Hi there,

We have a relatively large group of (usually) RPGers, with one GM and 6-7 players, depending on the week. We've been playing the SWRPG and loving it, but our current GM's wife is about to have a baby, so he's out for a bit, and our back up GM (me) is swamped by work.

So, my question is this: after tasting the wonders of Imperial Assault with a GM and 2 characters, can the transition be made to 6-7 characters. And how would we go about this? Add threat? Reduce wounds? Double the map size? Double the objectives?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts (and apologise if this thread has been done before -- I couldn't find it in my quick search).

If you have a group that big, it might behoove you to play two separate games. But, as is the case with most large gaming groups, you probably don't want to do that. Since there are only 6 heroes in the game, it would require massive changes to add a 7th rebel, but below you will find a solution for that.

Here are some of the suggestions I have made in the past to tweak the game with a minimum of rules changes:

• Increase threat per turn for every player above 4: Depending on the skill of your imperial player, +1 threat per hero beyond the 4th may be enough. He/She may need more than this if you find the heroes steamrolling the imperial player, you'll have to tweak it.
  
• Limit the rest action to once per hero activation: When you have more than 5 heroes on the table, you'll find that the heroes are not only able to cover more ground quickly, but they are also able to shrug off damage and mitigate incoming damage by blocking LOS to injured heroes. Injured heroes will need to think about tactical movement to keep themselves safe from harm. Heroes can still rest, but they cant do it twice in the same activation.
  
• Only play with 4 activation tokens: Only 4 heroes may activate per round. After the 4th hero has activated, then activation tokens are passed to players who do not currently have a token, with the remainder being given to whomever the heroes see fit. This one is risky because there will always be one or two players sitting on their ass doing nothing, and that's not fun.
  
• Extra Imperial Influence / XP: More rebels means more of a challenge for the Imperial player, shouldn't that mean more reward as well? Consider a +1 bonus to either influence or XP (or both!) for the Imperial player at the end of each mission. This will allow the Imperial player to grow a bit more quickly in power to match the presence of an extra rebel who is also getting experience.
  
• Agenda/XP Freebie: Allow the Imperial player to start the game with an Non-Mission Agenda Card or XP upgrade of his/her choice at no cost. Treat as a permanent unlock.
  
• Credit Embargo: Each mission generally states each hero gains X credits at the end of the mission. You may want to limit the maximum credits reward as if the game only has four heroes playing in it.
  
• Team Empire: Got a 7th wheel? Put him/her on the imperial side! The empire has plenty of troopers to go around, having more players in the empire mean more people rolling dice and moving models. But sometimes two heads aren't better than one...
  
• Automatic Allies: You could allow one player to use an ally using the ally rules without first unlocking the ally, but the problem with this is that player will never get to grow in XP, gain equipment or skills, and never have their own side mission. Plus, it makes the side mission to unlock that ally worthless to play. And of course, the Imperial player would get bonus threat at the beginning of the mission.
  
• Play with the Skirmish Initiative Token: You pass it back and forth every turn so that instead of the rebels getting the first activation each round, the Imperial player gets to act first every other round. Alternatively, you could just let the Imperial player activate first *EVERY* round instead of the Rebels.

Here are some things you should shy away from:

• Map changes: The maps are pretty well built to start out with, adding a few tiles my add an unintended consequence that make the mission impossible for one (or both!) sides to win. Nothing will sour your group to a game faster than a no-win situation. (Except maybe running out of pizza and soda)
  
• Reducing Rebel wounds: Rebels shouldn't get one-shotted (two-shotted maybe, but not one-shotted). if you reduce the base wounds, for example, implementing -2 or -3 base health to all heroes, you allow for that possibility.
  
• Altering Objectives: Again, because of the hidden information in the campaign setting, changing the amount of objectives could have the same unintended consequence as map changes.

Ultimately, it is up to you and your group to decide how to best implement your game. But these are some decent suggestions to get your ball rolling.

I have been playing with five Rebel players as the Imperial player and these are the adjustments I have made:

• I have increased the Threat value by 1 every mission.
• I have begun each mission with an amount of threat equal to the Threat Level.
• I started the campaign with 1 XP and 1 Influence.
• I gave myself an additional Influence every 4th mission (since the heroes got an extra mission's worth of credits by every 4th mission).
• I only need to Wound 4 Heroes to win the mission, not all of them.

