During a long and boring meeting at work today, I started banging out notes for Rebellion Boot Camp, since our players are just about to meet up and/or join up with them, and this will be a perfect justification for buying the recruit tree.

(and yes, I know that you dont necessarily need to justify buying a tree - but this is a narrative game after all. Why not work it into the system?)

But I figured, instead of reinventing the wheel, I thought I'd ask and see if anyone has some notes, if they did this to their players, something I could crib from?

My former party signed a priveteering contract, and got a liason, who made sure they fit the bil, baisiclly went through boot camp skills, on the way to the other side of the galaxy. Players talked among themselves, if they want to start with Recruit career, or just get a discount on skills.

We played the tests as downtime scenes, as thier PCs landed on barren planets, practiced Survival, Stealth, Ranged, Brawl and Melee.

I gave the tree and some Recruit-only XP to our AOR group to symbolise their basic training. It's not a bad tree, more career skills and more Grit & Toughness is always handy.

I actually ran the basic training for our Diplomat character, a kind of 'Private Benjamin' thing. I think it was your scenario actually, Desslok?

I did that? Really? I wont say no, having put so much stuff out there over the years - but I don't remember doing anything like that. I wonder if I'm reinventing my own wheel.

I'll have to go check the nooks and crannies of my hard drive when I get home. . . .

I'm pretty sure it was you - there were two adventure concepts you put out about 18 months ago and we used them both.

I would think like any bootcamp it would have a few parts;

• Physical Conditioning

This will have PT general exercising, but also Marching/etc discipline style conditioning.

How would this play out RP style? A series of Athletics/Coordination challenges culminating in an obstacle course maybe?

• General Knowledge

This will have "Why we fight, history of our side of the fight, and who is and isn't the enemy"

This will have some sort of testing.

How would this play out RP style? A series of Knowledge related checks, culminating in a test of general Rebellion related stuff? (Or Empire related if you are making an Empire Bootcamp).

• Lots of Yelling

That is what I remember most from Basic Training... Lots of Yelling. Yelling at me, Yelling at me to Yell Back, Yelling while running, just general... Yelling.

How would this play out RP style? That is tricky... some people dislike being yelled at... so do this part at your own risk.

Just be sure you run some proper Boot Camp Montage music while you play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz1Yi9WEKFE

There's a little talk about it in the old west end games Rebel Alliance book. From that I think its basically like boot camp today. Oh and basic training squads are almost always a single species due to differences in the physical abilities between different species. It also talks some about officer training. The Alliance actually has a mobile academy for ground forces officers but naval officer candidates basically undergo the same kind of training many age of sail navies used. After basic they are assigned to ships as Midshipmen then rotate among various posts and receive lesson from the ship's officers until the Captain feels that they are ready to become Ensigns.

Oh and basic training squads are almost always a single species due to differences in the physical abilities between different species.

I dunno, man. I think you need to have the mismatched group of the sorriest recruits this sergeant has ever seen. You gotta have the Sullustan stereotype, always cooking his ethnic grubs (by which I mean burrowing insects from Sullust). You gotta have the fat Hutt wheezing after everyone, trying to finish the obstacle course while everyone else is forced to do pushups while they wait. You gotta have the rich, slightly racist guy from Coruscant who eventually comes around ("I see now that underneath, we're all the same! Your blood is just as red as mine! Well, not Braxit over there. He bleeds some kind of green ichor, but he's still one of us!"). That way, when they band together at the end and put their flaws to use, it's just that much more heroic.

During a long and boring meeting at work today, I started banging out notes for Rebellion Boot Camp, since our players are just about to meet up and/or join up with them, and this will be a perfect justification for buying the recruit tree.

(and yes, I know that you dont necessarily need to justify buying a tree - but this is a narrative game after all. Why not work it into the system?)

But I figured, instead of reinventing the wheel, I thought I'd ask and see if anyone has some notes, if they did this to their players, something I could crib from?

Stanley Kubrik already did it for you. Just watch the first part Full Metal Jacket for boot camp.

Oh and basic training squads are almost always a single species due to differences in the physical abilities between different species.

