My players arrive at a foreign city of a strange race. Now what?

[Cyrad]

I'm really terrible at coming up with urban adventures. I want the next arc to be about finding and taking out a corrupt official in a town the party discovers filled with members of a race they never encountered before. I envision the arc ending with the party infiltrating a government complex to corner the villain in an epic showdown. But I'm not sure where to start. The villain is aware of the party's reputation.

[Juda de Kerioth]

Ok, first of all, the community doesn´t speak common... so make them learn a new language and rent the services of a translator... if they can find it.
:3
after, have you read the Korvosa Gazeteer? The best ever made city compendium from paizo ´till now

[lemeres]

Some kind of confrontation at the marketplace could be a good way to introduce the idea that some of the people in charge are not on the up and up.

Some suggestions
-mistaken accusations- because they couldn't find the real thieves, they accuse some weird foreigners (the party) as scape goats to save face. Having them prove their innocence (catching the real thief before he leaves the immediate area) becomes their goal
-hostage situation- have the PC's try to talk down someone that has taken a child hostage. But interference from the callous officials threatens to make things worse (arrows and longspear charges around the human shield are encouraged for their use in this role)
-abuse of power- a local official is shaking down the local shops for extra 'protection money'. Or maybe he is accusing a child of stealing a good that he pocketed? The party has to intercede without becoming outright enemies of the state (diplomacy, intimidate, sense motive, perception, and other skills are encouraged to have the party involved, bit not in direct combat yet)

[Bacon666]

You need to ask yourself some questions...

What kind of official
What kind of corruption
How will/can the party learn of the problem
Why/how did the party come to the city
Are the laws special in this city
Are the laws special for this race
Why should the party solve the problem
Will the citizens of the city support the official or the party
What level are the party
What level/CR is the avg citizen

When you figure out theese questions (and many more) the adventure should write itself ...

[Corvino]

Are your party the types who will step up to help people out (i.e. a "Good" party) or the types who need to be approached and promised rewards (more "Neutral" sorts)?

If they're likely to get involved in the problems of others, show them a merchant being extorted by local guards etc. If they intercede with Diplomacy/Bluff/Intimidate and get the guards to back off then the grateful merchant can tell them more about the local situation - and the source of the problems (your corrupt official).

Should the party be of a more mercenary type then there will need to be a stronger reason for them to intervene. Either someone offers cash to do something about it or the official messes with them in some way. Nothing big, just enough to get them annoyed and seeking his downfall.

It's probably important to make clear that they can't solve the problem by force alone though. This official is likely well-connected and just killing him will be murder. Throw a clues about people the official has wronged who may be able to offer evidence to discredit him. A guy like this is going to have enemies (or at least rivals) who want him gone.

[FancyZergling]

Well think what would you do as a PC in a strange new place that you didn't understand the language? If I needed to be there I would go to ground, find someone to be a translator and disguise the skill monkey while he learns linguistics to learn the language, make him act as a mute beggar and learn about the streets. Have the corruption be apparent at that level, let the PCs see that crime is rampant around the city and show them that there is actually a buisness opportunity here. Play the soft power game and consolidate power while under the blessing of the big bad. Then they can turn around when they are this symbol of popularity boom viva la revolution!

[Cyrad]

Hm, seeing the corruption in action during the marketplace might be a good idea since, knowing my players, the first thing they want to do when going to the town is checking out what's for sale.

[storyengine]

You arrive in hong kong...

Get a guide
buy a map
figure out the strange coins
are you rich or poor in the exchange?
rent a room or safehaven
contract the runs from food/water
make funny social mistakes
react to weird things that are normal there (dog tacos!)
Change your strange clothes

[Cyrad]

Now I have to ask myself what the party can do the stop the corruption. Hrm..

[boring7]

Standard trope/hook in the market protection racket is the PCs are shopping at the least rude shop in the market when some thugs show up to deliver a beating to the shopkeeper for failing to pay protection money.

