Star Wars - The Covenant of Shadows
Game Master Camris

A cargo bay just big enough so that it can be converted into a hangar bay for a few very small star-fighters? :)

We get attacked and three of us jump in our mini-snub fighters and blast off like a swarm of hornets protecting their hive.

Desh's vote is that the ship itself be tough and fast with the ability to put some gun emplacements on it. (ya know... like Desh is)

I'm all for putting gun emplacements on Desh. What, quad turbo-lasers? Ion cannons?

Ha! Then I could get some little jaw a gunners to sit on my shoulders.

Uteedeeeee!

I'm loving this plan!

Upgrading your starship is one of the fun things about the SW setting.

Agreed!

Quick question to the crew.
Who among you are fighter pilots?

Baniss is an ok pilot but he's not proficient in heavy weapons. Planning to get Vehicular Combat at lvl 9.

I'm not a trained pilot but I am prof with Heavy Weapons.

Me, me!

I can astrogate, be a shield operator or regulate power but I'm no good at either piloting or as a gunner.

Jeriko can fighter pilot. He's got pilot and spacehound as a talent, which gave him proficiency with starship weapons.

Looks up spacehound... Hmm a way to be a fighter pilot next lvl... I'll probably wait till lvl9 still. Seems Bolt, Juce and Baniss would make a good team to operate the Yellow Truck...

And yes, I did change the ship a little. This is a ship class I had deck plans for. Those of you who remember the old Space Opera game may remember it.

Desh is a pilot, though he doesn't have the quickest reflexes. And he's proficient with Heavy Guns, so he's good on his own or as someone's gunner. :)

He tends to prefer tough ships with good targeting computers.

I like the ship layout, btw, Camris.

The. Ship. Is. Awesome.

The. Ship. Is. Awesome.

Agreeified!

** spoiler omitted **

And yes, I did change the ship a little. This is a ship class I had deck plans for. Those of you who remember the old Space Opera game may remember it.

Sorry for the delay. I think I left him behind, his dying words were telling me to take the ship as my own.

Six can Pilot (+12) AND use Heavy Weapons (+9), but alas - is not trained in Astrogation. If only they had droids for that kind of... Heeeeyy!!!!!!!!!!!

lol

Disco Inferno baby!

LOL!!

OK, looks like a heist. Bear with me as it's going to take some time to set up.
Meanwhile, do you have an idea of the particular roles you'd like to play? Faceman, security hacker, distraction, blunt instrument, fall guy?

Jeriko is good at lying (he can reroll his deception checks) and piloting things and passably ok at sneaking and computery things.
I'm thinking perhaps face and/or get-away-driver?

His focus in deception might make him a good inside man too if we had time for it - like Lando as one of the guards in Jabba's palace.

I suspect Desh would excel at blunt intrustment, we could just point him at something and watch the destruction unfold =P

I'm guessing Jerrn might make a good fall guy...

So sorry for my absence, guys. The last few weeks turned a bit more brutal at work and home than I'd expected. A mini-busy season popped up on my team's shooting schedule, and we're preparing for a second little baby (due in late June/early july).

I'm still here, though, and will try to get a useful post into the game thread today.

And yes... Desh = Blunt Instrument.

Congrats on the babymaking! That's awesome, dude!

Juce fits the profile of slicer with skill focus (use computer) and traits to back it up.

He's also good at stealth and mechanics (he can re-roll stealth checks and has the tech specialist feat) so I guess that makes him the starwars equivalent of a rogue.

Six's skill seem to reflect Juce's, so they could work as a team, possibly.

Neither Desh nor Jerrn are stealthy, and they're both kind of blunt instruments, though Jerrn sounds like he may be the bait.

I guess that leaves me and Bolt to cover the distraction :) Crazy haphazard antics should be no problem :D

Lol, too true. And they don't know us yet.

Hey team, I'm going to be away for most of the upcoming week/weekend at a conference and I'm not sure if I'll have internet access. If I do, I'll check in, but if not and our plan comes together, feel free to DMPC Jeriko.

I won't be leaving until Tuesday night and should be back some unnaturally early hour Sunday morning.

I hope it's a gaming conference for you.

Gaming? No, but the buddy who came along with me is the one I'm running the solo Star Wars campaign with I'd mentioned a while back. So we played that in the hotel room.

Had a great trip though. And, in light of how awesome the conference was, I just can't articulate how bummed I am to be back in NJ (conference was in Orlando, Florida) and at my day job. Blech.

Okay, last couple of weeks were crazy. Hopefully I'm back in the saddle. Sorry for the absence.

Everyone still on-board here? I can't see that there's been much activity in the thread recently.

I'm still here! Though I admit, I'm not sure how to best proceed with our heist planning at this point.

Me, either. The problem is that there are a LOT of variables, and we have a low-enough posting rate that I can't remember them all. (not a critique, just an observation)

Seems to be way of most online games. I've forgotten the details too, I guess I'll spend some time reading back.

As I understand it, our plan is basically (basically, HA!) thus:

The Plan
1) Lie to the Exchange about turning in Jerrn for the 1,000,000 credit (one miiiiiiillion credits!) bounty
2) Determine where a mysterious figure we heard on an intercepted transmission is going to meet the Hutt's men to deliver Juce's Grandpappy's Armor
3) Tell the Exchange to meet us at the aforementioned location from #2 above for turning in the bounty on Jerrn
4) Hopefully watch as the Exchange and the Hutt's goons blast each other to bits
5) Swoop in and clean up the leftovers, rescue the armor, screw over all the people currently trying to waste us on this blasted miserable rock.

