I thought overall "Long Arm" was a well-written adventure, and I loved having a social event as a big part of it!

In our game, I added a few things:

- on Ryloth, a Twi'lek teenager beseeches the party to go easy on Angu Drombb's thugs, because one of them is secretly her boyfriend

- the PCs decided to rig up a speeder as a bomb and send it remotely into Drombb's camp before attacking

- when they attacked Drombb's camp, the thugs were in the midst of capturing the lylek from the lylek den, planning to unleash it on New Meen. The players fought Drombb and his thugs in a hot rain storm while the lylek thrashed and chomped to free itself from its bonds

- the teenage girl appeared at Drombb's camp just in time to see her thug boyfriend eaten by the lylek

- on Geonosis, I added a character of my own called Ockam, a Mon Calamarian gangster from Tatooine. Ockam was transporting several dancing Twi'leks back to Teemo the Hutt, so the PCs hitched a ride with him

I totally agree about the confusion of "Duke Piddock" and "Duke Dimmock", I didn't quite understand the situation there.

I renamed "Duke Dimmock" as "Duke Dim'MOCK" with an emphasis on the second syllable, as a way to keep them separate in my mind. Confusing names.

- The PCs rode back to Teemo's with Ockam, and Ockam closed his business deal with Teemo, selling one of the Twi'leks to the Hutt before the PCs' assult.

- The PCs shot at the chandelier over Teemo's head just in time (Despair!) for the Teemo to pull the Twi'lek slave to him--they were both crushed instantly, little red Twi'lek feet sticking out from the chandelier.

- I decided if they used the chandelier bit, it would destabilize the palace. The PCs weren't able to get their money from the lockbox underneath Teemo because the throne room was now on fire.

- The palace started collapsing and the PCs did their best to escape, just in time to see Ockam's starship fall from the landing platform.

- At this point, Mathus was an extra character, so I had him swoop in with the Krayt Fang and let down ropes for the characters.

- They all made athletics rolls for the climb, and a Despair on one and a Triumph on another meant that Pash sacrificed his life for Sasha, falling to his death so that she could make it on board.

I gave the players a choice--"The Despair means Sasha is falling, but that Triumph means someone can step in and take her place."

- Teemo's palace collapsed as the Krayt Fang flew off into space.

I thought overall "Long Arm" was a well-written adventure, and I loved having a social event as a big part of it!

In our game, I added a few things:

- on Ryloth, a Twi'lek teenager beseeches the party to go easy on Angu Drombb's thugs, because one of them is secretly her boyfriend

- the PCs decided to rig up a speeder as a bomb and send it remotely into Drombb's camp before attacking

- when they attacked Drombb's camp, the thugs were in the midst of capturing the lylek from the lylek den, planning to unleash it on New Meen. The players fought Drombb and his thugs in a hot rain storm while the lylek thrashed and chomped to free itself from its bonds

- the teenage girl appeared at Drombb's camp just in time to see her thug boyfriend eaten by the lylek

I like these changes, and I am going to use the Lylek bit. Since my group is not going via the scripted route, they don't have the same bounty hunter issue. (some of them have bounties as obligation, but not tied in to Teemo's schemes.) They're also likely to want to use their ship instead of the speeder to get to New Meen, bypassing the ambush scene. So, instead of bounty hunter trap, it will be Drombb's thugs attempting to coax the lylek out, but they will detect the approaching speeder. If the PCs do use the speeder route, the encounter goes off there, and they interrupt the operation. If they use their ship, they bypass that encounter, and the thugs lead the creature to New Meen where it goes on a rampage.

GM Stark, that sounds like a great way to use the lylek!

I had a lot of fun upgrading shots in the vicinity of the lylek, so that Despair could mean "You shot and angered the monster!".

In our game the thugs had the lylek lashed to the bed of a speeder truck and it was trying to break free. The sniper fired several times at its bonds, but it was bound for several rounds, for most of the fight in fact.

I therefore had a lot of opportunity to describe its beastly nature, how its tentacles and fangs are thrashing around, and how it takes out a couple of the thugs itself when they get too close.

Soon Angu Drombb was dead, Oskara rolled a Despair and the lylek TORE ITS OWN TENTACLE OFF to escape and charge her!

The PCs hopped in their speeder and zipped off back to New Meen, hearing the crunches of a couple of Drombb's thugs getting chomped by the beast.

I think the suspense of the monster being bound, and becoming free over time, really helped the encounter! I also made it a very dramatic environment, with a cantina on fire, trucks randomly exploding, and a rare but very hot rain coming down in the night on Ryloth.

