I have an idea for an interesting campaign set approximately 4 BBY. I want the overarching villain of my campaign to be the Senator that is sympathetic towards the Rebel Cell that the PC's will be in. I want him to truly be rebellious, but I want him to also be free of much Imperial suspicion.

The idea began with Saw Guererra and the Partisans who have no problem doing whatever it takes to harm the Empire, even endangering civilians. I figured that worked well, so let's go even further, I want a character who is totally amoral!!

So here's my thought, the Senator is a major figure in the cell, of course because of his position, he can not have any direct contact, but the Cell members know where the money is coming from and who's pulling strings, and leaking info, etc.

The Empire also knows that he is doing this, but they think that he is a double agent, because the Senator has no qualms getting the PCs' friends in the cell arrested or killed, or even informing the Empire as to the secret whereabouts of the PCs' wives and children so the same can happen to them!

In reality, the Senator is not a double agent, but he is totally amoral and knows that he can stir up enough outrage against the Empire and spark rebellion that he doesn't care what eggs he has to crack in the process.

And whenever an Imperial starts to suspect the Senator, the Cell knows when, where, and how to eliminate a prominent Imperial!

What do you think, could this work?

Seems like you took it too far.

Why would the Empire let some politician run wild like that? It's like allowing a crime boss to knock over banks as long as he turned in one member of the crew each time. And story-wise it doesn't give you a clear direction to take the campaign other than just bork over the players regularly.

Dial him back and distill him down. Right now you've got a bit of a Buckaroo Bonzai with the Senator/Rebel leader/Secret agent/terrorist/triple agent/rock star/scientist thing going on.

So like... ditch "amoral" he's got his reasons, they may be messed up, but he's got them, and believes he's right. Saw worked because his background was clone war guerilla. By the time the war ended, he didn't really know anything else. So he found a new enemy and kept on fighting. What's up with your senator? Why did he suddenly see taxpayers as valid targets?

Next... you ever met a senator? They didn't get there by being unambitious. So he doesn't just want to spark rebellion and sit back and watch the fireworks. He's got goals and objectives. Does he see himself as the new emperor? Or perhaps as a future war hero? President of the Republic? Or maybe he wants his constituency to be under more direct governance like the Hutt's or Corellians? With him up top of course. Does he have some kind of off the wall political belief that got him his seat? Is that political belief just plain not compatible with the Empire, or even the Rebellion? Seeing the Empire as wrong is all good and well, but to risk all the perks of a senate seat he's got to have and end-game with a net positive, and a plan B that's at least Net 0.

Finally, how's he protecting himself? Most Senators that help the rebellion do it on the DL for a reason. If he's a double agent for the Empire... ok... But the triple-agent angle... a bit much. There's a reason you don't hear about triple agents often.

Okay, so I don't want to drop the whole amoral aspect, and there is a clarification I'd make. The Senator is interacting with local Imperials he isn't garnering attention from the Empire at large.

As the story goes along, the cell learns who it is that's betraying them and distance themselves from him. As a result, the Imperials that were receiving rebels from him can no longer please their higher ups and so they turn on the senator. So the senator reaches out to the cell.

Now the PCs have a tough decision. Do they rescue this man who has caused them such pain?

Do they leave him to the Imperials and risk that he talks to save his skin?

Do they assassinate him to prevent him from talking instead of rescuing him?

OK, that make more sense.

So here's my suggestion. do this:

5 hours ago, Felswrath said:

Now the PCs have a tough decision. Do they rescue this man who has caused them such pain?

Do they leave him to the Imperials and risk that he talks to save his skin?

Do they assassinate him to prevent him from talking instead of rescuing him?

He will absolutely talk to save his skin.

The players should have the option to Adventure or Adventure.

Staying home and hoping it all works out is NPC talk!

Being willing to sacrifice members of the cell isn't really amoral. Its being a big picture kind of person. Now the PCs might not see it that way, nor would a good portion of the rest of the Alliance.

I think making the Imperial's aware of his involvement in the Rebellion is not plausible. The Imperials would not just let someone run amok like that. In this situation, there is no such thing as "we think he's a double agent". Anybody who is in a position to know these things will know if he is or isn't a double agent. And if he isn't one he's going to turn said Senator in really quickly.

