First time running a 1E adventure: Tatooine Manhunt

[Raven Redstar]

So, this week I'm going to be running my first 1E game. Although using the Classic Adventures reboot.

It's going to be a solo game, and I was trying to figure out a decent way to introduce the player to the game system. I decided, rather than putting in a boatload of effort to custom designing the adventure from the ground up, I'm going to give one of the canned adventures a shot.

My player has expressed interest in playing a bounty hunter in the Classsic Rebellion Era, but he's expressed little interest in joining up with the Rebellion, at least so far in our discussions about his character. So, I was thinking about possibly having the Empire make him a rebel through some gentle off-screen guiding.

So, I've decided that I'm going to run Tatooine Manhunt, where he's attempting to "capture" Tallon without realizing that he's working for the Rebellion. His bounty which (will be significant) will be under the stipulation that his mark be brought in alive and unharmed. And, as such he will be competing with Imperial Bounty Hunters which are trying to bring Tallon in to ultimately be tortured and killed.

Being that First Edition was much less gear oriented than later editions, I was wondering what advice any more experienced 1E GMs have found with regards to giving players a decent amount of money pretty early into the game.

I was thinking that I'd give him enough to possibly get a freighter so he can operate in the galaxy at large by simply doing a huge service to the Rebellion in the first place.

Any ideas or suggestions for running Tatooine Manhunt for a single bounty hunter with maybe an NPC side kick?
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RR
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[Whill]

[Raven Redstar]

Thanks for the reply, Whill!

I was thinking that cash payout would be the carrot at the end of the adventure to kind of kick start the campaign.

So far, I've sort of decided that Alliance payout will be either 40,000 credits in cash or a used VCX-100 Freighter (valued at approx 65,000). Versus 20,000 for the Imperial bounty with half of that being taken up in administrative fees. (My way of deterring him from breaking faith on the contract.)

Right now, I'm going back and forth between a servant droid (with some skill upgrades) or a Loyal Retainer type NPC sidekick. Either will have adequate (Professional level) piloting skills along with some supportive skills like computers and medicine. I've been leaning a bit more toward the droid, because it feels more Star Wars. Not to mention, the droid can be rebuilt by the PC if he happens to be unceremoniously gunned down.

I'm looking forward to having some of the Imperial Bounty hunters end up as recurring rivals in future games.

I hadn't really thought about upgrading the template's gear, but I may give him a suit of Bounty Hunter armor to increase his chances of survival.
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RR
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[Whill]

[Raven Redstar]

[Giant Tourtiere]

Here is what I would do.

The Rebels offer a ship as their bounty. They don't have cash, but they can offer something in trade. The Imperials offer $$$. They players picks which is more attractive to their character.

If they go with the Imperial offer, now *you* have a choice. You could either play the long game for getting them to support the Rebels by having the bounty hunter get a series of increasingly awful jobs hunting down subversives and terrorists. Hopefully the player starts to balk a little, and their Imperial contact points out that these concerns are the kind of things he'd expect to hear from some kind of bantha-licking traitor ('You're not a traitor, are you, citizen?') and on it goes until the player probably decides the Imperials are terrible and/or are about to execute him and flips.

If you don't mind being more railroad-y (and you think your player will forgive you for it; some players *hate* being railroaded) then you just tack on something at the end of Tatooine Manhunt. Adar Tallon has been brought in and turned over to the Imperials, and now there's one last part of the orders to carry out. Tallon worked much better for the Empire as a dead war hero than a dissident who faked his death and went into hiding over his objections to the New Order, and the Imperials would like to keep it that way. Therefore all knowledge that he was ever alive, and had to be brought in by bounty hunters, needs to be erased. Including this successful bounty hunter.

After some kind of desperate escape from the Imperials (possibly including rescuing Tallon after all?) this character/player has learned something about the Empire and, again, maybe wants to join the Rebellion, and in any case you can now drop that sweet Imperial bounty on them.
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Clever stratagems are quite beyond my powers, but if it is rank foolishness you require, I have no end of it.

[Raven Redstar]

Great ideas. Maybe I will just let the player choose, and see where it leads us.
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RR
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[Zulgyan]

I am prepping this adventure for tomorrow's game. Should I give the party the 10,000 credits suggested by the module in addition to the starting credits provided by the character templates??

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Zulgyan]

Yeah, I'm realizing it's quite an involved adventure. The thing is, its the one included in the Classic Adventures package and all is there conveniently laid out run it. The adventure is quite railroady in many sections, so I don't think new players will be at a total loss. They'll just react to what happens as I guide them along. 2 players have joined the game that have more experience with RPGs. I think that with 18+ years of D&D DMing I can pull it off. But it's challenging start for sure.

Thanks for the tips. To make things easier for them, I'll give them the 10,000 credits.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Whill]

I do agree that "Rebel Breakout" is a good simple basic introduction to the game. I've ran that a couple times for first time players of the game.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Zulgyan]

What about the cut scenes to the Star Destroyer Relentless? I'm used to D&D where the "camera" never leaves the party. How do this scenes not really known by the characters work in practice? I do see the added tension of knowing as players what the bad guys are up to, but what about roleplaying the characters with information they do not have? Maybe it will be just a case of "having a bad feeling about this..."

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]