Hey all. I am currently GM:ing a SW game with my friends set three years before Battle of Yavin. After the fourth session I have gotten into some loss of ideas and inspiration. I think I need some help to save the campaign.

My main goal was to tell a story of great sacrifice and heroism in a fight against a larger foe. The group are all misfits who all joined together by chance. During the first three session they were on Dantooine and helped shutting down an imperial institute/prison and liberating Felucian slaves who were being experimented on with strange pathogen by imperial scientists.

After the team's mission was a success, the heroes were officially "rebels" and dedicated themslves to protect the nearby systems from the oppression of the empire. I made a time skip by one year and everyone were now a rebel cell. Their current mission is to go to Dorin and help the insurgents there to revolt against an imperial governor who is also a Kel Dor. This was session number four.

This is the point where I feel everything is starting to fall apart for me. I realized it was difficult to create a campaign based on making a revolution.

The group are at Dorin and have been spraying graffiti and instigating people to revolt here and there at the main city. They broke into a radio tower, broadcast some rebel propaganda, and fled. But I can't help but to feel this all this is so aimless. I don't know where I want this whole thing to go or how to respond or react. At what point would a population be brave enough to fight back? What would be a typical response from the Empire on that area for all this? What do the group have to accomplish to capture a planet? And in the end: would it matter since they can't hold it? (They are not a part of the Rebel alliance yet).

Dorin was perhaps also a poor choice but one of the party members are a Kel Dor who became a rebel. The hard thing was to decide what exactly he would rebel against since Dorin is such a boring and unwealthy planet. They import nothing, they export "technology" (whatever that is supposed to be exactly), the planet is dangerous for non-Kel Dor species to live on with all lack of oxygen and a lot of storms. The only thing I could imagine that would pick the interest for the Empire would be to indoctrinate the populace into the imperial thinking since Kel Dor love that whole "swift justice" thing. So thus the Empire wants the Kel Dor people to become loyal imperial citizen. Which is why the governor is an imperial officer who supports them and rules over the aristocracy and allows the poor to suffer. The main villain governor is now aware of the team's efforts and he wants to respond appropriately.

(So it's a battle of political and cultural heritage; Old traditions vs new order).

So what now?, I ask myself. What I am asking for is perhaps ideas on what to do with all this.

I have been reading a lot of the new canon books (Lost Stars, Twilight Company, etc) and unfortunately that have made me want to make the Empire and their supporters more human. But this is very difficult when the group's mindset are in the whole "Star Wars Rebels"-mood where the Empire are clearly evil and Kanan and Hera's gang are clearly good. But I want to make it more grey.

To summarize my questions:

#1: How do I make an interesting adventure that is about overthrowing the empire as a rebel cell? What are the objectives and what are the risks for the party and the people?

#2: How can I make the Empire look less evil and more human? Why do they consider themslves good guys? Wanting to maintain order and be a good dutybound imperial citizen doens't feel enough for all the horrible things they do...

How do I make an interesting adventure that is about overthrowing the empire as a rebel cell? What are the objectives and what are the risks for the party and the people?

The best way? Come up with some kind of end game. What's a good objective? Original Trilogy had kill Palpatine. I've had a 12 part year long game where it was establish a rebel presence, find uncover a superweapon and blow same up. Is there a Face of the Empire that they can take out? Someone who personally antagonizes and torments the players? Then make removing that person from power the end game. Along the way, they find out a deep dark secret he';s working on and need to stop.

If they have a face and a goal, the rest will easily fall into place.

#2: How can I make the Empire look less evil and more human? Why do they consider themslves good guys? Wanting to maintain order and be a good dutybound imperial citizen doens't feel enough for all the horrible things they do...

I'm not sure I'd paint the Empire that way. Star Wars is a White Hat/Black Hat sort of story with the best good guys and the most mustache twirlingly bad badguys. Moral ambiguity is for other settings - not Star Wars.

Discover a secret Imperial Installation neither side knows about, introduce a nemesis for you Kel'Dor player for example a Kel'Dor Inquisitor who was turned over to the Empire and holds the people of Dorin responsible for what the Empire did to him and is using his command at the installation to forward some dubious experiments both sides want nothing to do with (well maybe Palpatine's Cultists are willing to turn a blind eye...).

