Hello,

I'm GM-ing an Age of Rebellion game (put it here since there's only one GM forum), and I'm writing the story for the first campaign (my first RPG story ever). The principle of which is the liberation of the Elom system after the Battle of Yavin, following the first adventure which is capturing a staging area in the section. I intend to have them infiltrate the Elom system, to gain information and provide the Rebels the upper hand. So I've been trying to think of a few of the more obvious paths, and have ideas for a few things, one of which is stealing cargo/cargo ships, however the background on the Elom system make it sound like there would be quite a bit going out. So what would the Empire use to transport large amounts of cargo? Would they use more Class four transports ( http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Class_four_container_transport ) or would they use 1-2 older trade federation transport ( http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lucrehulk-class_LH-3210_cargo_freighter ) or something similar? I want to avoid using the Temple-class from the AoR core rule-book since we did that mission already and if they choose this direction I want it to feel different.

Also I would appriciate a few tips on making and running social encounters, there doesn't seem to be any examples in the books I have (I don't have Desperate Allies).

Thanks

I’m just guessing, but I wouldn’t think that there would be any Lucrehulk freighters left — they were used by the Separatists, and any that might have been left after the end of the Clone Wars would probably have been junked or otherwise eliminated.

The Class four transport certainly makes sense, if it was for military purposes.

But why not allow civilian freighters and transports?

I always envisioned that bulk transport was handled by private forces. Any manpower the empire controls goes into it's warmachine and it bids out any of its more mundane logistics.

Social encounters are hard to give advice on, but here goes. I find they generally fall into a couple different styles. The more common is when the party is interacting with a single NPC (maybe there are bystanders but the focus is the one npc). These I like to treat like they are traps. A single skill check to disarm the trap and the party moves on. Key being you should have an idea of what triggering the trap does.

The other is generally more nebulous. And like a general combat it should include the ability for each character to participate and it shouldn't be a simple pass/fail check. Before you start you should establish the parameters of the encounter. What is the party trying to accomplish. What are the npc's trying to do? How many threats are there? Do they have weaknesses or resistances?

I'll see if I can come up with an example or two. Each "encounter" has its own things to consider.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Class_four_container_transport

These might be what you're looking for? They're used in Rebels pretty frequently. Staffed by the Empire directly, with some combination of officers, Stormtroopers and sentry droids .

Thanks for the replies, I'm probably going to end up using the Class four, since the cargo they'll have will be valuable to the construction of Imperial ships, and contracting it out always has its dangers. Are there stats somewhere for the Class four transports, or will I have to come up with some myself?

I’m not aware of any stats for the Class Four. As an alternative, you could take stats for another large freighter or transport, change the name, and be done with it. Maybe something that is Silhouette 6, if you want to make it a really big transport.

Maybe the Armos Modular Transport from Far Horizons, which doesn’t appear to have an official image yet? If you want to use those stats, see http://swrpg.viluppo.net/transportation/starships/1485/

Or maybe you could use the stats of a Temple-Class Heavy Freighter? If so, then see http://swrpg.viluppo.net/transportation/starships/1340/

I always preferred the BFF-1 and container transport as Medium Transports to use as Prize ships. Small enough that a group could take one over. But not too big where someone would notice it