Hello Everybody, I have very little Star Wars knowledge, so I'm appealing to those of you who know more about the universe for help. The campaign starts between A New Hope and the Empire Strikes Back on Tatooine.

My character is an Imperial Bounty Hunter, former storm trooper. He's not a clone. He is a patriot, and became a bounty hunter to bring law to the fringe worlds. His motications include a Mentor (A former or current CO)

I figure he's 24 years old after just having mustered out of the troopers. My questions include; where could he have served and who could be his mentor? How old should he be after having served in the troopers?

What is a storm troopers tour of duty like, in general?

Stormtroopers, as far as the EU go, are supposed to be elite soldiers that are a step above the rest of the rank and file. They train on a dangerous planet with a higher-than-standard gravity and are a crack fighting force. They are also almost always entirely loyal, with only a small number of them keeping their personalities entirely intact (at least as far as stories go).

As for where he could have served, "Anywere" can literally be an option. After the fall of the Republic, there was many false-starts to the Rebellion that were quickly quelled, as well as general unrest as the Emperor consolidated his power. While Clones did a brunt of the work early on, they were phased out for humans, and they served in the earlier parts of the Rebellion.

The new stuff from Rebels shows that they start training at a young age and go from there. I don't know much on that yet, but there's a Wookieepedia Artlce on it.

In the end, he could have served just about anywhere you would like. Seriously. The age should be a bit realistic; I'd guess by the time they became an official Stormtrooper, they'd be somewhere between 17-20 standard years old. Again, there's a LOT of potential battlegrounds to be covered, so you can do just about anything you want there.

The same goes for the mentor, especially if they are still in the military. Anything can go there.

Anywhere and anything is pretty appropriate.

In regards to his service in that time frame, given the Emperor had dissolved the Senate, and the 'disappearance' of Alderaan, it's likely a lot of Stormtroopers would have been involved in occupation duty and dealing with growing civil disobedience I would think.

An Imperial Stormtrooper who voluntarily quit service in order to pursue a career as a bounty hunter?

That seems quite unlikely. However, he may have been forced to leave the Stormtrooper Corps as a fugitive.

Maybe he was mistakenly taken for a rebel spy during a military operation which completely went wrong. Or he made a devastating mistake which resulted in the killing of all or several other soldiers in his squad and his arrestment. Perhaps he is originally from Alderaan and was arrested after its destruction by the Galactic Empire, not exactly knowing who is responsible for the obliteration of his home world or at least not knowing the truth (please also refer to Marvel's latest comic series regarding Princess Lea).

He may still be loyal to the Empire, trying to prove his innocence while being chased by his former employer. He most likely has a bounty on his head. His mentor may be his former squad's sergeant under whom he used to serve and who still believes in him and his loyalty to the Galactic Empire.

I hope that these ideas may help you further develop your character, even if I have not directly answered all your specific questions.

Follow up question - how long is a storm troopers tour of duty? 24 is a good muster-out age for the American armed forces (6 years, 3 tours, IIRC).

Also, his mentor is the one who suggested he become a bounty hunter to bring law to the fringe worlds. That's my idea, anyway. His mentor could certainly be an imperial bounty hunter, although I like the idea that he has an Imperial officer as a confidant.

There is nothing official about how the Stormtroopers worked. So it is all free game however you want it to work. 24 is as good as 19 which is as good as 37 as far as I'm concerned.

Your background idea sounds good to me.

Follow up question - how long is a storm troopers tour of duty? 24 is a good muster-out age for the American armed forces (6 years, 3 tours, IIRC).

Imperial Forces are not supposed to be compared with the US Forces, especially the Stormtrooper Corps. In my campaigns, stormtroopers are mostly clones, but I also like the idea of men enlisted at a very young age, trained for an extensive period of time and send to combat as pre-adults (16 to 17 years old). I don't feel that such things as “tour of duty” exist in the Stormtrooper Corps: they fight for the Emperor until they get killed, too badly injured or rendered mentally unfit to serve the Empire.

This is a really cool idea.

One option for previous service would be to have your Stormtrooper serve on a capital ship. Imperial Star Destroyers have an entire legion of Stormtroopers aboard, meaning your character could have fought in space, taken part in boarding actions, and fought on a number of planets. Smaller ships like Vindicator cruisers would have carried troopers, too; maybe that was part of why the character quit. Not everyone is content to just live on a star cruiser.

From what we have seen from canon sources of late, of which I mean Rebels, the stormtroopers seem to be the infantry of the imperial war machine. They are trained recruits, not clones. So that background for the bounty hunter works well, though don't try to keep your old armour.