So what would be considered too horrifying for an Imperial to be willingly involved in?

A terraforming process rendering the world suitable for oxygen breathers but unless the Kel'Dor know what's about to happen that's potentially billions dead and the nemesis has a ready fall guy in your Kel'Dor player!

Could throw in experimental Dark Troopers or modified humans & other species to be able to live in Kel'Dor environments doomed to toil unseen and die where they won't be found... oh until your players stumble across them!

Does that help?

According to Legends, many Kel Dor were members of the Jedi Order, and Dorin itself is home to its own group of Force-sensitives, the Baran Do, who survived the purge by "disappearing" and are still around because some traditional Kel Dor sent their children to learn from them. Introduce the Empire busting down doors in search of this Force cult and the people have a reason to revolt.

Both the previous posts could work very well together if this inquisitors experiments have to do with the Baran Do.

That or the players should be looking to find the Baran Do and convince them to help. That could be an ally that could turn the tide on this planet.

(Posted from mobile)

I'm not sure I'd paint the Empire that way. Star Wars is a White Hat/Black Hat sort of story with the best good guys and the most mustache twirlingly bad badguys. Moral ambiguity is for other settings - not Star Wars.

I'd have to respectfully disagree, Mr Penguin. I've been running a Firefly-style game since the EOE Beta and it lacks any real heroes or villains, just a bunch of different perspectives. Our Empire has various factions that tore it apart in a civil war, an independent Fringe faction with both good and bad members, and the main antagonists of the campaign are the Jedi Order. The Alliance is nominally the 'good guys', but the theme there is how hard it is to fight a moral war when everyone else plays rough.

The PCs are still expected to be the 'good guys' (mostly) and the campaign is full of karma - bad stuff will still (mostly) come around to bite you on the behind.

I've got a lot of useful stuff from a guy who goes by 'Chortles' on the forums, who is very good at pointing me in the direction of EU things that get away from the PG-13 stuff. Is that 'Star Wars'? What's 'Star Wars' anyway? Caravan of Courage? The Holiday Special? Or Red Harvest and Death Troopers?

I understand the post-movies EU had a time when the New Jedi were at war with the Rebels, and there was a more humanised Empire remnants faction under the Fels?

@SSB_Shadow, the Fel Empire might be a good place to start for a more humanised Empire faction.

Is it fine to play things in black and white morality? Of course. Is it fine to play like Firefly or Guardians of the Galaxy or Mass Effect? Why not? I'm no Empire apologist but I'm happy to have better antagonists than clichéd moustache-twirlers.

Regarding how quickly the populace/Imperials act? I'd gauge it entirely off of how efficient the PCs have been, how well they accomplished their objectives, etc. If you base it on their efforts, you will give them a greater sense of accomplishment than if you have a predetermined "escalation" point.

That said, if you're really not feeling your campaign... maybe bring it to an end, but in a way that allows you to "set up" your next campaign? This way, you can begin anew with a story framework that you feel excited about, but the efforts of the players so far still has an impact on the next tale. This might be preferable to you simply coming up with a completely new, unrelated campaign, as the players will remain invested in making their mark before the curtains fall.

That said, if you're really not feeling your campaign... maybe bring it to an end, but in a way that allows you to "set up" your next campaign? This way, you can begin anew with a story framework that you feel excited about, but the efforts of the players so far still has an impact on the next tale. This might be preferable to you simply coming up with a completely new, unrelated campaign, as the players will remain invested in making their mark before the curtains fall.

Building off this idea...perhaps you could have the current players and their characters somehow meet their new selves. Meaning in some grand finale they meet the players that they will become in this new Rebels campaign. They say goodbye to their old characters and pick up as the new ones with some knowledge and attachment to the old group.

Personally...I am going to do what has been suggested already though the idea had already come to me....

