View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
ZzaphodD Rear Admiral
Joined: 28 Nov 2009 Posts: 2426
|
Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 6:15 pm Post subject: Things to do on an Imperial installation when your dead.. |
|
|
Or at least, things to run into while your pursuing the main objective.
I have a bunch of people on an Imperial TIE fighter factory installation in orbit around a world (ie TFU). The installation is under attack from a 'rebel' group so theres a lot of fighting going on already. They are heading from the hangar levels through the factory levels and up to the control bridge to warn . I have the 'in-game maps' from TFU transferred to a scenario map with some additions (TFU in-game map is very railroad-ish).
So, now I need interesting things to challenge the players with on their way to their final destination. I already have strormtroopers of different kinds, some shaft-climpin, fighting an AT-CT, but need more ideas. Preferrably not more combat, if theres not a good twist to the encounter. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
cheshire Arbiter-General (Moderator)
Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 4851
|
Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 7:34 pm Post subject: |
|
|
When you say it's under attack, do you mean that it's under a barrage from a starfighter group, being boarded, or both? If the station itself is suffering damage, I can think of some fun environmental hazards. _________________ __________________________________
Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
ZzaphodD Rear Admiral
Joined: 28 Nov 2009 Posts: 2426
|
Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 7:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
cheshire wrote: | When you say it's under attack, do you mean that it's under a barrage from a starfighter group, being boarded, or both? If the station itself is suffering damage, I can think of some fun environmental hazards. |
Ah, the players are there during the attack of Rahm Kotas Militia from the TFU game(havent read the comics). So, the base is under 'full scale' invasion with a raging space battle between TIEs and the Militias fighters outside. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
hisham Commander
Joined: 06 Oct 2004 Posts: 432 Location: Malaysia
|
Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 7:56 pm Post subject: |
|
|
A temporary holding cell filled with innocent children, perhaps kids of planets that are against the Empire, used as leverage against them. _________________ The Enteague Sector | Cracken's Collection of Crackpots
In D6, of course. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
garhkal Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 14174 Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
|
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 2:14 am Post subject: |
|
|
Doors slamming shut in front of them to contain a small air leak
Gas jets coming on to 'combat a fire' when there isn't one. OR worse, there IS. _________________ Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk! |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Esoomian High Admiral
Joined: 29 Oct 2003 Posts: 6207 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
|
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:30 am Post subject: |
|
|
A full power failure could be fun. Especially if the players need to recover data from the base computers. Then they have to decide if they want to fix the power outage to get the computers running so they can extract the information or find the data cylinders themselves and steal them. _________________ Don't waste money on expensive binoculars.
Simply stand closer to the object you wish to view. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
cheshire Arbiter-General (Moderator)
Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 4851
|
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 7:15 am Post subject: |
|
|
During one of the combat encounters, the artificial gravity is knocked out by the starfighter bombardment. Yeah, it's a combat encounter, but it makes things really interesting. It makes simple things like moving and dodging not quite so simple anymore. Even without combat, a place that is falling apart with the gravity off is a whole new type of environmental hazard that players aren't used to. _________________ __________________________________
Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
jmanski Arbiter-General (Moderator)
Joined: 06 Mar 2005 Posts: 2065 Location: Kansas
|
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 4:04 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Breaking through doors presents many challenges. Some require slicing, some require prying, some require explosives.... _________________ Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect? |
|
Back to top |
|
|
ZzaphodD Rear Admiral
Joined: 28 Nov 2009 Posts: 2426
|
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 4:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
garhkal wrote: | Doors slamming shut in front of them to contain a small air leak
Gas jets coming on to 'combat a fire' when there isn't one. OR worse, there IS. |
Excessive use of blasters might trigger a fire alert even if they dont start a fire (which is also likely). |
|
Back to top |
|
|
ZzaphodD Rear Admiral
Joined: 28 Nov 2009 Posts: 2426
|
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 5:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
All good ideas, all more or less incorporated.
The main turbolift shafts of the facility are shut down by the imperials. The PCs just happens to have to get into it to go up a few levels before continuing. Thats no problem, since the shafts are gravity free. However, the lifts might just come online if the players linger (I really mean might, I usually roll a 'luck die' when I want some randomness in the adventure. On a 1 something bad happens, like elevators going online, reinforcements arrive etc. This is done in the open to put some stress on the players).
