Should Hutts Always Be NPCs?

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

Can you imagine a game with PC Hutts?

I guess you'd need a special spacecraft.

And, what about wealth? Wouldn't the Hutt be much more wealthy than a typical GM likes his PCs to be? It loses the "push" a GM can use when the PCs are broke. Wealthy PCs can buy their way out of trouble and hire others to do the dirty work.

Thoughts?

[Whill]

[Mamatried]

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Mamatried]

[Naaman]

I don't particularly care what "advantages" the PCs have. It's the GM's duty and purview to find ways to challenge the players.

A player with 10D in computer programming/repair who never encounters a scenario wherein slicing can be a viable solution is effectively neutered.

A player with a billion credits in liquid assets who is cut off from his funds has the same problem.

As was mentioned before, the Hutts are not a benevolent group of benefactors. And there are lots of people/organizations whom they may have crossed. Look what happened to Jabba when he crossed a poor, local farm boy, after all. All that, despite resisting Luke's mind trick, and having the best security in the system (and possibly sector).

Lastly, CPs are kinda important. A character who doesn't adventure isn't going to earn many CPs (if any at all... or FPs for that matter), and will quickly fall behind any other players (or employees) who routinely "get their hands dirty."

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

There is lots of examples of using nobles and the wealthy in adventure scenarios: Elric, King Arthur, Earl Dumarest, Dune.

It can definitely be done. But I think it's more of a challenge for campaigns than it is for single adventures. And, many times, the wealth and power are somehow taken away from the rich and powerful. Elric leaves Melnibone to adventure. Dumarest goes on a quest. Paul of Dune loses his family and must go into hiding.

You can also focus on court intrigue, like Game of Thrones, but that takes a talented GM and can focus a lot on inter-personal tasks and roleplaying, without action, which can get boring for players if the GM is not up to the challenge.

[Naaman]

I agree. The group needs to create a game that is appropriate for the play style most readily embraced by everyone.

I had a GM who gave out loot rewards a lot, except to me, because I tend to play characters with little use for material riches. Occasionally, I would get extra CPs, but other times, I just didn't get anything. In SW, this is much more doable than in D&D, where "power potential" is directly tied to how much wealth a character can flex (i.e. the cost of magic items).

[Jerrod Owex]

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Jerrod Owex]

I make it a point to try work with whatever a player wants to do, unless I know without a doubt they are trying to do something just to break the game, to put it politely.

Sometimes this creates a bit more work on the GMs part to have the best game possible, but that is one of my favorite parts of being a GM, and more often than not the work is not as hard as it may sound. I had a player who wanted to play a Noghri and they didn't work with the story and were a bit stronger than your average race so I had to do a bit of research and created stats for the Gengh-Nogri subspecies which allowed the player to technically still be the race he wanted while making it more balanced with what the others were going to be playing.

[Jerrod Owex]

Those are excellent points Wajeb Deb Kaadeb, but let's speak hypothetically then. Plus not all Hutts are going to be noble/important figures, some of them are going to have gotten in too deep and have to do the dirty work that they may or may not feel is beneath them!

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

I took this opportunity to read up on Hutts in GG4. Some interesting tid-bits...

-- Hutts are hermaphrodites. They carry young in a pouch like a marsupial.

-- Baby Hutts will remain in that pouch for 50 years! Until they're about a meter long and weigh about 70 kgs. They have the intellectual capacity of a 10 year old at this point.

-- Hutts live to be 1,000 years old, or more. (This could help them amass wealth and power).

-- At around 130 years, they have the mental capacity of an average Human. At this point, they average about 500 kgs.

-- Jabba The Hutt, in RotJ, was probably 600 years old, weighing about 1,000 kgs.

-- They are severely self-centered and believe themselves to be destined to god-hood.

-- One of their biggest strengths is the ability to manipulate others to do their bidding.

-- Family is important to Hutts. Most will only have one offspring. And, much of a Hutts wealth is passed to him from his ancestor (which means that most Hutts should beging the game wealthy!)

-- Hutts are not manufacturers. They are not creators. They get their technology from other beings. They are masters at brokering. They match those who need goods with those who have goods to sell, and the Hutts take a profit from being the middleman (middleHutt).

-- Hutts do not leave Nal Hutta without slaves, attendants, employees and retainers.

-- Hutts do not travel without reason.

-- Hutts are completely immoral. They are evil, cruel, and manipulative.

-- Due to a Hutt's physical limitations (some have DEX 0D+1!), they must convince others to do their bidding.




So, what would it be like to play a Hutt PC?

You could figure that a Hutt sees a profit motive in helping the Rebellion. So, that gets him with the rest of the group.

But, the GM is going to have to deal with the Hutt's wealth, that was bestowed upon him at birth. Hutts won't have too much trouble getting on an off a ship, but the player playing the Hutt will never really do anything on the ship. A pilot's chair, a weapon turret, or a bridge station will have to be specially designed to accommodate a Hutt.

And, forget about starfighters. There's no market selling them to Hutts, so any starfighter would have to be custom built.

Any PC adult Hutt would be at least 130 years old, rich by his family (thus, have businesses and such), a minimum of 3 meters long and weigh a 500 kgs or more.

Plus, a PC Hutt player would have to be given extra characters or access to NPC henchmen, retainers, slaves, employees, body guards, and the like.

If the Hutt does go anywhere with the other PCs, their movement will be restricted (as a Hutt's Move is in the 0-4 range), unless he's got a floater or some other movement aid.



Playing a Hutt Correctly!

On top of all of this, a player playing a Hutt will end up not be well liked by the rest of the party if the player is playing the Hutt correctly.

The Hutt will always try to gain more of the spoils, because he deserves it. He's a Hutt--almost a god.

The Hutt will look at the other PCs as lesser beings. He will also try to manipulate the PC crew to act as he directs.

And, a good player playing a Hutt will probably demand a throne room be installed on the PC ship, from which the Hutt will most likely never move.

Most of the action will happen by the player playing the Hutt's henchmen and such, doing the Hutt's bidding.




I don think that having a PC Hutt in a game will be a real challenge for the GM, the player playing the Hutt, and even the other players.

But...in the hands of the right group...it might be real fun.

It looks like, though, a Hutt PC will dominate the the "story", so you'll have a game centered around on player instead of all of them equally.

[Whill]

Thanks for the bullet points. GG4 is a great starting point, but some of that has been retconned by later EU, and of course canon has changed some things too (For one, Hutts are not hermaphrodites in canon). I feel it is best to take all the sources into account to form your view of Hutts as possible PCs.

[garhkal]

Cause of their wealth, retainers/henchmen etc, i've never seen a dm or as a dm allowed, someone to play a hutt as a pc.. BUT they make for great foils to parties as an npc.
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