Heroic Death of a PC

[DougRed4]

I'm a very experienced GM, but I've got a situation coming up - for tonight's game - that has me concerned.

I've got a player who, unbeknownst to most of the other players, is going to allow his PC to die (setting up the introduction of his new PC soon after).

If this was all that was happening, it would be easy. The problem is with HOW he's going to die. We're nearing the end of our second "film" (I break down the adventures into the equivalent of movies, as if they were seen on the big screen). And the PCs have strolled through all opposition so far, none of them even being injured, despite facing pretty overwhelming odds. Thus we're at the point for the heat to get turned up, as things begin to be tougher and more bleak for the protagonists.

So I've decided to throw a really tough adversary at them. They've faced somebody really powerful before (more of a bounty hunter-type), but in that previous example they had the opportunity to get away without fighting (which was the wise move). This time, the Dark Jedi is more than just tough, he's the extremely formidible Inquisitor Jerec, who should pose quite a challenge. I'm prepared for the PCs to gang up on him if they fight, but if they do they'll likely be cut down by his associates (along with the Dark Jedi, I've given him a potent alien bodyguard, three Stormtrooper Commandos, and two better than average stormtroopers (there are six total PCs, one is a Jedi and only one other is a really tough fighter).

My concern rests with how to pull off this PC's death. He's a noble (really the one who got the group together), and not much of a combatant. The player is willing to help out, and plans on throwing himself at the bad guys, probably planning to tell the others to get away. I've also prepped the Jedi by giving him a dream/vision (using Sense Path), that hints that he should choose to go against his instincts (to protect a comrade in trouble), and take the more difficult path of allowing someone to die.

My major concern is that the PCs will choose to slug it out with the bad guys, which will likely result in a TPK. One other difficulty is that the main interest of the Dark Jedi, Jerec, is really getting his hands on the Jedi in the party (being as there really aren't any Jedi around anymore; we're playing about a year before A New Hope). So Jerec would likely want to capture the Jedi, and would probably have no problem cutting all the others down in order to get him.

I even played through the first part of the battle last night, just testing things out to see what might happen. This playtest was helpful, but in this scenario it's just so tough to figure out what the PCs will do.

Ideally I'd like to set things up so that the noble (the one sacrificing himself) would be a bit apart from the others, perhaps close to where the villains enter the scene. But I'm not sure how to best set things up so that he can throw himself at the adversaries, to enable him to buy them some time and get away. I've thought of giving him some sort of mini-force field device, which could throw up a protective wall between them, but if he had that why wouldn't he use such an item with himself on the side of his friends, walling off the bad guys?

Any help on preparing this would be greatly appreciated!
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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]

Kinda backed yourself into a corner there.
Perhaps the noble finds a bomb planted on the group's transport left by Jerec, and seals himself up inside it to defuse it (as it has little time left before it goes boom).

Or hows about the old WW2 movie standby. A grenade gets tossed near him and he jumps on it to save the others?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Ral_Brelt]

What's the scenery where this climactic battle is taking place? If its at a hanger he could blow the blast door controls, sealing the port and saving them. Same could apply on a capital ship.

[DougRed4]

I'm not really pinned down on a location. I've considered it being in a hanger, or a warehouse, or even an underground cavern.

Others have suggested blast doors or force fields, and I think that's a very Star Wars appropriate way of handling things.

I'm going to quote two of (what I think are) the best answers I got to this same question over on RPG.net:

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Set up the battle scene in a location where you can throw physical barriers to keep the PCs from going after their foes (and vice versa). It's a cheap trick, but one that Star Wars uses a lot - in fact, nearly every SW movie has an example of this. Blast doors and fixed force fields (see Episode I) can block the path. Elevators and mobile platforms can take them away. Walls, ceilings, floors and bridges can collapse, particularly if there is an ongoing battle or someone made an heroic sacrifice by pulling a thermal detonator. From his stats, I assume that Jerec can use Force Push, which should also help to move the PCs where you want them to be.

