Star wars saga edition - PC quandry

[samduke]

greetings to those who have played and know the universe.
a group of us play this locally, current year roughly 18 bby or right after the skywalker twins were shuttled off to separate planets..
with the empire out in force storm troopers becoming a hard thing to ignore and te rebel alliance is just getting going.. the group is something of a rag-tag band of mercs more than anything.

issue here is the most recent encounter with the empire they managed to destroy an old Venator-class Star Destroyer.. and thus now have the empire hunting them down in force, they are currently on a starport over a toxic but survivable planet, getting ship engine repairs, options to the group are get blown to ashes with the station, or in flight, or take chances on the surface, most likely the ship they use to get there will be badly damaged incapable of anything more than providing a living environment - I am stuck as to present them with the total death certain, or the potential death scenario - can you folk suggest a 3rd option?

[MeeposFire]

What I would do is prepare a bunch of versatile groups that can be used in many situations. As a basic example have different groupings of imperial units that can be used in different situations such as guards for a facility or an attack force.

Then give the group the problems and they will need to figure out a solution but you have to be flexible. Whatever ideas they come up with have an NPC handy that can give them relative odds on success (in other words do you think it has any real chance of success a frontal assault on a star destroyer with just a blaster would not be realistic but perhaps sneaking out through a sewer system into a base might have a fair chance). Then use your prepared groups in inventive ways that make sense to give an adventure time to develop. Use that for the start of the adventure and then for the second day you can take the time to tailor things for what they are planning to do.

Alternatively you can spend some time outside the game and ask the players to come up with a plan like a session 0 so you can have time to prepare if you are not comfortable winging it.

[Magua]

I'm presuming the Empire knows both where and who they are.

Easiest solution seems to be to not be there. Even with the Empire on the hunt for them, flying away should be a feasible option, and once they get to hyperspace they should have some breathing room.

Second option would be hiding out on the planet. Sure, it's a toxic hellhole, but it's really, really, really hard to find a small number of people on a huge planet -- look at the stormtroopers failing to find the droids on Tattoine. Hiding a ship makes it harder, but see if the players have any great ideas.

Third option, hiding amongst the masses on the station, though if the Empire is just going to blow the station up, maybe not the best idea.

Fourth option, have them infiltrate a group of Imperial soldiers, incapacitate them, impersonate them, and escape on some Imperial ship.

Fifth option, provide an out. Flashing back to Empire Strikes Back here, have them captured, but have an NPC of some influence break them out with a chance of escape.

[LibraryOgre]

Another option is to introduce a HIGHER value target who just happens to be there... a Jedi who survived the purges would be a good one. So, when the Empire shows up and everyone starts running, they're just one of several targets. Sure, they Empire wants the people (not even really Rebels, at this point) who destroyed the Star Destroyer, but there's also Kram Akmr, the Jedi General of the Battle of Quadloo, who managed, not to EVADE his clone troopers, but SUBVERT them into not following order 66.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Depending on the scenario you want to run, both hiding on the surface and running to Hyperspace could be viable (the former would involve survival in a deadly environment and maybe taking on Imperial HazMat Troopers or whatever that particular variant of Stormtrooper is called), the latter a good old-fashioned blockade run and starship-scale combat.

The thing to remember is that the Empire's resources are vast, but not infinite, and they have a whole galaxy to worry about. If the PCs make a clean getaway, or prove to be more of a drain on resources and manpower than they're worth by hiding on a toxic death world, whatever Imperial task force is pursuing them will eventually have to write them off for now and go address some other problem in the vast galaxy, marking the end of that adventure and the start of a new one, for example, figuring out how to get off this toxic death world.

Also important to note, if your PCs are in a scenario where death is not a possibility, are you really playing Star Wars? Perilous adventure is the name of the game almost literally, after all.

[samduke]

Lets see if the following answers help in the dilemma at hand


I'm presuming the Empire knows both where and who they are.

Easiest solution seems to be to not be there. Even with the Empire on the hunt for them, flying away should be a feasible option, and once they get to hyperspace they should have some breathing room.

They cant go to hyperspace their engine is damaged, and flying in realspace with several imperial class star destroyers is a lose lose for the ship they have.



