The places where a blockade runner base their operations from are as varied as the runners themselves. There are several different things you can base your choice of a hideout on. Also, there are many different types of bases that are available.
 

You can choose a location based on...

Proximity Being close to a swarm of "hot spots" is both lucrative and for the iron of stomach. If you are hidden in the middle or right next to a cluster of continually blockaded planets, you are pretty much guaranteed to have a job offered to you all the time. The bad side to this is that you are smack dab in the middle of a hornet's nest of Imperial activity. This has proven to be hazardous to one's health...

Safety Placing yourself according to how well you are hidden is easy for safety concerns, but heavy on the wallet. Half the time, you can find a shadowport that you can attach yourself to that is hidden quite well. The other half of the time, to be hidden very well you must create your own base of operations in a system as remote as hitting a lottery. The good side is that your enemy must beat the same odds to find you. The down side is that you may be far removed from services for yourself and your ship, and it may entail traveling a lot which will eat a great deal of fuel.

Numbers Hooking yourself into the quagmire of a shadowport may be your cup of tea. If there are no other blockade runners there, it is even better. If the location is compromised, you are sure to find out before it's too late. Also, being the only runner there, you will get all the running jobs that come to that port. This can be comfortable, but keep in mind the freaks that tend to hang out in entirely criminal areas. Try to find a port that is hosted by some sort of an authority figure. Even if they are almost dictators, it beats anarchy any day of the week. Dictators don't take any crap, so you wouldn't have to either.

Brethren At some shadow ports, one can find a collective of blockade runners. For details on such bands, refer to the "Contacts & Associations" section. These collectives are good and bad. They are good because you will have like-minded individuals around you that have an interest in watching your back (so that you will watch theirs). They are bad because you are among competition when jobs come along. It should be noted that these collectives are generally only found where there is enough work for everyone. Shop around and find a group that you like and that likes you and your crew.


There are a multitude of base types that can be used. Some are extravagant and complicated, stocked to the gills and well defended. Others are fitting of a shoestring budget and rather minimal, but home nonetheless.

Before going on, it is highly recommended you refer to Hideouts & Strongholds. This book is one of the few that is worth it's weight in gold for the Star Wars Role-playing Game. In this book, you will find a base-creation system with rules and equipment, plus over twenty superb examples of bases.

Otherwise, an example of a blockade runner's base for one crew follows. For an example of a base for a group of runners, refer to Contacts & Associations.


Westham Pinion, a blockade runner of five years, operates in the Yegrin Sector with a crew of three other men. This sector contains about forty systems of importance, ten of which have been under Imperial blockade for the past sixteen months. These systems are under blockade mostly because the Empire wishes to possess them, but they have resisted with great strength. The Alliance is involved in fighting ground engagements on all of the main planets of these systems, and Pinion's group is one of many blockade runners delivering medicine, food, bacta, ammunition, weapons, parts and personnel to these troubled areas.

Pinion's Pack, as he and his crew call themselves, have carved out a rather cozy and secure niche for themselves in a useless and ignored system called 34T-910. The planet they are on is not even designated, but the Pack refers to it as their own. They share "their" planet with nobody else, nor does anyone know where it is with the exception of the Alliance.

The planet is mostly covered in thick and unwieldy jungles. Random mountain and volcano chains line the surface haphazardly and it is within one of these mountain chains you will find Pinion's Enclave tucked away. The Enclave lies at the side of a river at the bottom of a very deep and narrow canyon. The walls of the canyon are about 450 meters high and at the base the it is very narrow, about 100 meters wide (the top is not much wider, at about 120 meters). The canyon bottom weaves tightly around, snaking it's way to a small ocean which is about forty kilometers from the Enclave.

The bottom is quite nice, actually. The river runs along the western side of the canyon and sticks pretty close to a width of 35 meters. In this portion of the canyon, the river is only about two meters at it's deepest, against the western cliffwall. The other 65 meters is comprised of about 55 meters of dense jungle and ten meters of sandy shore along the river. Pinion's Pack has cleared out an area along the river which runs about 200 meters alongside, and all the way against the eastern cliffwall. In all, the clearing measures about 200 meters long (next to the river) and 65 meters wide from river to cliff.

On the north end of the clearing is the landing area for their ship. There is room enough next to this main landing area to accommodate a second vessel, though one has never been here yet. On the north edge of the landing area is a hut filled with stocks for the ship. West of the landing pad, almost up against the cliffwall are two power generators capable of recharging the ship cells at a rate of about two cells a day.

South of the landing pad, and up against the cliffwall (again, west) are two large huts. The first (closest to the landing area) houses a rudimentary machine shop for repair and maintenance of parts for the ship. The second hut, south of the first, is a two-room structure that has a commons where the crew meets to discuss missions, and a stock room with supplies for the Enclave (food, power cells, etc.).

On the south end of the clearing, two huts lie up against the jungle. These huts are the sleeping and private quarters of the crew. Each hut houses two men. Behind these two huts, halfway into the jungle (to be hidden) is an anti-starfighter emplacement that can be manned by one person. This gun has never been used, and probably doesn't work very well. But, it goes a long way in terms of peace-of-mind for Pinion's Pack. Someday, Pinion hopes to acquire a small shield system that can be put on the top of both cliffwalls and cover the entrance to the canyon bottom by way of hovering down to the Enclave (which is how they arrive and depart at their home).


This example can be used and modified by anyone for their game. Add to or change the structures in the camp, or do something completely different in the clearing. One could even carve out some protected caves in the cliffwall should one be able to acquire heavy equipment to do so. Or, come up with your own unique idea for a hideout. Let me know what you do, and I'll post it here as an example to others.

 
Bases of Operations

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This is an original work by Tim "Nealos" Salam.

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