After the two beginner adventures of AoR I am going to send them off on a mission I am creating from scratch which introduces them to someone important in the Imperial Military. They cross paths and it will then become the life goal of this Imperial to sniff out and destroy this rebel cell and hopefully their goal to fight back and finish this guy off, thus destabilizing the Empire by ridding it of someone important to their cause. Of course this will be a long time running, but the first step is to meet who will be their arch nemesis.

My main goal was to tell a story of great sacrifice and heroism in a fight against a larger foe.

Excellent! *thumbs up*

This is the point where I feel everything is starting to fall apart for me. I realized it was difficult to create a campaign based on making a revolution.

#1: How do I make an interesting adventure that is about overthrowing the empire as a rebel cell? What are the objectives and what are the risks for the party and the people?

#2: How can I make the Empire look less evil and more human? Why do they consider themslves good guys? Wanting to maintain order and be a good dutybound imperial citizen doens't feel enough for all the horrible things they do...

1# Make the people they help/liberate personable. Don't just have it be "a group of Felucian slaves they rescued" Have those slaves now reach out to them, or have one of the more memorable slaves, suddenly become a Holo-net Hacktivist, putting her face out on the net to incite rebellion. Have the players see the ripple effects of their actions, and put a relatable face to the people they are inciting to revolt. Make a group of support characters, that the players actually care about.....and then put them into peril. It's hard to get your players to invest themselves if it's just "Faceless Victims 27-53" this session. But if it's Dren Odahli, the plucky and helpful little slave girl they saved, but who provided them with helpful information, who is now trying to replicate what they did for her, on other victims, well now you've got more player buy-in. Or have family members be involved. Maybe the Empire learns who the group is, and tracks down some of their family, holding them captive, and broadcasting it on the Holo-net. Assuming all your players aren't "Grizzled Loner With a Trouble Past, and No Personal Ties", then it should be easy to put their personal loved ones at risk. "You see your little brother, not 16, in restraints, being led by a pair of Stormtroopers, into the local Imperial outpost, soon to be interrogated. It's obviously a trap to lure you out, but it's your brother....what do you do?" In short, make the events they are doing, have personal connection to the characters, and let them see the results of those actions.

#2 "Nobody is the villain in their own story". That is how you make the Empire look "less evil". Don't use terms like "freedom fighters" or "resistance" when they are describing the players actions. Use terms like "Terrorist actions on the good people of the Empire" or "Insurgent attacks". To use a real world example, and not to try and actually make any comparisons AT ALL here, but the Empire would be the United States, and the Rebellion would be Al Qaeda, or ISIS. Just look at some news clips of politicians and leaders, discussing those types of real incidents, and just re-skin their verbage to Star Wars. Boom, instant conflict about "are we doing the right thing?" Perhaps have some of their targets be in civilian centers, so that there is no way for them to 100% avoid civilian casualties. Then have those victims shown on Holo-net feeds. "12 citizens killed today in another terrorist attack! Local authorities vow to find the criminals and bring them to justice for the fallen!" Stuff like that. Or, have them meet a few Imperials who are actually decent people. Who do their job as it's intended, and don't act with spite and hate to those around them. If they see the target they came to kill, talking with a group of locals, and handing out food or something, per regulations, and he's not skimming or anything, then they might reconsider. "Hey, he's not torturing babies, he's giving babies food!"

Personally, I agree with others that the Empire is meant to be pretty "Pure Evil" by design, but that's just me. You can always have it be where some parts actually ARE relatively non-evil, but as a whole, it's a horrible organization. Like you could probably say "some Nazi's were good people, who tried to help the Jews and other victims when they could" but you couldn't say that about the Nazi party in general. And again, not trying to stir up any controversy, but let's face it, the Empire is pretty obviously Space Nazi's, so the analogy is apt.

If you want to "see" a softer more human side of the Imperials then I suggest watching episode 217 of Star Wars: Rebels. Even if you don't watch the show it is a good example of making at least one Imperial more 'human' and less of the evil person, that probably everyone who watches the show thinks he is. At least that's how I felt at the end of the episode.

That might give you some ideas and a jumping point for where to go with that idea.

If you want to "see" a softer more human side of the Imperials then I suggest watching episode 217 of Star Wars: Rebels. Even if you don't watch the show it is a good example of making at least one Imperial more 'human' and less of the evil person, that probably everyone who watches the show thinks he is. At least that's how I felt at the end of the episode.

