TheSagaContinues

This is about smugglers surviving a customs inspection, which I am not sure is very probable!

I'm doing a couple of adventures and perhaps even a whole campaign centered around smuggling and a debt from a loan shark, taking place during the Dark Times. Scum & Villainy has good descriptions on the topic on pages 91-93. Taking into account descriptions on all the Imperial intrusiveness from the Force Unleashed Campaign Guide, it seems to me that the Empire is doing all the cargo inspections that it possibly can. No problem there. There's a lot of inspections, then.

S&V p. 92 mentions bribery, and FUCG 31 gives nice rules for it (even if I don't have any idea what a "going rate" for a bribe would be!). I think that most Imperial officers are into the whole Empire thing for their personal gain, not for ideological reasons, so bribery certainly seems possible. But they wouldn't want to ruin their carreer or risk their life, so it seems probable that they draw the line somewhere. In my first adventure here, there is a possibility that the PC's will choose a cargo of highly illegal weapons (disruptors) and smuggle them to dissident military groups. I'm sure that even the most jaded Imperial officers take THAT seriously. In this case (and in many others, I think), the only option is to survive the inspection by keeping the inspectors from finding the illicit cargo.

There seems to be two options for that. S&V p. 59 introduces a Hidden Cargo Hold, which can be found with Perception DC 15 (the fact that it exists) followed by Perception DC 25 (finding the exact access). The text explicitly says: "This makes such holds useful for smugglers who can bribe their way past formal inspections, depending only on their concealment to keep their goods hidden from casual eyes.". That's exactly how it is. This modification keeps the goods out of sight, but almost any thorough investigation will find them. The key is to bribe the head official so that a thorough inspection never takes place, and the Hidden Cargo Hold keeps the stuff hidden so that a quick walkthrough in the ship doesn't give anything away. All well and good here. The Hidden Cargo Hold is for bribers.

Another option exists in Starships of the Galaxy, page 52. Smuggler's Compartments. They are smaller than a Hidden Cargo Hold, but much harder to spot - Perception DC 30! Now, this seems more suitable for a smuggler who is trafficking some really hot stuff. It's even mentioned that the Millennium Falcon itself has Smuggler's Compartments (SOTG p. 156), rather than a Hidden Cargo Hold. So that's where Han, Luke and Ben were hiding! But then...

...there's the question of the inspecting officials. No problem, S&V lists three types of officials on pages 122-123, namely "Security Officer", "Security Specialist", and "Inspector". These have Perception modifiers of +7, +8 and +16 with reroll, respectively. Combining the bit on inspections from page 92 with the description of the officials on pages 122-123 gives a clear picture. It seems to me that a typical customs inspection has an Inspector checking the cargo manifest and talking with the captain, two Security Officers inspecting the ship, and two Security Specialists standing guard. The problem here is that the Security Officers will never find the Smuggler's Compartments (Perception +7 vs. DC 30, no Force Points). What if the slightly more capable Security Specialists are doing the inspection? Without using their Force Points, impossible, but with a Force Point (they have 3), unlikely but possible. When would they use a precious Force Point? Not during a routine inspection, certainly. More likely if they are suspecting something serious going on. So, Security Specialists will never catch smugglers during a routine inspection, while they have a slight chance if they are suspecting something. Now, what if the boss himself, the Inspector, is inspecting the ship? This means that the smugglers are in serious trouble. With a Perception modifier of +16, the possibility of reroll, and 4 Force Points, it is much more likely that this guy will find the Smuggler's Compartments than not. If he does a routine inspection and does not use Force Points, if I remember my math correcly, he has more than 57% chance of finding them. Scary. Especially since the smugglers can't do anything about the DC, it's just a fixed thing. If he uses Force Points, it will get even more scary.

So my problem is: with the given customs officials, two are not scary at all, almost completely safe, and the third is extremely hard to beat, especially because the PC's can't use their skills in the contest, the Smuggler's Compartments are universally DC 30.

My question is: how do I make a balanced and interesting customs inspection encounter without the PC's resorting to bribery? There has to be risk involved, but there should be a good possibility of surviving. Otherwise, there wouldn't be much smuggling going on in the galaxy, now would it?

It's essentially a problem of a Perception modifier reaching DC 30. Any less than +10 will not make it without Force Points, and +16 with reroll and Force Points seems much too good.

Now that I've written this long post, I've pondered this some more and some possible solutions have come to my mind. Maybe I'll be solving my own problem here? There is the option of AID ANOTHER. With two Security Officers and one aiding another we'd have +7+2 = +9, still not making it. A Security Officer aiding a Security Specialist, +8+2 = +10, now there's a possibility! Or two Security Specialists, again +10. I could even use regular Stormtroopers, +9+2 = +11! Or a Heavy Stormtrooper, a Scout Trooper, or an Imperial Officer, even without Aid Another, they all have Perception +10. Also, I could use FAVORABLE or UNFAVORABLE CIRCUMSTANCES. That would give the smuggler PC's some agency. A good Deception roll when talking to the main officer might give an impression of innocent spacers, prompting the officer to hurry the inspectors up, giving them Unfavorable Circumstances (-2). Or a failed such roll would do the exact opposite, with the main officer urging the inspectors to be thorough. An Aid Another combined with a Favorable Circumstances would give any of these chumps a chance of finding the Smuggler's Compartements. So yeah, I think I did answer my own question there!

Any comments?

The game we all love has a lot of abilities that call for what could collectively be called "substituted rolls". I could go as far as to say it's one of the core mechanisms in building a character, along with rerolls and bonuses to rolls.

