Really having a hard time figuring this one out.

My players are in a sector of space (Minos) where most of the spaceports have imperial customs inspection officers. upon landing usually the Officer will meet the players Check their licenses and manifest, and maybe even open a crate to verify the contents.

You think that is SOP? or should something more be done?

Sounds fine to me.

If you want to mix it up you can have spaceport control order them to go into orbit and have the search conducted there (to ensure they aren't just air-dropping the contraband to a DZ on their approach vector).

Bring a scanning crew about for a "random" screening.

A droid of some kind might also assist.

I wrote a small encounter for an upcoming session with my players, which has a Customs Officer accompanied by two assistants/officers-in-training. They're to board the ship in a "Randomly selected screening" of cargo contents, which involves a cursory scan/search.

One of the Officer Interns is set to be somewhat dimwitted, and likely to miss things, whereas the other is over-eager, giving the party lots of ways to manipulate the search with social skills instead of just hiding things and hoping for the best.

Might be too much to do every time they pass through customs, but it might make the experience slightly more memorable that one time.

I dig the "Cadet ride along" idea. Would be a nice little story bump to have the players get cozy with Lt. Cezden whenever they go to Trenzea. He's not too rough with em and usually takes a bribe as long as the contraband isn't too nasty. After the players start to get lazy, Cezden get's a Cadet and suddenly has to do everything by the book for fear of the kid turning him in...

Before I forget, there was a bit of conversation on a topic close to this in the GM thread here.

To add to what Ghostofman and Kaalamity have said (as they've already mentioned some solid points):

Not every ship gets the full search in every port. If there's a reason for the search (the ship is known for smuggling, the pilot is a criminal for smuggling, there is Kaalamity's cadet idea, or there's a member of the Inquisitorious/ISB watching), then it's SOP.

Normally, if things look right, they get the wave through. You show your documents, you pay your fees, and you can move along.

My rule of thumb is, if there's a reason for the search, then do a search (note: the reason will determine how much of a search). Otherwise, it's pay your fees (and/or bribes) and move along business as usual.

Before I forget, there was a bit of conversation on a topic close to this in the GM thread here.

To add to what Ghostofman and Kaalamity have said (as they've already mentioned some solid points):

Not every ship gets the full search in every port. If there's a reason for the search (the ship is known for smuggling, the pilot is a criminal for smuggling, there is Kaalamity's cadet idea, or there's a member of the Inquisitorious/ISB watching), then it's SOP.

Normally, if things look right, they get the wave through. You show your documents, you pay your fees, and you can move along.

My rule of thumb is, if there's a reason for the search, then do a search (note: the reason will determine how much of a search). Otherwise, it's pay your fees (and/or bribes) and move along business as usual.

Great point. There doesn't always need to be a search.

However, they're a great use of a GM Destiny Point.

Always try to arrive at a port during shift change. People just want to go home!

Unless the PCs have done something to draw the custom officer's suspicion (such as some discrepancies on their presented BoSS documentation and what's on file, or they've got a number of "prior incidents" on record), in most cases the customs officer is going to just give them a quick check, especially if it's a busy starport with lots of ships coming in and heading out.

In spite of how it's often presented in adventure modules, not every customs officer is going to need a bribe or else inspect every little thing about the ship. Most of them are likely to be genuinely honest folks doing their job. As long as there's nothing to raise a warning flag and the PC's cargo manifest looks to match up to a quick eyeball confirmation, there shouldn't be any major problems.

If the PCs have a frequent habit of blasting out of starports on short notice or causing a ruckus with Imperial authorities, that's going to be a very different story, one with a high chance of stormtroopers being called in.

I'd agree searches aren't mandatory all the time. If you wanted to make a random event of it that would be fine. Honestly the real Imperial Customs probably would just conduct X number of random hard inspections a day. If you wanted it to be an absolute you just write it in to the scenario that searches are being done of all non Imperial government freighters or something to that effect because of some specific security concern.

Look on it from an employee's point of view:

What day of the week is it?

Monday, mostly meh don't care, Tues-Thursday, might do some work, Friday, don't care, Weekends... hate the world/don't care

Is the ship and crew being irritating or disrespectful?

Rip up everything, pillows, bunks, bring in scanner droids, pull wires out... cavity searches

Emotional and attitude of current boss.

Good job officer Bob, keep up the good work: Maybe cut some poor sap a break today

Bob, about those TPS reports: Ok, someone's got to suffer just as much as I have

Current amount of work in the system.

