Urgent help needed - need ideas for a world

[Keklas Rekobah]

Okay then, possible adventure ideas ...

1) The travellers need to re-register a ship that may or may not already belong to someone else (i.e., Their claim to a fair salvage of the ship and its contents is a little shaky).

2) The travellers are are bounty hunters on a quest to locate a missing ship and/or a missing person, last seen at Ffilz world.

3) The travellers are mercs from the Imperial side of the border, and they're looking to register their company outside the Imperium (or they're outsiders looking for Imperial registry).

4) The travellers are fugitives from outside the Imperium, and they need new Imperial identities.

5) The travellers are merchants, looking for freight and passengers, when an agent of "Mr. Smith" and "Ms. Jones" approaches them, seeking a "No Questions" passage back to Imperial space for the couple, who also have five dtons of sealed cargo to ship. They are willing to pay double the going rate in Imperial credits if they can leave within 24 hours. The seals on the cargo have SuSAG identifiers and the shipping tag shows "TL-C Na Ni Goods". Further analysis of the tag data may reveal "Computer Parts" as the contents (this is a legit shipment, but a tempting target for piracy, since it may contain data copied from the transaction logs of the local bureaucracy).

6) As #5, but the couple approaches the travellers directly, asking for immediate passage ("We must leave immediately"). They will pay in untraceable cut gemstones ("Never mind where we got them"). They insist on loading and securing the cargo themselves ("No one goes near it, understand?"). One of the couple carries an advanced medical kit, while the other is concerned for the temperature of the contents. Observant travellers may note that the cargo container is just a little bit larger than an emergency low berth unit.

 

[Ran Targas]

All I could think of reading the set up was a Megacity.

So what about when they arrive, there is a growing revolt in progress. After landing the authorities report the starport gates are closed due to a recent criminal act against an off-worlder. In actuality, a ranking member of the planetary security was accused of significant abuses of power, including murder, but was found innocent by the ruling bureaucracy and reinstated. The starport is currently safe, but outside the walls there are the sounds of gun fire and explosions as the conflict grows more violent. Any deliveries to the ship, including fuel, are significantly delayed due to the conditions around the port.

On a trip off ship, a stevedore cautiously approaches a crew member and clandestinely hands them a data device holding damning info on the government; a plea for help to the 3I. Later a security staffer asks to speak with the crew; they understand a suspected criminal approached the crew and may have given them contraband. So they have a choice ...

Depending on how they play it, there could be any number of outcomes. If they come clean, I still wouldn't expect a faceless bureaucracy to accept them not reporting the contact and turning over the contraband immediately. If they deny it, security may demand to search the ship uncovering anything else they don't want them to know about. Maybe a wall breach on the landing field provides either cover for a quick get away or an opportunity to join the fight.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

Another idea ...

The travellers are on the trail of a known criminal with a hefty bounty on his/her head. Events put them on Ffilz World, where they must endure the bureaucracy.

Perhaps their ship needs repairs, or is on a 'watch' list. Perhaps their specific cargo is on a 'watch' list. Perhaps one of the travellers is on a 'watch' list.

In any case, the travellers cannot leave until the matter is straightened out. After all, it's just the standard routine around here ... forms to fill out ... interviews ... identity checks ... the usual.

In the meantime, they can cool their heals at the TAS facility, or take in a tour of the lichen farms. Watching the transit of a dozen or so fuel miners across the face of the gas giant is a good way to kill a day. Then there's always the bureaucrats to talk to. As long as it's not during regular hours, they can be very loquacious. Ply them with a few shots of Ffilz's Fine Fermentable Fungi, and they can be downright convivial.

One of the bureaucrats stands out from the others. He/She ...

1) Avoids the travellers as much as possible; ducking out of the office just as they arrive, hiding behind a stack of folders, calling in sick, that sorta thing.

2) Refers the travellers to other departments, most of which have nothing to do with their situation.

3) Is openly hostile to the travellers, finding new allegations against them that must be resolved with more forms to fill out ... more interviews ... more identity checks ... more of the usual.

4) Is openly bribe-able. In fact, this bureaucrat actually shares a fee schedule with the travellers that details various services that can be 'expedited'. Everything from fixing a ticket for loitering to granting an audience with a member of the Planetary Water Control Board (a very powerful force on this world).

5) Is so totally bland and lacking in personality that he/she could be mistaken for someone's lost robotics project ... somebody that would only be too happy to get their robotics project back ... if he/she actually is a robot, that is ... and if he/she/it actually wants to go back.

6) Is the person the travellers have been looking for. He/she is operating under another identity - one that the best identity-fixers on Ffilz World have to offer. He/she is not at all interested in trading the bold, exciting life of a third assistant secretary to the seventeenth vice-president of the paint-dryer's union for the drab, dreary existence of an Imperial inmate on some back-water prison colony.

More to come ...