There are so many abilities for this that I cannot list them all as examples, but some that immediately come to my mind are Force Persuasion that substitutes a Use the Force roll for a Persuasion roll (Jedi Talent, SWSE 40), Engage the Enemy that substitutes a Pilot roll for an Initiative roll (application of the Pilot skill, SWSE 72), and Elder's Knowledge that substitutes a Knowledge (social sciences) or a Knowledge (galactic lore) roll for a Wisdom roll or any Wisdom-based skill roll (feat, UR 24).

There are also abilities that substitute bonuses, like the Ataru talent (SWSE 218), but let's not talk about those for simplicity's sake. This is about substituted rolls, whether they are ability checks, skill checks, attack rolls, anything. I'll just call them all "rolls" here.

Now, my question is this: what do we do when other abilities or rules call for modifications for either the thing that is being substituTED, or the thing that is doing the substituTING? How do we then modify the roll that we are making? Which modifications still apply when we are making a substituted roll? I could see a Game Master ruling for one, or the other, or even both (the case of not applying EITHER does not seem justified to me).

The modifications that I'm talking about are usually either rerolls or bonuses, but they could be penalties as well. Let's take some examples.

A Duros pilot with the Expert Pilot species feature (reroll Pilot skill, SWSE 25) and trained Pilot skill uses the Engage the Enemy ability (application of the Pilot skill, SWSE 72). He thus substitutes a Pilot roll for an Initiative roll. Do we treat this roll as an Initiative roll or as a Pilot roll when it comes to modifications? Is it an Initiative roll (no reroll) or a Pilot roll (reroll applies), or both (in which case he would get a reroll as well)? What if he had Improved Initiative (Scout talent, SWSE 49) and thus access to Initiative reroll? Would he be using the reroll for the Pilot skill, the reroll for the Initiative skill, or both? (The rerolls could even be different kinds of rerolls, if he had the Flawless Pilot feat from RECG 33, granting the ability to keep the better of two rolls.)

A gambling expert PC has the Gambler talent that gives +2 to Wisdom rolls when gambling (Scoundrel, SWSE 46) and the Elder's Knowledge feat that substitutes a Knowledge roll for a Wisdom roll (UR 24), as well as a Memory Implant that enables him to reroll Knowledge rolls (KOTOR 74). He goes gambling and uses Elder's Knowledge, and replaces a gambling roll with a Knowledge roll that has a much larger bonus. Again we are in the same situation. A Knowledge roll replaces a Wisdom roll. If this now counts as a Knowledge roll, even when it's being used for something different, he should get a reroll from Memory Implant. If this still counts as a Wisdom roll, even when it's being substituted by something else, he should get +2 from the Gambler talent. And if the roll is actually "both", he should get both a reroll and a +2.

What I dread is that this should be determined on a case by case basis, by looking carefully at each wording. I feel that the spirit of the Star Wars Saga Edition would call for a systematic approach, whichever it would be - apply the modifications for the thing that is being substituted; or apply the modifications for the thing that is doing the substituting, or apply both.

Is there a general ruling for this, or if not, how are you people doing this?

When forming a starfighter group, you need to be trained in Pilot to join the group. Can the first starfighter, who isn't "joining" any group but rather is the one to whom the others are "joining", be piloted by someone who isn't trained in Pilot?

Edit. Another fighter groups question. Can the leader of a fighter group redirect enemy attacks to a member who has Vehicular Combat? Will that work normally?

I see a different reason to go to the black market. You may have a license for a Lightsaber (during the dark rimes) if you are working with the Inquisition. But no one in their right mind would sell you one.

If you get a license for a heavy weapon, buying one is still not that easy. Manufacturers write contracts with planetary governments or other large companies. As a private citizen

A very good point about the lightsaber in Dark Times, MERC_1. I'm not sure I understand the second point about heavy weapons, though - it seems your sentence was cut short. But Dark Times games definitely have a feel of their own, a paranoiac and secretive feeling, because the Empire is watching you and it's everywhere! No other era does that so splendidly. If you buy strange things legally and then use them in an operation against the Empire, the ISB will be tracking the leads. It's chilling in the best possible way!

Indeed, that came to my mind as well when I was thinking about this. That way the talent would cover both proper and improper channels.

Does the Connections talent give you access to items but not legal licenses, or items and the licenses as well? I'm talking about the first mentioned application, not the reduced cost when buying from the black market.

I think that the talent means you have Connections to the seller, so the seller sells you the item without all the bureaucracy. But I could see someone interpreting that it means you have Connections to the bureau granting licenses, so they give you the license and you are free to buy the item afterwards. The results are quite different, especially if you are playing something like Dark Times, as my interpretation gives you just the item and the Empire can arrest you now for carrying something that you don't have permission for.

Both the core book and SAGA Wiki say that Force Disciple needs (among other things) "Any two talents from the Dark Side Devotee, Force Adept, or Force Item talent trees." Now, with only the core book out, that would mean "any two Force Adept talents", as those were their only talent trees. But with additional books out, Force Adepts got additional talent trees, one from FUCG and three more from JATM.

Now, I would guess that the final aim of most if not all Force Adepts is to eventually gain entry to the Force Disciple prestige class. That would mean that for levels 1-3 in Force Adept, talents from the three trees that are prereqs to Force Disciple are VASTLY more desirable than talents from those additional trees from FUCG and JATM. Probably most people who are Force Adepts only aim to have 3 levels in that class anyway, from then on "graduating" to Force Disciple. So here's the problem: the Force Adept talent trees from FUCG and JATM seem almost useless from this point of view.

I would cautiously believe, that the designers intended the Force Disciple requirements to include "any two Force Adept talents" rather than two talents from only the mentioned trees (why should these trees be more desirable?), not including additional trees available for Force Adepts. I haven't seen any errata on this, though. At this point, I'm almost ready to house rule this.

How do you guys feel about this problem?