Okay, I shoulda remembered GM's First Rule: No Module Shall Survive Contact With The Players.

And the Second Rule: Anything You Put in Front of Your Players Will Usually be Stolen or Misused.

So here's what happened. After the PC's lost their first ship,https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/285962-internal-damage-to-a-ship-by-a-mob/, they managed to steal a second one, a VCX-100 with a hangar bay,from a Rodian smuggler/slaver king that had a mansion outside Saleucami. I decided to be nice and (after they flipped four DP) a 2-seat Y-wing, painted up to match the VCX-100. The Twi'lek Pilot takes off, brings it to a hover, opens the cockpit canopy, and in front of six news outlets (the Rodian was well known as a big contributor to local charity, and there was a major fundraiser that night), shoots him. She didn't stick around to see if he was dead. The rest of the PC's, along with the kidnap victims, make it out of the system. MurderDroid was able to escape the trap I set( I did type up 5 choices for him to pick). He abandoned the PC ship, stole a larger one, and is now an NPC, with plans to enslave/murder all non-droid life in the galaxy. 😈

The players sent my GMPC off to restore the hostages' memories(each had been mentally altered to commit major crimes by a certain date, to frame the party) and get each one home. He has contacts with a ship and medical skills, so, no biggie. Gonna miss playing him. He was kinda the moral compass of the group.

Several months pass, with the highlight on Dathomir, where the Jedi took, iirc, a total of about 20-ish Conflict on failed Fear checks,( **VERY** unusual situation) and the Bothan Spy/Modder PC died trying to claim the 50,000 CR reward on the Pilot PC. (he wanted a new one, anyway,) Great RP, and he --sorta-- got to meet Assaj Ventress on the planet(yes, she's still alive in my game.) And the Jedi took 10 more Conflict for helping to kill a trusted ally.

Anyway, they're still looking for the half-paid off ship, and trying to find a safe place to set up a permanent home. (a recurring Villain has it, and the Hutt holding the loan is getting annoyed.) This is where the new human Colonist/Marshal PC comes in. he decided to be chief of security on a colony ship headed for the fringe of the galaxy. I decided the ship was a ripoff of the Temple-class (pg. 443, AoR), just upped the Sil to 7 or 8 to reflect all the colony stuff, 400-plus colonists and their farm animals in cryosleep, and crops growing on board.

Remember how MurderDroid sent a call for all droids to rise up? Some listened.

Some of the droids on board the colony ship have decided the galaxy could use a few less meatbags. They sabotaged the engines to shut down near a known pirate haven, and altered the security video to seem as if a human crewman did it. The players arriving as the pirates launched their boarding attack was perfect. A small group of 60 got there before the PC's, and wreaked havoc. The 130 awake colonists/ship crew fought, but 85 or so died defending the ship, taking 30 pirates with them. The PC's had to take back the ship, with the final fight taking place in Engineering versus two Nemesis-grade pirates, infected with a virus. About 4 hours later, the flashlight-slinger(who came into Engaged range during the fight) rolled a Despair on her Resilience check, and had to crawl to Medical, too weak to walk. The virus initially cuts Brawn, Agility, Willpower, and Cunning in half, rounded down. If left untreated , then a second roll is made, at the 12-hour mark. Falling the second roll makes the cuts in Cunning and Willpower permanent, with an additional -1 for every 2 Threat. Also, a permanent kill command is set in the victim's mind, with an imperative to obey the one who infected you.

TL;DR section:

So the Jedi is quarantined in her room on the PC ship for 24+ hours with a virus.

The ship's Security chief PC is asleep after nearly being killed in the battle.

The battle to help the colonists put almost all the players at half their health.

Plus a runaway mouse droid later mysteriously exploding in the cryosleep section put all but one of the party near death chasing it down.

The Chiss PC took this moment to slice into the ships computer, transfer 10,000 CR into the 1st officer's and XO's accounts, leaving a note saying, "Don't trust the Captain." He then runs onto the bridge, draws his heavy blaster, aims at the captain, and says, "I'm running the ship now!"

We stopped there.

I think the captain would have a plan in case of this. A pair of assassin droids in a concealed room by the bridge. Loyal bridge crew. There are still 4 security minions still alive. and the new PC is a marshal, sworn to protect the ship and colonists.

Your thoughts?

The Mormons are going to be pissed.

Uh.

There is so much that I don't understand about this situation.

Why are the PC's on the Colony ship? What led them to the Colony ship? WHY?!?!?!

What is the Chiss thinking?

20 hours ago, Lagspike said:

The Mormons are going to be pissed.

Was that an Expanse joke? If so, well played, I approve. 👍

Yes, that was an Expanse joke.

4 hours ago, KungFuFerret said:

Was that an Expanse joke? If so, well played, I approve. 👍

I sat there for like 10 minutes trying to figure out how to respond to this thread.. and that's all that came out.

Ok, yeah, everyone, I agree. After re-reading it, that was a pretty sad post on my part. There is a lot going on in this campaign, just need a little help keeping it straight.

I think, now, that I should have brought in the Marshal PC in a better way. His previous character was killed last session trying to claim the reward on another PC, as stated above.

The group had stated, for several sessions, they wanted to set up a permanent place to call home. I had no problem with that. Some wanted an orbital station, some wanted a planet. They've been giving me some stellar RP for a while now, so I thought an abandoned station in orbit of a habitable planet would make a nice reward.

But I had to think of a way to bring the Marshal PC in, since he had his sheet filled out by game start. So I thought the group would run into him on a colony ship in trouble.

And, having 400(that number seems pretty low, raise it?) colonists to interact with on a frontier planet with an abandoned station in orbit would make for good RP. I was thinking exploration, with a big slice of mystery, and having families / new friends to protect from the unknown. Plus, 3 agencies wants the group dead, or in jail. Guilt by association.

