I know my pcs. They WILL try to take out the star destroyer with their freigher. Can I please get the stats? They actually fear stats.

Thx.

They'll be in the AoR core book when it releases or you can have them now if you purchase the AoR beta.

The most surefire way to convince your players that they can't beat something is to make it clear to them that its stats are entirely up to the will of the GM.

Try to take out a Star Destroyer with a freighter?!?! Oooooooookay. Here's how I see that playing out:

Player: We attack the Star Destroyer!

GM: You die.

Player: What?!?!

GM: You die. Okay, let's play Star Trek for a minute. The force of the explosion creates a time loop. Back to Star Wars . You find yourself in the cockpit of your freighter right before you attacked the Star Destroyer. What do you do?

Player: Ummmm....

Yeah they are kinda selling the book specifically so that people who just can't wait can go ahead and buy it now. Asking for the stats is sorta like asking your friend with his learners permit to steal his parents car so he can drive you to McDonalds because you don't feel like going through the trouble of microwaving a hotpocket.

If you gotta have something just take a Neb-B and double everything. Your players wont know the difference.

Star Destroyer vs. Freighter, head-on? There's only one way that plays out. Your players are actually playing characters that monumentally stupid?

Perhaps it's worth talking a bit more in-depth about what your players see roleplaying as .

Man, I've killed a lot of Star Destroyers in video games over the years.

Man, I've killed a lot of Star Destroyers in video games over the years.

Yeah, and I have single handedly taken on the Empire and the Rebels in the Battlefront games and kicked their ass. Your point?

Your point?

Not much, beyond, yknow, how stupid or awesome attacking a Star Destroyer head on is depends entirely upon what sort of game you are playing, and it probably behoves a responsible GM to ensure that they and the players are playing the same game.

Ask yourself - what scene do I think we are doing, and what scene do the players think we are doing?

There is no way a freighter can take on a Star Destroyer though, not in a million years. That's why we never see it happening in the setting, you run or hide instead.

It's like trying to bring down a rancor using kicks to the shin and bad language. :-/

I'm just saying, the standard way to take out a Star Destroyer in a small ship is to shoot off all the turrets, take out the bridge shield generators and then destroy the bridge with a frontal attack.

I've done it loads of times, and probably so have your players.

@ bsmith23: Tell your players that if they try before the final book is out, you're going to use the beta updates... for example, the new Massive quality which makes crits against Imperial I -class Star Destroyers cost two more Advantages than normal.

The October 9th update adds an Additional Rules section to each big capital ship entry, listing the "Massive" quality; " When making an attack targeting this starship, the critical rating of any weapons used counts as # higher ." # is equal to the ranks of Massive.

( Dreadnought -class -- what we'd previously been calling the Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser, nothing to do with the "Star Dreadnought" malarkey -- Immobilizer 418/ Vindicator -class and Victory -class have Massive 1, Imperial I -class/MC80 Liberty Type have Massive 2, and Praetor II -class Star Battlecruiser has Massive 3.)

I'm just saying, the standard way to take out a Star Destroyer in a small ship is to shoot off all the turrets, take out the bridge shield generators and then destroy the bridge with a frontal attack.

I've done it loads of times, and probably so have your players.

Loads of times with an unlimited supply of allies, perhaps? That's how it goes in Battlefront at least You've got all your wingmen. In an all-out space battle, sure maybe an excellently piloted freighter would survive the encounter.

If the star destroyer were focusing it's attention on a lone freighter, the freighter wouldn't have a chance in hell.

Dang, I kicked a hornets nest , didn't I? LOL.

Nah, the way it usually works out like "Well its got x hps, y armor, oh yeah, and you're crits have to be 2 more than listed. Go."

Their response: "uh, yeah, never mind".

Funny thing is that as I said, "your crits have to be 2 more than listed" is exactly how it's handled as of right now. Lower that to 1 more than listed if they come across a Victory -class or a Vindicator -class/Immobilizer 418 interdictory instead.

I'm just saying, the standard way to take out a Star Destroyer in a small ship is to shoot off all the turrets, take out the bridge shield generators and then destroy the bridge with a frontal attack.

I've done it loads of times, and probably so have your players.