Anyway best of luck with your own!

I ran it pretty much in line with the book for the first 80%. Geonosis was definitely the lull. But after that the group pretty much went off the rails and decided to contact Jabba himself and try to oust Teemo (and the book pretty much went out the window). They got the Jabba's Palace Call Center (I was trying to avoid a confrontation with a major canon character), but when one of them not so subtly threatened Teemo, a member of Jabba's clan, they got a direct line to Jabba, tension on the table definitely went way up.

The group was escorted to Jabba's Palace, and on the way, trying to pull all they knew together, only then realized that all the evidence they had against Teemo was circumstantial and that the hard evidence was probably inside Teemo's Palace. As they entered Jabba's palace, their commlinks started spewing static, indicating that Jabba has jammed all unauthorized communications in his home. I changed Thweek, the Kubaz, to the one who was indeed spying on Jabba (since they had caught glimpses and name drops of him earlier in the adventure), and they saw him skulking through the palace while they were being escorted down a corridor to Jabba's chamber. With a clever distraction, one player (an Assassin) snuck after him while the rest of the group tried to stall Jabba. The assassin tracked tracked Thweek to a hidden corridor and caught him using an unauthorized hack on his commlink to bypass the comm jammer. After dragging the spy before Jabba, all of the pieces fell into place and the PC's convinced Jabba that Teemo was plotting against him, and smuggling Ryll behind his back.

The PC's traveled with a group of mercenaries who arrested Teemo, and thus pulled the group out from under the Long Arm of the Hutt.

I should have thrown in a fight with Teemo, just to spice up the end of the adventure with some combat (I think the players were itching for it). All in all, good adventure and decently written, but don't feel bad breaking away from it.

My biggest problem was at the end. The players decide to infiltrate Teemo's palace and try to get hard evidence. But the resident computer expert rolled horrible (really well on the purple dice) and I had a hard time getting around this roadblock for my players. Really poor planning on the players part and my failure for describing the scene well enough to help them out.

kinnison, remember that you only have to interpret the dice as harshly as you want to.

If you feel your story is best served by having the players discover evidence about Teemo, then you can decide as GM that the Computers roll only governs how difficult it is to do that, not whether they succeed or fail at it.

A failure on those dice could mean that it takes them some time, and they are discovered in the Palace by a patrolling guard, or that they get the information they need and set off a general alarm in the computer by accidentally forgetting to reset a switch before logging out... the possibilities are endless.

This might be something to keep in mind next time--if a failure to succeed means the players just can't move forward at all then just interpret the dice so they succeed, but with difficulties.

Something I did before I ran the final session in Teemo's Palace was to go through it many times in my mind, going through each room and speculating about interesting things that could happen there in a fight. "If they're fighting in the Grand Hall, they could take cover behind these pillars, or pull curtains off the walls to cover the enemy. If they're fighting in the workshop, they could throw boxes and droid parts around, or someone could shoot a control switch or a mechanical device that sparks, explodes, smokes, etc."

And think about the other possibilities too. "If they're planning to hack the computer, here are 3 or 4 things that could happen ...."

What if they decide to do it purely by charm? A gutsy move, to be sure. How might it play out?

In my own games, playing out some of these scenarios before the game night helps me get a handle on creative ways to respond to most of their actions. Of course, players will often surprise you too, so that's part of the fun!

I'm half-way through playing this with my kids. I changed the New Meen encounter slightly so that B'ura B'an's son was working for Drombb, flashing the cash and trying to persuade the miners to leave the town. When he turned up drunk on the excavator that night, it made the PCs pause when fighting back, as they didn't want to kill the son.

They defeated the drunk thugs then immediately took a couple of speeders to Drombb's place and just about managed to defeat them.

They've also got a small interlude to deal with. They captured one of the bounty hunters from the lylek den ambush, but didn't secure him well enough (failure with threats meant he wasn't tied up and they didn't notice). The bounty hunter escaped while the PCs were attacking Drombb and kidnapped B'ura's husband. The bounty hunter wants to exchange the husband for the PCs so he can get the bounty. It will allow the bounty hunter survivalist PC to show off her awesome tracking skills finding the bounty hunter.

I'm having real trouble planning the Geonosian party. It's not clear who Ota's working for, or what his motivation is for causing trouble to Teemo.