It seems to have done decently. The Rebels have gone 6-3 through the nine missions. I think those balancing effects worked better earlier in the game, but with all the extra XP the players are getting, they're quickly outpacing me near the end of the campaign. I think in the future, I'd do the same thing with the XP that I did with the Influence - every fourth mission, I'd gain an extra XP to keep in pace with the player's extra XP from their fifth player. It's not easy to balance, but it's close.

I have been playing with five Rebel players as the Imperial player and these are the adjustments I have made:

I think this is very well thought out.

Did you increase the number of Deployments at all? To reflect that the Rebels had 25% more effectives?

I would also only let the Rebels get 100 credits per hero for 4 heroes.

I think those balancing effects worked better earlier in the game, but with all the extra XP the players are getting, they're quickly outpacing me near the end of the campaign.

You could increase threat/round to +1 per upgrade tier (and always use the highest upgrade tier). So in the 2nd side mission you would get +2 threat/round and in 4th side mission you would get +3 threat/round.

I have been playing with five Rebel players as the Imperial player and these are the adjustments I have made:

I think this is very well thought out.

Did you increase the number of Deployments at all? To reflect that the Rebels had 25% more effectives?

I did not increase the number of deployments - just the starting Threat. If the mission allowed an optional deployment, I had more to use to start with enemies. If it didn't, I just had more to reinforce with after the game started.

I would also only let the Rebels get 100 credits per hero for 4 heroes.

I went the other route of giving the Imperials more Influence to balance that out, but yeah, that could work too. If I limited the Rebel credits, I would also not give the Imperial any extra Influence since those two resources seem tied to each other.

I think those balancing effects worked better earlier in the game, but with all the extra XP the players are getting, they're quickly outpacing me near the end of the campaign.

You could increase threat/round to +1 per upgrade tier (and always use the highest upgrade tier). So in the 2nd side mission you would get +2 threat/round and in 4th side mission you would get +3 threat/round.

My first instinct is that might be too much (9 threat a turn for the final missions!) but honestly I'm not sure if that swings things too much. That is an elite Stormtrooper unit every turn, but on the other hand, my Rebel characters are at a point where they can handily deal with that in a couple activations anyway. Would probably require some finesse to make work just right.

My group just treated it as if the rebels had four heroes (meaning wound all heroes=wound 4 heroes, 100 credits per hero =400 credits, etc.) and gave them only 4 activation tokens (so only four of the five activate every turn) and then we buffed the empire a bit by adding the skirmish cost of the additional hero(es) to the empire's starting influence, and gave the empire an extra open group (that could be used for the anything, including allies). That seemed to work pretty well.

I have been running a game as the Imperial player with anywhere between 4 and 6 heroes per session. The games have still been pretty close, I still pull a few punches, and the rebels tend to outright kill whatever I deploy fairly quickly.

We play with the following rules:

*All 6 heroes gain XP (whether or not they show up), items/upgrades can only be purchased for heroes at the table. (this is so if a person misses a session, they arent screwed for XP, while at the same time, the other heroes arent buying upgrades anticipating the return of a player in future sessions).

*Credit embargo (credits generated as if 4 heroes are there, regardless of the number of heroes actually in play).

*Threat Level boost: Threat level +1 for 5 heroes.Threat Level +3 for 6 players. Note: we do mean Threat Level, so any scripted events that reference the threat level in favor of the imperials (such as increase threat by 2x Threat Level and resolve an optional deployment) are increased as well. But scripted events that favor rebels are not.

*XP Boost: Imperial player gains +1 XP in addition to any other rewards if there are more than 5 rebels present.

After playing like this for awhile, we think maybe adding +1 open group and a possible threat bonus at the beginning of the turn might help as well.

I have had as many as 6 players, and what I do for players 5 and 6 is give them a non hero group to run, like Luke or Han or Chewie or even troopers or something. I do nothing special on the Imp side other than what you do when the rebels start with those types of characters. Works for us.

If you have a group that big, it might behoove you to play two separate games. But, as is the case with most large gaming groups, you probably don't want to do that. Since there are only 6 heroes in the game, it would require massive changes to add a 7th rebel, but below you will find a solution for that.

