Situation Generator

Who hired, or at least wants to hire, the Crew? [client] What are the Crew being hired to do for the client? [job] Why turn to the Crew for help with this matter rather than going to actual professionals? (Meaning no offence to your Crew.) [whythecrew] Who else is involved in the job? [whoelse] How Things Don’t Go Smooth [trouble]

2,Business mogul - some corporate type. 2,Soldier, war veteran, or officer 2,Official or politician - they could be a small-scale local power such as a magistrate or mayor, or maybe they hold a higher political office. 2,The authorities – law enforcement of some description have a job “proposal”. 2,Clergy or cultist – Some weird cult worshiping cow fetuses or something, or maybe its a more respected member of the clergy. 2,Guild – The client is a member of some guild. 1,Fixer or middleman – some people fill a role as intermediary and specifically track down individuals such as the Crew who can help fulfill a need, sometimes people approach the Crew via a proxy. This middleman represents the interests of [client]. 2,A town or community – a group of people with a common need. They may be settled, or perhaps they are a nomadic group. 2,An old friend or enemy, or relation – sometimes the client may even fall into more than one category (particularly when family are involved). It may be someone known to the whole crew or just some of the crew.
 * client

1,Courier – pick up some goods from one place and transport them to another, possibly including purchasing/selling the goods at one or both ends. Alternatively, this job could mean ferrying passengers. 1,Escort – similar to a courier job, but the task may not have a specified destination at the outset. It’s the Crews job to accompany the goods or persons to wherever they happen to go or wish to go, perhaps even acting as tour guide. 1,Retrieval – the client wishes an object to be collected from a specified location and brought back to them, which could include salvage, but could be the less reputable form of retrieval: theft. 1,Insertion – the opposite of retrieval; the client wants you to take something or someone and put them in place somewhere. This could be setting up an agent with a cover story, putting a forgery in place before the original is noted to be missing, or maybe they wish surveillance equipment planted. 1,Elimination – someone or something needs to be removed from play, either permanently, or at least for the duration of some particular event. Assassinations would be the most definitive form of elimination, but this isn’t to every group’s taste: perhaps the job is simply to delay or waylay the authorities from investigation or attendance while the client performs some other task, or maybe the target to be eliminated is a ship, building, or business rather than an individual and can be removed without taking lives, given a clever enough plan. 1,Investigation – the client wants information about a person, company, location, or event. Maybe they want the identities of the perpetrators of a crime, or maybe they need intel and recon in order to pull a job themselves. Industrial or political espionage could be other possible motivations. 1,Trace – a specific form of investigation, the client wishes the Crew to track down persons, items, or resources. Maybe they want to know what’s become of their long lost daughter, or to discover what happened to a boat that fell off the grid. Maybe what they want is more general, such as finding someone who can break a certain security system, or locating a regular supply of a commodity or resource. 1,Rescue – someone is in trouble and needs the Crew’s help to extricate them from said mess. It might even be the client himself that needs rescuing. 1,Protection – someone, something, or somewhere needs to be protected from someone or something, and the Crew are employed as guards, security consultants, or minders.
 * job

1,Illegal – for shady dealings, you need shady types so that the authorities don’t get wind of the situation, either because they would put a stop to it, or they’d want a piece of the pie themselves. 1,Secret – the client just doesn’t want the situation known to any more people than are necessary. 1,Highly profitable – the return on the job is going to be immense and the client is either looking to minimize the number of people requiring a cut or needs people who can keep things quiet so someone else doesn’t attempt the same scheme first. 1,Feud – the client is involved in some way with something from a squabble to all-out war and can’t (or won’t) turn to their usual contacts for such matters as a result. 1,Revenge – served either hot or cold, the client wants to get back at someone. Not quite the same as a feud as the other party might have no idea that they have even slighted the client, or are unaware of the scale of the animosity. 1,Mysterious – the client’s motive for turning to the Crew is unclear, or perhaps the the client is in the dark and needs the players to bring some illumination to a mysterious situation. 1,Righteous – it’s the right thing to do, at least in the client’s opinion. This often means it’s either an unpopular task or difficult to find someone willing to carry out the job. 1,Personal – one or more of the Crew have a personal stake in the outcome of the job. 1,Favour – the client is someone calling in an old debt or marker: you owe them, and payment’s come due.
 * whythecrew

1,The general populace – somehow, the locals or people in general are going to wind up in the situation. It could be the residents of the town, or could include everyone in an entire system. 1,A previous acquaintance – a familiar face shows up, perhaps welcome, but more likely not. Niska and Yo-Saf-Bridge are good examples from the show. 1,Dupes or innocents – “innocent” being a relative term; mostly folk you’d feel bad if they got hurt as a result of the job. 1,Organized crime – they tend to have their hand in most activities that turn a profit and usually react with hostility to anyone grabbing a slice of the action for themselves. 1,Politicians or community leaders – they have power (at least locally) and sometimes have less scruples than the criminals, which proves a dangerous combination. 1,Guild – a Guild of some description is involved in some way.
 * whoelse

3,It’s more illegal than you were told – maybe you were told it wasn’t illegal at all (and you actually believed that) or maybe you were told a partial truth about the real situation. 3,It’s more dangerous than you were told – that simple package turns out to be explosives, or that routine salvage operation happens to be in the middle of dangerous territory. 3,Someone doesn’t want you to succeed – maybe it’s personal and they just don’t want you to succeed, or maybe it’s more general in that they don’t want anyone to manage what you’re employed to do. 3,Someone wants to beat you to it – you have rivals on the job, either employed by a different client, or possibly even the same client making doubly sure of success. 3,A shadow from the past – something from the back story of the Crew, either as a whole or for an individual, makes things much more complicated. It could be related to the job at hand, or it could just be coincidental that boxed up issues are coming to a head at this time. 3,It turns out to be counter to your morals – there’s usually a line beyond which even the most hardened criminals won’t cross, and it turns out this job easily crosses that line. 3,Fate conspires against you – acts of God (or gods, or nature, if you prefer), or just random happenstance. 3,The client lied, or changes their mind - nothing about the job was what it seemed, or the client has second thoughts (often after all the hard work is done). 3,It’s a trap! – the whole thing was an attempt to get the Crew just where someone wanted them in order to kill, capture, or frame them. Admiral Akbar imitation is purely optional. 1,Things run smooth – There is always a slim possibility that things could avoid getting worse part way through. This is generally because things start out about as bad as they could possibly get in the first place. 1,[trouble] [trouble]
 * trouble