Human Interest Story at Battle of Hoth

RobShanti · Feb 4, 2015

I'm running a one-shot FAE (Fate Accelerated) game set at the Battle of Hoth. We all know how the battle turns out. But I'm looking for a human interest story to drive the plot of the session and give it emotional impact. I'm looking for your help.

I've created a boatload of pregens with only a High Concept and one Aspect. I'm going to let the players pick their character and pick the rest of their Aspects, create a Stunt, and fill in their Approach scores:

Tauntaun handler
Sensor operator
Energy Shield technician
Evacuation Control officer
2-1B Medical droid
Heavy Transport Pilot
Starfighter Pilot
Ion Cannoneer
T-47 Snowspeeder Pilot
Trench Gunner
Force Sensitive Stowaway Urchin from Ord Mantell
Smuggler Spacer
Astromech droid
Echo Base Ops Officer

Given this panoply of characters, what emotional story could I tell in the context of the Battle of Hoth? What would you do?

Razjah · Feb 4, 2015

Soldiers often fight for their buddies next to them, not for their country. Sure the country/cause is being served; but when bullet (lasers) fly, you lay down covering fire or advance so that your buddies live. Soldiers during shield walls covered the guy next to them also. It was important to stay together so that everyone stayed safe.

Getting friends/injured companions aboard transports before the Imperial forces advance enough to take the base.
Stalling the Empire's advance to get everyone evacuated.
Finding a downed pilot in the battle because the rebels won't leave a man behind.

How about the emotional impact of losing home, again. The rebels thought they had finally found a place to defend for a time, but once again they are being hunted and driven into space. Now with one of their most defended strongholds being overrun, will the PCs stay in the face of such defeat?

Maybe the Imperial forces capture some key members of the rebellion and the PCs are tasked with their escape. This could even culminate with boarding Vader's ship and breaking out with the captured members of the rebellion- with the ever present danger of Vader returning to the ship or even already having returned. Stormtroopers are bad enough, rounding a corner with wounded companions to face Vader is almost certainly their death.

RobShanti · Feb 4, 2015

Razjah, that is awesome. Thank you for that. I will definitely try to integrate as many of those suggestions as I can into the session. Much appreciated.

Anyone else have any ideas?

Wednesday Boy · Feb 4, 2015

The battle is over. In the escape the PC's transport ship was downed and largely destroyed. The PCs discover one of the escort X-wings could be made serviceable if they return to the hornet's nest that is Echo Base an retrieve a necessary component to fix the X-wing. Unfortunately the X-wing only holds one person, so the group is working together against the Empire and the environment to let just one of them survive.

Celebrim · Feb 4, 2015

Emotional impact requires relationships, either between characters or between the audience and the character. As a GM running an RPG, you really can't control the later. Instead, you have to rely on building relationships between the player and an NPC, and hope that your player is cooperative and willing to make that emotional investment. Some players have no interest in that sort of play.

For each of your boatload of pregens, you'll need to create relationships between at least one NPC and one or more PCs. These can include family members, mentors, protégés, rivals, lovers, and so forth.

Often the strongest way to develop emotional interest is to subvert a relationship. You can have a rival who is always showing you up and making you look bad AND who always gets the girl you want, and who you think is a lazy jerk be the guy who sacrifices his life to make sure you get out the door while the 501st is storming through the base. You can have the trusted friend be the one that panics and leaves you to die, or you can be placed in a position where you must choose between saving the life of a family member and saving an entire transport.

RobShanti · Feb 4, 2015

Wednesday Boy, I really like that idea. Very emotional. I will add that in!

Celebrim, great advice. Maybe I will suggest during CharGen that each player use one of their Aspect slots to create a relationship with one of the other PCs, to give the players the incentive to invest emotionally.

Anyone else?

Wednesday Boy · Feb 4, 2015

And great idea to use FAE. My group runs a series of superhero one-shots using FAE and it's worked out wonderfully. Approaches make it incredibly fast to get a sense of how your character faces obstacles and the characters seemed quite capable when they play to their type. I.e., If your character has Flashy at +4? You know you swash and buckle well and you're inherently good at it.

RobShanti · Feb 4, 2015

Exactly, WB. I like how FAE dismisses needless number crunching and focuses on telling the story...which is exactly what I want out of a super heroes and Star Wars game.

This is especially true when you've got character maximizers / power gamers in the group. The system is so simple, that EVERYONE has a +3 Approach and a +0 Approach and an even spread in between. Sure, CMers and PGers can come up with really hyper-usable Aspects, but it's relatively easy to keep them in check as long as you make sure they tell you how the Aspect is as compelable as it is invokable. And yes, they can come up with overpowered Stunts, but as long you keep in mind that Stunts should basically be the equivalent of a +2 to a certain Action/Approach combo in a limited circumstance, those are easy to keep in check as well.

My only trouble with the system is figuring out how to deal with Fate Point hoarding. But that's another discussion for another thread.

Razjah · Feb 5, 2015

Other ideas:
-Owe a debt, perhaps the PCs were former smugglers or otherwise ran with bad company and they still owe a debt. Now with everyone fleeing, there is much being left behind. If the PCs can make it the armory (or other location as per players or GM choice) they can scavenge enough to relieve their debt. However this may mean allowing friends to be captured or killed.

-Imperial defectors. Maybe the PCs are defending a section of Echo Base and find a small group of imperial troops throwing down their gear and wishing to join the rebellion. Can these troops be trusted? Are they spies or agents meant to infiltrate the rebellion? Can they be brought to a transport in time to be bound and brought to the rendezvous point?

-Multiple Calls for Help. The PCs are an elite group of soldiers for the rebellion. They successfully held off (some number) of Imperial Troops to secure partial defense of Echo Base. Now multiple areas are calling desperate for aid. A transport is under fire and needs immediate assistance to take off, a general has been trapped by Imperial Troops, and one of the secondary trenches is nearly being overrun. The PCs cannot split up and be effective enough to help everyone and there is not enough time to rescue everyone. What do they do? Will they make it to a transport of their own or lay down their lives to save others?

Wednesday Boy · Feb 5, 2015

Razjah said:
-Imperial defectors. Maybe the PCs are defending a section of Echo Base and find a small group of imperial troops throwing down their gear and wishing to join the rebellion. Can these troops be trusted? Are they spies or agents meant to infiltrate the rebellion? Can they be brought to a transport in time to be bound and brought to the rendezvous point?

Great suggestion. I've found that a writing some minor adversarial or individual goals into the characters works well in a one-shot. In my experience they inject a little variability into what otherwise would be a straight forward plot. And players are usually okay with getting backstabbed, dying, failing, being a less cohesive group, etc. in one-shots since it only lasts for one shot.