I don't think I have ever used a published module exactly as written (except maybe very early in my GM career). Sometimes the changes are necessary, sometimes I adjust it to fit better with my group and sometimes they simply add to the fun.

Realizing that it's a basic game tutorial, most changes will probably be minor - but what additions, tweaks or adjustments have you made to Escape from Mos Shuuta? How did they turn out for you? Would you do the same thing again? What would you recommend for other GMs just about to run the game?

I don't like the default effect of losing to the Gamorrians. It doesn't seem right that they're just trying to bruise you up and then walk away. Looking to Long Arm of the Hutt that follows, I'd consider adding a friend or family member of the Twi'lek held on the Krayt Fang to the cantina that helps out the PCs if needed and gives them the info on the ship in exchange for their help taking both Twi'leks to Ryloth.

I agree that beating the party up and then walking away laughing seems rather mild for the Gamoreans. Hauling them off to imprisonment benefit the palace of a Hutt crime lord would seriously derail the adventure.

I think I will make the. Change of having the. Gamoreans beat the party severely then dump them in an alley where they can be found by a Twi'lek or sympathizer as suggested by HappyDaze above.

For the loss to Gamorreans, perhaps have the PCs beaten and tied up then left in a store room in the cantina. You can explain that the Gamorreans, via Teemo, have decided to sell them into slavery via Trex. They've been left for pickup by Trex. The sympathetic barkeep has come to release them in the small window of time between the Gamorrean exit and Trex arriving to grab them. Insert amended barkeep speech here, carry on with the mission.

I found that the space mission very likely will end with player death when you add in the linked trigger the tie fighters have. I opted to allow the player in the engineer slot, when he repairs the ship, to repair hull damage equal to successes and advantage he rolled. The Tie's were taking MASSIVE chunks out of the Krayt Fang in my game. This gave them the chance to shoot them down instead of be disabled and carted off. I could see this being a good tie into another adventure if they DO lose since the game doesn't say the ship is destroyed.

For the loss to Gamorreans, perhaps have the PCs beaten and tied up then left in a store room in the cantina. You can explain that the Gamorreans, via Teemo, have decided to sell them into slavery via Trex. They've been left for pickup by Trex. The sympathetic barkeep has come to release them in the small window of time between the Gamorrean exit and Trex arriving to grab them. Insert amended barkeep speech here, carry on with the mission.

I found that the space mission very likely will end with player death when you add in the linked trigger the tie fighters have. I opted to allow the player in the engineer slot, when he repairs the ship, to repair hull damage equal to successes and advantage he rolled. The Tie's were taking MASSIVE chunks out of the Krayt Fang in my game. This gave them the chance to shoot them down instead of be disabled and carted off. I could see this being a good tie into another adventure if they DO lose since the game doesn't say the ship is destroyed.

I wondered about the engineer slot as well. 1 repair per successful check seemed a bit weak.

For the loss to Gamorreans, perhaps have the PCs beaten and tied up then left in a store room in the cantina. You can explain that the Gamorreans, via Teemo, have decided to sell them into slavery via Trex. They've been left for pickup by Trex. The sympathetic barkeep has come to release them in the small window of time between the Gamorrean exit and Trex arriving to grab them. Insert amended barkeep speech here, carry on with the mission.

I found that the space mission very likely will end with player death when you add in the linked trigger the tie fighters have. I opted to allow the player in the engineer slot, when he repairs the ship, to repair hull damage equal to successes and advantage he rolled. The Tie's were taking MASSIVE chunks out of the Krayt Fang in my game. This gave them the chance to shoot them down instead of be disabled and carted off. I could see this being a good tie into another adventure if they DO lose since the game doesn't say the ship is destroyed.

I wondered about the engineer slot as well. 1 repair per successful check seemed a bit weak.

The idea is that your ship is taking a ton of damage on the hull and there's only so much you can do in a firefight to repair the outside of your vehicle from the inside. Hull damage is a serious concern that costs a lot to fix and takes time. It gives the players motivation to avoid fights where they might be put in a rough spot instead of just pumping their engineer character full of Mechanics and not caring about getting hit. System strain is damage to the internal power systems and the like, which is stuff that can be fixed in a fight with a bit more ease.

Also, the repair is limited to one attempt per encounter, but you are able to repair one point of damage, and then one additional point per two successes (so you can do more, it's just really hard).