If the PCs fight back and the villains clearly outmatch them, don't go straight for the kill. Have the villains take pause, toy with the PCs, perhaps gloat a bit. Overconfidence is a classic villain trait, after all. Basically, control the flow of combat until there's a window of opportunity for the PCs to escape. It's pretty common for newbie heroes to escape because the villain didn't kill them ASAP.

Finally, having overwhelming enemy reinforcements (say, a few dozens of stormtroopers running down the corridor) show up is a classic way to communicate the notion that, really, you are not going to win this fight and you should be running away right now.
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From what I've experienced of Jerec (admittedly, mostly from the computer game), he seems to enjoy being an insidious whispering presence / mastermind more than the brute-force foe. (He has his lackies for that)

So, perhaps you could have his heavy hitters beating down the party while Jerec looks on from an impenetrable position, secure in the knowledge that his minions are better than the party (arrange it so that circumstances/power levels means that the party will have a very hard time of it). He will simultaneously belittle and insult what the party perceives to be their greatest strengths, while promising them Power and Fulfilment in service to him and ultimately, Lord Vader. (Perhaps he could be a practitioner of Dun Moch?)

Then, at the critical juncture, you can have the Noble (who are equally as good at verbal sparring as Dark Jedi, as it were) say something that simultaneously lifts the spirits of the party as well as enraging him (and making him lose control of the situation, a grave failing for an Inquisitor), such that he orders his minions to focus on the Noble, allowing the party the chance to get away? (And you can incorporate all the above suggestions in this escape as well).
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I'm really, really liking that latter suggestion, and am leaning towards something along those lines.

Thanks for the help, both of you!
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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

[DougRed4]

You know, the more I think things through, the more I'm liking the combination of Dun Moch and blast doors.

I think I'll have all the stormies have their weapons on stun (does anybody know of any weapons that shoot a restraining net?), as Jerec taunts them.
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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]

Maybe its cause of the very high amt of times i see it used at conventions, but i don't like the 'always gloating rather than beating the pcs up' type of villans, nor the 'they always shoot on stun' way of doing things. If that's all they do then just flat out issue stun only weapons (stun batons, riot guns, stun grenades)..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Dromdarr_Alark]

I agree with garkhal about the use of stun weapons, unless Jerec intended to capture the Jedi's friends and use their suffering as a means to torture the Jedi.

I do approve of the gloating and use of barriers. That is appropriately Star Wars.

You also said you wanted a sort of restraining net gun. How does this look?

Slaver Snare Gun
Model: Thalassian Corodex Snare
Type: Ranged personal restraint weapon
Scale: Character
Skill: Missile weapons: thalassian snare gun
Ammo: 6
Cost: 1,200 (black market)
Availability: 3, F or X
Range: 5-10/25/50
Damage: 2D stun damage
Game Notes: Upon initial contact, the target individual
must make an opposed Strength roll to avoid entanglement;
the snare has a beginning Strength of 3D. Failure to do so
results in entanglement. The snare’s Strength increases by
+1D for each additional round as the filaments continue
to constrict and harden. The filaments cause no physical
damage. A special formulated dissolving agent degrades the
filaments.
Source: Galaxy Guide 11: Criminal Organizations (pages
81/83), Gundark’s Fantastic Technology (pages 72-73)[/b]
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"I still wouldn't have a roll for it - but that's just how I roll."

