A Ragtag Band of Wanna-Be Jedis on a Spice Run?

[Davwapoqui 4]

Although this topic might fall better in the EofE Message Board, I'm asking here b/c this is the forum I consider home & our PCs are all Force Sensitives.

 

So, in order to provide our table with as complete a Star Wars experience as possible, I've combined Force & Destiny w/the Beginner Games of Edge of Empire & Age of Rebellion.

 

Now our PCs find themselves indebted to the Mos Shutta Cantina owner (who works for Teemo the Hutt) to smuggle a load of Carsunum Spice from the Sevarcos II System to Tattoine. As Sevarcos II is under constant Imperial blockade, I figure this will be quite challenging for the PCs, but otherwise I'm sort of at a loss for additional complications for our Force Sensitives.

 

Could anyone provide some tips on how to run this episode of our campaign?

 

Thanks, y'all.

[Magnus Arcanus 559]

Although this topic might fall better in the EofE Message Board, I'm asking here b/c this is the forum I consider home & our PCs are all Force Sensitives.

 

So, in order to provide our table with as complete a Star Wars experience as possible, I've combined Force & Destiny w/the Beginner Games of Edge of Empire & Age of Rebellion.

 

Now our PCs find themselves indebted to the Mos Shutta Cantina owner (who works for Teemo the Hutt) to smuggle a load of Carsunum Spice from the Sevarcos II System to Tattoine. As Sevarcos II is under constant Imperial blockade, I figure this will be quite challenging for the PCs, but otherwise I'm sort of at a loss for additional complications for our Force Sensitives.

 

Could anyone provide some tips on how to run this episode of our campaign?

 

Thanks, y'all.

 

So just how morally conflicted do those Force Users feel about breaking the law (even if it is Imperial Law) and smuggling drugs for crime lords?

[Davwapoqui 4]

 

Although this topic might fall better in the EofE Message Board, I'm asking here b/c this is the forum I consider home & our PCs are all Force Sensitives.

 

So, in order to provide our table with as complete a Star Wars experience as possible, I've combined Force & Destiny w/the Beginner Games of Edge of Empire & Age of Rebellion.

 

Now our PCs find themselves indebted to the Mos Shutta Cantina owner (who works for Teemo the Hutt) to smuggle a load of Carsunum Spice from the Sevarcos II System to Tattoine. As Sevarcos II is under constant Imperial blockade, I figure this will be quite challenging for the PCs, but otherwise I'm sort of at a loss for additional complications for our Force Sensitives.

 

Could anyone provide some tips on how to run this episode of our campaign?

 

Thanks, y'all.

 

So just how morally conflicted do those Force Users feel about breaking the law (even if it is Imperial Law) and smuggling drugs for crime lords?

 

Great question. Right now the players are more concerned about the increase in Obligation incurred by failing to attend to the debt they acquired as a result of their efforts to escape Mos Shutta and the threat of Teemo's bounty looming over their heads. For some reason, the prospect of a bounty hunter trailing them across the galaxy inspires a great deal of concern. At this point, Conflict hasn't yet entered either the conversation or their minds apparently. Either way, they can afford to gain some Conflict. Unfortunately, all players at this table are deeply fearful of falling to the Dark Side, and they play their PCs that way too.

[Magnus Arcanus 559]

 

 

Although this topic might fall better in the EofE Message Board, I'm asking here b/c this is the forum I consider home & our PCs are all Force Sensitives.

 

So, in order to provide our table with as complete a Star Wars experience as possible, I've combined Force & Destiny w/the Beginner Games of Edge of Empire & Age of Rebellion.

 

Now our PCs find themselves indebted to the Mos Shutta Cantina owner (who works for Teemo the Hutt) to smuggle a load of Carsunum Spice from the Sevarcos II System to Tattoine. As Sevarcos II is under constant Imperial blockade, I figure this will be quite challenging for the PCs, but otherwise I'm sort of at a loss for additional complications for our Force Sensitives.

 

Could anyone provide some tips on how to run this episode of our campaign?

 

Thanks, y'all.

 

So just how morally conflicted do those Force Users feel about breaking the law (even if it is Imperial Law) and smuggling drugs for crime lords?

 

Great question. Right now the players are more concerned about the increase in Obligation incurred by failing to attend to the debt they acquired as a result of their efforts to escape Mos Shutta and the threat of Teemo's bounty looming over their heads. For some reason, the prospect of a bounty hunter trailing them across the galaxy inspires a great deal of concern. At this point, Conflict hasn't yet entered either the conversation or their minds apparently. Either way, they can afford to gain some Conflict. Unfortunately, all players at this table are deeply fearful of falling to the Dark Side, and they play their PCs that way too.

 

 

Then I think you've got some wonderful opportunities here. The PCs are concerned about possible bounties on their heads, so they are taking selfish (but not necessarily evil) actions as a result. But they are also worried of falling to the Dark Side. Perhaps what you can do here is give hints about the repercussions their selfish actions may bring, and the conflict it causes within their souls. It will of course all depend on how 'dark' or 'heavy' you want your game to be, but you could drop hints about how addictive the spice is, or how the withdraw symptoms of the spice can cause death in the user. Or maybe when they are making the covert insertion to the manufacturing facility they see the evidence of slave labor being used to produce the drug. 

 

Use these elements to juxtapose the PCs desire to avoid a bounty versus the pain and suffering smuggling this drug may cause. Their choices could be on the one hand avoiding the anger of a Hutt crime lord (or perhaps even making this entity a profitable ally), but causing them to skirt the edges of falling to the dark side. Don't be afraid to hand out significant conflict if that is what it takes to really hammer home the moral dilema. Conflict isn't only earned by just using dark colored force pips on force checks, nor is 'ignorance' a defense (e.g. "But I didn't know the illegal narcotic drug could be lethal! How come I got 10+ conflict for smuggling it!?").