For the loss to Gamorreans, perhaps have the PCs beaten and tied up then left in a store room in the cantina. You can explain that the Gamorreans, via Teemo, have decided to sell them into slavery via Trex. They've been left for pickup by Trex. The sympathetic barkeep has come to release them in the small window of time between the Gamorrean exit and Trex arriving to grab them. Insert amended barkeep speech here, carry on with the mission.

I found that the space mission very likely will end with player death when you add in the linked trigger the tie fighters have. I opted to allow the player in the engineer slot, when he repairs the ship, to repair hull damage equal to successes and advantage he rolled. The Tie's were taking MASSIVE chunks out of the Krayt Fang in my game. This gave them the chance to shoot them down instead of be disabled and carted off. I could see this being a good tie into another adventure if they DO lose since the game doesn't say the ship is destroyed.

I wondered about the engineer slot as well. 1 repair per successful check seemed a bit weak.

The idea is that your ship is taking a ton of damage on the hull and there's only so much you can do in a firefight to repair the outside of your vehicle from the inside. Hull damage is a serious concern that costs a lot to fix and takes time. It gives the players motivation to avoid fights where they might be put in a rough spot instead of just pumping their engineer character full of Mechanics and not caring about getting hit. System strain is damage to the internal power systems and the like, which is stuff that can be fixed in a fight with a bit more ease.

Also, the repair is limited to one attempt per encounter, but you are able to repair one point of damage, and then one additional point per two successes (so you can do more, it's just really hard).

That all makes perfect sense to me. With the Beginner adventure specifically there just seems to be a bit of a tightrope there that may give new GM's or players out there a surprise, especially if they have 4-6 rounds to survive after that part gets installed. A couple well placed TIE rolls and it's curtains.

I added in the effects of the smell, bleeping warnings, etc., from Long Arm of the Hutt into the adventure from the moment they step aboard the Krayt Fang, rather than waiting to add them in at the start of the next adventure. It worked really well to set all the players on edge right from the get-go.

For the loss to Gamorreans, perhaps have the PCs beaten and tied up then left in a store room in the cantina. You can explain that the Gamorreans, via Teemo, have decided to sell them into slavery via Trex. They've been left for pickup by Trex. The sympathetic barkeep has come to release them in the small window of time between the Gamorrean exit and Trex arriving to grab them. Insert amended barkeep speech here, carry on with the mission.

Heh, very A-Team. "We shall lock you in this old barn full of produce and run down farm equipment until we're ready for you!" and then when the bad guys return, they are assaulted by cabbages launched from a hay baler, and the tide of battle turns.

My big complaint? How very much on rails the game feels. Okay, it's a tutorial level, so the players can learn the ropes - but you don't need lines like "So, you need to get out off planet? There's a ship you can steal to do that - but first you need to get Hyperdrive McGuffin!" to learn the game engine. The lines connecting dot A to dot B to dot C seems really clunky.

So I'm going to re-write that part, see if I can get a more organic flow to the story.

The other big change? I'm (probably) using the game as a launching point for our campaign proper. So gone are the pre-built characters, replaced with the ones the players will be using for the duration of the run. Beyond those two issues, I think the game is not too terrible, Complex? Naw - but it does what it's suppose to nicely.

For the loss to Gamorreans, perhaps have the PCs beaten and tied up then left in a store room in the cantina. You can explain that the Gamorreans, via Teemo, have decided to sell them into slavery via Trex. They've been left for pickup by Trex. The sympathetic barkeep has come to release them in the small window of time between the Gamorrean exit and Trex arriving to grab them. Insert amended barkeep speech here, carry on with the mission.

I found that the space mission very likely will end with player death when you add in the linked trigger the tie fighters have. I opted to allow the player in the engineer slot, when he repairs the ship, to repair hull damage equal to successes and advantage he rolled. The Tie's were taking MASSIVE chunks out of the Krayt Fang in my game. This gave them the chance to shoot them down instead of be disabled and carted off. I could see this being a good tie into another adventure if they DO lose since the game doesn't say the ship is destroyed.

I wondered about the engineer slot as well. 1 repair per successful check seemed a bit weak.

The idea is that your ship is taking a ton of damage on the hull and there's only so much you can do in a firefight to repair the outside of your vehicle from the inside. Hull damage is a serious concern that costs a lot to fix and takes time. It gives the players motivation to avoid fights where they might be put in a rough spot instead of just pumping their engineer character full of Mechanics and not caring about getting hit. System strain is damage to the internal power systems and the like, which is stuff that can be fixed in a fight with a bit more ease.

