To me, as a player, I find it is my duty to make an effort to integrate myself into the story as presented by the GM. In particular, with pre-made adventures where story hooks are often necessarily generic or shallow so as to accommodate the impossibly wide range of adventurer types.

Sure, I could be a jerk and make the GM's job more difficult. I could harrumph around insisting my special snowflake character would never want to participate in <INSERT PLOT HERE>. But where's the fun in that? I'd rather come up with something in-character to explain why I'm getting interested. Not to be so inflexible. If this makes the GMs job just a little bit easier, (s)he has more time to make it more fun for us.

To me, as a player, I find it is my duty to make an effort to integrate myself into the story as presented by the GM. In particular, with pre-made adventures where story hooks are often necessarily generic or shallow so as to accommodate the impossibly wide range of adventurer types.

Sure, I could be a jerk and make the GM's job more difficult. I could harrumph around insisting my special snowflake character would never want to participate in <INSERT PLOT HERE>. But where's the fun in that? I'd rather come up with something in-character to explain why I'm getting interested. Not to be so inflexible. If this makes the GMs job just a little bit easier, (s)he has more time to make it more fun for us.

exactly my philosophy. We were playing D&D one time (I was a player in this case), and this magic boat comes down from the sky and lands...we fight the dudes that were on it. it was OBVIOUS to all involved that we were supposed to board the boat and return to its source to continue the adventure.

But one player (and not purposely being a jerk to the GM) was trying to roleplay too much and deciding that getting on the boat was a bad idea. I mean, I understand why characters would be hesitant to do that, and I'm not against good roleplaying at all...but metagaming told us that was what we were supposed to do, so in the interest of time the rest of us felt we should just do it. After 10 minutes of debating, he reluctantly agreed and we lifted off.

There's a fine line there, to be sure. Also, the players aren't privvy to know what the adventure holds, so maybe they're not SUPPOSED to do a thing, when the GM thinks it's obvious they should.

Yes players should be cooperative with the DM. It increases everyone's fun.

I heard a story once where a GM was trying to introduce a new PC and the existing PCs just walked right by that PC and won't engage with the PC. That is where I (as a GM) start packing up my stuff and tell the players to enjoy their game.

Yes players should be cooperative with the DM. It increases everyone's fun.

I heard a story once where a GM was trying to introduce a new PC and the existing PCs just walked right by that PC and won't engage with the PC. That is where I (as a GM) start packing up my stuff and tell the players to enjoy their game.

Exactly. My current character is a coreworld princess of high standing - she would be a whole lot more condescending in dealing with the other players (who, and lets be honest here - are really a bunch of riff-raff she would never get caught dead with). However in the interest of game harmony (plus it'd be tough to play a ***** all game long), I dial her back to acceptable levels with just occasional hints showing through.

Everyone has to make concessions to serve the story, player and GM.

Yes players should be cooperative with the DM. It increases everyone's fun.

I heard a story once where a GM was trying to introduce a new PC and the existing PCs just walked right by that PC and won't engage with the PC. That is where I (as a GM) start packing up my stuff and tell the players to enjoy their game.

ouch

Rook, that is a problem with every pre-fab adventure in every system I've played. The character hooks are weak. The only reason the adventure stays on track is because the players meta-game reason that they are supposed to do this action because thats what the adventure calls for.

It's extremely easy to overlook large portions of the shutta/hutt adventure. Even character hints are worded weirdly.

Spoilers ahead obviously.

My players couldn't figure out why they were helping the Twi'leks either. They are trying to save their own butts and there's no real reason (other than just being good guys) that they'd help. Why do they need to drive the guy to the other camp? No mention of concern for his help or why their own people can't do it. What's Ota's motivation? The books did a poor job describing the hives or the cantina. They went into massive details about the members of a band, what type of fake music they are playing and what type of made up instruments they are playing, but for what reason? Ota asks for info afterwords that he doesn't ask for before the party. The messages on the computer are worded in an odd way that actually created a red hearring for the players (it seems to reference Sivor as a droid due to poor grammer). The info about battledroids can pretty much be completely overlooked. The books seem to indicate that everyone should be wearing their empire/rebel affiliation on their sleeves. This really blows my mind as this should be some of the most guarded info on the fringes.

But that's all par for the course when it comes to pre-fabs. Your players are going to ask for details not provided. Provided details are just going to confuse players. Players will meta-game why they should do something or figure out that they missed something. Thankfully the adventure allows for some of that, and a couple quick GM descisions can fix up some of those issues.

