After the last conversation yes i had an idea that you would do just that but left it to you to try. I guess it would have been out of character for you to do differently.
Well, if you knew it would happen why do it?
And no, you didn't let me "try". You pulled the plug by making another PC behave in a way the player would not have. Paladin would have backed my play even if it were suicidal.
Who the hell knows. We could have always rolled well. We might have won. Hell, we SHOULD have won at least in that first corridor.
Given time? It takes about a week to do what would take maybe 15 minutes in a face-to-face game session. The party isn't even on the same planet yet.
This medium is more like a LARP than a PnP format. Skill increases and character progression is far more minimal than in a MMORPG or PnP. Campaigns far shorter lived in terms of game terms. You don't need to worry about overpowered PCs developing and how to keep a campaign going for years. If there is interest it'll do that anyway and the PCs won't actually change that much because any one mission takes months.
There's a SR mission that has lasted about three real time years now on one of the SR boards. A team has to penetrate a building and do an extraction without being seen. One mission. No karma awards, no new toys or gear (except what they find in the building), just an interesting puzzle that they've been working on. I think they're close to done.
Something of an extreme case perhaps but this medium is sloooow unless you do a lot of handwaving.
If the Imperials are the protagonists then you really don't need players do you? No, the PCs are the protagonists (principle characters in a story, champions, etc). NPCs are the setting, the opponents.
Outnumbered is a common occurance for PCs. Vastly outskilled typically should not be...because PCs are usually outnumbered.
These are stormtroopers for christ sakes. Cannon fodder in white "shoot me now" armor made of paper mache...I don't think I've seen that armor stop a blaster shot yet in any of the movies...heck Ewoks with ROCKS beat them up. ROCKS! From little furry guys with spears!
We can't beat a few asshats that furry little guys with rocks can beat? We suck. We suck bad. Thanks for pointing that out. Ador Tallon is depending on us. ROFL. That guy is SO doomed.
Bounty Hunter is a badass? Sure. I can buy that...he's the recurring bad guy. He gets away because he has the same kind of "luck" and abilities as a PC. He's like our own personal Vader.
Yes, not everything needs to be a confrontation.
But here is a ex-lover of a PC who captured by the Imperials as a spy. A uniformed spy. AKA Traitor of the Worst Kind. Who just shot a blackshirt.
Lemme see, going by the movies she gets a) thrown in a detention cell with a torture bot b) pumped for information via drugs and pain and c) terminated when her usefulness is over. If she doesn't have the willpower of Leia she breaks. Likely relatively soon. So "C" happens not to far in the future. Unless rescued.
"Many Bothans Died" indicates that the Empire doesn't keep captured spies around very long. Heck, the princess, a Senator (well ex-Senator) wasn't going to be kept around long.
If that isn't a need for confrontation there never is.
Time is ticking unless the characters can
depend on the Empire behaving in a way other than what is described in canon material. How do they
depend on that?
How long to Tatooine? How long to do whatever the mission is? How long to grind enough "levels" so one lousy squad of stormtroopers and a couple bounty hunters (who likely isn't Boba Fett since he CAN'T be killed or we break continuity with the movies) doesn't require GM intervention to "save" the party?
Think of it as "she's dead unless we save her now". The "longer term solution" is a memorial service at some rebel base somewhere.
To leave the station is for the character to decide to "write her off" because there is no assurance that she is going to last out the week. Didn't we just HAVE this discussion?
Omid isn't going to "write her off". Period. He's going back in. As GM you set up the scenario where he has no other choice.
Kill him if need be. But I sure as hell ain't playing a character that
you gave an ex-lover that he is supposed to still have feelings for whom he has to go "Oh look she's captured...she's likely going to die a pain filled death...oh well...lets go to Tatooine to rescue a
superfluous tactician...la la la". I mean the situation is so bizarrely wrong its starting to be hilarious. Screw the redundant general...I'm getting the babe out first.
I'm sure George would approve. This is Star Wars after all...some guy turns to the darkside, destroys the Republic and kills all the Jedi over a chick.
Vinea