Organisations

By GM Hooly, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Something that sparked my interest on the latest episode of the Tales from the Hydian Way, was the mention of constructing an organisation. I thought about one of the comments in that organisations should almost have their own set of statistics, and this let me to this:

Name:
Planet of the Operation:
Base of Operation:
Leader:

HOSTILITY (Rating 1-6)
How strong and quick to anger is the organisation?
REACTION (Rating 1-6)
How quickly can the organisation react to a threat?
INTELLIGENCE (Rating 1-6)
Is the organisation intelligence driven or more reactive?
FLAIR (Rating 1-6)
Is the organisation focused on wilful druction and intimidation or more subtle?
FOCUS (Rating 1-6)
Is the organisation strong and able to withstand assaults internally?
INFLUENCE (Rating 1-6)
Is the organisation well ingrained or does it not display connections with those in power?

Motivation: What is the primary goal of the organisation?

Thoughts?

Edited by GM Hooly

This is a good start. I would also have a rating for resources in there as well.

This is a good start. I would also have a rating for resources in there as well.

That was my first thought as well.

Is the organisation at a street level gang(s) or capable of maintaining capital ships?

Another important factor in any organisation is 'Manpower'

Is the organisation able to draw on large amounts of personnel with broad skillsets?

Criminal privateer or merchant could be categories of them as well.

"weeee represent the lollipop guild the lollipop guild"

Edited by Tassedar

Yeah, cool idea.

The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide for Saga Edition has rules for organizations, and basically it just had one scale, which measured "power & influence." I think that something simple, along those lines, might be more appropriate for this kind of mechanic in this game.

I guess it would depend on what you wanted to do with those statistics, though.

Edited by awayputurwpn

I guess if I was using something like this;

Name: Angry Bobs Street Gang
Planet of the Operation: Corellia
Base of Operation: 42nd Street downtown
Leader: Angry Bob
Type: Gang
Motivation: Bashing non-humans, extortion

HOSTILITY (Rating 4), REACTION (Rating 2) INTELLIGENCE (Rating 1) FLAIR (Rating 3)
FOCUS (Rating 2) INFLUENCE (Rating 2) RESOURCES (Rating 2) MANPOWER (Rating 3)

I would take the the above 1-6 statistics and allocate a (G) dice to the organisation for a stat of 1, the bare minimum needed to roll on anything. For 2-6 add a (Y) dice to that statistic.

From there, the GM might decide to use that relevant statistic to roll-against when PC's engage with the organisation- either for the purposes of negotiation, intimidation, being found by the org or how well known they are.

So taking the example above, the PC's wander into Angry Bobs Gang near the downtown space port:

The gang would like to offer some 'protection' for that shiny ship ova dere, it'd be real bad if something where to happen to it...

They're very intimidating, have a lot of manpower and quite obvious, aside from that they're not exactly 'smart' in everything else.

Back off!

PC's decide to Intimidate the gang which has rolled up and unleash an cranky Wookie at them with Coercion of (YYY) vs the Gangs Hostility (PRRR) resulting in- Success 1, Threat 1 and Despair 1

So the Wookie has succesfully made the gang back off for now, though he sweats a bit (1 personal strain), however! Later the gang come back when the PC's are down at the space-mall and spraypaints all manner of vulgar graffiti over the PC's ship.

Alternative Scenario

The groups Face decides to roll a Streetwise check using the gangs Flair as his target difficulty to see what he knows about them. Streetwise (YYG) vs (PRR) and gets a 1 Success and 2 Advantage. So he'll roll the advantage over to a (B) on the next roll where he tries to decieve them that they've already been paid for protection.

This, will be against the gangs (Intelligence) (P) which is not very hard... Decieve (YYGB) vs (P)

The Face gets 1 Success, 2 Advantage and a Triumph

As a result, the ship gets free protection for 2 days at the spaceport and one of the gang will kindly let them know via comlink, if any nasty Imps or Customs goons start getting too difficult.

Fight'n

PC's are murderhobos and decide to just haul out.

While the Gang will mostly be minions, they have a relatively decent Resource rating 2 which should see them being able to lay their hands on shock-knucks, heavy blaster pistols and melee weapons easily enough, their Manpower though is impressive at 3, so there will be a lot of them in big minion clumps and probably at least some rivals (Lt's) and Nemisis level gang captains and enforcers at their disposal.