I think I'll change that section quite a bit. The defeat of Drombb will mean that Nyn's people now have control of a ryll shipment that Teemo had sold to the Piddock. Nyn will ask the PCs to deliver it and return with the cash. However, they'll be ambushed by a combined group of Teemo's thugs and Imperial troops (Teemo had already decided to double cross Piddock). If asked, Piddock will say he's been selling battle droids to Teemo and that Teemo let slip they were to overthrow Jabba. That will set up the infiltration into Teemo's complex to get hard evidence of the plans, which the PCs can then take to Jabba. If it's good enough, Jabba will help the PCs take out Teemo.

My PCs wanted to switch to an e-9 explorer so I retconned the Krayt Fang into being one of those. We also were switching to the full ruleset for this adventure, and I tried to add some more "learning" experiences.

My PCs found and slowed down the homing beacon before arriving at Ryloth so the Kubaz in his Dunelizard did not show up initially. I had him show up later.

Rather than just give them a free ship (gained after ejecting Trex from the airlock in space) I had them dig into the computers and learn that the ship was actually co-owned by Trex and another mysterious NPC named Tass L. Hoffle They couldn't find anyone who actually knows who Tass is or what she looks like aside from her having a cybernetic eye and being purple and short. This is an ongoing plot hook where they will assume Trex's "ownership" of the ship but will still need to track down the other mysterious owner to buy her out or deal with her. They also learn that this ship was used during the clone wars, but cannot find specific details (or they have been erased).

As the ship was about 100 feet above the landing bay in Ryloth, I had a large chunk of something fall off the underside of the ship, prompting the PCs to ask,"What was that?" (It was a large pin holding the front landing gear together). As soon as the ship set down onto its landing gear the front gear fell apart and the ship crumpled forward at an angle, blocking off the lower boarding ramp. Trex did not take very good care of his ship. This required the PCs to find another way out of their ship. The chose the side docking port and opened it up, but were about 20 feet of the ground. The airlock doors were in a bad state and they had to do an athletics check to open the door enough to get out. Then They had to do a Coordination check to get down or up, or fall and take some strain. One of the PCs rolled a triumph and was able to point out the best hand and footholds to the rest, giving them each a boost on future checks. They also had to refuel the ship and get it repaired by B'ura B'an's guys which would take a day or two at minimum. This stopped them from using their ship to just fly all over the planet.

The PCs dealt with the bounty hunters in the cave and took their speeder so that they now had two. One speeder was owned by Nym's people and the other was rented by the bounty hunters on planet and owned by a big rental corporation. I had to make my own speeder stats as there aren't any (that I could find) that would hold 3-6 people.

I really liked the earlier idea of having the Twi'lek teenager have a boyfriend in Drombb's gang, but I made sure that he was reputed to be a jerk and played up the whole overprotective father thing in New Meen. He was human, named Skip Hondo, had a huge spiky blonde mohawk, and always wore his blue shiny boots (his pride and joy) which he nicknamed "slit kickers". The PCs immediately took a disliking to him without meeting him.

As the PC's went to sleep the first night (before the Drunk and disorderly event) there was a loud roaring of a Lylek in the distance and the villagers became frightened and asked the PCs if they had any weapons they could loan the town in case of attack. The group handed them the weapons they took from the bounty hunters. The lylek was too far out for anyone to actually see or pinpoint a direction and was mostly for dramatic effect.

I also took awesome idea of Drombb's thugs being in the process of trying up a Lylek to a speeder truck in a hot rain. I had one group of thugs (including Hondo) tying up the beast, another group in the cantina drinking the night away, and Drombb alone in his office. Needless to say they were all pretty distracted. The pc's snuck into the camp and rigged all the excavation trucks to explode and had them head towards the Lylek and the minions. It was pretty fun and lots of laughs were had. The teenage girl arrived just in time to see her beloved Hondo grabbed by the beast and stuffed into his mouth, seconds before the explosive laden truck blew up the whole area, with Hondo's smoking boots landing right in front of her.

The Twi'leks threw a huge party and brought out some special Twi'lek moonshine, which is crazy strong for anyone who isn't a twi'lek. Half the party partook of the moonshine before the droid rolled a knowledge xeno check had a chance to warn them. I rolled randomly among the pcs who drank it and had that PC end up dancing hazily with everyone else. He flopped down into a comfy velvet cushion and a gorgeous twi'lek teenager around 17 approached him offering a glass of wine, taking a sip herself and smiling meekly, looking downwards. The PC accepted and drank the wine and the girl asked him to help her tie a silk cord around her lekku, which he did in a jovial fashion. B'ura b'an came over and said, "I see you've met my granddaughter, Aruuna" and waved some incense around them before moving on to wave it around others at the party. The droid rolls another knowledge xeno check and discovers that he just witnessed a Twi'lek Settler's Mariage ceremony, but decided to keep that to himself. The girl asked the PC about his adventures and life outside of Ryloth and all the PCs blackout during the conversation, waking the next morning. In the morning, B'ura B'an along with all the other twi'leks are too drunk to even wake up and the PCs go on their way. The droid congratulates the PC on his marriage, to his shock, and the girl from the night before is nowhere to be seen. (Yup, I stole it from Firefly.)

