I need some help from the collected masses. I am about to run Jewel of Yavin for my group concurrently with the old D6 adventure Crisis on Cloud City. I think that by staggering the events of the adventures that I can make it all fit together.

But to make things run as smoothly as possible I would appreciate any feedback from groups that have run through the adventure, what went great, what didn't go so well, what could be improved, what did you add to the adventure etc

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

There are a number of other threads on similar topics for this particular adventure module.

I would suggest using the search feature at the very top of the page.

As its been a while since anyone has added to those threads I thought this might prompt more feedback from players that have recently played through the module.

The key thing with this particular venture is that the party needs to be both highly skilled and capable of organisation; the strict 3 day deadline means that party splits are hugely beneficial to getting tasks done at a pacey manner. There is an awful lot to do (securing museum layout, entry and getaway plan, sizing up racers and preparing the cloud car/wreaking there's, doing background work on bidders in order. Preparing for the privotable hacking check vs Lobot, possibly even preparation for a second bank account in case the mastermind decides to snub the party on the money.) so it might help, at least intially for Aris to be a bit more hands on in driving the parties efforts on the actual setup for the heist, leaving their minds more free to cope with dealing with the smaller, but no less important tangents.

The key thing is that failing at any particular point shouldn't necessarily cut the rest of the mission off, nor should you follow the hiest itself to the letter. the race to get into the auction for example could be open to all racers, or it's possible to get in by other means. e.g. Simply forging an invention/stealing, or skip the race if that isn't your parties cup of tea and focus on the other aspects, or The party might take a much more gun ho robbery by blasting through the wall adjecent to the museum and rush it to result n a very swift bank robbery type raid. Flexibility is important for this adventure and much of it's content is food for thought.

Thanks for the feedback so far, I appreciate your input.

A couple of things that are bothering me:

1) if the players have their own ship where are they meant to land? Pg 19 says that visitors are likly to be sent to a Port Town landing bay or docking port. How does this link in with the cloud city commercial star port (pg92)? Why would the players need to go to the star port?

2) what are the weapon/armour restrictions are in place on cloud city proper, and port town?

Thanks for the feedback so far, I appreciate your input.

A couple of things that are bothering me:

1) if the players have their own ship where are they meant to land? Pg 19 says that visitors are likly to be sent to a Port Town landing bay or docking port. How does this link in with the cloud city commercial star port (pg92)? Why would the players need to go to the star port?

2) what are the weapon/armour restrictions are in place on cloud city proper, and port town?

1) They would most likely land at Port Town barring any special permit or being part of a business. The Star Port itself is a larger port for more luxary/business interests. I believe the chase at the end of the book occurs in this particular region

2) There is none really stated. Personally, given that cloud city is running a tight ship would assume absolutely zero weapons in the auction*. On the rest of the city? Depends. I doubt they take very kindly to any overt military grade gear, but that restriction would be lessened in the more seedy parts of town as the Wing Guard don't patrol there as frequently thus might be possible to get away with it (after all, there are gangs on cloud city thus the place isn't exactly airtight either). However, given that Cloud city is an illicit operation held in the Fringe personal defence weapons (pistols, blades) would be reasonably common.

However, given that cloud city is a civilised city (at least, in the movies it looked much cleaner and high tech then anywhere else we saw on the fringe thus far) I imagine it would maintain fairly strict policy; Lando had done a good job turning this place around and thus the wing guard have a fairly rapid response to any trouble.

*Well, just because there isn't meant to be weapons doesn't mean that the security forces, very high end business people and criminal scumbags can't smuggle them in.*

The biggest regret I have was getting into a back and forth with my group over how Star Wars banking worked. I lost a good bit of a session because they weren't getting that the transaction would be essentially paused overnight. The race can be tricky, my group was too busy fixing the pod and co-piloting to shoot, but the blasters can knock out others pretty easy. Next time I run it I'll emphasize using aimed shots to slow down others/damage specific components. Also try to avoid them betting on themselves if you can, or at least don't give a ridiculous payout for a win.

