My particular game is very much an alternate universe. It begins several months to a year before Yavin and will end at the battle of Yavin or shortly after.

A basic rundown:

Basically in my AU, during Obi-Wan's fight with General Grievous on Utapau (I have no idea how that world is spelled!) that rolling wheel vehicle crashed into Grievous starfighter, knocking it off of the platform. As a result, Obi-Wan didn't use it to flee Utapau after the clones turned on him and was stuck there for weeks or months. This has resulted in the following changes, some of which my players know about, some of which they don't.

1) Vader was not confronted on Mustafar and never became a cyborg. As a result he is much more powerful than he is in the OT.

2) Luke and Leah were born to Padme who died in childbirth. Vader raised Leah and the Emperor raised Luke, the idea being that if the twins were split between the two of them it lessened the odds of Vader rebelling.

3) Leah runs the Inquisition

4) Luke is an Emperor's Hand and is in fact, the leader of the Hands. They're slightly different than they originally were, acting not only as enforcers, spies and assassins but also as a counterbalance to the Inquisition lest Vader get too much power.

5) Han and Chewie were both captured by Jabba and are essentially out of the picture.

The PCs have slowly gotten involved with the Rebellion and soon they'll be asked to do what seem like simple missions to ferry some people to and from dangerous areas and maybe intercept some transmissions and ferry them to other places. They'll slowly come to realize that what they're doing is getting the Death Star plans for the Rebellion. I plan to throw a twist at them when the Death Star tests its superlaser however. Rather than destroying Alderaan it will destroy Corellia which will make it much more personal for a couple of my PCs and also demonstrate that I am changing things up.

In probably 3-4 months they'll do the trench run and I've already warned them, success is not guaranteed and if they fail Yavin will be destroyed and things will take a very dark turn. However, I am combining a plot element from ANH and ROTJ and having the Emperor be present on the first Death Star as he wisely does not trust Vader and Tarkin with a world killing super weapon.

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So, what I'd like from you all is suggestions on how you'd design and run missions for the players to acquire the Death Star plans? I'd also like to keep things a bit mysterious to the players themselves at first as I'd like it to gradually dawn on them what exactly they're actually doing. Thoughts?

Well since every EU source that didn't involve Hoth or the New Republic stole the Death Star plans at some point or another there's lots of potential material to work with.

My understanding is the players are working for the Empire as Lukes personal hit-squad while also working for the Rebels. Right?

The first tipoff that something is up would be a resource jump. Death Stars aren't something you can staple together over a weekend. So (depending on how "in the loop the players boss is) the players might actually be sent to something like the Kuat system (See Platt's Starport Guide) to find out why they're (on paper) using triple the raw materials needed for the production of the ships they've been building on contract. The rebellion would like to know too of course. End of this adventure would find that a Kuat businessman was funneling materials to the Hutts and cooking the books, but there's still lots of unaccounted for materials the players can confirm were shipped away from mining and smelting complexes, but never arrived a Kuat.

More adventure ideas to come...

Frankly I wouldn't.

Have you ever read Darth's & Droids? If players get a hold of the plans they will want to either steal the entire thing or build it from scratch in their garage.

But the Emperor wasn't there for the Death Star originally either...so the not trusting them with a world destroying weapon is invalid. Luke and Anakin being very very good pilots will slaughter the rebellion fighters. It will be a death mission if all those special characters are there. You could still just have Anakin be there...and when he dies Luke and Leia will personally go after your PCs-- my name is Luke/Leia you killed my father prepare to die.

You should come up with cool names for Luke and Leia and do not tell your PCs who they are...they'd be Darth's at this point and age wise. So Darth blah ...and when they encounter them you can describe Luke or Leia.

I tend not to use ep1-3 as canon or the cartoons or animated junk. So you can do whatever at that point-- ep4 started as Leia having it randomly and giving it to R2...so how's she get it if you just look at the original movies-- who the F knows...AND THERE YA GO! You can do whatever you think! A random deadly mission turns out to have a computer terminal that was heavily guarded ..some slicing reveals ...a secret weapon the Emperor is has built...a giant space station that can destroy planets...there goes the neighborhood...those spaceballs...

Have the Bothan spy network steal the plans off of the PC's (after they go through some major problems getting them) in some sort of despicable fashion, they are known to be pragmatic little bastards after all.

Being PC's

You know what happens next...

ALSO - you have the fact that the rule of two. The Emperor tried throwing that out the window but sorta failed because all his apprentices died. So that being said your time line could have them face only Luke or Leia. Vadar having his son to take on the Emperor or Leia or both -- would have beaten him (they did once if you call ep6). It would have been easier if they were actually coordinated to kill him instead of it being a fluke.

Vadar as Emperor and Luke and Leia as his apprentices...already plotting his downfall. Remember via genre it is inevitable for them to slay their master or at least try. One to have the power and one to crave it.

Well, The rumored plot for the New Star Wars Spin off movie is actually about the theft of the Death Star Plans. It is suppose to be a heist movie that is set around Bounty Hunters who are contracted to steal the plans. Think Ocean's 11 meets Star Wars with a focus on events like TCW Ssn 4 Esps 15-18. The whole Cad Bane and bounty hunters after the Chancellor.

So you could use that type of plot device for the theft.

One Shot is a nice live play about getting the plans
http://www.oneshotpodcast.com/one-shot/25-star-wars-edge-of-the-empire/

Oops. My original post was unclear. Luke is the leader of the Emperor's Hands. Not the PC group. The PCs are indeed working for the Rebellion. I've since edited the post though I do wish I'd thought of Luke as some kind of highly placed mole within the Rebellion giving out missions only to turn on the PCs and the Rebellion!

Just remember , no matter how they get the plans...

Many Bothans must die...to make it happen.

Just remember , no matter how they get the plans...

Many Bothans must die...to make it happen.

That is one of the perks, right?