Andrew, Cian, Jack, Ray and Ronan. I don't know if you guys look at this forum but just in case you do stop reading now! Giant space rocks will fall. Darth Vadar will kill all you pets!

So my players are on their way to Ryloth, which is the home of their mechanic. I have ton of plot written for her return home, only problem is that player won't be there tonight. I have already delayed the party by having them hijacked by pirates over the last two sessions, but they are about to free themselves and make their way to Ryloth. I feel like jamming another obstacle in their path will seem a bit unnatural and cumbersome, so I am wondering how I can deal with this. So far my ideas are as follows:

1) They will get held up by incredibly polite Imperial customs when they land on Ryloth who will make them jump through all the hoops and inspect the combat droids in the party to see if they are regulation. This will make for a more social session while the party try to talk their way past customs. This could also end up happening quick and leave me high and dry.

2) The Twi'lek PC could leave once they land to "take care of some things". Then I have the party do some Ryloth things; see the sights, go to massive underground nightclub/brothels, look for work - that kind of thing. This will also allow me to trigger a plot event (rebel terrorist attack during a parade celebrating the glory of the Empire) where the party will be caught up in the panic.

3) This one is contingent on whether or not the party decide to steal the pirate's ship they are currently facing off with (I ran a heavily modified version of the "Welcome Aboard" modular encounter from Lords of Nal Huta). If they take that ship, once they get near Ryloth, the Imperials will hail them on comms and ask them to power down engines and prepare to be boarded. They will be accused of being the crew of a known pirate ship. This could result in some crazy space flight shenanigans while they try to avoid capture and need to get to another system to get the ship's transponder changed.

I am also open to suggestions

If the main plot revolves a missing player, either drop the plot for a session and have them play a squad of Stormtroopers straight out of the academy sent to quell a riot, attack a rebel outpost or collect intel for the ISB (coz they stand out like sore thumbs in white armour).

Or go with the missing player idea - which means the engineer player may still miss some Obligation plots/other plots if they come up.

OR ditch it and have a film/pizza/beer night....

TBH I hate having to miss a session. I actually missed the BBEG fight for The Godsmouth Heresy for PFRPG - I WAS SO P***** OFF the the GM still ran it. I know it was his campaign, hosted at his place etc OK I the PC got the XP/levelled up/loaded with treasure but I found out afterwards that the other two players got, and I quote the GM, '...a bit bored with the dungeon bash...' because unlike me they hadn't had a 10 years or more break from rp'ing like I had and I would like to have participated in the BBEG after all the s*** my PC went through during the dungeon crawl - traps, biting insects, traps, fire traps, traps, electricty traps. The crawl became a comedy of errors I played a VERY incompetent Rogue.. not by choice, my dice luck sucks.

Maybe ask ALL the players what they would like to do for that session.

EDIT: The film night HAS TO BE A STAR WARS FILM or I'll send the boys around to administer Full Contact Persuasion Techniques

So far I am gearing around a combination of holding them up in customs for some fun social encounters with Imperials then if they make it on planet that PC is going off to deal with stuff that I will sort with the player in DT. What she does will set up major plot for the next session.

I hate rescheduling a session for any reason. I try to run no matter what and work around missing players. I feel like if you get into a routine of rescheduling players give the game itself less priority cos they think it will just end up being rescheduled.

So far, I have managed to stretch out the climactic encounter with the pirates. It's a doozy They were held captive on the pirate's ship being boarded. They escaped and are now pursuing the pirate captain into the cockpit of his ship. They haven't realised some of the pirate crew have boarded their own ship and disconnected. If they take out the pirate captain they will have to disable their own ship in order to get it back

BTW I love incompetent rogues. I played a drunken rogue whose every success was RP'd as drunken savant behaviour - dumb drunk luck every time I dodged a trap or disabled a lock. it was a lot of fun

4 hours ago, McHydesinyourpants said:

1) They will get held up by incredibly polite Imperial customs when they land on Ryloth who will make them jump through all the hoops and inspect the combat droids in the party to see if they are regulation. This will make for a more social session while the party try to talk their way past customs. This could also end up happening quick and leave me high and dry.

