Does anyone have advice on how to link adventures together in ways that are more natural than "Yes, I have information on your ongoing campaign/metaplot. Do this mission for me and I'll tell you enough to advance the story a bit!"

I've started a campaign with two friends and we're going to rotate the GMing per published adventure. So I'm running Beyond the Rim, then my character will swap in and another player will GM Jewel of Yavin and so on. The overall campaign is entirely character focused, as our characters deal with various issues from their past, their morality and philosophy, and become Force sensitive.

The problem I'm having is finding ways to slot the Adventures into this overall story without them functioning like fetch quests so prevalent in PC games.

One of our character's is looking for information on her missing uncle, and Reom has promised her information on that if they complete Beyond the Rim. The other character has majorly upset a Hutt and is secretly (unbeknownst to the other player) being blackmailed into bringing the spoils to him instead of Reom, which should lead to some good intra-party conflict. However, at their current rate I'm pretty sure they're going to miss the deadline for meeting the Hutt, even if both characters agree to go. I'm not sure how to resolve that, as this was kind of the "last chance for forgiveness" to put some pressure on. I'd like to use the Debts to Pay short adventure (introducing the horror elements of the droid revolution, and having the PCs perpetually hunted by some implacable mechanical monster would be awesome), but I can't think how to introduce it at this point in a better way than the Hutt saying "You've failed me again... but I guess if you do this other mission for me then it's cool. Then you can get back to the actual story!"

How do more experienced GMs handle fitting "adventures" into your story campaigns?

(The other option I might go with instead is if the PCs show up late to the meeting, have them ambushed and wake up as "guests" at the Hutt dinner party modular encounter from Lords of Nal Hutta, and just leave Debts to Pay for another time.)

What about having clues be part of the adventure.

Perhaps the Sa Na Laor is linked to the characters past somehow. Recovering that would uncover part of the character's plot.

Plus, it's OK to have the occasional "case/monster of the week" session that may not tie in heavily with your overall campaign (or may not tie in until later when you have an "AHA!" moment and a tie-in comes to mind, in which case, you appear to be a mad genius for planting those seeds so long ago ).

As for Debts to Pay, how about this: it's built in that the Hutt is having financial problems, and his staff is ready to mutiny. He doesn't bring them in because they failed him, but he's giving them "one more chance." He brings them in because they're outsiders with no vested interest in it, but outsiders that he's familiar enough with to trust. He will, of course, be unlikely to present it to them that way, but instead insist that they owe him for not killing them when they failed.

I think you already have a good framework going that prevents The Weekly MacGuffin, but as Nytwyng says it's not bad to have that in the mix. After all, these are Edge characters, they're always after something , aren't they?

So I fit adventures into my campaign in a loose way because I try to run what I call a "clockwork sandbox." In short terms, I cook up a couple (2-3) storylines that are going to happen over the course of our campaign. I break those into bullet points of events, then try to figure out how I can take the pieces and fit them into the action that the players lead. Sometimes the players interact and change the plot, other times they don't. Point being, I don't plan too far ahead in any details because it's definitely going to change.

When it comes to incorporating published material, I take the overall theme they're trying to portray in mind, then rip them limb from limb and put then chunks where they fit in my game. I do usually read aloud certain passages from said published works, but if I have my druthers I'll have read them aloud once or twice before and picked a voice if necessary. The feedback from my players has been that they didn't know where the published adventure started and ended.

Advancing the characters as characters usually deals directly with motivation. The way I deal with this is to have an overarching adventure that takes place because the characters are in a situation (maybe they work for someone, maybe they are on the run from someone, but something GROUP specific). When it comes to them as individuals, I pepper in 'sidequest' type things that they can deal with. Maybe it is finding information, maybe finding part of a cure for a sick family member, etc. In any case, actively pursuing the motivation should be difficult, distracting from their ability to maximize the outcome of the main campaign or outright putting it in danger. Because of this, I make liberal use of the +5 motivation XP if they go after it, and in some situations, if they blatantly ignore it, I may raise obligation somewhere. I've had really good experiences with this, as each character gets a few little side events going off throughout the campaign that are unique to them. They've been quite happy with it.

One of our character's is looking for information on her missing uncle, and Reom has promised her information on that if they complete Beyond the Rim.

Too bad the missing uncle wasn't on, or looking for, the Sal Nalor....