So my players have built their own space station above Rattatak and started their own mercenary army. They recently went and attacked an Imperial outpost, killing everything. Since Rattatak's so far out in the Outer Rim and this is taking place a few months after the Battle of Hoth I was wondering how much effort the Empire would put into squashing them. Would they send a small force to attack as a warning and otherwise leave them alone, due to focus on the Rebellion, or would they commit to wholesale wiping them out and taking over Rattatak due to the Empire's desire to bring the Outer Rim under control.

TLDR: Players blew up Imperials and not sure how much effort the Imperials will put into returning the favor.

The Empire has always struck me as having a sort of 'disproportional response' mindset. This is a challenge to their authority. I think the Empire would feel obliged to take the overwhelming retaliation approach. After all, what if word got out that the Empire was vulnerable to attacks by mercenaries?

With that in mind, let me fall back on the conventional wisdom for this game: do whatever makes for a good story.

Seeing as no one was left alive at the outpost the imps will think rebs or someone hired by the rebs did it. Retribution should happen once the imps figure it out.

I think the Empire wasn't committing that much of their force against the Alliance, with the possible exception of Endor. They probably have a few Star Destroyers sitting around to handle a bunch of uppity mercs.

Seeing as no one was left alive at the outpost the imps will think rebs or someone hired by the rebs did it. Retribution should happen once the imps figure it out.

The lead player was stupid enough to pull a Tony Stark from Iron Man 3. He left a giant banner of the organization on the ground while screaming about bringing death and annihilation. He's basically playing a Gank Khornate Berserker. So he's very "Blood for the Blood God!". I know that the Empire was committing a large amount of resources to hunting down the rebellion as they proved too large a problem.

Even if the Empire does not retaliate in full, a single Victory class Star Destroyer isn't considered a lot of ressources and is also very capable of delivering lots of imperial justice...or melting cities to glass.

Somebody with a loose tongue or with a grudge who might tip the imps off? Or maybe the PC's managed to blame somebody else, who in turn is upset about receiving Stormtroopers to the face? What makes the most sense on your table and in your plot.

ps: sounds like an awesome campaign

I was also just curious about how much the Empire would bother with a planet that has no strategic value and is so far out of the way.

I could see them going in with a star destroyer or two, smashing everything as an example, and then just leaving.

It really comes down to what you want to do overall. You're the GM so you first need to decide how busy the Empire is with dealing with the Rebellion. From there decide how important such an installation was. Then decide whether you want to wipe the party out or not because to be frank the Empire has the resources to wipe out such a group if they were particularly annoying.

If I were running such a game I would likely let it go for awhile with no apparent response from the Empire (because they are gathering information on the group and deciding what they want to do about it). Then as a season finale have the Empire outright wipe their space station and most of their mercs. This of course would be a setup for a AoR turn for the game as the PC's are chased into the arms and resources of the Rebellion.

So yeah ....... I'd basically do nothing and wait and see if they up the anty until one day ..... BOOM.

Or ..... if this was the end of the campaign as a whole ..... and we'd be moving onto a different game or a different set of stories .... I might put them in a situation where they all die heroically fighting to get innocents off the planet while the Empire lays siege.

But .... to be honest you kinda have to tell us where you want this to go. Because to be frank ..... the Empire has the resources to pretty much wipe these guys out at their leisure. It's up to you to determine if they are so inclined to commit such resources or if they find them to be a minor annoyance while dealing with bigger fish.

If it had no strategic value, why were they there? The way I figure it, whatever the reason, the Empire can't afford to appear weak. If they let it go it just encourages others...at least, that's the Imperial mentality.

So it could be any reason, from a secret mineral resource, to a "do nothing" base where all the scions of important Imperials send their kids to be out of harm's way. RL example of the latter might be how some US politicians sent their kids into the National Guard during the Vietnam War. Make it look like they're doing something, but keep them off the front lines. So now the PCs have torched this "safe haven" and the sons and daughters and nieces and nephews of important Imperial leaders are dead...you can bet they'll be out for blood.

Some of it depends on your timeline, and how prevalent the Empire is in your galaxy. If it were me, and some group thumbed their noses in such a public way, my response would be brutal--at least, in universe. I'm not saying I'd kill off the characters (at all), but a big part of the remainder of the campaign would be the constant threat of search and destroy. The fun part would be coming up with ways for the characters to stay one step ahead, while at the same time demonstrating the completely overwhelming power differential between them and the Imperials.

