Old School said:
Good stuff! What kind of campaign do you have planned?
I've set it up as a pretty wide field sandbox, but that said my vision of Magyar sector is of a broken-down, impoverished area where crime is common and life is cheap. What had been an important industrial and ship-building center for the Confederation was devastated by the Solomani Rim War, and Imperial reconstruction efforts have been ineffective and plagued by corruption and exploitation from the megacorporations. So with this group of PCs, we could do just about any kind of game except exploration: military, espionage, crime, or merchant would all be cool.
The first session kicked off with a riff on a patron encounter from CT: the group was approached by a businessman who introduced himself as "Mr. Johanson," representing a coalition of industrial interests. While these interests see a supporter in General Zakiah, the dictatorial ruler of Einkamp (Magyar 3020 E8648BD-6), they are concerned about reports of a growing rebel movement on the mainworld. The General has assured these industrial interests that he has the matter well under control, but rumors abound that the rebels, who are extremely violent, have enjoyed a string of military successes. Just to be safe Mr. Johanson has been tasked with verifying these claims. The PCs were offered very generous terms to travel to Einkamp, survey the rebel army, and report back on their apparent strength and position. They are also asked to fully document any indication of rebel atrocities.
Once on Einkamp the PCs seek out a black market to arm themselves despite the world's high law level. They learn that the rebels, who oppose economic inequality and megacorp meddling in their world's affairs, have a fairly popular onworld following and are beginning to attract sympathetic offworld supporters. The "Lifestyle Holographer" takes great delight in documenting their onworld experience, seeking out recent battlefields and war orphans. The PCs also notice they are being followed, and assume they are being surveiled by either the general or the rebels. The PCs set an ambush and capture one of their tails. Under interrogation the tail reveals that the PCs have been set up: Mr. Johanson wanted to lure the Lifestyle Holographer to Einkamp to be murdered along with his companions, and the rebels would be blamed for the deaths. The ensuing publicity was intended to smother offworld sympathies for the rebel movement.
The PCs decide to approach the rebel commander with their story, revealing the location of Mr. Johanson's murder squad. The commander is all-to-glad to eliminate some offworld counter-revolutionaries, and his forces shell the warehouse where the murder squad was waiting, killing everyone inside. Instead of documenting rebel atrocities the Lifestyle Holographer documents the government's atrocities as well as megacorp involvement.
