We're playing a modified version of Beyond the Rim. I'm finding that the players are regularly making big elaborate plans that end up failing or lead them in the wrong direction.

Any suggestions?

Let them? Sometimes no rails can hold a group and the adventure becomes something entirely new.

It helps to keep a "Fail Forward" mindset with this game. Their big plan may have failed to achieve one specific goal, but you can use Advantages or other narrative means to guide them back to the storyline.

Could you provide an example?

Are they having fun?

They got the location of treasure and set after it, this was their primary objective. They found an abandoned YT-2400 and started performing repairs and diagnostics. They made off with the ship but instead of pursuing the treasure they returned it t o the owners who closed in on the treasure they're chasing.

Ya they're having fun but I'm worried that disappointment and consequences may catch up.

1 hour ago, Lukey84 said:

Ya they're having fun but I'm worried that disappointment and consequences may catch up.

Going out on a limb here and asking: maybe you are sticking too close to the module? Is that where the disappointment and consequences are potentially coming from? Perhaps if you took a step back and reassessed, you could weave their machinations into a new story that is rewarding all around. First rule of modules is that players are unlikely to finish it as-written. And the module is never wasted, you can always use set pieces and NPCs in some other context.

I didn't know modules were rarely finished. Their game is changing each session it seems but there isn't a ton to do on Cholgana. Two are prisoners that crash landed on world, one stowed away on a research vessel to the planet.

The captain of the research vessel is against them after stealing a vehicle and bringing it back with major damage. Yiyar is good with them since they recovered their YT-2400 and let them to the crashed ship ,though unintentionally. The PCs haven't met anyone else on world yet. I guess Yiyar could buddy up with them?

As a GM you really have 2 choices. Be prepared to roll with the punches and go with what the players want, or have them board a train and force them to stay on the rails. Both methods are perfectly valid, and you can even mix them, but you need to go with what the group wants.

Some of my groups favorite sessions are when they completely departed from the adventure I had planned. You may lay everything out starting with a description of the cantina they meet their contact in, and they see someone you put in as a throwaway description, and they go over, and they will try to pickpocket/talk to/brawl with/kidnap/whatever. You need to decide whether he walks out before they get to him, let them run with their plan, or let them have a few minutes of fun, but then have their contact interrupt.

The worst is when they make a decision which probably should end the game, you explain it to them and they want to do it anyway, but you really don't want a TPK. I had a group of Rebels surrender to a known ISB agent in a bar, where they were both unarmed. I never did understand why, but they did. I think it was a completely unbaked (not even half-baked) plan to infiltrate an Imperial Facility.

12 minutes ago, Edgookin said:

I think it was a completely unbaked (not even half-baked) plan to infiltrate an Imperial Facility.

Prison breakouts are a lot of fun to run. TPC (total party capture) is my go-to plan if I mess up with the opposition and overwhelm the party, or if they mess up or do something stupid. In the case of the former, they'll usually find their gear in a locker somewhere...in the case of the latter, no so much...

24 minutes ago, Lukey84 said:

The PCs haven't met anyone else on world yet.

Do you mean the colony of people stranded since the Clone Wars? If the PCs don't come to the right place, bring it to them. Personally I didn't like the way the module introduced the PCs to the colony, so I scattered "lookouts" from the colony who were varying degrees of bored with watching over their old ship. When the PCs and lookouts spotted each other, the lookout took a potshot (that missed) and tries to radio in, but his comm failed (...because it's 20 years old...) so he starts running through the jungle screaming about "Imperials!". All that was pre-scripted to give the PCs something to want to do, so naturally they gave chase and caught the colonist (who begged for mercy), and thus found out about the colony. That gave the PCs the choice of marching in openly or trying to sneak in.

One comment about the title of this thread: are the PCs really wayward, or do they not have enough incentive to go where you want them to? Sometimes that is the hard bit, finding the lure, and sometimes the lure is simple necessity. For example, if their ship broke (e.g.: some unfortunate encounter with some larger-than-usual arboreal octopi) they'd have a reason to want to find replacement tech, and this could lead them to the colonists.

Maybe if you spelled out where the group is at, and more importantly, where you want them to go, we could be of more specific help.

5 hours ago, 2P51 said:

Are they having fun?

And, just as importantly, are you having fun?

At this point in the story Craytala/Harsol were already rescued, the PCs are going back for the treasure as per Shira's offer- they get the treasure and a new job with connections. They accepted the offer and shortly after got caught by ISB and imprisoned, though their prison transport got sabotaged and they ended up on Cholgana thanks yo a helpful PC that didn't get captured. The ISB doesn't know they've made it to Cholgana.

The group just found and returned the Yiyar ship which was found abandoned, the last group of PCs butchered Yiyar. The PCs found the Sa Naloor engine section but they didn't advance on it, now Yiyar it's prepping to move in. The PCs don't have their own ship on planet, it's back at The Wheel with their driver, informant, and a nice bounty on all of the above due to their past actions against Teemo and ISB.

They also discovered a plot that the Yiyar clan was going to hijack the research vessel and kill the crew, but now that Yiyar has their old ship AND has found the Sa Naloor they may end up settling on that.

The survivors are a mix of imperials and crash survivors. The last group that played this rescued Craytala/Harsol and stranded the Imps/Survivors. I'm thinking that too avoid a total slaughter the Imps would've made an alliance with the survivors, seeing as how both groups were left behind.

So where do they go from here? I'm having fun, but it is a lot harder than I was expecting. People have usually gone after the bait, or at least kept the main objective at front.

As someone who just had his players sidestep, ingore and otherwise bypass two sections of my game last night, I'll say "Welcome to the club". The wise and venerable Game Master Sun Tzu once said "no module ever survives contact with the players." - so yeah, just roll with it.

This is why you need to know your game up and down, backwards and forwards. You need to know what the players bypassing Event One and Event Two will have on the plot, and how the NPC plans will adapt to this (if at all). The bad guy is going to keep to his timetable unless acted upon by an outside force. If the players fail to be that outside force, then follow those repercussions.