If you aren't up to cooking up a scenario from scratch, there's always the option of using the dice.
The scenario generation is intended to be a bit more open-ended and open for interpretation that what you might normally get, but let's take a look.
The Job
We opt that our group is going to take on a Salvage Job.
You know the drill, somethings out there representing a certain cash value. In the starports out by the Third Quadrant, they call that a ticket.
This requires rolling 4D6 and assigning each to one of the columns on page 55.
link
You can arrange the dice, which gives you a bit of freedom to set up a suitable mission.
We have no past history with this campaign so I just roll in order, getting a 3,4,1,5.
Okay, we've been hired by a shipping line to check out a wrecked scout ship in a nearby asteroid belt.
The opposition is representatives of a government agency.
The story
Okay, so the scout ship was officially on a survey mission to determine if a new merchant route could be safely plotted through here to the local planet.
However, the ship was carrying… something else, something that would be a significant embarassment if it was discovered.
Government goons are closing in and they need a dirty crew to go snatch the package before the goons can get their power armour gloves on it.
Complication
We decide to also roll for a complication and get a Chemical spill.
Makes sense, maybe some of the cargo on the scout ship leaked during the asteroid hit.
So we'll fight the battle on starship floor plans but with some rooms impassable due to the corrosive chemicals.
HEAT
One of the key elements of the job system is HEAT.
Certain results on the Job table will add points of HEAT which tells us how much trouble we're getting in.
This time we're getting 3 points and a D6 roll of 3 or less means there's an unexpected outcome.
Rolling, we find that one of the enemies is a wanted criminal (In government hands? Maybe this is a much dirtier job than we expected).
If we waste him, we'll make an extra loot roll after the mission.
The enemy
At 3 HEAT, we're facing a group the same size as ours, with one Ace and one Hero in the crowd.
We have 5 men so they will too.
One of their 3 grunts gets a machine gun (2 shots per turn)
We could roll for the exact enemy type, but for this one, we'll just say they're bog standard grunts. Government issue and all that.
If we make it out alive, we'll get to roll for what loot we carried out there, but for now, I just wanted to show yuo how you can set up a job pretty quick and easy.
With this simple process, we already have a lot of questions we can use in our campaign play:
What IS the cargo?
Why is the government desperate enough to hire a known criminal to get it?
Is our employer on the level or are they going to try and backstab us later, Shadowrun style?
paints a surplus combat car.