Doors are allready a problem for the PCs, but they have a really good techguy so its mainly a problem of time. I plan to have some deactivated or just plain powerless. BTW, the TFU game has Starkiller blasting blast doors open with the force (force push). Would that be OTT in the RPG do you think? Otherwise they will encounter a few such doors blasted open with no visible traces of explosives...(they allready have discovered both imperials and rebels cut down by a lightsaber).
Im thinking of Imperials trying to use innocents as leverage. I say it has to be the janitors in that case, as I cant really see a bunch of children being held in a factory facility thats more or less automatic. Perhaps a more interesting idea is for a small group of imperials in some kind of control over the PCs (perhaps trapped somewhere, like a garbage compressor or something less threatening) trying to force the players to take them with them (ie escape to the rebels). The Imperials are sincere, but how should the players know that?
I really liked the 'void droids' from Scavenger Hunt, and the players actually managed to avoid that combat by giving them a few powerpacks and promising them to save them from the wreckage. Actually about half of the droids where destroyed when the PCs landed (read crashed) into one of the facilities hangars, but the rest are still around including the neurotic interrogation droid leader and the combat droid (the brains and the brawns of the group). Im thinking of a way to use them or some other droids from the facility for some drama or comic relief.. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Esoomian High Admiral
Joined: 29 Oct 2003 Posts: 6207 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
|
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:36 pm Post subject: |
|
|
ZzaphodD wrote: | BTW, the TFU game has Starkiller blasting blast doors open with the force (force push). Would that be OTT in the RPG do you think? |
I personally think it's a bit much to do casually when a lightsaber is available as well. After all a blast door is designed to withstand physical force and a force push is just that. I know Starkiller is overpowered but it still seems like more effort than he needs to go to when he could just lighsaber the locking mechanism and then use TK to slide the door open now nothing is holding it shut. _________________ Don't waste money on expensive binoculars.
Simply stand closer to the object you wish to view. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
mdlake Sub-Lieutenant
Joined: 21 May 2009 Posts: 65 Location: Montclair, NJ
|
Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 9:38 am Post subject: |
|
|
Let the PCs find some impies about to suffer a horrible death: trapped in a corridor filling with corrosive gas, or pinned beneath wreckage amid a plasma fire. The PCs can free the troops easily, but do they? Don't be surprised by a party split between Force-sensitives and -insensitives.
You can use this to set (or reinforce) your campaign's attitude toward imperial troops: irredeemably evil, knee-jerk tools of the regime, or decent people misled by Imperial propaganda? Decent impies, if freed, might appear later to override security on a blast door and let the PCs escape the disintegrating station, or at least warn PCs of hazards ahead before fleeing to the hangar, while tools would pointedly refuse to do so. If you're into a grim tone, then you can incorporate the hostage situation suggested above, allowing PCs to find horribly abused prisoners after dealing with the trapped Imperials. This would send a signal that yes, yes they deserved to die horribly, and presumably so should the entire Imperial fleet. Not the way to go if you want to leave the door open to later uneasy alliances.
When the PCs arrive at the bridge, they find the commanding office and a loyal skeleton staff there, coordinating the defense, or even metaphorically going down with the ship in order to execute a coordinated withdrawal of the troops under his command. You indicate the PCs want to use the equipment to warn [headquarters, I presume]; he needs to use the equipment to take care of his troops. A firefight over control of the communications equipment means neither group gets what it wants, since they'll be too busy trading fire to use it in a timely fashion.
In a combat vein, be sure to orchestrate one fight among the whirring machinery of the factory. (Yeah, it should have been shut down as a matter of protocol, but something went wrong: the guy at the switch is dead, the circuit breaker is fused shut, whatever.) If the machinery is already damaged, it could be malfunctioning in a dangerous fashion. Carl Stalling's arrangement of "Powerhouse" as background music optional.