The disconnect between what one can do in video games like X-Wing and what one could do in Real Life or in the RPG is pretty **** vast. Also, you fail to mention how many, many, many, many, MANY times you die doing said act. Reload from a save point in a video game? Reload in an RPG? No such beast.

Reload? I think of my Stargate SG-1 campaign. The thought taking care of my Goauld Greek pantheon (all in one place with their Jaffas) in a firefight was a good idea. Had to throw their arses in a sarcoughagus (sp?) at the end of the night so there would be a next season.

I swear, no matter whose running what campaign whenever, there always come that moment when we snap and go Knights of the Dinner Table.

The disconnect between what one can do in video games like X-Wing and what one could do in Real Life or in the RPG is pretty **** vast. Also, you fail to mention how many, many, many, many, MANY times you die doing said act. Reload from a save point in a video game? Reload in an RPG? No such beast.

Well, actually, in X-Wing I could do it at will as long as it was me vs capital ship with nothing else. It relied on some really stupid ideas in the game (cap ships didn't recharge shields hardly at all). Basically, it only work because the game mechanics are kind of silly. You just rush at it twitching up down left right a bit but heading for it with shields full forward, then shot lasers at it until you run them down, flip around, put your shields full reverse, recharge everything, repeat.

This would never work with actual intelligence on the side of the Star Destroyer, or just you know, shields actually recharging some.

And even IF that was possible to do in a more realistic approach to the Star Wars Universe, the chances of running into 1 player ship vs 1 Star Destroyer without you know... A fighter screen that is going to shred you... its just not going to happen.

Every time you see a cap ship taken out in any of the canon, its either another cap ship, or a LOT of starfighters, no way 1 small ship can do it alone.

Once can easily assume that the enemies in the games are downgraded to compensate for the fact that the player is some nerd rather than the greatest star pilot in the galaxy, but really I just mean that most of the time when a GM says their players are being stupid what is happening is a disconnect as to what kind of story is being told.

In particular, players tend to think that NPCs are redneck shitkickers hassling strangers new in town who turn out to be a bunch of vampires (the PCs), while GMs often assume that the PCs are redneck shitkickers hassling strangers new in town who turn out to be a bunch of vampires (the NPCs).

Consider - would the PCs actions make sense if they were the protagonist in a Call of Duty game. They almost always will.

And sometimes players just act stupid. They can pen it up to "being true to character" or just attempting to be disruptive; other times, players might push the limits of self-preservation, just because they think that the GM won't kill them off (because it'd hinder the campaign) - meaning that the only other option for the GM to explore is to let them have their way.

Star Destroyer easily catches freighter in multiple powerful tractor beams.

Imps: Do you surrender now?

Players: Hell no!

Imps: All available batteries fire

Player ship disintegrated

GM: You are all dead

I have never played any of the games depicted here though I know someone who has and often mentions the TIE Defender which is how I heard about that particular star fighter.

The only time I have either seen a star destroyer come a cropper in a game usually involved it being infiltrated and disabled to allow the PCs escape (Victory Class in my first d6 game) or it was badly damaged due to fighting inside (PCs escaping ala the one where they rescue the engineer who helped design the A-Wing) although I assume someone might have experience manning a capital ship in a game (consider that a hint for future dealings with any Imperial capital ship) but personally running away and putting every available planetary body between you and said Imperial ship so you have time enough to jump out of the system helps... so does not being detected in the first place!

Additional point, watch the Empire Strikes Back and see how Han dealt with that!

Oh and thanks for the video's was wondering where the Dachs one came from!

I think I have to agree with ErikB in part.

The movies are full of 'little things taking down big things', whether it's snowspeeders vs ATATs, snubfighters vs the Death Star, or ewoks vs stormtroopers. A certain degree of 'Big **** Heroes' is hardly unexpected in a game where you are playing Rebel Alliance. The whole point about the Alliance is that it's punching above its weight.

Of course, the line between players being stupid, and being 'Big **** Heroes' can be a thin one. But the AoR concept seems to be all about unlikely victories and upsets against a bigger foe.

Star Wars is not WH40K. The cause is not hopeless, and the good guys usually win... although some of these 'against the odds' victories will come with sacrifices.