Howdy,

I'm beating my head against the wall trying to come up with a good second and third act for an episode to spotlight a Politico character in my group.

The framework is thus: The Chiss Politico character is contacted a reoccurring Chiss NPC who serves as a senator on a world that treasures its independence and its tradition of civics & debate (think ancient Greece). The planetary senate is preparing to vote on a change to their constitution which would require anyone serving at any level of government to pass an Imperial "background check" and an Oath of Loyalty to the Empire (think Mccarthyism). Should this measure pass all non-humans will be forbidden to serve at any level of government. The political block pushing for this amendment is made up of corrupted senators who have been promised political favors from the Empire.

I've read through the career seeds thread pinned at the top of this forum but I didn't find anything that worked for me. I've contributed to the career threads in the past and now I am hoping to borrow a spark of creativity from my fellow EotE GMs to come up with a great hook for this episode.

At least some part of this episode should favor a Politico's strengths of debate, coercion, and negotiation. However, an injection of action is also highly desired.

Thanks ahead of time to anyone who can think of a fun idea to apply this this scenario. This community is the best.

It's indirect, but I suggest picking up the Far Horizons sourcebook, there is a long section on how to set up sessions to leverage the different kinds of careers and social skills, and play into some of the more potent but vague talents that the colonist trees have. Very worth the read.

It's indirect, but I suggest picking up the Far Horizons sourcebook, there is a long section on how to set up sessions to leverage the different kinds of careers and social skills, and play into some of the more potent but vague talents that the colonist trees have. Very worth the read.

I picked up Far Horizons as soon as it came out. Unfortunately it's been on loan to various players so I haven't had a chance to capitalize on any adventure ideas in the GM section. Your advice is good though and I'll definably take advantage of what that book has to offer.

How about taking a page out of the Clone Wars TV show, episode 307 (Assassin)?

Have your politico be slated to give a speech, but one of your other PCs somehow discovers a plot to assassinate the Politico either before, or during, the speech. They could receive threats or some such. Depending on the Politico's reaction to the news, one or more of your PCs might try a game of cat-and-mouse with the assassin(s), while others try and figure out how to best protect the Politico or even help him with his speech.

Even if the Chiss Politico PC ends up chickening out, the party might have to deal with these assassins before they're allowed to leave the planet.

These assassins could be connected to the pro-Empire group on the planet, but it'd be more interesting if they were hired from elsewhere, by a third party with a vested interest either in this vote or in seeing your Politico dead, and are simply taking advantage of the situation to frame the pro-Empire group in the planetary senate.

I found when writing specific stories for specific careers, when I have a hard time thinking of the story, I look at the Career Skills.

Then I spitball ideas for mini encounters based on the skills until I have a brainstorm of 8-10 encounters. After the brainstorm session I relook at the encounters and remove what can't flow together, this tends to trim it down to 4-6 encounters. I then refine the encounter with more fluff and dialogue. Finally I make sure to figure out how it fits into the overall story of my characters and where I want them to be at the end of it, and finish refining with that.

I am not sure how others do it, but that seems to have been what works for my group. My Explorer and Hired Gun missions worked out great that way and showed dynamic play. The Colonist mission is the next one so I am looking forward to if it is as smooth playing as it was to write.

Good luck with your story/game.

How about taking a page out of the Clone Wars TV show, episode 307 (Assassin)?

Have your politico be slated to give a speech, but one of your other PCs somehow discovers a plot to assassinate the Politico either before, or during, the speech. They could receive threats or some such. Depending on the Politico's reaction to the news, one or more of your PCs might try a game of cat-and-mouse with the assassin(s), while others try and figure out how to best protect the Politico or even help him with his speech.

Hmm. What if the assassination plot is actually just a ruse to get the Chiss PC to do something else, like contact a particular NPC who might be well placed to have some useful information? Only to discover that the Infochant is in on the greater plan and the idea was to draw them out of their comfort zone into an area where they could be kidnapped and extradited due to a "take-em-alive" bounty being placed on their head by some crime lord? And who might that crime lord be working for?

There are so many layers of duplicity that can be built into this one….

How well does the Chiss PC know his npc friend?

Now imagine the npc has arranged a hit to be made on their friend to make it look like Imperial interests have taken a dislike to the npc views and their attempt actually goes after the Chiss PC by mistake resulting in the PCs tracing the attack back to a group of corrupt senators thereby making them come under scrutiny by their Imperial Handlers persuading them that perhaps for their best interest they should cover their tracks by eliminating the Senators or at least that's what its supposed to look like...

Have you read the Star Wars Agent of the Empire series?

In the second story thread it dealt with Dooku's heir being assassinated so his authority would pass to someone in the Empire's best interests the lead discovering this ends up thwarting a subsequent attempt to secure the son of the heir he assassinated (which he posed as Boba Fett to escape identification) he made it look like the man the Empire was sponsoring actually hired Boba Fett to cover up his tracks.

Fett was fooled into believing the man had someone pose as him to kill the heir and make it look like he killed the child so he killed the now scapegoat in the presence of the lead who told him what he had done before Fett killed him/

Sorry for the longwinded explanation but when you say Chiss I'm reminded of a certain Thrawn have you thought about having this npc turn out to be working for the best interests of the Chiss?

Maybe they want this world to change in its best interests and have no problem making the Empire look like the bad guy?

How about a peace negotiation that goes a bit south?

Called to assist negotiate peace they are called back to a planet with two warring sides that are still trying to broker peace. While in transit the war breaks out. While both leaders want a peaceful end to things and will assist as, however a few of their followers find out about the peace negotiations and they plot against her.

She has several meetings with the two leaders and what is to be said or unsaid carries great weight in the process.

In addition for the other players there will be travel between the two leaders that must be cladestine but will travel through a war zone. So you have a few opportunities to take the spot light away from her.

After the negotiations end the players could gain some oblligation for some cool "gifts" or gain some duty... You could also raise the question to the group about the various rival factions that went against their leaders wishes.

Beyond that perhaps there was a "bigger fish" that drove events onwards. A person hiding in the shaddows and only noticable once or twice the whole time.

There's always the, "trick the corrupt senators into revealing their insidious plot while you're recording them and then expose the whole thing" angle. Charm and Deception can help with the first step, and the last step is a big play of Coercion that goes well beyond a physical threat.

Don’t forget blackmail.

You could set it up so that the enough of the votes for the empire are from blackmailed politicians that the vote could swing back to the anti-imperial favor. Let the NPC discover the blackmail plot then work out the details and stop the blackmailers allowing the politicians to vote their conscious... which will mean they vote against the empire since they are quite upset at the moment.

Or, if your PCs are a little more unscrupulous, you could blackmail enough senators to swing the vote into your favor....

Perhaps even have one senator being blackmailed by both sides >

What if the trusted Politico Chiss friend who had always seemed to be on the same side and along the same political lines as the player, turns out to have been secretly supporting the Empire side the entire time. Then during a climatic scene where the player has herd rumors or found light circumstantial evidence pointing to his friends betrayal, he can confront him. At which point the two Politicos can debate each other, and the NPC Politico can attempt to convince his friend to turn to his side. You could allow opposed negotiation, charm, and coercion rolls between the two sides to attempt to turn them to there side. Finally, if the player resists all attempts at conversion, you could build to a scene where the old friend apologizes to his friend as he pulls out a blaster, and gives the i'm going to miss you speech. At which point a fire fight could erupt, or if you don't wish that, the player and party could be arrested with trumped up charges as the npc Politico calls in Imperials to arrest the party. This would force the party and Politico to have to prove there innocence and expose his former friend.

Darthslash