Heroes refuse to let it stand, become targets of local mafia, hilarity ensues.

[Big Yeti Cane]

Building on boring7's advice, you might add an encounter or two involving local troubles. Perhaps the populace is so jaded toward the abuses that happen as a side effect of the villain(s) and her/their abuses of power that these dirty foreigners are the only people who stop to help the oppressed.
The players might make a few key NPC allies after involving themselves in seemingly trivial local concerns.
Maybe there's even an underground resistance movement that contacts the player characters as a result. They could learn a lot about their new stomping grounds that way as well.

[Cyrad]

These are some great ideas. Especially the idea of a resistance movement. I just need to figure out what they will do once joining the resistance.

I also considered having a past villain associate with the corrupt official, but I'm not sure about it.

[boring7]

Well, it depends on the party, the resistance, and the authority being resisted.

For example, if your party is a band of wandering murderhobos with the attention span of a *trails off and follows a butterfly for 2 hours*...then you can't really count on them to make complex moral decisions regarding the nature of civil authority and the line between unofficial taxation supporting a necessary civil authority and corrupt kleptocratic oppression by a mafia state. They probably need an evil king (or treacherous vizier) who drinks puppy blood and rapes kittens with cacti for science.

Let's see, off the top of my head...Party picks a fight with the guard, party gets in trouble, party gets recruited by resistance, and then...

-Past Villainous Associate has been hired as a consultant for "The Project."

-If PVA can play mad scientist, s/he's helping design and build The Project. If s/he's more of a grifter, hunter, or reaver s/he is helping "material acquisition" (people-nabbing, sacred-shrine raiding, good-aligned monster hunting, and/or smuggling) for The Project.

-Do remember that PVA does not have to be the same as before, demonic possession and "finding a new calling via pact with devils" are totally legit. Having the Dark Reaver with barbarian levels drawing 4th dimensional diagrams can be fun.

-No one knows what The Project is, but it involves horrible things potentially including orphan sacrifice, "blinding the gods" (shrine desecration), Unicorn blood, a gold dragon egg, and many more.

-Twist ending: crippled wise leader of the resistance is actually the parent of the gold dragon egg and was horribly injured, presumed dead by the raid that stole her baby. (only applicable to fairly high-level BBEGs).

-Double-twist ending: Resistance and Authority are secretly led by a demon and a devil respectively, and you're actually working the Blood War angle between lawful and chaotic evil. "No matter who wins, we lose, unless we kill absolutely everyone." Heh, munchkins LOVE that one.

-The Project both defines and is defined by The Authority and the BBEG. Could be the godhood gambit, could be widespread mind control, could be a machiavellian twist where it's evil but stops something MORE evil (The Tarrasque jumps to mind, but there are a LOT of other, probably better options). Hell, maybe The Project is a dimensional lock that shuts out what will be a new Worldwound, because the devils have a nice thing going and are bargaining souls left and right and don't want a demonic invasion messing up their racket. Whatever it is, it's going to be defined by the bad guys' goals and aspirations (are they criminals, kings, or cultists?).

There's more, but it's time for my nightly walk, talk amongst yourselves.

[Cyrad]

Some great ideas here. Another villainous entity rivaling the Authority sounds like an interesting twist. There is, indeed, a Project.

The party are not "murderhobos" but are not the type to get involved in politics that don't directly affect them.

So far in the campaign, the players were hired by an inquisitor who was tasked by the city church (which has strong ties with the government) to find a smuggler that made a headquarters in the party's home town. Instead of capturing the smuggler himself, the inquisitor hired the party to do it for him. The party captured the smuggler, but learned that instead of stealing relics from the church and selling them on the black market in human cities, the smuggler was actually trading for the relics and giving a city entity expensive and taboo spell components. After arriving at the city, the players turned the smuggler to the church. In thanks for turning in the smuggler, the church officials invited the party to a dinner party. While the party killed time waiting for the dinner, they went to the marketplace, where they found an injured shopkeep who was beaten for not paying taxes.