PC's as part of not so large groups!

[PC-032]

their will come a time when the PC's will become part of a group larger than their Tramp Freighter Crew or Rebellion Spec Opp's Team, but at the same time not large enough to warrant using the Mass Combat rules, so whats a GM to do with all those bloody NPC's, it takes longer for a gm to go than a bunch of Procrastinating PC's, and by this time the PC's are usualy experanced enough to get saddled wit command.

Well do what my GM is doing at the moment, though new half our characters are in pistions of athority and everyone is a specialist (a Capital Ship Captin, a TIE Flight Leader, a Engenieer and a Stormie), you see the GM doles out a cuppe of Encounter Specific NPC's to those players that would be left out of the Sean.

In Space Battles Engenieer and Stormie Haven't got much to do so they get to run some of the TIE's each (the TIE Flight leader gets an extra as well), wile in the few Ground Encounters We've had every one got a Buddy Pair of Stormies to run.

Cuts down on "GM Dice Time" and keeps all the players involved (and acording to our GM from holding Confabs and out thinking the Adventure wile his back is turned), also your players for future games won't be afraid to make up Specialists and you as a GM will see less of the normal "Blaster (or Lightsaber) +1D, Dodge +1D, Space Skill +1D" that plages most Star Wars Characters (Honestly the Commando/Fighter Pilot/Jedi is such old hat).
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"Remember There Are No Stupid Questions-Just Stupid People." Mr. Morgan Blackhand.

[Vartax]

The books say to cut down on time a gm only has to decide who is going to win, reguardless of the situation. That is not to say that the pc's don't have a way to influence the battle. It is only in relation of how much they do. See pages on 2nd edition edited and revised 130-135

[PC-032]

but the problem of our GM was to keep th Players involved and not "Thinking their way around the Adventures", it keeps the Capital Ship Captains, TIE Flight Leader and Engineers player Involved during the Ground Seans ect, and gives the players the Illusion of some controll outcomes and hides the amount of Fiat being used.

Players that arn't ouccpied will find somthing to do and it's usualy bad for the adventure, espechialy when their "Shering the Brain Cell", we know each other so well that after the first act if you put two of us in a room for half an hour we will wright the three most likeily outcomes of the adventure along with Stated NPC's and half the Set Dressing.

Adventures we know Campains we have trouble with, and thats what makes them fun.
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"Remember There Are No Stupid Questions-Just Stupid People." Mr. Morgan Blackhand.

[Chandra Mindarass]

I have one player, who is in charge of a fleet (~200 ships, every gunship and transport included). He has to present me strategy and tactics and I do the following:

• roll for the general course of the battle.
  
• roll the important fights.
  
• add detail to where the action is.
  
• incorporate the battle into my campaign and play the game with the other players.
  

If you give your players the responsibility for large groups, they'd better deserve it, or they get dropped on a backwater planet with a bottle of Corellian Rum and a blaster with only one charge left.

The player I speak of used to be a local hero in chess and a reader of Sun Tsi's "Art of War", so it's quite amazing to see what he can do with that. We are playing in the early stages of the Rebellion, so he has two good ships (1 modified Lucrehulk and 1 modern carrier) and a fleet, that could be described as space debris capable of hyperspace travel. The Empire has just realized, that the threat is more serious than planned and now the Stardestroyers come more numerous and there are persistent rumors, that the empire is building some sort of superweapon.
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RPGGamer (featuring a big portion of DLOS-stats!)

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[Pel]

I usually gloss over the details and decide the outcome of the overall battle. Any bits involving PCs are dealt with in detail with general reports of how the battle progresses while they play. If the players are in a pivotal role in the battle and they succeed, then their side generally wins and likewise loses if their particular mission fails. That keeps everything short and relevant to the players.
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Aha!

[Chandra Mindarass]

Sure, since the players are the participants with the best skills and force points, they are usually at the heart of action...and I should clarify, that ALL the players play the same game in the same night. The guy in charge of the sips just hands in the strategy two days before the game.
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RPGGamer (featuring a big portion of DLOS-stats!)

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