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A Rookie GM's First Outing!
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Ninjaxenomorph
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 12:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Funny thing: In the Legends continuity, I don't believe it was ever explicitly said why the Alliance moves their base off Dantooine. It was kinda implied at the end of The Force Unleashed II that Vader, the Dark Apprentice and Boba Fett found out. However, since that game has such a massive cliffhanger, I am ignoring that issue of continuity. I instead choose to believe it was my players who screwed everything up, and made the rebels start packing.

Anyway, the recap!

This week was a bit scattered, but fun. We started leaving Dantooine; the group extorted 500 credits out of Dia (paid by the Alliance). At this point, they said it was a tradition to fly the first voyage as a passenger. However, instead of heading straight back to Cervon, they headed to Broadwing outpost, to see if they could sell information to the Imperials. When it was clear they wouldn't be paid in advance, the officer running the bounty office called in Stormtroopers to arrest Gozu for selling the datacore to the rebel slicer, all the way back in session 2. Gozu was unsuccessfully interrogated for several hours ("I tell them about every single piece of scrap I've sold in my life!"). After taking a few hits from the torture device, he was let go. In the meantime, the ship got a communique from the Ryvern guild, saying to report back ASAP.

At Cervon, they were called in to debrief. After the last session, I told the players if they could write, in-character, a report to the Guild, they would get extra CP. Only Gozu's player did so (statement on Dia: "Obvious rebel spy is obvious."), so I based the conclusion the leadership reached off of that. However, there was insufficient evidence to turn in to the Imperials. Also, Mugask was served with a notice for Bounty Hunter Sensitivity Training. I tried to make it sound as unpleasant as possible.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party got to doing other things. Gozu was being paid to modify the weapons for Mrassh, who got some additional weapons, including a net launcher. Prova and Dia looked for some money-making opportunities; Dia found she could dance at the compound's bar, and both of them found a temporary job training the new recruits. As part of a live acquisition exercise. This was fuuuun. They both were put in what was basically a huge fire practice arena, in a shack. Their job was to fend off the newbie hunters with their weapons (all set to stun). The first guy caught them off guard with a stun grenade, but Dia stunned him before he could get another one off. They looted more stun grenades and a rifle off him. The next three were different: two rushed them, while another stayed far off to snipe. Prova caught him with her own blast rifle (which she had purchased), while Dia missed the two rushing. One was put down, but the other hunter stunned both of them. They were paid a decent amount daily for this, and did this for two weeks; I think the final paycheck was in the realm of 7000 each.

When Mugask was taken to Sensitivity Training, he was told to leave behind all his gear, and come wearing only a white robe that was given to him. When he walked in, there were about 20 other hunters, and an Ithorian, Joon, at the front. Joon asked the trandoshan to sit, which he refused. Then Joon YELLED at him, with the four throats. Mugask sat. I told Mugask's player that the week passed by, and it involved never getting to leave the room, and some activities were meditation, deep breathing exercises, team-building, and waterboarding.

The team decided they needed to make more money, as per usual. I said the Great Hunt still needed dangerous creatures; Church suggested they go to Ryloth and get Lyleks. I looked up lyleks and I was enthralled; the group decided to go. I had them arrive at Kala'uun spaceport, from a sourcebook. After getting some information on where a lylek nest might be, they shipped off to the brightlands to catch one; they found a cave system and were ambushed while exploring it. Fortunately, Church used a stun grenade on it before anyone was hurt; they dragged it back to the ship (occasionally blasting it with a stun, to be safe), and set it up in a force cage the Guild had provided. Gozu tried to whip up a sedative, and told Mrassh to use it on Church, which he did. After the act of aggression, Church blasted Mrassh in the face, which was soaked. Mrassh, seemingly taking his sensitivity training to heart, fired in between them and broke up the fight. Next session I will be informing them that anyone that gets involved with PvP will start getting dark side points. The party found another lylek, but Mugask blew it apart with his heavy repeater. We wrapped up the session after that.

