Campaign Dilemma

[DralonXitz]

Hello EN World members, Im in a dilemma and any help is appreciated. Here is it:

I am a GM for Star Wars RPG, and we are running a very complex campaign. Heres the backdrop of the dilemma:

The charecters, Former Imperial officers, were sent to a Prison on Sullust after releasing a virus onto a ghetto. After escaping, they ran to Tyr where they did a smuggling run for a Crime Lord to earn enough money to travel to Tatooine and exact revenge on their commanding officer, Cl. Baxter. It turned out the so called spice they ran was the same virus that was released on Tatooine, and that it killed Baxter's son when it happened. A Bounty hunter came, but they managed to rip him apart(a 17, 18, and 16 all in a row lol) and get the Information from him that he was hired by a Black Sun officer named Ribonia. After going to his manor in Coronet, Corellia, they tortured him until he leaked that his boss, a Vigo named Vegean gave the overall order, and to visit him on Coruscant. They went to his base, and after sieging 3 floors of guards and droids, came to his office, where they found out that Cl. Baxter was smuggling the virus on Tyr to a Black Sun dock when they intercepted it. His plan was to use 2.5 million credits from an Arms Sale front to pay off Black Sun and use an unregistered ship(he didnt use an Imperial ship to stay innocent in everyones eyes) and mount a superweapon made by Sienar Fleet Systems, the Katana, to deliver spheres of the virus into Tatooine's atmosphere, in revenge of his son's death. They then went to Anobis and found him and the weapon at the ship, where one of the players, a Slicer, hacked the mainframe and self destructed it. Baxter returned to Tatooine, where they infiltrated the embassy, killed Baxter, and blew up the base. They then became outlaws with a 90,000 credit total bounty and hid out in an old Jedi hermits home near Wayfar.

Here is the problem. With our second adventure in the campaign, they are at the home. 3 months later a young boy spotted the main Hero killing Womp rats with a Chrome DL44 Blaster, the known blaster of the outlaw, and took it to Wayfar authorities, where it was submitted to Imperials. Both the Black Sun and the Imperials want the main heros head, and our sliced hacked into the holonet and saw on the news they had been discovered.

As GM, Im planning this ahead of time, and the problem is, I do not know what the players will do in response to their discovery, I.E. if they will stay, flee the planet etc. What is a way I can plan this ahead of time while still giving them their choices, I.E. like a condition I can place to their knowledge that may make them want to do one thing over another. Thanks for help.

Siegfried

 

[Liquidsabre]

SW-GM Here: Ah yes, the classic something big combat-wise will likely go down and you need to plan the forces abit to keep the combat(s) running quickly and smoothly (i.e. prep for the game). Well it's too hard to try and predict what players will do, alot like a physicist trying to pinpoint the exact location of a sub-atomic particle; it can't be done reliably, so don't even try. But even worse, is trying to nudge, cajole, or influence the PCs into a specific action; don't do it. If they get into serious combat they'll resent the nudge and if they get away scott free they'll look for hints later in the game as to how to get out of a serious problem (and possibly get a miscue instead and be upset). So what is left to do then? Modularize.

What I mean by that is simply set-up the situation: how many imperial resources are available on Tatooine, how long have the imperials had to react to this info? Likely there is a small Imperial task group working on the "problem" and is hypercapable and can get there in a day or so but should be small (as far as the Imperial Navy goes lol so maybe a platoon or two of stormtroopers headed by an Imperial Intelligence Officer). Same goes for the Black Sun strike team which should also be after them, except their group will likely be even smaller (but more skilled perhaps) and likely will get there first (being more mobile than the Imperial war machine). Though the Imperial Garrison on Tatooine won't likely take overt action until the task group arrives (prob as per orders) but may take security measures such as watching all surface-to-air traffic closely and monitoring with TIE-sentries (doubled than norm) in orbit and grounding suspicious shipping, and tighten spaceport security, and send out scout groups to report on the region where the sighting took place.

Though I'm not sure how the Imperials/Black Sun (a powerful crime syndicate known for it's subtlety) leaked info to the Holonet about the discovery (it wouldn't happen really as such things during the rebel era are closely monitored and encryopted by the Imps). It doesn't sound likely unless it was done on purpose to help smoke out the rebels in-hiding *evil grin*. Sounds rather Black Sun-ish to me hehe. So here's what we got so far:

*Black Sun strike team arives first but keeps a low-profile, lying in orbit on passive sensors onl;y to avoid attention and trying to pickup a significant enough power signature in the region the sighting came from and investigate/assault. Probably monitoring planet-side Public and Imperial comm frequencies as well.

