Help with a SW Imperial Adventure Hook...

[Pbartender]

So, I'm converting one of my old WEG SW adventures to D20, and I need a little help. I'd like to make a major modification by switching it from a Rebel mission to an Imperial one. Here's the details...

The Old Adventure

The Rebels are enlisted to go meet with a rebel Agent for any convenient reason. However, the Agent isn't at the checkpoint, and seems to be missing. Upon investigation, a local entrepreneur informs the characters that the Agent was unusually interested in some abandoned mines that he owns. The left towards the mines several days ago, and hasn't been seen since.

Unknown to the characters, the entrepreneur has captured the Agent and holding him prisoner. The entrepreneur has been waiting for the Agents contacts to show, so he could turn the whole lot of them in to the Empire for a reward. The Agent is locked in his basement, and the mine has been booby-trapped. When the characters leave to investigate the mine, the entrepreneur informs the local Imperial garrison.

The objects of the adventure are to:

1. Survive.
2. Rescue the Agent.
3. Recover whatever they were sent to get in the first place.

The New Adventure

So, what I want to do is relace the Rebel Agent with an Imperial Agent, with the remainder of the basic structure of the advennture staying the same. That, and the players are independent smuggler-types, instead of Rebels. That means I need a few ideas to make it work...

1. A good reason for the Imperial to be investigating the mines in the first place.
2. A good reason for the entrepreneur to take the
   Imperial prisoner.
3. A sympathetic means of getting the players hooked on the plot.

Give me a few suggestions, and Thanks, everyone.

 

[Prince Atom]

A good reason for the Imperial to be investigating the mines in the first place.

Easy -- he heard that the mines were being used for shady practices. Maybe some Hutt spice smugglers were hiding there, or the Rebels were, or pirates, or something. Anyhow, his immediate superior can't be bothered to detach any troops to go look (since the Imps don't do anything alone ), so this agent decides to go lone wolf. There are plenty of clues that he decided to go by himself, he just never got there.

A good reason for the entrepreneur to take the Imperial prisoner.

Again, pretty easy. The Imp was getting close to an underworld scheme the entrepreneur was running. Maybe he's got an alternate source for spice, or is a waystation for illicit information. He could be getting info to pirates about shipping schedules. Or he could see the Imp as a rival in a power struggle. Maybe there's no reason except that he dislikes the Imperial a lot.

Maybe he feels that the Imp's contacts with smugglers is treason, and he's trying to find out who his contacts are so he can turn the lot of them into the local authorities.

A sympathetic means of getting the players hooked on the plot.

Tricky. You might have to negotiate with the players. It's perfectly all right to say, "I've worked hard on this adventure, I'd really like to run it, but none of you are interested. How can I get you hooked?" All that time and effort is wasted if the players don't go along.

But really... maybe the Imp agent is a sibling to one of the characters. The PC may or may not approve of his career in the Empire, but feels obligated to go rescue him if he's in trouble because family does for family. Maybe the Imp has information or some other item necessary for the campaign. Maybe the PCs want a piece of the Imp after he "set 'em up the bomb."

Just my two centicreds.

TWK

 

[Pbartender]

Anyhow, his immediate superior can't be bothered to detach any troops to go look...

What's keeping him from sending a squad in?

...so this agent decides to go lone wolf. There are plenty of clues that he decided to go by himself, he just never got there.

If he went alone and disappeared, how do the characters find out about it?

But really... maybe the Imp agent is a sibling to one of the characters. The PC may or may not approve of his career in the Empire, but feels obligated to go rescue him if he's in trouble because family does for family. Maybe the Imp has information or some other item necessary for the campaign. Maybe the PCs want a piece of the Imp after he "set 'em up the bomb."

Ok. Let me clarify just a little...

The characters are completely unaffiliated with any organization. So right now, they have no reason to hate the Empire or love the Rebels. This adventure would be one of many, in which there is the possibility of gaining contacts with various organizations... There's one for the Hutts, one for the Rebels, one for a group of pirates, one for the Bounty Hunter's guild, one for a Mercenary organization. They are all fairly short introductory adventures. If they latch on to one group, then I can gear the campaign that way. All I have left to do is the Imperial hook...

One important idea I want to get across is that the good guys are not universally good, and the bad guys are not universally bad. That's not a problem with the other organizations, but I've run across a complete writer's block when it comes to the Imperials.

So, how do I make the Imperial Agent not-a-bad-guy, without resorting to, "I've worked hard on this adventure, I'd really like to run it, but none of you are interested. How can I get you hooked?"

 

[Prince Atom]

Well, a lot of the Imps in the fiction and movies are absolute bastards. I've always understood that the farther from the Core (and thus the Emperor's power base), the worse they could act because it wouldn't affect the Emperor's image very much.

So make this one Imp (or several of them) a nice guy who's trying to do his best and make the galaxy safer (one bad guy at a time). Prime material to go Rebel, of course, but I'm sure there are plenty of idealists out there who think rebellion is not the answer. Then, when the party has some dealings with him, they get to see that he is a nice guy. When he goes missing, they want to help because it's not like the Empire has nice guys to spare.

And who said he'd really gone out there? I didn't make it very clear, I'm sorry, but I meant that this whole story about him going to check it out lone-wolf was the entrepreneur's tale. He tells them after the Imp goes missing that he was talking the agent before he left, and he said such things about the site. Of course, this goes on with the Imp sitting bound in the merchant's basement!

Of course, for the PCs to be willing to ally with the Empire, there's got to be more than one good Imp on the planet. The agent's superior didn't send troops out to investigate the site because he didn't know about it. The agent, if he knows, never got to tell him. The officer can, of course, send a squad out to the mines if he knows his agent has gone missing and is rumored to be there. That's one out for the mission. Of course, the squad probably won't return (they being stormtroopers, of course ), so enter the PCs again.

Is this more helpful?

TWK

 

[Pbartender]

Is this more helpful?

Yes, quite.

So now the only question is...

Why hire the PCs? What is keeping the Stormtroopers so busy that they can't go rescue one of their own agents?

 

[Prince Atom]

What if they don't know he's in trouble?

Maybe the merchant holding him captive has a hacker friend who has altered the records and run a scenario where the commander thinks the missing agent has requested some leave, and is off enjoying the local (ahem) scenery.

Or, there is a current para military crisis requiring the attention of all the troops and none can be spared to go looking for this guy. I know that IRL, if a natural disaster occurs, the army shows up pretty quickly to help out. Granted, the disaster doesn't require everything the army has, but perhaps the garrison is pretty small... or the disaster is very large.

This is Star Wars, mind. Whole planets get blown up in Star Wars. Make the disaster or distraction big enough to tie up almost all the personnel, so there's no option but to hire the PCs.

Hope this helps!

TWK

 

[dpdx]

Perhaps the entrepreneur just doesn't trust anyone on the planet/in the region, so if he knows the party has just come in-country, he'll think they haven't had a chance to pick sides yet, and can be bought.

I'm just helping to brainstorm. It looked like a two-person thread, and I am so jonesing hard for a SW campaign, that I'm about to write one my ownself.