Star Wars Rebels, Star Destroyers and new players

[Rusharn]

So I am having a little bit of an issue with my gaming group.

Several of them are new to Star Wars and don't have the same knowledge of back ground as players I have had in the past. Most have had their most recent experiences with Star Wars being TFA and Star Wars Rebels. The problem in both those mediums is that getting into and out of Star Destroyers and military bases is displayed as being a very easy thing to do. Both the examples above don't mention or impress upon the viewer that there ten thousand plus troops aboard those classes of ships or installations.

In the Past, I have always used Star Destroyers as the super fortress of doom, that only the bold, skilled, and very prepared even attempt to board. Prior to this group of players, the fastest any group had prepped for a mission against a Star Destroyer was eight sessions and three months of in game time. That group had three force using characters that were finally approaching 7 and 8D force skills which they relied upon heavily both to cut the prep work down and to actually succeed in the mission, which as a side note, that group didn't succeed in.

In the game I am running, an Imperial II class star destroyer is forming the core of a blockade in a star system and my current group of characters are planning to steal a shuttle and just fly in and dock with the Star Destroyer assuming they will have no issues. Then they are going to just rush into the the reactor room and have their force user cut up the reactor with their light saber and their you go, one downed Star Destroyer.

I have always played Imperials as professional, well trained forces and in military bases and star ships that have a lot of military front line troops available, when an intruder is detected they call out everyone. With my Imperials once an intruder is detected, all security doors are immediately locked, badges, keys and codes no longer work, all data ports are locked down and large detachments of soldiers are deployed at every vital and secondary system armed with heavy weapons if they are available.

In the case of a Star Destroyer it means 100 + storm troopers in the engine room, hanger bays and guarding the bridge. 24+ are assigned to shield generators, tractor beams, life support, etc. And then a large scale systematic search with scanners starts from the most sensitive parts of the ship working their way outward, everyone's ID's are checked and verified. Anyone not at posts or where they were assigned to be are instantly arrested and detained. The moment the location of an intruder is discovered that entire section of the ship is locked down, vents are sealed, blast doors are closed, and then large groups of strom troopers sweep the area, flushing vents with either flame throwers, toxic gas, or super chilling mists. If a ship happens to leave without clearance, they shoot it down, either with TIE fighter squadrons that come in for a tight patrol, by the guns of the Star Destroyer itself or both. So in my Star Wars universe one just doesn't waltz right onto a Star Destroyer.

Unfortunately despite my NPCs giving the warning, my group keeps thinking it'll be like Star Wars Rebels, and TFA where the heroes seemed to be able to run all over military bases and Star Destroyers with no issue and at worst they'll only ever have to face a few storm troopers at a time and will be able to blast they way into and out of anywhere.

So with the scene set, my first question is, how do you run the security at military installations and on star destroyers in your games? How do you get across to your players that those scenes in Rebels are the results of 'plot armor', bad writing, poor attention to logic, or whatever and that your Imperials are not that inept?

[JironGhrad]

Smack them. Hard. Let them play the episode your way. Then, say that one of the characters (force sensitive if possible) had a very, very, very vivid dream, which is then shared with the group to (hopefully) persuade them that they're doomed. If they persist a second time, let the dice fall as they may.

[Dredwulf60]

[JironGhrad]

[Raven Redstar]

I feel there are a couple of things to address here.

First, I'm with you, I tend to make competent imperials, because it makes sense to me. However, at the beginning of the game, I let my players know that the stock stats they see in the books are not what I use. Imperials are intelligent, organized, and deadly if crossed without much of a plan. But, the players are informed out of game, not in game with the standard awe of mook NPCs.

2nd, if your players are running in that haphazardly, then you haven't done a good job of painting your imperials as competent military fighters. If they've gotten away from every encounter largely unscathed, then of course they're going to feel like Rebels is an accurate portrayal of the Empire.

I don't feel that allowing your players to board the Star Destroyer only to have them die horribly is a good way to teach them that lesson. Often, what will happen is that you come across as a draconian, unfair GM, and you'll very quickly lose your player base.

You have several chances to prove the skill of your imperials, first: the shuttle they'll be stealing is likely to be guarded. This gives you a chance to show them certain aspects of Imperial Tactics and trap setting without locking them in with 10,000 storm troopers and murdering them all. Next: if they choose to try to approach the Star Destroyer without transmission of a proper code signal, the ISD will likely launch TIEs, or lure them aboard to capture the rebels and torture them for information. Escaping from a botched attempt to board the ISD could make for a fun adventure as well.

I would remind them that Star Wars Rebels, while a fun show to watch, is geared toward children. In kids shows, you very rarely see the heroes getting gunned down and thrown in a ditch. Your vision of Star Wars is a much grittier and darker look at the galaxy, and they're adventuring while the Empire is at the peak of its power.