[Dromdarr_Alark]

There are also these:

Tangler Gun
Model: Salus Tangler Elite 1 Tangler Gun
Type: Tangler gun
Skill: Missile weapons
Ammo: 5
Cost: 900; 25 credits per extra clip for tangler package
Availability: 3
Range: 5-10/30/60
Damage: 2D (caused by the impact of the weighted ends
of the durawire), 4D stun damage (caused by the durawire
tangler package)
Game Notes: An opponent can work free of the tangler
by making an opposed Strength roll greater than the stun
damage of the tangler.
Source: Gundark’s Fantastic Technology (page 73)

Antipersonnel Net Gun
Model: Conner APNG3
Type: Restraining net gun
Skill: Missile weapons
Ammo: 1
Cost: 750 (replacement net costs 100 credits)
Availability: 2, R or X
Range: 3-10/19/25
Damage: 5D stun, 5D electrical
Game Notes: An opponent can work free of the net by
making an opposed Strength roll greater than the stun
damage of the net. Weapon is often mounted on forearm
Source: Gundark’s Fantastic Technology (page 63)

RGL-80 Electronet Grenade
Model: Golan Arms RGL-80 Electronet Grenade
Type: Antipersonnel wire-guided grenade
Scale: Character
Skill: Missile weapons: grenade launcher
Ammo: 5 (force-fed magazine with power generator;
attaches to grenade magazine holder)
Cost: 2,000 (magazine)
Availability: 2, F
Fire Rate: 1/2 (power generator can only control one
activated net at a time)
Range: 10-250/350/500
Damage: 1-10D (variable stun or normal damage)
Source: Galaxy Guide 10: Bounty Hunters (pages 82-83),
Gundark’s Fantastic Technology (page 43)
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"I still wouldn't have a roll for it - but that's just how I roll."

[Ral_Brelt]

If you want to change it up a bit, the party could be fighting at a rebel installation for a bit and then hear the howl of TIEs coming in. The noble, being closest to an AA emplacement, runs to it to ward off the TIEs while the rest of the party fights a retreat to their ship. Only the noble gets cut off by flaming debris or in taking out a ship about to strafe the party, it ends up crashing in to his AA nest?

[DougRed4]

We played this on Friday night, and the excellent suggestions here really helped. I was able to pull it off, keeping all the other players in the dark (and completely surprising some of them!).

I had the encounter happen in a building involved with speeders (land speeders, speeder bikes, etc.). So a single room with a couple of long hallways entering into it, with the bad guys coming down one of those halls. The PCs were alerted to their coming (thanks to the Jedi's Danger Sense) and a few of them wanted to rabbit, while a few others prepared for the attack, throwing a barrel in the way as an obstacle to get into the room.

Jerec taunted the PCs while deflecting their attacks, crushing their weapons with telekinesis. The noble engaged him verbally, drawing some of his focus away from the Jedi, and most of the group decided to flee. They were all out of the room but the noble and the group's main fighter, who was starting to get hit (multiple shots from stormtroopers). Finally, the Jedi used his own TK to grab the fighter and pulled him out of the room. On cue, the noble (now the last one remaining), hit a device on the wall, and a blast door closed, separating him (and all the bad guys) from his fleeing allies.

Some of the party were shocked, but they really knew better than to try to go back or save him. The Dark Jedi was way too powerful for them, especially considering the help he had. He heroically told them to get out of there, so it worked perfectly, capping off an epic (and thrilling) ending. I placed a ton of barrels in the room, giving them lots of cover, and this ended up being helpful for them to avoid being wiped out.

Thanks again to everyone for your help with this!
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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

[DougRed4]

Oh, and thanks for those weapons, Dromdarr. I didn't get that post (or Ral's) in time, but they should prove useful for the future!
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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

[Ral_Brelt]

Hey, no problem at all. I'm just glad it went the way you envisioned it and that your party enjoyed themselves!

[Dromdarr_Alark]

Sounds like it went well. I'm happy for you!
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"I still wouldn't have a roll for it - but that's just how I roll."

[garhkal]

So what's the player of that 'sacrificed' Nobel looking to make now?

How do you handle people making PC's for dead ones, in an established group? Do they get to bump their new pc up some, or are they stuck with making a standard starting PC?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Kytross]

I usually have them make a starting character, approve that and then I give them a few options on how to improve their character. We talk it over and I let them make final decision.