With all the expanded possibilities opened up by the new canon, it would be a shame to turn the TFA-era into just a re-skinned Rebellion.

With all the expanded possibilities opened up by the new canon, it would be a shame to turn the TFA-era into just a re-skinned Rebellion.

That's pretty much what it is... if that's a shame, you'll need to take it up with Abrams, et al.

That's pretty much what it is... if that's a shame, you'll need to take it up with Abrams, et al.

Not exactly. We see First Order troops retreating from an attacks. That's not something we've seen the Empire do in a movie. It shows the lack of overall military power that the empire had. That whole attack on Tokatsu (or whatever it was called) is really just a hit-and-run raid by the FO. Which means that in an Age of Resistance campaign you can have adventures where the Resistance/Republic are on the military offensive. Something not really possible with the Rebellion (unless you're talking post-Endor but I'd consider that EP7-era. At least after Jakku).

With all the expanded possibilities opened up by the new canon, it would be a shame to turn the TFA-era into just a re-skinned Rebellion.

Well, in terms of equipment and stat blocks, a lot of it is just a re-skinned Rebellion era.

The First Order seems to be the only faction we've seen that's had any sort of upgrades to their tech, and most of that is fairly minor, such TIE/fo fighters having shields, the new class of Star Destroyer being substantially bigger than the older Imperial-class that we saw in the original films.

But as you say, the way the First Order operates is very different, since they have to use smarter tactics like taking cover and will pull back in the face of heavy resistance, especially if their primary objective has been completed. They're far more reliant upon the quality of their troopers and having better tech than their opponents, where the Empire just relied upon superior numbers to carry the day.

More importantly we don't know if the First Order is a reborn Empire or one of a number of splinter groups of which its stronger through virtue of maybe a surviving Inquisitors using the Knights of Ren as an alias meaning the New Republic has no idea who they were making it easier to hide their agenda.

Any chance someone might like to try and stat up Captain Phasma?

Edit - thought I was still in another thread, disregard.

More importantly we don't know if the First Order is a reborn Empire or one of a number of splinter groups of which its stronger through virtue of maybe a surviving Inquisitors using the Knights of Ren as an alias meaning the New Republic has no idea who they were making it easier to hide their agenda.

My understanding of the First Order is that they are a Splinter Group. After the Battle of Jakku(SW:BF) The Rebel Alliance/New Republic signs a Peace Treaty/Ceasefire with the Imperial Remnant. Several Imperial Officers and high ranking officials didn't like that, so, they created the First Order and traveled into the Unknown Regions. It's entirely reasonable to assume there are other surviving Imperial Factions and even other Dark Side Users.

If I were do to an Age of Resistance game... the only real changes would be to the startships at this time. That seems to be where the tech has vastly improved.

TIE/FO: Add a fore or fore & aft defense. Increase handling by 1.

TIE/SF: Add fore & aft defense, turret, and some sort of missile (mag-pulse). Increase handling by 1.

T-70 X Wing: Increase speed by 1, increase handling by 1.

New star destroyer (currently 1, but who knows once war ramps up) would be a bit beefier, as it is significantly larger.

Most of the ground equipment is about the same. Much of the tech can be reskinned from other things.

Just my two credits...

while more in depth information on the First Order is here http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/First_Order , a summation of how it formed After the Battle of Endor would go something like this:

The Rebellion and Remaining Core Imperial Forces go at it hammer and tongs ABE in several systems, eventually being defeated at the Battle of Jakku where a majority of the remaining imperial Loyalist Navy was broken and the empire was driven into defeat. What followed was the Galactic Concordance, a treaty that set Imperial teeth grinding as it forced limited arms, training, and armaments restrictions upon the Imperial Remnant.

To which a lot of Imperial officers and civilians in the Remnant promptly began lying their asses off to the Newly formed New Galactic Republic as many Imperial Officers and enlisted went into the Unknown Regions and promptly set up bases, examining what had gone wrong in all the previous battles and took steps to correct the previous flaws with the newly established 'First Order' training regime, which emphasized quality training of it's Stormtrooper Corps and other branches to high levels of competency. The First Order was actually considerably smaller that the New Republic Navy and Armed Forces and more than well aware of that, emphasizing troop survival, morale, training, and indoctrination to fanatical levels to make up for the numeric discrepancy. The Typical Imperial is a LOT more tactically flexible that the previous Empire's as the Empire has a "If it leads towards victory, then it is good." attitude. This has raised morale considerably within First Order forces, as opposed to the doctrinal blindness of serving under the previous regime.

At the same time, the Naval and Army Corps, no longer impeded by departmental infighting among hundreds of various sector and upper sector commands, as well as interdepartmental arguments (Supreme Leader Snoke takes a VERY dim view of this), and very pragmatic philosophy towards ideas for improving morale, tactics and equipment. Refinement of previous equipment such as the Stormtrooper armor, weapons such as the F-11 Blaster carbine (a much more rugged, accurate and reliable version of the E-11), and ships (the Improved TIE/LN boasting shields and generally improved systems) and the Resurgent-Class Star Destroyer (multiple bridges, Training facilities for crew, layered shields and anti-fighter turbolaser defenses) makes the First Order, while smaller, far more tactically flexible and capable of hitting far harder than previous imperial remnants.

Testing of new equipment and vessels occurred in small doses along non-Republic borders initially while the First Order worked out the bugs in the various new systems, occasionally 'liberating' a new system away from the watchful eyes of the Republic, While the Imperial Remnant kept plausible deniablity as Republic Observes look at the known factories and ship yards and did not see anything matching reports from various panicked peoples claiming The Empire had returned, writing of the First Order off as stragglers and the occasional renegade, as long as they seem to be following the Galactic Concordance.

Construction of StarKiller Base continued the general design philosophy of the Death Star while incorporating upgraded refinements of Deathstar technology, including a hyperspace capable, multi targeting Planet killing Plasma Fusion Array, fueled by the Solar Plasma the base could siphon from nearby stars and store in a hyperspace dimensional containment array. The construction of this was kept secret as the New Order was well aware that if it was found out such a station was being built, the Imperial Remnant and the First order would suffer the full might of the Republic Navy. It also played into the plans of the First Order that the Republic had implemented a Galactic Disarmament under the Military Disarmarment Act, scaling back it's armed forces severely (some 90%), while still retaining superiority over any other power in the area.

The First Order must have been laughing into it's sleeves as the Republics naivety as they blatantly defied the disarmament treaties far from normal sight, with only occasional problems popping up by various veterans of the Republic armed forces or former Rebels who could see what was coming. Luckily for the First order, the New Republic fell into corruption through a combination of wishful thinking and general indolence, which the First Order perceived as weakness.

With the destruction of Hosnian Prime (the New Republic capitol) and the shattering of the bulk of it's Navy at Hosnian Prime, the First Order is now the preeminent military force within the Galaxy. While not able to control as much territory as before, it is far more deadly, fanatical, and capable

Sharing here for completeness...

Episode 69 is out folks, where we chat with Christopher West and FFG freelancer Sterling Hershey about gaming in the Force Awakens era (or any time after RotJ, if you want to stick with the new core canon storyline).