[Lareg 367]

 

 

nor is 'ignorance' a defense (e.g. "But I didn't know the illegal narcotic drug could be lethal! How come I got 10+ conflict for smuggling it!?").

That's one of the most stupid things i've ever read here, barring ErikB nonsense.

Giving 10+ conflict from smuggling spice is ridiculous, even if you are smuggling deathsticks. That penalty is for murder or torture and  smuggling spice is most definitely not murder or torture. I suggest to definitely reduce the possible penalty, if there needs to be a penalty at all. I don't recall the conflict table ever mentioning smuggling openly. It can be worked in  by other means (stealing for example, or property destruction during a chase or an esacape) but even then it's way lower than what you are suggesting. 

I also think that being heavy handed with conflict on players that are terrified of falling to the darkside is the perfect way to stifle them and make their characters good two shoes jedi that don't do anything remotely conflictual for fear of the morality loss. 

Discovering that the spice is refined by slaves in a factory is a good idea though. And in general creating moral dilemmas related to the morality of the players is very good, but it only works if they aren't afraid of taking conflict.

[Decorus 672]

Probably 5 for smuggling Spice depends on which one.

Some of them actually have legit uses, but the Empire has made it almost impossible to get legally.

[Magnus Arcanus 559]

 

 

 

nor is 'ignorance' a defense (e.g. "But I didn't know the illegal narcotic drug could be lethal! How come I got 10+ conflict for smuggling it!?").

That's one of the most stupid things i've ever read here, barring ErikB nonsense.

Giving 10+ conflict from smuggling spice is ridiculous, even if you are smuggling deathsticks. That penalty is for murder or torture and  smuggling spice is most definitely not murder or torture. I suggest to definitely reduce the possible penalty, if there needs to be a penalty at all. I don't recall the conflict table ever mentioning smuggling openly. It can be worked in  by other means (stealing for example, or property destruction during a chase or an esacape) but even then it's way lower than what you are suggesting. 

I also think that being heavy handed with conflict on players that are terrified of falling to the darkside is the perfect way to stifle them and make their characters good two shoes jedi that don't do anything remotely conflictual for fear of the morality loss. 

Discovering that the spice is refined by slaves in a factory is a good idea though. And in general creating moral dilemmas related to the morality of the players is very good, but it only works if they aren't afraid of taking conflict.

 

 

No please, tell me how you really feel!

 

Note my comment had nothing to do with earning conflict for smuggling. It had every thing to do with earning conflict for drug running, and the drug in question is not only illegal, it is known to kill its users when coming off the high. Not saying I would award 10+ conflict automatically. But I think there could be justification for high conflict gain, especially if it the drug running is being done for selfish reasons.

 

And to be fair, my comment was supposed to be a bit of hyperbole. Basically what I was trying to say is no player should be able to get out of some conflict being awarded because they "didn't know" drug running/drug dealing might be bad for the end user.

[Magnus Arcanus 559]

Probably 5 for smuggling Spice depends on which one.

Some of them actually have legit uses, but the Empire has made it almost impossible to get legally.

 

And I think the reason they are drug running should matter. If they are doing it for a quick score of credits that is worth more conflict versus because they are being blackmailed/strong armed into it.

[downlobot 9]

If it helps, when my pcs ran spice they ended up landing in a 3 way fight between the local hutt forces, the local black sun type forces, and the imperials. The hutts and black sun both wanted the spice, the imperials wanted to eliminate the criminal elements. I used the opportunity to introduce a 'noble' imperial, who wanted the pcs help getting the spice off the street. They had choices for who to deal with, who to betray, and lots of questions about who might betray them. They also didn't know at first they were running spice, so the question of conflict was a little less complicated, but how they responded was a factor.

[bradknowles 4,449]

Hmm. So, maybe a vital component of the drug being smuggled can only be provided by organic beings who are using another drug? And their blood (or other bodily fluids) have to be extracted in large quantities in order to be refined into the drug? So, the slaves are also the “factories” in a sense?

What if the slaves have to die in order to produce the final component? Maybe there’s just a small gland in the brain that has to be extracted, and to retain maximum freshness it should be removed without anesthesia, after which the patient necessarily dies because they don’t have that gland any more?

[Decorus 672]

And your point is?

I'm not seeing how smuggling an already made batch past imperial customs to people who will sell it to people has any bearing on the people doing the smuggling. Its already made, if they don't smuggle it someone else will and more people may die as a result of what happens. The bottom line is people will continue to make it, smuggle it and sell it. Smuggling or not Smuggling it does nothing to prevent the manufacture and sale of it. No matter what the Jedi do they will have literally no effect on the drug trade positive or negative.

 

Lets say they are moving a perfectly legit cargo of high fashion silk robes. The animals used in making those robes are kept in pens, treated horribly and usually end up dying after months of torture and neglect the silk is then processed in a sweat shop where children are forced to make the robes for 16 hours a day as slave labor in terrible condition chained to machines often dying from exhaustion. Do the Jedi obtain conflict from transporting this cargo?

Edited December 29, 2016 by Decorus

[Davwapoqui 4]

"...you could drop hints about how addictive the spice is, or how the withdraw symptoms of the spice can cause death in the user. Or maybe when they are making the covert insertion to the manufacturing facility they see the evidence of slave labor being used to produce the drug. 

 

Use these elements to juxtapose the PCs desire to avoid a bounty versus the pain and suffering smuggling this drug may cause."

 

Thanks! I like this a lot!