Star Wars: Venting and Open to Advice

[pawsplay]

I decided that the characters should help set up a Rebel case. By the end of the session, we had not had a single combat. The players passed up an opportunity to take out an Imperial security station on their base of operations, preferring to just ignore it for now; elected to avoid some of the more difficult rescue missions in favor of shuttling prospective rebels in; and decided to pass on the opportunity to go after 25,000 lost credits or hunt for a rumored Jedi bounty hunter.

Instead, they put way too much effort into creating their base's cover story. When they finally did leave the plant and try to hook up with a Rebel ally, a powerful noble with strong sympathies, they laid out a plan for getting in touch with him that involved a complicated cover as industrialists. They've spent four days on planet hunting commercial contracts they don't intend to follow through on, and have a notion of trying to reach their contact when he appears at a park dedication ceremony.

Did I do something wrong? I wanted to give my players the reins for a while, so I had their NPC ally/leader stay behind for a while, but they seem averse to bold, pro-active planning. Even so, at every opportunity I tried to steer them toward something adventurous. Why are they being so cautious? I keep hinting that the Death Star is headed for Mon Calamari, but they haven't approached their missions with any sense of urgency.

 

[d4]

are they having fun?

if so, then you've done nothing wrong.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

Sounds like my group.

How expierenced are they? Are any of them naturally leaders? Do the characters have their own reasons for joining the rebels? Do the characters have their own agenda?

If the answers are somewhat, no, no, no then you may want to consider doing the whole freedom within a box thing. Or just plain railroad them, that works too

 

[Nightfall]

yep, the idea of a game is to have fun. At least that's just my humble opinion.

If you've done that, that's all you really need to do.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

No combat doesn't mean no fun. Star Wars does really well with planning and lots of talking between the players. I've had tons of fun sessions where no combat took place...the best was the group negotiating with an Imperial Officer to convince him that they WERE authorized to take the shuttle out of the Imperial Garrison.

 

[Zappo]

It could be worse. When I tried to let my players do just whatever they wanted, the five members party split up in three groups doing three different things, including a player who basically took up a job and did nothing at all.

 

[WanderingMonster]

Have something random happen, like, say, Imperial Probe Droid? Bounty Hunters? A disturbance in the Force? Maybe they just need a nudge.

 

[d4]

and if someone says, "I've got a bad feeling about this..." -- you know you're on the right track.