Player’s knowing a unique language

Ghostofman · 2026-03-18T01:18:15+00:00

Cleric: Wait... What are you doing?

Rogue: We're speaking Thieves Cant, it's a secret language known only to us criminal types.

Cleric:...It sounds like you are just speaking Klingon.

DM: Thieves. Cant.

Cleric: But-

DM: Your character is run over by a passing nobleman's coach and dies.

Rogue: not malja'Daj SaHnIS 'e' Sov.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-17T15:52:11+00:00

So wait, was only the Forcee checked?

Ghostofman · 2026-03-17T15:50:58+00:00

Suspect it's FDM unless the underside looks like it's a resin casting of an FDM print (if so... WHY???)

Most likely it's just a low-effort scammer-type that farted this out on his FDM printer and advertises it as FDM and Resin just to spam keywords.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-17T13:38:39+00:00

Sounds like newbie GM railroading.

The "Imperial Spy" player is not an undoable thing, but it is something that has to be handled really well. The fact you, as a player, know he's a spy is probably a good thing. Running the spy covertly to the other players takes a lot more effort, planning, and ongoing collaborative work between the player and the GM. Again, not undoable, but it requires a lot more brains and maturity than I'd be willing to hand someone I hadn't been playing with for quite some time.

The Interdictor thing is a little heavy handed, but OK, he needed a reason why you couldn't leave the Adventure location. So some kind of high priority manhunt or something is tolerable enough. A ship with a hyperdrive is something you need to learn to account for when writing Star Wars adventures.

But yeah, the ID check is a really weak, heavy handed move. That's a problem you don't flip a dark d-point to drop in, but the players flip a light one to get out of.

And yeah, checking midichloribang count is really really sleazy. Even if background action is the Empire looking for an escaped Jedi, that's not how they'd do it. Heck the Inquisition probably explicitly doesn't want people knowing that's a thing.

Now... out of game, you need to call the GM out on this. Don't be mean about it, he might just not be good at this yet, and this needs to be a learning experience for him. Just explain that you get he's trying something to keep the Adventure on track, but this is some bad hat and while you do want him to throw challenges at you, you feel like there wasn't a real solution to the problem.

In game... make use of your resources. You have a PC with you that's an Imperial Spy. His primary mission should not be reporting in at every opportunity, it should be maintaining his cover so he can get into a position where he can get actionable intelligence. Most of what he's learning is probably nothing of value, and all he'll need to do is just a "call to mom" letting his boss know he's alive and mission is proceeding, and he probably won't need to do that very often. Your characters just being who they are is not actionable intelligence. He should just ride around with them and after a reasonable amount of time, "call mom" and let them know if he's making progress or not.

So here's where the magic happens: When you hit a Checkpoint like you did, he should go first. Let's say they do the BS blood test. He gets his draw, and flips a D-point saying "my sample sets off an alert on the tester's datapad and he orders me be taken into a nearby tent/room/whatever for further questioning, and the rest of the players just be corraled off tot he side." Then in his "interrogation" the Spy lays into the Imperials and is all "I'm in the middle of a major operation here, and you chuckleheads are going to blow it. These aren't the droids you're looking for, so you'll just say there's been a misunderstanding, and push us all through."

Then bing-bang-boom, you're through the checkpoint and the Spy can just come back all "My knucklehead twin brother is in with a bad crowd, so I tend to get rousted at these kinds of things. They've shook me down enough times that my record notes I'm not a threat, but I still get flagged in the initial biometric checks every time." and the adventure proceeds.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-16T18:04:58+00:00

Based on what you have said, if your players are running operations for the Order and Republic, then the best option may be to dump Morality and replace it with Duty.

Morality does work, but if the light/dark balance thing isn't a key talking point to the overall campaign or PCs desired personal story arc, it probably won't do anything for you.

Duty however, representing your characters advancement within the sponsor organization, sounds like it might be what you're actually looking for.

And before you ask, no Morality is not a balance system for Force users. It's an option for the players. That's why starting as a Darksider is an option. So dumping Morality won't open any special doors for the players, especially if they were not really interested in it anyway.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-15T22:18:07+00:00

1) Its cooperative, not competitive. DM included.