Not much happening- more poking around to alleviate boredom, but not necessarily maliciously

Regular day- cursory inspections and maybe anything obviously out of order gets attention

Busy as a bee- rip through as much as you can and get out onto the next one

Huge backlog- no obvious cybernetically weaponised wookies, then get out of there

Bribery is also a bit of an art form, too much and you risk looking like you've got some stolen deathstar plans in the Bothan's rectal cavity, which will have consequences for the people doing the inspection later on if such a thing pops into plain view later on and they get called up on it. But mostly it raises the question- what the hell have these guys got?

Too little might mean you're lowballing them and to be fair, they'll see you've got some cash to flash and probably double the amount offered simply to make you sweat and then take whatever they want. Yep, that crate of brandy, that artwork over there and some shiny things lying around the missus might like.

The other thing to consider is the society that people come from and their all too 'human' failings and predjudices. For the average mid-outer rim, most inspectors would see a dozen wiggly aliens wander through every day and don't really care provided they're not biting anyone.

Inner and core, they probably don't see too many aside from some near-humans and the more common critters like twileks and anything approaching a armed and armoured trando or wookie with his Blastmaster 9000 and heavy power armour... its not going to end well for anyone involved.

A few years ago I had a whole heap of young workers come in from an affiliated company overseas, aside from the technical and process parts of the job, we'd get talking about their countries and mine, the differences there and basically, how much 'fun' can you have without ending up in jail.

For some, the cops will beat their arse just for entertainment.

Some places you can bribe your way out of anything

Another place, the cop will stick you up with a submachinegun and steal your wallet

So there's also 'those' places, you probably have to watch your backside more than others!

Look on it from an employee's point of view:

What day of the week is it?

Monday, mostly meh don't care, Tues-Thursday, might do some work, Friday, don't care, Weekends... hate the world/don't care

In Star Wars, there are only five days to a week, so no one gets weekends.

For about 7 years of my life I was 24-7, 365 days a year for some law-enforcement, technical support stuff.

After a while... you just don't give a ****

I've handled it different ways. Usually I just have customs act as the OP described. Check papers, look for obvious stuff, move them on. If the planet is far from the core, or shady, they might threaten to do a full inspection with obvious overtones that a quick hundred credits might speed them through faster. If the players are obstinate for one reason or another, that can trigger problems. Most of the time though it's just pass them through.

To add a little bit of risk, I'll often have a pair of six sided dice, and roll on approaching a planet. If I roll snake-eyes they get the full, we're inspecting every facet of your ship, double checking everybodies ID, and being a general pain in the ass, inspection.

I will caveat that if having the characters get caught doing naughtiness will totally derail my game, those are times where it's pretty guaranteed they'll pass through quickly and easily. If, on the other hand, there's still several hours in the evening and it's looking as if the material I prepped isn't going to last quite as long as I expected, that might be a good time for a full inspection.

On a tangent, Imperial Customs wears uniforms similar to the Imperial Navy (the gray-green) but somewhat different. How do you have them differ? Different color, different insignia, what?

The way I see it, there is three types of custom officials. The safest type want to do there job, and go home. The next group see this as a way to get rich. Bribes, confiscation, and anything that prepares them for soft retirement. The scary ones are the New Order fanatics. This might be the first step in the bureaucracy, but they plan to go far. They are likely to see rebel activity everywhere.

I often have customs handled by the local planetary government. If the Imps have a reason to care about a particular world they'll set up their own customs. Otherwise, let the local handle it. Local customs can be anything from a regimented full scan to Jo Jo and his pet Womprat giving the ship a good staring at and calling it good.

On a tangent, Imperial Customs wears uniforms similar to the Imperial Navy (the gray-green) but somewhat different. How do you have them differ? Different color, different insignia, what?

Far as I know, they are Imperial Navy, though I've not seen a force-org chart or something like that which makes them anything special, so they'd be just detailed out into custom's vessels, space stations and star ports. Mind you, their primary goal was/is anti-piracy and anti-terrorism, slightly more than keeping Cracky McCrackhead the smuggler from dumping spice on the population.

The average 'Officer' that goes in and does the checking would be some peon level like Midshipman (Gray-green), with some navy troopers (black) for muscle and the odd technical specialist crewman (light grey).

I can't see it as being a very illustrious position unless you get on a corvette, patrol boat or frigate.

As for the indy's and semi-independants, like Corellia and Corp-Sector, they've got their own forces to do it.

Don't forget the corrupt officer... "For a thousand credits I won't bring a scanning crew on board."