Good luck!
I hope you don't lose your party while teaching them a lesson.
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RR
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[Rusharn]

All the security measures I have posted have been demonstrated in various mediums in the Star Wars franchise, all I did was actually take all the security protocols and have the imperials use them all, at the same time, in an effective manner. My players have had run ins with the Imperials. However up to this point they have always have either dealt with back water prefab garrisons that are at half strength or been in huge massively populated cities, where the Imperials responded quickly and professionally, but just like real life law enforcement, there is always a response time, no matter how good they are and in a city there are plenty of places to hide.

More so their obsession with this Star Destroyer would almost be comical if they weren't very insistent that they are just going to walk in an take it out. I have had groups take out Star Destroyers before but it was always the climax of a story not just a random encounter that you take a session or two to deal with.

For the Starkiller, the surface not being heavily guarded sure, but vital systems not having alarm systems and security personnel just makes no sense. More so the moment the shields go down, where was the commander of the station being informed the shields were down and sending a technical crew and a large detachment of storm troopers to get them back on, and launching squadrons of TIE fighters because he knows somethings up. I mean how many combat wings can you store on a planet?

I don't make it impossible to take out a Star Destroyer, but taking one out is the prize, not just a random leg on an adventure, that is what I use corvettes and frigates for.

But this next session I'll make sure that the players know that unlike planet side cities, on a Star Destroyer, the Imperials have complete control of everything.

[garhkal]

[Dredwulf60]

[jmanski]

Maybe they need a little smackdown of truth before they go off to the Star Destroyer mission? Have them meet up with a squad of stormtroopers, for instance, and let them see how deadly just ten of them can be.

If that doesn't work....


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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[garhkal]

Heck, remember royal guardsmen DO rotations as stormtroopers. Perhaps they come across a 5 man stormie team which are ALL guardsmen..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Whill]

[garhkal]

I know it's evil And many of the sparks players KNOW i have no issue putting some of them in..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Cap'nCodskale]

I have no problem with presenting competent Imperial troops or their distribution within a Star Destroyer as described.

I do have a problem with the proposed smackdown.

[Rusharn]

So ran the session and the out come briefly went something like this:

Players attempt to sneak quietly in Imperial section of the starport, they get in but trip alarms. They fight their way to a landing pad with a shuttle and their security and star ship guy starts working on hot wiring the shuttle, while the rest of the party tries to hold off the storm troopers and garrison troopers that rapidly respond.

Stormtroopers take cover, extend stocks and set scopes on their blasters and then the squads start alternating aim and fire (+1d from scope, +1d from doubling the time of the fire action, giving the not dodging stormtroopers a 6D blaster attack roll) and players start taking hits.

The hot wiring takes much longer than they were expecting and more garrison and stormtroops show up, threatening to just overwhelm the players with numbers when they finally hot wire the shuttle and get it into the air.

They have just enough time to patch everyone up with med kits before the squadron of TIE fighters show up and knock the shuttle out of the sky. They luck out on the crash landing as I tanked my damage roll. Players patch up again and quickly raid the supplies that were on the shuttle. It was scheduled for a supply run and most of the supplies had been loaded before the players attacked. So they pick up a bunch of things to help them in the jungle they just crashed in.

While TIE fighters are making strafing runs causing trees and the like to explode all around them, they make it to a series of caverns with a hidden ruin deeper in (which is where I wanted my players to go any way) The set up to defend the cavern entrance but when several shuttles start dropping stormtroopers and army soldiers they started to catch on that they were in trouble.

Once again stormstroopers set up and alternate aim / fire and the group and even though cover is helping the bulidng numbers and increasing accuracy of sniper style attacks prompt them to do a fighting retreat towards the ruins.

The dialog the players were having from about the sessions half way point on was amusing, at least to me. As this campaign is an alternate to TFA, the players' characters were actually having a running conversation about how everything had looked so easy in that New Republic sponsored holo vid propaganda show Rebels and how in the show there was never this many stormtroopers and they never aimed. The Ex-pirate and their Quixotic Jedi leader got in to a pretty comical exchange about the TFA and the ex-pirate explaining that it was a fantasy movie and probably not the best source to be using to base plans on.

So I haven't killed my players yet, they learned their lesson about attacking large imperial bases, they take Imperial forces much more seriously when it comes to stand up fights, and they have vowed they will still get that Star Destroyer but that it will take a lot more planning than had expected. Overall a good out come I think.

[garhkal]

I loved the tactics you used.
Another I love using myself, is having some troopers pop off smoke grenades in between them and the party. Since THEIR helmets neuter most of the vision penalties..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!