What we have so far
the location from whence the mysterious figured contacted the Hutt in the transmission we intercepted. (Docking Bay 71)

What we still need
1) determine who the schlub with the armor is
2) where he/she/it is planning on meeting the Hutt's goons
3) when said meeting is going to take place
4) convincingly deceive the Exchange with that information
5) develop a bold plan for how we want to ruin everyone's day who shows up at that place and time (other than us of course).

We could always pull a Return of the Jedi and smuggle Jerrn in unarmed and have someone else bring in his lightsaber?

On the too-do list is also several days worth of fixing The Yellow Cab. We've got the creds for it I believe from the captains safe so maybe the first order of business is to fix the old girl up and gather information, laying low for a few days. [/2cp]

Edit; btw, I love the idea of pulling a Return of the Jedi.

That's a good idea. Will the double-cross gig wait on us? Or is there an existing meeting we're trying to take advantage of.

I'd love to be able to get the ship up and running (at least to some extent). Having defenses and some guns operable on the off-chance that someone trails us back here would be smart.

Lightsaber-smugging = WIN. It could easily be doctored to look like a piece of someone's gun, I would think. Just want to doctor it up on whoever will be "escorting" our "captive".

Lightsaber-smugging = WIN. It could easily be doctored to look like a piece of someone's gun, I would think. Just want to doctor it up on whoever will be "escorting" our "captive".

I love it! Maybe one of our whirlwind master mechanics could fashion it to look like a targeting scope for someone's (maybe Six's?) rifle?

And if all this stuff goes down on a pair of skiffs/jachts out in the Jundland wastes, I would totally be ok with that!

Sorry guys, I've been going round and round putting a detailed heist plot together and I think now I'v overcomplicated things.
I really like some of your suggestions; I'll put somthing basic together tonight and see what you think.

I recently heard the Atomic Array episode on the Mistborn RPG and they covered heist type games. One piece of advice is basically to let the players say what they plan, then say somethings that could go wrong and use their suggestions to create the plot. It might be useful.

Bolt is absolutely not smart enough to keep secrets from friends successfully.

Doing a Mistborn type sit down sounds fun, Jeriko started one earlier. Break down our objectives and dole out roles and such...

I really like this players plan/response idea. Let's do that.

The over plot that I had in mind was--

Phase 1: The entry,
Jeriko turns Jerrn "The last Jedi" in to the Hutt lord, obviously in revenge against the Exchange, he is escorted by a motley assortment of bounty hunters (the rest of you).

Phase 2;
There is a locked elevator shaft down to the vaults, Gomorrean crew guarding the top, combat robots guarding the bottom. The electronic key to it is hung around the Hutt's neck. (Steal it? Copy it? Trick the Hutt?)

Plus traps and alarms that may need to be hacked or cut from a utility shaft next to the Security control room.
Juce Koran has the advantage of knowing the layout completely.

And of cours Phase 3; the escape.
A running speeder bike battle down the race track, or use your ship after you fix it up and get out of the solar system?

What do you say?

Hmmm, this is different than what I had expected, but I like it.

Originally, I thought we were trying to figure out when and where the guy (who we presume has the armor) was going to meet with Motta's goons to exchange the armor for credits.

Then, we were going to lie to the Exchange to meet us at that same place at that same time with information that would make the Exchange think the dude with the armor was us. (Hopefully vague language like "do you have the package" would let each side misunderstand one another for a little while)

When one party inevitably sours and blaster bolts start flying, we'd make off with the armor.

The more I think about what Camris has though, the more I like that idea.

---------------------

Phase 1: Infiltration

Idea: Depending on how much time we have (weeks while repairing the Yellow Truck?), we could have someone get into the estate ahead of us as a mole. (kind of like Lando in RotJ)

Once the rest of the team is ready, we can show up at Motta's place like Camris suggests, ostensibly to offer Jerrn up for a bounty.

Complication: Jerrn is taken to one location/floor for holding, the armor is somewhere else, and then Motta keeps the party overnight as a show of hospitality in a 3rd location. The group then has to split to get both Jerrn and the armor out.

Phase 2: The Rescue(s)

Idea: Team A goes for Jerrn, Team B goes for the armor. I'm thinking one of them could go like Luke and Han rescuing Leia from Cell Block 1138. Getting into and out of the vault the armor is kept in could be as Camris describes above. Hard to acquire key, hard to bypass defenses, perhaps a trap or two.

Complication: ... things could go alarmingly similar to Luke and Han rescuing Leia from Cell Block 1138 =\

Phase 3: The Escape!

Idea: Definitely a speeder chase. What about through a large construction area somewhere near Motta's palace? Maybe a docking bay he's having constructed or even a new luxury yacht that's being built on-site.

Complication: sharp turns, lots of obstacles, construction droids present and working, rapid pursuit, being shot at, all kinds of good stuff!

anyone else care to weigh in with any ideas?

I generally like both proposal. Don't guess I have all that much to add. Splitting the party could be a headache for Camris, but if he's fine with it, then I'm fine with it. We have the manpower (and comm's lets us coordinate fairly well).

I'm intrigued by the necessity of getting the Hutt's key. Kind of offers us the opportunity to pull a Michael Weston/Burn Notice style opp. For once letting our face man (do we have a face man? Jeriko? Baniss?) carry the brunt of the load while the rest of us play support.

Again, sorry for the general absence. I've been having a hard time balancing my pbp time against everything else. I'm back from vacation, though, so I'm going to try to be more available (at least daily).