I own Jewel of Yavin and would like to run it for my current group, but...

They are all law abiding members of the Bounty Hunters Guild. They're not going to go for doing a heist or anything blatantly illegal.

So now I'm trying to rework the adventure with the PCs originally seeking out one of the bidders (one of my own creation) to take him in and recover the stolen credits he's planning to use to buy the Jewel. I plan on this bidder winning the bid and then having his money siphoned off by NPCs that will be playing the roles originally intended for the PCs.

Now the PCs have to get the money back, get drawn in to the heist by trying to stop it, and have all of the bad times that follow in the adventure (possibly aiding the ISB agent).

That's my super basic script. Any suggestions?

Seems pretty reasonable. If you wanted to try and salvage more of the campaign you could have them being hired to search the thieves out undercover. So this would still have them try out the race to get in, and then after bringing in the bidder, they have to discretely search for the droid that gets sliced, and proceed to slice into it for evidence and clues. Final chase is basically players chasing the thieves.

Not sure how you could go about the whole investigating/stealthing into the museum thing though... Maybe more of the same - doing recon the morning before the heist goes down/sneaking in the night before to set up independent recording devices to gather more evidence?

Yeah, unless I throw in some side plots, much of the first act is going to be a bust. I'm OK with ditching the grand prix (I don't care for it mechanically, and it only involves half the group at best).

I have also considered having them trying to hunt down a high-end thief. They have a tip that the Jewel is too tempting and that their mark is almost certain to try and steal it. This gets them into opposition with the NPC thieves right from the beginning.

I like the "undercover" angle. Maybe even hired by Lando himself! How is your Billy Dee impression?

It also means that you can borrow elements from Pulp Fiction AND Ocean's Eleven. Just take the various NPCs that the adventure already provides (to fill in PC holes for the heist), maybe add in one or two to round it off, and you have a big cast of criminals for the players to empathize, become rivals, and make enemies with. Ah, but the bounty hunters can't just bust them right away, because they need to nail the mastermind behind it all, not just the hired help.

I don't know the make-up of your PCs, but maybe nudge them towards spending some XP on social skills well in advance, so they have time to bring their trickery/schmoozing up to snuff.

I have four PCs in the group. One is a face-and-brains character (Colonist [Politico, Scholar]), one is a combat leader (Bounty Hunter [Gadgeteer, Mercenary Soldier]), one is a "silent brooding" type (Bounty Hunter [Assassin, Survivalist]), and the last is a "techno-brute" (Technician [Gadgeteer, Mechanic, Outlaw Tech]). They have a good mix of abilities, but only one of them is really skilled in Deception (which seems important for undercover work).

Have you considered having the employer be the current owner of the Jewel? We know from the introductory fiction that he's (justifiably) paranoid about the security of the gem and that he's got several contingencies. It's not beyond reason that he'd invest/call in favors to secure a more proactive option for keeping the gemstone safe until the auction.

That will give your PCs a good reason to get more involved with the the earlier stages of the theft plot (maybe even uncovering the real culprit backing the thieves if their research is good enough) and the race.

Have you considered having the employer be the current owner of the Jewel? We know from the introductory fiction that he's (justifiably) paranoid about the security of the gem and that he's got several contingencies. It's not beyond reason that he'd invest/call in favors to secure a more proactive option for keeping the gemstone safe until the auction.

That will give your PCs a good reason to get more involved with the the earlier stages of the theft plot (maybe even uncovering the real culprit backing the thieves if their research is good enough) and the race.

If I go that route, then I'd probably have the entire sale of the gem be a set-up to pull out the mastermind and his daughter. IOW, he won't be surprised that they're on Bespin, and he'll still be doing the sale in his role as an Imperial official working with the ISB agent.

Edit: I still think the race is very weak--there are far better ways creative players could come up with to get into the gala--so I'll probably leave it out regardless. Optionally, it could be going on during the final scene creating obstacles during the escape/chase.

Have you considered having the employer be the current owner of the Jewel? We know from the introductory fiction that he's (justifiably) paranoid about the security of the gem and that he's got several contingencies. It's not beyond reason that he'd invest/call in favors to secure a more proactive option for keeping the gemstone safe until the auction.

I haven't read or played JoY, but this idea sounds interesting. Do something like the movie Sneakers, where the group is hired to break in to show how bad the defenses really are. Perhaps Lando wants to prove that the jewel is safe and hires the party only to have them prove it really isn't. Perhaps the jewel owner wants to prove that the venue isn't safe. I'd assume that the venue would receive a percentage of the auction proceeds and with the party proving it isn't safe the owner could negoiate for a lower percentage.

Heck, the real thieves could've hired the party to do this too while pretending to be security personel or something. That way if things go south they could try to pin it on the party and get away scott free. Perhaps have the contact wind up dead with some loose threads to tip the party off that the real theives will be around and that they have to keep pretending to be the theives to flush them out.

Or perhaps the "real" owner of the jewel is someone else and they took out a bounty on the jewel's safe return. Perhaps it was stolen from them, or their faimly generations ago, and they want it returned. However, the Imperials don't think the "real" owner is really the owner (because it's an alien?) so the law won't help return the stolen property. The "real" owner also can't afford to win the auction to get it back. So, the party is hired to return the stolen property through any means necessary. In this case they would just be acting as repo men.

I got this started today. My players are seeking a bounty on Arend Shen. In my version, Shen is a master thief with a sizable bounty. A master hunter within the Guild tips the characters off to the sale of the Jewel of Yavin and that this is likely to attract Shen's eye. The master hunter knows that his reputation is sufficient to spook Shen, so he sends in a group of largely unknown lesser hunters in to covertly infiltrate the job. He gives them information on the contracted thieves that are supposed to be meeting for the job in Bespin.

The PCs were able to locate and eliminate (stun them, sneak them back to the ship, and store them in large specimen containers until the job is done) the thieves that were coming to meet with Shen about the job. The PCs met with Aris Shen in the place of the criminals and got the details of the job from her. In my version, she gives them the job; they do not meet Arend at this time. The PCs are aware that their best chance of finding Arend is to work through the job until they have a chance to meet Arend.

From here, the adventure is likely to go similar to the way the book writes it. I doubt I'll have Arend show up at the gala. Instead, I'll save him until the endgame. If the players want to stay legit, they'll then have to make hard choices about returning the Jewel and the stolen money...

My players are planning the heist, and are likely to be splitting the various tasks up amongst themselves and some NPCs (including two members of the original crew that was to do the job that the PCs have convinced to help them).

The one thing that the PCs all have agreed upon is that they think the idea of racing in the Grand Prix to be, well, stupid. They see it as an unnecessary step that will potentially draw attention to them. They figure with a good con and a hot slicer (both of which they have), it's just easier to fake a few invitations to the gala for the group's face and her escort. I can't say that I disagree with them on this point.