I'm not sure of your time frame but if you are going with Starwars Legend canon then the empire has no presence on Ryloth after 0 ABY (after the first death star destruction). It has a weak government so you can decide if it has any customs at all. But i doubt any of your players will know the Difference either way

Other suggestions:

1. If you haven't already run the free pdf beginner game follow up "Long Arm of the Hutt", the first Act is about the PC's be big Goram heroes by saving a small mining town of "new Meen" from thugs trying to muscle in on the Ryll spice mining trade. Its got premade stats and a Villain.

2. Ryloth is home to the Zann Consortitum, http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Zann_Consortium/Legends . Criminal organization you could run afoul of, or work for.

3. If the party is Rebel friendly or simply neutral. Since the Empire abandoned their facilities on Ryloth have the PCs try to go to an Abandoned Imperial facility to recover some potentially valuable data/information that could be sold to the Rebel Alliance or any other underworld information broker.

4. Ryloth city underground can be crowded, seems like a great place for both a pickpocket and foot-chase scene?

I know you said you are hesitant to delay your group further before arriving at Ryloth, but there is the option of a sabotaged hyperdrive. Drop them out of hyperspace a few systems away from Ryloth and throw a session long encounter at them as they struggle to fix the issue.

Some options:

Scanners pick up a crashed ship on a nearby moon/planet/asteroid. Players scavenge the parts to repair their hyperdrive while fending off the local wildlife/natives/decendent's of the crashed ship's crew.

They exit hyperspace amid a young nebula thrown off from a dying red giant. A nebula infested with space creatures that feed on plasma and other energy. The jellyfish-like beasts attack, syphoning the ship's power (system strain). A few creatures at first, then a great school approaches.

The pilot is tested as the ship barrels out of hyperspace into the debris of an ancient space battle. Once this threat is over sensors pick up a faint distress call. A escape pod, its passenger frozen in a stasis field/cold sleep, floats among the wreckage. When the pod is opened the stasis field is disrupted, and a long-forgotten being is awakened. A survivor of the Great Sith War...

4 hours ago, McHydesinyourpants said:

I hate rescheduling a session for any reason. I try to run no matter what and work around missing players. I feel like if you get into a routine of rescheduling players give the game itself less priority cos they think it will just end up being rescheduled.

Can I hazard a guess you're single? Wait until all the players and GM have jobs, spouses & kids!

Sometimes it can't be helped - last week no game I was on hols, this week no game coz another player is on hols. We sometimes have a complete summer break for 5 weeks coz of hols

I would probably have said *since the session has likely concluded* to go ahead with the session, but perhaps started the next session off with a bit of a solo act as that member of the party goes home and sets up things. I mean, we see the "party" spilt all the time in star wars.

Wasn't there at some point a thread about one shot/off night sessions or some such? Also, see if you can hunt down a copy of Eureka!

There is a nice starport called Kala'uun on Ryloth, check this guide :

Platts Starport Guide

Lots of ideas for a session

On 31/08/2017 at 7:08 PM, ExpandingUniverse said:

Can I hazard a guess you're single? Wait until all the players and GM have jobs, spouses & kids!

Sometimes it can't be helped - last week no game I was on hols, this week no game coz another player is on hols. We sometimes have a complete summer break for 5 weeks coz of hols

Not single. My girlfriend is cool. She clears out on game night

I ended up extending the finalé of the pirate encounter to take up a full session and it worked like a charm. They chased the captain into the cockpit where he taunted them and began to slowly vent the ships atmosphere. While they scrambled looking for a way to fix that, the Captain jumped ship, back into the PC party's own ship. When they finally breached the cockpit, they were just into time engage their own ship with the pirate ship In the meantime, another player whom had missed a previous session, was here for this session. He woke up in a box aboard the party's ship. The combat rounds revolved around the party operating the pirate's ship, trying to disable their own ship, while the PC who woke up in the box tried to fight the pirates whom had taken over the ship. It was a great session Though, now the party need to go to Barab I for repairs - it's the nearest planet and they managed to near destroy their own ship Ryloth will have to wait

On 02/09/2017 at 9:52 PM, Rosco74 said:

There is a nice starport called Kala'uun on Ryloth, check this guide :

Platts Starport Guide

Lots of ideas for a session

That link seems to be dead but i would be interested in having a little external material for Ryloth. Makes it easier on me

Sorry wrong link ...

Try this one !