What is your take on female and alien stormtroopers and imperials in general?

Alien, as general, nop. Only exceptions and not so much. Females yes. Empire seems totalitarist and xenophobic but not sexist or homophobic (until some more canon info appears).

The timeframe doesn't really allow aliens (game takes place after ep4, before ep5). The Empire as a whole was very sexist and xenophobic. Women did serve, and even excelled in the Empire, but the path to the top was very difficult for them (because of how they were treated). So female stormtroopers, tie pilots, bridge crew, officers, etc are possible, but fairly rare.

After the fall of the Emperor, the Imperial Remnant took a new approach to aliens and started allowing them to serve. They were more accepting of women also.

I never did like the idea of aliens as stormtroopers or tie pilots though, so I doubt I would allow that even if I were running a campaign in a future timeline. The stormtroopers had mass produced gear that was suitable only for humans. To allow aliens of any species into the stormtrooper corps would mean a logistical nightmare of handling all kinds of different armor, equipment, weapons, etc.

It makes much more sense to just have them serve as standard Imperial army or serving on ships as general crew. I suppose special rules could be made to allow the very near-human species that wouldn't need any sort of special adjustments to the armor.

I have non-Humans in most branches of the Imperial military, but not in the Stormtrooper Corps. Non-Humans can rarely expect to rise higher than the lowest officer or NCO slots, but this is because of an unwritten policy so rare exceptions (like Thrawn) are possible. In my Star Wars, the Stormtrooper Corps is made up of clones of the best and brightest members of the Imperial military. Theoretically non-Humans could be selected to be cloned, but they never have been. I don't have my Empire as being sexist (though individual Imperials might be), so females show up in all military roles.

Alien and/or female Imperials? Yes. Stormtroopers? Absolutely not. Stormtroopers aren't a group known for showing off their differences. Every stormtrooper my party faces is a human male. As far as they know, anyways...

Yes there are already female Imperials in the new Canon Novels. Moff Mors and Rae Sloane. We also hear that in Season 2 of Rebels, Sarah Michelle Gellar is voicing Alieen Zahn (A character based on Mara Jade) named for Timothy Zahn.

As for Aliens, from rebels we do see the Empire does have them, but so far its in a very limited capacity. As Stormtroopers, as of right now they do not.

Females yes. Aliens Imperials not so much although very human looking like aliens more so, such as Chiss, but not Stormtroopers.

Yes there are already female Imperials in the new Canon Novels. Moff Mors and Rae Sloane. We also hear that in Season 2 of Rebels, Sarah Michelle Gellar is voicing Alieen Zahn (A character based on Mara Jade) named for Timothy Zahn.

As for Aliens, from rebels we do see the Empire does have them, but so far its in a very limited capacity. As Stormtroopers, as of right now they do not.

There are female OT era stormtroopers in both Legends, they were mentioned in the Essential Guide to Warfare, and in the new canon novels so yes to females. no non human or non-nearhuman stormtroopers but there have been a few alien officers, and enlisted personal. The highest ranking alien Imperial we've encountered so far was commanding a patrol cruiser on the outer edge of the outer rim.

I think the whole idea of th Empire being sexist emerged from KJA then was picked up by later authors. I personally see this as KJA projecting his own sexist views onto the Empire, and justifying them in setting by creating a female Imperial admiral who can only beat New Republic allied forces in engagements that are so lopsided that all of her personnel, including herself, could be replaced with utterly untrained monkeys and the Imperial forces would still route the NR forces with ease.

As you can probably tell I hate KJA's Star Wars works.

NO to Aliens- Heresy!...As for female yeppers!

Female stormtroopers or Imperials? Absolutely. Alien? Only if I run a Legacy game. I do have an idea for an Alien Stormtroopers game modeled on the Alien Legion where they get sent on all the crap or expendable missions I think would be fun.

The empire that my group runs along the edge of is xenophobic, but not sexist. My core group consists of exactly 1 male and absolutely no straight people. We don't need their scum. LOL jk not jk.

As game mistress, it is my duty to infuse awesome femme representation into the universe. Both I and my players largely relate to female characters. The trick has been to ensure I have enough compelling male characters so my brother doesn't feel left out!

The original trilogy didn't have female or alien troopers, so my campaigns set in the same time frame don't either. Or at least I don't make a point of identifying gender of my troopers. It's nothing personal, it's just something I consider to be part of the style, a trooper is a trooper, their gender isn't worth mentioning any more then their race, ethnic group, or religion.

The original trilogy didn't have female or alien troopers

I couldn't tell with that armor on, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to me for a Falleen, Zabrak, or even a woman to have been plated in white.

The original trilogy didn't have female or alien troopers

How do you know?... And how do we know none of them were aliens?

