I'm writing a one-shot which I think will be pretty fun. I'll share here when I'm done. I want it to be accurate so a couple of questions:

Firstly, if the Empire wants to occupy a planet where they're inspecting some minor civil resistance, what would they need to send? Planet is populous and temperate landmasses for the most part. I'm thinking a Star Destroyer showing up is about the right level of "We're in charge". But do Star Destroyers carry landing troops, walkers, etc.? Or are they just space battle ships. Do they even land? If not, where do baby AT-ATs come from? This is mainly background detail but I want the adventure to be pretty flavour-rich so I'm interested. I want to be able to describe the arrival of the Empire on the planet dramatically.

I need civil police droids. What should I use for those?

Does the Empire have ground troops other than Storm Troopers? The name "storm trooper" kind of implies a less elite form of soldier but I've never seen any.

Who would show up to take control of a planet? A "moff"?

This is all just background but it will really help the atmosphere of the story to saturate the events with rich details as it goes. Thanks for any help!

EDIT: While I'm being a pest, I might as well go all in - there'll be a No Fly Zone over several parts of the city enforced which out of game is to discourage (but not disallow) players from taking some short-cuts in the adventure. Any suggestions what would be used to enforce this? Doesn't have to be heavy, just what would the civil or Imperial authorities use to maintain it - speeder? speeder bikes? flying droids. By way of explanation this will be my first time running EotE properly.

Star Destroyers carry thousands of troops and their support vehicles and gear.

The smaller ones can land on planets, most can't.

I hadn't thought about how walkers were deployed, but I imagine the Imperial Army uses heavy lifting shuttles (scaled-up versions of the dropship that carries the AT-OT's in Send in the Clones).

Civilian police droids? B1's should be fine.

Yep, there's an Imperial Army (Wookieepedia is your friend).

I think systems get governors, sectors get Moffs.

Tarkin: "The regional governors now have direct control over their territories."

Star Destroyers have everything you need. Fighters/bombers landing troops, etc.

As for the civil police droids, just rename one of the myriad of droids in the book. I think there is either a security droid or an antiquated battle droid.

The very first rpg from weg, and I think the age of rebellion book, have stats for imperial army troops. Personally, I disregard them. Every movie I've seen, video game I've played and every EU book i've read uses storm troopers as the rank and file. The players will recognize what they are and know they have to fight them. Also, I personally fine the old weg stuff crap, but there are plenty here that swear by it through their nostalgic memories.

I use storm troopers as the regular troops, always have, always will. The way I see it the empire will generally let planets defend/police themselves, only establishing a garrison in the most important locations. I also figure that another response from the empire is if a planet gets unruly, they'll bombard it into submission or threaten to do so.

A moff sent to control the planet is a good choice.

It's a fan-film, but check out I.M.P.S. - The Relentless on youtube. It has a fantastic imagining of an Imperial deployment, including a 4-unit AT-ST landing craft. The humour is a bit cheesy, but the effects and design of the film are excellent.

Wow. The community here is the best. I post some rambling questions and I get three good replies right away! Thanks all!

Okay, so I'm going to go with a Star Destroyer showing up, and it will carry the sector Moff who will formally take surrender of the planet. The government has capitulated, the populace is... simmering is probably the best term. B-1's will be fine for police droids, I think. I've done a couple of test combats and they feel about right - can't be ignored but not a terrifying threat if you're smart. Security droids look a bit too dangerous for routine order keeping so I wont throw those at the PCs unless they really draw attention to themselves. I might give law enforcement some human-piloted air-speeders with a heavy blaster mounted on the hard point as their standard heavy air response / no fly zone enforcement.

I've looked through the book again and found the Star Galleon which sounds like it could be a landing shuttle to deliver large numbers of troops or walkers. I think the planet wont have space or facilities for a Star Destroyer to land so I'll keep it in orbit blockading traffic.

I think That Blasted Samophlange is right about the Storm Troopers. It may not make sense but it's what everybody knows. I'll stick with those.

MrDodger - I'll check out that film as soon as I get time! Thanks!

It's a fan-film, but check out I.M.P.S. - The Relentless on youtube. It has a fantastic imagining of an Imperial deployment, including a 4-unit AT-ST landing craft. The humour is a bit cheesy, but the effects and design of the film are excellent.

Thanks for sharing. I second your opinion - humour was slightly lost on me (though I liked the reversing lights on the AT-AT), but well worth seeing for the effects and setting. And it actually does give me a little bit of a feel for how to handle Imperial forces, in a way.

Thanks.

If you want to occupy a planet you're going to need more than one Star Destroyer. It could seize a city but to take and assume control of an entire planet would be a huge undertaking depending on how populated it is.

If I recall correctly, the Under a Black Sun adventure module had police droids in it.

In the old radio drama, they give a pretty good description of how an imperial occupation goes on a rebellious planet. Here's a couple highlights:

-The Emperor declares a state of "Special Emergency" which gives Imperial officers authority over all local governments. They use terms like "for your safety" or "until this crisis has passed" to make it seem like they are doing the citizens a favor.

-Under these rules, the Imperials can search any ship, even those that normally would have diplomatic immunity.

-The troops setup "Internment Camps" to sort the rebels from regular populous. Leia refers to them as torture centers.

-The Empire can setup a special surveillance systems that can monitor any communications, even people just talking in the open (if the operators select their locations).

Hopefully, this will give you some ideas of things to throw in the way of the characters. I would say that, rather than have Stormtrooper walking down every street, use them as more of a background element; as an ominous threat of force. The real danger would come from other people ratting you out to the Imperials. The players will have to be cautious as they move about as any NPC they meet could inform the Empire and bring all kinds of pain down upon them.

