Once again my game is spinning off in unexpected directions, and I'm looking for ideas for how to put it on track. I'm sure I could come up with something, but thought I'd stike out to the crowd at large and see if people had any thoughts outside my normal box.

Desslok, don't read this.

Lots of text, so my apologies.

Our heroes are working with the Rebel Alliance on a mission that's mutually beneficial. The rebels loaned them a ship (an old Berloz freighter), and a squad of five marines to strike at a remote and hidden Imperial research base. The freighter was upgraded with two turrets so they could fight if needed.

The base was on a moon orbiting a gas giant. The Empire is relying on secrecy so guards were minimal. Four TIE fighters to patrol the whole moon, with only two TIE's out at a time. Our heroes tried to sneak in, as two fighters can't cover a whole moon. Unfortunately some despair on their sensors rolls put them into the TIE's radar. Wipe to several minutes later as our heroes are ejecting from their ship as the last TIE blows up. The fight was within their skill level, but some excellent and/or terrible rolling resulted in a disastrous (though hilarious) fight. Let's just say the crit rolls were up to +70 due to constant collisions with the debris field they tried to take cover in.

So where are they now? We adjourned our last session with the heroes having dispatched 2/3 of the enemy base. I'm anticipating they should be able to finish it off, but there's one small problem. There are no hypercapable ships on this planet. There's a small satellite in orbit that larger ships dock with to pick up and drop off supplies, and a non-hyper capable shuttle that runs between the two. Everything else is destroyed.

So our heroes (A mechanic/technician, a Seeker/Pathfinder, a Guardian/Armoror, and a Sentinel/Shadow) are stranded on the Imperial world. Only two marines have lived this long.

I'd rather they not get captured (unless they really screw up) as they've been captured twice already, and we've been their done that. Imperial ships periodically stop by to drop off supplies or pick things up. It can be anything from a lone shuttle to a Star Destroyer coming by. They usually dock with the small space station and the shuttle runs things back and forth to the planet.

Any thoughts?

You're going to have to give them some kind of chance.

They fix their ship for a one last jump type escape.

They wait for a smaller Imperial ship to arrive and commandeer that.

They get a signal out to someone that can help them.

They stage their own capture, lock themselves in the brig with weapons hidden just as Imperials show up and feign ignorance of what happened precisely.

I've always found that looking at the situation logically one step at the time helps.:

A) The PCs need to get off the planet somehow.

B) There are no hyperspace-capable ships on the planet.

C) Therefore a hyperspace-capable ship has to arrive for some reason or other. Otherwise they'll be stuck there forever.

Now, the rest of the adventure pretty much hinges on what sort of ship you have arriving. Is it an Imperial vessel? If so, the PCs need to either commandeer it or stow away aboard it. Is it a Rebel ship sent to rescue them? Probably not, since that makes for fewer interesting developments. Is it a third-party ship, like a group of pirates or smugglers? If so the PCs might be able to strike a deal with them in exchange for passage, which could lead to all sorts of intriguing diversions.

Or maybe the PCs come across an old, derelict ship they can patch together and get hyperspace-worthy. Only ships like that typically come with their own back story. Why was it abandoned there? And by whom? And how long ago? Is there something exciting or valuable hidden aboard it? Are someone looking for it? Is there a being frozen in carbonite hidden away in a secret smuggling compartment?

Oh, all the places this could go...

I've always found that looking at the situation logically one step at the time helps.:

A) The PCs need to get off the planet somehow.

B) There are no hyperspace-capable ships on the planet.

C) Therefore a hyperspace-capable ship has to arrive for some reason or other. Otherwise they'll be stuck there forever.

Now, the rest of the adventure pretty much hinges on what sort of ship you have arriving. Is it an Imperial vessel? If so, the PCs need to either commandeer it or stow away aboard it. Is it a Rebel ship sent to rescue them? Probably not, since that makes for fewer interesting developments. Is it a third-party ship, like a group of pirates or smugglers? If so the PCs might be able to strike a deal with them in exchange for passage, which could lead to all sorts of intriguing diversions.

