So I'm brand new to rpgs over all. I've been playing with 2 PCs and we are going through Lure of the Lost. I'm not sure how to handle some issues

1. At a point in the story the PCs have to choose which group to side with. There are 2 sides and 2 PCs and each strongly wants to side with a different group they can't seem to reach a reasonable agreement after 10 minutes of talking. How do I handle this?

2. One of the players seems to want to visit every vendor in every marketplace. I'm constantly having to invent vendors and items as he's afraid he will miss some super cool weapon or armor. He plays a lot of cRpgs. I find it hard to constantly invent all of these vendors and inventory. Any advice? Do I try to shift him away from this or should I play along

3. At one of the end fights in the city, one of the PCs uses a destiny point to run past a nemesis and out the back door completely avoiding what is supposed to be a boss fight. Is this appropriate?

Thanks for any advice. The 2 PCs are struggling with each other's play style and I need some help GMing this properly

1. I'd a) throw some rolls in there that might sway the decision making process one way or the other, be it knowledge rolls of the different factions to make one side favourable. Or make them roll negotiation/leadership to decide who makes the final decision. IC they might grudgingly follow the others orders but deep down wished to have taken a deeper path so might subvert the group in the future. This can create some cool moments in the future where the player who lost can privately message/talk to the GM and create a whole new dynamic to an encounter by adding some element from the other faction as an obstacle/extra opponents.

2. Make this a "these are the items available from EVERY vendor in this district" and you only have to create a single list of items. Generally players will have a desired object that they wish to find and not ask for a full inventory, that way you can use the Rarity rules/rolls for Streetwise etc. If it's still an issue I'd just explain to the player that it's unreasonable to keep requesting a stock list, that'd be like doing badly on a negotiation roll, then going to the next store and trying again, then again etc until they triumph and get something super cheap!!

3. Nope, the destiny point is generally used in combat to aid/hinder dice rolls but can be used for deus ex'ing something that might aid in the fight, not to simply ignore it. They could spend a destiny point for the back door to exist in the first place but would still need to wait their initiative turn to even attempt running, plus there's nothing stopping you as a GM spending a destiny point for the door to be locked and requires an action to Skulduggery the lock or Computers to slice the terminal to open it (which would use their action that turn so give the boss at least another turn before their lucky escape).

1. If they are stuck without making a decision, escalate the situation until they are forced to choose.

2. Introduce a vendor that specializes in procuring items, many items, for a price. Play up the character's persona a lot and allow the PCs to get a couple shiny items with them. The vendor can possibly work out a deal for supplying them with goods & then they have a single source for the majority of their stuff.

An alternative would be to handle all the buying/selling outside of sessions, so that it doesn't take away the time of everyone else at the table. I employ this house-rule because my groups play on a monthly basis.

3. No. If a fight starts & the game goes into structured play, the PC in question would have to perform the required amount of maneuvers to run past the NPC. If there isn't reasonable enough room to get by the NPC, then the PC would have to first deal with getting around them before running out the door (some sort of athletics or coordination check maybe). Also, if they want to play it that way, you could flip the destiny point back, lock all the doors and now the group has to fend off the NPC without their other party member. They'll be real quick to tell that PC to never run out of the room without them again.

I can't help much with 1 but;

2. I would say this is up to you, if you don't want him to do this just say there are no more vendors with different items.

3. Not appropriate at all, especially for one destiny point. Besides if the fight starts the it has to follow the rules for structured play. Then if he still tries to do it you could turn it into a chase, then you could introduce NPC's that are faster than the PC, or mounted.

ninja'd by Groggy

Or as Groggy suggested just lock all the doors, that would make them think twice.

21 hours ago, Panda72 said:

1. At a point in the story the PCs have to choose which group to side with. There are 2 sides and 2 PCs and each strongly wants to side with a different group they can't seem to reach a reasonable agreement after 10 minutes of talking. How do I handle this?

You could have them make social rolls to convince the other PC. The one that loses the opposed rolls eventually gives in, with possible feelings of resentment or warryness.

21 hours ago, Panda72 said:

2. One of the players seems to want to visit every vendor in every marketplace. I'm constantly having to invent vendors and items as he's afraid he will miss some super cool weapon or armor. He plays a lot of cRpgs. I find it hard to constantly invent all of these vendors and inventory. Any advice? Do I try to shift him away from this or should I play along

Simply tell him there is nothing. You don't have to keep giving him vendors to shop at or items to buy. And at some point he's gonna run out of money anyway. Assure the player OOC that unlike a cRPG you're not going to miss out on a super cool weapon or armor and that the best stuff is found through adventuring, not by visiting every vendor.

21 hours ago, Panda72 said:

3. At one of the end fights in the city, one of the PCs uses a destiny point to run past a nemesis and out the back door completely avoiding what is supposed to be a boss fight. Is this appropriate?

He can use a DP to create the back door but he still has to fight his way to it. A DP isn't an auto escape.

22 hours ago, Panda72 said:

So I'm brand new to rpgs over all. I've been playing with 2 PCs and we are going through Lure of the Lost. I'm not sure how to handle some issues

1. At a point in the story the PCs have to choose which group to side with. There are 2 sides and 2 PCs and each strongly wants to side with a different group they can't seem to reach a reasonable agreement after 10 minutes of talking. How do I handle this?

2. One of the players seems to want to visit every vendor in every marketplace. I'm constantly having to invent vendors and items as he's afraid he will miss some super cool weapon or armor. He plays a lot of cRpgs. I find it hard to constantly invent all of these vendors and inventory. Any advice? Do I try to shift him away from this or should I play along

3. At one of the end fights in the city, one of the PCs uses a destiny point to run past a nemesis and out the back door completely avoiding what is supposed to be a boss fight. Is this appropriate?

