A problem with running a Star Wars game

[Jeivar]

It seems almost every time me and my friends try to play a Star Wars game we kind of run into the same problem; The enormous size of the setting and how easy it is to get around. What I mean is, it's really hard to set up any boundaries and direct any kind of storyline. The players can just hop into a spaceship and buzz across the galaxy to any of the thousands of inhabited planets out there; either to escape some screw up or find something, anything that they might want to get their hands on.

Heck, the spaceships are also a problem on a smaller scale: The players can be on the other side of a planet in a matter of minutes, so it's hard to up any kind of terrain challenge or ambushes or whatever.

There never seems to be any point in giving detail to an enemy or a planet or a situation: The players can just go in guns blazing and then evacuate into a spaceship and blast off into hyperspace.

Have we been overestimating how easy it is to get around and/or disappear in the SW setting? Is this just a part of playing SW or is there some way of handling this?

[Alejandro]

Well, some of this is doing to depend on the GM. I have been a Star Wars GM for ten years, and will give you a few tips that work for me:

- Think of each planet, system, etc, as a city or a 'dungeon' or whatever, as if you were running a D&D game where the characters could get on their horses (or flying carpets) and go to whichever city on the continent they want. Don't put too much detail into each place as a whole; fixate on something specific.

The films do this; Tatooine is a huge part of the plot, but we only see a few places: Luke's home, Jabba's palace, and Mos Eisley, for the most part. Sure, there's literally an entire rest of the planet, but it's glossed over. Show the players something that makes that location stand out (a desert world with two suns) and then have a few places for them to go.

- Tell your players, upfront, that your storyline will include a certain part or area of the galaxy. If they decide to go somewhere else, OK, but they have to be OK with you improvising and possibly earning less XP or other rewards than if they were somewhere the GM has more material for. Mature players should be fine with this. If the players are just travelling around randomly looking for stuff to kill or steal, they're probably immature players that need a lot more work or control (or both.)

- Lastly, the GM needs to be stricter if the PCs are just shooting up every place they go to, and then blasting away in their ship. These worlds don't have to tolerate that, especially if they have a strong law presence (or a strong criminal presence, violence is bad for business in most cases.) Have planets start blacklisting the PCs and their ships, and refusing to allow them to land. If they do anyway, their ship can be impounded. Players (if they are intelligent) will quickly grasp the need for tact.

[supermonkeyjoe]

Spaceships aren't the be-all and end-all of travel, for one thing you have to have somewhere to land it, for most planets there are very good reasons why you can't just land anywhere, land on Tattooine, the ship sinks into the sand, land on Hoth, the ship gets buried under a snowdrift and frozen, land on Dagobah, sink into a swamp, land on Coruscant, better pay those docking fees or get impounded. There are also other things to take into account, if you fly your ship up to your enemies front door, they know you are coming and depending on who they are, could shoot you down.

Bear in mind also that it should take between hours and days to travel between systems depending on where in the galaxy you're headed, how powerful the hyperdrive is and how good at astrogating you are.

As for blowing everything up and then jumping in a ship and flying away, give them a reason not to maybe they need to rescue hostages/valuable goods covertly, maybe their ship gets sabotaged/breaks down and they need to find shelter/wait for rescue/repair it and hold off the angry wildlife/natives/bounty hunters.

The size and ease of getting around the Star wars galaxy can be a strength as much as a weakness, you can have as much variety as you want in it, think of each location on a planet as a different set-piece rather than try and have all the areas be confined to one planet

[LibraryOgre]

Remember, other people have technology, too.

Your players want to drop in with their starship every place? Well, there's planetary defenses (i.e. "You may land here, here, or here. Landing over there gets you shot, because you are obviously a smuggler."). There's point defenses (i.e. "Anyone attempting to fly over this area will be shot down.") Landing is seldom a stealthy proposition, and while TESB states that cloaking devices exist, I don't know of any that we've seen.

Furthermore, remember that the galaxy is big, but there's not infinite places you can run. Certain hyperspace jumps are going to be relatively easy; others are going to be incredibly difficult to plot. Make them take the time to plot their hyperspace jumps, and realize that ships will get ID'd... you're going to have a finite number of fake transponder codes you can use.

In Empire-Era games, one of my favorites are Interdictor Star Destroyers, which create a mass shadow that knocks passing ships out of hyperspace (their failsafes kick in to keep them from flying through the "uncharted star", and they drop out). "Well, hello, little spaceship. Let's get boarded by Imperials."