It's hard to GM those when players go off the rails too. If they ask a question you don't know off hand and isn't readily available, you hate to wing it because you may say something that you later find out is just dead wrong.

I gotta give my players credit though. Towards the end of the adventure, I told them that we wouldn't be continuing with these characters (we used the pre-gens) so they got to Tat, then just rode the ship back to Geon. They hatched this great plan and decided a frontal assault would be a bad idea. The ship they had was hot, and they were going to get a 50k reward that could buy a new ship....so they flew the ship into Teemo's palace directly into the Hutt's throne. Got everything lined up, made the piloting roll, jumped in the escape pods and boom....Teemo's palace was leveled. I thought that was a great solution to the problem.

If nothing else they should be helping the Twi'leks because they're fixing the PC's ship. I'm pretty sure the adventure flat out says that. That gets them out to the ryll mining and the adventure then tells you what to do if the PCs don't want to deal with the thugs terrorizing the town. Ota's motivation is to take down Teemo, he says when he first meets the PCs. I think you need to read the adventure a little more closely as a lot of your issues would be solved right there.

Rook, that is a problem with every pre-fab adventure in every system I've played. The character hooks are weak. The only reason the adventure stays on track is because the players meta-game reason that they are supposed to do this action because thats what the adventure calls for.

It's extremely easy to overlook large portions of the shutta/hutt adventure. Even character hints are worded weirdly.

Spoilers ahead obviously.

My players couldn't figure out why they were helping the Twi'leks either. They are trying to save their own butts and there's no real reason (other than just being good guys) that they'd help. Why do they need to drive the guy to the other camp? No mention of concern for his help or why their own people can't do it. What's Ota's motivation? The books did a poor job describing the hives or the cantina. They went into massive details about the members of a band, what type of fake music they are playing and what type of made up instruments they are playing, but for what reason? Ota asks for info afterwords that he doesn't ask for before the party. The messages on the computer are worded in an odd way that actually created a red hearring for the players (it seems to reference Sivor as a droid due to poor grammer). The info about battledroids can pretty much be completely overlooked. The books seem to indicate that everyone should be wearing their empire/rebel affiliation on their sleeves. This really blows my mind as this should be some of the most guarded info on the fringes.

But that's all par for the course when it comes to pre-fabs. Your players are going to ask for details not provided. Provided details are just going to confuse players. Players will meta-game why they should do something or figure out that they missed something. Thankfully the adventure allows for some of that, and a couple quick GM descisions can fix up some of those issues.

It's hard to GM those when players go off the rails too. If they ask a question you don't know off hand and isn't readily available, you hate to wing it because you may say something that you later find out is just dead wrong.

I gotta give my players credit though. Towards the end of the adventure, I told them that we wouldn't be continuing with these characters (we used the pre-gens) so they got to Tat, then just rode the ship back to Geon. They hatched this great plan and decided a frontal assault would be a bad idea. The ship they had was hot, and they were going to get a 50k reward that could buy a new ship....so they flew the ship into Teemo's palace directly into the Hutt's throne. Got everything lined up, made the piloting roll, jumped in the escape pods and boom....Teemo's palace was leveled. I thought that was a great solution to the problem.

If nothing else they should be helping the Twi'leks because they're fixing the PC's ship. I'm pretty sure the adventure flat out says that. That gets them out to the ryll mining and the adventure then tells you what to do if the PCs don't want to deal with the thugs terrorizing the town. Ota's motivation is to take down Teemo, he says when he first meets the PCs. I think you need to read the adventure a little more closely as a lot of your issues would be solved right there.

well, sort of. Yeah, the Twi'leks are fixing their ship. But that was already a reward for saving Bura Ban in the first place. When he's still in his cage on Krayt Fang, he says something to the degree of "if you take me back to Nabat, i've got connections and experienced mechanics to fix and refuel your ship".

Then, when they get there, they're asking for more favors to fix and refuel the ship. Well, now, the players are even LESS motivated to help because the Twi'leks are stretching their hospitality pretty thin at this point. We haven't gotten to the thugs at the mining facility yet, so I'm not sure what their reactions will be then.

Exactly. My current character is a coreworld princess of high standing - she would be a whole lot more condescending in dealing with the other players (who, and lets be honest here - are really a bunch of riff-raff she would never get caught dead with). However in the interest of game harmony (plus it'd be tough to play a ***** all game long), I dial her back to acceptable levels with just occasional hints showing through.

Everyone has to make concessions to serve the story, player and GM.

