[SEEKING ADVICE]: Adventure idea - Gone in 60 Parsecs

By GM Hooly, in Game Masters

Posted at
HOOK
The PCs have returned from their ordeal on the planet Indibedi. The PCs now seek vessels to steal in order to commence work on their smuggling operation and soon after locate 3 such craft:
  • VCX-100 Light Freighter
    Name: Mist Phoenix
    Captain: Trumpo Wexler (Bessalisk Male)
  • Nyubba-Class Cargo Barge Driver
    Name: Chubby Gundark
    Captain: Bungo Bung (Sullustan Male)
  • Wayfarer-class medium transport
    Name: Derian Sun
    Captain: Kara Moonlock (Human Female)
Allow the PCs to choose which vessel. Whichever one they choose, the Captain of the vessel is currently doing a run for an associate of Belloq the Hutt’s organisation (who is connected with one of the PCs Obligations and the Hutt is believed dead). When the PCs enter the hanger, so do the Captain, his associate and their men. A fire-fight breaks out.
DEVELOPMENT
The PCs learn that the Captain’s associate is named Artem Ulpax , a Devaronian recruiter for Beloq’s organisation. The PCs may need to do some research after which they learn that Belloq is indeed alive and in hiding.
CLIFF-HANGER
The PCs are chased by Ulpax’s men in several Z-95 Headhunters which have been launched from a hidden hanger in the Barren wastes of Solay’s equator. The PCs will need to find a way to get the ship to a place where they can “scrub” the vessel. That will lead them to an old friend who resides on the swamp world of Gelaed.
DEVELOPMENT
The PCs need to locate their contact Rand Siclum , a slicer and mechanic who can forge starship documents and replace transponder codes. Unfortunately the PCs learn that he has been captured by local thugs who Siclum owes money to. The PCs will need to find Siclum, before he is thrown into the pit of Barsks, a creature similar to a lizard, with a mouth and tongue like a frog. Unfortunately the thugs are members of the Vector Union, an organisation which has strong ties with the authorities on the planet.
If the force sensitive character goes wandering, they come across a small place of worship occupied by an old Stodas (a frog like alien - think bullywugs) named Lem Parchant . Lem is a former Jedi Knight who went mad during the Clone Wars and disappeared into the Outer Rim. He questions any Force sensitives at length, badgering them with questions about the war.
CLIMAX
The PCs will need to negotiate for Siclum’s release which may end in outright bloodshed.
RESOLUTION
Rand Siclum is release and in payment for their troubles, scrubs the PCs vessel.
Thoughts?
Edited by GM Hooly
Posted at

Question:

Is this the PC group's first ship? If so, all good choices, but as a player I'd go with the Wayfarer automatically. Love the reference to the Chubby Gundark though, you should post your custom stats for it.

Recommendations:

1. I would add an encounter to the front end that requires the PCs to get through some form of security (locked doors, cameras, guards, etc) before entering the hangar.

2. I would add some spaceport workers/droids in the middle of the hangar fight scene, just to make it a little more interesting/realistic and give the players more to think about.

2. I'd throw in some more technical or social encounters depending on how many in the group are not combat experts. Maybe the hyperdrive needs fixed before they escape the Z-95 Headhunters, but there's an Astromech Droid that belongs to the captain still in engineering trying to thwart any repairs. Maybe they have to convince a gruff local merchant to tell them where Siclum might be held captive, but he makes them play the old game of riddles before telling them (i.e. What is your quest? What is your favorite color?)

Comments:

Very nicely thought out Adventure. Has lots of good elements. Clear mission goal. Intrigue and surprise. Exciting combat scenes. And starships most importantly.

Good luck running it, it sounds like it's going to be fun. Let us know how it works out for your group.

Posted at

So I started the session with an investigation so that they could learn a bit about the ships themselves before they decided which one they wanted first. I knew they actually wanted the Wayfarer, but I made sure each one had its pros and cons.

I was amazing how much of a fun debate it became when I started adding quirks due to the Threats and in one case despairs. In the case of threats, it was that the ship had connections to an ally whom the PCs had worked with before and the despair (although hidden from the PCs) was that the ship was not only connected with a direct rival, but was also heavily under repair after having been involved in a recent firefight - complete with a critical.

Anyway, the PCs still chose the Wayfarer, although they wanted to steal the Chubby Gundark just because of the name (a lot of my players aren't as familiar with the days of WEG, so it was news to them) to the point where they asked if they could change the name of this new ship once it was scrubbed to that. It was hilarious.

They attacked at night, they got into a firefight. One of the PCs (the slicer) who was trying to get control of the doors to the hanger, successfully did so with a Triumph, and took control of a loader droid, using the droid to attack the minions in a quickly slapped together VR display.

They managed to kidnap the ship's captain, and steal the ship.

They took off, but didn't search the ship which allowed the Captain's faithful R2 until to sabotage things. Simple checks became opposed by the droids Mechanics or Computers checks with the players not initially questioning why these checks were so high.It was fun watching the paranoia build. At one stage, the R2 unit blocked off the gunnery station from the rest of the ship and sucked the air from the area, thus creating a tense moment or two while they wrestled controls of the system from the droid whilst still firing at the Z-95s who were pursuing them). They eventually did and cornered the droid in the airlock, after which they ejected him into space.

Being "friends" with the Empire helped as well and I used threats and Despairs from the NPCs to have the Empire get a shot at them from the blockade ships, without having to track an additional ship (3 x Threat was a basic hit) and a Despair was an outright Destruction).

The PCs managed to get away but that was the end of the session. At least I have session two already planned :)

Thank you for the suggestions, and I'll continue to post how this things goes.

Posted at

Very cool. Glad it worked out so well. That's hilarious that they loved the name so much for the Chubby Gundark .

What is the make up of the crew?

Posted at

GM HOOLY,

Always love your ideas, in fact your Veil of Darkness is similar to my first EOTE/F&D campaign, based it off the Darklord Rising Darth Vader book. Set 2 weeks after Order 66.

gonna head over and check out this new campaign of yours this weekend.

KSW

Posted at

Let me know what you think.