For the "I can blast anywhere I like" syndrome, make the characters personally involved in the story. This doesn't mean you force everyone to be one thing, but you give guidance during character creation. "Here is the story I've got prepared. If you make someone who fits into this story, I'll have more things to directly engage your character than if you make someone who does not." If they still want to play the random dude, that's fine... but they have to realize that the story may not directly focus on their concerns.

Almost invariably, your opposition will be better equipped and have more people than you. Trying to muscle through everything is a good way to get shot.

[Yora]

Why can't you just fly everywhere you want to?

Because of this:
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20071012205621/starwars/images/b/bf/ADTowerRZ-0031.jpg

[Hopeless]

It seems almost every time me and my friends try to play a Star Wars game we kind of run into the same problem; The enormous size of the setting and how easy it is to get around. What I mean is, it's really hard to set up any boundaries and direct any kind of storyline. The players can just hop into a spaceship and buzz across the galaxy to any of the thousands of inhabited planets out there; either to escape some screw up or find something, anything that they might want to get their hands on.

So why did they travel to that world in the first place?

1)Require a key replacement part for their ship otherwise it might conk out at lift off or upon reentry at their next destination...
2)Someone steals their ship and they have to find another way off the planet or find where their ship has been taken so they can steal it back...
3)Exactly who are they running from because if its the Empire then its more of a case of how long before they find them again... and eventually they are going to catch them hopefully alive...


Heck, the spaceships are also a problem on a smaller scale: The players can be on the other side of a planet in a matter of minutes, so it's hard to up any kind of terrain challenge or ambushes or whatever.

There never seems to be any point in giving detail to an enemy or a planet or a situation: The players can just go in guns blazing and then evacuate into a spaceship and blast off into hyperspace.

Have we been overestimating how easy it is to get around and/or disappear in the SW setting? Is this just a part of playing SW or is there some way of handling this?

Nope its just that whoever's running your game has forgotten if they have a ship so does the people(s) coming after them and more commonly that involves fighters... usually a large number of them unless we're talking Imperials then you can start multiplying them by an order of 10 or so...

Case in point...

The Relentless Chapter 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUbmYfAF2i4)

In the extremely unlikely case you haven't noticed they've got the voice behind Optimus Prime narrating these the 2nd part involves them going after a single smuggler ship...

Chapter 2 or they go after the poor sods from the first part! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvubKf3BK04)

Now thats the kind of reaction you need when you go up against the Empire!:smalleek:

The last time I played in weg star wars my gm who prefers to create his own alternate star wars setting had Darth Vader telekinetically throw our ship at us after Luke went dark side and cut one of the legs off of our ship we ran away after stealing his personal lambda shuttle...

That was the fifth Space Rat we had since the campaign started back before the revised weg edition... we still haven't found a replacement freighter and are busy trying to find a way back from an alternate universe... and thats still nowhere near safe enough!

In Edge of the Empire we only have the Hutts to be worried about... and thats until they get the 2nd book released...

[Storm Bringer]

It seems almost every time me and my friends try to play a Star Wars game we kind of run into the same problem; The enormous size of the setting and how easy it is to get around.

Heck, the spaceships are also a problem on a smaller scale: The players can be on the other side of a planet in a matter of minutes, so it's hard to up any kind of terrain challenge or ambushes or whatever.

There never seems to be any point in giving detail to an enemy or a planet or a situation: The players can just go in guns blazing and then evacuate into a spaceship and blast off into hyperspace.

Have we been overestimating how easy it is to get around and/or disappear in the SW setting? Is this just a part of playing SW or is there some way of handling this?



If the starship is causeing problems, site the adventures in locatins where they can't fly a starship. for example, inside a large space station, or on a inside a cave or tunnel system. thus, they are on foot. other options include a situation where the starship is inoperable (for example, impounded after landing, or undegoing repairs with half the engine disassembled), so they must use other means of transport.

Second: anywhere the players can go, their enimes can follow. easy interstellar travel just means that your a potential target for a larger number of bounty hunters. the players shoot up a local starport? fine, just have thier faces plastered over every wanted board in the sector. Or, just wait till they next land at a starport, have them directed into a docking bay, then have the sheided blast doors come down and the captial scale laser power up. "surrender or die, rebel scum!"