I think what you really want is a Senator who is involved in the rebellion, but isn't doing it for altruistic reasons. He's not an idealist. He's not a hero. He's doing it because it improves his position.

He uses the cell to do his dirty work under the disguise of "Rebel terrorism!". Perhaps he leaks them information about some imperial weapon shipments that they can steal. It just so happens that those weapon shipments were intended for troops working for one of his political rivals. Maybe he diverts them to liberate an oppressed mining world, because it happens that if that mining world defects the value of Irridium will shoot up 300% because that planet will no longer be producing. And the senator just so happens to own a large interest in one of the few other Irridium mines in the galaxy. The senator doesn't have any reason to sell them out necessarily. but at the same time he is not really obligated to help them either.

The situation you are developing is incredibly forced and doesn't make any realistic sense. The double-agent, technically triple-agent, angle doesn't work on a level as high as a senator. It works on the level of an ISB agent infiltrating the rebellion and positioning himself within a mid level part of the rebellion, where he can access information about multiple independent cells and turn them in to the Empire without revealing his position. Or the Empire turning a rebel who already held such a position. A senator doesn't make a good cover for a double agent. They're too high profile, and because of that the Rebellion would be loath to reveal much information directly to them. Senators are literally part of the Imperial government, you don't want to be giving them too much information in case they turn on you.

A senator who leaks information to a rebel cell that will happen to provide him great personal benefit is a more plausible scenario. And a more interesting moral quandary. If the PCs find out they've been just enriching this pompous senator they might have second thoughts about saving him from a bind. Some potential things they might need to save him from might be,

The Senator has been captured by pirates and is being held for ransom. The PCs risk exposing themselves, and the rebel cell, by rescuing him openly as members of the Rebellion, but it will allow them to keep using the Senator. Assuming they escape before the Imperial rescue fleet arrives! Oh, and the Senator is currently carrying a lot of incriminating evidence of his work with the rebellion, so letting the Imperial's rescue him isn't an option! Oh, and if the pirates found that information that too would be bad!

The Senator's hijinks have been found out. Its suspected that he is using a "fake rebel cell" to hurt his political rivals and is being investigated for corruption. The PCs have to rescue him, perhaps by planting evidence that the Senator didn't do what he did and that "there really is a rebel cell operating in the area" to get him out of hot water. This might involve the PCs deciding to attack one of the Senator's estates to take some heat off him. "See! I couldn't be directing these attacks, they just burnt down my Tibanna mining operation!" which is followed by an angry communication from the Senator asking why the PCs burnt down his Tibanna mine! Sure, it got ISB off his back but he's now lost several billion credits!

More likely, it shouldn't be apparent at all that this senator is supporting the rebel cell at all, but is seemingly an antagonistic figure who's true nature is only known to perhaps the leader of the cell on a need to know basis. The guy is like how we in the UK imagine recent politicians to look like, frequently talking about the need to draw rebels out, a strong desire to isolate lawless areas of space and enacting policies that generally make people's lives absolute ****, making up edicts that are really unjust and unfair which creates this intensely oppressive environment where even having something that resembles the old order is a couple of years in isolation. This guy should appear to be as facist as possible making him a symbol that is universally despised by people who are frequently the target of these anti-rebellious actions, the result should create a tinderbox of people willing to rise up if the imperial schemes ever fail, just imagine Tarkin without the terror weapon at his disposal as far as it goes and you have a pretty good idea who you are creating; a seemingly incompetent individual who is just making things absolutely horrid.

What is really going on is a two layered game. He is responding to information that the captain of the rebel cell is feeding him to create the perfect situation to aggravate the population, while feeding back information to the cell that will make disrupting the imperial regiment here more viable. Which in turn will make it much easier for the rebellion to get support. The deal is that once the rebellion is in full swing, the alliance is going to give him a major cut into future deals to expand his rule to a sector and reveal that he had been in collaboration with the alliance for a changeover, and that he only did what the empire told him to do. It doesn't matter if thousands upon millions of individuals were unfairly prosecuted or even killed; he will be of major assistance to the alliance and will expand his personal power several fold instead of just what he currently has. Of course, the alliance should have absolutely no interest in rewarding him beyond allowing him to maintain his post, or compensating him to live a quiet life so they can put a more friendly face into his position.

