Escaping from Mos Shuuta

By oneeyedmatt87, in Game Masters

Posted at

Greetings Gentlebeings,

I'm a long time lurker on these forums, and I just wanted to open by saying hello to everyone, I'm happy to be a part of this community, which is more civilized than many an internet forum. I have the utmost respect for the vast majority of you, and welcome your experienced advice.

I recently rolled a success on my negotiation (coercion?) check, and have convinced some friends to try the beginner game. All of our schedules are pretty tight, and we're using the pre-gens (to lower initial time investment) and our player group contains 3 computer RPGers, 2 well meaning spouses, and myself as GM. We are all completely new to Pen and Paper RPGs.

I'm prepping to run Escape from Mos Shuuta for them, and I'm tripping over the escape in the Krayt Fang. From these forums and personal experience (rolled a despair GMing for my disinterested family) I've gathered that the starship combat is the weakest part of the beginner game. I'm looking to make it more interesting. I want to keep the players (all 5 of them) engaged and show them that starship interactions can be fun! I was thinking that I could introduce the option that the pilot could fly through a canyon to evade the TIEs upon leaving Mos Shuuta. However, the chase RAW seem to be lacking in several ways:

#1. The piloting check for flying through a canyon is (seemingly) far too punishing for a beginner character (it ends up being YYG RRPP BBB for a Speed 4 Sil 4 ship handling -1 and 2 setbacks for terrain) also, it gets pretty number crunchy for a beginner game. (Yes, they can go slower, but it really doesn't make sense if you're in an escape, also, even reducing speed to 2 makes it RR BBB, which has a success rate of 35%)

#2 Chase rules start the TIES out several range bands away from the ship. While they can easily catch up in a couple rounds, it turns into "Pilot time while everyone else twiddles their thumbs", which is the exact opposite of what I'm going for.

I just want my pilot to be able to shine, and have some cool moments, while everyone feels like they're contributing.

I was thinking that I could make the canyon part of the escape a series of 3 checks. Entering the canyon will be an PBB, followed next round by a hairpin turn PPBB, and finally a needle threading maneuver to exit the trench RPPBB. Of course, copiloting and plotting courses will be available for the 4th and 5th character to help. The tie group would be at close range the entire time, allowing for shots to be traded (with setback for maneuvering, etc)

In addition, entering the canyon will only allow one of the TIE minion groups to engage the ship. This gives a concrete advantage, while allowing the gunners to shoot away. (If I need to, I can always add another minion group) The ship will still need ~3 maneuvers to clear the gravity well and enter hyperspace, allowing for evasive maneuvers, gain the advantage, etc.

So I guess my question is: Too easy? Still too hard? Any ideas that have worked for you in the past? Anything simpler but better that I'm missing?

Sorry about the book of a post, and I look forward to contributing more once I get some more experience under my belt.

Posted at

The canyon idea sounds pretty cool. When I ran the beginner's game, it was pretty late into the afternoon when we finally got to the space combat. I sensed we were all a tad tired, so I played it as written. It was indeed short and easy. If I had to do it all over again, I'd introduce more TIE fighters and have the Imperials use group tactics, etc. For example, TIE fighters are really good at 'gaining the advantage', and at their speed, can almost always move into close range from a distance and get the first attack. You could even sneak a TIE ace pilot in there as well who can beef up the other TIE fighters with his special abilities. The TIE's could even fly in some sort of formation. Anyway, I'd want my players to have fun but also for the TIE fighters to not be pushovers.

Below I pasted on old post of my lessons learned running the adventure. Hope it helps.

If I had to do it all over again this is what I would do;

1. Start the game by playing the Star Wars fanfare music and read out loud the opening crawl text for the adventure. As the game starts with the PC's ducking into a cantina, play the Bith Band cantina music from Episode IV (I just looped both songs until the scene was over). I had holograms of the Bith Band playing on the stage. Make sure there is one bad guy (Gamorrean) for every PC in the cantina fight to start the game and have everyone fight one on one. Also, use the Star Wars sound effects soundboard on the starwars.com website for blaster sounds, etc. If a PC shots a blaster, play the sound! I think I would arm the Gamorreans with stun weapons too so beginner players gain some experience with stun weapons and strain damage.

