This series follows the trials, tribulations, successes, and failures of a fairly inexperienced GM who has recently picked up the hobby after a long time away. It aims to assist new GM’s by examining what worked, didn’t work, and what failed miserably as he spins up new campaigns, modules, encounters, and adventures for his friends and family in Fantasy Flight Games’ Edge of the Empire/Age of Rebellion/Force and Destiny system.
Up until recently, I never really got to have a long campaign in an RPG game. I mean, we always intended to. We always wished we did. We always tried. But for some reason, no matter what, the campaign fizzled, players wouldn’t show up or had conflicts, the GM didn’t have time… something always happened. So when I picked up the hobby again a few years back at this point, I wanted desperately, for the first time, to see a really long term campaign through. Well… I succeeded, and then some.
I am currently running two simultaneous campaigns in the Star Wars RPG system. They have both been going since 2016, and both meet weekly and I have a lot of players. 13 in total between the two campaigns. One over lunch at work, and one every week with my family and close friends. It’s been great. Both have stories that are still going strong and we have threads that go back as far as the character backstories still going strong. But that also has created a problem for me as a result:
My players have an insane amount of XP, they are getting to be crazy powerful characters!
Well, I say problem when I should use the word “challenge.” This system, more than any other, handles high XP play well. The reason for, I think, is the lack of crunch. The rules in this system take a back seat to story, and they also allow the GM great flexibility when it comes to preparing your sessions for high XP play. So instead of needing to make a level 1, level 5, and level 10 Stormtrooper, I just throw normal Stormtroopers at the groups and it’s fine. It’s also nice that while the PCs have a lot of XP, the system is Level-less. A blaster to the face should hurt at high XP play, same as it would for a beginner. These choices by the game designers have made it so much easier to get games prepped for high XP play.
Despite the ease, there are some tricks that I’ve learned along the way running these two campaigns in this system as my players have risen in XP, skills, and talents. So here are some things I’ve found to be good guidelines when it comes to guiding your players through your campaign when they have gobs of skills, talents, gear, and XP.
Mowing Down Minions
There’s one thing that your players are sure to do in high XP play…roll a metric ton of yellow dice. Yellow dice = advantages and triumphs. Lots of it. Gobs. Advantages and triumphs mean triggering weapon effects and critical hits. Each of my players has picked one or two skills to just pour XP into. Every one of my players has at least one check in which at least four yellow dice are used. Some have talents to make it even worse than that. Also, players have got some crazy big weapons by now. They tricked out their favorite gun. They’ve gotten their lightsabers. So…when a minion group of 4 Stormtroopers appears, as long as one PC goes first, that minion group gets knocked to 1 before it gets to act.
I found myself with minion groups who were cut off at the knees and not challenging at all to the players. So, I have modified my games with minion groups in several ways:
- Increase each minion group by 1 more than you ideally want. Your PCs will kill one or two in the group before they act, most times. So prep for that. Because if your group is down to one or two minions by the time they act, they won’t hurt or challenge your players.
- Increase minion soak by one or two beyond what you normally have had. Your players will have big, powerful weapons at high XP levels normally. You need minions that can take it.
- Give minions better weapons. When your minion groups hit, they need to be able to hurt your players. My players have an Armorer in the party and over almost two years they have all had custom-made armor with high soak. So when they get hit, it needs to challenge them.
- Give minions ranks in initiative talents. Most forget this one, but when you deal with high XP players, you need to not always let your players go first. And, my players, for the first year or so, mostly ignored ranks in Cool or Vigilance because they were racing to Dedication and skill ranks in their favorite skills. But when you get to high XP, your players will have a rank or two in each of them most likely. So be sure that your high XP players don’t all go in a row before your minion groups.
- Reinforcements! Use Destiny Points whenever your players mow through your minions too quickly. Use them to bring in reinforcements and just reset the encounter and bring more minions into the fray. Nothing is more Star Wars than just plowing through groups of bad guys, so let your players do it!
Nasty Nemesis
One thing I noticed when playing games with my players as time went on, was that my big bad guys weren’t all that big and bad after all. Using a lot of the suggested stats for Nemesis in the book, I found out the hard way that my team could mow them down no matter what powers I gave them. Not wanting to give my Nemesis 45 Hull Trauma, I set out to figure out how to keep my bad guys up longer. Here’s the things I’ve learned to use a lot:
- Use Squad Rules. The GM Kit for the Age of Rebellion has rules in there for using a squad of minions around a Nemesis. This lets the Nemesis use the minions to soak up hits before they get to him. It keeps the Nemesis up in the first couple rounds so he can get his licks in.
- Use at least Adversary 2. In fact, I’ve used Adversary 3 if I really want to make it nasty. But Adversary 1 is way too easy for my teams to bounce around now. It’s nothing to them. Only if the 1/12th chance hits with a Despair can I really make things interesting.
- Give your Nemesis talents that keep him upright. Parry and Reflect are your friends. Anything that can mitigate damage, lessen critical hits, and keep the bad guy up are necessary. I have some players that do in the high-teens worth of damage, and I need my Nemesis to be able to withstand it for a little bit. Make sure they have the strain to use the talents as the fight goes on as well.
- The Force is your friend. Another thing to give folks trouble if you want is Force powers. You also can get crazy creative. Force Enhance is a great power that lets the big bad jump and hop all around the battlefield making the PCs chase him.
So if you need to challenge your team, and they’ve got themselves two or three filled out specialization trees, you might try some of these tricks. What about you? Have you taken to any creative solutions to challenge your high XP PCs?
Scott Alden
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