Next session, I plan to have them capture the rest of the lyleks needed, Gozu plans on taking on some Jawa apprentices (he is starting GozuTech; his modifications now bear the proud logo), and I have planned a new bounty/heist: a Zann Consortium crime boss, who lives in a heavily defended skyscraper. Wanted dead.
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DougRed4
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 1:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I literally laughed out loud at a few points (waterboarding, sensitivity training, "I tell them about every single piece of scrap I've sold in my life!"). Great stuff, as always! Laughing
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 2:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Same here. Though as a q.. What book is this "Apc" heavy repeater from, and how the heck is it man portable?
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Ninjaxenomorph
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 12:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

An ACP Repeater I pulled from the Rancor Pit Weapons PDF; its a Trandoshan weapon. It is man-portable, though just barely.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 12:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I see it now, under particle weaponry.
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Ninjaxenomorph
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 9:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm thinking of lifting my moratorium on force users/Jedi/lightsabers. If they play one, provides some variation for the combat, and also gives me a little bit of control.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 3:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

How will you handle training/masters for them if you do? Are you going to have 2-3 old jedi come a crawling out of the wood work for the pc to train under, or hide them so well, the pc won't find any?
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Ninjaxenomorph
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 12:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, there are plenty of solutions. Seek training from existing jedi (ones I make and have planned already, plus ones such as Rahm Kota). On a more serious note, I have been considering ending 'Episode I' of this campaign after this mission. It would give me more time to plan out the rest of the campaign, players can retire characters and make new ones if they want, there can be progress towards goals.
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DougRed4
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 1:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Allowing Jedi does add a whole new element to your game. I think they (Jedi) are really balanced by the limitations they are under (the Jedi code), as opposed to more "gray" characters (fringers, outlaws, smugglers, etc.) who can get away with much more without worrying about it.

But the Force abilities (and let's face it, lightsabers are just the coolest weapons ever) really add a new dimension to things. Just be careful with some of them. Lightsaber Combat, for example, is just way too powerful as written.
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Zarn
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 2:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Don't know whether I agree with Lightsaber Combat is way too powerful in RAW. Or rather, I'm pretty sure I don't, given that I'm writing this.

I built two moderately competent Jedi. They got up to moderately competent shenanigans, used their lightsabers as multitools (everything can be solved by cutting if you've got an universal cutting tool - if it can't, you didn't cut enough). They had their pretty bog standard Y-wings, they realized getting a freighter would likely be more comfortable than sitting rank and sweaty inside a cockpit for two weeks, and so on - and then the third player joined the group.

A Mandalorian. Built on the same amount of points as the other two, but entirely skipping Force powers (naturally).

She (!) came to the rescue while the guys were cooperating on taking down a combat droid, and worrying on the five others that were there. Round one; door gets kicked open, she pulls out a giant hogleg of a space revolver, and pops off three shots (an Enforcer or whatever the overpowered revolver was - I think something like 6D+2 in damage).

Three droids down - one shot each. The Jedi manage to slice and dice enough that one droid goes down. Much rejoicing.

Round two. She goes over to the last droid, kicks it in the chest so that it falls down, grabs her vibroblade, and plants it in the chest of the droid. Combat over.

Two slightly stunned Jedi suddenly realized that they had spent a lot of effort in getting enough dice into their Force skills, lightsaber, lightsaber repair and so on - enough that someone with a different emphasis would have positively obscene dice codes in a handful of carefully selected skills.

They also decided to keep in the good graces of the lady, because if she wanted to, she could smack them like ... well, all the expressions I can think of right now are not fitting for a public forum, but let's stick with something smackable.


Last edited by Zarn on Mon May 13, 2019 1:20 pm; edited 1 time in total
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 5:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Did you use training time rules for how long it takes to raise a skill (1 week per CP spent)?
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Ninjaxenomorph
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Me? The group spend so much time in transit, it didn't come up. They mostly abided by the rule that if you used the skill that scenario, it doesn't incur a training time.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 5:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That was more to zarn.
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DougRed4
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Zarn wrote:
Don't know whether I agree with Lightsaber Combat is way too powerful in RAW. Or rather, I'm pretty sure I don't, given that I'm writing this.

I built two moderately competent Jedi. They got up to moderately competent shenanigans, used their lightsabers as multitools (everything can be solved by cutting if you've got an universal cutting tool - if it can't, you didn't cut enough). They had their pretty bog standard Y-wings, they realized getting a freighter would likely be more comfortable than sitting rank and sweaty inside a cockpit for two weeks, and so on - and then the third player joined the group.

A Mandalorian. Built on the same amount of points as the other two, but entirely skipping Force powers (naturally).

She (!) came to the rescue while the guys were cooperating on taking down a combat droid, and worrying on the five others that were there. Round one; door gets kicked open, she pulls out a giant hogleg of a space revolver, and pops off three shots (an Enforcer or whatever the overpowered revolver was - I think something like 6D+2 in damage).

Three droids down - one shot each. The Jedi manage to slice and dice enough that one droid goes down. Much rejoicing.

Round two. She goes over to the last droid, kicks it in the chest so that it falls down, grabs her vibroblade, and plants it in the chest of the droid. Combat over.