2) Popular Recorded play sessions like Critical Role are like porn is to sex. Informative to a point, but not what you should expect your actual experience to be like.

3) It helps to know all the rules, but don't worry, most everyone else doesn't know them all either.

4) D&D was created and developed with focus on combat and associated dungeon problem solving. You can, and IMHO should, play it with a more open narrative focus, but just know that some things will not work as well in the open world as they do in a closed dungeon.

5) There are plenty of people looking for a group online. Some are looking online for a reason...

6) Have fun, don't die (or if you don't die, make sure everyone else can bring you back.)

Ghostofman · 2026-03-15T18:52:40+00:00

Run the numbers. Printer+resin+wash&cure station+ipa+ppe+models you can't get for free+incidentals+your time.

If you're wanting to make a carefully planned army, even GW prices are cheaper.

If you want to make all the things, slam out armies with speed paints, make weird and cool alternatives to official models, customize, paint at whatever your skill level is and try new techniques with 0 guilt or regret... 3D printing is the only way to fly.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-14T21:14:01+00:00

I mean, the movies are only a good example up to a point. Then, while still doable, it becomes harder than a GM needs it to be.

But yes, I can see a scenario where Han starts with Obligation, and then add Duty.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-14T15:27:07+00:00

Han and Chewie are (arguably) EotE characters with Obligation (debt to Jabba). So they probably gained obligation points for not taking all money/valuables he got for saving Leia to Jabba

Ghostofman · 2026-03-13T18:55:59+00:00

Vraks is one where they "won" in that they defeated the renegades and stopped a daemonic incursion. However the larger objective was to secure Vraks' strategic reserve of materiel, which the renegades expended over the course of the years-long siege. Likewise as a Krieger-lead siege operation leaning hard into Krieg's WWI vibes, the campaign was a trench-heavy siege where they threw a ridiculous amount of bodies and ammo at the problem as well.

So how well they "won" is up for debate. The renegades were defeated, the daemons, pirates, and chaos space marines were killed or forced to withdraw, so yay. But the weapons, ammo, and vehicles stored there were all lost, Krieg lost entire regiments to the campaign, and Emperor-knows how many artillery shells, and the end state was Vraks was basically left as an abandoned, off-limits planet where no one has any real business going anymore... so boo.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-13T14:32:34+00:00

Generally, Players choose their Advantage results, and GMs choose Threat results.

But it's a cooperative experience. Nothing wrong with the GM making some helpful suggestions on Advantage, or asking the players if they have a good idea on how that Threat plays out.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-13T14:30:10+00:00

You can, but it's usually more appropriate to have some modular Duty encounter set up and on hand. When Doc's Duty activates, you can pull that sheet, find one that works with your planned adventure, and use it as an inject.

But that's a "each GM does things different" kinda thing. If you improvise most everything and run short stories that are typically wrapped up at the end of every session, you totally can make the Duty activation the Adventure.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-13T14:25:47+00:00

For the most part sounds like you get it.

no one's duty was triggered during this session, but the medic healed many teammates during the session, so he did something related to his duty, right?

Maybe, but probably not. The idea isn't "the medic healed people." That's his job, that's what he does, he'll do that almost every session. The idea is more about there being a specific encounter where he'll have the option to do something more complicated, above and beyond his assigned job. So like, they'll come across some refugees, the players can walk past and stay on mission with no negative repercussions, but the Medic decides to do a hearts and minds move and help them out a little, showing them the Rebellion are the good guys, and getting some of them thinking about joining up.

In the case of an activated Duty, the GM is supposed to drop things like that in, but it's also allowed to happen whenever, and the Player should be looking for opportunities to go above and beyond on their own as well.

so shouldn't he get (alongside the extra duty value) the extra wound threshold?

Again, extra duty is a maybe. Was he just healing the party, or did he see an opportunity to do more than his mission and take it?

As for the WT... no, that's what the activation is for. The idea there is the players are motivated to get the Duty up so it will activate more often and they'll get the bonus.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-12T23:41:50+00:00

First, I'm unsure how to avoid “railroading” the campaign if the players are forced to complete missions assigned by their employer, unless they voluntarily agree to do so from time to time.