Sometimes the opposite happens--I wrote up a simple beginner adventure for my wife, which was designed to be an adventure for Oskara the Twi'lek bounty hunter before the events of Mos Shuuta. This was mainly just for me to get back into the swing of GMing and to learn the system.

A pivotal NPC was a droid security expert called E7-D0 who was obnoxious and superior and was constantly berating everyone he encountered, telling them how terrible they were at everything they were doing. I expected it to be kind of an annoying character, and figured she might kill him or something after she got what she needed!

Turns out E7-D0 was a big hit, my wife thought he was really funny and her character offered him a job to come work for Teemo the Hutt, and still my wife asks me to say things in E7's voice and come up with creative insults for him to say.

Yes players should be cooperative with the DM. It increases everyone's fun.

I heard a story once where a GM was trying to introduce a new PC and the existing PCs just walked right by that PC and won't engage with the PC. That is where I (as a GM) start packing up my stuff and tell the players to enjoy their game.

ouch

I can top that - the one time half of the party killed the other half within about 30 seconds of the start of the game.

We were playing Cyberpunk 2020 back about 1992-ish. Everyone else in the party wrote up slicers and street samurai and your typical Cyberpunk archetypes. Me and one other player decided to roll up police, partners - hey, built in PC connection? That'll make getting in the game easier! Brilliant!

So we spend all night rolling these guys up - and I mean all night. Cyberpunk was not an easy system to generate characters in - but everyone was finally set. The GM starts the game in the usual manner: everyone is in the nightclub, poor and looking for work. The two cops roll into the nightclub and home in on the 4 or 5 other players gathered around the table in the corner. I figure we'll be playing dirty cops on the take - we'll shake 'em down a bit, have a good laugh and start the campaign.

As we stride up, my partner asks the GM "Do these guys have criminal records?"

"Well, yeah. It's Cyberpunk"

"Fine. I arrest them!"

*dead silence*

"Wait - what?"

"I pull out my gun and loudly announce 'You are all under arrest!'"

I quickly start backing away, going "Wait, wait - I don't know this guy!" - but it's too late. Everyone else in the party, reacting as any criminal in Cyberpunk would when being arrested, pulls out their guns and blow us both away. The Good Cop then spent the next two hours arguing with the GM that he should have taken less damage than he did because he had a Kevlar helmet on.

Shortest campaign ever. . . .

Awesome, Desslok

The only time I've had uncooperative players was really just through stupidity and/or not catching my clue. I was GMing a short lived Babylon 5 RPG (I don't even know if the system still exists). The characters were on a ship that was breaking up. There were two escape pods. One was full to capacity of NPC's, so the characters all went to the other. Except one, who insisted on trying to make room in the first Pod. He wasn't trying to be a ****, he was just not catching the clue.

I finally just told him, the plot is in the other pod. If you want to be part of the game you need to take that one.

My players had the same questions. "We brought Bura Ban to Nabat, now please fix and fuel the ship." The twi'leks

replied "Certainly, our pleasure and if you could help us out with a few more small tasks, we would be glad to remove the transponder and provide false ownership papers for the ship. Maybe we could throw in a new paint job, just because we like you. I also reminded them, they had few credits to their name. A job is a job even when you are on the run.

My players had the same questions. "We brought Bura Ban to Nabat, now please fix and fuel the ship." The twi'leks

replied "Certainly, our pleasure and if you could help us out with a few more small tasks, we would be glad to remove the transponder and provide false ownership papers for the ship. Maybe we could throw in a new paint job, just because we like you. I also reminded them, they had few credits to their name. A job is a job even when you are on the run.

maybe that's the hook i'm looking for, to motivate my players to help the twi'leks.

1. Escape from Mos Shuuta
2. Long Arm of the Hutt
3. any of the others

• Crate of Krayts is working for a different hutt from LAotH. It stands alone fine, either as a first or a follow-on.
• Trouble Brewing (the Core Book adventure) doesn't involve hutts. Like CoK, it's not a strong setup, and experienced characters can take it on with just more badguys.
• Shadows of a Black Sun isn't specifically hutts, and can be used with new or experienced characters; might need to step up the threats a little for a seriously experienced party.
• I've not read the GM screen adventure yet.

Crate can be linked by having the players switch hutts if they've pissed off Teemo. Heck, if you do it right, you can set it up so that one of the players (one with a homebrew character) helps them escape Teemo, but puts them working for Sinasu.

Anyone working for a Hutt is likely at odds with Black Sun... or already part of it.

Trouble Brewing can be lead into by whomever holds the note having them run some contraband through the Kessel Run in lieu of a payment.