I dunno, man. I think you need to have the mismatched group of the sorriest recruits this sergeant has ever seen. You gotta have the Sullustan stereotype, always cooking his ethnic grubs (by which I mean burrowing insects from Sullust). You gotta have the fat Hutt wheezing after everyone, trying to finish the obstacle course while everyone else is forced to do pushups while they wait. You gotta have the rich, slightly racist guy from Coruscant who eventually comes around ("I see now that underneath, we're all the same! Your blood is just as red as mine! Well, not Braxit over there. He bleeds some kind of green ichor, but he's still one of us!"). That way, when they band together at the end and put their flaws to use, it's just that much more heroic.

I didn't write the book though it did list a few examples of why this was done like Mon Calamari bodies not being equipped to run like Human bodies can, or the classic fact that a good Wookiee calisthenics course would probably be fatal for any Humans crazy enough to try it.

Oh and basic training squads are almost always a single species due to differences in the physical abilities between different species.

I dunno, man. I think you need to have the mismatched group of the sorriest recruits this sergeant has ever seen. You gotta have the Sullustan stereotype, always cooking his ethnic grubs (by which I mean burrowing insects from Sullust). You gotta have the fat Hutt wheezing after everyone, trying to finish the obstacle course while everyone else is forced to do pushups while they wait. You gotta have the rich, slightly racist guy from Coruscant who eventually comes around ("I see now that underneath, we're all the same! Your blood is just as red as mine! Well, not Braxit over there. He bleeds some kind of green ichor, but he's still one of us!"). That way, when they band together at the end and put their flaws to use, it's just that much more heroic.

I didn't write the book though it did list a few examples of why this was done like Mon Calamari bodies not being equipped to run like Human bodies can, or the classic fact that a good Wookiee calisthenics course would probably be fatal for any Humans crazy enough to try it.

Oh, no, I get that it makes logical sense. Sometimes I think it's more important to hit the classic tropes than to go for realism.

OH! The Sarge should be a wookiee with a foul mouth and a crew cut who chain smokes cigars!

Oh, no, I get that it makes logical sense. Sometimes I think it's more important to hit the classic tropes than to go for realism.

Plus, it wouldn't be fun if I broke the PCs up into their own species group! They totally need to stick together for the 8 or so weeks of Basic!

Stanley Kubrik already did it for you. Just watch the first part Full Metal Jacket for boot camp.

Yeah, I thought about it - but I am no R. Lee Ermey and my Scathing Tirades Blistering Monologues would be unworthy. I wouldn't even try. I do agree about the foul mouthed, cigar smoking Wookiee. (perhaps pared off with a translator droid head that he wears around his neck - a trophy from a previous fight - that is the polar opposite of the angry wookiee as he tries to parse the colorful phrasing)

I'd say take inspiration from the career skills of the recruit tree and break those up into seperate encounters.

Oh, no, I get that it makes logical sense. Sometimes I think it's more important to hit the classic tropes than to go for realism.

Plus, it wouldn't be fun if I broke the PCs up into their own species group! They totally need to stick together for the 8 or so weeks of Basic!

Stanley Kubrik already did it for you. Just watch the first part Full Metal Jacket for boot camp.

Yeah, I thought about it - but I am no R. Lee Ermey and my Scathing Tirades Blistering Monologues would be unworthy. I wouldn't even try. I do agree about the foul mouthed, cigar smoking Wookiee. (perhaps pared off with a translator droid head that he wears around his neck - a trophy from a previous fight - that is the polar opposite of the angry wookiee as he tries to parse the colorful phrasing)

All it takes is practice. Anyone can be a DI. The Wookiee sounds great, but to make him more badass have him with an eye patch and a cybernetic arm in addition to the cigar. Leave the cybernetic arm uncovered since he would be proud of earning it.

Dang, this Wookiee just gets better and better. Now I need to find an AoR game to play in, and that's the line I've been least interested in of the three.

"GRAAURRGH! Araagha heur raarr rawwrg! EARRGGHH!!!"

"Your performance in this most recent assessment is unsatisfactory. Corrective discipline will be implemented, and the severity of same shall be increased with each successive attempt until competence is attained. It is requested that you focus on the task at hand, rather than engage in acts of a lewd nature during performance reviews. I am most disappointed, and call all of your parentage into question."

Dang, this Wookiee just gets better and better. Now I need to find an AoR game to play in, and that's the line I've been least interested in of the three.

