I was curious how groups have been dealing with ending up on the wrong side of the Empire. in the CRB it seems like it would be very easy to accumulate Class 1 'ace' infractions from the Imperial Space Ministry (pg. 385) -- firing on other spacers or Imperial assets being the most common way.

So what do parties do after they end up on the wrong side of a run-in with Imps? Assuming they are in or can be traced back to their ship, the Imps will have their transponder code in every law enforcement database within hours. Do players just hunt down and pay for new forged transponder codes every time this happens? Or just change ships altogether? Or find a particularly skilled slicer to remove their info from the Imp's network? Is this always job one after a scrape with the Imps or do some just let it ride and figure they'll handle it if it turns into a problem later?

Yes.

Any of those suggestions would work. Honestly we do not do anything until it gets too hot to not do anything about the situation.

Not smart... but eh, livin on the edge of the galaxy has its perks for stupidity from time to time.

While yes, the a petal Space Ministry maintains extensive records, assigns transponder codes, etc, I think that in practice it is a bureaucracy like any other. Data searches are probably not very deep for most ships, possibly as minor as simply having a working transponder in backwater areas.

Customs frigates and authorities who have reason to be suspicious will dig deeper. The first point of check will probably be the pilot's data pad, a good slicer will be able to erase infractions from that, all is good unless the formal data bases are cross checked.

In other words it is as efficient or inefficient as your story and your campaign need it to be.

usually my group would have the pilot (former Imperial) and the crew's slicer B.S. their way through an entanglement that usually earned us credits. if not usually a forger report to the empire saying the imps in question acted out of the rules. lol

But all the questions are a good way to go about it.

Most of the time, we run... But a weird thing is going on. Through no fault of our own, we've had better luck with Imperials. The rebels have screwed us, left us to handle messes because they had a higher purpose than they could risk helping us, got orders to leave us or whatever. We, as players anyway, hoped doing a job for them would be a ticket to do more or maybe even join them but they just used us.

Meanwhile, our Imperial contact (who we didn't know was Imperial when we started doing work for him) has always treated is fair and even pulled strings to help us out of a jam. I'm being purposely vague in case any of this is from published books but I hope I'm being clear enough.

I managed to piece together that the reason the rebels screwed us is because of the Imperial. They know we were working for him. I don't have hard evidence but I told the others in my team and they don't care. They're just going by how we're being treated and Colonel Notsayinghisnamejustincase. He treats us pretty well, pays on time, gives bonuses, and promises more work with better pay if we keep impressing him. My character is the only non-human so I feel like, in her gut she knows she would rather not work for the Empire but they're right.

I learned the term "deniable assets" in a recent game session. That's what we are. We do things that the Colonel can deny having anything to do with. It isn't like we're buddying up to Stormtroopers and playing pool with Darth Vader or anything... yet.

My players have only done ONE major thing against an Imperial recently, and he won't be admitting to it.

That said, in previous games, we've acknowledged that the galaxy is a big place and the Empire can't be everywhere. Just because the transponder was acknowledged and reported doesn't mean every docking bay in the galaxy will be looking for them. It's why so many spacers live on the fringe, after all; the Empire claims to have control, but it's really just a claim as they can't have ships and crews everywhere to properly mandate everything.

It does, however, keep the party from going to the Core Worlds as often as they'd like. . .

If the party does want to go somewhere they "can't," they would either bribe a local (often upon docking if they have a big enough bribe and a smooth enough talker), "borrow" a ship, and/or get a slicer (if the party is lacking one) to take care of the dirty work. The last one has only come up once (they had a Givin with a penchant of hacking every computer he could and building droids with thermal detonators inside to sell to Imperial officers. . .don't ask), as it's only going to purge the record from the system, but obviously not from the memories of any Imp that went through it.

So far my group has done it's best to work against the Empire without showing up.