My assumption was that the PC's would jump at the chance to put on their white hats and be heroes to a small community of people making a fresh start. Since the group is viewed as monsters by, pretty much every Star Wars faction out there. Even some of the Rebellion leaders wants them in a cage, or dead, depending on who you ask.

On 3/25/2019 at 12:36 PM, Mark Caliber said:

Why are the PC's on the Colony ship? What led them to the Colony ship? WHY?!?!?!

The party was on the trail of their starting ship, and they got a solid lead on where it could be. They had 2 new ships, and wanted to make a fleet.

I just handwaved the PC's picking up the distress call, then dropping out of hyperspace and into a battle in progress. Meanwhile the Marshal PC on the colony ship is leading his security minions into battle against the 60 pirates that have boarded a few rounds back. The rest of the PC's landed in the hangar bays of the colony ship after a space battle that almost killed the PC Smuggler piloting a Y-wing, and put both freighters into single digits, iirc.

On 3/25/2019 at 12:36 PM, Mark Caliber said:

What is the Chiss thinking?

Not sure. This was in the last 5 minutes of the game,and after the whole group was injured in battle. (I shut down the table at 6 sharp, usually.) He waited until the rest had stated they were either asleep or busy. He's totally on his own.

Counting the captain, there are a total of 15 people currently on the bridge. One Nemesis Captain, one Nemesis Security officer, 5 Rival officers, 8 minions. There are another 30 minions and 5 Rivals on the deck below. Seriously thinking about adding 2+ assassin droids in a secret room near the bridge, activated by the captain touching a button on his chair.

Overkill?

Alright, I feel bad for making a joke of it. Here's my advice on this one. You probably don't want to hear this:

Let the Chiss win.

..

...

Maybe the XO turns on the Captain and then the rest of the crew does too. "Man I hated that a**hole."

Your game has turned a different direction than you were expecting. So in the spirit of the Star Wars let's go with "Yes, and" instead of "No, but". The FFG Star Wars game is meant to be about the GM and PCs working together to create a shared narrative, but it seems like your game has become GM vs. Players. So your players are murderhobos - that's the game they want to play. You either need to have a discussion about changing the tone of the game or you need to go with it and let the players have their fun.

--Lagspike, wandering GM without a game.

I'm with Lagspike on this one.

There may be the issue that when the bridge crew all puts their hands up and tells the Chiss, "OKay you win!" you may get to that point where the dog catches up with the cat and has no idea what to do now.

I would not recommend the "additional" security. It seems forced and over the top.

You could also role-play this as the bridge crew reacting to the Chiss shocking but inevitable betrayal as "shocking." "OMG, WTF? Why? WHY?!?!? "

But, yeah. I think it might be interesting to see what direction this PC want's to take this. I could be fun.

13 hours ago, Lagspike said:

Alright, I feel bad for making a joke of it.

I'm not. That was an awesome cross reference.

On 3/28/2019 at 10:02 AM, Mark Caliber said:

You could also role-play this as the bridge crew reacting to the Chiss shocking but inevitable betrayal as "shocking." "OMG, WTF? Why? WHY?!?!? "

We shall call this land... "This Land".

No! We shall call it "Your grave!"

Curse your sudden, but inevitable, betrayal!!

I miss Firefly.

On 3/27/2019 at 7:36 PM, Lagspike said:

Let the Chiss win.

Hm. I'll give it a try.

I'll say that the two senior officers take his bribe, and simply do nothing while the Chiss takes command. The entire Alpha Engineering team was killed in the final fight. The group isn't aware that there is a "B" and "C" shift still alive. I'm going to say that a minimum crew of 25 is required for this size ship, because the listing shows a compliment of 50. But what about the rest of the crew, and their families in cryosleep?

However, I'll have the captain record everything and send it on a distress beacon on the sly. Although he, the crew, and his passengers are running from the Empire, he doesn't care who receives it; he's pretty sure he'll be dead soon. He'll assume the Chiss is a spy for the Empire, no matter what the PC says. The captain saw the "writing on the wall" after Order 66 went down; It took him this long to organize everything quietly.

I'll also have one of the loyal bridge officers send the conversation to the PC ships, in the hope one of them will come help the Colonists. This may be a possible source of Conflict for the PC Jedi. If she does nothing but watches the live feed while the Chiss goes on a(assumed) killing spree, I'll award the usual inaction penalty for any crimes committed. If he's constantly bragging about his character's Paragon 3 rank, I expect his PC to act like it. (BTW, which book mentions Paragon ranks? IIRC, he keeps saying Paragon 3 when discussing his PC. But it's very noisy where we game, so I could be misunderstanding him. In the black-cover books, so far I have the CRB, Dawn of Rebellion, Nexus of Power, Ghosts of Dathomir, and Knights of Fate.)

This one player( MurderDroid / Chiss) is why almost every SW faction in my game wants them dead. (All the PC's have commlinks, so the player can't say there was nothing he could do.) The Togruta Jedi can leave her room, just that any strain occurred could reactivate the virus she contracted.

On 3/28/2019 at 9:02 AM, Mark Caliber said:

You could also role-play this as the bridge crew reacting to the Chiss shocking but inevitable betrayal as "shocking." "OMG, WTF? Why? WHY?!?!? "

I'm thinking most of the crew will have this reaction. "You just saved our lives less than eight hours ago, and now you pull THIS?!?!?!"

Nearly everyone on board has family, pets, and farm animals in cryosleep. They won't take any threat quietly. And everyone on board has a either a blaster pistol or rifle, in case any pirates are still on board.