Hello Everyone!

I would like some feedback to the upcoming "climax" of the current arc my players are in.

To preface this: The PCs did a under-the-radar prisoner transport to an Imperial Prison Base located in a treacherous asteroid field! (I know, already oozing with originality.)

By the end of the last session, just as they transferred credits for the transport the alarms went off and explosions were heard and felt.

As of now the Base is under Rebel siege. I was planning on a group of rebel spec ops attempting to extract the prisoner, supported by a small fighter squad of X-Wings.

The PCs are not particularily pro Empire or pro Alliance either way, their main focus are credits for now.

BUT, if by chance their relationship with the Empire goes sour during their escape, I thought it would be cool if the hangar and their ship was guarded by an AT-ST walker.

Now those things are pretty though for personal scale.

The PCs are around 200-250 XP and don't have any Breach or Ion weaponry.

1 Assassin Bounty Hunter

1 Technician Outlaw Tech

1 Smuggler Pilot

(And a Rival level Astromech Slicer as an ally NPC)

So their chances of straight up taking it down are pretty slim and I was wondering if it's too much. Or if I should just go for it anyway and basically force them to circumvent the situation in another way.

On the flip-side I would like to have something comparable for the rebels, in case of an Pro-Empire outcome.

Maybe like a rebel Gunship that the spec-ops came in preventing anything form leaving the hangar so they can't mess with the starfighters outside.

Something like that.

Of course even if they manage to leave with their ship they would be in the crazyness that is space battle outside, but maybe they can slip by in the chaos, it is an asteroid field after all.

Would be grateful for suggestions and pointers.

Never pass up the opportunity to throw an imposing or difficult enemy at the players just because you're afraid it'll stomp them--instead, give them a way to even the odds. Catwalks suspended over the walker they can jump down from? Defense turrets intended to guard the hangar from boarders but can be manned/sliced? The good old explosive barrels? Shutting down the gravity in the hangar?

In my experience players will remember a big fight against a tough enemy more than an even fight with someone more their size, even if the former actually ends up being easier because you stacked the deck in their favor. Big enemies make players feel big for defeating them.

Maybe give your BBEG some kind of special power, like a free out-of-turn manoeuvre whenever he gets injured. As for the damaged ATST, maybe just fluff it as minor damage, or whenever those red dice (and there should be plenty of those when fighting an arc bad guy, he should be stacked with Adversary) start showing Despairs, go to town. Other than that, Mechanics checks to get the walker running again.

The AoR GM kit offers some additional rules to use with Nemesis. One is they can take an extra action as the very last action of the round. Another is using minions like shields. I don't remember the details of it though. A couple of things with Despairs, they hit, but maybe they hit a minion. if you choose to go with the run out of ammo thing, it does happen IMMEDIATELY according to RAW, not the following round, so that success is wasted and canceled by the Despair, oh well. Even if they have the spare clip talent, the weapon still goes empty, and they still have to reload and their next turn. According to RAW, but people can do what the want.

I mean you're right with the AT-ST being tough for personal scale, but if you sprinkle the area with maybe some ion weaponry or missiles that you would count as damage to it (I know personal weapons and vehicle stuff gets sketchy) they would be fine.

I had my PCs once encounter a prototype tank droid boss at the end of a Corellian sector mission that knocked out 4 of the 5 players and the last player only succeeded in killing it by embracing their destiny (DP) but I made that a personal scale vehicle so their weapons could damage it but just gave it a higher soak and wound threshold. It also helped the droid spit out minion targeting drones (think offense training remotes) every other turn and had to charge up its weapon.

I know there are rules for a vehicle AT-ST but you could change the rules up a bit and make a personal scale version so the PCs don't need to have ion or breach stuff, but it's your call.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I meant to reply earlier, but I was wrenching my head back and forth on this.

The session took place and it panned out in a way that I couldn't use the AT-ST.

Basically the PCs crushed pretty much every roll, and bullshitted their way out of the station, wich tends to happen once every other moon.

In the future I will definitely not shy away from throwing tough stuff at the PCs.

Also don't let your PCs fight the Nemesis when they have access their own vehicle scale weapons...

One more lesson learned though:)