Since we run around 19 BBY my group has done some jobs for the surviving Separatists hauling around containers. They don't look inside them and keep them sealed to claim innocence should they get caught by the expanding Imperial Fleet. Only once have they been boarded while flying empty to a pick-up point.

So far they got paid for jobs well done, but since the Imps are crushing the Seps at about every turn those jobs will become far more dangerous and/or dry up completely.

Working for the Imps on the other hand is not really going to happen. One char even has the 'Overthrow the Empire' motivation. He might get conned/persuaded to take a job when they are desperate for cash, but no long-term relationship.

So i see them working for the likes of Jabba, Tyber Zann or Black Sun in the future.

As for what to do once they do get noticed:

Change the transponder code,

getting another ship,

bribing someone to get the fine payed/deleted,

trying to BS their way out in any conversation.

It may be that i demonstrated to them what an average damage a squad of 4 Stormtroopers can do (YYYGBvsPP) to one char so that they are not that keen on exchanging blaster bolts with them. Avoiding and/or lying past them is the prefered method.

To drive that point further home:

My players are

1 Wookie Politico/Doctor

1 Human Bounty Hunter/Assassin

1 Human Hired Gun/Marauder

1 Chiss Mechanic

1 Human Pilot

Not exactly a small or harmless group.

Edited for clarity

We bought a Transponder Mask (either an invention of our GM or from the Saga book, Scum and Villainy). It's a 0 HP, 15,000c bit of gear that modifies your signal enough to make it nearly-identical to another ship of the same make and model (chosen at installation, but it doesn't have to be one that actually exists - just one that has been registered).

We've ended replacing the mask, however, as the Ancipital and the Wandering Grace were implicated in crimes in the Imperial sphere of influence...

(We're now the Southern Sun.)

Some things to remember when it comes to imperial entanglements:

1) Not all imps are "clean", they might not report your infractions outside their immediate sphere of influence, be it because of corruption, rivalry with neighbouring imperial commanders, moffs, or other branches of the imperial war machine, because it could be quite embarrassing, etc.

2) Related to the above, the imperial commander (or other rank and title) might want to hire you rather than see you incarcerated - although s/he will take you by force, but would perhaps not alert every imperial base out there, but rather track you down on his or her own: to use you as smugglers, operatives to take out rivals, pirates and other tasks that they would rather not use their untested crew against, or perhaps because of some existing relationship between the target and the commander.

3) What with bureaucracy as we know it, I'd think that it wouldn't be more effective in a galaxy spanning empire. I'd say that core worlds would be updated pretty quickly, particularly if it happens within a reasonable distance, but otherwise updates and reports about some random freighter's actions in the outer rim would have low priority in the core. Some sectors and systems might only get updates very rarely for a series of reasons: space phenomena, poor equipment, computer glitches, the operator is only human after all.

I'm sure one can add more to this list, but generally I don't mind too much with my players breaking the law; it's not like it changes anything really

I was curious how groups have been dealing with ending up on the wrong side of the Empire. in the CRB it seems like it would be very easy to accumulate Class 1 'ace' infractions from the Imperial Space Ministry (pg. 385) -- firing on other spacers or Imperial assets being the most common way.

So what do parties do after they end up on the wrong side of a run-in with Imps? Assuming they are in or can be traced back to their ship, the Imps will have their transponder code in every law enforcement database within hours. Do players just hunt down and pay for new forged transponder codes every time this happens? Or just change ships altogether? Or find a particularly skilled slicer to remove their info from the Imp's network? Is this always job one after a scrape with the Imps or do some just let it ride and figure they'll handle it if it turns into a problem later?

1) I have been holding back the Imps from my PCs, because in my eyes, once the Empire is involved they have an insane network of resources to utilize. Typically the only Imps they have run into so far have been customs agents and they are usually just bought off to save trouble.

2, 3) Yeah, switching or scrambling your transponder is the MO, or should be the MO, for most groups. This should also be a big cost sink as it is not easy to do. Mess up and you can ruin your drive systems.

