DM planning question

[Isolder74]

In a Star Wars RPG I am running the group in order to get some important information needs to sneak into a Smuggler Outpost and Landing Strip. *The place is located in the woods outside of the town they are currently in. *

What is the best way i should set up the security for this place. *I know that I can't give it the amount of stuff available and as organized as the set up for an Imperial Base or Outpost of Similar Size. *How tough of a security set up is reasonable and believable at the same time? *

[Toofey]

A big thing for new DMs to remember is that you're the only person who sees everything from the top down, if the players think their plan has a reasonable chance of success and you throw enough adversity at them to make the session interesting, then you're good. So in this case instead of worrying about what's realistic in your game universe (that's much more important later on when you're working with characters who should outpower such threats) you're probably better off gauging your players expectations and working from there.

[Isolder74]

One of my players loves asking questions so I have to be ready for that. I want getting in to be hard but not impossible. The big problem for me is that most of the guards if any will be riffraff. Those kind of NPC's are usually easy.

[Toofey]

The Classic Star wars scenario is that it would be very well equipped with a clearly exploitable weakness. (I would say look at the listed staff for a large ship then use like a tenth of that, that said I have never seen the system and am assuming that sort of thing is listed there, alternately you could call it a few dozen)

[crimson77]

I have never played starwars but I would say smaller force well dug in using tactics and traps. Have an overwatch sniper and then well fortified positions inside and outside. Have several explosion traps and the base rigged to blow if it has been compromised. Use hit and run tactics outside along with an ambush and a hidden sniper. Once they get inside have armored cover with some well positioned traps.

I would say 10-15 bad guys (1 sniper, 3-6 outside guerilla fighters, 2-4 well positioned sentinels, 5-10 fortified guys inside). Scale their abilities to the parties level.

[Solaris]

Alrighty, here's how I would set up security were I put in charge of that place (added bonus, it's pretty much how real-world militaries tend to set up security). I'd utilize camouflage netting to obscure from overhead surveillance. I'd utilize concealed overwatch points to monitor incoming traffic, both foot and vehicle. These would be cameras, scout droids, and guys hidden in blinds up in the trees (people have an awful tendency to not look up). That's the outer layer of defense, the picket. Their job isn't to engage the enemy, it's just to detect the enemy and possibly pick off a small group of known hostiles. On the perimeter of the base itself I would put fortifications - whether they're guard towers or bunkers is up to you, probably bunkers due to the need for concealment - along with roving guards. Just two per bunker, with another handful of pairs on roving patrol. Put a heavy weapon in the bunkers, something like an E-Web. Maintain a QRF, size dependent on the scale of the base, whose job is to react to anything going bad by maneuvering to engage and/or supplement the perimeter guard. QRF would probably be mounted in APCs, whether they be military or up-armored civilian models.