Edit: I'd also pull in any other relations the PCs have made, and make that part of the campaign...eg: the PCs find out one of the PC's has been identified and linked back to his family on <insert homeworld>. Can he get to them in time to evacuate?

Well the biggest thing is that it's an open-ended campaign that's determined by what the PCs want to do. They decided on their own to put together a new mercenary organization, bought a space station, fought in the Cauldron on Rattatak to gain popularity, fight the Empire to establish dominance and strength. My biggest thing is that I try to keep the rest of the galaxy 'in character' so I wanted to make sure the Empire was acting appropriately. The installation they attack was on a different planet and was mostly just a military outpost as a show of force. Rattatak has no strategic value except potentially bloodthirsty recruits. They chose to put their base in orbit above the planet to keep a steady stream of recruits. They want to build additional installations in other areas eventually. Just wasn't sure if the Empire would be like "Wipe them out to ensure no threats arise", or "They are a small nuisance that can be dealt with once Skywalker and the other Rebel leaders are caught and executed." I've been studying the history to try and gauge how much the Empire is focused on the Rebellion. Around this time Solo has been given to Jabba and the Rebellion has hit Sullust and freed the planet, which was one of the biggest manufacturers for the Empire.

Well ..... as a standard rule I wouldn't leap to "wipe them out, all of them" off of one attack. If the military base wasn't important then they may become a blip on the radar. So maybe the Empire hires some bounties to take care of these upstarts. But as the PC's escalate I'd also have the Empire escalate too (or .... be silent until one massive attack .... pick up Lead by Example and make use of mass combat rules!). The more trouble the PC's are for the Empire the more resources will be devoted. If the PC's are looking to build additional bases then I think moving the game into AoR territory is a natural progression. Then the PC's could serve as a fighting unit of the Rebellion which would give them access to resources that would help them stay alive. Or they could go at it alone ....... but with an enemy that big and strong going at it alone is in my opinion a recipe for death.

When the PC's have enough resources to build a second base is likely when I would spring the massive Imperial attack fleet on them. That way you're not taking away a base and giving them nothing. Granted the massive fleet showing up is based on the assumption that they continue to escalate their activities against the Empire.

At some point I'd likely assign a recurring Imperial NPC that the come up against. Either a Moff, Navy Capt, or even an ISB agent tasked with putting down this merc group. This is also good grounds for an NPC in the merc company to betray the PC's and let the Empire know where the base is. Maybe they made him an offer he couldn't refuse .... promised to spare his planet in the insuring conflicting ....or maybe he wants to be in charge of the group.

The general Imperial response will need to be considered in regards to how well the Rebellion is doing in your game. The better the Rebellion is doing the more likely that the response won't be as overwhelming as more and more resources are tied up in putting down the Rebels. In my opinion the hammer will come down on the PC's at some point. The Empire doesn't strike me as the types to let a merc group make them look bad. So it's a matter of when not if and by what degree.

Totally already have Lead by Example. Love it. But yeah, they're planning on allying with the Rebellion at some point. I was mostly using Dangerous Covenants for establishing the mercenary group they're making but it's slowly moving to large scale military conflict. They have a few frigates already.

I think the response is a little of column A, a little of Column B. It's a little rinky-dink Outer Rim planet, so the response will be fairly small.

By Imperial standards.

Of course, by your GROUPS standards, you're probably looking at an overwhelming force. A Star Destroyer diverted from a nearby patrol, with maybe a Victory and some other assorted support ships. I doubt they'd bother with an extended campaign on Rattatak itself unless they thought the natives were complicit in the attack.

Remember that the Rebels were on the run at this time period. They weren't really putting up much of a stand-up fight. If anything, the Empire might consider this related to the Rebellion and step up the response, just in case it leads to the missing Rebel fleet.

First its going to be awhile for a response. Unless the pcs are really unlucky, missed a patrol or a few survivors who hid and ran its going to be awhile for the Empire to notice the outpost is destroyed. Depending on how important the outpost is this could be weeks or even months before a ship shows up finds the massacre and reports it back to the high command. Then it will probably take a month or longer before the investigation is finished. Then the Moff has to make a decision on his or her reaction to the incident.