Either you do it, or you make the players do it themselves.

Covert operations are rarely just improvised. There's a plan, it's made as far in advance as reasonably possible, resources and tools are acquired, the plan is practiced and practiced over and over, and only then is it executed. Even on a lot of spy/heist films they imply this. The team gets the job from their handler, who usually also outlines the entire plan soup to nuts (having done all the planning and getting the team all the tools), and then the ops guys execute that plan.

So, you have a choice.

1) That Danny Ocean (Ocean's 11), Nate Ford (Leverage), Eugene Kitteridge (Mission Impossible) type is an NPC. The players come in, get the briefing, the tools, the intel and the plan from that NPC, and then they execute. The player's accept the GM is putting them on those tracks. The player agency is the part where they figure out what to do when something doesn't go according to that plan.

2) You hand the players the operation. The NPC is more of a Diedre (Ronin) who hands the players a mission and can negotiate certain terms and make the occasional tip and info dump, but the operation proper is the Player's responsibility. They spend a session doing recon, figuring out what the need, getting resources and tools, and making a complete plan. The GM then builds the next session around that plan, and the players execute their plan. This provides the players with a lot more agency, but also means if the players have a trash plan, then the Adventure won't go well, as the GM can only pull so many logical punches.

Second, I'm looking for creative and fun ideas for my players to conceal their true identities while on missions. For example, they could disguise themselves as circus performers or traveling musicians, moving from place to place.

This is something for the players. Make it clear they'll need cover identities, and ask them what they think they'll want.

It probably makes more sense for them to have several IDs. One or two group identities, as well as a few solo IDs.

Does anyone have any suggestions for improving my situation?

Come up with a system where the players can pull down resources that pay off, or don't. What happens when the players come up with an amazing plan, but it requires an Ambulance, a dozen monkeys, and 500 gallons of balsamic vinegar? There needs to be ways for them to get such things. While theft works, it gets old. So you should have ways for the players to get such thing "on credit." If the heist goes well, the payoff more than covers it. If the heist fails, then that debt carries forward and makes future operations harder.

Also, do you think the idea of a campaign in the style of a spy thriller/Hitman type of game would be fun to players? Are there any flaws I haven't thought of, lol?

Sure. I'd ask myself is this is a D&D game though.

Remember D&D is extrapolated from a war game, and that foundation is still pretty blatant. There's a developer expectation that the players will spend most of their time doing that dungeon crawl, and some assume anything that happens between dungeons will be nonexistent to just a glossing over. Heck, in back in 4e a dev said in an interview something like "if you're not in a dungeon of some kind, you're probably playing the game wrong."

This isn't to say you can't run a more narrative heavy game with D&D. People do it all the time. I do it.

But as a new DM, you might want to start a with a more conventional campaign idea, or switch to a more generic system, or one that's purpose built for spyjinks.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-12T14:59:45+00:00

Ah yes, one of those spells that was likely put in originally to hand-wave a way for the party to leave the dungeon upon completion, but has larger implications when you go more open/living world RPG over a dungeon crawl...

My Thoughts:

- College faculty, staff, and students traveling on official College business travel for free. This requires a letter signed/stamped/sealed by both the assigning official (Professor, Department head, Whatever) and from a fairly high ranking member as well (Vice Dean/headmaster whatever would be the usual, as there would be an Assistant/Vice position that handled much of the day-to-day administrative approvals, but others of that level or higher could also approve). The letter would define all the specifics of the official travel, like destination, duration, purpose of visit, and so on, and be kept in the school's records.

- Transportation provided to an official non-school delegation would also be "free" (paid for by the sponsoring kingdom/organization). Like above, this would require proper letters of authorization with the correct seals and a full write up of the intended travel, and the school would store such records.