4) As far as being job #1 after a run-in, I think the PCs can sort of hide out in the Rim territories where the Empire has less influence. Plus, I feel you should always give them some places to land without being harassed.

Our crew periodically has changed Transponders a couple times, and ships once (though not on purpose). I think I was GMing and arbitrarily set a price of a few thousand credits for somebody to redo their transponder.

We don't worry about it for every infraction though. One thing I try to keep in mind is that the galaxy is ginormous. There's billions of planets, and most of them don't have access to a hypercom. If you're going to most planets there is a good chance they only have local records to draw on. Sure, they could send an inquiry back to Mother Empire, but it will be days if not weeks before they get a response.

Once our ship starts to get known in a particular sector we'll change ID's, but otherwise it's not really necessary.

In my game, we've run afoul of an Imperial starship commander. Fortunately, the TIEs of his we've destroyed and stormtroopers we've killed aren't going to get reported because the things he's been doing with them haven't been exactly legal...

Messing with Imperials is like well, messing with America. There are places you can run and hide certainly, but you'll be living your days at the edge of civilization. Blow up or kill enough Imperials and you'll find yourself on a watchlist and at the end of a drone and a proton torpedo.

Theoretically certain pirates and smugglers get more attention than the Rebells.

How do i put this best ...

It depends on the amount of damage (physicaly, financialy, mentaly) you produce. If you command a small fleet of several transporters and a few starfighters you can rain havoc on a star lane and cause millions (or more) of damage, up to halting the complete traffic to a planet.

That is a lot more money than the damage caused by killing an Imperial official.

There is a reason why the Imps patrolled the more important lanes with SD IIs, to make sure money gets around. Cause too much trouble and one might show up on the lane you harass.

@Kirdan Kenobi: He still will need replacements for the lost units, after all TIEs and Stormtroopers don't grow on trees. So he will fabricate a report. IF your group is in it is another thing but even if not then a pissed off officer in control of a ship that can flatten major cities with a BDZ is not someone to be triffled with.

So keep your eyes open.

@Kirdan Kenobi: He still will need replacements for the lost units, after all TIEs and Stormtroopers don't grow on trees. So he will fabricate a report. IF your group is in it is another thing but even if not then a pissed off officer in control of a ship that can flatten major cities with a BDZ is not someone to be triffled with.

So keep your eyes open.

Oh, we're perfectly aware that he'll be after revenge. He'll be a major recurring villain I think.

As far as whether we're in the report or not, it would be risky for him to go after us that way because we have the figurative high ground (we've only ever fired on imps in self-defense, and are otherwise upstanding citizens). Granted, he has the benefit of the doubt, being an Imperial officer, but any investigation into his doings is going to turn up some...interesting...things. He'd be looking at imprisonment, if not execution, for what he's been up to. I doubt he'd be willing to risk that we get arrested and convince somebody to investigate him.

Theoretically certain pirates and smugglers get more attention than the Rebells.

How do i put this best ...

It depends on the amount of damage (physicaly, financialy, mentaly) you produce. If you command a small fleet of several transporters and a few starfighters you can rain havoc on a star lane and cause millions (or more) of damage, up to halting the complete traffic to a planet.

That is a lot more money than the damage caused by killing an Imperial official.

There is a reason why the Imps patrolled the more important lanes with SD IIs, to make sure money gets around. Cause too much trouble and one might show up on the lane you harass.

True though why think so small? EOTE has a wide variety of capital ships appropriate for a pirate fleet.

The only ships bigger than a SD II would be a SSD, every thing else in the CRB is smaller than 1,6 km.

Oh, you meant the pirates.

Well, everything bigger than any transporter are cruisers. Those are military crafts that you need to steal/board or buy used and those require a lot of manpower to run them. From 150 to 16.000 people to run one require a very big pirate band. Nor are they cheap, costing milions of credits. And when you flaunt those you get the full attention the Empire can give.

You are after all able to halt the complete trade for a planet.