Second you have to decide how the Moff will react is he or she just a pencil pusher or some useless politico or an eager commander looking for a fight to get a promotion or better duty assignment. Then you need to factor in the value of the outpost and the value of the personnel. Another important factor is how close to a review the Moff is and how threatened by enemies or being watched closely by superiors.

Third is the resources factor. What kind of forces can the Moff call on and how quickly can they be pooled. Is the Moff over extended, having more serious problems or working with outdated useless equipment and poorly trained, bad morale troops.

So the players have a good 3 month to never for a response timer based on that one action. If they keep it up this will eventually end in only one way overwhelming military force that will be impossible for them to defend against.

A direct challenge by a merc group that left it's banner behind? A single star Destroyer and a couple support frigates would probably be an appropriate response. Most likely a Victory Class model that is captained by a down on his luck Captain looking for a rapid promotion, but a star destroyer non the less. The Empire I imagine would have stepped up it's response significantly since the battle of Yavin and while it's incidences of "fielding a full blockade" would be fairly rare, by this point it would be actively seeking out the rebels and to curb any other insurgents. Probably the only delay would be related to the investigation as to my understanding, and after gutting the entire republican political structure that a response would probably be under a month. I imagine during this time period that an attack would conclude within a week, as there is compelling evidence that was firmly planted there. Basically, I would expect a fairly immediately response.

The key thing is, does the empire know where the base is located?

Pirate gangs can typically exist for many months/years due to the vastness of the galaxy due to the fact that they keep their shadow port a closely guarded secret, or alternatively they are always on the move on a carrier that they call home. Have the party made any effort on concealing the identity of this space station? How many people know about it? The imperial war machine is probably not above paying sources for the location if enough know about it but otherwise if they don't know where the home base is they might redouble patrols in the area. That will probably give them a couple months at most.

Seeing as no one was left alive at the outpost the imps will think rebs or someone hired by the rebs did it. Retribution should happen once the imps figure it out.

The lead player was stupid enough to pull a Tony Stark from Iron Man 3.

You mean the part where he told the bad guy where he lived? I always found this bit funny, it's not like people didn't already know where he lived. Tony's far from being reclusive, his house has probably been on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous many times. Hell he's probably in the White Pages. So I always found the fan outrage on that part a bit silly.

OT: I would have the response fit the game. Do you want them to lose the station? Because you can easily throw enough ships at them where the station is a lost cause. Do you want the station to continue being a part of the campaign? Then have the response be severe, but manageable. Since their location is stationary, they might want to look for support from nearby systems, to bolster their presence. In fact, I would make that a significant mini-arc for the campaign. Since the Empire knows they're there, let them hold them off for a while.

But, honestly, at this point, I'd say the station is a lost cause. If we're being realistic with the Empire, they will eventually take notice to a level that will swarm the PC's base. The Rebellion is too small to be able to just hold out against never ending waves of Imperial forces. And the station can't run away. So, yeah, they're going to lose eventually. But let them hold it for a while. Let the first incursion be, 1 Star Destroyer (or whatever level of threat is appropriate for their resources), as an exploratory unit, to see exactly what happened. Give them a good fight. But even if they win, and wipe out the Imperial presence entirely, this is going to show up on the Empire's radar as "A place we just lost a ship, and it happens to be very close to that place blown up, and their calling card left behind." So, wave 2 will be tougher, as will wave 3, and 4, etc etc. Give them enough time to try and get backup, but make it understood, that every time they destroy a wave of Imperials, that just bumps them up higher on the Important Target list.

But let them get some Duty out of it (assuming they've got that). Let them reap some significant rewards from this "Come At Me Bro!" excursion with the Empire. Give them a big win to offset the loss of the station. But yeah, I would say the station is pretty much a lost cause at this point.

But it could be a fun ass space battle when it goes down!

Hmm divert a torpedo Sphere to perform a "routine" test of its weapon systems leaving the mangled wreck of their space station orbiting a completely devastated planet to greet them on their latest return home sound about right?

Then have the ISB investigate the families of the leaders of this attack, cue they're either disappeared, arrested or just killed to reinforce the point...

Does that sound too much to you?

I am amazed reading this thread that no one has mentioned obligation yet. You have a built in game mechanic for when the Empire is going to come calling. Give them 30 or 40 group obligation and just bide your time until that unlucky dice roll...