"GRAAURRGH! Araagha heur raarr rawwrg! EARRGGHH!!!"

"Your performance in this most recent assessment is unsatisfactory. Corrective discipline will be implemented, and the severity of same shall be increased with each successive attempt until competence is attained. It is requested that you focus on the task at hand, rather than engage in acts of a lewd nature during performance reviews. I am most disappointed, and call all of your parentage into question."

Yeah, it really does want you to play a Wookiee rebel. I think another badass thing to add to him would be the opposite of what Boba Fett does. Boba has Wookiee scalps, so why not have the Wookiee have Mandalorian shoulder plates decorating his crossed ammo bandolier and utility belt?

Now I have this mental image of rebel squads across the galaxy who are extremely fluent in wookiee cussing, and usually follow it up with something polite in a droid voice, then chuckle to each other. And that's how you identify soldiers trained by Drill Sergeant Grakchauwwa.

Not to derail this excellent discussion of wookiee drill sergeants, but I kept a day by day log from Army BCT in 2014, and figured I'd summarize that for the OP's inspiration:

Days 1-3: Reception. You get off the plane, they put you up in some barracks and you do a bunch of administrative stuff, get uniforms issued, etc. This has nothing to do with your training really, and you won't be with the same guys when you enter real training.

Days 5-6: Introduction to Basic Combat Training. You get assigned to a training company (these are the guys you're stuck with for the next 9 weeks) and go through a "shark attack" once you're off the bus. Essentially, the DSs throw everybody's duffel in a pile and everyone has to find their own in 60 seconds. Obviously, no one succeeds and everybody gets smoked (that is, they yell at you and make you do exercises). Rinse and repeat until everyone has their bag. They divide you into platoons, assign you a bunk, and issue you gear and a rifle. More admin stuff too.

Day 7: Sunday's are usually pretty laid back. They let you attend religious services and then usually do classroom stuff or let you do your own thing around the barracks after its cleaned. Usually people write letters or work out. Today's class was land navigation.

Day 8: Victory Tower. It's a basic rappel tower and one rope bridge (think of it as zip lining with a safety net instead of a harness). A lot of this is about building confidence.

Day 9: Issued us gas masks and gave some classes over how it works and we did some marching.

Day 10: Obstacle Course

Day 11: Land navigation course. As in, actually going into the woods and finding points with a map and compass.

Day 12: Gas chamber. Took us to a gas chamber so we could qualify with our gas masks. Made us take them off at the end before we could leave so we had to breath the gas. For the curious, it feels like having a bad sunburn all over your body. It's essentially aerosolized pepper spray. Then we went back to the barracks and got a class on BRM (basic rifle marksmanship) and CLS (which is first aid. Stands for combat lifesaver).

Day 13: More BRM classes. These start with how to field strip and clean your weapon and progress to marksmanship fundamentals. Then we went to the PX (store) to buy any hygiene items we needed and get haircuts (every two weeks you get a buzz cut). Yes, you have to pay for your own hygiene items and haircuts.

Day 14: It's a Sunday. See above.

Day 15: FTX 1. Field Training Exercise. This one is sort of an intro to what FTXs are and they taught us some tactical movement techniques (individually and in squads).

Day 16: Took us to an electronic BRM trainer. Essentially this one is like the old duck hunt game, except mimicking the qualification range and with a much better gun (it's a modified m16 that works fairly realistically).

Day 17-30: BRM. Pretty much we marched to the range each day and practiced shooting. At the end you have to qualify, which is where they give you 40 rounds and there are 40 targets at ranges between 25m and 300m that pop up one at a time. A passing score is 23/40 hits.

Day 31: We took the CLS test.

Day 32: We got fitted for our dress uniforms.

Day 33-38: Advanced Rifle Marksmanship (ARM). ARM is pretty much about how to shoot in your body armor, use of night vision goggles, how to shoot while utilizing cover, room clearing, etc. Generally speaking, the practical application of shooting.

Day 39: Another obstacle course.

Day 40: Preparation for FTX 2. Generally getting gear together and stuff. It's a Sunday, so pretty light.

Day 41-43: FTX 2. Camping in the woods in a patrol base and conducting fake missions. Patrol bases are pretty much how a platoon sets up defensively when camping.

