OKay, this is a players discussion for players.

Yeah, you GM's can contribute if you want but this topic is geared toward players.

So the root question is, "How do you get rid of the Hutts?"

Our group is getting their feet beneath them and we just put together a pretty well upgraded YT-2400 geared with combat in mind. (We have a crew/passengers of 8 so smaller ships weren't an option).

And in addition to being bad sophonts, a couple of our players are strongly desirous to knock off as many Hutts as possible before we are hunted down an killed mercilessly.

As far as liabilities go, Hutts, are wealthy, long lived, durable, ruthless, well protected, and they mutually support one another (mostly).

So frontal assaults aren't going to work.

Setting up internecine conflicts are a no-go too. Hutts tend to not interfere with each other too much. Even if they hate each other they're going to live and let live.

RotJ showed us a well coordinated long term take down of Jabba, but I'm pretty sure our group wouldn't be able to coordinate anything that elaborate. (Maybe your group could).

The best idea I can come up with is to pick one Hutt, recon and research their operations and then move subtlety to start disrupting and dismantling their primary operations.

I'm guessing the next phase would be to dance around with a couple of bounty hunters.

Eventually, once weakened, we go in and slice the Hutt's computers and extract incriminating data so that we can start messing with related Hutts.

Anyrate, there's got to be more than one way to "Salt a Slug" and I'm all eyes.

I think Hutts value their profits and reputation more than their lives. The loss of either in the face of their peers would be devastating. Once you've isolated a Hutt in such a manner, dropping a bomb or vehicle on them should do the trick. You could even trigger a Hutt vs Hutt war, difficult but it can be done, and have the Hutts do your dirty work. The biggest obstacle would be time. Hutts live near forever, barring a violent death, and literally take the long view. I would expect a campaign lasting at least one year, in-game and perhaps out of game, just for one Hutt.

The problem with asymmetrical warfare approach, is that that is pretty much the Hutt's bag right there. Sure they do it from the "Criminal Kingpin" angle rather than as a guerrilla warfare, but it's the same sort of thing, and they tend to have the resources and intelligence network to play the game better than you do. In the time it takes you to figure out what their operations are and who their people are, their network of informants and such have probably already informed on you just from your nosing around.

I'm not saying they'll know every move you make before you make it, but it won't take long for them to catch on.

Then you have to start worrying about not only the Hutt's people, but whatever bounty hunters he puts on your tail. The great thing about bounty hunters is that it's not your people risking their lives to bring the bounty in. You don't have to equip them, train them, or if they fail even pay them.

Once you do take him down, then the other members of his kajidic are going to be looking for you and are probably going to have the information on you that the first one already collected. Things escalate.

If the players aren't worried about their eventual death or dismantling their criminal empires and such, and just want to Kill the most Hutts before they get taken down, then I'd say don't worry too much about playing double oh seven in space. The Hutts are usually not too hard to find. Wait until one is sailing on his nice little barge and then shove a couple of proton torpedoes down his gullet with your Y wing. Fly over to the next sand dune over and empty the rest of your torpedo bay into the next Hutt's palace. Toss the Y wing into the sun to get rid of as much evidence as possible and take your main ship over to the next system, leaving the people here wondering what the heck is going on.

The surprise of not knowing you're coming will work better than fumbling around trying to play their game better than they do.

Use quick flash gel and a space suit, make a hole in the side of the hutts yacht...

Pack a thermal detenator into a paddy frog snack.

Sniper shoot him from extreme range.

Steal a ship, jump out with a jet pack and auto pilot it into the Hutt's palace.

Get a sonic drill and do some excavation under his palace then blow the supports.

Drop off a rancor cage with sensor shielding, and mark the cage a special gift from some moff, requires intel beforehand. Let Rancor eat everyone.

Fill a barrel of corellian whiskey with fuel for a barrel bomb delivery.

install a hidden electrocution in his chair, let him fry.

Make a whoopy cushion with a breakable container of quickflash gel so they sit on it and it melts them and the chair probably through the floor and falls to the next level.

Rinse and repeat...

