Foodrunner in the Great Rift

[Starlord]

I am thinking of adapting the short JTAS scenario Foodrunner to the Great Rift area, to use as an intro adventure for some new players. I am going to make the Patron be an agent from Support Assets, Inc, looking to hire a small security detail for the shipment and dropoff. I'd love to place the adventure somewhere in the Great Rift area, since I want to use that as the location for my new campaign. I'd also love to make the adventure a little more involved than just dropping off the food delivery at the starport.

So, my questions are:
1. Is there a planet that someone could recommend as a suitable substitute for Roup in the Great Rift, preferably around the Islands subsectors?
2. How should I expand the scope of the adventure to go beyond just dropping off the crates of food and picking up the payment?

Thanks for the help!

 

[AndrewW]

The crates have more then just food in them (possibly some form of smuggling). Perhaps involving customs finding the items, or the criminal elements come to retrieve the items.

The food is spoiled or tainted in some way and the shipment is refused.

 

[phavoc]

Players would be contracted to transport smaller-sized cargoes, so the food would need to be beyond ordinary (think not corn/beans/wheat, or even granola bars). Which leaves exotic/extraordinary/liquor, etc.

With that in mind it's easy enough to design a set of contents that would not pass local laws. For example, maybe the food being transported is made from insects, and that type of food is illegal due to planetary law at the destination world (hence the increased value). It could be something as stupid as the local laws prohibiting the import of non-pasteurized food (you can't import that to the US from Europe). Or maybe it's against the local religious laws (alcohol made from grains instead of fruit).

Unless you've detailed out a planet you can pick any world or system that you want. And don't limit yourself to a specific planet listed on the map. A star system is yuuggeeeee. There are going to be numerous colonies, stations and inhabited planets within your target area. And actually, if you don't try to go through the Imperial starport (which would allow you to transport any cargo from Imperial starport to Imperial starport), your adventure possibilities open up. Imperial customs personnel are going to be harder to bribe. It's far easier to craft an adventure where the players first have to bribe the local customs officials when they inspect your ship, and then they may find their cargo delivered to the planet, but now they have to bribe the local guards to try and offload it, bribe a warehouse to store it, bribe.... you get the idea here. At each junction you have an opportunity to have a firefight, a wit fight, bad luck, etc. Maybe the local cargo hauler they had to rent breaks down transporting the goods to some out of the way delivery area (cause we all know cops avoid out of the way areas because of the bandit problem). The guys left on the ship have to break out of the starport in their ship to rescue them...oops, that triggers a military reaction and now they are on the run locally from the authorities.

So pick a system that you like in the Rift and make up the local environment you want your PC's to be working in. Even a station can provide for great adventuring - if without the obligatory PC-required plasma rifles and combat armor.

 

[PsiTraveller]

You could alter the adventure a little further for the Rift area into a pizza delivery concept. The Rift folk used sub light travel before discovering Jump Drive. There are still sub light ships in the empty space between systems.

An enterprising Patron/company/family member could hire the players to follow the trajectory and plot a Jump to find a certain ship mid journey. They could deliver spare parts, food etc to the ship. Or they could be asked to deliver material and then take specific people off the ship and use Jump drives to get to the destination faster.