Day 44: CLS exercise. Some dummies with fake injuries and some actors in makeup-injuries and each squad had to roleplay walking up on the injured soldiers and treating them. They played a background track of gunshots and yelling and would mess with the lighting. The stress of trying to maintain a secure perimeter, treat the casualties, call for medevac helicopters, and move the casualties to a safe location all really hit home here and a lot of the soldiers just froze up during the exercise.

Day 45: Foot March and Heavy Weapons. We marched 6 miles to the heavy weapons range and then got given a couple belts of ammunition (2 belts of 50 rounds). We fired the squad automatic weapon (SAW, a 5.56mm machine gun) and the 240B (a 7.62mm machine gun) at some disabled tanks downrange. We got a demonstration on how to operate AT4 rocket launchers and M203 underbarrel grenade launchers and we fired dummy rounds from them (because they’re expensive). The two soldiers who qualified best during BRM got to fire a live round for each. Realize that this was only one day, and it was mostly familiarization. We didn’t really become proficient with these weapons.

Day 46-48: Learning about grenades and doing the qualification with dummy grenades (there’s a course and you have to hit 5/7 targets, things like putting a grenade through a vehicle window, landing one in a circle 30m away, hitting a trench, etc).

Day 49: After qualifying on grenades, we went to an explosives range and got to throw two live grenades. Drill sergeants are pretty jumpy on this day.

Day 50: Buddy team movement w/ blanks. Essentially, one soldier lays down suppressive fire while the other moves up to the next piece of cover.

Day 51: Buddy team live fire. As above, but with live rounds. Debatebly the most dangerous day in BCT since you’re doing a live fire exercise with significant autonomy.

Day 52: IED Lane. Essentially, we go out to a wooded trail and get a course of instruction on how IEDs are made and how to spot them. Then we walk the trail, which has fake IEDs positioned along it. More familiarization stuff.

Day 53: Combatives. My company spent the day learning hand-to-hand combat. Other companies did this like every weekend, but not mine. Lazy drill sergeants in my company.

Day 54-58: A lot of classroom stuff. Pretty much, my company was first in rotation for everything, so we were waiting for the rest of the battalion to catch up. We watched a bunch of documentaries on the wars in the Middle East.

Day 59: We spent a bunch of time hooking up MILES gear on our kit. MILES gear is essentially laser tag equipment hooked on to your plate carrier and your rifle. It’s also about 40 years old and doesn’t work. We also had a briefing about sexual assault prevention (these have been sprinkled throughout BCT, but this was the biggest one).

Day 60-62: We did our record army physical fitness test and did some classes on tactical maneuvers. I also competed against the other platoon’s select soldiers in a “soldier of the cycle” competition.

Day 63-66: Victory Forge. We were bussed out to the woods for our culminating event, FTX 3 (otherwise known as Victory Forge). We set up a patrol base and ran operations for 4 days. After 4 days without showers, we pack up and march 14 miles back to our barracks. When we get back around 1 am, we have a ceremony for completing all the graduation requirements before we go to bed.

Day 67-71: We sleep in a few hours, skip PT, and then spend the next few days cleaning and turning in gear (we seriously cleaned rifles for probably about 20 net hours here), cleaning our barracks, and getting ready to leave (which has some admin stuff included).

Day 72: Family Day. There was a short speech and our we got to spend the day with our families.

Day 73: Graduation. There was a pass-in-review ceremony and the soldiers of the cycle, top marksmen, and top PT scores were all specially recognized. We pick up our gear and leave with our families. Soldiers who were split-option go home, while the rest head off to AIT (advanced individual training), where they go to get trained in their actual job. (Split-option soldiers do BCT one summer and AIT the next usually. I went back to college, for instance).

This may seem like we don’t do a lot every day, but you have to keep in mind that we wake up, do PT, do personal hygiene, march to breakfast, march back, get our gear, move out on buses (or march every once in awhile) to wherever our training event is, do our training, eat lunch, continue training, move back to the barracks, stow equipment, eat dinner, do another class/clean weapons/mail call/etc, do final formation, then we get like an hour for personal hygiene and free time before lights out. Also, at night there’s always some of the basic trainees on guard duty for your barracks (the schedule rotates, but usually you end up having to pull an hour long shift every other night). I was surprised at the amount of sleep we got (with very few exceptions, 7 hours minimum), but sleep deprivation really does inhibit your learning ability so it makes sense. Also, once you factor in all of that plus the intermissions for getting smoked, it makes for a pretty full day. Plus, one lucky sod gets chosen by the drill sergeants to be the platoon guide (sort of a combination platoon leader/platoon sergeant role in basic training) and is nominally in charge of the platoon in order to develop their leadership abilities. Usually they either choose the guy with lots of potential or the guy that really needs the experience.