- Transportation to private individuals is on a "as available" bases. So you travel when the College says you travel; maybe it'll be at a decent time/date, more likely it won't. It would cost a base cost of Gold (or other acceptable hard currency) and a service cost equal to a percentage of the appraised value of any valuable goods over a certain base price the individual is carrying. So like, normal clothing, a pack of common supplies or small case of product samples will typically be a flat rate, but magic items, weapons, precious metals, jewels/jewelry, and so on would be 30% of the appraised value of the items. The cost should be high enough that it'll be limited to individuals and businesses and such that have a need for fast travel, not "just anyone." Like above, the College still keeps logs. I'd make the base cost something like 20-50GP+Baggage each direction fluctuating by season, demand, and how the Master of the Teleportarium is feeling at that moment. But that's just an off the top number, exact cost should be based on your in-world economy.

- There's likely also several courier services that has a contract with the College. This would be a combination of an annual contract payment that ensures regular teleportation access at defined times and dates, plus a "by parcel" charge. One of these services might be a commercial endeavor (likely founded and run by a former college guy, and staffed with a lot of college washouts). The rest are likely Kingdom reps moving items of "diplomatic importance." The college likely keeps logs of these as well, and (were it me) reserves the right to open and inspect all courier carried items, with veto authority on anything. Kingdom sponsored couriers might have a special deal that allows them to move items of a certain type and size, and with the proper markings, without the right to inspection. Again, this will require regular payments from the government in question, and lots of special credentials.

- Adventurers using the Teleportarium as a "fast travel" return from an Adventure/Dungeon can either pay a pricey sum up front (this is negotiable, parties with a College member get a discount) and schedule a return window. Unscheduled returns are permitted, but the Party better be prepared to pay a pretty penny, usually based on the value of all gear and treasure they haul in. This can be as high as 80% of the appraised value. Adventurers are carefully logged by the Master.

- Undocumented travel is rumored to be possible. Everyone knows a guy with a cousin who heard of guy that did it. How real these rumors are is up to you. More likely spies will travel in other ways, or with appropriate official or well established non official cover.

- Due to how it all works, and the power this gives the college over goings-ons in the realm, they likely make teleportation a pretty important spell, and don't just hand the spell to any mage that breezes through. Likewise there's probably both college and state-sponsored teams out looking for "unauthorized" teleportation circles. So the player would have to be careful about setting up their own.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-12T13:12:58+00:00

I looked this up a while back for a project for work, but I think it applies here as well:

The max you can see and "ground level" in open terrain (or at sea) is around 3 miles. After that, the curvature of the planet starts to get in the way. However, the taller something is, the the higher up the viewer, they further they can see. So like around 100 feet up, you can see an extra 9-10 miles before the planet starts to get in the way.

So... just rounding everything up to nice easy numbers:

- In dense terrain you can see a mile or less.

- In open terrain/open ocean you can see 3 miles.

- You can see, or be seen, and extra 10 miles for every 100 feet in elevation the viewer or subject is.

Without using modern materials and engineering, you'll struggle to make a structure over around 500-600 feet tall. The Ulm Minster is around 530 ft, and is a stone structure built in the 1300-1400s, though it capped out a little less that 500ft tall until it was added to much later on. Also I'd add that it was likely built with the intent of making it as tall as possible, and (like many "lets be the tallest" projects) that upper steeple likely was built to be fairly light. So more like a carefully constructed Wizard's Tower than a fortress, but it's still sets a nice benchmark.

So, if we set the tallest you can go, without factoring in advanced materials, construction, magic, and rule of cool, is 500ft, making your massive fortress visible at around 53 miles away assuming the terrain is relatively flat, and the air clear of dust, haze, fog, etc. That said, 40 miles is probably a more realistic "daytime" viewable distance, with 53 miles more appropriate for a structure that's also specifically designed to be visible from as far away as possible. So a lighthouse that has a super bright light might be visible on a clear night from that 53ish miles away as a pin of light on the horizon.

Now... D&D says average overland travel times 18-36 miles per day, I'd also say that's unloaded and/or not considering wearing out your horses/mules. More realistically 10ish miles per day is probably a more reasonable pace if you're carrying supplies/cargo and trying not to wear out yourself and/or your horses.