Thanks for any advice. The 2 PCs are struggling with each other's play style and I need some help GMing this properly

1. Have one wipe the other out, or make it clear which is the one to choose.

2. Keep the story moving and don't give them the down time. He asks about vendors let them start and then call for a Perception check where they spot someone following them. Limit the 'downtime'.

3. No.

1. Make them spilt up and take their own routes. Star Wars particularly is a universe that encourages cutting between various perspectives. Of course if the characters have a good bond they should be reasonable, but pitting them directly against eachother would be interesting experiment; provided the players don't develop negative feelings. Heck, it doesn't have to end with a corpse at the end of the road but a highly charged conflict between two characters is the basis of pretty much all of star wars. That being said, players need to learn early on that they cannot have everything their way absolutely all the time. Players and characters have to have a little room for concession and adaptability.

2: While it's interesting to make Venders for stuff; sometimes just telling him that items of a certain rarity and above aren't avalible in marketplaces. But as the players preform adventures and earn a reputation in the underworld, they get given an exclusive auction which has all kinds of exotic items; the catch is that the player can only ever buy one or two items on this exotic reel whenever it is held as there are other masked bidders.

3: It depends, but generally a villian should be more cunning then that. "I have no interest in this fight, I'm getting out of here!" "Sure, you run into the corridor sleight into his body guards/bountyhunter/whatever. Roll cool/inti.". I agree with most opinions however, the PC can spend destiny points to introduce facts into the narrative but if it deliberately bypasses an intended scene it can be vetoed. Even really powerful signature abilities have to pass the GM's opinion before it can be used; just because a Marauder has a super power that kills ALL the minions doesn't mean he can pull it off against 50+ stormtroopers at an imperial assembly for example.

That being said, if the PC does have a reason to be elsewhere; to get to a location to stop a bomb or do something time sensitive then it might be acceptable to let a player go. Just remember that a villian or a group will often have plans to deal with runners; otherwise it's a bit of an arsehole thing to do to "just leave the player in it" if done too many times.

My gf recently told me a story about a vendorphile in a D&D game. Cliffs version is (at the time) her hubs spent so much time in a town during a plot mission of rescue the hostages, by the time they left to get to the hostages, they were already dead.

You may have to do the same thing in this case.

Using that destiny point can be fought, using that same destiny point as GM. It's in the various core books in the destiny point section of how to do this.

The two groups thing is contingent on what groups there are and what they want to do, are they head to head like rival gangs or allied for a common goal, just use different methods to accomplish it.

23 minutes ago, ASCI Blue said:

My gf recently told me a story about a vendorphile in a D&D game. Cliffs version is (at the time) her hubs spent so much time in a town during a plot mission of rescue the hostages, by the time they left to get to the hostages, they were already dead.

I keep my players too busy meeting a clock to "go shopping". Shopping is for emails between sessions.

I need to work on that one, I think I'm going to ditch my old group due to, in part, not being able to keep on task due to players derailing things.

1.This is a tough one. It sounds like its mainly an issue due to your relatively small group size. My first blush advice is to find more people, but I know that is a bit of an insensitive recommendation and it certainly might not be an option for you. Next, I would examine the core motivations as to why both players have gravitated to completely opposite groups. Is it that their personal, player based logic is finding one group preferable over another, or is it tied more to character background. Perhaps in their motivations is a misconception about the details, and helping nudge them the other way would get the players to cooperate.

Have a frank conversation with your players, let them realize that the other option is to split the party, which is almost a universally disliked concept (Although the SW rpgs handle it alright than other games I guess), at some point someone just needs to let it go; they can say "I told you so" later if it doesn't work out. Part of it sounds to me like (as you mention in the second question), these players are coming from a more cRpg background, and often in cases like that, players are highly adverse to quest decisions cutting off other avenues. I will say I am totally unaware of the context of the Lure of the Lost module, but would it even be remotely possible for them to try to unite the two sides? Or to go without the support of either?

I would say there isn't really any shame in just letting the players work this out themselves. In-party dyanimcs like this are a good part of the fun, and if the players are enjoying it (or at least enjoy the overall experience; its ok for the moment by moment to be more tense) then there really isn't a problem.

The last bit of advice I would go with (and to me the last resort option) is the carrot/stick route. If absolutely nothing is working, dangle XP to the player that capitulates first (or heck, maybe even a straight morality boost), or punish a player who is being a stick in the mud with a bit of conflict, for attempting to strong-arm others into something they're so passionate about.

2. A lot of this is going to fall to GM style. I think the trick here is to just inform the players that you're not going to have a set list of items for all the shops (and really, don't, that's a bookkeeping nightmare). You don't have a note squirreled away somewhere that says the heavily modified repeating blaster is for sale for 1500 credits at JawaMart. The core rules actually handle what they're trying to do rather well. In a situation like this, you make a negotiation check on the availability of the item, with the results meaning you might of found an opportunity to acquire one. Now if they're just want to say they're browsing, feel free to include some random items.

3. I assume they were trying to use the add a detail usage of destiny points to edit the scene? As far as I'm aware, you can do that during structured encounters, just they obviously have to perform the maneuvers to make use of it. At which point it turns more into a chase. Which on its own isn't all that bad. Certainly though, a single destiny point should never just auto-resolve an encounter though.

BTW, if you want to avoid giving away rare items for "free" when you make them up as you go, they can always be outrageously expensive. So you don't need to even think much about rarity. At least if you follow the assumption that for 500,000 credits the rarity of a 50,000 credit verpine rifle can be mostly ignored, because people will literally go thousands of lightyears to bring it to you for that price. ;-)