With Hostility 4, they will fight very hard and with very little provocation, with Influence 2, they're not likely to call the cops or customs guys in on the suspect group, they'll just beat their arses into the dirt.

Rebel Scum

The local COMPNOR officer would like to buy into the gangs Manpower looking out for suspect ships and crews, mostly through a 'sympathetic' relationship of non-human hatin', plus he might get a couple of their boys out of prison in return.

So when the local Compforce begin combing the streets looking for the PC's group, he can add (B) to his efforts as dirty street toughs keep their eyes open for suspected rebels. This might be opposed by the groups highest Streetwise, Underworld or Stealth skills, maybe with some modifiers if they're disguised for COMPNOR to find them.

Edited by MKX

MKX - Yep...that's just about as awesome as it gets!

So I had another look at this and came up with the following as a template of sorts:

NAME OF THE ORGANISATION

Type: What sort of organisation is this? Is it a gang, a syndicate, a corporation, a religious order, etc.

Planet of the Operation: What is the main planet of the organisation?

Base of Operation: Where is the organisation based?

Leader: Who is in charge of the organisation?

Motivation: What is the primary goal of the organisation?

HOSTILITY (Rating 1-5)

How strong and quick to anger is the organisation?

1 = Peaceful

2 = Semi-Peaceful

3 = Thugs

4 = Cut-throats

5 = Murderers

INTELLIGENCE (Rating 1-5)

Is the organisation intelligence driven or more reactive? How quickly can the organisation react to a threat?

1 = Disorganised

2 = Streetwise

3 = Organised

4 = Intelligence Driven

5 = Paranoid

SIZE (Rating 1-6)

What is the size of the organisation?

1 = Local/City

2 = Planet Wide

3 = Sector Wide

4 = Multi Sector

5 = Region Wide

6 = Galaxy Wide

NOTORIETY (Rating 1-5)

The organisations Notoriety rating is how well known the organisation is. Organisations with a low Notoriety are less known or more secretive, while those with higher ratings may be well known for their focus on willful destruction of property and intimidation of targets.

1 = Not well known

2 = Known to a few

3 = Known to many

4 = Known to most

5 = Household Name

INFLUENCE (Rating 1-5)

Is the organisation well ingrained or does it not display connections with those in power?

1 = No influence

2 = Some influence

3 = Connected

4 = Influential

5 = Highly Influential

RESOURCES (Rating 1-5)

What can the organisation bring to bear in a given situation? Is the organisation a street level gang where equipment is scarce, and their prize possessions are their speeders, or is the organisation capable of summoning capital ships at a moment notice? This also is the organisation ability to draw on large numbers of personnel with broad skill-sets?

1 = Ill-equipped (Minion Group)

2 = Equipped (Multiple Minion Groups)

3 = Well equipped (Multiple Minion Groups and one Rival)

4 = Wealthy (Multiple Minion Groups and Multiple Rivals or a single Nemesis)

5 = Rich (Multiple Minion Groups, Multiple Rivals and a single Nemesis)

I wanted to keep the organisations "stats" to 6. Each of the stats can be eye-balled and used as pairings in the same way an attribute and a skill are combined to give a beginning dice pool - much as what MKX derived above.

Additionally, I thought that the organisation could have a set of skills based on its size. This could be used to learn more about the organisation (again as mentioned above what MKX, as well as the SAGA version in the Force Unleashed Campaign Guide as suggested by awayputurwpn), or as a quick reference as to where the majority of their skill set comes from such as the Bothan Spynetwork may have several "ranks" in both Stealth and Deception, while a local gang of thugs might just have a single rank in Coercion.

These suggested rules are not to be a hindrance in any way, but a quick reference for a GM to see what sort of an organisation they players may be dealing with and perhaps provide a hook for adventures or encounters.

Feedback definitely welcome.

Edited by GM Hooly

EXAMPLE (Using MKX's Suggestion):

ANGRY BOB'S STREET GANG

Type: Gang

Planet of the Operation: Corellia

Base of Operation: 42nd Street downtown

Leader: Angry Bob

Motivation: Bashing non-humans, extortion

STATISTICS

HOSTILITY 4

INTELLIGENCE 1

SIZE 1

NOTORIETY 2

INFLUENCE 2

RESOURCES 2

SKILLS

Coercion 1

Edited by GM Hooly

These suggested rules are not to be a hindrance in any way, but a quick reference for a GM to see what sort of an organisation they players may be dealing with and perhaps provide a hook for adventures or encounters.