Second option would be hiding out on the planet. Sure, it's a toxic hellhole, but it's really, really, really hard to find a small number of people on a huge planet -- look at the stormtroopers failing to find the droids on Tattoine. Hiding a ship makes it harder, but see if the players have any great ideas.

if they leave the station they are on it is with a pushed damaged engine that if they are lucky wont blow up and allow them a somewhat non-death entry into the planets atmosphere and hard landing


Third option, hiding amongst the masses on the station, though if the Empire is just going to blow the station up, maybe not the best idea.

wish the station was something more than a garage and fuel station but that is all it is, hiding, the locals on station would turn them over to the empire given the situation.


Fourth option, have them infiltrate a group of Imperial soldiers, incapacitate them, impersonate them, and escape on some Imperial ship.

there is not an option for infiltration at the point where they are presently, reverting back to the hide option they are unlikely to infiltrate the Elite 501st which have been under vaders direct control since the clone wars


Fifth option, provide an out. Flashing back to Empire Strikes Back here, have them captured, but have an NPC of some influence break them out with a chance of escape.
the have a death sentence if captured they die


Another option is to introduce a HIGHER value target who just happens to be there... a Jedi who survived the purges would be a good one.
yep the party consists of a force user and is 1 of the reasons they are so hunted..


SUBVERT them into not following order 66.
unlikely to SUBVERT the Elite 501st which have been under vaders direct control since the clone wars

I appreciate the comments and sugestions, just none of them are any better than what I have alreay thought of as "OUTS" and the party really put themselves into the death or possible death situation...

[Magua]

Sounds like landing on the planet is your safest bet, then, since you've nixed all of the other ideas as being flat out impossible.

But, I mean, it depends on what you want from your game.

If you want to say "Y'all dead, game over," that's fine, do it. If it's not (and I'm guessing it's not, from you posting here), you have to relax your restrictions somewhat. The Empire makes mistakes /all the time/ in the canon. There's no way that the Millenium Falcon should've been able to escape the Death Star after Obi-Wan's death, the Death Star waiting to revolve around Yavin instead of just shooting /through/ it, the Imperial fleet leaving hyperspace far enough away from Hoth to give the rebels warning, Lando releasing Leia, Chewbacca, and the droids on Cloud City, the Emperor not simply crushing Vader when Vader turned, etc etc etc.

You could screw 'em over, take 'em prisoner, have 'em shipped off, and then have something (attack, equipment malfunction, whatever) give them a chance to escape. Or you can say "Y'all dead," but the choice is ultimately yours.

[Cap'm Bubbles]

Why is the 501st hunting down mercs with an indefinite-capable force user when they should be hunting down Jedi MASTERS that escaped the purge? The 501st is elite and relatively small in number, they can't be everywhere at once, or even close to it. Unless the group has personally pissed off Vader, there are many more priority targets elsewhere. Throw some other legion that is of lesser competence, not the cream of the crop.

Once you remove the "best of the best is hunting us down" pressure, many of the potential survival plans become more viable. Infiltrating regulars and conscripts isn't particularly difficult if they can simply find and kill some storm troopers. Disguising their identity as some other random mercs that definitely didn't blow up an imperial cruiser is easier this way.

Make up some lost legend or ancient/hidden civilization on toxic hellhole #12 that makes the idea of hiding there not only more plausible but interesting as well, with potential plot hooks.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Yeah I really have to ask what they did to get Vader of all people on their case (and if it's the 501st, Vader is at least adjacent to the mission. As you say, they're his direct command.)

Really though, toxic hellhole sounds like a terrific potential adventure. You can put whatever you want there and let the players have some fun that isn't pissing off the entire Empire. And hey, the harder they land, the more likely the Imps are to write them off as dead.

[samduke]

Yeah I really have to ask what they did to get Vader of all people on their case (and if it's the 501st, Vader is at least adjacent to the mission. As you say, they're his direct command.)

Really though, toxic hellhole sounds like a terrific potential adventure. You can put whatever you want there and let the players have some fun that isn't pissing off the entire Empire. And hey, the harder they land, the more likely the Imps are to write them off as dead.

yeah about 3 missions ago they "collected" data and delivered it, your well aware of the bothan spys getting ahold of the death star plans... well these guys are getting the blame for attempting to steal or having stolen the precursor plans that even though they did not do it because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and in what I would call an impressive plan that mostly worked managed to destroy an old version start destroyer. thus earning them the Ire of the emperor, thus vadar aka. the 501st has been tasked with getting the group, captured is an option but dead is always preferable to the emperor.

- think it will be see if they make it to the planet alive and go from there