2. Be prepared for your players to rob the cash register at the cantina and junk / mechanic shop. If they do it, I'd say only let them find like 5 credits each (or a very small amount that they can easily divide up amongst themselves).

3. Increase the number of Stormtroopers and have the Stormtroopers patrol in groups of 4. One stormtrooper in each group of 4 could have some sort of repeating blaster. You could even make one of the four a Stormtrooper Sergeant who is a Rival with special skills and bonuses to lead Stormtrooper minions. I'd say 4 groups of 4 should get your PC's moving. Maybe throw in an Imperial officer too.

4. In the fight at the docking bay, I'd say increase the number of enemy security droids to equal that of the players, at least. But, if your players breeze past them, maybe add a couple more security droids to make it more dramatic. Besides, if a PC or two get too hurt here, or go down, you can simply have the group find stimpacks aboard the ship afterwards to get them back in the fight. Plus, you could always have more imperials running to the docking bay to get your players moving. Also, the security droids could only be armed with stun blasters.

5. The space combat to wrap up the adventure; be mindful that with 5 players you have something for everyone to do. You don't want a bored player. Sounds like you'll have a Pilot, Co-Pilot, x2 Gunners, and a Tech (who can run around the ship repairing it). I'd have the rules for space combat, showing a player what they can do, handy. For this scene, we used the X-Wing ship miniatures and I played the music from Episode IV when the TIE fighters attacked the Millennium Falcon. Don't forget to use the starwars.com sound effects for the TIE fighter fly-bys (coolest sound ever), blaster cannons, and explosions. When the group escapes Tatoonie, I even played the sound effect of the Millennium Falcon going in hyperspace. The End. I then played the episode IV end credits fanfare.

For what it's worth, that's what I learned. My players greatly enjoyed the beginner game. They loved that I used Star Wars music and sound effects. That really helped with immersion too.

Good luck! I'd like to know how things turn out.

Semper Fi

Posted at

Consider reading this: http://theangrygm.com/how-to-build-awesome-encounters/

Although it's primarily about a more D&D-type encounter, I found it useful to give basic ideas for how to make chase scenes (which the space combat scene basically is) much more interesting.

Posted at

Yeah, you very much want to go off book. The beginner game has you make a straight line shot into space, shooting back and forth. Boring! So go with your canyon idea.

What I might do is come up with - oh, 3 or 4 rounds of cool canyon stuff to do. Something like in round one, they fly under an stone arch (call it <><><> difficulty), round two they disturb a flock of Sandbats that swarm up and block the windshield (easier check, but throw some blacks at their check), round three they fly through a tunnel (easier time shooting the TIEs behind them) and round four they fly out of the canyon and over the dune sea - into a sandstorm (upgrade the purples of that check into reds).

Basically figure out some way to change the dice they have to roll each turn, give them some perks here or there and some downers once in a while, set up the gunner occasionally - and you should be fine.

The piloting check for flying through a canyon is (seemingly) far too punishing for a beginner character

Be sure to make sure all the Destiny Points are on their side at the time and remind them that they can upgrade as necessary. As for the by the book difficulty, I might be tempted to handwave all the crunch and just come up with some difficulties myself, give them dice that make sense in the context of what's happening vs "Well you are going this fast with this maneuverability vs their speed x 3.14159. . . . "

"While they can easily catch up in a couple rounds, it turns into "Pilot time while everyone else twiddles their thumbs", which is the exact opposite of what I'm going for."

I don't recall which podcast it was, but the suggestion was "Why start the combat with fighters at long range and unable to do anything to each other. Start it when them right on top of each other, where everyone can shoot and do things." So trust your feelings on this one - start 'em at short.

Posted at

Thank you all for the advice. I'll let you all know how it goes!