Also, the repair is limited to one attempt per encounter, but you are able to repair one point of damage, and then one additional point per two successes (so you can do more, it's just really hard).

I fully agree, except this wasn't a situation the players had an option to run from and more than two or three turns could spell doom. Under normal circumstances they'd have multiple options to escape and you want the pressure. Two decent rolls from both Tie fighters in one turn could end things. For my group, totally new to RPGs, that would be a pretty negative experience so I made amendments for it.

I added in the effects of the smell, bleeping warnings, etc., from Long Arm of the Hutt into the adventure from the moment they step aboard the Krayt Fang, rather than waiting to add them in at the start of the next adventure. It worked really well to set all the players on edge right from the get-go.

I did this and I also didn't really get into letting them get the loot at the end of Escape since I planned on rolling right into Long Arm. I also tried to make the pacing feel a bit more like Teemo's goons are right on the party's tail at all times. It ended up as an almost breathless pace that was really a lot of fun.

I fully agree, except this wasn't a situation the players had an option to run from and more than two or three turns could spell doom. Under normal circumstances they'd have multiple options to escape and you want the pressure. Two decent rolls from both Tie fighters in one turn could end things. For my group, totally new to RPGs, that would be a pretty negative experience so I made amendments for it.

I was in the opposite situation when I ran that encounter. The PCs got really good initiative, then rolled disgustingly well on their attacks and had over half of the initial TIE Fighters dead in the first round alone. And the TIEs that went before them didn't even hit. In every instance of vehicle combat I've run in EotE (always in premade adventures), the PCs have somehow managed to make the encounter easy with good rolls, and my bad guys have rolled mediocre to awful.

For the loss to Gamorreans, perhaps have the PCs beaten and tied up then left in a store room in the cantina. You can explain that the Gamorreans, via Teemo, have decided to sell them into slavery via Trex. They've been left for pickup by Trex. The sympathetic barkeep has come to release them in the small window of time between the Gamorrean exit and Trex arriving to grab them. Insert amended barkeep speech here, carry on with the mission.

I was intending to introduce a friend of the captured Twi'lek precisely because having the bartender get involved seems terribly out of place. The cantina is in Teemo's slithering grounds and everyone in town that needs to make a living is more or less under his thumb. I'd rather that another outsider be there to help out and feed the 'too **** convenient' information to the PCs.

I fully agree, except this wasn't a situation the players had an option to run from and more than two or three turns could spell doom. Under normal circumstances they'd have multiple options to escape and you want the pressure. Two decent rolls from both Tie fighters in one turn could end things. For my group, totally new to RPGs, that would be a pretty negative experience so I made amendments for it.

I was in the opposite situation when I ran that encounter. The PCs got really good initiative, then rolled disgustingly well on their attacks and had over half of the initial TIE Fighters dead in the first round alone. And the TIEs that went before them didn't even hit. In every instance of vehicle combat I've run in EotE (always in premade adventures), the PCs have somehow managed to make the encounter easy with good rolls, and my bad guys have rolled mediocre to awful.

It sounds like the stormtrooper rule is in full effect in your game. Carry on, citizen!

I found that the space mission very likely will end with player death when you add in the linked trigger the tie fighters have. I opted to allow the player in the engineer slot, when he repairs the ship, to repair hull damage equal to successes and advantage he rolled. The Tie's were taking MASSIVE chunks out of the Krayt Fang in my game. This gave them the chance to shoot them down instead of be disabled and carted off. I could see this being a good tie into another adventure if they DO lose since the game doesn't say the ship is destroyed.

It was pointed out to me that in the core rulebook that the twinlinked feature of the Tie's were slightly different and required a better roll to pull off. As a result the players were able to get away with only losing half of the ships hit points.

My players nearly died on the Krayt Fang as they were only 3. Forseeing this I allowed them after a nice RP scene to get the Astromech Droid in the junkyard. The R4 unit went repairing the ship during the space fight. I also ommited the twinlinked feature, at the end of the encounter the Hull Trauma was at 1. And they all had at least one critical injurie.

My big complaint? How very much on rails the game feels. Okay, it's a tutorial level, so the players can learn the ropes - but you don't need lines like "So, you need to get out off planet? There's a ship you can steal to do that - but first you need to get Hyperdrive McGuffin!" to learn the game engine. The lines connecting dot A to dot B to dot C seems really clunky.

So I'm going to re-write that part, see if I can get a more organic flow to the story.

