So I am trying to get my wife into RPGs, I mean who hasn't!? AMIRIGHT!? Anyway, previous attempts have left her feeling uncreative, feeling like she has no imagination, and just not into it. For this attempt I want to tailor the story to her, which I've not done in the past for various reasons.

I think I can hook her with her two largest interests: science (biology/medical sciences) and babies! She seems to prefer Star Wars over fantasy stuff so will be sticking with Star Wars for sure. Here is what I have come up with so far:

I want to create a beginner game for her so she feels comfortable slowly exploring and getting used to the idea of roleplaying.

Her character will be a Mirialan Colonist - Doctor (pregen, descendant of her slightly played SWTOR character) for a small village on Tatooine. She will discover a young child (who is secretly strong in the Force) and hunted by Imperials and Bounty Hunters. Knowing her she will want to take care of the child. I was thinking for a larger story to involve Dr. Nuvo Vindi from TCW as the main antagonist. Foil his experiments and what-not. For the beginner game I came up with this outline:

Scene 1 – Tuskan Raider Raid – her small village is attacked by Tuskan Raiders, must help defend

Scene 2 – discovers young sick child in the aftermath of the attack, nurse back to health

Scene 3 – bounty hunter, a bounty hunter arrives looking for the child, must convince the hunter that the child is not there

Scene 4 – fight or flee – the bounty hunter starts causing trouble in town looking for the child, flee to Mos Eisley

Scene 5 – Mos Eisley - Imperials, discover the Empire is after the child, must find transport off-world

I was planning to give her an astromech companion, HA-RT (Heart, she'll love that), that I can play to help guide her along. Plus there will be the opportunity for a GM PC pilot to get her off-world.

That's all I got so far. What do you think? Does that sound like a solid, engaging story? Where could I improve?

You know your wife better than anyone here so I'll defer if I read it wrong.

Be careful of the standard male/female tropes, saving babies and such. All the women I know who are into SW love pretty much the same things about it as men do: the action, the adventure, shooting, flying X-Wings, lightsabres the whole package. So unless your wife has mentioned saving children as a fantasy I'd just go with something more generic in the gender sense.

What I'd suggest is check out what she's reading or some action movies she likes and use those as a base and build from there. Or just run the adventures in the books but scaled down to allow a single PC + a Droid to succeed, then ask her what she liked about it and what she like to see more of.

If these ideas were for a standard group I'd say "cool!". But in your case I think you're still putting a thick layer of "physical conflict" over it that is maybe unnecessary or that she might not be into. I'd veer more into the social/investigative/knowledge realm and mostly stay there until you see how she takes to it.

So maybe you could start a little more mundane. Maybe she's a doctor, and there's simply an accident nearby, and she has to hurry to save the victims, some of whom might be children. While she's there she has to face uncomfortable choices by doing triage...this one will be okay, even though he's lost a leg; this one needs immediate attention or will die soon; that one is doomed and there's no point....etc

Maybe she witnesses some lowlife in the shadows taking the opportunity to steal something from the victim, either off their person or from their vehicle. She can hasten to confront the thief, or at least try to get a good description, but that might put the victims in danger...this is a case where advantages and triumph play well to get all the info, but even if all the stars align, the lowlife gets away.

Later on it will turn out that the lowlife actually caused the accident, and was recovering something that was originally stolen from him, but now as a witness she's potentially in danger because he's connected to "...insert organization here..." and maybe the victims aren't people that should have been saved after all...

I don't want to disagree with whafrog because I don't dislike his idea but I would keep in mind that it's Star Wars so keep the action going along with the investigation. The old WEG D6 Star Wars RPG had a great line in the GM section (if I remember it correctly) that summed it up: If you don't have something explode in a great ball of fire every session you're doing it wrong. Now every session may be excessive but you get the idea

True, keep the pressure on...I get what you mean. That said, I think the SW universe is more mature than when WEG was around...and by "mature" I just mean more varied and capable of hosting more types of stories. These days I take most of my cues from TCW, where many of my favourite episodes have no explosions at all...eg, Lightsaber Lost, or even Bounty, which is action-packed, but has minimal destruction.

Thanks! Some good suggestions. I think she would dig the investigation more since it might hook her in. If it was science or baby related she would really bite. I know that women + babies and rescuing the baby is a played out trope, but my wife LOVES babies! They are like her crack! (We don't have any yet.)

I've also got to find a way to make her comfortable with actually playing a character. She has it in her mind that she is no good at it, that's why I was thinking a simple motivation, baby, would work. I am thinking less rolls but engaging mystery.

Ok, so I came up with this and think it could use some more fleshing out:

Scene 1 – Explosion in Town – must help rescue/heal folks, choices between who to help and who not to help, advantage/triumph can be used to help additional people, etc

Scene 2 – shady character – spots someone fleeing the scene clutching something – they see each other, hard choice but must continue to help the victims. Offered reward (credits) and discovers a baby (orphan) has gone missing. GM PC to prompt investigation?

Scene 3 – tracking down the shady character – skill challenge, leads to Mos Eisley crime lord

Scene 4 – Social encounter with crime lord to negotiate for the child – success = reveals location of child, failure = ??

Scene 5 – Rescue the child, stealth, distraction, or combat

If she is into it I was thinking the larger story would be her as the guardian for this force sensitive child at least until she can find someone to take care of him/train him as a Jedi. While she is trying to avoid the Empire (Inquisitor?) and Imperial Bounty Hunters who are after the baby.