Pace, Chases, and Keeping the Players on the Move

[DougRed4]

Recently the topic of roleplaying Star Wars came up on RPG.net. Many of us posted our thoughts on what makes something "Star Wars". One person posted this:

<<<
From an RPG stance?

You gotta' keep things moving. Both figuratively and literally. Especially literally.

High speed chases, sword swinging, running away from storm troopers, more high speed chases, throwing your head back and yelling, throwing your head forwards and yelling, body parts falling, more high speed chases, climbing up things, big robots stomping around, musicians bopping to weird tunes on weird instruments, dancing alien girls, more high speed chases, boisterous full bodied laughter, sniveling full body laughter, robes flying around, and more high speed chases.

If people are standing around talking for more than a couple of minutes, you're probably doing something wrong in terms of Star Wars immersion. At that point, Force choke someone to death.
>>>

That post got me to thinking. While it's somewhat exaggerated (and hyperbole), there's some elements of truth in it, too.

But in my game - which is just starting out at the time of the start of the Rebellion (so the Empire is very much large and in charge) - so far the PCs have "stood their ground" and haven't been chased much, if at all.

I'm not quite ready to start throwing Star Destroyers at them, but perhaps I need to, to get that right feel (that they are insignificant compared to the Empire's might).

Even when I've attempted to overwhelm them with massive stormtroopers, or thrown a Skipray Blastboat at them, they've either defeated them or hunkered down and been ready to fight (until some other tactics ended up winning out).

I'm just wondering what I need to do to get more in the way of chases and the PCs fleeing, other than throwing an entire army at them?
_________________
Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[nuclearwookiee]

A few thoughts to encourage a faster feeling game (or "how to make your players run away"):

1) Reward encounter avoidance. The book says you can award character points for pretty much anything you like. Make it clear that killing all the bad guys isn't what you consider the best or most creative solution to an encounter. If players are rewarded the same amount for escaping, or even more, they might be more inclined to heroicly retreat more often.

2) Return a healthy respect for the poor old stormtrooper. As you said, one way is to just throw an army at the good guys. In some cases, the threat of an army is probably good enough. If PCs stand and fight, that just allows time for reinforcements to arrive. If every stormtrooper they drop is replaced by two more, I would think they'd eventually get tired of shooting and, statistically, they'll start taking damage at some point.

3) Along with 2, above, the other thing I like to do is vary the power of some stormtroopers. The PCs never know when one of those stormtroopers is going to be a Royal Guardsman doing his rotation. But, because your game takes place fairly early in the timeline, it's just as likely there are a lot of really veteran clone troopers still in the ranks. A couple of stormies who actually hit their targets could make standing and fighting (and the resulting wounds) less appealing, not to mention a lot more deadly.

4) Have the PCs get thoroughly owned by a way over-powered bad guy. Not one that wants to kill them, obviously, but somebody who can deliver the "always a bigger fish" message. Someone they've managed to inconvenience or annoy but who doesn't think they're worth the time or mess to kill. Losing once in a while helps remove that "unbeatable" mentality. I could see this one being unpopular though, so maybe it's a last resort.

Just my two cents, I hope you find something useful!

[garhkal]

[Barrataria]

I think it's important to try to have situations where there's more than one thing going on, so that they have to choose one action over others.

So, for example in the first session I ran for my Ancient Republic game, they started on a ship in hyperspace bound for Muzara. After some RP with the other passengers and a little backstory, the ship hit an asteroid on the way out of hyperspace. The pilot is knocked out cold, the cockpit is on fire, the ship is malfunctioning, and one of the passengers seems to be taking the opportunity to rifle through everyone elses' gear. So, who wants to do what?

Can't always do that but I like to try to have encounters layered with more than one thing rather than the typical D&D "this room contains 6 orcs and a pie" kind of thing that I usually default to.

Also, I think I really love d6 because the skill mechanic really, truly is unified. So if you try to balance out situations calling for different skill rolls in an adventure, you'll naturally have something for everyone to do frequently. I don't agree that you need combat or a chase scene every 10 minutes, but important task rolls should come along frequently, and should be planned out to involve each character frequently too.
_________________
"A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing"- George Lucas

[DougRed4]

Good input and advice here.

As we talked about this at our session on Saturday, one of my players pointed out that he couldn't ever recall an RPG session where the PCs "ran away". He told of one time (D&D I believe), where he put a party up against a really strong foe and it ended up in a TPK (which he still takes a ribbing about to this day). But the players wouldn't turn back and retreat, as it's often not seen as the heroic thing to do.

That said, there's been a couple of times where my players have somewhat fled or ran away (in my SW game). I definitely need to put them up against an elite stormtrooper or two some time (like that idea!), and I already plan on introducing a Dark Jedi type who willl hopefully prove quite challenging.
_________________
Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[nuclearwookiee]

Another "stick (rather than carrot)" approach is to minimize out of scene time available for healing. If a wound is going to clear up because the PC's can run back to their ship and have a soak in the bacta tank after every fight, the players are more likely to fight to the end every time. But if healing time and resources are infrequent or unknown, I'd think players would also be more likely to play conservatively (ie run away more often).

The same goes for ship and vehicle damage. Hit hem where it hurts ... the pocket book!

[garhkal]

[Darth_Hilarious]

I agree with the hit em in the wallet approach. If a group has to pay for 3500 credits in repairs on a job that only paid 3200, then they are less likely to go in "guns blazing" on every mission. As far as bacta goes, I hardly ever let my players have access to bacta unless it is a life threatening situation. Most of my campaigns were set in the years from 15 BBY to 5 years after Yavin. The Empire had strict controls over Bacta production during the rebellion just to make it harder for the rebels to get ahold of. If my players did manage to find any I charged them like 4 to 10 times the standard prices, just to keep up with the difficulty level of even finding the stuff.

[Jedi Skyler]

You also could try really driving home proper behavior for any Force-sensitive characters; for those who insist on killing everything in sight, they need to start racking up DSPs. THAT will get their attention in a hurry.

[DougRed4]

To be fair, though, my group has had no access to bacta and little need for medpacs (the Jedi can do healing).

They've thus far been pretty fortunate in their fights, and have chosen wisely when not to fight. There hasn't been a need for DSPs, either, as the Jedi has been very circumspect after scenes of violence and not prone to being a murderhobo.
_________________
Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[garhkal]

Accel healing is not insta healing (well other than the first potential wound).. all it does is make natural healing quicker.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[DougRed4]

True, but my characters took my advice early on about the lethality of combat. So Dodge became a valued skill (taken by everybody) and so far people have used CP (if necessary) to avoid being hit.

We haven't even had many people hit in combat, if any. They've been fortunate so far, but then as they continue the adversaries will be progressively tougher.
_________________
Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[garhkal]

Good for them.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Barrataria]

[garhkal]

But i you make it too expensive bacta will never get used and everyyone does the medpack loot. Heck as it stands, most don't see a need to USE bacta when med packs are just as effective and a lot quicker/cheaper to use.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!