The original trilogy didn't have female or alien troopers, so my campaigns set in the same time frame don't either. Or at least I don't make a point of identifying gender of my troopers. It's nothing personal, it's just something I consider to be part of the style, a trooper is a trooper, their gender isn't worth mentioning any more then their race, ethnic group, or religion.

To be fair, we never see more than a few dozen troopers in any one shot and Lucas was recycling people in the suits to keep production costs down (dead rebels became stormtroopers and troopers were used as rebels). The joy of a faceless army, anyone can be reused in footage.

The original trilogy didn't have female or alien troopers

I couldn't tell with that armor on, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to me for a Falleen, Zabrak, or even a woman to have been plated in white.

The original trilogy didn't have female or alien troopers

How do you know?... And how do we know none of them were aliens?

We don't know they were, or weren't. It wasn't part of what they were. I've got nothing against it, but I feel calling it out adds something unnecessary. Like mentioning that an AT-ST has a colored inventory stripe when it has nothing to do with the story or character. To me mentioning a stormtrooper as female is about as worthwhile as mentioning she's Jewish.

If I were running a trooper campaign and one player wanted to be female? Fine, because No characters will treat her any different.

Sorry no, I'm not one for this current trend towards a kinder, gentler, all inclusive Galactic Empire. The Empire=Space Nazis. These are the bad guys people, and they do bad things, among them being rampant species-ism and sexism.

If Nazis could have sent those they thought were undesirable into harms way with a good chance that they would remain loyal (even out of fear), I'm sure they would have been willing to have some extra cannon fodder for the front lines. The Empire can reliably monitor the loyalties of undesirable elements within their forces to a fair degree, so why not go for it?

If you want to talk about the Nazis and the “German army”, then you have to decide what part you’re talking about.

Are you talking about the regular ground troops? Then yes, they had draftees/conscriptees of pretty much all the various countries that they over-ran, which served in that “army”. Not much in the way of females that I recall.

If you want to talk about the Schutzstaffel (“SS”), then up until pretty close to the end, these were the pure-blood Aryan Germans, and no non-Aryan/non-Germans were allowed. Even Hitler himself would not have been allowed in the rank-and-file SS, because he was of Jewish extraction and had black hair.

IMO, the original clone troopers are all male — they’re clones of Jango Fett, after all. Once we convert to Stormtroopers, and presumably they start bringing in promising military personnel who are not themselves clones of Jango Fett, then that’s when you might start seeing females. I’d add near-human races further down the line, because they need good troops who won’t require any changes be made to the armor, and they can’t necessarily fill all those slots using only humans — or clones of other high-performing human troopers. But the near-human races would definitely get discriminated against.

But outside of the Stormtrooper corps, I would think that you could definitely see females and near-humans serving in a variety of roles.

But that’s all my personal view. YMMV.

With any luck the new movies are going to visit the whole notion of, 'will the real Stormtrooper please stand up?'

Personally I just always kept Stormtroopers clones and the rest of the Imperial military was regular humans. I see no logical rationale for an evil meglomaniac to not stick with genetically bred perfect soldiers that obey pre-programmed subconscious commands across galactic distances during times of conflict. Just how I cover it at my table.

The Empire is distinctly xenophobic in my mind, and my players who use any alien species are show prejudice when on an Imperial world. That said, other aliens will be more sympathetic towards someone who shares their plight.

Women, well, hasn't come up yet. I tend to run sandbox games and my players avoid the Empire like the plague... But having a woman under the helmet would come as a nice surprise to them.

The following post uses Legends material to form the arguments. Yes Legends is not canon, nor was it ever canon. However Legends still provides a wealth of thematic material and value.

I've always thought of the pre-Remnant Empire to be Xenophobic to the extreme, aliens(excuse me, non-humans) are inferior and secondary to humans and all that. Then you have the Rebel Alliance, open arms to all beings of any race and super inclusive. The highest ranking military officer was a Mon Calamari for a time. In the New Jedi Order series, a Sullustan has that rank and position. The themes presented by the xenophobia of the Empire and the inclusiveness of the Alliance are extremely similar to what was seen during Civil Rights era in the US.

You had the extreme racists (and by extension into the past, southern plantation owners) vowing to keep down any colored person (similar to the Empire's attitude, this extends to other minorities as well, not just African-Americans) on one side. And on the other side is the Civil Rights movement (and by extension into the past, the abolitionist movement) vowing to secure the same freedoms for minorities (I know the abolitionist movement involved freeing African slaves, but I am using 'minorities' so Hispanic, Asian, Native American, etc are included as well) that were afforded to white citizens.