The Empire mostly rules through fear.... think Genghis Khan. A, single, star destroyer is sometimes all you need, but a small group of 3 (maybe one super star destroyer), should be more then enough.

If they resist, at all...

1) Bombard the ever living crap out of their leadership. Don't ask, don't make reparations, just blow it to kingdom come. You're going to blow up their version of The White House, and probably most of D.C. along with it. It's necessary causalities.

2) Blockade the planet... said star destroyers let nothing through, in or out.

3) "Fall in line, or Hiroshima part two on... (whatever the largest population is)".

4) Wash, rinse, repeat.

5) Then send the landing party! Execute anyone that gets outta line, but especially leaders and spokesmen.

They will fall in line.

You don't require a "moff" just whomever is your highest ranking military official. Especially if it's an out of the way planet that doesn't have much/any support to come to their aid.

There are official traits of police droids in "shadows of the black sun" (the official downloadable adventure)

There are official traits of police droids in "shadows of the black sun" (the official downloadable adventure)

I didn't even know about this adventure. Thanks for that. Those police droids will do nicely.

The Empire mostly rules through fear.... think Genghis Khan. A, single, star destroyer is sometimes all you need, but a small group of 3 (maybe one super star destroyer), should be more then enough.

If they resist, at all...

1) Bombard the ever living crap out of their leadership. Don't ask, don't make reparations, just blow it to kingdom come. You're going to blow up their version of The White House, and probably most of D.C. along with it. It's necessary causalities.

2) Blockade the planet... said star destroyers let nothing through, in or out.

3) "Fall in line, or Hiroshima part two on... (whatever the largest population is)".

4) Wash, rinse, repeat.

5) Then send the landing party! Execute anyone that gets outta line, but especially leaders and spokesmen.

They will fall in line.

You don't require a "moff" just whomever is your highest ranking military official. Especially if it's an out of the way planet that doesn't have much/any support to come to their aid.

Okay, this isn't really where I want to go with this. As I wrote in my original post and touched on in a later one, this is the handover of a planet to the Empire. The government is capitulating. The population is, as I described earlier, "simmering". There's some riots, unrest. But there is still the existing police forces and infrastructure on the planet.

Blowing up the seat of government on the planet would be beyond stupid. As to "Hiroshima", even the real world tragedy of that was done not purely as a means of forcing Japan's surrender (the Japanese government had already communicated to the USA that they wanted to cease hostilities and begin negotiation and the US government knew that), but done in significant part because the USA wanted to show the advancing Russian Communists what the USA was now capable of.

Okay, this isn't really where I want to go with this. As I wrote in my original post and touched on in a later one, this is the handover of a planet to the Empire. The government is capitulating. The population is, as I described earlier, "simmering". There's some riots, unrest. But there is still the existing police forces and infrastructure on the planet.

Blowing up the seat of government on the planet would be beyond stupid. As to "Hiroshima", even the real world tragedy of that was done not purely as a means of forcing Japan's surrender (the Japanese government had already communicated to the USA that they wanted to cease hostilities and begin negotiation and the US government knew that), but done in significant part because the USA wanted to show the advancing Russian Communists what the USA was now capable of.

We are talking about the Imperials here, right? If you think they are incapable of these actions, you should rethink that... ask someone from Alderaan? They didn't even have weapons (at all, not even pistols). Dac is another example That's SoP for them. Least amount of risk- orbital bombardment. Take out the seat(s) of power, and put the fear of god into them. They did this with EVERY planet.

When did they give a rat's backside about truces? They want absolute control. The only police force is an IMP police force, and seeing as they don't acknowledge droids as capable of independent action, they wouldn't allow/use a droid police force.

What needs to be asked is: Why does the Empire what this planet? What is it offering them, that they need? Why are they going to spend time and resources on it? Even being handed the planet, why would they do more then accept it and say "hey, great"? Does the planet need protection? Why send a fleet, or even a Star Destroyer if you're just looking for a figure head to go in and accept the "key to the city"? That could be any officer with a small entourage on a shuttle, it just depends on how important the planet is.

If the planet doesn't offer them anything of value (as no resources they need) odds are they are not going to mess with it, at all, in the first place. Much like Tattooine, or Correllia... it is a waste of man-power. In no case, that I've seen, has the empire stepped in as "big brother" to throw an assist. They dominate, subjugate, and conquer. Or they ignore. You're giving them far too much credit if you've got them doing otherwise.

Your original post said they want to "occupy a planet with minor civil unrest" and "Who would show up to take control". That didn't leave me with the impression that they were being handed the planet, so I figured they were taking it by force (they do that anyway). They are notorious for over reacting, so it's logical to assume that they will use a boulder where a brick will do. It instills fear, and that's how they roll. Figure out where the unrest is and kill everybody there... women, kids the whole nine yards. It scares everyone into line, and you only have to do it once. You could send in a platoon of storm troopers too, whatever you do just use a show of force, but the more the force the better. They don't hold court(s), they just execute. They don't adapt to the natives rules and regulations, they give them theirs.

As I wrote in my original post and touched on in a later one, this is the handover of a planet to the Empire. The government is capitulating. The population is, as I described earlier, "simmering". There's some riots, unrest. But there is still the existing police forces and infrastructure on the planet.

One of the things I just remembered about the takeover in the radio drama was that the Empire setup a negotiations with the planet's ruling council. Then, when the council showed up, the Empire killed them all. So some sort of government purge is bound to happen (with a possible rebel leader escaping and now in hiding). After that, the Empire will chose a quisling or two to rule on there behalf as there's bound to be a political or economic faction that thinks they can gain power through by using Imperial forces.

So, between Imperial troops, corrupt local official, collaborators and informers, the PCs should have plenty of bad guys to choose from.

What "radio drama" are we talking about?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_(radio)