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Despite the best laid out adventure plans, inevitably you'll have to do some GMing by the seat of your pants - usually because the PCs have decided to do something so ridiculous that you failed to even consider it a possibility.
One way to handle this is to assume that no adventure will ever go according to plan and be prepared to wing it at any moment. To this end, a selection of handy-dandy random tables is invaluable. The good thing is, being random, you can repurpose most tables for other eventualities.
Need someone to blunder into the middle of a firefight that the PCs somehow started? Roll on the Random Marketplace Encounter table! Need to know what the PCs find when they decide it would be a good idea to search behind the bar during a bar-room brawl? Roll on the Random Blacksmith Shop Items table! Need to know what the cantankerous old lady of the village keeps locked in her outhouse? Roll on the Level 12 Dungeon Encounters table (with Random Slimes, Oozes, and Jellies subtable, if necessary)!
Pete is still "party first" it seems. Despite him not being in the party.
I can't help but imagine what table the GM used to see what wandered into the firefight...
Let's assume a d20...
| 1-3 | Elderly woman/man |
| 4 | Blind Jawa |
| 5-7 | Space nun |
| 8 | Disoriented droid |
| 9-11 | Pregnant woman |
| 12 | Bantha calf |
| 13-15 | Future party member |
| 16+ | Little girl/boy |
Would blind Jawas still have glowy eyes? I would guess not, and that possibly this lack of a distinctive feature might make them pariahs of Jawa society (more so than blind people are in other humanoid cultures). This would explain why a blind Jawa could be wandering around a Tatooine marketplace and possibly walking into a firefight.
Anyways... is this maybe how they meet up with the local rebel cell? Did Pete plan this ambush? Taking out a military convoy/procession is pretty classic rebel stuff, so I can't imagine it not being associated with The Rebellion.
— aurilee
The GM is a... some kind of bastard. Cheating? Conniving? Planning? Cruel? Sending a little girl out into the middle of a firefight just to show the characters that not everything is planned, and to give them a chance to be heroic, the only question is, why?
Clearly, the only answer is this is a chance for them to be noticed by Jabba. After all, if they missed his contacts, they have to have some way for the GM to get the plot moving.
— Keybounce
Transcript
GM: Suddenly an explosion rocks the tank.
[SFX]: Kaboom!
K-2SO: Oooh! A fight!
Cassian: It's an ambush!
Bria: Yes.
[SFX]: Pow! Pow!
[SFX]: Pow! Pow!
Cassian: So... you had this all planned out, but I failed my Spot checks to notice all the signs?
GM: Not everything I do is planned out. For example...
GM: A <roll>... little girl wanders into the middle of the firefight!
[SFX]: Pow! Pow!
Cassian: Oh frack! I'll run out to save her!
Chirrut: No! Send the NPC!