I'm already planning to do this. I tried a practice run-through with my wife, and didn't like how the information was so completely spoon fed to the player.

I plan on the bartender telling them about the ship (but I want more organic dialogue than "need to escape? there's a ship."). Let the players discover the ship first (but it is locked shut, and no one is around), and use the hangar computer to find out the hyperdrive is damaged and the clamps are locked.

that way, via their own investigation, they're presented with 2 goals they have to achieve. Obtain the part, and recieve clearance. Then, when they return to the ship after that, that's when the battle with Trex occurs.

Yeah, okay - I'm digging that. Something from the bartender like "Geeze, what did you people do to honk off the Hutt that badly? You guys better get the hell out of town before he decides he really wants you dead! Now beat it before you get *ME* in trouble with Teemo!"

As for knowing about Trex's ship, if the players worked for Teemo, isn't it possible that one of them knows that he has ships landing all the time, that there's a good chance there will be something they could steal in the docking bay right now? If one of them is a rival pilot, that seems like a pretty good lead to offer up.

Yeah, okay - I'm digging that. Something from the bartender like "Geeze, what did you people do to honk off the Hutt that badly? You guys better get the hell out of town before he decides he really wants you dead! Now beat it before you get *ME* in trouble with Teemo!"

As for knowing about Trex's ship, if the players worked for Teemo, isn't it possible that one of them knows that he has ships landing all the time, that there's a good chance there will be something they could steal in the docking bay right now? If one of them is a rival pilot, that seems like a pretty good lead to offer up.

I like this approach better. I'm torn though. Should I, as the GM, say "hey, your characters probably realize that you could check the hangar bay for a ship", or some how deliver that information in-game. Something more interesting than the bartender going, "hey, if you need a ship to steal..."

After firing at the freighter the TIEs then recieved a call from HQ informing them that they were chasing the wrong YT-1300, the one they were after had only just left Mos Eisley. The TIEs then apologized and flew off.

I did this as I wasn't that familiar with the space combat rules and it was late and we were about ready to quit.

Interestingly the players hadn't picked up the hypermatter doohicky so had to detour to Mos Eisley, they were informed that docking bay 94 had just become vacant.

Interestingly the players hadn't picked up the hypermatter doohicky so had to detour to Mos Eisley, they were informed that docking bay 94 had just become vacant.

No yellow "Stormtrooper Line--Do Not Cross" tape over the entrances?

After firing at the freighter the TIEs then recieved a call from HQ informing them that they were chasing the wrong YT-1300, the one they were after had only just left Mos Eisley. The TIEs then apologized and flew off.

I did this as I wasn't that familiar with the space combat rules and it was late and we were about ready to quit.

Interestingly the players hadn't picked up the hypermatter doohicky so had to detour to Mos Eisley, they were informed that docking bay 94 had just become vacant.

Seems a bit on the nose, but hey, I bet it was a fun time.

I'm using the setting including the expansion material posted elsewhere in this forum and making it more of a sandbox. The goal is still to escape. The party used to have a ship, but it was destroyed in a pirate attack. The PCs were barely rescued by minions of Teemo, waking up in the rudimentary medical center.

They are brought to Teemo, where he informs them that his obligation from his rescue is 20 years of servitude...The Twi'lek is offered the opportunity to be a dancer. If she declines, she will be sold as an "entertainer" to a moisture farmer, which gives the PCs some urgency in finding a way out. The others also have unacceptable servitude options in their future.

Escape has a number of options, including an adventure opportunity where they could salvage enough to pay Teemo for their freedom, stealing a ship or making a deal with Trex (difficult, since he works for Teemo). With the added material on the surrounding regions, overland is even an option, though a very deadly and nearly impossible one unless they can get their hands on both transport and supplies. They have to find the options - they aren't offered up in the first scene by the bartender!

IMO you can easily still guide the players through without the rails it just takes a little more finesse.

give a real threat. yes the Gamorians are really going to try and hurt them bad even try to kill them, but the bar tender of the cantina chases them off with a blaster if need be. . . all it takes is a solid shot from a disruptor pistol to send them scurrying(players too). and don't forget that not everyone can be trusted. have them ambushed by a group of children in the streets. make your skulduggery roll and the players could be missing things off their persons.

Just take the basic plot and make a sandbox.

I have had two players that went through the beginner box adventure prior to me running it and they were much more impressed with it as a sandbox than being railroaded. Makes for a happy player.

SP