Hey all ,

For our next scenario, my players’ characters will infiltrate a speeder factory (newly “nationalized” by the local moff and in the process of being reorganized into an Imperial Military production facility) to steel some Air Speeders (which might end up as the Snow Speeders at Echo Base). They will take advantage of the chaos following the planet’s recent annexation by the Empire (from a previously pro-Imperial industrial world), exploiting transition disorganization and security loopholes to infiltrate the factory, steel the stuff, and leave… of course, things will not go as smoothly as all that.

ACT 1 - GETTING IN
The crew have snuck aboard an automated Darius G-class freighter transporting ore to the “GoMax” factory to hitch a ride into the installation unseen. This is just setup and will go smooth enough, with a single 3PO droid to overcome onboard and some droid-brain computers; there will also some increased customs checks in orbit but the crew has a handle on that (this will be played mostly for fun and humor).

Landing at the GoMax factory hangar, the crew will have X hours to do their work before the ship is emptied by low-brain stevedore droids and sent off on a return course. I have decided that the factory is mostly automated (i.e. some droids but mostly robotic machinery), and the place will feel empty.

The first order of the day will be taking control of the factory command center, an elevated room overlooking the hangar, and manned by a single EV-series supervisor droid; again, easy peasy. (For reference, this will be the same EV unit that appears in Debts to Pay, although now captured and restrain bolted, and there will be some fun history there for the players – let’s just hope they don’t remove the restraining bolt!).

ACT 2 - GRAND THEFT SPEEDER
Having infiltrated the factory and seized control of the command center, they PCs can get to the speeders and load them onboard the Darius freighter…

…and this is where I need some help coming up with fun situations and challenges for the PCs. The scenario is sort of a middle-of-the-road filler episode meant to explore the logistics of running a Rebel Alliance more than advancing central campaign themes and plots. So, there’s nothing major that is schedule to take place here, main plot-wise.

There will be some technicians about and at some point during the story, serving as a dramatic raising-the-stakes situation, a security team will arrive to upgrade the factory systems. The crew are free to choose how they want to deal with this problem, and the story is intended to be rather free-form here.

But, apart from the arriving security team, I want other interesting Star Wars-y stuff to take place too, but I’m drawing up a blank. No Force/Jedi stuff is required in this one, but I would like to see suggestions, tips, and experiences from people who have run such stories or just sit on good ideas

I’ve been thinking about including a random monster, ‘cause Star Wars got’a Star Wars and I haven’t done the “a random monster shows up” thing in a while, but this is not required.

In all likelihood, the 4-person crew will split up into two teams; the pilot & smuggler going deeper into the facility to grab speeders off the assembly lines, while the techie & politico oversees operations from the command center.

There will be a sub-plot about installing some spywhere/slicer spike what’yacall’em into the factory systems for future espionage operations, too.

Any ideas for fun stuff to do while mucking around in an enemy speeder factory?

ACT 3 - GETTING OUT
Here the PCs will simply hitch a ride back out aboard the freighter they came in on, and high jack it fully while in space to fly it to some rendezvous coordinates where Rebel Transports will pick up the cargo. Of course, depending on how the players deal with the arrived security, there will probably be some tense get-away scenes as they make their escape aboard the huge, slow-butt freighter.


So yeah, there we have it… so far. Any takers? 😊

Suggestions for act 2:

"Intel and 2 credits will buy you a cup of caf.":
Perhaps it isn't as automated as they say and actually has a large contingent of slave labor (living quarters in the basement).
"Random monster" in a speeder factory seems a bit... odd. Taking the above suggestion, perhaps there are "guard dogs" there to patrol the grounds and make sure no slaves even try to escape.

"We don't have time for this!":
From the window of the building, PC X sees NPC Y, a character from his past and/or linked to his Motivation/Duty. This works best if it could be a threat or boon to the mission or else is a particularly strong person connection (long-lost brother, Imperial nemesis). The character wants to pursue, but time is short. Do they risk jeopardizing the mission? Potential Duty reward/reduction here, depending on how it shakes out.