Not all Hutts are of Jabba's ilk - I reckon there are many easier targets amongst younger, less-influential slugs. These PCs could go on a middle-management killing spree and probably pretty far along with it if they're smart about it.

send in an astromech and protocol droid with a message for the hutt, another hutt (CGI) seeks an audience with their greatness and presents a gift, these 2 droids, (one with a hidden shield storage compartment it doesn't even no about, holding a few thermal detonators slaved together), the hutt sending the message laughs, boom. if the first hutt or other witnesses survive, the second hutt will get blamed for it and the first hutt's kajic will go after the hutt who sent it, of course there has to be bad blood between the two hutts, and you'll need to make sure there's a "paper trail" leading back to the hutt who sent it. send a ship on autopilot into the second hutts palace (the ship formerly belonged "was stolen from" the major domo of the "young" relative of the first hutt who go the most offended), go back and forth like this, somewhere in there you fake a message from their hutt boss use some dumb thugs of one of the hutts who had previously displeased their boss. How do you get this info, using spy bots/micro drones you stole from a rogue/freelance bothan ex-spynet agent you killed at the same time (but you put his body in a stasis container to make it seem like he died AFTER some of the attacks.

Now, we're cooking! These are GREAT ideas... and I *HATE* the Hutts. Everything about them. I'll be happy to add to this list but one of my favorite ideas is to tow in an asteroid. An asteroid the size of Texas. (Saw this trick on a holovid once and it was terrifying... )

How many Smugglers masquerade as mining ships along the Hyperspace lanes on any given day anyway? Practically ALL of them? Well, just imagine towing a massive rock behind you while you're moving at Hyperlight speed then dropping out just before you get to Nar Shadaa... Max out your Sublight speed and plot your trajectory for the most Frelling hated Hutt palace of your campaign. Streak into the atmosphere and even if their palace autolasers shoot the massive asteroid it's still going to break up into massive chunks the size of entire cities. They'll all still hit the planet below at what I can only imagine are millions of miles per hour. Ka BOOM!

Yeah, there's going to be collateral damage as the surface of the moon of Nar Shadaa is obliterated. But, so what. They were corrupt scum anyway.

Frell Those Hutts. Every. Last. One. Of. Them.

Hutts are old and well informed. So if you are going to go after them you are going to need a lot of different tricks and a lot of luck.

The first one shouldnt be too big of a deal initially because no one is well informed enough to know a random group in the entire galaxy is going to go after them unless the party has big mouths.

But the initial strike has to count the most. Unlike normal things this is the one you need to go after the biggest Hutt you can find instead of working your way up the ranks. The leader of a kajidic/clan or as high as you can reasonable find. This is also the most dangerous because they are going to be well protected and ready for most everything. But this is the crucial one because you want to start a power play from this void you are creating (so the higher up the food chain you can get to the better).

You will likely be hunted after this so it has to be done as covertly as possible and have the biggest impact. As much as the Hutts will want the party dead, you have to make them want the top spot that just opened up just as badly if not more than your dead bodies.

I recommend making this one a direct assassination, do it in a way that is noticeable as an assassination, but with as little evidence as you can that it was you to make the hunting you down harder for the lower ranked hutts and the other clan leaders than it is for them to start fighting for the territory. But you want them to to know it happened so you can spark off the infighting and spark off them expending resources starting the hunt for you.

After that you can start making direct assaults against the lowest of the hutt ranks so there will be territory and profits in the upper and lower levels of the organization to go after and a low ranked hutt wont be much of a challenge. The trick at this level is to keep them guessing where and how you will strike. Direct assassination, attacking their ships in space, launching asteroids at their palace, putting bounties on their heads, getting their people to betray them, etc

Unfortunately this will be the stage they will start to know who you are and what you are after, so how long you live will be determined by what you can bank roll defensively, luck, and how able to deal with the sheer amount of poodoo you have stirred up in the galaxy. Using the Rebels and Empire to start hitting hutt controlled space at this point would be a good idea. If they are having to deal with rebel attacks on some of their fuel smuggling operations or slave trading operations (rebels need fuel and are fighting to free people so it could work) and if you can find an imperial officer that you can bribe or pull over to your side for the hutt resources (and just to kill those grubby little worms that think they can interfere with human destiny) it will greatly help lessen the heat on you.

How far you get overall will be a complete mystery, but if everything goes your way you might could knock out an entire kajidic. I doubt it would go so well, but you could put a serious dent in it and kill a bunch of hutts overall. Plus if you went to the other end of the galaxy i doubt they would actually be able to find you afterwards if you retired somewhere in the unknown region on a back water planet with out much traffic (might be a good place to scope out before hand so you know where to hide)

Most interesting and we'll definitely be plumbing all of the ideas so far presented.

And oh my yes, "Frelling Hutts!" Totally enjoying the mixed reference.

Lets talk about assets so far. (For my group. Let's be honest, this is where I'm discussion our RPG groups goal to "Frell all the Hutts").

We have a YT-2400 customized for combat and a Star Viper (It's ABY 1-3; somewhere in there so do the math, scratch your head, and oh my yes, we DO have that obligation too ).

Our ship's Purse has $ 49,525.

Each member of the group has about $ 1,000 and most of the gear that we might want.

During one of our earliest missions, we picked up a dataset stolen from an Unknown Hutt cataloging a number of Imperial Officers who are on the take (presumably to the unknown Hutt). We think that this dataset was being smuggled to the Rebels, but we happened.

We have a debt with a moderate or lesser Hutt on Nar Shaddaa, who favors cybernetics. This Hutt referred us to a less wealthy Hutt, but we've burned that lead.

We've met with the Hutt coordinating the glitterstim business on Ryloth and 'accidentally' killed his favorite assassin/bodyguard. This is a relationship that we might be able to salvage(?).

Not a great start, but we're not the most subtle group.

Speaking of our Group:

Two of the party are young but enthusiastic Mando's. There is an NPC which is being guided into becoming a third Mando.

We have two force sensitives who've just picked up their first Kyper crystals and have light sabers. They are soooo green with the force that it hurts red.*

We have a Bothan Slicer. (He got us access to the dataset). He is the only guy in the group with no obligation.

There is a (PC) Bounty Hunter Assassin Proxy Droid. We just found out what he can do. OMG what an asset. He also has two or three light sabers, for its own personal use.

Pen-ultimately we have a drunken Gungan who is our primary pilot & medic. (Yes, this does terrify my on several levels).

Last is the ships Mechanic & Face, who is a latent force sensitive, but no one knows this yet.

As for contacts.

We might have contacts or leads to two different Mandelorian clans.

We've made the Rebels angry when we intercepted and stole their data.

We're also "sub-contractors" for the Imperial Navy's Military Intelligence (MI).

And the two Mando's have valid Bounty Hunter's licenses.

Kamin, I like the idea about creating a massive power vacuum up top. So group (since I still have much to learn about the Star Wars universe), who are these big Hutt's and their Kajidics?

Yeah, I know about Jabba from RotJ. Keep in mind that the GM will let us trash canon events so Jabba is a valid target.

* Or Magenta if you're using a Light Color Wheel.

The Top Hutts that i remember are Jabba, Arok, and Marlo . I think there are like 3 or 4 more though so my list isnt very useful, but picking any of those would be ok (especially Marlo, dirty Marlon Brando looking such and such)

With that data pad's info and your already "friendly" status with the MI you might be able to leverage that into something later on. If you can manage to get the kill on Marlo the next target i would think to go after would be the Hutt you have currently had dealings with. Then would be the time to use the data pad info to get the imperials in on the scheme to lessen the heat that would be falling upon your heads.

Seriously not sure how long you will last at this game when the rest of the Hutt council starts to come after you, but it certainly would be fun to try

This would absolutely be a Campaign I'd enjoy sinking my teeth into. You've got resources. Just be as relentless as you can for as long as you can.

Remember, you've also got other Cartels you can leverage against the Hutt's. Black Sun and others. Once you take out one of the top Hutts and two or three of the others then they'll be interested in testing them because they'll see that the Hutt's are now vulnerable.

Also, under a known alias of either the Rebels, or the Empire (my preference since you already have the list of names and I hate the Empire too), or the Black Sun, you post a 100,000 credit bounty on one of the Major Hutts of the Hutt House with a 25,000 credit payout just for killing every one of their Heirs.

Then, under that alias you publicly pay yourselves after you do it. (25k Credits paid out will put every bounty hunter on notice around the Galaxy that "the Bounty is real!" .... and there's always someone who will jump since the early bird gets the worm.

Then, you payout the 25,000 for yourselves... and your other remaining 25k out to the next person or group to publicly come forward with proof that they killed one of the Hutts.

Now, the Bounty is CONFIRMED and the Hutt's will have to play Defense.... constantly worried that any of their own Bounty Hunters on retainer might start wacking their families off for that bounty. They'll have to pay them 5 to 10 times as much just to NOT kill them.

Now, they can't just throw everything they have at you because they'll have to double and triple and quadruple check their own palaces and people just to keep from being betrayed for being the ruthless slave dealing slug sucking poodoo eaters that they've been for centuries .... bringing their own operations down to a grinding and screeching halt.

You hit them in their wallets while you're also hunting them...

Yeah, Frell. Those. Hutts.