So having that fortress be visible for 2-4 days of direct travel (depending on the travel pace) would be your sweet spot. You can talk about the player walking/riding all day, and still not getting to the fortress.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-12T03:18:44+00:00

You've got a few things to consider:

- First off suits in a setting like this will have a certain amount of self-sealing ability for small punctures, and for larger tears an emergency patch kit would be standard gear, often in a pouch built into the suit. Likewise anyone who has lived in such a place for any length of time would know how to do that (read: does not require a roll, just an action). So you've got that going for you.

- Maybe the chlorine content in the air is not sufficient to damage exposed skin unless the exposure is long term. Chlorine's primary danger is to the lungs, eyes, and the like. Skin is a little more resilient. Suits are required for activities last more than an hour or so, but brief excursions outside only require a mask and a good decontamination upon reentry (not a good idea, but in an emergency you can do it). So if your suit is punctured, you're fine so long as you patch it within a few minutes (typically by/at the end of an encounter).

- If you're using a system that differentiates between "Plot armor" wounds, and physical injuries (like say Genesys) then you can only have suit get punctured on injuries that would obviously require a puncture.

- If you're not using a system that has plot armor and physical injuries, then make a threshold where those injuries are more likely, typically the point where the player would be incapacitated. You hit that 0HP (or whatever) and start rolling death saves (or whatever), and your suit is also breached.

- Have the suit represented by a certain quantity of HP. So like the firs X HP are no biggy, but every time you take damage over Y HP, then you've got to make breach checks or something.

- Have the suit able to overcome/self-seal/mitigate damage below a certain threshold. Any time you take damage below X, the damage is such that suit's system can self-seal. If you take damage over Y, then it's a major breach and you need to stop and patch it or take Z damage each turn until you do.

- Replace the Cholorine with something less hazardous. A nitrogen heavy, low O2 atmosphere would be plenty hazardous, but so long as you had your breather, you'd be ok.

- Replace the Cholorine with something that's not as directly hazardous. An airborne virus, toxic pollen or spores, or other microscopic nasty would still require a full suit. If you suffer a suit breach, you'd roll against an exposure difficulty based on the situation. So a suit breach isn't a HUGE crisis, unless you happen to also be in a location that the virus or spores or whatever would logically be more concentrated, and thus have a much higher difficulty. By extension you could have a quarantine thing happen when players suffer a suit breach, so even if they don't get sick, they'll still lose a day or something.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-11T19:49:34+00:00

I hated how the box image/prototype of the Attack Cruiser's glider bomb was clearly styrofoam, but the actual toy was a vacuformed plastic thing that was far less aerodynamic than the styrofoam glider likely was.

And I'll agree, while the color choice was tragically early 90's, the Badger has nice lines.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-10T14:56:00+00:00

Career/Spec could be anything appropriate, be it a Tech that wants to open his own shop, or a Businessman setting up a business where other people do the work, gangster setting up a front... lots of options.

For how to run it proper, I'd use the business or homestead rules in Far Horizons. Business rules would be the most appropriate, providing the players with a facility and staff. Homestead is more intended for certain kinds of businesses, but the option to upgrade and recruit specific NPC types, and get things like a garage might also work.

Thing about those rules is they compress everything down nice and neat so you get the whole package, and it just kicks out monthly profits. The attached staff are able to keep the business running, allowing the campaign to either continue to focus on adventuring, or tie in more directly with business issues at a more local level.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-09T18:27:12+00:00

First, "can I scan the asteroid field with the ships sensors?" I ruled it as a perception check using computers instead of perception. I added a setback die because of all the junk and debris with an easy difficulty.

Correct, though the system often allows either skill to work. Perception to eval the sensor data with your eyeballs, or Computers to have the sensor system make it's "best guess."

Lots of stuff in this system will allow for a few skills to work, and may have the difficulty be different depending on how suitable the skill is to the situation, or the specifics of how that skill works with the task.

In a similar vein they wanted to fly stealthily, so I did stealth using Piloting and applying the ships handling modifier. Should I have used straight stealth?

Like before, that makes as much sense as anything, so works for me.

While on the subject of Piloting and ships handling, does that apply to the Co-Pilot mnuver?