That might give you some ideas and a jumping point for where to go with that idea.

Yeah, I have a feeling they are going to take that character a particular route, based on how that episode ended, and what they had with them. If I knew how to make /spoiler text with this site I'd go into more detail about it.

Has anyone re-established COMPNOR in canon for Star Wars?

I got the impression they were behind the brainwashing of the masses becoming part of the Empire, have they yet explained what happened to the missing governor or was that the escapee who told Ezra what happened to his parents?

Yeah, I have a feeling they are going to take that character a particular route, based on how that episode ended, and what they had with them. If I knew how to make /spoiler text with this site I'd go into more detail about it.

Simple, put it in between spoiler tags (you have to type them; there is no "spoiler" button).

[spoiler]Text here[/spoiler] 

The above text looks like so:

Yeah, I have a feeling they are going to take that character a particular route, based on how that episode ended, and what they had with them. If I knew how to make /spoiler text with this site I'd go into more detail about it.

Simple, put it in between spoiler tags (you have to type them; there is no "spoiler" button).

[spoiler]Text here[/spoiler] 

The above text looks like so:

Text here

Ah, sweet, so it is like other sites I've been on, wasn't sure given the interface. I'm assuming it's the same for things like bold and such? What threw me off was the sites automatic imbedding of youtube clips, i'm used to having to use [youtube= ] for that. So I figured everything else was different too

Thanks.

If you want to "see" a softer more human side of the Imperials then I suggest watching episode 217 of Star Wars: Rebels. Even if you don't watch the show it is a good example of making at least one Imperial more 'human' and less of the evil person, that probably everyone who watches the show thinks he is. At least that's how I felt at the end of the episode.

That might give you some ideas and a jumping point for where to go with that idea.

#2: How can I make the Empire look less evil and more human? Why do they consider themslves good guys? Wanting to maintain order and be a good dutybound imperial citizen doens't feel enough for all the horrible things they do...

One way to make an oppressive group seem more sympathetic is to give that group a legitimate problem that they are dealing with, one that is unrelated to the Players. In Star Wars, perhaps the Empire is stomping down on vicious pirates, opposing a nearby despotic warlord, or preventing slavers from running off with captured humans and other sentients.

The key is that everything the Empire does against the player characters will (almost) automatically make them bad guys in the eyes of the players, due to our own cognitive biases. By doing something unrelated to the player characters, those players will have a chance to evaluate the Empire from a less biased, less self-centric point of view.

The empire brings order into a galaxy which has been struggling for a long time with keeping the peace. Outside of terroristic rebel attacks and well, war crimes of the empire against civilians to strike back there is little else going on. The empire brought indeed peace and order and behind the scenes the emperor is even working to protect the galaxy as a whole against external threats. Aliens of the unknown regions are a real threat, especially for systems on the borders of the empire. Pirates and slavers are dealt with by the empire and in much better fashion than the republic ever could. People are willing giving up some of their freedom for a lot of security. (Does this remember you of anything going on on earth? ;-))

The rebels at the other hand are terrorist, striking against imperial facilities, killing civilians and causing huge material and economical damage. Most people would consider the empire the good guys, a little oppressive and totalitarian, but with good intentions and even more important good results. Corruption is less of an issue in the empire than it used to be within the old republic, the war-mongering jedis has been dealt with and the separatists has been dealt with as well. Civilized space is again united and a strong leadership is benefiting all citizens of the empire.

If you want to show your players this side of the empire, you can use imperial forces to rescue the players, give them informations about the old republic within and before the clone wars or even let them run into something which requires the players to call for imperial help.

Oh, or just show the players the causalities from rebel attacks. It's a war, civilians die, especially if you are a terrorist group which tries to strike against an overwhelmingly powerful enemy.

For some more examples, have a look on YouTube for the cutscenes from the TIE Fighter computergame from the 90s. That had the Empire suppressing pirates, enforcing a ceasefire then sponsoring a peace treaty between two small warring states, etc.

