Need a Scout-Planet adventure idea

[shnar]

Was put on the spot last week to start a Star Wars campaign, and I need some ideas for the first adventure.

Characters :
- Bounty Hunter
- Ithorian Scout
- Brash Pilot

All "Independant" affiliations (i.e. not Rebels), and none of them knew each other ICly. So, just to get the adventure going, the Scout had been paid a good sum of money to go to the outer rim and survey a specific planet (didn't specify how much money, just "a lot" so we could get the adventure going). The planet was too far or perhaps too dangerous for public transit to take him, so he got as far as Tatooine and then hired a bodyguard and a pilot to take him the rest of the way (i.e. our Bounty Hunter and Brash Pilot). The Pilot charged $10k, enough to buy a used transport, and flew away.

My quick adventure had the Hyperdrive going out, having them land and to get it fixed, they need to help the local law take out a local swoop gang. No biggie. We're part way through that, but my conundrum is, what do I do after that?

I purposely left the planet the Scout was hired to survey very vague. It's my McGuffin, just a hook to get things started, and I need help fleshing out what it will be. I wanted a kind of mystery to it: the amount paid was quite a bit, like 5x the normal 'rate' for surveying a planet (whatever that might be). But why? Is it dangerous? Is there something special on the planet that needs to be retrieved/discovered? Is there Rebel or Imperial entanglements? Priates or Smugglers? What ideas sound good that I can grow into a campaign?

-shnar

[Xynar]

Either put a society there that can be exploited (labor, natural resources, etc.) or some sort of secret like a dumping ground for the Seperatists from the Clone Wars (ie lots of cool scrap). Since the fee is so much higher, the scout has to "keep quite" what he finds, otherwise the bounty hunter may be turning him in.
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Xynar
The Great Adventurer

[shnar]

I still love the overall Star Wars feel, i.e. Rebellion against the Empire, the Force, etc. I was thinking about involving the Rebellion some how. Maybe that they are establishing a base here, which would be a good way to get the Empire involved (have them discover the planet while the players are there, making them 'accomplices'). But if that's the case, then why did the original buyer pay so much for the planet to be scouted?

Lost Droid Technology isn't a bad idea. I'll start thinking about that idea and see if I can come up with something.

-shnar

[Esoomian]

Perhaps there is some sort of radiation or pathogen that doesn't show up on standard ship scans so if you spend time on the surface you're going to get sick (although not for a while) and what the interested party really wants to do is study what the effects on a sapients body and try to figure out if they can come up a way of treating it so the planet can be mined.
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Don't waste money on expensive binoculars.

Simply stand closer to the object you wish to view.

[Rerun941]

Perhaps the person who hired the scout is really from Imperial Intelligence simply using the scout to find a Rebel base or a new local population to subjugate. Or, it's the reverse. The Rebellion is stretched thin and needed an independent scout to survey a potential new base location. (Hence, the need to stay hush, hush.)
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Han - "How're we doin'?"
Luke - "Same as always."
Han - "That bad, huh?"

[FightingCorsair]

[Esoomian]

[DarthMortis]

[Lostboy]

What if the star in the planetary system to be scouted emits emits ion storms in it's solar wind the PC's would be flying through a mine feild and if the gravametric sensors on the hyper drive are effected hyperdrive is out of the question.

Perhaps the 5x the going rate is due to location hazards rather than the planet's importance. or if you'd rather have the planet be important in some way then lets say tales speek of a hidden lost colony whos people have become immortal.

The rest writes itself. The players land and their ship is damaged the good looking and plesent people have a utopian culture, ecologicly sound arcologies large amounts of personal freedom and a liberal attitude to sex.
The players are welcomed with open arms and the locals offer to repair and upgrade their ship to withstand the ion storms, after some time has passed they learn that the reson noone ages is that thay are all HRD's human replica droids and they have no intention of letting the PC's leave
their plan is to steal the hyperdrive from the PC's ship. The players have to choose stay here in this magnificant prison and let the HRD's escape their system to "Bring order to the galaxy." or fight their way to the lab with the hyperdrive that is being reverse engineered and destroy it and all the data and then blast their way to the ship and then have a great ariel battle on their way out of the atmosphere and jump out of the system on the backup hyperdrive.

Have fun.