So I'm looking to create a campaign that's based slightly off of the mandalorians in KOTOR 2 but obviously set in the empire era and not the old republic and I need some help figuring out how to base the stats for my NPCs.

I want to give my PCs the option of either joining the mandalorians or joining the empire's fight against them but either way I need to come up with a way to make believable mandalorian NPCs, especially if they choose to fight against them.

This is my first campaign and after working at it I've come to realize how ambitious I'm being with it so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Define "believable."

Mando's in play carry a bit of baggage in that a lot of people seem to have unrealistic expectations of them, so there's a temptation to over-stat them to meet the "epic undefeatable warrior" vibe they give off.

From a more real world play perspective, Mando's stat blocks will typically be comparable to Stormtroopers. Take that same stat block, replace the armor with heavy battle armor, the rifles with heavy rifles, and maybe a grenade or two, and that can be that. If you wanna get fancy you can go for a more deathwatch vibe and keep the regular rifle and add jetpacks.

To make them more elite then stormtroopers don't worry about die rolls, worry about tactics. Have them fight smarter and leverage the environment in much the same way a player would, use weapons to their best effect, and support each other intelligently.

Define "believable."

Mando's in play carry a bit of baggage in that a lot of people seem to have unrealistic expectations of them, so there's a temptation to over-stat them to meet the "epic undefeatable warrior" vibe they give off.

From a more real world play perspective, Mando's stat blocks will typically be comparable to Stormtroopers. Take that same stat block, replace the armor with heavy battle armor, the rifles with heavy rifles, and maybe a grenade or two, and that can be that. If you wanna get fancy you can go for a more deathwatch vibe and keep the regular rifle and add jetpacks.

To make them more elite then stormtroopers don't worry about die rolls, worry about tactics. Have them fight smarter and leverage the environment in much the same way a player would, use weapons to their best effect, and support each other intelligently.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Think of clever ways to describe spending threats/advantages to give it that Mandelorian feel. Write down a few choice phrases in Mandoa.

In then ancient days of the Old Republic, Mandelorains were known for subjugating conquered worlds and forcing them into the Mandelorian ranks, if you want your Mandos to carry on this tradition, that could be one way to have them join the Mandelorians whether the characters wanted to or not.

That makes sense. Yeah they do have the "epic" stigma attached to them and that's where I was getting caught up in, I didn't even think about tweaking the stormtroopers since they also have the "can't hit anything" stigmas, especially from my times as a PC where the dice rolls seemed to support that lol. I do tend to forget that this game is more narrative oriented and combat can be a lot more tactical based compared to my years of playing D&D.

Thanks a bunch

I want to give my PCs the option of either joining the mandalorians or joining the empire's fight against them but either way I need to come up with a way to make believable mandalorian NPCs, especially if they choose to fight against them.

You want to tread carefully with this part. How well do you know your players and their styles of play? A choice like this could easily split a party down the middle, with some latching onto the Mandos because they're cool or choosing their side because it's against the Empire, while others might want to fight them either for the challenge or because they dislike Mandos (for any number of reasons, which could be in-character or metagame-related).

We're all about giving our players choices, but in this instance it can be difficult to plan for either one separately. Try to keep the campaign as inclusive as possible with regards to player actions, i.e. have the same course of events play out for either side, just from different points of view.

Think about video game design here. In Skyrim, the civil war storyline is actually very similar on both sides. While the locations change, the missions are more or less identical. In video games, this saves on coding requirements and additional resources; in tabletop games, it can save the GM's sanity and prevent exhaustion and over-planning.

In short, make sure your players have the option (and indeed, the opportunity) to choose sides, but save yourself some trouble by weighing their choice in one direction or the other. If you think the majority of them want to fight the Empire, have the Mandalorians ask for help -- or whatever Mandos do, since I don't think they ask anyone for help, but occasionally they do need it. If you think they're pro-Empire, maybe have the Imperial governor put out a contract for mercenary assistance.

Also, some basic tips: don't get too in love with your own story, because the players will change it as they play. Stay fluid and flexible. And most importantly, keep a list of names nearby for when the PCs ask the name of some random NPC whose official designation on his index card is a coffee stain. For some reason, the players always ask for names.

Yeah I'm picking up what you're laying down lol. And basically when I plan a campaign for anything I only plan out thre key story points that are necessary and keep it pretty fluid since when I PC I'm the type that does alter the story.

And most importantly, keep a list of names nearby for when the PCs ask the name of some random NPC whose official designation on his index card is a coffee stain. For some reason, the players always ask for names.

This I learnt the hard way when GMing the Damned Cities adventure in a Dark Heresy campaign. My players spent most of a session trying to track down an Enforcer named "Bob" to investigate him. Sadly I had to have poor "Bob" murdered in an attempt to have the players investigate something remotely relevant to the actual storyline.

Lol it does kinda set the tone for campaigns when you have to kill off NPCs just to keep your players on track.

I've started planning the 1st mission a bit: gonna have them start in a cantina where there's the usual cantina crowd in addition to a Mandalorian recruiter and an Imperial Intelligence agent, not sure if I should leave it up to the players to approach one or both of the two or just have the NPCs take the initiative, or even a combination of the two. Then let them pick, and with my contingency plan if they decided to not pick either is go with Kaosoe's suggestion of them ending up on a planet that gets conquered and veer the story back that way.

Lol it does kinda set the tone for campaigns when you have to kill off NPCs just to keep your players on track.

I've started planning the 1st mission a bit: gonna have them start in a cantina where there's the usual cantina crowd in addition to a Mandalorian recruiter and an Imperial Intelligence agent, not sure if I should leave it up to the players to approach one or both of the two or just have the NPCs take the initiative, or even a combination of the two. Then let them pick, and with my contingency plan if they decided to not pick either is go with Kaosoe's suggestion of them ending up on a planet that gets conquered and veer the story back that way.

if you are going down the recruiter route, i'd suggest a bar fight before the mando recruiter approaches them. it'd give them a reason to want to as they like the fighter types.

Lol it does kinda set the tone for campaigns when you have to kill off NPCs just to keep your players on track.

I've started planning the 1st mission a bit: gonna have them start in a cantina where there's the usual cantina crowd in addition to a Mandalorian recruiter and an Imperial Intelligence agent, not sure if I should leave it up to the players to approach one or both of the two or just have the NPCs take the initiative, or even a combination of the two. Then let them pick, and with my contingency plan if they decided to not pick either is go with Kaosoe's suggestion of them ending up on a planet that gets conquered and veer the story back that way.

if you are going down the recruiter route, i'd suggest a bar fight before the mando recruiter approaches them. it'd give them a reason to want to as they like the fighter types.

Yeah i was actually thinking of having them have a fist fight with the Mando recruiter as a way to prove their worth, and the imperial intelligence as a more stealth/recon option if they don't want to fight.