Yes, I am comparing non-white minorities to the non-humans in Star Wars because non-humans were treated by the Empire similarly to non-white minorities. Yes, in Star Wars, human = white person and non-human = non-white person. It should be noted that in both realities, it still took white people in power to enact the changes, at least at first. Yes the Civil Rights movement had strong African American leaders but it still took the white leaders in power to enact the first changes. The Rebel Alliance initially started among a group of human Senators and military leaders who had to show thar the Empire could be defeated before others were convinced to join. By Return of the Jedi non-humans represented a sizable chunk of the entirety of the Alliance.

The sexist elements and themes I also attribute to the Empire. It's not so much that human females weren't allowed to join the Imperial Military or the Imperial Bureaucracy, it was the other things. Being passed over for promotions in favor of a less qualified male. Inappropriate sexual advances and harassment, especially by those in power and higher position. Glass ceiling should be pretty familiar to most of us by now.

The gender inequality is simply another reason to fight against the Empire. The principal leader of the Alliance is a woman! Mon Mothma anyone? The Rebel Alliance doesn't just fights against the total oppression of the Empire but also against the specific mistreatment of non-humans and women and for gender and racial equality.

So my answer to the OP's question: since I am writing sessions during the time of the Rebellion, my players will see very few women in high places in the Empire and next to no non-humans fighting in the Imperial Military. Not to say that there aren't any somewhere, it's just that my players have an extremely low likelihood of meeting a woman or a non human in Imperial Uniform.

My Stormtroopers are clones....they are supposed to be an elite group that serves at the Emperor's pleasure after all. The officer corps however, is another story. Any competent being can be found there, humanoid aliens on the rim only of course. Agents/spys....anything goes here.

Alien, as general, nop. Only exceptions and not so much. Females yes. Empire seems totalitarist and xenophobic but not sexist or homophobic (until some more canon info appears).

Largely this for me. I have a pet peeve which is people thinking "Evil" means roll in everything that is considered bad in the modern world. It's so obviously derived from the real world and eventually it becomes cartoonish. My Empire is Lawful Evil Competent. They're not homophobic, they're not sexist, they are fascist. Think a little of the marines in the Starship Troopers movie. If someone is able to make the grade, they're in. And treated fairly indiscriminately - recall the scene where after training the troopers all just strip off (male and female) and walk into the showers whilst talking. Those are kind of my stormtroopers. Non-sexist, non-homophobic, will shoot a dissident or crush a pro-democracy protest without question.

Women do tend towards vehicle and naval roles slightly more, img, because on average a male is stronger. But it's no more than a tendency.

I do have the occasional alien troopers. They tend to be a minority, are less likely to make it to officer rank and the empire deliberately scatters them across its armed forces rather than allows a Weequay platoon or whatever, simply because that prevents loyalty to a species or homeworld overriding loyalty to the Empire. But they do exist.

Personally I just always kept Stormtroopers clones and the rest of the Imperial military was regular humans. I see no logical rationale for an evil meglomaniac to not stick with genetically bred perfect soldiers that obey pre-programmed subconscious commands across galactic distances during times of conflict. Just how I cover it at my table.

The more I think about it, the more I like this. Until recently, I had never known that Lucas originally intended that all of the Stormtroopers were clones. (Thank you to whoever posted that "Stormtroopers are clones" article from the late 70's / early 80's.) I had always assumed that they were all conscripted humans and that the Clone Wars idea was dumb. (As a child I had thought they were all robots, but that's because of their sweet armor and helmets.) I still stand by the idea that how the Clone Wars was set up and executed in the movies was dumb, but I'm willing to accept the outcome of cloned army. For a peaceful civilization who doesn't want to (or know how to) fight wars, creating clone soldiers who's only job it is to fight makes sense. Clones ain't people, so it's morally OK to send them to their death in war. Even a peaceful civilization is smart enough to realize that they need some controls over the clone warriors. Those controls are the regular (non-cloned) people who make up the officers and regular military roles (such as vehicle pilots). They are the ones who keep the soldiers in line.

Rule of thumb, if you wear expensive one-size-fits-all Stormtrooper armor, then you're a clone. If you're wearing cloth, you're not a clone.

With those thoughts in mind. I wouldn't have non-human Stormtroopers, unless it was a special cloned alien squad for special purpose missions. Although, they would have to fit in the standard armor, it's not worth designing and creating new armor for a small special group. As for women, I don't see why not. I'd allow clones to come from different gene pools. I think it was the Republic Commando video game where I first heard this idea. They had maybe five different clone fathers, one for each different area of expertise. Something like the demo guy and heavy weapons guy and what not. (Although they probably did it just so that they could use different voice actors and so it wouldn't be confusing for the player.) I don't see why they wouldn't have female clones for some rolls.

As for the non-Stormtrooper Imperials? Sure, why not? I'd keep the aliens rare and the females fairly common. As said elsewhere in this thread, I'd probably keep it to the near human aliens unless I come up with a really great back story as to why the alien is an Imperial officer.