My first campaign

By gmcc, in Game Masters

Hello , I'm new here.
I'm trying to create my first campaign as GM, but since it's my first i have some doubts.

What do you guys do when someone of the group is critical injured or die ? Anyway of making him survive without being a "God Revival"?
What you guys do if they fail checking a important part of the story u have created ? For example if i need them to open a door, but they fail it with the dices, how can i turn the situation up ?

On 11/12/2017 at 8:22 AM, gmcc said:

What do you guys do when someone of the group is critical injured or die ? Anyway of making him survive without being a "God Revival"?

I make all my rolls in secret. Unless the PC's has been doing something inconceivably stupid; if a crit results in death or permanent maiming, I lie.

On 11/12/2017 at 8:22 AM, gmcc said:

What you guys do if they fail checking a important part of the story u have created ? For example if i need them to open a door, but they fail it with the dices, how can i turn the situation up ?

What I do for this in most systems is to have the fail result in success with but complications. However in this system, that's the kind of thing that net Disadvantages are supposed to be for. This was a source of discontent for me for some time, but what I eventually started doing was making a logical division between failures and net disadvantages.

If I need or want a failed action to succeed, I have the complication be something directly pertaining to the action being taken (take too long, set off an alarm, get electrocuted, etc). Net disadvantages, on the other hand, I use for random complications not directly pertaining to the action being taken (patrol comes along ahead of schedule, get caught on surveillance camera, droid sidekick gets bored and wanders off, etc.)

Of course, you can also just try to avoid hinging an entire story on a single die roll.

Dying in this system is incredibly hard, I'd move this to my lower levels of concern. Sure PCs only have 15ish HP, but when you have to make it to zero, plus score a crit, plus move far enough down the crit table to hit 140+ on a D100, it's really pretty easy to narrative it out. EG: The Inquisitor stops the attack once Misam Hyperfall, unmoving, hits the ground.

In a shooting battle, same general idea. PCs hp reach zero, they're incapacitated until healed think more Mass Effect and less Baldur's Gate.

On 11/12/2017 at 6:22 AM, gmcc said:

Hello , I'm new here.
I'm trying to create my first campaign as GM, but since it's my first i have some doubts.

What do you guys do when someone of the group is critical injured or die ? Anyway of making him survive without being a "God Revival"?
What you guys do if they fail checking a important part of the story u have created ? For example if i need them to open a door, but they fail it with the dices, how can i turn the situation up ?

If they die, they die.

Critically injured, they need a medic or to find one.

Don't create plot choke points. The dice are narrative and shouldn't be used in a binary fashion. If you're concerned with failing to open the door or successfully climbing the rope don't let failure equal they stare blankly at the locked door or plunge to their death. Failure equals an alarm is tripped and they suffer 5 Wounds in electrical feedback , or during the climb they fall but the safety line grabs them inflicting 6 Strain, or whatever.

Some have a hissy fit over this approach and say they just have other ways through the door or up the rope. I say if you're just going to keep rolling dice until there is a positive result you shouldn't have rolled the dice at all.

Edited by 2P51
On 2017-11-12 at 7:22 AM, gmcc said:

What do you guys do when someone of the group is critical injured or die ? Anyway of making him survive without being a "God Revival"?

I often opt for capture rather than kill. You can usually count on Imperials to want to capture rebels to see what they know. You can count on crime lords and other nefarious NPCs to want to capture the PC and play with them, like throw them in a gladiator pit, or whatever. You can even count on some animals dragging the "carcass" away, only to be stowing them for consumption later...see the Mirkwood Spiders in the Hobbit, or the Wompa in E5.

On 2017-11-12 at 7:22 AM, gmcc said:

What you guys do if they fail checking a important part of the story u have created ? For example if i need them to open a door, but they fail it with the dices, how can i turn the situation up ?

That's known as bottle-necking, and it's a bad idea to set up the adventure that way. Read this:

http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule

Basically, if there is a clue you want the PCs to find, or a door they have to get through, then they find the clue and get through the door. The dice challenges are for other things, like fighting off hordes or gathering information to make their lives easier.

If you're new to this you might consider getting the beginner box and starting from there. The box itself is about a session's-worth of gaming, but there is a PDF you can download that extends this considerably. Then try running some of the published campaigns, there is one in the core rule book, one in the GM screen, and Beyond the Rim is a good starter.

Hey, congratulations in your new campaign. Reading your post I have two comments

1.- Start small . Plan for 1 to 3 sessions. Listen your PC and see what makes it fun for they. Then at the end of the third session, plan the next 3.

2.- If is not interesting to fail, don't roll the dice . If there is a door lock and they require a roll, you have to consider that there is a chance that they fail. If they fail it has to be interesting. Also, even in fail there is a chance to get a advantages.