Also remember that as a under-staffed, outmanned, outgunned rebel cell another priority will be establishing a supply network. This would be another aspect where you could push the ambiguity of the Rebel/Imperial struggle. Where are you getting your supplies from? Most likely the underworld, those who are going to be doing some rather disgusting things. For example, your main supplier of food may contact you to defend its business interests from an Imperial attack. When the PCs get there they discover that the "interests" are a human trafficking ring and the Empire is trying to bring this to an end. If they help the supplier they're turning their back on the very freedoms they claim to uphold, but if they don't help they'll lose their only supplier of food.

Also remember that as a under-staffed, outmanned, outgunned rebel cell another priority will be establishing a supply network. This would be another aspect where you could push the ambiguity of the Rebel/Imperial struggle. Where are you getting your supplies from? Most likely the underworld, those who are going to be doing some rather disgusting things. For example, your main supplier of food may contact you to defend its business interests from an Imperial attack. When the PCs get there they discover that the "interests" are a human trafficking ring and the Empire is trying to bring this to an end. If they help the supplier they're turning their back on the very freedoms they claim to uphold, but if they don't help they'll lose their only supplier of food.

Well, ideally, you would let them develop a new (but maybe not as good) supplier of food, possibly from the people rescued. Maybe one of them has connections with an agrarian planet, and can make sure a few extra crates of foodstuffs "accidentally" get lost on the manifest. Or have an entire mini-campaign devoted to finding a new supplier of food.

But yeah, I like what you're saying there.

Also remember that as a under-staffed, outmanned, outgunned rebel cell another priority will be establishing a supply network. This would be another aspect where you could push the ambiguity of the Rebel/Imperial struggle. Where are you getting your supplies from? Most likely the underworld, those who are going to be doing some rather disgusting things. For example, your main supplier of food may contact you to defend its business interests from an Imperial attack. When the PCs get there they discover that the "interests" are a human trafficking ring and the Empire is trying to bring this to an end. If they help the supplier they're turning their back on the very freedoms they claim to uphold, but if they don't help they'll lose their only supplier of food.

Well, ideally, you would let them develop a new (but maybe not as good) supplier of food, possibly from the people rescued. Maybe one of them has connections with an agrarian planet, and can make sure a few extra crates of foodstuffs "accidentally" get lost on the manifest. Or have an entire mini-campaign devoted to finding a new supplier of food.

But yeah, I like what you're saying there.

Exactly. Suddenly a something as simple as resource gathering could develop into an entire story-arc in and of itself.

It's possible to be morally ambiguous without reducing the evil of the Empire. It's a very fine line between rebellion, insurgency, and terrorism. The PCs could easily cross a line or two (even inadvertently) and suddenly realize that they're the bad guys. That kind of existential crisis should make for some fantastic role-playing.

As far as the campaign direction, it really sounds like you need a nemesis to focus everyone's attention.

Also, read Lost Stars to see how Imperials can think of themselves as the Good Guys™.

To summarize my questions:

#1: How do I make an interesting adventure that is about overthrowing the empire as a rebel cell? What are the objectives and what are the risks for the party and the people?

#2: How can I make the Empire look less evil and more human? Why do they consider themslves good guys? Wanting to maintain order and be a good dutybound imperial citizen doens't feel enough for all the horrible things they do...

#1 I always have the players tell me what their goals are. You are a few sessions in (advantageous to you) which should give you some great insight into how your players think and what their motivations are but make the VOCALIZE them. Is it to free their current planet? The system? Get the resources they need for a wider rebellion?

Once you know that you can build your encounters and sessions around those goals. Give them a tailored nemesis too while you're at it.

#2 Reveal the military side of things. Have your rebels intercept a high command transmission to destroy innocent civilians--plot twist: the order is to their normal adversary. They may immediately think he will kill them out of hand and rush to save the civilians...but the attack never comes. They can wonder what happened only to discover their enemy disobeyed orders and was court-martialed (he's Kel Dor after all). Now they have a new ruthless nemesis to deal with. <--but that is just an example.

Or just show the order that can come from the Empire protecting commerce protecting trade ships. Anything works.

Let us know how it goes.