Hopefully that kinda gives you some ideas for running your players through basic training. I agree with the above post about making it a series of tests, and just cherry picking a few highlights from basic training to set the mood. If you’re going to use it as a tutorial for the game system, you obviously want to touch on things like combat, first aid, etc. Feel free to ask questions about anything I posted.

Holy crap, that's . . . . perfect! (also - crazy intense)

Well, off to go completely rewrite my rough notes. (:

***EDIT***

Okay, had a chance to read through - that's pretty awesome.

Buddy team live fire. As above, but with live rounds. Debatebly the most dangerous day in BCT since you’re doing a live fire exercise with significant autonomy.

Since we have future space technology, I think I might go with a all blasters have been modified to be fancy laser tag pistols. They'll do enough stun damage to let the target "hey, you've been shot!" but not enough to kill or damage. So no live blasters on the base anywhere (save for whats in the armory)

This, of course, makes life difficult when the Empire actually shows up in act three and the players have nothing but their charm to fight back with!

Yeah, using the stun setting by default makes more sense in Star Wars. You could say that their blasters in basic are stun-only, but I don't know if it would really be necessary. If somebody switched their blaster from stun to kill when they shouldn't, the drill sergeants would probably have them doing push-ups for a few hours or something. They keep a pretty close eye on that stuff. I got patted down for any live ammunition every time I came off the firing range.

Remember - the Rebel Alliance isn't all that old... maybe 5 years at the Battle of Yaavin.

It has older roots (Padme Amidala, Bail Organa, Master Yoda, Master Obi-wan as far back s 25 BBY), the Alderaan, Mandalore, Chandrilla and Jedi resistance movement doesn't flourish into open rebellion for decades, and even then, it's merely the best of a wide range of resistances.

And each separate group has it's own training regimen and vetting procedure.

In canon the above is true but in Legends including the RPG material the Alliance High Command has forces directly under its control and the training methods I mentioned were for those. Local fleets and forces could have everything from being handed a blaster and given five minutes on the firing range with officers getting 25 extra minutes going over the Star Wars equivalent of Clausewitz or Sun-Tzu before being sent to the front or having local defense academies helping them and running courses for them.

During a long and boring meeting at work today, I started banging out notes for Rebellion Boot Camp, since our players are just about to meet up and/or join up with them, and this will be a perfect justification for buying the recruit tree.

(and yes, I know that you dont necessarily need to justify buying a tree - but this is a narrative game after all. Why not work it into the system?)

But I figured, instead of reinventing the wheel, I thought I'd ask and see if anyone has some notes, if they did this to their players, something I could crib from?

Stanley Kubrik already did it for you. Just watch the first part Full Metal Jacket for boot camp.

Darn, you beat me to it! That was exactly what I was going to suggest. When I saw that movie the first time in the theater, my friend and I were the only ones in the audience just busting up laughing during that scene Everyone else was so serious.

Of course, I was also the only one in the theater laughing hysterically the first time I saw AOTC when Yoda and Dooku fought. Sorry, but a ridiculously acrobatic little green Muppet going after Christopher Lee was the funniest thing in any of the prequels. The only thing that would have been funnier is if Kermit the Frog had joined in

Of course, I was also the only one in the theater laughing hysterically the first time I saw AOTC when Yoda and Dooku fought. Sorry, but a ridiculously acrobatic little green Muppet going after Christopher Lee was the funniest thing in any of the prequels. The only thing that would have been funnier is if Kermit the Frog had joined in

I was in the premier in my country and the whole cinema laughed hysterically. It was a mixture between total perplexity of awesomemness and like you said, the little green rubber ball of doom.

I like that it was teased In the same movie: there is the scene where obi wan says to anakin that if he spends as much time on improving his saber technique as he does on something (I think it was banter or witty replies) he could rival master yoda, which also prompted laughter in the audience