Partially assembled TIEs could provide tactical opportunities: blasting away with starfighter-scale blaster turrets, jury-rigging a deflector shield for cover, aiming repulsor elements down a corridor full of impies. Or a clever stormtrooper squad could turn these devices on the PCs, if they're slow to take advantage. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
ZzaphodD Rear Admiral
Joined: 28 Nov 2009 Posts: 2426
|
Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 5:05 pm Post subject: |
|
|
mdlake wrote: | Let the PCs find some impies about to suffer a horrible death: trapped in a corridor filling with corrosive gas, or pinned beneath wreckage amid a plasma fire. The PCs can free the troops easily, but do they? Don't be surprised by a party split between Force-sensitives and -insensitives.
You can use this to set (or reinforce) your campaign's attitude toward imperial troops: irredeemably evil, knee-jerk tools of the regime, or decent people misled by Imperial propaganda? Decent impies, if freed, might appear later to override security on a blast door and let the PCs escape the disintegrating station, or at least warn PCs of hazards ahead before fleeing to the hangar, while tools would pointedly refuse to do so. If you're into a grim tone, then you can incorporate the hostage situation suggested above, allowing PCs to find horribly abused prisoners after dealing with the trapped Imperials. This would send a signal that yes, yes they deserved to die horribly, and presumably so should the entire Imperial fleet. Not the way to go if you want to leave the door open to later uneasy alliances. |
Thats a good idea. I usually try to put players in front of moral crossroads, independent on what game we are playing (even if SW and Warhammer has been the only games the last 10 years or so).
Quote: |
When the PCs arrive at the bridge, they find the commanding office and a loyal skeleton staff there, coordinating the defense, or even metaphorically going down with the ship in order to execute a coordinated withdrawal of the troops under his command. You indicate the PCs want to use the equipment to warn [headquarters, I presume]; he needs to use the equipment to take care of his troops. A firefight over control of the communications equipment means neither group gets what it wants, since they'll be too busy trading fire to use it in a timely fashion. |
Well, the command bridge ending is allready set up, as it follows the TFU storyline. The players will be just to late.. (railroading or not, this is essential to the rest of the story..also I dont want the players to engage Starkiller as that would kill them).
Quote: |
In a combat vein, be sure to orchestrate one fight among the whirring machinery of the factory. (Yeah, it should have been shut down as a matter of protocol, but something went wrong: the guy at the switch is dead, the circuit breaker is fused shut, whatever.) If the machinery is already damaged, it could be malfunctioning in a dangerous fashion. Carl Stalling's arrangement of "Powerhouse" as background music optional.
Partially assembled TIEs could provide tactical opportunities: blasting away with starfighter-scale blaster turrets, jury-rigging a deflector shield for cover, aiming repulsor elements down a corridor full of impies. Or a clever stormtrooper squad could turn these devices on the PCs, if they're slow to take advantage. |
Again, here I follow the TFU story. The players will fight it out in the factory where giant laser robots weld TIEs togehter... Ill incorporate some of the ideas above to make it more interesting. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
garhkal Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 14174 Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
|
Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 5:08 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Quote: | Doors are allready a problem for the PCs, but they have a really good techguy so its mainly a problem of time. I plan to have some deactivated or just plain powerless. |
Just cause he is a good tech does not mean he can always access a door's controls to get it open. What if the controls are remote, or they are requiring biometric/comlink freqs to open (sensitive areas), or are time locked (really sensitive areas). Or as you said just flat out of power. _________________ Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk! |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Orgaloth Vice Admiral
Joined: 23 Sep 2003 Posts: 3754 Location: Melbourne, Australia
|
Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 5:31 pm Post subject: |
|
|
garhkal wrote: | Quote: | Doors are allready a problem for the PCs, but they have a really good techguy so its mainly a problem of time. I plan to have some deactivated or just plain powerless. |
Just cause he is a good tech does not mean he can always access a door's controls to get it open. What if the controls are remote, or they are requiring biometric/comlink freqs to open (sensitive areas), or are time locked (really sensitive areas). Or as you said just flat out of power. |
Or as Kyle would say, "the controls for this door are probably three floors up, locked behind a door that needs some special sequence to open, and then you only have 5 minutes to get back before it locks again." Not an exact quote, but close enough. _________________ "I take orders from just one person: Me!"
"You know, sometimes I amaze even myself."
Du Cass' Dream |
|
Back to top |
|
|
|