Too Much?

[CRMcNeill]

Has anyone ever actually sent PCs up against Super Star Destroyers, World Devastators or the Death Star? I mean, at what point does a stat become so ridiculously overpowered that a PC group's only option is to turn tail and run? I think WEG did the right thing by statting out the mega-monster ships to hammer home the point that these are not ships that PCs can take on in a stand-up fight, but as a GM, what is the biggest, most powerful ship your PCs have ever had to face directly, as opposed to just running away?
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[garhkal]

Yes i have. One home game i tossed in a Sovereign SSD that popped out of space near where their base was... They had to plan out an exit and decide how much time they could spend gathering gear OR information OR people to exfiltrate, before the Sovereign was close enough to bombard the hell out of the base...
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

So did they actually fight it, or was it treated as a plot technique to get the PCs to run in the opposite direction?
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[garhkal]

The plot point i had, was making them have a moral decision of sorts.
They were NOT rebels, but effectively mercs working for the rebellion at the time, but had gotten some decent ties to some of the rebels On the base where they were located at..
They also had lots of loot and other stuff strewn around the base, inc a rather expensive set of pod racers that were being modified in the vehicle bay.
So the Soverign comes in, and makes a 'lazy' route to the moon where they are hiding in. So their moral dillema was whether they would take their ship, and fit it with base personell (since their ship was one of only 3 there, and there were NO way enough space for all the people on all 3 ships), grab rebel intel as per one of the base's standing orders (to ensure imps couldn't get it), or be greedy and go with only saving themselves and their gear.

They took the latter option and BARELY made it out (heavily damaged from the space combat, losing 2 of their 3 weaponry, and having to do a blind jump away), but they had their loot.. but lost a lot of comrades they had made... If it wasn't for all were NON force sensitive, i might have dinged them with a DSP...
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

Okay, that's what I was trying to distinguish in the OP. You are talking about using a Sovereign-Class as a plot device, a McGuffin on a grand scale to move the plot in a certain direction. I'm talking about actually going into combat with one of these monsters, as in actually requiring characters to fire weapons at it and be fired at in return. At what point on the general scale of space-going awfulness does actually trying to fight it out become an exercise in futility?
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[garhkal]

For me, its when a single PC ship of freighter or starfighter size is going against a Vic or larger..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Volar the Healer]

The players in my game ran routinely anytime the Empire showed up in force. They'd already seen "the full might of the Empire" wipe out their little rebel teams several times.

The full might of the Empire might mean a company of stormtroopers, or a platoon of storm troopers backed up by two AT-ATs, or a squad of storm troopers escorting Darth Vader, or a squad of storm commandos, or four star detroyers.

Since I did not hesitate to wipe out PCs, they knew when it was time to run. We never fought against the Death Star, but the team did once abandon their mission and run when the Death Star warped into the system. As Director, I think that was the right choice.
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Know Jesus, Know Peace.
No Jesus, No Peace

[Tinman]

It depends on the nature of the campaign. When it comes to more gritty sorts of stories, such as groups playing tramp traders, privateers or intelligence operatives, sometimes it's in the nature of certain stories for groups to intelligently cut their losses and run when faced with situations without a current resolution.

Our Rebellion intelligence task force group ran into plenty of situations in which they just had to accept losses or accept the better part of valor. Because those scenarios were so open ended, and involved players having to use serious creativity and wit to achieve goals, sometimes there were wildly unexpected successes. (Our GM quickly adjusted to the idea that in situations involving that theme it's very possible, and even appropriate, to be outsmarted by a table full of Tom Clancy fans.) On the other hand, the other side knew its business as well, and was every bit as capable of outsmarting us, and even more capable of mustering overwhelming force if we weren't very careful and clever. That just went with the whole air of near paranoia and tension, as well as walking plenty of proverbial tightropes without a net.

The primary antagonist of the campaign was an Emperor's Hand who was more of a counterintelligence agent than an enforcer like Vader, and we mostly dealt with the effects of his actions and operations, rather than coming face to face with him on most occasions. It took us months to even discern who he was, and even longer to find out much about him, and after that point we really didn't want to face him directly. Once we personally came to his attention, there were some pretty harrowing moments and close calls.