If the alliance do not give him what he wants? Then this should be interesting. Maybe he has his own resources he's been squirreling away, a privet army of some kind that he has been keeping in a fairly backwater place, a location where he knows that the rebel cell doesn't operate frequently. This is his contingency plan in case the alliance isn't giving him a legacy or plans to screw him over by secret informants he has. This should be the third faction in play that is prepared to wrestle back control of his sector of space back to the empire if the alliance do not meet his demands, while he senses the tide is changing perhaps this politician is arrogant enough to assume that if this sector of space doesn't fall, the alliance can't win the war or perhaps this is a very critical supply line that must fall otherwise the alliance won't be able to fully commit to the Empires hardest targets. If he succeeds in seemingly crushing this revolt of his own intuitive he might rise considerably in favour within the empire itself, becoming a war hero in a time that needs war heroes by completely crushing the flame of the alliance in his little corner of the galaxy. Of course, an army alone wouldn't turn the tide of the battle as that is where you really display this character's amoral nature by having a super weapon that crushes only the enemy.

That's right, he's ready to deploy the Kratos virus on his own population. Boom, this guys limited supply of the stuff obtained through his supply network is enough to completely undermine the mixed resistance he is festering with his vicious authoritarian campaign that target's various non-human species. Therefore no matter the odds this man has a super weapon that he can use to cripple the resistance he has assisted in case he ever needed to repress them again, therefore no matter what happens, this guy will aim to benefit from this situation in one way or another, even if that means committing a horrific genocide to do so. It doesn't matter, these are only illegal aliens that he is killing to save the planet from falling to the evil rebellion thus empire will rush to reward him for his quick actions in this darkest of hours. Either way, he will be a hero.

Of course the best way to make a compelling nemesis is to give him a flaw. Maybe the party will have several opportunities to identify this additional force that almost seems entirely localised on a city, the information being feed down indicates that this is only an agricultural city of relatively small importance. Maybe he is arrogant and knows full well his own importance, or maybe he isn't a particularly good tactican and at some point he will overplay his hand by committing elements of his own quietly funded army, which will make the PC's more curious to investigate. Perhaps if the Nemesis finds out that the PC's are investigating him that he might use his connections within the alliance cell to try and force a "cease and detest, this area contains a lot of quietly confiscated good that intend to be flogged once we have changed sides, this might expose our alliance" through the PC's superior. This should make them more curious to investigate harder; or even if they don't it sets up a rollercoster of events to stop this crazy senator before he can deploy his warheads to almost certainly cripple the alliance on this planet from his secret stronghold, or maybe he will threaten them first to try and make the alliance give him what he wants now; "meet my demands in 24 hours, otherwise you will never have my sector and you will have the blood of millions on your hands."

I've typed for too long, but the broad story is that this senator should be prepared to either assist or dump the alliance at a moments notice, and that ultimately his contingency to backstab the alliance will eventually turn this unlikely ally into an interesting antagonist. The key thing is that at the very least this person should have enough rudimentary cunning to do his job well; he has a very clear plan set in motion and that perhaps he really doesn't care however many millions will suffer because of it; as long as he and his family get what they want it's fine and he's big enough to remain a very distant character for much of the adventure. This isn't a character who will regularly meet your PC's, but he should be a figurehead who appears in propaganda like a really irritating bad rash; yet he is never a target in your team briefings to keep the operation "low key."

That being said; give the antagonist at least one thing they unconditionally love that they would do everything in their power to avoid endangering.; perhaps it's his illegitimate son or daughter who is actually serving in the rebel cell, just something that might make him risk his own gambit to try and rescue. The moment you give a villain the capacity to love; you give them room to start making mistakes, that may allow the PC's to figure out that this man mightn't be all bad or all good. Maybe the reason he won't just attack the rebel stronghold directly is because it would be very likely he would kill the last thing that reminded him of someone he loved. It doesn't really matter what it is but every good villain needs to love something, even if that love isn't immediately apparent looking in.