Or maybe the PCs come across an old, derelict ship they can patch together and get hyperspace-worthy. Only ships like that typically come with their own back story. Why was it abandoned there? And by whom? And how long ago? Is there something exciting or valuable hidden aboard it? Are someone looking for it? Is there a being frozen in carbonite hidden away in a secret smuggling compartment?

Oh, all the places this could go...

Are you like my twin and we were separated at birth but we still share a psychic connection? (that would be very appropriate to a star wars forum)

Either that or

"great minds think alike"

Or

"it takes 2 fools to share one thought"

Well another nice possibility could be to let an Bountyhunter tracing them. (For what ever reason Obligation or a misunderstanding ect)

while he lands with his ship and is trying to find his target they can sneak around him or take him out an will have a new vessel.

if it is a misunderstanding: While looking through the computer they find a description of a person very similar to one of the team... now they have to find out who is that guy (maybe a long lost twin? A Clone? Just a coincedence? why is there a bounty on him? Should they capture him themself so nobody else will come looking for theire teammate. or will they ignore it so mor Bountyhunters will show up? Will they try to talk the employer?

a lot of possibilities

I've always found that looking at the situation logically one step at the time helps.:

A) The PCs need to get off the planet somehow.

B) There are no hyperspace-capable ships on the planet.

C) Therefore a hyperspace-capable ship has to arrive for some reason or other. Otherwise they'll be stuck there forever.

Now, the rest of the adventure pretty much hinges on what sort of ship you have arriving. Is it an Imperial vessel? If so, the PCs need to either commandeer it or stow away aboard it. Is it a Rebel ship sent to rescue them? Probably not, since that makes for fewer interesting developments. Is it a third-party ship, like a group of pirates or smugglers? If so the PCs might be able to strike a deal with them in exchange for passage, which could lead to all sorts of intriguing diversions.

Or maybe the PCs come across an old, derelict ship they can patch together and get hyperspace-worthy. Only ships like that typically come with their own back story. Why was it abandoned there? And by whom? And how long ago? Is there something exciting or valuable hidden aboard it? Are someone looking for it? Is there a being frozen in carbonite hidden away in a secret smuggling compartment?

Oh, all the places this could go...

Are you like my twin and we were separated at birth but we still share a psychic connection? (that would be very appropriate to a star wars forum)

Either that or

"great minds think alike"

Or

"it takes 2 fools to share one thought"

A little from column A, a little from column B...

Well you have things off track and want to get it back on track. First rule of RPG club, don't talk about RPG club, second rule of RPG club, there are no tracks.

I have learned after decades of GMing, if giving players options, they go in directions you can't not anticipate. You can talk to the group and and try to get the back on your track through a meta way. Or just really make them do what you want through sheer force and railroading, which is hardly ever feel for anyone, or just go with they are doing. It seems to me that you have almost steered them in this direction from what I am reading though. You said some Desapir unfortunately came up in some sensor rolls. Who made these these sensor checks and why were they upgraded? If it were the TIE pilot making the check it would have been a Triumph, and if the PCs did something bad, how could a sensor roll have been upgraded to a Challenege Die and why? This just really seems off to me. I do use my Challenege Dice pretty liberally, but I always have a good plan for a Desapair. Never just, wow a Despair happened, what should happen now... Plus all my player are around 400 XP.

You also mentioned that the fight/encounter was within their skill level. Two thirds of the enemies have been taken out, but the ship has so many crits they are now at a plus 70 on the crit table!!! At 151 it is death!! I'm not sure about vehicle crits off the top of my head, but I don't think it's far off. Not hard to roll above an 80 on the D100. Somehow three of their five Marines are dead, and you didn't provide them with any hyperspace capable ships to escape with? Also I don't understand how they ship could have suffered so much damage when trying to take cover in the debris field. Where they going full throttle? If trying to take cover, wouldn't they be moving very slowly?

It seems to me that they are perfectly on the rails you provided them. At least from the context you have provided us. I know in a forum you can't express everything, but from what I read, it seems they were setup to fail. I'm sure they weren't, but from an outsider looking in, it just seems that way.

If you don't want them to get captured, you will have to allow them to repair the ship, have the TIEs slam in the space junk, have another small ship jump in they can capture. Or they scan a captured freighter in a dock they missed the first time around due to that Despair.