On their way back to Nabat, I had the Kubaz in his dunelizard show up and a chase resulted between his ship and the two landspeeders, starting at medium range. It was a 5 round chase where the kubaz tried to strafe them and the Pc's tried to get away from him, ultimately making it to the safety of the cave where they fought the bounty hunters initially. Since they had nothing that could penetrate his armor, their only recourse was to run.

Aruuna will be appearing once they get to Geonosis, and will make her presence known by screaming from the cargohold (she snuck on board). She is terrified, newly married, and claims to have seen a female zabrak ghost in the cargohold and heard voices, "Put them there." "Yes, general." This will be another future plot hook as the PCS learn about the history of their ship. At an appropriately tense moment, the warning klaxons will ring and the ship will come under attack from the Kubaz in his dunelizard again. THEN the PCs can land on Geonosis and go to the Duke's party.

ianinak, that sounds like a lot of fun!

I'm so glad you liked those ideas about the Twi'lek girl and the lylek, seems like you added some cool twists to them!

Interesting - so I've been reading all the stuff on Ryloth from the Platt's Spaceport Guide and the WotC book "Geonosis and the Outer Rim" because I wanted to us the town of New Meen again. And I noticed a "That makes no sense" from Long Arm - what happened to the Heat Storms and bad weather? No mention of that anywhere in Long Arm, and in fact having the town outside in tents and huts wont work. First heat storm comes blowing through and wham - dead town.

So, I'm having the huts and tents be a temporary measure. When the players come back, they'll have all moved into the excavated caverns. In Long Arm, however - I guess you could have them all take shelter in the mines as necessary, but it's probably easier to just re-write that bit.

Desslok, that makes sense to me.

I made sure to emphasize the heat while our PCs were there, I gave them strain and occasionally setback dice for the weather (except for Oskara obviously).

While they were fighting the lylek, I introduced a rare rain storm but made sure to describe it as hot, unpleasant rain rather than something refreshing.

If they'd been there more than a few days I would've thrown in a powerful heat storm as well. I love using weather conditions and the various senses to bring a place to life.

I decided that the general atmosphere of Ryloth would probably smell almost acrid to most people, especially when the heat was flaring up, so I used that too.

What's happened thus far:

1) I upgraded the Gammoreans and Security Droids into rules as written. The Gammoreans ended up being harder than expected with the PCs not landing any hits on them but in the end they were able to survive the bar brawl without issue. The Security Droids went far better and the net launchers were very nice change in the dynamic of the escape scenario.

2) The Stormtrooper encounter in Mos Shuta was merged with the Trex encounter to allow Trex to escape to return later and inspire the PCs to take off with the ship (and to fight off combat fatigue). For his return I upgraded him to have a Bowcaster for Wookie hunting and gave him Improved Hunter's Quarry because I absolutely love Big Game Hunter and he obviously deals in Wookie hunting.

3) The Lylek got it's own statline i.e. not the Rancor and there's a quest to go kill it should the PCs not decide to fight it in the den there's a hook to go back and then rid Nu Meen of the threat it very clearly poses to a surface settlement on Ryloth.

4) Since Thweek doesn't appear except in the ambush in Ryloth orbit I gave him some piloting abilities as my experience as a PC was that Thweek went down in 1 round of combat and didn't inflict a single point of hull trauma to the ship. I really like the idea of him chasing the PCs down when they leave Nu Meen and depending on how they decide to travel that might be the case. My other alternative is to have him snipe Drombb with an X-30 to keep him from spilling the beans to the PCs if cornered.

I've written up the changes I've made . I'll write up the changes to Act 3 when we get that far, though it will probably involve sneaking into the "moisture farm" that's really holding Teemo's nearly-functional battle droids.

I've now added a sketch of events at Doni Skanthi , the moisture farm where Teemo's holding his incomplete battle droids.

Hi all,

I've now added a sketch of events at Doni Skanthi , the moisture farm where Teemo's holding his incomplete battle droids.

I tried your link but found that it is broken.

Simon