Ideas for clandestine G:Traveller campaign

I've got lots of Traveller books with ideas for mercantile and mercenary
campaigns, but I want to do a campaign that's a bit in between and not
quite either of them. I'm thinking Firefly, a rag-tag bunch not quite
succeeding at staying on the right side of the law.

To get things up to speed, I'm going to make a bunch of ready-for-use
characters that the players can pick: the captain used to be an enforcer
for some crime boss, but wants to go legit (unfortunately, to fund his
ship he had to borrow money from shady friends of his equally shady
former boss, and they plan on using this leverage to force the captain
to do their bidding); a "face", former con-man and buddy of the captain;
a mechanic/scrounger/occasional burglar; possibly a retired S3 operative
who tries to keep that fact a secret (might have even darker secrets in
his past?); a pilot who got kicked out of Naval Academy for some very
good reason, etc.

I want the theme to be that the crew tries to go legit and sever their
ties to organised crime, but they need money to repay the loan, or even
just to barely manage to make the interest payments (or their version
of Jabba the Hutt might send bounty hunters after them). I want to give
them some legal jobs, some illegal ones. The illegal ones can (and will)
get them in trouble, but will also make them money, and not making
money will get them in worse trouble.

My idea for a first adventure: they have a package for an acquaintance
of the captain's former boss, and the boss suggested that the acquaintance
might have a very lucrative job for them. He does; some valuable thingy
(what? no idea yet) was supposed to be stolen and quickly moved offworld
to be fenced, before word of the theft got out. Problem is, the guy who
was supposed to steal it got in some kind of trouble (what trouble? not
sure yet) before he started on the job, so either the PCs have to wait
(making no money) until someone else can be found to do the job, or
they have to leave without this lucrative deal, or they have to do it
themselves, and receive a much bigger share than they would have. Plans
are ready, simple breaking and entering job, which ofcourse goes sour,
perhaps a bit of gunfight (a player expressed a desire for meaningful
combat) while trying to escape with (or without) the goods.

Actually, I'm kinda happy with this plan so far. Still, I could really
use some ideas about how to continue after this, and also how to fill
in the details of this idea. And GURPS Traveller, nor any of my BITS
101 booklets, offers much advice about this sort of campaign. Any idea
where I should look? Perhaps people here have some good ideas for me?

Also, any suggestions for a good starting planet? I was thinking
The Five Sisters subsector in the Spinward Marches, because I've got
Behind The Claw, and it looks like a nice faraway corner of the
Imperium that might have its own rules. On the other hand, I have
no idea what's south or west of this subsector, and I don't want to
throw Aslan into the mix right away. So maybe a bit east? District 268?
Border Worlds? Somewhere else entirely?


mcv.

mcv wrote:
> I've got lots of Traveller books with ideas for mercantile and mercenary
> campaigns, but I want to do a campaign that's a bit in between and not
> quite either of them. I'm thinking Firefly, a rag-tag bunch not quite
> succeeding at staying on the right side of the law.
>
> To get things up to speed, I'm going to make a bunch of ready-for-use
> characters that the players can pick: the captain used to be an enforcer
> for some crime boss, but wants to go legit (unfortunately, to fund his
> ship he had to borrow money from shady friends of his equally shady
> former boss, and they plan on using this leverage to force the captain
> to do their bidding); a "face", former con-man and buddy of the captain;
> a mechanic/scrounger/occasional burglar; possibly a retired S3 operative
> who tries to keep that fact a secret (might have even darker secrets in
> his past?); a pilot who got kicked out of Naval Academy for some very
> good reason, etc.
>
> I want the theme to be that the crew tries to go legit and sever their
> ties to organised crime, but they need money to repay the loan, or even
> just to barely manage to make the interest payments (or their version
> of Jabba the Hutt might send bounty hunters after them). I want to give
> them some legal jobs, some illegal ones. The illegal ones can (and will)
> get them in trouble, but will also make them money, and not making
> money will get them in worse trouble.
>
> My idea for a first adventure: they have a package for an acquaintance
> of the captain's former boss, and the boss suggested that the acquaintance
> might have a very lucrative job for them. He does; some valuable thingy
> (what? no idea yet) was supposed to be stolen and quickly moved offworld
> to be fenced, before word of the theft got out. Problem is, the guy who
> was supposed to steal it got in some kind of trouble (what trouble? not
> sure yet) before he started on the job, so either the PCs have to wait
> (making no money) until someone else can be found to do the job, or
> they have to leave without this lucrative deal, or they have to do it
> themselves, and receive a much bigger share than they would have. Plans
> are ready, simple breaking and entering job, which ofcourse goes sour,
> perhaps a bit of gunfight (a player expressed a desire for meaningful
> combat) while trying to escape with (or without) the goods.
>
> Actually, I'm kinda happy with this plan so far. Still, I could really
> use some ideas about how to continue after this, and also how to fill
> in the details of this idea. And GURPS Traveller, nor any of my BITS
> 101 booklets, offers much advice about this sort of campaign. Any idea
> where I should look? Perhaps people here have some good ideas for me?
>
> Also, any suggestions for a good starting planet? I was thinking
> The Five Sisters subsector in the Spinward Marches, because I've got
> Behind The Claw, and it looks like a nice faraway corner of the
> Imperium that might have its own rules. On the other hand, I have
> no idea what's south or west of this subsector, and I don't want to
> throw Aslan into the mix right away. So maybe a bit east? District 268?
> Border Worlds? Somewhere else entirely?
>
>
> mcv.

One thing that may help keep things moving is if one of the characters
is an agent of IBIS or some other interstellar law enforcement group.
His job is to get information on some of the bigger fish for his bosses.
They could use their connections to make sure that the crew are
funneled in the directions they want, law enforcement showing up at the
wrong time, leads on jobs, etc.
If the character is not an NPC he will have to be working with GM and
keep the knowledge from the others, but that shouldn't be too hard for
an experienced player.