New GM, New Game...

[seven7s]

Hello all,

Just starting out as GM and running a new game with 2nd edition rules. Somewhat familiar with the material, as I had my brother's books hanging around from time to time and finally started to get a few friends and start playing. I'll probably use this thread as a running update.

Here's the scenario:

Group of bounty hunters on Cloud City, adventure starts with Lando's announcement to evacuate.

The team (several aliens and an R2 variant) heads off down the corridor, open one door, with some irritated Ugnaughts. Open one across the hall, hide as stormtroopers come (and are distracted).

Sneak attack the troopers, roll a mishap, kill an Ugnaught. Team runs off while Uggies are confused and trapped behind dead toopers.

Head off further down the corridor. Meet more stormtroopers, with blaster rifles.

Team fails practically every roll, 6 Troopers don't, shoot up the mess of them. One standing team member dives, picks up grenade off another, throws it, and fails the roll. Grenade bounces back in between everyone, blows troopers and the team.

Going to recover the team as being "found" by Lobot and in medical care, but needing to get out of Dodge. Run a mission to the abandoned Hoth base for something or other.

Several initial observations and questions:
1. Stormtroopers can get nasty quick against inexperienced pc's.
2. How often does the wild die get rolled? Every time?
3. Would stormtroopers be using rifles in this instance?
4. I'm working on adding more details and such to the game - I probably could/should have given the PC's some cover. I didn't want to get too bogged down in complexities right off.

Suggestions? Questions?

[Mandalore]

Hi, in answer to your questions;

1. I would suggest using Imperial Navy Troopers, because Stormtroopers make really quick work of PCs in my experience.

2. Wild Die gets rolled every time. It is included in the die pool.

3. Yes, they would probable be using E-11s.

4. I try to break my descriptions up into three parts;

A. NPCs
B. Places useful in combat situations
C. couple sentences of "fluff"

Hope that helps.
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Preferred Character Type: Hacker/Slicer

[Lostboy]

if the group are licenced bounty hunters all they need do is show there bounty hunting licence, say they are hunting the rebels and the stormtroopers should let them pass.

As you and your friends are new to rollplaying letting them wake up in a medical center is probably the right dissision. But don't be afraid to make the players pay for doing stupid things.

The wide dice should be rolled in every dice pool, but some people choose not to roll it for mook NPCs.

The GM should concider cover and know what cover is around but it's the players job to ask for it, if you are feeling very generous you can let them make a tactics roll to figure it out.

[Hellcat]

The WD is rolled every time. Often it's just a regular die, but with a little luck, either good or bad, it can seriously effect the outcome of the roll.. That's what it's there for. Let's say the PC needs to make a roll of 15 or higher to succeed but they only roll a 13. They fail, unless they got a wonderful six on the WD. Ah, the wonders of a six. Roll the WD again and add the total to what you already rolled. If it comes up six again, keep rolling and adding until it doesn't come up six. So that 13 could become a 35 (now that's luck, getting that many sixes in a row on the WD). Ah but then there's the dread one. Evil, evil one. Maybe you rolled a 16 on that roll of fifteen or better but got a one on the WD. The GM can decide to ignore the one and let you succeed anyway. Or they can penalize you by throwing out your highest roll or giving you a complication. If you're rolling 4D and the three regular D are all fives, one of the fives may be thrown out so you'd only have rolled 11 instead of 16. Or you succesfully roll for a blaster attack but instead of blasting your target the complication may be that your suddenly out of rounds in the cartridge so nothing happens. Or worse, the blaster end up on a feedback loop and is going to blow.

If their armed with rifles, absolutely. But what's the range? Range plays a roll in the difficulty to hit a target. blasters and blaster rifles typically have three rangs listed, in this case the stormtroopers may be using the SoroSuub Stormtrooper One blaster rifle which is ranged at 3-30/100/300. 3-30 is for short range, anything under three meters is point blank range. Above 30 to 100 meters is medium range. and up to 300 meters is long range, you can't hit a target beyond 300 meters. The ranges determine the difficulty of the shot, point blank being Very Easy, short range Easy, medium range Moderate, and long range difficult. If the stormies are at 40 meters from the team, then they'd have to succeed at a Moderate blaster or blaster: blaster rifle check. Moderate difficulty being between 11 and 15
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FLUFFY for President!!!!

Wanted Poster

[hazardchris]

The Hoth Base can be a fun place to run adventures. Just be careful with pitting your PC's against Wampas -- remember, Luke was pretty advanced and he got taken down by one. I found this out when one of my players got captured and forced to fight Gladiator games.

He had to go hand-to-hand (claw?) with a Wampa. Despite his incredible skill, he wasn't able to damage the thing, so, I ended up having to toss him a vibrosword.

Still though, Hoth is mysterious and full of danger. If memory serves, there's was an exiled Dark Jedi there at one point. There's also possible smuggler bases, Imperial outposts, ect.

My advice is this: at the end of the day, let cannon step aside or even be crushed under the boots of your players if it lets the story advance the way you want it to, not the way Lucas and company want it to.

[garhkal]

[seven7s]

Woot! Thanks for all the help.

Two questions:

Is there a Hoth Echo base map out there, or is the one in the sourcebook sufficient?

Tricky question..

How far is Hoth from Cloud City? Are we talking binary star or something?

[garhkal]

IIRC from the explanation they gave in the novel, it took 3 days sublight travel to get there.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[hazardchris]

[Hellcat]

It's out of Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy though I took it off Wookieepedia's article on Echo Base. There is a map in Galaxy Guide 3 of the battle field.

Edit: Go with hazardchris's link, the full version of this pic and much larger.
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FLUFFY for President!!!!

Wanted Poster

[Lostboy]

And of poor resolution when zooming

[hazardchris]

[ZzaphodD]

[hazardchris]

I have some pretty good cross-sections taken from the various books. So, if you're looking for something in particular, let me know.

[ZzaphodD]