Hi there everyone,

In 3 weeks I'm running a game at a local con and while I have a premise, the nitty-gritty details are a challenge, and I'm wondering if I can get some assistance from some of the incredibly creative people here. I have five players running pre-gen characters that have had one or two advances, no more than that.

Here's the premise:

The players take on the roles of the members of a group of salvage operators. Several weeks after the Battle of Hoth, they decide to sweep in and begin illegal salvage operations of the battlefield. My thinking is that while the Empire probably would have done a lot of this, I'm suggesting that a massive storm swept across that section of the planet shortly after the battle and it drove Imperial salvagers away. The storm lasts several weeks, and when it subsides, the Imperial salvage group is in the middle of another large operation and can't get back to Hoth immediately. Instead, a small observation group is put in place to keep away people like the characters in this adventure.

Additionally, there would be other salvage operators attempting to get planetside and pick over the remains of the battlefield.

That's as far as I've gotten.

Does anybody have ideas for encounter situations, challengers, puzzles or whatnot? There's no such thing as a bad idea, so have at it.

Thanks!

Well I'll start with the obvious:

a) the enviorment - sudden blizzards, avalanches, hidden holes, wild animals,

b) the Imperium - patrols, sentry droids (forgotten sentry droids?)

c) other teams

I'd make point c) the crux of the adventure - rival teams that have to cooperate all the way looking to double-cross each other. Throw in a corrupt Imperial officer and a stash of Rebel gold...

Completely off-topic: But I clicked on this thread expecting someone planning a con, where either the players are setting up or are the victims of a con. Hmm, gotta think about that I think.

Completely off-topic: But I clicked on this thread expecting someone planning a con, where either the players are setting up or are the victims of a con. Hmm, gotta think about that I think.

Good point – I hadn't thought of that. I wonder if I can edit the thread title?

Rampaging wampas! Like bear, they got attracted to the rebel base because of the food they could scavenge in the refuse. Because of that, they got packed in much closer than they'd normally be. Just so happens, mating season started just as the adventure starts so they're more aggressive and quick to fight than normal.

Rebel survivors that were separated from the main battle for some reason. Maybe they were supposed to be transported off the planet but the shuttle crashed due to that sudden storm and they're working their way back to the rebel base to find whatever help they can. They're not going to be any more peaceful toward the PC's picking over the bones of their friends than the Imperials would. Plus they're desperately looking for a way to escape the planet and ... omg... look! the player's ship!

Ooh!!! This sounds real scummy and villainy (right out of a wretched hive!) but maybe one of those rebels knows where there is a safe with an irresistible sum of credits hidden in the base. He knows because he hid it. He was going to steal it as one of the last to escape but his plans went bad and he was captured. The players have the way off planet but he knows where the money is. Between the Empire cleaning up and the storm burying everything, the players aren't coming up with much but along comes Mr. Scummy Rebel willing to make a deal with the players to get into the base, steal the safe, escape and split the contents 50/50!

Not sure how much EotE you have played or GM'd but my recommendation would be to run a printed adventure that way you can focus on the nuances of the rules, game, & story telling.

Some questions you need to ask yourself and ideas I had while reading (neat premise btw):

What's the MacGuffin, why are they there? What is the one thing the players should either come home with or not come home at all? A device to recover, a piece of intelligence the rebellion wants protected, information linking the players employer to the rebellion, something worth enough credits to finally get the players out from under Jabba the Hutt, a group of rebels hiding in a panic room? It's a con, so while everyone will be totally into the game, it's a good idea to keep the goal clean and clear so everyone can stay focused a little easier.

Make sure you plan the adventure to be able to fit any time constraints you might have. This could be a hard limit like the time you've got reserved for the game table, or a soft limit like George Takei's keynote waterballoon fight with Mark Hamil two hours after your game is scheduled to start. (My money's on Takei btw, he's surprisingly agile for an old trekkie)

Don't just string a bunch of encounters together, have your story and flow. Your opening image, setup, the event that really kicks things off, the mid game combat, the all is lost moment, the finale, and the closing. Get that flowchart together and start writing. An encounter with the dozen wampa that overran echo base during the imperial attack (cut content is awesome) is nice, but only if it move the story forward.

Script the banter: If you've got the players talking to an NPC make sure you've got pre-written statements with all the key info included. While I don't doubt your acting ability, in the heat of the moment it's nice to let your brain relax a little and be able to just emotionally read a script instead of trying to ab-lib something and forget to mention a critical story point.

Keep the puzzles easy, but not obvious. I'm thinking something like the old WEG module puzzles where the players had to actually manipulate props. If you give them a riddle it's possible they'll either have already heard it, and know the answer immediately, or get stumped and spend an hour staring at their character sheets. If you give them an actual prop to manipulate then it's less likely they'll have seen it, and if they do get stumped they'll have something to manipulate to help them push through it. Plus you'll be the awesome GM that brought an actual puzzle instead of just testing the players IQ and rolling luck.

Once you've got these figured out, you may find the encounters almost write themselves.

Not sure how much EotE you have played or GM'd but my recommendation would be to run a printed adventure that way you can focus on the nuances of the rules, game, & story telling.

That's not a bad idea – not for me, but for the players. I'll look into their experience levels. If they've never played before, perhaps that's what I'll do. I've run a fair bit of EotE myself, so I'm not too concerned about my own understanding of the game mechanics.

You said there's no bad ideas, so just throwing ths into the mix.

If, as you mentioned, a blizzard drove the imperials out before completing salvage, then I suspect said salvage is deeply buried in snow. May not be that easy to recover now.

How about the team has limited access to the rebel base, say an air vent or chimney like structure. The base has been buried by the blizzard, but they can access "on foot" this way. Group comes in nearby; has to fight/avoid an Imperial patrol en route from landing zone to base; series of computer slicing, lock picking, and other interior tasks (rebel set booby traps) to access some left behind loot; then one last shuttle/craft left for them to load up, blast open and out of the hangar; finish with a dogfight or a ground firefight at the original landing zone (after all, they want to pick up their original ship and by now the imperials have found it).

You said there's no bad ideas, so just throwing ths into the mix.

Thanks for your input! I'm going to put some stuff together and hopefully have some more solid idea of how things are going to run by early next week.

Well, I've decided to go ahead with this Hoth idea ("Scavengers of the Frozen Wastes"). I spent some time today with the Echo Base map that was used for the miniatures game, and added in a layer of "snow collapse". Here it is;

The map is sized so when printed out at 34" x 22", the squares will be 1", so I can use tokens or miniatures if the players would like.

I like the idea of the Macguffin being a stash of "rebel gold", untraceable credits, important Imperial data that was perhaps is on the body of a dead officer buried under the snow somewhere in the base (why? Who cares!), or something along those lines. While there may be another scavenger group working towards the goal of getting their hands on expensive military tech, there is also the rebel agent trying to get the stash of credits / data as well as roving Imperial security drones.

As I produce more content for the game, I'll post it here.

Yay!! I helped! If there was some batter to lick off a spoon, this would be as good as helping to bake a cake.

What's a Macguffin?

What's a Macguffin?

Film term. Its the "thing" that provides the protagonist with their primary motivation. So in the case of the adventure here, its the "rebel gold," maybe a stash of precious metals, or the alderaanian crown jewels...

What's a Macguffin?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacGuffin