How should I hand out plot-vital information?

[JMISBEST]

I'm planning A Traveller Campaign which isn't Pirates of Drinax but is planned to start and end on and see a lot of the none combat action on Drinax and where the Npc that is most vital to the plot has information that is vital to the plot, yet if I play her based on her history then she would be unwilling to hand out this information, which would definitely save Drinax and likely save The Trojan Reach from being conquered by A Traveller Version of The Lugovallian Empire from The DS Game Infinite Space but as she is A Rogue Lugovallian Princess(by their standards, which by Travellers means evil turned good) for fear of being executed as A Lugovallian Spy. How would you suggest she hands out the information vital to Drinax and indeed The entire Trojan from being conquered by A Traveller Version of The Lugovallian Empire. Not to mention The Campaigns Plot is very heavily based on A What-if version of the plot of Part 1 of The DS Game Infinite Space

Also she's got 45 ships of her own in the form of 26 600 ton Perekop Class Scoutships, 10 1,000 Ton Bellenus Class Escorts, 6 3,700 ton Bellina Class Frigates, 2 9,200 ton Toutais Class Carriers and 1 22,600 ton Belenus Class Cruiser. But her homelands invasion fleet, unless The Characters stop it, can be as big as 55,000 ships ranging from TL 13 and 6,600 tons to TL 17 and 179,700 tons

 

[locarno24]

Well:

1) What is the information?
2) Why does only she have it?
3) Is she only "unwilling to hand it over" because of the risk of being executed as a spy or is there another reason?
4) Do the PCs know she has this information.

 

[JMISBEST]

Well:

1) What is the information?
2) Why does only she have it?
3) Is she only "unwilling to hand it over" because of the risk of being executed as a spy or is there another reason?
4) Do the PCs know she has this information.

Not really sure how to answer any of those 4 questions, mainly due to the fact that the ideas only in the planning stages and the campaign definitely won't even be play-tested for a guaranteed minimum of at least 18 months and more likely at least 26 months so I'm looking for ideas, suggestions and advise very early on to avoid any mistakes when the fun starts

 

[locarno24]

Then....

Yeah. All right. Thoughts:

If this super-empire invades, then everyone's buggered. The Third Imperium or Hierate could potentially be big enough to survive being on the wrong end of the TL stick (depending on the proportion of TL/tonnage ships in that fleet), no-one else in the vicinity of the reach could. Which means, if the players represent Drinax or any conceivable coalition of powers, if the invasion happens, they lose. No dice rolls required.

In the 1.0 version of Pirates of Drinax, in The Game of Sun and Shadow, one regular Imperial Navy warship basically makes the reach's assorted raiders, mercenaries and toughs wet themselves. Multiple (and multiple means as few as 'two') TL17, hundred kiloDton plus capital vessels would go through anything realistically available to stop them.

Therefore anything which can be achieved by Jim, Fred, and Lucy in a busted Harrier can only realistically be to stop the invasion happening in the first place.

Which means (narratively speaking) you need a maguffin which can be fought over which can prevent the invasion fleet turning up (in Infinite Space there are stargate-esque objects, I believe), not a million miles away from the first Mass Effect game (stop Sovereign) - some sort of advance guard trying to 'turn the gate on' to let the full invasion fleet through, or else something you can sneak through to their point of origin and destroy before coming back this way (probably a few hundred metres ahead of a wall of fire, in true action movie fashion) as the invasion fleet explodes behind you.

Therefore, you need to pass the following information to the PCs (not necessarily all at once).
1) The enemy race exists
2) The enemy race encountered are the vanguard of an invasion fleet that will basically destroy the known worlds
3) They're coming really soon and there's no realistic way to beat them in a conventional fight
4) Their arrival requires [something] and that [something] is potentially subject to attack
5) If the [something] is destroyed, either they won't be able to rebuild it (destroying half of a gate infrastructure at this end) or it'll destroy them in the process [a power source destroyed at that end]

These 5 plot points are storyline killers - that is, they cannot be dependent on a single dice roll or opportunity to obtain or the storyline basically shatters and the campaign ends at that point. Which means, you need multiple means to get it into the players hands or you need an opportunity that they cannot fail to encounter.

A renegade loose in the reach who is not inclined to let them know information they may not know they need, and who has what is (lets be fair) a bloody powerful warship with about 60,000 tons of major combatants so they cannot realistically compel the information from her does not qualify.

 

[JMISBEST]

Just realized I forgot to mention that if The Pcs can capture The Renegade Princess and hand her over to her own Race alive then they may just be able to negotiate themselves possessions of great power in the new Sector Wide Government when/if the invaders conquer The Trojan Reach. We're talking no less then rulership of 1 5th of A Subsector for each of The 5 planned Pcs

 

[locarno24]

Okay, but once again, do they actually know this other race exists (and if so how)?

Because if not, there's no-one to negotiate with.

Equally, whilst the invaders might be grateful, why would they hand over their latest conquest to a bunch of nobodies not even part of their race? The "I'll rule on your behalf" deal - becoming what's called a Satrap - is fine in theory, but tends to be an offer extended to people who were already either kings in their own right or fairly high up the food chain because if they don't have much local power before the invader arrives they don't actually help in the process of ruling.

Finally, there's the fact said princess has several tens of thousands of Dtons of major combatants with a 30-ship screen. If the PCs can beat that, then you probably need to ask why they haven't already conquered the reach for whoever they're working for before the campaign starts.