More generally:
Some side thread pops up outside the factory, practically begging to be followed up on. Works best if linked to backstory, Motivation, or Duty.

Thanks, @P-47 Thunderbolt , these are great!

Slave Labor : This is a solid idea that fits right in with the overall theme and tropes and plot of the campaign, and I can't believe I didn't think about this myself! The campaign is very my a moff-on-the-rise-being-supported-by-unscrupulous-industry-magnats-in-return-for-ignoring-regulations kind of thing, and an explotion in slave labor features very prominently in the story structure all ready. Great suggestion!

Random Monster : Yeah, it is a bit odd... But Star Wars is camp as heck! But yes, the reason why I can't think of a proper monster encounter is that it seems too odd that it is there. The guard dog thing is cool, though. There's nothing like a hungry nexu to keep the slaves from daring an escape attempt.

Familiar Face : Actually, I didn't say so to avoid cluttering the OP, but the security team arriving to upgrade the GoMax Factory systems will be lead by the Politico character's own mother; that character is sort of the black sheep (i.e. only Rebel sympathizer) of the moff's key industrialist family supporters, so there will be loads of character tensions there. But tying that NPC to a darker theme, like the slave stuff, could be very effective.

Side-conflict Distraction : That said, doing a you-spot-good'ol-XXX-through-the-window encounter option could be an interesting thing. There's a certain gran Bounty Hunter that one of the characters want's taken care off... I had actually scripted him to appear randomly in the next mission, but he could just as well slot in here, and if the players decide to ignore him, then that works as a good set-up for when the bounty hunter shows up in the next mission. Cool stuff.



Please keep'em coming Anything particularly "factory like" that I could attempt? (Note, a speeder race is coming up in two missions' time, so I sort of want to hold off on that for now). Some interesting spy stuff, perhaps? Thoughts?

11 minutes ago, angelman2 said:

Please keep'em coming Anything particularly "factory like" that I could attempt? (Note, a speeder race is coming up in two missions' time, so I sort of want to hold off on that for now). Some interesting spy stuff, perhaps? Thoughts?

What are your PCs' Duties?

One idea is that there is some sort of prototype being worked on, be it weapon, vehicle, repulsordrive, or what have you. Depending on whether they've got Tech Acquisition, Asset Denial, etc. etc. you can have different ways of dealing with it or setting it up.

11 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

What are your PCs' Duties?

One idea is that there is some sort of prototype being worked on, be it weapon, vehicle, repulsordrive, or what have you. Depending on whether they've got Tech Acquisition, Asset Denial, etc. etc. you can have different ways of dealing with it or setting it up.

We don't use Duties, I'm afraid, other than as a general tracking of characters Rebel Alliance contribution rank.

A prototype something could be interesting though. The party are not particularly invested in speeders and speeder tech at this point, but the GoMax Factory could easily have a research & development floor where the tech-literate characters could snoop around for some ship or gear attachments, or something. Edit: Or some droid attachment/upgrade thingy; one player is absolutely head-over-heels in love with droids, and is virtually a droid hoarder at this point in the story 🤣

(We've just, after around 9 months of frequent playing, gotten into attachments, so everything attachment-wise could technically qualify as a prototype something at this point My players are almost annoyingly disinterested in tech, though... One player even started out as a tinkerer, but haven't been bothered to embrace that stuff yet, despite my several attempts at gauging him. I did sit them down during a short down-time period recently, however, and "forced" them to do some attachments and mods, and I think they got the message once they saw how awesome their stuff suddenly became, heh heh. I have the weirdest RPG players in my group... Not a corpse-looting murder hobo in sight!).

Whatever it is, it should be linked to the purpose of the factory. I think it's a bit of a stretch to have something experimental or "prototype-y" in a factory run by slave labor to begin with, so having something outside the norm would be too much, I think. Either that, or come up with a creative reason as to why something that doesn't make sense is actually the case.

