Hi all

Prepping a session for the upcoming week, and realised I was about to set a major encounter in a very boring space station hangar. Now, the encounter needs to happen in the hangar for story reasons, but I'm looking for half a dozen ways I can make it much less boring. Struggling to come up with inventive stuff to actually put in a hangar, though, other than generic crates or barrels. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

It's just a boring space hangar fight until someone figures out those tanks that were providing cover contain a highly flammable gas.

Alternatively, having a big crowd of civilians in the way for the first few rounds could be a serious complication, if the players are far more opposed to hitting innocent bystanders than their adversaries are.

18 minutes ago, Degenerate Mind said:

It's just a boring space hangar fight until someone figures out those tanks that were providing cover contain a highly flammable gas.

Alternatively, having a big crowd of civilians in the way for the first few rounds could be a serious complication, if the players are far more opposed to hitting innocent bystanders than their adversaries are.

BOTH great ideas! Additionally, people in the crowd could be trying to sell you souvenirs and junk, they won't take "No" and follow them around. If it's some kind of military hangar (no civilians), then explosive cargo, tibanna gas canisters, and loading droids clumsily get in the way.

Skulduggery to set falling barrel traps, Coordination from oil slicks on the floor, Mechanics to rig some explosives, Athletics to climb some crates for better angles to attack, Perception checks for anything, Pilot-Planetary to move the cargo loader to an advantageous position. Crowd control may necessitate a Leadership check (or Coercion check, if it does not work), opportunities to use a variety of skills.

Some crates holding nexu or young rancors... that would make things turn exciting right quick... And maybe more out of the ordinary than just flammable/explosive gasses. Of course all the other suggestions were very good.

Hangars have:

Ships moving by. Moving cover! Returning fire when you shot at them!

Fuel lines. Boom from stray shots!

Artificial illumination turning off due to despairs.

Containers that split open to reveal forbidden merchandise! And they were due for an IMPERIAL freighter!

A bounty Hunter hitting on a target in the same place. Not the PC.

Did you have a look at the environmental set pieces?

My 2 credits:

Deal going down: There's a shady deal going down involving illegal cargo, potentially increasing the number of factions if the deal goes sour while the PCs or their antagonists are present.

Local security: Assuming the PCs aren't already fighting security forces, they can step in and complicate matters.

"You'll kill us all!": The hangar is a bit lax on safety procedures, leaving way too much fuel sitting around that could explode in a chain reaction if a conventional firefight breaks out, forcing opposing sides to use other methods. And if someone's desperate, they can threaten to blow up the hangar if their demands aren't met.

"Hold your breath!": If the hangar's facing space, things can get interesting if the hangar doors/forcefields come down.

"I demand compensation!": Someone's (questionably) valuable cargo gets damaged or destroyed in the fight, leaving the survivors to deal with an angry freighter captain and his crew.

One of the cool visuals common is SWTOR hangars is the vertical lift or cargo storage in the floor covered by a forcefield.

Now, if cargo and ships were coming up and down, and being moved from place to place within the hangar (by droids and/or automated haulers), then you have an environment where cover, concealment, and lines of sight are literally shifting all the time. LEDs in the floor might provide clues as to which areas are safe to stand and walk in, etc. Could be a complex encounter to run, but it could also be exciting and (most importantly) memorable and cinematic.

8 hours ago, BronzeDog said:

"Hold your breath!": If the hangar's facing space, things can get interesting if the hangar doors/forcefields come down.

My first thought exactly. Say a stray blaster bolt from a despair or too much Threat. Though I would make a skill challenge for the mechanic to fix within like 3 rounds before it completely fails. Or just turn it around and instead they need to make sure the doors stay closed, or docking clamps remain clamped, so the enemy can't escape in a ship.

Combats that have a task embedded in them are great.

Thanks guys. Particularly loving tibanna gas canisters, loading droids, fuel lines, low light, vertical lift, local security, and failing forcefields to the vacuum of space...

18 hours ago, Grimmerling said:

Did you have a look at the environmental set pieces?

I had forgotten about that! Thanks.

I'm just imagining the potential mayhem that could occur when the 'security protocols' in a few giant load lifters get activated after a canister of gas gets blown up by a stray blaster shot... giant robots going after both parties (give the players a particularly graphic depiction of one of their opponents being subjected to 'extreme security countermeasures' so they realize that industrial load lifters are to be fled, not fought. they should be an environmental hazard, not an opponent - unless you can bring shipboard weapons to bear, which unleashes a whole new level of response)... equipped with fire suppression systems that freeze people solid... random eruptions from other canisters rolling into the flames, which attracts more giant robots... ships trying to take off in the midst of the chaos...

I'm so doing this in the next game that I run...

Dunnage.

It's not glamorous, but it's a real word and you WILL find it in pretty much every hanger everywhere that handles cargo.

Merriam Webster is your friend.

Don't forget the catwalks with no railings! And the security guns in the ceiling...