*Imperial scouts are asking questions and generally being a nuisance. Spaceport security and Tie-orbit patrols are up and a small reaction team is on stand-by in case of a sighting or a lead (say 2 squads in hover-vans for example, 20 stormtroopers).

*In a day or two (or more) the Imperial Strike team will arrive and will be quite notcieable as the imperial cruiser (or the like) will pop up in orbit unexpectedly. The strike team will descend to the region in drop ships, with a platoon of stormtroopers (50) and rendevous with lead scouts for their reports. From their they will forcibly follow-up any leads and assault if able.

*Toss in the random cocky bounty hunter or two that may be on Tatooine by chance at the moment, with their ear to local gossip on the sighting of a notable wanted figure(s) (a local leak is by far the most likely occurences as far as leaks go) and will go after such a large prize unable to resist (possibly hiring more local thugs if they feel the job is too big for them alone).

*Add in a pinch of conflict of interests between Imperials and the Black Sun strike teams who both have their orders to bring in the fugitives...

And you got yourself a situation-based scenario (the way I run all my games) that as GM you can handle whatever it is the PCs plan on doing. They can do anything under the sun and you'll know how to run that session's game events.

Now all you have to do is stat the Black Sun strike team (might be a bit of a chore as likely these are very skilled hired professional team put together for this express prupose), ship stat for the likely buff little ship the BS stike team uses, an Imperial Intel Officer or three, a card with stats for the std Stormie, stats for a std Scout, vehicle stat for a hover van, Imperial Cruiser stats, 1-2 random bounty hunter stats and you're golden. Mix with the crazy-heroic actions of your PCs, plot complications, and edgy exciting star wars music and encounters --> you've got yourself some classic star wars!

Hope this helps a bit, I always like to hear from fellow SW-Gamers on the ENWorld boards. Let us know how it goes there mate!

Cheers!

 

[DralonXitz]

Thanks a million bro, Ive browsed over these and drawn up numerous ideas from it. And BTW in response to the question of how it got on the Holonet, since the heroes have such a galaxywide deathmark,(Blowing up an Imperial Embassy, murdering 49 innocents, annihilating a Sienar Engineering bay killing near 500 people and executing a Colonel) the Imperials posted it out on the HoloNet to build Imperial support from the public(It went pretty low in our first adventure when they released the virus on the Tatooine Ghetto).

 

[Liquidsabre]

Hey no problem dude. Seriously, post how it turns out. I'd like to see how your PCs manage to get out of this one...

 

[DralonXitz]

Hey no problem dude. Seriously, post how it turns out. I'd like to see how your PCs manage to get out of this one...

Hey, we had our session last night, worked excellent. When the Bounty Hunters came, 6 of em, they were taking our main PC alive and killing the others when a batch of Imperials came on a shuttle. The Hunters didnt want to give up their bounty, Since they were here first, and a large firefight erupted. They ran across the sand to their Dewbacks and ran away to Wayfar, when they then went to Anchorhead and took a shuttle(yes, in our Campaign AH has a spaceport) to Druckenwell, where they found out a Rodian who is known to work for the Black Sun time to time was smuggling a batch of Imperial code cylinders through there. They intercepted him and interrogated him until they learned that the Strike Team was sent by Maran, a Bounty Hunter who works for an Unknown Vigo. The man was last seen in Moenia, Naboo so they flew there on another shuttle, but being a Heavily Imperial Controlled city they were caught by 16 Stormtroopers and sedated, where a Colonel was to sentence them to death for their crimes when they found out that Grand Inquisitor Xiolin(Custom guy) wanted to see them for something.

Apparently, this Unknown Vigo they were ultimatly after was secretly funding a terrorist organization known as "The White", a team of Elite Special Force commandoes and Bounty Hunters, who conducted extremely effective raids and demolition runs on Imperial Outposts. The bad part was that this Vigo had managed to turn a Lesser Prophet of the Dark Side to their cause, one hungry for a Higher place in the Dark Side, and had killed over 300 Stormtroopers and 19 Officers at various battles. In exchange for their life, the PC's now have to find Maran, shadow him to his next meeting with the Vigo, and take them both alive. I am anxious to see what happens next.