in the ship's colliding and crashing preferably blowing up making it look like an error in the computer system guiding all of these ships.

They don’t actually use transponders, although strangely they do sometimes talk about them.

What they use is the inherent fingerprint signature of the hyperdrive, which is guaranteed unique to each and every make and model and individual. So, you can’t just move the hyperdrive from a YT-1300 to a YT-2400, because everyone who looks at the signature will see that it doesn’t match that of the vehicle in front of them. All such signatures are registered with BoSS (Bureau of Ships and Services, see < http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bureau_of_Ships_and_Services >), and even the Empire is smart enough not to mess with BoSS.

There are technologies to mask hyperdrive signatures and to project false ones, but they’re custom and rare and expensive and finicky to keep running correctly.

Hi !

I'll be the GM for my group of players, and I've just finished reading the "Debts to Pay" Adventure, which seems quite a good one to start a Campaign.

However, knowing my players, I've immediately think of a way for them to make easy money.

- Step 1: find the metal safe and gather 165.000 credits.

- Step 2: split the group in two. One group will go back to their ship, the other to the Sullustan ship on Landing Pad B.

- Step 3: take off and fly away, to a system far far away from Bargos and never contact him again.

=> 165.000 credits + a ship to share.

=> Bargos, having money problems and just being robbed, cannot afford to hire Bounty Hunters to track the PJ down.

So...

Anyone has an idea to avoid such a situation ?

THe One thing that will band Hutts together is when some one Not a Hutt Takes advantage of one of their Own.....

Immediate New Obligation of Bounty placed on the characters.

More on Point..

I just Ran my characters through this adventure, completion 2 sessions ago..

They did not Follow the adventure as written for the most part.

They didn't even try to discover the whereabouts of the majority f the miners... They drew the attention of Most of the droids... then split the party, 2 to swap the ships on the landing pads..3 to follow the droids into an Ambush....

the Three barely survived only after the other 2 ran to help them... Wasted enough time for the 3rd alarm to go off... Got the money and Flew off in both ships back to Bargos. ..

Though they did Split off the excess of the Money Before getting to Bargos and convinced him that his 100k credits was all that they were able to procure......(though I had/have a bit planned there..)

This was My groups First adventure.....I didn't give them a Ship of their own to start with, Instead had Bargos Provide them one for the Mission.

His offer to them was a certain amunt of Credit towards the Purchase of a Used ship at one of his Used Ship Dealers.

Little Did they know is that He had he ship they used Bugged.

The Ship they bought has Also been bugged....

He Knows of their Treachery, but has Plans For them... and the new mission they are on Is the Transport of "Merchandise" For Bargos to Wheel Station from Nar Shadda.

They know that the Farming implements and Seed are but disguising the real cargo... but they haven't yet figured out what the real Cargo is. ..

So we will see how that plays out when they Get to Wheel station and The People on the other side come for the Cargo but have been given Orders to "Kill The Messengers".

If they make sure to secure some less valuable ships they swap the ship transponders over and during their return to their original hangar after the cleanup is complete stage an accident that results in the ship's colliding and crashing preferably blowing up making it look like an error in the computer system guiding all of these ships.

They don’t actually use transponders, although strangely they do sometimes talk about them.

What they use is the inherent fingerprint signature of the hyperdrive, which is guaranteed unique to each and every make and model and individual. So, you can’t just move the hyperdrive from a YT-1300 to a YT-2400, because everyone who looks at the signature will see that it doesn’t match that of the vehicle in front of them. All such signatures are registered with BoSS (Bureau of Ships and Services, see < http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bureau_of_Ships_and_Services >), and even the Empire is smart enough not to mess with BoSS.

There are technologies to mask hyperdrive signatures and to project false ones, but they’re custom and rare and expensive and finicky to keep running correctly.

Does it have to be active to be detected?

Just a thought but you have ships the size of star destroyer's running around, doesn't that mean there should be freighters at least that big?

Have the ships moved quietly aboard and head out system with no one the wiser since the stolen ships are deactivated to prevent detection, would that bypass that problem with BOSS after all if they can pull that off they can take their time to figure out a way to either strip them for parts or eventually find a way to make use of those marked drives?

EDIT: True but would they expect anyone dumb enough to try after all even the Emperor made that mistake!!?