Tuesday, March 15, 2011

For Jed-I Only (James Bond Star Wars - Part 2)



This is a continuation of my 'Star Wars Bond' plot ideas. This time, we're delving into the Roger Moore area. This is the Bond I grew up with, unfortunately. It is also the most campiest and silliest of the Bond Eras. Even so, there are more than a couple nuggets of goodness to use in a Star Wars espionage campaign. So here we go:

Live and Let Die

Investigating the Dictatorial ruler of an independent planet, agents soon discover that he is the mastermind of a huge drug cartel. The villain is assisted in his operations by a 'fortune teller' capable of seeing into the future. The villain has also adopted a local 'voodoo cult' to keep his workers in line and terrorize his enemies. The adventure largely takes place in the bayou's of a remote swamp planet and culminates in the infiltration of the Villain's personal island fortress.


Man With the Golden Blaster

New Republic agents seem to have run afoul of a legendary assassin and become embroiled in the quest to find/recapture a stolen energy converter that promises revolutionary progress in the field of fusion power generation. After tracking the assassin (who is known for his gold-plated custom blaster), through various exotic settings, the agents finally confront him in his isolated lair and must do battle in his fun-house like maze- as well as recover the energy converter.


The Spy Who Loved Me

Unfortunately, the central premise of this movie just doesn't translate well into a Star Wars setting. For instance, the villain's central goal of sparking a nuclear war so that he can create an underwater utopia just doesn't work. Plus, the whole plan depends upon subs armed with nuclear weapons. Even if you DID base this on a single planet, and the guy somehow succeeded at destroying civilization 'on the surface', the New Republic (or any other government) could come in afterwards and arrest the guy for his crimes. So yeah. Destroying the world isn't as viable a threat in Star Wars.

That having been said, it could still be possible to use elements of this adventure in a very different way. For instance, perhaps the villain isn't stealing naval vessels to spark a war to 'destroy the world', perhaps he's just stealing them because he's a pirate. Only he's a clever pirate, so he's trying to make the New Republic and Empire blame each other for the losses. Or even better- perhaps the villain is trying to start a war between the Republic and one of its possible ALLIES. Either way, it's a bit less 'dramatic' than an 'end of the world' scenario, but still fun and doable. The adventure here would culminate in leading the captured ship crews in liberating their vessels while simultaneously destroying the villain's flagship. Considering the 'aquatic' nature of the villain in the movie, here we could have something similar, though perhaps of an aquatic species, like a Quarren or Mon Cal or some such.


Moonraker

Apart from being just plain silly, Moonraker shares the problem of the previous movie. The central plot revolves around destroying and remaking the world. And once again that doesn't hold as much emphasis in a Star Wars setting. It could work, however, if you changed the plot dramatically- making it about a villain who is developing a planet-killing biological weapon. The adventure would culminate in an attack on the villain's secret base-ship in order to stop him from successfully testing his weapon on a heavily populated world.


For Your Eyes Only

In this adventure, the Agents are sent to recover a New Republic decoding device lost when a spy ship crash landed in the depths of an ocean world. Adding to the difficulties faced, a criminal/smuggling organization seems intent on killing the agents and getting the device themselves. Investigations lead from a snowy resort world to the warm waters of the ocean planet where the device was lost. The adventure climaxes as the Agents (with the help of a friendly smuggler band) raid the villain's mountain-top monastery/fortress.


Krakana

Yeah. The name Octopussy? Way too silly. So instead we'll talk about a scheme that involves a trio of apparent villains: A ruthless Khan from a remote exotic world, his dangerous smuggler ally- a woman known as "Krakana", and a rogue Imperial General with dreams of weakening the New Republic for a new series of attacks. The General has been working with the other two in smuggling/selling Imperial treasures via the cover of a circus that Krakana operates. Secretly, the General intends to replace one shipment of Jewels with a powerful bomb (some kind of anti-matter device)- to be detonated while Krakana's circus performs at a major New Republic military base. The agents must thwart this plan, battling Khan's henchmen and ultimately infiltrating the Circus in an attempt to stop the bomb before it goes off.



Never Say Never Again

Never. Seriously, never.


View to a Kill

In this adventure, the Villain (a genetically engineered madman and former assassin turned businessman) intends to cripple a corporate rival by causing a massive earthquake to destroy their primary production facilities (in effect, it will likely sink an entire continent). This would also result in millions of innocent deaths. The agents begin to investigate the villain, eventually tracking him down to his mining operation (which is actually working to cause the disaster). The adventure culminates in a battle with the villain as he attempts to flee in his starship- which perhaps gets accidentally lodged in the wires of a suspension bridge...or perhaps even within the support system of a huge surface-to-orbit 'skyhook' (or 'beanstalk').

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