Feedback definitely welcome.

Think the 6 'stats' so to speak are probably enough to give a broad brush to the organisation, mostly what I'd look at using this for is making up some consistent basis for what the entity is. So if you where writing a module or something for use by other people you could lay it all out and the GM can just pick up and ad-lib in the parameters that statistic implies.

A street gang might have Resources (1-2), meaning they'd be mostly mooks, but able to get some basic weapons like blaster pistols and vibro-blades, whereas poking Black Sun (5) with a stick might mean you've got kill-teams armed with heavy armour, big guns and attack ships. Provoked enough you can see their capital ships, fighters and other very bad things after you.

About the only change I might consider is Notoriety being changed into 'Reputation'?

That way you could include things like small and large companies that are comparatively 'benign' and not always aggressive or criminals, but also have their own spheres of influence in the galaxy and well known. But dig deep enough and with some good rolls there's probably a thick layer of dirt, employee maltreatment, corruption and corporate espionage under the veneer of civility most people know them as.

Think the 6 'stats' so to speak are probably enough to give a broad brush to the organisation, mostly what I'd look at using this for is making up some consistent basis for what the entity is. So if you where writing a module or something for use by other people you could lay it all out and the GM can just pick up and ad-lib in the parameters that statistic implies.

Exactly. This was always my intent although the GM could use the raw stats for creating dice pool difficulties if required.

About the only change I might consider is Notoriety being changed into 'Reputation'?

That way you could include things like small and large companies that are comparatively 'benign' and not always aggressive or criminals, but also have their own spheres of influence in the galaxy and well known. But dig deep enough and with some good rolls there's probably a thick layer of dirt, employee maltreatment, corruption and corporate espionage under the veneer of civility most people know them as.

The word use is semantic, but I did consider "Reputation" and thought it best to move away from words used in Saga Edition. Thanks for the feedback.

I Like this. You should submit it as an idea for including it in a book or as an article for them.

Right, so how does one submit this to FFG?

Right, so how does one submit this to FFG?

Feedback email might be a good place to start. There are freelancers on here you could probably ask.

Knowing the amount you contribute Daeglan, your comment is high praise indeed and I thank you.

Consider me as Gold Leader when I say, "It's away!"

Well I finished a version of the rules that I will be using in my games, so if people who like to check it out and give me some feedback, it would be great.

LINK: ORGANISATIONS

Thanks to MKX for some of the ideas which I have expanded on.

Edited by GM Hooly

Awesome document Hooly! Thanks :D

EDIT: Excuseme, in a updated version, can you add some "famous" SW organizations to have a clearer idea please? Thanks again!

Edited by Josep Maria

If you would like to recommend 3 organisations, I'll stat them up as examples.

Edited by GM Hooly

Black Sun, Antarian Rangers and, maybe doesn't fit so well but Rebel Alliance?

Thanks in advance :D

PS: Try to send this suggestion to FFG people, maybe they recreate something similar, its a pretty good idea :D

I'm also interested in people play-testing this and if someone feels brave - editing my work :)

I wanted to submit it to the GSA but it's kind of dead in the water.

Added a few edits and comments for consideration and sent you a link to it

I will test it these days and send you feedbacks if you wish XD

But as I said, to have a proper "comprehension" I would like a few more well known samples. Thanks again!

My GM and I are working on some sort of system for my PC's ("Upgrade") organization he is forming, trying to convert the system from Force Unleashed RPG.

Organization Name: Raptor Corp.

Leader: Ren "Upgrade" Ryder, 1st Mate: Liz

Scale: 1 (Three members including "Upgrade", and two NPC followers, Liz-a Lethen Twi'lek Medic, and Mirik, his pilot)

Goal: Ultimate goal is liberating slaves,

Type: Outlaws/Mercenary, they fund themselves with selling restricted technology.

Home Base: Raptor's Burden--An Action VI Bulk Transport "Upgrade" self destructed his own ship to save Liz and Mirik's lives. Now Operate out of a shadow port full of other outlaws.

Intelligence: Intelligence Driven.

Influence: Pretty low right now considering the scale.

Almost forgot! I know that its off-SW but a samples off Mass Effect 3 Sheppard's crew as Organization please? Thanks!

If I had ever played Mass Effect, I would.