As the title suggests, I will soon be running an Imperial campaign for a small group of players. In an effort to keep the game from being too easy (from being on the "winning" side) and to make serving the Empire a bit more complex than being a complete sociopath or having your head in the sand, I'm planning on making some changes to the canon of the universe. I wanted to run them by you guys so see what makes sense and what doesn't, what needs more explanation, etc.

Here's the basic rundown:

1. The destruction of the Death Star had a much more profound effect than in canon. The Galactic South Outer Rim and Expansion area saw many planets outright declare for the Rebellion. Local peacekeeping Imperial forces were either driven out or destroyed, depending on their composition and strength. The end result is that for the first time in its existence, the Empire is facing a true existential threat. The Rebellion has a lot to do to consolidate their new holdings, however, and have nowhere near the manpower to defend all of their new gains. This has lead to a large rebel guerrilla offensive, with Rebel fleets piercing deep into Imperial territory to wreak havoc and force the Empire to focus on defense. How well this will work remains to be seens. Purpose: to make the Rebellion more of a difficult threat for Imperial PCs, to give the Rebels territory for players to infiltrate, and to give more tension in the overall war.

2. Characters from the movies (as of the end of ANH) exist and have much the same motivations and history as before, but will no longer have the universe revolve around them and their destiny. The Alliance would survive the death of Luke and Leia, as they are not the Rebellion's "only hope," for example. Purpose: allows the players a chance to become galactic movers and shakers themselves, for major movies characters to die depending on player choices, and for the game to feel less "scripted" and attached to the movie plots.

3. A lot of the cartoonish evil of the Empire is removed. While Palpatine remains his usual crazed power-grabbing self (see #2), there is a lot less of the "For the Evuls!" To wit, the discrimination against women is removed. Alien discrimination is not based on some view on Human manifest destiny, but because alien worlds objected to having a human Emperor with only a weak (and later no) Senate to represent their own interests. In many cases objections turn to demonstrations, then to violence. In the current time period, aliens tend to be assumed to be sympathetic to the rebels, but there is a greater amount of alien Imperial loyalists who are trying to break this stereotype. As the Empire values strength and merit, these very determined aliens often end up in positions of power in the Empire. Purpose: allows players to roll up aliens in the game and not feel like they have no chance of ever advancing in the Empire or that they're working for a group that's putting their species and slave and extermination camps because lolproportionate response.

4. The way Dark Side and Light side morality works is different. I'll refrain from going into too much detail here because this post is a wall of text as it is and it will be a long time before the players even start looking at Force powers.

So, this represents my effort to upgrade the "threat level" of the Alliance of this time period while also making the Empire a plausible political entity to work for while not being a horrible or ignorant person. I left a lot out in the name of brevity, so ask any questions or nit any picks you can think of!

I like it. Your game, your setting ultimately. It's not like the traditional film cannon hasn't been rehashed, re imagined, etc. with many what if scenarios.

My only suggestion, since I am sure what you have written here is a small part of everything you have thought out, is instead of having the Empire on the defensive have different scenarios by sectors (or groups of sectors).

For example, maybe the Alliance is doing these thrusts to keep the Empire off balance and in some areas defensive operations need to be maintained. In other areas the Empire has attacked and pushed in on key targets, or routes to key targets (thinking Mon Cal). This gives you as a GM the ability to move PC's from hot zone to hot zone but not have it always focused on defensive campaigns. It may also be interesting if you have the Alliance maybe gain a key world during a raid in force at some point and they try to hold it, allowing for a more embroiled and focused conflict. Ultimately this amounts to either background fluff ("This week in the the war against the Alliance") or some settings that you can have pre made for future sessions.

Either way, I like your idea a lot and may consider stealing it for my next campaign.

My only suggestion, since I am sure what you have written here is a small part of everything you have thought out, is instead of having the Empire on the defensive have different scenarios by sectors (or groups of sectors).

For example, maybe the Alliance is doing these thrusts to keep the Empire off balance and in some areas defensive operations need to be maintained. In other areas the Empire has attacked and pushed in on key targets, or routes to key targets (thinking Mon Cal). This gives you as a GM the ability to move PC's from hot zone to hot zone but not have it always focused on defensive campaigns. It may also be interesting if you have the Alliance maybe gain a key world during a raid in force at some point and they try to hold it, allowing for a more embroiled and focused conflict. Ultimately this amounts to either background fluff ("This week in the the war against the Alliance") or some settings that you can have pre made for future sessions.

Absolutely! The offensive isn't uniform by any stretch of the imagination, just a general strategy that the Alliance is enacting. In some areas, the Empire is already striking back, and there will be many opportunities for the PCs to help grease the wheels of the Imperial war machine so that the advance can begin and continue.

I am still debating if I need to make any effort to paint the Rebellion in more shades of grey, or if just making the Empire less of a "absolute moral duty to overthrow" government accomplishes that enough on its own. I want the two sides to be balanced; I'm not interested in just making the Rebel the Bad Guys and calling it a day.

Do something i did and make a (little) roster of the power players of both factions and what their goals are.

They all do not work the same way, just look at the 3 founders of the Correlian Treaty:

Mon Mothma's ideal was to recreate the old Senate and a plattform where all species could discuss their differences,

Bel Iblis wanted independence (for his system) if necessary by force,

and Bail Organa wanted peace with a minimum of bloodshed.

So think about it.

Are all surviving senators interested in restoring the old system, and if yes then why? To regain their power? Because they believe it is the right thing?

Are all Imperials powerhungry? Or do they believe in order, loyalty and security? Are they willing to follow horrendous orders like bombing a city to dust?

Are your rebels the shining heroes and underdogs? Do they simply want revenge? How far are they willing to go for it, even at the cost of civilians? Even important civilians for the war efforts like inventors and scientists, factory owners?

Create a few persons. The stats and skill can come later.