Cold, edgy, dark, and harsh: Star Wars d20 Crime Spree

[Bloodstone Mage]

I'm starting to work on a campaign for Star Wars d20 that takes place mainly on Coruscant during the New Republic and involves the players rising in the criminal underworld. I'm aiming for a cold, edgy, dark, and harsh atmosphere for this campaign.
I've already got the Coruscant and the Core Worlds book. I've already read various articles about Al Capone, Roy DeMeo, John Gotti, the Yakuza, and others. And, yes, I've already played both Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (I knew that eventually that issue would come up). A friend of mine is willing to let me borrow the Hero's Guide and some other Star Wars d20 books. I already intend to watch all three of the Godfather movies and Scarface.
Does anyone have any suggestions to what I should do in the production of this game?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers!

 

[Dave G]

I'm going to be running a campaign of similar taste but set in the Old Republic. I got the idea from playing SW: KotOR on the X Box. The easiest way, IMHO, to get the party involved in an underworld culture, is to keep giving them excuses to deal with them. Now, that said, it really works best if the party thinks it was their idea. For example, let's say the party picks up a bounty on one Xar Doto, a thug in the employ of a local crime boss. Some gather information checks might turn up the information that Xar goofed up a big task for da boss, and he's being kept on a pretty short leash, serving bar at the cantina in the seedy side of town.

Should the party choose to confront him, several things could happen. Depending on how it goes down, the crime boss could "invite" them to his 5 star restaurant to discuss their actions, or a group of thugs could come and beat the tar out of them saying. "Don't disrespect the boss, when you can walk again come and see him."

From that point the players can decide if that's the course they want to take. Should they go to a meeting with that boss, perhaps there is another rival boss who might become their suitor in an attempt to make a power play of his own.

Now, enterprising players might try to ride the fence as long as possible, but at some point, their allegiance is going to have to be made public, and that leads off in more adventures.

I think I've lost my point, did that make sense?