I always run stormtroopers as the standard grunt unit. The armour and look of them is too iconic, and people want them as adversaries, not some random WEG tripe. invented army trooper. There are also elite groups of stormtroopers, these troops look EXACTLY like the average groups. This makes judging the capabilities by how they look impossible.

Perhaps this former trooper turned bounty hunter did not so much 'quit' as a local Moff helped il establish his career on a type of extended on leave time? The Moff could be the mentor and tell the trooper that the Empire is stretched too thin in the outer rim. Perhaps the trooper can do more 'good' elsewhere.

There is no reason that someone recruited into the Imperial Military wouldn't be able to leave it's service after a set period of time. There is nothing set that states someone joins for Life. They may have to request separation from Imperial Service, but that should not been seen as stopping someone from getting out.

The real question is why they would leave.

There are a number of reasons, but it is reasonable that by becoming a bounty hunter the PC can chase after those that are a threat to the Empire without the Bureaucratic Red Tape. Something the PC struggled with as a StormTrooper.

As for a mentor: That could really be anyone senior to the PC. It does not have to be a Senior Officer. It could be the Lt in charge of the PC's unit or even the PC's Sergeant. You could even have it be a Clone who is now an Instructor in the Military. It can even be a Non-Clone Veteran from the Clone Wars or a Political Mentor like a Planetary Governor.

As for Age - that would really rely on a few things.

• To start when they started their Imperial Military Service. (Looking at Rebels I would say that it would be after they Graduated from a Imperial Academy.) So between 16-18 years would be a good place to start that.
• Then you would need to determine how long they stayed in Service.
• How long have they been in their current Career at the Start of the Campaign.

Looking at your suggested age of 24. I would say graduated Imperial Academy at 18 and Served 5 years before leaving service to become a Bounty Hunter. Spent the last year before the Campaign begins learning the basics of the trade.

Where the PC Served as a StormTrooper: There are a number of ways to do this.

• Is where the PC starts the campaign where the PC was Stationed or is it far from that.
• Also consider their home planets location (where is it located in the Galaxy - Core, Midrim, Outerrim?) Then deciding did they stay close to home or where they shipped far off. Part of Planetary Garrison or Star Destroyer attachment.

The Important part being how it effects the PC's back-story, by being part of where the PC viewed the Galaxy before leaving the Military.

As for a Tour of Duty - that would really be determined on what they did within their Unit and where they are Stationed.

• Lots of Training and Drills would be a important component (Especially being stationed on a Star Destroyer)
• Where they could spend their off duty hours.
• What kind of Commander did they have?
• What is the Duty Schedule

You can look at it from a few view points.

Here is a simple example of a possible Duty Schedule. (Just something I threw together)

3-5 Days On Duty with 2 Days Off Duty

Shift Schedule being

1st Shift

0600-0645 Muster

0700-1145 Assignment (Watch/Patrol) or Training

1200-1245 Meal

1300-1345 Muster

1400-1700 Assignment (Watch/Patrol) or Training

1715-1800 Muster / Dismissal

2nd Shift

1600-1645 Muster

1700-2145 Assignment (Watch/Patrol) or Training

2100-2145 Meal

2200-2245 Muster

2300-0300 Assignment (Watch/Patrol) or Training

0315-0400 Muster / Dismissal

Third Shift

0200-0245 Muster

0300-0745 Assignment (Watch/Patrol) or Training

0800-0845 Meal

0900-0945 Muster

1000-1300 Assignment (Watch/Patrol) or Training

1315-1400 Muster / Dismissal

Hope this helps..

This is a pretty interesting discussion.

I was always under the impression that as a Stormtrooper you serve for life (or at least as long as you are able to fight). According to Legends, the Stormtrooper Corps consisted of both clones (based on Jango Fett's and other templates) and "normal" enlisted human beings (mostly males). One of the reasons for recruiting non-cloned humans was the relatively short lifespan of the Jango-based clones (roughly 50% of that of a regular human, which still is approximately 35 to 40 years). In my opinion, this shows that a Stormtrooper was supposed to pursue a far longer career in the Imperial forces than the here mentioned age of 24 to 26 years.

Moreover, I cannot recall reading about an Imperial military operative quitting service voluntarily and this being tolerated by the Empire. All I can remember is characters like Han Solo, Daric LaRone and friends, etc. deserting the Imperial military. But, Star Wars Legends being so vast, I may have missed something...

Also, I do not think that the Stormtrooper Corps is to be compared with the modern US military but rather with the German SS during WWII. The Empire is at war. It needs its veteran warriors. As a Stormtrooper you directly serve the Emperor. And no, you cannot quit... unless, of course, you die in battle (or at the hands of Lord Vader)... But, hey, that's only my interpretation of the unofficial Star Wars lore and I cannot prove that the contrary is not true...