I'm due to start an Edge campaign at Easter - it's been a few years since I last GM'd a Pathfinder game so it will be my first time running Edge.

This is the idea I've had for the opening adventure, before the group spins off in their own (random) direction. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Setup

The PC’s are all on Alderaan, effectively stranded in the spaceport. The ship they arrived on has been impounded for allegedly smuggling weapons. Whether they were the crew of that ship, or just passengers, the PC’s are confined to the spaceport as potential witnesses/suspects until the investigation completes. If the PC’s don’t kick up a fuss it will take two days, more if they harass or annoy the spaceport administrators.

Opening Encounter

The opening encounter will be a fist-fight with three thugs, who are standing over the body of a dead Imperial agent. After the fight, the PCs find on the dead agent a recording rod with an encrypted, but open, message.

The message on the recording rod is from an engineer working on a top-secret Imperial project (the Death Star). The message addressed to his sister, who lives nearby, and is a plea for her to get off world before the Death Star arrives - to the PCs, in six hours time. The engineer will go awol before the Death Star jumps to hyperspace, hoping to meet up on the distant world of Tatooine, in one standard week (which will allow me to reuse some of the materials from the beginner’s game).

If the PCs choose to check over the agent, he has orders to leave the spaceport and kill the engineer’s sister, just in case the message was not intercepted in time. This should help convince the PCs of the message’s authenticity.

Main

I’m kind of going to leave this open to the group to freeform a bit, depending on what the approach they want to take, but will have scribbled down some of the various problems which can (and surely will) beset them.

The main moral issue for the PCs to consider is should they let the engineer’s sister know about the message? Also, do they attempt to do some good before they leave off world, perhaps seeing who or what they can save from imminent destruction? Or, do the PCs attempt to see what they can get away with, suspecting that any evidence will be destroyed along with the whole of Alderaan?

Complications

• The PCs have no weapons, and are only carrying what the spaceport police let them out of custody with.
• Other spacers won’t take them off-world, as they would effectively become criminals themselves.
• Spaceport officials will do their best to ensure the PCs remain in the spaceport (obviously), which is the last thing they will want. Being waylaid or captured or would effectively be a death sentence.
• An imperial agent, working out of the Spaceport, who will attempt to find out what happened to the recording rod and his colleague.
• There is a reporter at the Spaceport, interviewing people about the upcoming memorial service for Princess Leia Organa (as she was reported killed whilst on board the Tantive IV).
• Going around saying that the world is going to end could result in the PCs being arrested – not something the PCs will want to happen.
• A bounty hunter is in port, as one of the PC’s obligations needs to be met (introducing the concept of Obligation to the group). The bounty hunter does have his own ship though...
• Can the PCs find someone to take them (and willing to believe them), or must they instead steal a ship? Or can they manage to stowaway on a ship instead?

Any thoughts gratefully appreciated...

Hmm... I'd make the Imperial turn out to be delivering the message to the engineer's sister since that was the only way to insure noone knew about it.

Maybe have him stumble into the PCs being chased by the thugs who are armed but the PCs have a chance of ambushing them.

Reveal the message is encrypted and the dying man begs them to deliver it to his fiance, saying she's the only one who can unlock it and it will also release the lock on his credit chip letting them have the funds from that as payment.

The thugs weapons could be a handy bonus especially as they're only using normal melee weapons to hide they were hired by the Imperial Agent who witnesses whats going on but doesn't know who the message is for since the dying man was assumed a rebel agent.

So now your PCs are suspected of being rebels and if they undertake the dying man's last request they'll get their payment (You decide I figure 2,000 credits each should be minimum) but learn the rest of the above as the Imperial Agent sends in his Stormtrooper team in ahead of reinforcements wanting to catch them all together.

Maybe have the engineer's sister have her own means of helping get their ship released as long as they can get her offworld to Tattoine before the Agent realises they're heading back to the spaceport...

They could kill the Agent when he and his team storm the house but having him chase them back to the spaceport and discover he doesn't exactly have the right to do what he's doing on this world, of course it also requires your PCs to remember they aren't supposed to be armed so some handy deception on their part should they feel up to being creative but you know your players after all!

Thanks for the comments Copperbell, much appreciated. Some good ideas there and having the cash incentive will definitely be the danging carrot to get one of my PCs involved, especially as he will almost certainly have debt as his obligation.

If this is the first time you or your players have run EotE, I strongly recommend the beginner box set. This game plays very differently from any d20 game, and you'll need to wrap your heads around some new concepts. For my (reluctant) players it was a complete eye-opener, and rousing success.

Also, once they see how the mechanics work, they'll have a much better idea how to create their characters. If I had started with character creation it would have been a long and painful confusing session, trying to explain things that are better experienced.

Just my $0.02 ...