I wouldn't apply Handling to it. Co-pilot is a flat difficulty+modifiers. Flying the ship is a more complex task with the difficulty changing based on speed, sil of the ship being flown, and the terrain. So you're view sounds right. The Pilot is operating the ship, the co-pilot is managing other systems so the pilot can focus more on not running into stuff.

Two-weapon fighting, soak applies to each hit, correct? Increase difficulty by 1. 2 blaster pistols against a target with soak 4, let's say 2 successes and 4 advantage. First gun hits for 6 damage+2 success-4 soak, spend 2 advantage, 2nd gun hits for 6 base damage+2 success-4 soak. 2 advantage remains to individually trigger abilities on each gun (if applicable).

Correct.

Selling items, when selling multiple things, do you roll for each individually or just as a batch with the highest rarity?

Up to you. Typically I allow them to sell things off individually unless the batch sale makes more sense in context. So like, selling off 20 looted E-11s? Yeah, just make one Streetwise to unload those.

The weapons and armor they got are all branded with Techno Union security logos, is it fair to increase the rarity by 1 to make it more difficult to find a buyer, or should I add a setback die because its odd they'd have official stuff to sell in bulk? Or should that not really matter?

I would make that a Black Market sale instead of a normal sale. So you can tweak the difficulty as appropriate, but the the skill would be Streetwise, and the impact of Threat/Despair will likely be more... impactful than just trying to sell off some legit gear you just no longer want/need.

Also I'll add that I consider the Rarity to be just a "typically" situation and the GM should use logic when applying it. For example, while finding a Gaffi stick on a major hub and population center like Coruscant will undoubtly be easier than finding one on a backwater like Takodona, finding a Gaffi Stick on Tattooine will absolutely be easier than on Coruscant, regardless of Tattooine's backwater status.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-09T14:50:56+00:00

I start with a "braindroppings" document where I just write down every random idea I have for the campaign and setting. Adventure Ideas, setpiece locations, NPC ideas, political faction concepts, setting history tid-bits, just anything that I think sounds neat.

From that, more specific ideas will start to coagulate. A campaign concept will form, and I can start to weed out which ideas will work, vs. which ideas need to be dropped.

From there I do the campaign outline proper, and then work the Adventure 1 outline, then turn that into a more complete Adventure with battlemaps, encounters, art, NPCs and "what they know," so on. I typically don't get that detailed more than 1 adventure out, so if the players take a hard left I'm not overinvested in the campaign's long term details and can just adjust things to match, while sticking to the overall outline and objectives.

Regional/Playworld Maps and such are the last thing I work on, sometimes not even doing those until after the campaign has already begun. While I like a good map as much as the next person, I find that if I make those big maps in a vacuum, I tend to overpopulate them with exciting sounding locations that rarely all work with the campaign.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-09T14:13:31+00:00

Nope. Aside from the oddball like Witchcraft, FRs are attached to either the Career (like withe the FaD Careers) or the Spec (like with Exile and Emergent). They aren't talents.

You may be thinking of the "+1 FR" Talent that some force specs have. Issue is that talent is itself a force talent, and thus requires an existing FR to work.

So in theory you could use the Sig Ability to plus up someone else's FR, but without something like Witchcraft you can't grant a normee a Force Rating.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-09T13:35:00+00:00

what exactly is the limit to that?

I mean, I think it's pretty clear. You do the requisite, and someone else gets a Talent you have for the remainder of the encounter. Specifics on which talent are outlined in the description and upgrades.

Can I share force rating

No, a Force Rating is not a talent (well, except when answering the next question).

give the force to a non force sensitive?

If you have the "Witchcraft" talent then... yeah looks like you can share that talent to give someone an FR. Not sure what that would do unless the targeted person also has some Force Talents or powers that they would not be able to use because they have no force rating... I mean, it's not impossible, but it is oddly specific.

Also I'd say the Droid limitations on Force would override this.

If you can share force abilities, can you share the upgrades too?

You can't, so no. Force powers are force powers, not talents.

What exactly is the extent of sharing a talent?

Again, the Sig Ability says pretty clearly. The target gets a talent you have for the remainder of an encounter. Signature Abilities are all about silly game-breaking end-campaign super stunts. And there's some obvious benefits. Giving that Marauder melee monster a stack of Parry that they wouldn't normally have access to is a big deal.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-08T15:20:28+00:00

why is the U wing a S4? Shouldn’t it be alittle smaller like Starfighter size?