To sum up, you start off by saying once agiain my game is going off in unexpected directions... I don't know how long you have been a GM, but that has been the majority of experience as a GM. The players will always do the stuff you never thought of, no matter how much planning you put into the adventure, or how well you know the players!!! and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Thanks for all the help.

I'm not to worried about tracks or where they are. This group is more often off the track then on. I'm not even worried about getting them off the planet. It's easy enough to have them find a ship or storm a supply shuttle that shows up. I was just looking for some out of the box ideas. I've just been pondering methods and wondered if anybody had any cool things I hadn't thought of.

Their ship is now an ex-ship. They escape podded out shortly before it vaporized, so that isn't an option. I'm thinking I might have the base located over an old cave system, that The Empire uses largely for storage. I might put in a hidden door however to some old smuggling tunnels long abandoned. In it they'll find something they can use to fight off the Imperials when they come to investigate the lost base. Also some necessary medpacks and such, as they've blown through their supplies.

They can then strike from the hidden tunnels and eventually steal a ship and fly away.

I'm still brainstorming, it's a work in progress.

Who was using the moon before them?

Nothing says there's a disused shadowport hidden somewhere on the moon and your players stumble into it after their latest encounter with the Imperials.

Have they disabled the base's communications because if not reinforcements are on their way!

Maybe there's a derelict freighter that was impounded and possibly going to be scavenged once they need the space (and a Gonatzi freighter to replace it!).

Have the commander of the incoming imperial warship willing to blow up the Imperial base along with the surviving Imperials and show them panicking to make it clear he's intent on killing all of them if they're hesitating to escape!

Have the base start filling up with leaking fuel to make the resulting explosion even more impressive and make it clear they need to escape asap!

What kind of freighter would you want them to have and in what condition?

It's a research base... maybe they were researching something that could be used to escape the planet.

I have an idea...

Steal from movies. The station is docked with a corvette or cruiser from the Imperial navy, and the shuttle dispatched with some supplies with a couple of Stormtroopers. Precisely a couple. Knock em out and wear the uniform. Put the others in cargo crates and load the shuttle with the crates marking them as hazmat or something and fly back to the station thinking it's time to leave.

But no! "Alright, we'll bring these containers where they need to go, you guys bring the last shipment over and hurry back, we need to leave soon." So now you've split the party.

The disguised PCs are trying to track down containers of bilogical waste without seeming too weird and blowing their cover. Meanwhile the crates are set to just be dumped into space before jumping to hyperspace, so everyone is in a panic about finding the rest of the party. The guys in the crates, not wanting to wait for death, slip out, and are stalking the ship looking for two Stormtroopers, but in a veritable sea of Stormtroopers that might be more of a challenge than one might originally think.

After regrouping, one way or another, they need to either be carried back to civilized space, or steal that or any other ship.

I have this image in my head of the two PCs looking out a window at these cargo crates drifting in space, crying and pounding on the glass, thinking they failed. Then the other players just tap them in the shoulders.

Edit:

Alternatively, you know that scene from Pirates of the Carribbean 2 when Elizabeth makes the crew think the ship is haunted to force them to go to Tortuga? That.

So where are they now? We adjourned our last session with the heroes having dispatched 2/3 of the enemy base. I'm anticipating they should be able to finish it off, but there's one small problem. There are no hypercapable ships on this planet. There's a small satellite in orbit that larger ships dock with to pick up and drop off supplies, and a non-hyper capable shuttle that runs between the two. Everything else is destroyed.

Maybe they can find a way to hijack the non-hyper capable shuttle, or at least be stowaways on it, so that they can hijack or stowaway on one of the hyper-capable ships that dock with the satellite?

That seems like an obvious escape route that’s built right in there.

Or have actual Pirates raid the place!

In fact how about revealing Pirates were slowly taking the place until the players turned up?

Assuming their comrades screwed up there's bitter fighting between the two groups allowing the PCs if they're careful easy access to a hyperspace capable ship of course what if they don imperial uniforms and end up aboard the shuttle that docks with a Star destroyer and they have to lie low until they can escape down to another planet without the Imperials realising what's happened!