On the subject of slave labor, intel can easily be "no employees other than X, so it's totally automated" sort of thing. That would explain why Intel got it wrong, as the slaves wouldn't show up on the payroll.

A different crew is pulling the same heist but they're much less subtle about things. They reprogram a bunch of binary loadlifters to rampage through the factory. This could lead to hijinks with the PCs having to dodge around on the assembly line itself. Always a fun trope.

7 hours ago, rogue_09 said:

A different crew is pulling the same heist but they're much less subtle about things. They reprogram a bunch of binary loadlifters to rampage through the factory. This could lead to hijinks with the PCs having to dodge around on the assembly line itself. Always a fun trope.

Wow, that's a great idea! I need to come up with some "whos" and "whys" and "why nows" but yeah, this could be a huge and fun monkey wrench in everybody's works 🤣

Edit: This is gonna be hilarious! The Rebel PCs' some-time underground ally, a humanitarian Hutt (long story) has unwittingly sent a rival thief crew on the same job. These goons (Gamorreans and Klatoonians) have infiltrated the same ship the PCs are on, but have done a worse job of it; basically, they hide in a freight container, but have not take increase customs security (i.e. Imperial Scanning Crew) into consideration, and the PCs must either sell their ally's goons out or help them through. From there, the two crews' goals will run counter-but-parallel to one another, and much hilarity will ensue. There will be a lot of, "Argh! Blasted goons!" vs. "But these are our friends!" while both teams attempt to do some stealing at the GoMax Factory. ...and then further complications -- bounty hunters, slaves & slavers, and mama Cyber Security officer -- are all gonna enter, stage left.

Darn, this thing just went from being an uninspiring, run-of-the-mill filler episode to a full-fledged Star Wars farce! This is just the sort of thing I wanted to help elevate the scenario; thank you, guys!

The first session of the "GoMax Factory Heist" mission went great and the players had a fun time full of laughter. Thank you, guys for pumping some awesome into my rather bland heist story! ❤️

The PCs haven't yet gotten as far as to infiltrate the actual factory, but they have saved the rival crew from corrupt customs officials through hefty bribes, and joined forces with them. ...which might not be the best of strategies, seeing as the rival crew composes of a Kalleran boss, a Klatooinian second, and 4 dumb-as-gravel Gamorrean thugs, and they're going on a sensitive industrial espionage in Imperial territory... to quote C-3PO, "Goodness gracious me!" 🤣

The "Random Monster" doesn't need to be flesh and bone. Perhaps a speeder technician secretly has been building a "pet" project off in a secluded and locked store room. It's an abomination of speeder melded with a droid brain and appendages. It's not complete, half-crazy, and will defend itself if disturbed while repeatedly asking, "Kooke?", which is it's creator's name. It will become more and more upset if it doesn't find Kooke.

On 10/19/2020 at 12:12 PM, Sturn said:

The "Random Monster" doesn't need to be flesh and bone. Perhaps a speeder technician secretly has been building a "pet" project off in a secluded and locked store room. It's an abomination of speeder melded with a droid brain and appendages. It's not complete, half-crazy, and will defend itself if disturbed while repeatedly asking, "Kooke?", which is it's creator's name. It will become more and more upset if it doesn't find Kooke.

I'm gonna keep this in the back of my mind in case I suddenly need a random monster to pop up. Right now the adventure looks like it'll be crazy and many-faceted enough to juggle, but... I have made it so that the droid-revolutionary EV droid from Debts to Pay is currently serving (with a restraining bolt) as an overseer at the GoMax Factory, and I could definitely see him installing consciousness and malevolence into some robotic machinery as step towards droid liberation and the extermination of organic sentience if ever he got free of the restraining bolt! (And my players are insane enough to remove his restraining bolt to create a diversion). Oh dear... 😁