It ran great keeping things down to the wire on the tight timeline. I took the timeline pretty seriously and the PCs had to choose between sleep and getting more done a couple times (and they still didn't look in to all the bidders properly). I also added an increasingly difficult "Fear" check at the beginning of each day to represent the mounting tension as zero hour drew closer. I don't know anything about the d6 module, but unless you let the PCs do a -lot- in one day then time should probably be added. If they get off track/need a nudge in the right direction have Aris chew them out/offer advice, respectively.

1) The book essentially says to put the holopark in their way, whichever way they try to escape ("If the players docked in Port Town, the GM should adapt the details to reflect the area's slightly shadier nature.")

2) Check the Bespin Wing Guard entry on p 12 for a feel. Upper city is probably pistols at most, Port Town ranged heavy is probably ok, rest I'd figure is pretty anything goes. Exception the book calls out is explosives of any kind are a very big no.

Also try to avoid them betting on themselves if you can, or at least don't give a ridiculous payout for a win.

I'd let them make their bets. There's no guarantee that they're going to win that race.

I think that I might scrap the holo-park chase as it wouldn't make sense in port town and feels a little bit like 'this adventure needs a cool set piece' but doesn't really fit well.

For the D6 adventure the PCs have 24 hours to solve a murder and to stop cloud city from being destroyed by an over enthusiastic control droid. So adding a day to the adventure wouldn't hurt. I will have a look at the timings of each bit to see how tight I can make it for my players.

I think that I might scrap the holo-park chase as it wouldn't make sense in port town and feels a little bit like 'this adventure needs a cool set piece' but doesn't really fit well.

For the D6 adventure the PCs have 24 hours to solve a murder and to stop cloud city from being destroyed by an over enthusiastic control droid. So adding a day to the adventure wouldn't hurt. I will have a look at the timings of each bit to see how tight I can make it for my players.

The starport operates on the assumption that the PCs don't have time to find their own ship and have to improvise an escape. My party personally knew lando back from our smuggling days, so upon betrayal we doubled back, concealed the Jewel of yavin (don't ask where. I am fairly certain that guy had problems in the tailpipe for weeks after) and gave it over to him directly, in exchange for a shot at bringing him in. Thus a spectular rampage as we hit his dwellings one by one to arrest him, which included a frantic climb up a near vertical starship to catch his daughter. which resulted in a dramatic chase through the holo port, with him being the quarry. Needless to say, saving cloud city might afford them a little flexibility.

I think that I might scrap the holo-park chase as it wouldn't make sense in port town and feels a little bit like 'this adventure needs a cool set piece' but doesn't really fit well.

For the D6 adventure the PCs have 24 hours to solve a murder and to stop cloud city from being destroyed by an over enthusiastic control droid. So adding a day to the adventure wouldn't hurt. I will have a look at the timings of each bit to see how tight I can make it for my players.

I would say make it Chekhov's Holo-park. After they land for the first time, they come out of the port and the holo-park is one of the first things they see. Kinda play it up as a neat novelty. This way it will be less jarring when they flee back through it, because, yeah, it's a little weird to throw in as, "Also, this thing is in your way!"

I was thinking along those lines for the holopark but I can't square it with them docking in port town. Maybe I could fudge it by saying that to leave port town and head up to the tourist district you have to go up to the star port to get rechecked by customs?

Honestly I didn't realize that the adventure assumes they dock in Port Town. I don't see any reason they couldn't arrive as tourists.

So, problem solved. My players have just come out of hyperspace near cloud city and were attacked by some droid piloted cloud cars, as per Crisis on Cloud City, and reported the attack to spaceport control. Thier ship has been diverted to a landing pad connected to the main star port so that a full report can be taken by the wing guard. The players have mentioned thier sensor data-logs but would have to let the wing guard onboard thier ship to share thier data. This would probably prompt a customs inspection and the players won't want that to happen.