At a time when the Empire is actively searching for a hidden rebel base.... the players assembled an army, stationed it at a hidden base, and made a significant attack on Imperial holdings...

Under normal conditions I'd say a single star destroyer shows up and ruins the players day. In this case, I'd probably go all out mistaken identity and have Vader and the entire Executor battle group show up.

Please please please tell me the player's party is composed of a pilot, a face, a forcee, a large non-human, a female, and they have a pair of droids....

Well in my galaxy this is the standard emperial workflow... send in an report of the station comander every 2 - 4 Weeks allowing a delay of 1 week. If there is no report, get the commander on the comlink... when there is no responde send an small investigation team (1 Carrack and maybe 2 cannonboats)

they´ll find out no one is alive... seeing that damed big banner in the mainhall and by checking the security-cams find out who those bastards are that just make the biggest force in the galaxy theire enemy

giving 1-2 weeks until the system moff and the Empireal fleet decided how exactly to respond, then the fleet starts.

A small fleet of let´s say: 2-3 Stardestroyers (ether 1x Class: empereal I or 2x Victory and 1x interdictor class) with 3-5 carracks and 8-10 cannon-boats just to get sure thoses little punks won´t flee. That´s the tarkin doktrin:" Rule by fear! If someone thinks he hasn´t to fear us, then bring him down and show everyone else that we are to feared."

if your player makes a Tony Stark then answer in a Mandarins way! Blow his Home!

(I really like it when players do a Tony Stark... it give me so much reason to throw a whole lot of sh*t into theire way)

Of course you should give the players these three oppurtunities:

1. They can find out the empire will attack an get the change to evacuate (or fight to the death)

2. They can´t find out about the attack but are away from home when it starts, returning just the moment the Attacking fleet starts the run. They may decide to flee and abandon al the mercs they gathered sofar, or they can fight along side them (and eventually die)

3. they can´t find out, and are at home but get the change to slip through the attacking forces to escape... or stay and beeing as good as dead...

IF you don´t like the idea of a lethal endgame you could also insert "beeing shot down and forced to land on rattaka while the station goes down in a big blast of turbolasers"

As for obligation:

As RAW states the players get any further obligation if they a.) choose to except them as part of an deal (like you know a guy that could get you a new ship but well it will be propardly be a stollen one an give you +15 obligation on criminal)

or b) they decide to ignore the existing obligation (like you know that hutts wants you to get his beloings from Coruscant and bring it to him on Nar shaddad as part of your dept. you don´t do it?? Ok he just increased your dept by 10k credits. Raise your obligation by 5)

The GM shouldn´t bother to bring up obligation for everything the players do... otherwise any Forcee would have to get the obligation "Hunted by the empire" and raised everytime he does something forcy ...

If you want to be nice and mean at the same time, a single ship is dispatched, like a Gladiator or a victory, something small on the Star Destroyer scale but still big compared to regular ships that gives them a good fight, almost thrashing their base and then a chance to enter and capture it, voila, new (mobile) base and the group now has a rather big bounty on their heads.

Rattatak might be in the middle of nowhere, but it's also the same middle of nowhere that the Empire is using to build its second Death Star. How unfortunate for your group...

Hmm divert a torpedo Sphere to perform a "routine" test of its weapon systems leaving the mangled wreck of their space station orbiting a completely devastated planet to greet them on their latest return home sound about right?

Then have the ISB investigate the families of the leaders of this attack, cue they're either disappeared, arrested or just killed to reinforce the point...

Does that sound too much to you?

Well they decided to go the Disney route and are all parentless. They're also ganks, whose home system is unknown, and a Kaleesh. Definitely doesn't sound too much to me. Just hard to pull off.

At a time when the Empire is actively searching for a hidden rebel base.... the players assembled an army, stationed it at a hidden base, and made a significant attack on Imperial holdings...

Under normal conditions I'd say a single star destroyer shows up and ruins the players day. In this case, I'd probably go all out mistaken identity and have Vader and the entire Executor battle group show up.

Please please please tell me the player's party is composed of a pilot, a face, a forcee, a large non-human, a female, and they have a pair of droids....

Sadly It's a bloodthirsty gank, a force user and lightsaber weilding gank with no proper training, a shamed kaleesh warlord, and a modified B1 sniper droid. But they did decide that the other two also have the force so could flood them with Inquisitors.