Here are some of the suggestions I have made in the past to tweak the game with a minimum of rules changes:

• Increase threat per turn for every player above 4: Depending on the skill of your imperial player, +1 threat per hero beyond the 4th may be enough. He/She may need more than this if you find the heroes steamrolling the imperial player, you'll have to tweak it.

• Limit the rest action to once per hero activation: When you have more than 5 heroes on the table, you'll find that the heroes are not only able to cover more ground quickly, but they are also able to shrug off damage and mitigate incoming damage by blocking LOS to injured heroes. Injured heroes will need to think about tactical movement to keep themselves safe from harm. Heroes can still rest, but they cant do it twice in the same activation.

• Only play with 4 activation tokens: Only 4 heroes may activate per round. After the 4th hero has activated, then activation tokens are passed to players who do not currently have a token, with the remainder being given to whomever the heroes see fit. This one is risky because there will always be one or two players sitting on their ass doing nothing, and that's not fun.

• Extra Imperial Influence / XP: More rebels means more of a challenge for the Imperial player, shouldn't that mean more reward as well? Consider a +1 bonus to either influence or XP (or both!) for the Imperial player at the end of each mission. This will allow the Imperial player to grow a bit more quickly in power to match the presence of an extra rebel who is also getting experience.

• Agenda/XP Freebie: Allow the Imperial player to start the game with an Non-Mission Agenda Card or XP upgrade of his/her choice at no cost. Treat as a permanent unlock.

• Credit Embargo: Each mission generally states each hero gains X credits at the end of the mission. You may want to limit the maximum credits reward as if the game only has four heroes playing in it.

• Team Empire: Got a 7th wheel? Put him/her on the imperial side! The empire has plenty of troopers to go around, having more players in the empire mean more people rolling dice and moving models. But sometimes two heads aren't better than one...

• Automatic Allies: You could allow one player to use an ally using the ally rules without first unlocking the ally, but the problem with this is that player will never get to grow in XP, gain equipment or skills, and never have their own side mission. Plus, it makes the side mission to unlock that ally worthless to play. And of course, the Imperial player would get bonus threat at the beginning of the mission.

• Play with the Skirmish Initiative Token: You pass it back and forth every turn so that instead of the rebels getting the first activation each round, the Imperial player gets to act first every other round. Alternatively, you could just let the Imperial player activate first *EVERY* round instead of the Rebels.

Here are some things you should shy away from:

• Map changes: The maps are pretty well built to start out with, adding a few tiles my add an unintended consequence that make the mission impossible for one (or both!) sides to win. Nothing will sour your group to a game faster than a no-win situation. (Except maybe running out of pizza and soda)

• Reducing Rebel wounds: Rebels shouldn't get one-shotted (two-shotted maybe, but not one-shotted). if you reduce the base wounds, for example, implementing -2 or -3 base health to all heroes, you allow for that possibility.

• Altering Objectives: Again, because of the hidden information in the campaign setting, changing the amount of objectives could have the same unintended consequence as map changes.

Ultimately, it is up to you and your group to decide how to best implement your game. But these are some decent suggestions to get your ball rolling.

I would also consider +1 open Group per player added

also if the mission gives you to choose 1 of multiple option events at certain stages/rounds, then you should consider doing them booth/all. Espicallyif they are bringing some allieas.

You could also consider converting staarting troops to elites per player above 4

Perhaps have two people sharing the Imperial side of the table. That way, they can enjoy being evil together and it also fits the theme very well - always two there are...

The way I went about my 6 player group was that I made an "Imperial Hero" for the 6th player to play against 5 rebel heroes as well as increasing the threat by 1. At 7, you could run two imperial heroes! I have a thread with my imperial heroes featuring cards and everything.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/197317-imperial-heroes/

The player gets to really enjoy the feeling of being part of something and progressing along with the others as they get more XP. It's a really cool way to include everybody.

Here's a link to a SUSD article where they discuss the merits of having a Team Dark Side: http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/blog/post/imperial-assault-joining-dark-sidekick/

Wow, holy thread resurrection!

I ran a drop-in/drop-out campaign at a convention last year, seems like this would be a great place to add that info when I have some spare time.

Wow, holy thread resurrection!

I ran a drop-in/drop-out campaign at a convention last year, seems like this would be a great place to add that info when I have some spare time.

I have had 5 rebel players before. I let the 5th rebel player play as the non-hero allies.