What I mean is, it's really hard to set up any boundaries and direct any kind of storyline. The players can just hop into a spaceship and buzz across the galaxy to any of the thousands of inhabited planets out there; either to escape some screw up or find something, anything that they might want to get their hands on.


Ia it really any different than a high level DND party with teleport? they too can bounce around the know planes with nary a care.

[snoopy13a]

In a game like Star Wars, players should have some sort of adventuring hook when starting. They shouldn't be independently wealthy characters who can travel the galaxy how they see fit. Ship-owning players that aren't affilitated with the Empire or the Rebellion/New Republic should have those ships be heavily mortaged so the players are essentially forced to take jobs when offered. Or they can choose to run and try to avoid their creditors.

For example, perhaps they are a team of bounty hunters. What keeps them focused is their hunt for fugitives. Of course, the fugitives are rumored to be on planets you are aware of.

If they are members of the Rebel Alliance, then they should be special-agent types following orders. Likewise if they are working for the Empire.

If they are free traders/smugglers, then they should start with a debt, a limited supply of cash, and limited job offers. And, of course, the job offers are to planets the GM has outlined.

If a player wants to get off track, remind him that developing contacts on random worlds is time-consuming and not always fruitful and his YT-1300 has regular mortage payments due to a nasty Hutt lord.

Essentially, traveling the galaxy takes money. If characters are not under orders, then a GM should use money pressures to keep the players on some sort of track.

Basically, it is somewhat similiar to real life. Monetary pressures or job commitments hamper our theorectical ability to travel freely.

As for buzzing around a single planet, any planet worth its salt is going to have an air control system. The players should be forced to park at a spaceport and adventure from there. Of course, the players don't have to do that, but that means they have to get into a fruitless dogfight with the planetary defense forces.

[Thrysierius]

In a game like Star Wars, players should have some sort of adventuring hook when starting. They shouldn't be independently wealthy characters who can travel the galaxy how they see fit. Ship-owning players that aren't affilitated with the Empire or the Rebellion/New Republic should have those ships be heavily mortaged so the players are essentially forced to take jobs when offered. Or they can choose to run and try to avoid their creditors.

For example, perhaps they are a team of bounty hunters. What keeps them focused is their hunt for fugitives. Of course, the fugitives are rumored to be on planets you are aware of.

If they are members of the Rebel Alliance, then they should be special-agent types following orders. Likewise if they are working for the Empire.

If they are free traders/smugglers, then they should start with a debt, a limited supply of cash, and limited job offers. And, of course, the job offers are to planets the GM has outlined.

If a player wants to get off track, remind him that developing contacts on random worlds is time-consuming and not always fruitful and his YT-1300 has regular mortage payments due to a nasty Hutt lord.

Essentially, traveling the galaxy takes money. If characters are not under orders, then a GM should use money pressures to keep the players on some sort of track.

Basically, it is somewhat similiar to real life. Monetary pressures or job commitments hamper our theorectical ability to travel freely.

As for buzzing around a single planet, any planet worth its salt is going to have an air control system. The players should be forced to park at a spaceport and adventure from there. Of course, the players don't have to do that, but that means they have to get into a fruitless dogfight with the planetary defense forces.

I swear you've been stalking my PC... STOP IT!! :smallmad:

Seriously though, she's spot on. In our Saga campaign, every player, EVERY player has to pay a monthly cost of living expense. If we take 4 days to travel to a system, that's 4 days sooner we have to pay up. Spent 8 hours goofing around? Well guess what, another day closer (you typically rest for 8 hours, the other 6 can be blown in an eyelash).

Ship owners can fudge the cost a bit. 2,000 credits is a ship lifestyle which covers food, clothing, maintenance, fuel, docking fees, etc. for the ship owner but ONLY the ship owner. Basically because they live in the ship and have no other home. This DOES NOT cover the damage done to the hull from the pirates you pissed off or any kind of upgrade/system repair. You still have to pay for those right out of your pocket and they can add up FAST. Put it this way, every HP of damage my YT-2400 takes costs 100 credits to repair. 40 hitpoints? 4,000 credits please.

If they choose not to pay it, that means the ship's star charts are no longer current (longer travel times), food supplies are low (running out of food mid-trip is bad m'kay), erratic system behavor (oh dear, the hyper drive motivator is offline, sublight for you only). This all adds up to fines and or the ship getting impounded.