After the Battle of Hoth: a Star Wars RPG snowbox

This adventure starts at the end of the Battle of Hoth. The PCs are among the handful of Rebels that survived the battle, but now all of the transports are gone and they’re left behind. They’ll have to be sneaky and creative to avoid Imperial mop-up squads, greedy scavengers, and icy death and find a way off-planet.

This isn’t really an adventure, though, it’s basically just a pile of stuff that you can use to generate an adventure, either beforehand or during play. Hence “snowbox”, a la sandbox, warbox, coupbox, etc. Me, I’d read the players that paragraph above, give them the map above (which I pretty much pulled out of my rear end, tell you how I made the picture later), and have them roll for initiative, but you can use it however you like. If you see something you don’t like, change it! If you have suggestions for how to build on any of this or make it cooler, please leave them in the comments.

The players know that Imperials tolerate scavs (scavengers) who come in to salvage equipment after battles. In terms of professionalism and quality of gear, scavs range from flying hillbillies to Boba-Fett-esque. The Imps pay bounties for Rebel personnel and vehicles brought in by the scavs (compare to use of bounty hunters in Empire). Even as the battle is ending, the PCs will see one or more scav ships coming in to land near the battlefield (see map).

d6 rumors the players have heard (roll or choose); GM decides how true they are:

1. There’s an abandoned smuggler camp somewhere in the crevasse field southwest of the base–the scouts reported finding it just before the Imperials arrived in-system. (How to find it? Maybe the scouts flagged it with a beacon or left their survey records in the base.)
2. The Imperials are offering full pardons to any Rebels who turn themselves in voluntarily.
3. The Imperials have kill teams of bounty hunters with trained nexu and rancor monsters out hunting for surviving Rebels.
4. Princess Leia has a fortune in Alderaanian jewels stashed in a secret room in Echo Base.
5. The crews that service the defensive guns usually leave one or two speeder trucks parked in a snow cave near the forward line.
6. Scouts found empty lava tubes on the slopes of the volcano and on the basalt flows could serve as emergency shelters and ways to travel off the surface. (Native animals probably use the lava tubes, too, including tauntauns and wampas, but let the players figure that out on their own.)

d4 ways of getting off-planet

1. Steal or stow away aboard an Imperial ship
2. Steal or stow away aboard a scav ship
3. Rebel bolt-hole with escape pod or getaway ship
4. Old smuggler site (Why’d they leave the ship?)

d6 weather events (3-4 hours duration each)

1. white-out blizzard
2. gale force winds
3. sleet
4. heavy snowfall
5. dense fog
6. calm and clear

d6 places PCs might stumble upon

1. sub-ice cavern with lichen, tauntauns
2. wampa cave
3. crashed Imperial walker landing ship (survivors?)
4. Republic Astrographic Survey marker and substation (supplies)
5. AT-AT platoon (3-4 walkers) laagering for the night
6. crashed snowspeeder, can loot

Wampa caves are like combinations of graveyards and packrat nests–they can accumulate valuable stuff. Roll on gear and weapons tables, only 1 in 3 chance of still having power.

d12 wandering monsters. I haven’t listed numbers of adversaries–you can roll for these or just pick.

1. small probe droid
2. large probe droid
3. assassin droid
4. snowtrooper patrol on foot
5. scout troopers with malfunctioning speeder bikes
6. scout troopers on AT-RTs
7. AT-ST
8. wampa
9. snow serpent
10. scav patrol on foot with neks
11. scav patrol on skiff with small deck gun
12. scav patrol on foot with one small gladiator walker

d12 miscellaneous Hoth gear

1. macrobinoculars
2. synthrope
3. glowsticks
4. ice axe
5. crampons
6. plasma heat gun for melting snow and ice
7. flares
8. IR-defeating snow tent
9. chemical stove
10. magnetic grapple gun (or other weapon, roll on table)
11. handheld scanner, like Han uses
12. scanner remote (floating globe-type, only good for 1d4+2 uses on a charge)

d12 weapons

1. vibroblade
2. force pike
3. Rebel blaster pistol
4. Rebel blaster rifle
5. Rebel light repeating blaster
6. Imperial blaster pistol
7. Imperial blaster rifle
8. grenade(s)
9. thermal detonator
10. anti-personnel mine
11. anti-vehicle mine
12. PLEX missile launcher

If player rolls a 1 on the wild die on a to-hit, blaster power-pack is out. Yes, this is harsh–welcome to Hoth!

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