Garygolf
2011-01-18, 07:26 PM
I started DM-ing a game of Star Wars Sagas a few weeks ago after a group I game abruptly ended a 4ed D&D game. The system itself is fine, with a few tricks that still bug me [Stacking Persuasion, Use the Force Optimization, and the lack of healing chief among them]. However, one thing has stuck out as being a serious issue in the last three games. That is, I keep almost wiping the party.
Normally, this would imply just easing down the level of the encounters, even though they should be fine as far as CR is concerned. However, the part has seven players. I've tried throwing bunches of CR1 Battle Droids at them, or a single CR6 Assault Crab (the party was lv.4 at the time, but two of the players were busy disarming a trap). They consistently get down to almost no health or incapacitated and barely alive thanks to force points. If I throw less at them, they steamroll through their encounters, but I see a TPK in the near future otherwise.
I'm going to drop them on Nar Shaddaa and try for a less combat-oriented game for a session or two to see if they like it better than destroying waves of battle droids. Any other suggestions? I'm at a loss as to whether to hand them easy encounters, swap the game to RP-heavy (which some of the players might not like), or prepare for the TPKs. The system is rather unforgiving.
Hidden is campaign info and party makeup.
I initially put them on a remote mining world, which the CIS was in the process of seizing to get at a secret Republic facility, and ran them through some sample combat and skill encounters to teach everyone the system and refresh the memories of those that have played before. They nearly TPK-ed the first game by rushing ahead of some "meatshield" NPCs, that I had put in as a precaution in case they started having trouble, and straight into the arms of a group of battledroids that they knew were there. This is made even more painful in that I avoided using autofire the entire first game. Before it was all over, they were fleeing the planet down two PCs and all of them down several force points.
The second game consisted of saving those two PCs from a prison facility, which I ran like a basic D&D-esque dungeon, and went much more smoothly. I had basically given them the XP to hit level three in the hopes that they weren't going to be as squishy, and it seemed to help. They pushed ahead and managed fairly well until I set them up for an encounter of their level. They nearly wiped, again, by funneling into a door and straight into autofire-spewing droids. Thanks to a medkit-toting Kaminoan PC, they managed to all get up and complete the rest of the run without too much trouble and seemed to enjoy themselves.
The conclusion to that little intro-adventure I had planned did not end so well, however. They lost a PC in the first encounter, and almost lost another two to the Assault Crab.
Party-makeup: All lv.4
Human Jedi
Human Mercenary [Soldier-heavy]
Kaminoan Medic [Noble]
Rodian Sniper [Scout]
Human Clonetrooper [Soldier-heavy]
Kel Dor Gunslinger [Scoundrel-heavy]
Twi'lek Noble [Optimized for persuasion]
Normally, this would imply just easing down the level of the encounters, even though they should be fine as far as CR is concerned. However, the part has seven players. I've tried throwing bunches of CR1 Battle Droids at them, or a single CR6 Assault Crab (the party was lv.4 at the time, but two of the players were busy disarming a trap). They consistently get down to almost no health or incapacitated and barely alive thanks to force points. If I throw less at them, they steamroll through their encounters, but I see a TPK in the near future otherwise.
I'm going to drop them on Nar Shaddaa and try for a less combat-oriented game for a session or two to see if they like it better than destroying waves of battle droids. Any other suggestions? I'm at a loss as to whether to hand them easy encounters, swap the game to RP-heavy (which some of the players might not like), or prepare for the TPKs. The system is rather unforgiving.
Hidden is campaign info and party makeup.
I initially put them on a remote mining world, which the CIS was in the process of seizing to get at a secret Republic facility, and ran them through some sample combat and skill encounters to teach everyone the system and refresh the memories of those that have played before. They nearly TPK-ed the first game by rushing ahead of some "meatshield" NPCs, that I had put in as a precaution in case they started having trouble, and straight into the arms of a group of battledroids that they knew were there. This is made even more painful in that I avoided using autofire the entire first game. Before it was all over, they were fleeing the planet down two PCs and all of them down several force points.
The second game consisted of saving those two PCs from a prison facility, which I ran like a basic D&D-esque dungeon, and went much more smoothly. I had basically given them the XP to hit level three in the hopes that they weren't going to be as squishy, and it seemed to help. They pushed ahead and managed fairly well until I set them up for an encounter of their level. They nearly wiped, again, by funneling into a door and straight into autofire-spewing droids. Thanks to a medkit-toting Kaminoan PC, they managed to all get up and complete the rest of the run without too much trouble and seemed to enjoy themselves.
The conclusion to that little intro-adventure I had planned did not end so well, however. They lost a PC in the first encounter, and almost lost another two to the Assault Crab.
Party-makeup: All lv.4
Human Jedi
Human Mercenary [Soldier-heavy]
Kaminoan Medic [Noble]
Rodian Sniper [Scout]
Human Clonetrooper [Soldier-heavy]
Kel Dor Gunslinger [Scoundrel-heavy]
Twi'lek Noble [Optimized for persuasion]