Sharing small adventure I just made for a mechanic PC to perform ship repairs on ground. It was inspired heavily by page 72 suggestions in Special Modifications. Comments and suggestions on how to spice it up are welcome and appreciated.

Act 1: Monkey and the Brains

Make Hard Knowledge Education Check to review damage and plan how to conduct your repair efficiently.

Success = you determine some relatively simple and fast repairs that can be performed with proper application of athletics (allows athletics check repair step)

Despair or 3 threats upgrade difficulty of all following mechanics checks in this adventure by 1

Optional: Make Hard Athletics Check to repair ship damage (manual repairs type of ship damage)

Base result = first success = 1 point of hull trauma repaired, every 2 more successes +1 HT repaired

Act 2 Fixer Upper

Make average Coordination check to remain stable and safe in precarious locations during repair

Failure upgrades difficulty of following mechanics check. Despair or 3 threats = fall from short height (F&D page 221)

Optional (in case of fall results on above coordination check: Make average Coordination Check to reduce falling damage)

Base fall damage = 10 Wounds (reduced by soak) and 10 Strain. Each * reduce wound damage by 1 and each advantage reduces strain damage by 1

Make average Mechanics check to repair ship Hull Trauma

Base result = each success repairs 1 point of Hull trauma

Act 3 Heart of the Storm

Make average Perception check to notice hazard condition in damaged component such as energy build up in circuit.

Failure upgrades difficulty of following mechanics check. Despair or 3 threats = electrical surge

Optional (in case of electrical discharge results on above perception check: Make average Resilience check to reduce shock damage)

Base shock damage = 10 Wounds (reduced by soak) and 10 Strain. Each * reduce wound damage by 1 and each advantage reduces strain damage by 1

Make hard Mechanics check to repair critical hit (engines damaged or down)

Despair or 3 threats = Fire! Ship immediately suffers from the Fire Critical Hit results originating at engines location.

While I understand where you going with this, it doesn't feel much like an adventure. It feels like a framework dice rolling session the GM and the mechanic player whip out while they're waiting for the rest of the players to show up.

Where's the conflict? Where's the heroism in fixing your ship? You could add some spice through a dangerous environment (vacuum, underwater, meteor shower, etc.), but that adds danger without also contributing conflict. Star Wars has its roots in pulp adventures; you're not going to read three chapters about John Carter or a noir detective maintaining his gear.

It is absolutely important to make your mechanic PC feel like an important member of the team, but I'm not sure this the way to do it. I'd probably condense the repairs to one-roll resolution: Success indicates repairs finished in x number of hours. Advantage and Threat can be spent to shorten or lengthen the time. Failure means that a complication develops (Handling and/or SS are decreased), and a Despair means repairs cannot be completed until the PCs get a MacGuffin replacement part - thus leading them to an actual adventure.

Players need rewards that justify risk - otherwise you might as well ask them to check for a critical injury while their character ties his shoelaces.

Make this an abandoned, non-functional but repairable ship that (preferably ship-less) players find, and now you can justify any number of gambles and dangers with the promise of a new ride.

Ever played Space Quest III? First 20-30 minutes has a great, little scavenger hunt in a treacherous junk hauler to get a ship flying again. Not exactly Star Wars, but if you check out a walkthrough you'll come away with some ideas.

Check out Dead in the Water, from the AOR gamemaster kit.

MILD SPOILERS BELOW

The first act gives ideas on how you have to move through a Neb B frigate to different areas to fix the ship, or otherwise escape before being sucked into a black hole. There is opposition on board, a clock, and the Empire on the way. Given time constraints, you decide if you want to fix the radio to call for help, engines to save the ship, free trapped crew, or jump in an escape pod and run. Each fix is just a roll, but getting to where you can fix it is the adventure.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Looks like I have a lot more tinkering to do with this adventure.

On 7/25/2017 at 9:11 AM, flarebright said:

Sharing small adventure I just made for a mechanic PC to perform ship repairs on ground. It was inspired heavily by page 72 suggestions in Special Modifications. Comments and suggestions on how to spice it up are welcome and appreciated.

That's an adventure? No, an adventure is something like this:

1) The ship gets shot by TIE fighters and is forced down into the tundra of ice planet

2) A quick assessment by the engineer determines that the engine needs replacement fluid links or it is going nowhere.

3) The players bundle up and start hiking across the frozen wastes.

4) All kinds of encounters with avalanches, snow beasts, blizzards and crevasses.

5) The Players find a primitive tribe who worship a fluid link as their god.

6) The players offend the natives while asking about their god and now have to fight The Village Champion or be thrown into the Ice Pits of Eternity

7) While the Chosen Player battles to the death on a slippery, spiky platform (that has mini-ice geyser eruptions at random), the PC Skulldugger steals the Fluid Link

8) Caught in the act of stealing their god, the Players now have to fight an army of spear wielding warriors while retreating back to their ship.

9) The Engineer has to install the Fluid Link while the others hold off the natives.

10) Oh, and the storm has cleared, meaning the TIE fighters have found them again.

Now THAT is an adventure. Not this endless and pointless rolling that only one player can really participate in.

Yes the original idea was very short, more of an encounter length and was designed for only one PC. But as several people already pointed out it lacked the sense of urgency and excitement so needs a lot of improvements.

7 hours ago, Desslok said:

That's an adventure? No, an adventure is something like this:

1) The ship gets shot by TIE fighters and is forced down into the tundra of ice planet

2) A quick assessment by the engineer determines that the engine needs replacement fluid links or it is going nowhere.

3) The players bundle up and start hiking across the frozen wastes.

4) All kinds of encounters with avalanches, snow beasts, blizzards and crevasses.

5) The Players find a primitive tribe who worship a fluid link as their god.

6) The players offend the natives while asking about their god and now have to fight The Village Champion or be thrown into the Ice Pits of Eternity

7) While the Chosen Player battles to the death on a slippery, spiky platform (that has mini-ice geyser eruptions at random), the PC Skulldugger steals the Fluid Link

8) Caught in the act of stealing their god, the Players now have to fight an army of spear wielding warriors while retreating back to their ship.

9) The Engineer has to install the Fluid Link while the others hold off the natives.

10) Oh, and the storm has cleared, meaning the TIE fighters have found them again.

Now THAT is an adventure. Not this endless and pointless rolling that only one player can really participate in.

Remind me never to offend the fluid link gods in The penguin's universe. Imagine what would've happened if they'd left the stove on.