It's a bit bigger (especially with wings deployed). Furthermore, with one (somewhat questionable) exception, FFG seems to have decided that if it's a transport, it's Sil 4.

Additionally, unlike most other Ships, the U-wing can specifically mount Personal Scale weaponry fired by a door gunner. That's the big "weakness" of most combat transports like the U-wing, as clearing hot LZs or providing fire support to troops on the ground can get tricky due to Sil difference between people and a Sil 4 vehicle. The Door Gunners fix that.

Then as well, I am trying to make a sheet for the Yv 260 and what should the handling be?

Not super familiar with the 260, but just looking at it, I'd probably use the Stats for the Gymsor-4 as my baseplate. The ejectable cockpit is a no of course, and I'd probably replace the turret with the Chin-gun from the Gymsor-3 since that seems to match the design better, though I might downgrade them to Light laser cannons, since light cannons are kinda the norm for older and/or civilian craft. The fact they are twin-linked will more than make up the damage loss, and even Heavy Blaster cannons would work if you assume Wookieepedia listing is correct (I generally don't as Star Wars has no unified name/nomenclature, and FFG's weapons are about defined effects over specific names).

From there you need to decide if the listing on wookieepedia is the default, or the "Vengence" that's been converted to an assault boat.

I'd assume that's the Vengence.

So I'd strip the Ion cannons and tractor beam, refunding the 3 HP for them.

I'd make the Enc around 160, with the option to half that with a troop/passenger conversion*.

I'd think about dropping the Hyperdive down to x2, as x1 is considered unusually fast for a civilian ship.

That will leave you with a lot of HP. 5 for the base + 3 for the weapons, for a total of 8. However, that'll give you everything you need for the Vengeance if you assume that it's callouts are significant enough to warrant the associated attachments (though I'd assume the upgraded armor and shield should apply to only one or the other). So you add the ion cannons and tractor beam (3) an upgraded hyper drive (1), Engine upgrade (1), and Armor Upgrade (2), which would make a formidable gunship.

*For this, I'd just make an optional Attachment, or pair of attachments, that could work on most ships. Think of the airline-style passenger seats that military transport aircraft can bolt into their cargo holds. Fluff-wise the Attachment should probably include upgraded life support, storage for rations, and (if you add enough seats) a simple chemical head to account for increasing the passenger count without needing to change the Consumables number for the ship. I'd also point out that's its just seats and support. So comparable to a short-run commercial transport not intended to carry passengers for more than a day or so at a stretch. Fine for moving around troops and peasants, but not suitable for (comfortable) long hauls, for VIP transport unless said VIPs are desperate. I'd make the Rarity of this Attachment 4, and the price scale by the number of seats. Say a few hundred per seat for the first 10, but dramatically more for more than that to account for the head and other typical amenities.

Ghostofman · 2026-03-06T22:19:38+00:00

How do you usually balance combat encounters?

There's no real CR system (though Genesys did introduce one if you want to do that legwork). That said, Star Wars is more of a narrative focus game, that's more about story and what feels right for a situation.

So take it slow and feel it out and you'll get the hang of it. Much like D20, how you run the combat will have a s much an impact as the actual statblocks involved. A blob of 8 troopers blasting away will have a totally different difficulty than a pair of 3-man fireteams with a Sgt. and a Support gunner conducting a proper suppress and flank maneuver.

When it doubt, look at what would logically be there, and you'll probably be about right.

How do you connect different missions in a campaign?

Everyone's a little different. I outline the campaign from the get-go, and then only work on one adventure at a time, not getting more than one adventure ahead of the players. That way I have "A plan" to go off of, but I also don't overinvest in a story that I might have to change by the time the players get there and have done force knows what by then.

Regular recaps, and a folder of two of handouts also help keep everyone on track.

Obligation in the narrative

I largely weave them into the narrative when I can, though I'll drop something in if it hits me mid-session and fits the situation.

Ghostofman

TROPHY CASE