I will produce a prohibited item list that each guest of cloud city will need to adhere to. This will cover any weapon bigger than a small pistol or knife, heavy or concealing armour/head gear (except cultural wear), restricted items, mining equipment, livestock or EXPLOSIVES! So they will have to leave most of thier toys on the ship and buy new items to carry out the heist but as they just stole 165k from he miners in debts to pay that shouldn't be a problem.

One thing to note is that my players are quite keen on stockpiling the wonder that is burning gel. This will make running the heist interesting.

I think that I read in one of the old JoY threads that someone had pulled together a break-down of the timings for each part of this adventure. Can anyone point me in the right direction as I am having trouble getting it straight in my head?

This was the message that the group received upon landing at cloud city tourist district;

A welcome message - Welcome to Cloud City, Bespin. We hope you enjoy your stay in the city in the clouds. To ensure a safe and enjoyable stay in this exciting city the following items are prohibited to be carried by guests. Any guest found to be in possession of such items will be subject to large fines and expulsion from Cloud City. Please enjoy your stay and pay close attention to the directives of the Wing Guard, they are here for your safety.

Prohibited items are as follows:

Weapons larger than a small pistol or personal weapon (any weapon carried must be concealed at all times. VIP guests may apply for a bodyguard waiver).

Heavy or concealing armour. (VIP guests may apply for a bodyguard waiver).

Concealing head gear (except for cultural purposes).

Pets and Livestock (VIP guests may apply for a pet passport, all pets will be subject to a 14 day quarantine period).

Restricted or illegal items (without proper permits).

Any EXPLOSIVES.

Mining or industrial equipment is restricted to the lower levels.

Gambling cheaters.

Restricted holo-vids.

Vehicles with installed weaponry.

Imported produce.

Medicinal chemicals (without proper medical certificate).

Criminal accoutrements (an additional list is available from the Wing Guard).

Alcohol not purchased in Cloud City.

This list may be updated without notice. Please enjoy your stay.

VIP status can be arranged for a non-refundable deposit of 10,000 credits. This would then allow you to register up to 4 bodyguards for an additional fee per bodyguard. This fee is partially refundable when you and your entourage depart cloud city without incident.

That sounds about right. I mean that just makes the challange of smuggling tools into cloud city all that more appealing! Raising the stakes dramatically.

And they do have a way round armour and weapons but it would cost them....

One of the players wants to be a VIP but another player has reasoned that if conflict ensues they can always loot any weapons to defend themselves.

I was going to give my group about 50hours to prep before the race. Is this reasonable?

Don't forget Queen of Air and Darkness from the Dawn of Defiance, also on Bespin

Thanks for the heads up, I will take a look.

Things that would have been helpful to have to make planning this adventure easier:

• Details of when Lobot actually 'sleeps', the time isn't listed in the adventure.
• Details of when the players are loaned the cloud car for the Grand Prix
• An overview of how long it takes to investigate each bidder
• Stats for the main racers cloud cars
• Clarification of weapon policy on cloud city proper

I am sure that there are more things that i have missed but these are the things that have caused me additional working out.

I have used Ogg's generator to create the racing team modded Cloud Cars and I have put together a restricted item list for cloud city. The other bits I will deal with as follows:

• Lobot will 'sleep' at some point between the gala finishing and the bank opening.
• They wil be 'loaned' the cloud car 12 hours before the race, this will limit what mods they can install. Making sure they rely on the pilot's skills and talents.
• It will take about 2 hours per skill check to investigate each bidder, additional success will reduce this time by 15 minute increments.

Thoughts?

Also try to avoid them betting on themselves if you can, or at least don't give a ridiculous payout for a win.

I'd let them make their bets. There's no guarantee that they're going to win that race.

Yeah, my players want to bet on themselves. What sort of odds should i give them for 100,000 credit bet?

Yeah, my players want to bet on themselves. What sort of odds should i give them for 100,000 credit bet?

They’re total unknowns, so obviously you need to give them million-to-one odds. Maybe even billion-to-one odds.

I did suggest 50-to-one, which didn't seem unreasonable. But then the lead driver wants to start jumping on the media bandwagon. If e promotes himself too much the odds will start to drop.