Two slightly stunned Jedi suddenly realized that they had spent a lot of effort in getting enough dice into their Force skills, lightsaber, lightsaber repair and so on - enough that someone with a different emphasis would have positively obscene dice codes in a handful of carefully selected skills.

They also decided to keep in the good graces of the lady, because if she wanted to, she could smack them like ... well, all the expressions I can think of right now are not fitting for a public forum, but let's stick with something smackable.


We've had a few discussions here about Lightsaber Combat, and it seemed to be pretty well agreed that it was overpowered. It certainly would be if I allowed my Jedi to have it (a Knight and a Padawan). But then - to be fair - I think Jedi as per RAW are way too weak (compared to what we see in the films). WEG clearly only allowed for much weaker Jedi to balance them out with the rest of the PC options, and thus they made things like students of the Force or Quixotic/Failed Jedi as explanations for why they're so underwhelming.

But in my game, I wanted to allow the Jedi to be pretty much what you saw in the films (equivalent of Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, etc.). So his Sense, Alter, and Control are more like 6D each. That's balanced out by the really strict code they live by, though they are incredible deadly in a fight. Adding Lightsaber Combat (and a few others) just was over the top. I also vetoed Combat Sense (well, I modified it), and the Jedi Knight player (on his own) has become uncomfortable with some other powers (like Battle Meditation) due to the way it allowed him to slaughter so many so quickly.

But that takes things a bit O/T. Don't mean to hijack your thread, Ninja! Embarassed
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Ninjaxenomorph
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 12:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The recap of the last two sessions! Knew I forgot something.

The next session began with the group still on Ryloth, and they went to capture another two Lyleks, which they succeeded at. Mrash's player was gone, since he had gotten a new job; I gave his character to Mugask's player in the meantime. In the meanwhile, Gozu recruited some Jawa apprentices for GozuTech from the local population. They returned to Cervon, where they got a healthy 6,000 per head, and spend a significant portion of the session buying and upgrading gear. Then I sprang the Hunter's new job on them: a hit on a Zann Consortium crime boss on Nar Shaddaa: his head was worth 20,000, with 6 art objects worth 2,000 each as a secondary target.

When they arrived and spoke to the informant (a detective hired by the poster), they found that he lived and operated out of a skyscraper, with anti-starship turrets mounted on it. What's more, he was a recluse (I couldn't come up with a good justification for the poster not knowing what he looks like, but I arrived at the conclusion that the poster had a retinal scan), and had Wookie bodyguards. The group felt intimidated, and tried thinking of ways to get out of the hunt; fortunately, they were not serious as it turned out.

Mrash was again gone this week, on his new job. Since I am wrapping up the game next session, I ruled he was recalled. For more Sensitivity Training. I unfortunately let the other hunter have his gear, including the ACP Repeater. This came back to bite me later. In addition, Dia was gone; I told players she was out doing infiltration work.

The group seemed much more willing this week to go after the bounty. Their plan: Use an old terminal to find the building's blueprints, and upload a virus if possible. Use a speeder to land on the roof, fight their way into the building with stun gas while they set the speeder to go down and explode at the entrance. The group starts following up this plan; everything goes pretty much smoothly. They are ambushed by vrblthers, Nar Shaddaa undercity predators, while hacking, but fight them off, no worse for wear. The plan doesn't run into any major problems, only minor hiccups. There is a brief firefight with the guards on the roof (I forgot to have them fire! They did, however, have them raise the alarm across the building, so there is an alert in place). Church burns through roof, into the central elevator shafts, and they go down to the 50th floor (from the 80th floor roof). When they get there, the elevator opens, with four guards, who promptly soak a lot, but ultimately get mowed down. It was interesting when Gozu had B0B tear open the emergency hatch, and throw a guard out (complete with Wilhelm scream). We ended the session there, to be picked up the next week.

As you may have picked up, this next session will be the last for this Episode; with classes, my schedule has become too hectic for GMing, and the quality has suffered. I plan to introduce a bunch of hooks tomorrow, however. Quinn Tianni, a mysterious asteroid mining and droid manufacturing magnate, has noticed GozuTech's research into an independent space station base of operations, and has offered to sponsor him... provided he lends his expertise to some of his projects. The Great Hunt is gearing up. Alderaan (and the Death Star) will be destroyed, stirring up politics: Dia will be cut off from any support she had. A former squadmate of Church, who is now an Imperial stormtrooper (actually a Darktrooper), will give meet his old friend and give him a simple note: 'Madlyn alive. Inquisitor Rosst has her.' Prova's payment schedule will be shifted up a few notches...
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