Do they activate an alarm? They have to run and plan for a a next step

Is a Stormtrooper passing next to them? They might defeat him and steal his access code. They might coerce him into open the door. Maybe he is a rebel spy in disguise...

If failing isn't interesting, follow the advice of 2P51. Maybe they open the door but they broke a tool used in the process.

Good luck in your adventure.

While I'm not wild about FFG's published adventures, (too often they seem to railroad the PCs into a lose-lose situation at some point or another) the best advice I can offer is to go with a published adventure to start with. I gather you're not just new to the system, but new to GMing. There's a lot of no-nos about GMing that a lot of first time GMs commit, such as having a pet NPC for instance, and running a published adventure can prevent a lot of these mistakes while you learn the ropes. None of the published adventures are bad (though there's usually an encounter or two that I don't like, but that's fixable), and they will provide you with story and the difficulty of skill checks, which is immensely helpful, in addition to any new NPCs, etc.

Hey. Just started an adventure arc with my first table ever as GM. After 8 sessions of 10 hours I can tell you that if you don't hide your rolls you won't be able to GM magic some bad situations as a bad Crit or death. My group had a huge conversation about death and if it happens it does. If a player rolls a despair while using a thermal detonator. There is no survival. RAW says roll Crit. But no one can survive a 35 dam breach 1 hit. So we made an house rule. If you go twice your wound treshold, the PC is dead.

I highly suggest and recommend talk it through with your group before it happens. So it doesn't do any frustration with your party.

On 11/12/2017 at 8:22 AM, gmcc said:

Hello , I'm new here.
I'm trying to create my first campaign as GM, but since it's my first i have some doubts.

What do you guys do when someone of the group is critical injured or die ? Anyway of making him survive without being a "God Revival"?
What you guys do if they fail checking a important part of the story u have created ? For example if i need them to open a door, but they fail it with the dices, how can i turn the situation up ?

  1. Critical injuries aren't game ending. They're only a problem if they stack up; if the player receives another Critical Injury it increases the likelihood of death on a d100 roll by 10% per injury. A player who knows what he's doing will make an effort to have his Injuries treated during down time.
  2. It's easy to be taken out of a fight. It's hard to die. Don't go into the game worried about PC death. If a PC does die, describe their death in a cool way. How you sell the death in the narrative is what makes it palatable to the player. Let them create a new character and introduce the character at an appropriate time.
  3. If the players hit a critical point in the narrative, you can assign penalties - for examples wounds or strain - for failing a check rather than stopping the story. If they fail a roll to open a door, you can state that the character bypasses the door controls but gets zapped by an electrical feedback. The game continues on. Alternately, prep a second situation for every fail point in the story... though this is a lot of effort for something that may not happen.

If a PC is about to die, use a Light Side Destiny Point,.. PC survives, continue with narrative.

Wise teams of players will usually keep a Light Side unused each session for using this purpose... if 2 PCs are about to die, tough!

Edited by ExpandingUniverse

One thing that I tell the players during Session 0 is that I don't pull punches. If the dice say a character dies, then a character dies. It may sound a bit harsh, but it has saved many a game from the players slipping into a mindset of 'We won't die, the GM won't let us die.', and going completely crazy.

I am a bit more merciful, however, when it comes to players failing at something they need to succeed at, but only a bit. Say a player is trying to pick an electronic lock, and bypass the alarm, but fails to do so. Okay, the alarms start to sound...the PC working the lock takes strain, but can try again. The PC's standing guard/watch are going to take less strain, but they're still going to be affected. Pretty much, the whole group of PC's slip into the mindset of 'CrapcrapcrapcomeONjustOPENthedamnthing!!!", hence the strain.

For failing to open the door, then i would turn to the movie tested shoot the control panel.

Since we have seen it work both ways of the door remains locked, or the door opens. If they shoot one door they can use a destiny point to pick the result. If they dont want to spend one then we roll a force dice and light is opens and dark it remains locked.

On 11/13/2017 at 12:46 PM, Vorzakk said:

Unless the PC's has been doing something inconceivably stupid; if a crit results in death or permanent maiming, I lie.

It was actually pretty funny when my PC lost a leg.

2 hours ago, Yaccarus said:

It was actually pretty funny when my PC lost a leg.

Yeh, I'm quite looking forward. To the day when one them loses a limb. It's a Star Wars trope, and I'm sure amy of players would be chuffed to have to get a replacement.

1 hour ago, Stethemessiah said:

Yeh, I'm quite looking forward. To the day when one them loses a limb. It's a Star Wars trope, and I'm sure amy of players would be chuffed to have to get a replacement.

One of my players seems to be actively shooting for it. He reminded me last night that a 'basic replacement' gave no upside and should therefore be allowed!