                                Star Wars 

                           Wizard's RPG Stories

          source : http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=starwars/newsarchive
          upload : 10.IV.2006


     Renna's Transport Service

     By Morrie Mullins

     Living Force Plot Director and Campaign Designer

     Living Force Plot Director and Campaign Designer Morrie Mullins  presents
the latest in our monthly series  of  supplements  to  the  campaign's  newest
scenarios. In "Renna's Transport  Service,"  the  Rodian  female  falls  under
suspicion when hard questions  start  to  be  asked  about  her  business.  Is
everything at Renna's on the up and up, or is her good  fortune  due  to  more
illicit dealings?  This  supplement  ties  into  the  September  Living  Force
scenario, Outward Bound, the first part of the "Looking In" trilogy.

     At the Living Force  launch  at  Winter  Fantasy  2001,  characters  were
introduced to Renna, the Rodian female who owns and operates Renna's Transport
Service. Some characters were even lucky enough to gain employment as part  of
Renna's security team, a fairly lucrative position  that  provides  them  with
some stability and, if needed, a place to live.  Recently,  though,  questions
began to be asked about Renna, and the Rodian herself has  been  fairly  quiet
about them. The following report was filed recently in the Cularin media,  but
it has yet to draw any kind of action from local authorities.

     Some local personalities notwithstanding, it has long been the desire  of
legitimate Cularin news organizations to provide fair, unbiased, and  accurate
reporting of current events. In that vein, we wish to critically  examine  the
role that Renna's Transport Service (hereafter, RTS) has played in the Cularin
economic structure over the past 20 months.

     Renna's assistance in the fiasco  surrounding  House  Hirskaala  and  its
uniform theft earned her a great deal of respect in the community, as well  as
business. The fact  that  she  was  immediately  able  to  capitalize  on  the
publicity generated by the Metatheran Cartel's expulsion from  the  planet  by
hiring a number of the individuals who were  key  in  gathering  evidence  and
directly combating the Cartel also worked  to  increase  her  business  nearly
tenfold in the space of two short months.

     It has been asked, by a number of individuals throughout the system,  how
it was that Renna came to be in such a perfect place, at such a perfect  time.
There is always the possibility that it was luck. In a  universe  that  allows
for an infinite number of possible actions and  consequences,  there  will  be
times that  fortune  favors  an  individual  to  the  nth  degree.  But  these
occurrences should be so few and far between that we should be very careful in
attributing to chance what could be attributed to scheming manipulation.

     We certainly do not wish to accuse Renna of any untoward  activities.  It
is simply our desire to put forth the facts and allow the reader to  make  his
or her own decision. But we believe  that  there  is  compelling  evidence  to
suggest that, perhaps, someone should take a closer look at the business Renna
is running. She would also be well advised to come forward and explain what it
is we have observed over the last year. Outward Bound Adventure  Summary  When
the crew of a freighter for Renna's  Transport  Service  goes  missing,  Renna
needs reliable folk to take a shipment of goods out of  Cularin  to  a  nearby
system. Things get complicated when the missing crew  shows  up,  accompanying
members of the Brotherhood, one of the prominent pirate  factions  within  the
Cularin system. After bouncing all over the galaxy, the  heroes  finally  make
their delivery. An adventure for Living Force heroes of levels 4  to  9.  Part
one in the "Looking In" Trilogy. Play before "Looking In" parts two and three.

     Fact: RTS has grown 500 percent in 20 months. Its staff  has  outstripped
the building that housed the transport service twice, and the operating budget
is in excess of 100,000 dataries per year - a sizable increase from the 20,000
datary operating budget at the beginning of the prior year. The profit  margin
for RTS has also increased, as the cost of security in the  system  has  risen
astronomically in the wake of  increased  pirate  activity,  increased  Cartel
transport activity, and a rather impolite  series  of  questions  being  asked
about the Thaereian Military. This growth period in  RTS  coincided  precisely
with any number of other changes, so it is  impossible  to  separate  all  the
possible causes.

     Consider this fact, however:  In  the  same  20-month  period,  no  other
transport service has seen growth in excess of 100  percent.  Business  is  up
everywhere, and secure transport and delivery is valued, but no one is  making
quite so much money off it as Renna. We say, "Show us your books." Let us  see
where these increased profits came from.  In  the  absence  of  hard  data  to
support the increase in profitability, there are many who suggest  that  Renna
is using her business as a front and the legitimate heroes  of  Cularin  as  a
means of protecting  herself  from  investigation.  We  cannot  speak  to  the
veracity of these suggestions, but they are certainly troubling.

     Fact: RTS does not offer significantly better pricing structures than any
other transport service in the system and, in fact, charges a slightly  higher
rate (in goods shipped  in  metric  tons)  than  other  shipping  and  transit
concerns. The quality of the RTS fleet, though, is  not  substantially  better
than the fleet of any other transport house in Cularin, nor are its pilots  or
guards appreciably better-trained. What, then, is the difference in cost?  Why
should we believe that consumers are willing to pay so much more for a product
that is no different from what they can get anywhere else? The name may play a
part, but there is much more to safe transport of goods than just a name,  and
the people of Cularin are smarter  than  to  be  taken  in  by  a  cheap  name
recognition game. Again - we want to see the  books.  We  want  evidence  that
people really are paying this much for a  service  that  is  not  meaningfully
different from what they could get almost anywhere else in the system.

     Living Force Scenario Supplements

     The Cell Revisited (August 2002)

     Dark on Dark (July 2002)

     A Friendly Face (June 2002)

     The Sith Fortress (May 2002)

     Desert Cries (April 2002)

     The Kaluthin Are Always Greener (March 2002)

     An Official Engagement (February 2002)

     Oblivion's Kiss (December 2001)

     Broken Orbits: Tilnes (November 2001)

     Broken Orbits: Uffel (October 2001)

     Broken Orbits: Dorumaa (September 2001)


     Fact: A large number of "legitimate" businesses in the system  have  ties
to Nirama's smuggling organization. It is rumored  that  such  businesses  may
have an easier time obtaining questionable goods and may be able to get  their
own goods in and out of the system more easily than  might  otherwise  be  the
case. While we certainly have no hard evidence that Renna has aligned  herself
with Nirama, it would pose more than a small ethical problem if she  had.  The
line between legitimate transport and smuggling is drawn very clearly  in  the
minds of the people of Cularin, if not in the laws  themselves.  We  would  be
very interested in reviewing manifests from Renna's flights, compare them with
the market rates for what was shipped, and then decide whether the goods  that
RTS is bringing in are likely to fall within "acceptable" ranges.

     The facts are the facts. They more than speak for themselves. We  do  not
accuse Renna of any definite wrongdoing. RTS simply may have  been  lucky.  It
may have been the right company, in the right place, at the right time, making
the right hiring decisions. It is also possible, though, that RTS represents a
link to Cularin's criminal underworld - -  and  this  possibility  should  not
continue to go unchecked.