On Sat, May 16, 2015 at 4:36 AM, Tim <tim@little-possums.net> wrote:
. . . or if the star is only
just beginning to enter its variable phase.

This one.

ObTrav: The PCs are contracted by one of the Imperial High Nobles with jurisdiction over a mid-tech world with such a star. The world in question has only limited experience with interstellar contact and most of has been pretty awful (cough/-megacorps-/cough). This past experience makes conducting an open campaign to convince the population of the seriousness of this very-slow-motion crisis problematic. How the PCs handle their task is left pretty much up to them, but the noble stresses that off-worlders can't be seen to be involved.

And - of course - there are interstellar interests which wish to create (for various reasons of their own) a state of unreasoning panic among the general population, rather than a reasoned response.
  
--
Richard Aiken

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"A word to the wise ain't necessary -- it's the stupid ones that need the advice." - Bill Cosby
"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester