was wondering on if and how it could be possible to run a imperial stromtrooper campaign for my party as we always play rebels or anti-imps so we want some change

was thinking about making the campaign set around the order 66 and the party have to hunt down Jedi and other republic figures.

any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

This would require a lot of heavy lifting on your part. You can use the base rules to handle standard conflict resolution but the career talent trees probably wouldn't support what you're going for.

FFG Star Wars assumes that your players are playing underdogs, not playing agents of a galaxy-wide government with near-infinite resources.

9 minutes ago, Concise Locket said:

the career talent trees probably wouldn't support what you're going for.

I don't see why not. The empire still uses soldiers, snipers, spys, pilots, ect...

On 3/18/2017 at 6:06 PM, isaax said:

was wondering on if and how it could be possible to run a imperial stromtrooper campaign for my party as we always play rebels or anti-imps so we want some change

was thinking about making the campaign set around the order 66 and the party have to hunt down Jedi and other republic figures.

any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

My co-GM ran a Imperial themed campaign where we were essentially Emperor's Hands. There was a meta game on the side where we got points for ranks in certain skills and that was used to both buy/upgrade gear. In addition each mission had a roll associated with each character they had to make to 'succeed' in the eyes of the emperor. Other PCs could spend points to add Challenge dice to the roll of the rolling PC and the PC got upgrades for how they built their PC. The idea was to emulate behind the scene machinations to undermine one another. Overt conflict between PCs would be viewed as counterproductive by the emperor and the results would be bad for those involved.

So it can be done, but there should probably be some work invested on the side like my co-GM did otherwise it just ends up being 'murder hobo shoot the good guys' I think.

Such words are not to be spoken here lest the one-whose-name-must-not-bespoken be evoked.

I've run a couple non-good guy campaigns. As 2P51 said, mine had a tendency to turn towards murder hobos or get steered towards turning to the light and being recruited by rebels (to stop said murder hobo'in).

Perhaps a fix would not to have them be too independent of a military command structure. Instead of always running around being in charge of themselves, between trips they are always stopping in to report to a very stern Imperial commander who has sense of military honor about him and isn't scared to set them straight. This could lead to them wanting to dump the Imperials completely, but remind them how this could spell doom for this style of campaign as they become hunted, lose cool missions they are assigned each game session, and lose any special support and gadgets. If they want to go A-team eventually, that is fine if the Imperial campaign has gone stale. But, I would replace that structure with something else quickly - working for a Hutt or Rebels perhaps.

Poor Characters, they are going to miss everything and get shot dead on their first mission

But no it could definitely work, some of the careers would probably not work to well, (no real use for a politico storm trooper) but playing out the adventures in reverse is always fun.

Instead of the rebels trying to free senator blahblah, you are the imperials that are there to arrest him with out causing to much of a stink, Instead of rebels trying to steal mcgubbin plans you are trying to securely escort them to the engineering team on Vandos 3. Instead of running spice, you are a team that has been sent in undercover to break up a smuggling ring. On top of this stuff you might receive orders to hunt down AWOL troopers, assist in a Jedi hunt, quell a rebellion on a backwater world, convoy secrets for the emperor/vader that might force you to choose a side and the wrong choice can get you killed, or toe the line and double profit in rank and prestiege. Theres a lot you can do with a storm trooper/imperial agent based game

Plus this isnt an "Evil" adventure even. While we consider the empire evil from the outside looking in, the normal day to day empire guy isnt much more than a guy/gal just making a living. We all cheer when the deathstar exploded but how many of those million or so people were AC repair people, or electricians just happy to get some work finally to provide for their family. The storm troopers are faceless drones, but a lot of them that ended up getting killed were literally just trying their best to protect a facility they were stationed to.

I've always wanted to do something like that. It would be hard to do Stormtroopers with the whole "eliminate all sense of individuality" thing going on in the corps It would make it hard to players to form individual personalities and characters. Although some roleplayers would love the idea of trying to develop a character within the confines of a strict organisation like the Stormtrooper corps, I don't know if it would be for everyone.

If I were to do it, I would make it a party of ISB agents hunting rebels and other dissidents. Instead of dealing with issues faced by underdogs, you would have the party facing issues to do with rival agents vying for power; lots of situations where NPC rival agents try to sabatage or take over the party's investigations.

You could even go the direction of making the Empire the "good guys" and the rebels a bunch of violent terrorists. Run with the theme of bringing order and peace to the galaxy If only I had the time. I would love to run that campaign.

thanks for the comments i will probably make my party ISB agents as i would have to agree that stormtroopers would make it hard to players to form individual personalities and i like the idea of a team that has been sent in undercover to break up a smuggling ring. On top of this stuff you might receive orders to hunt down AWOL troopers, assist in a Jedi hunt, quell a rebellion on a backwater world, convoy secrets for the emperor/vader that might force you to choose a side and the wrong choice can get you killed, or toe the line and double profit in rank and prestiege. as Kamin_Majere suggested .

this would also be useful with classes as

4 hours ago, HistoryGuy said:

I don't see why not. The empire still uses soldiers, snipers, spys, pilots, ect...

i think that the players would have to pick from a set of weapons at the start as you don't see imps with bowcasters, ect...

Yeah the biggest limitation is you can only really have humans and a few other Imperial Approved species for it to make sense. There wont be any wookies that are granted special missions from the Emperor. But that brings a whole other limitation and enjoyment to the game.

You can play all humans or very human like species and have better chances to climb the imperial ranks and find our more about the organization you work for and its possible dark secrets (which could cause your players to revel in the power or start to take a step back and maybe start to think "maybe we're the bad guys") or you could play a more diverse group and no matter how well you do it seems you are never "given your due" when other less capable people are promoted over you (which itself allows you to play a more cerebral game as your players try to find ways to stick it to those given promotion through nepotism instead of merit)

There is a lot you can do with the imperial side of the game that doesnt involve murdering younglings or even being the bad guys. Might be a bit more cut throat because they have the "law" on their side, but overall you can have a bunch of really good story interaction that way

5 minutes ago, Kamin_Majere said:

Yeah the biggest limitation is you can only really have humans and a few other Imperial Approved species for it to make sense. There wont be any wookies that are granted special missions from the Emperor. But that brings a whole other limitation and enjoyment to the game.

That could be dealt with by having non-human bounty hunter types contracted to the ISB. The Empire is well known for hiring bounty hunters from any race; as long as they get the job done. This could cause some potentially fun roleplay scenarios; human purist agents who resent working with the wookiee bounty hunter, the unscrupulous trandoshan tracker who wants to manipulate the agents who hired him and get as many credits for the job as he can, etc. This kind of play isn't for everyone though. Running things where some PCs count as "contractors" to other PCs will instantly create a dynamic where some of the PCs will feel more like they are in charge of the contractor PCs. Some players might love this dynamic, but there are plenty who would hate it.

This is true as well. An imperial campaign has a lot going for it. A ton of different role play options

You arent the plucky heroes the galaxy wants, but you are the steadfast get stuff done heroes the Empire needs

1 hour ago, Kamin_Majere said:

You can play all humans or very human like species and have better chances to climb the imperial ranks and find our more about the organization you work for and its possible dark secrets (which could cause your players to revel in the power or start to take a step back and maybe start to think "maybe we're the bad guys")

Have you ever played the CRPG Tyranny? The premise is that it is a fantasy world where the big evil overlord won the battle. The heroes (whom you would normally play as in a standard RPG) failed to defeat the big bad. You play as a servent of the overlord who is just trying to bring order and justice under the new regime. That kind of story would work fantastically with your idea

2 minutes ago, McHydesinyourpants said:

Have you ever played the CRPG Tyranny? The premise is that it is a fantasy world where the big evil overlord won the battle. The heroes (whom you would normally play as in a standard RPG) failed to defeat the big bad. You play as a servent of the overlord who is just trying to bring order and justice under the new regime. That kind of story would work fantastically with your idea

I havent, but it sounds like a cool game. Actually the more and more i think about the the more i feel like doing this the next time its my turn to run a game. We just started a new adventure and i get to play instead of GM so thats pretty nice. But my next time in the drivers seat i think i'm running it Imperial. I need to start crafting up a story out line... so many ideas running through my head right now lol

2 minutes ago, Kamin_Majere said:

so many ideas running through my head right now lol

Same I am already running a fairly hefty capaign. Thinking about his has made me fee like running a second one now.

1 minute ago, McHydesinyourpants said:

Same I am already running a fairly hefty capaign. Thinking about his has made me fee like running a second one now.

Thats better than I can do. I can run one and play one concurrently but every time i've tried to run two games i end up making them both subpar and get mixed up. If you decide to run an imperial one definitely post some about it. The more ideas the merrier

3 hours ago, Kamin_Majere said:

Yeah the biggest limitation is you can only really have humans and a few other Imperial Approved species for it to make sense. There wont be any wookies that are granted special missions from the Emperor. But that brings a whole other limitation and enjoyment to the game.

But why wouldn't the careers work? That is what i was talking about.

You might find the following discussion--with a hundred-plus-page campaign--compelling reading:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/186613-unofficial-module-imperial-storm-commandos/

53 minutes ago, HistoryGuy said:

But why wouldn't the careers work? That is what i was talking about.

If they were ISB agents the careers would work fine. With Stormtroopers everyone would have to take Soldier specialisations but there is definitely a lot more wiggle room if they are ISB; undercover agents, investigators and other such character concepts could be various different careers and specialisations.

Star Wars Legacy #4 follows "Joker Squad," a Stormtrooper infantry unit, and the plot generally follows a bleak but interesting fate for grunts in a dirty war.

That interpretation is closer to a reasonable interpretation of Stormtroopers. There's not a lot you can do with brainwashed automatons; but I don't think anyone needs to since this is all imaginary. Jaded, coldblooded survivors have lots of potential.

Plus — contractors, contractors, contractors. There are thousands of Garindans and plenty of aliens whom the Empire can quietly tolerate doing dregs' work.

3 hours ago, McHydesinyourpants said:

If they were ISB agents the careers would work fine. With Stormtroopers everyone would have to take Soldier specialisations but there is definitely a lot more wiggle room if they are ISB; undercover agents, investigators and other such character concepts could be various different careers and specialisations.

Emphasis mine.

Gonna strongly disagree. Soldier is the most obvious Career, but saying that by running a trooper campaign all players must be Soldier career is just short sighted.

Just off the top of my head:

Commander Tactician: Stormtrooper Officer type

Engineer Saboteur: Stormtrooper Combat Engie/Sapper

Spy Scout: Scout Trooper

Diplomat Analyst: Comm-Scan Intel trooper

Commander Instructor: Stormtrooper senior NCO type

And if you swap out Obligation for Duty that also opens up EotE careers and specs. When you do that you can get a lot more flavor too.

Compare Soldier Commando to Hired Gun Merc Soldier. These both occupy a similar slot, but directly compare then and you get very different results. One is a fighter through and through, the other is more a Frontline squad leader.

And other Specs give options. Bounty Hunter Assassin, Survivalist, and Explorer Scout would all be suitable specs for a Scout Trooper.

So while Soldier is the obvious Career for a Stormtrooper, it's not the only one. Yes some are better fits than others. Some might require you to spend a little more XP on Ranged:heavy than others. The end result though is there's plenty of options if you are willing to look for them.

12 hours ago, HistoryGuy said:

But why wouldn't the careers work? That is what i was talking about.

Sorry I didnt mean they wouldnt work, most careers and specializations would work just fine, but if running pure stormtrooper some of them wouldnt make sense for a group of soldiers (like the mentioned Politico), who would by necessity need more combat focused fields because they are for the most part the ground troops of the empire, though some with decent specializations

Going with Trooper/ISB or pure ISB opens up much more of the Career/Spec trees. Though i would argue some still wouldnt make a lot of sense because the focus of your party is serving the empire and things like say Performer dont really do a whole lot for the empire.

7 hours ago, Ghostofman said:

Emphasis mine.

Gonna strongly disagree. Soldier is the most obvious Career, but saying that by running a trooper campaign all players must be Soldier career is just short sighted.

Just off the top of my head:

Commander Tactician: Stormtrooper Officer type

Engineer Saboteur: Stormtrooper Combat Engie/Sapper

Spy Scout: Scout Trooper

Diplomat Analyst: Comm-Scan Intel trooper

Commander Instructor: Stormtrooper senior NCO type

And if you swap out Obligation for Duty that also opens up EotE careers and specs. When you do that you can get a lot more flavor too.

Compare Soldier Commando to Hired Gun Merc Soldier. These both occupy a similar slot, but directly compare then and you get very different results. One is a fighter through and through, the other is more a Frontline squad leader.

And other Specs give options. Bounty Hunter Assassin, Survivalist, and Explorer Scout would all be suitable specs for a Scout Trooper.

So while Soldier is the obvious Career for a Stormtrooper, it's not the only one. Yes some are better fits than others. Some might require you to spend a little more XP on Ranged:heavy than others. The end result though is there's plenty of options if you are willing to look for them.

I dont think anyone meant limit them to just the actual Soldier, but storm troopers would have soldier-esque (for lack of a better term) careers and specializations. Your break down works perfectly because all of those fit the general theme, though i would say a few might be better for Imperial Intelligence agents or ISB agents. But at the same time the empire would probably send a Cyber Tech trooper to re-education or would get them out of the trooper corp and moved into a more specialized field in the empire

And to throw more fuel onto the fire . . .

Our group is running a pretty vanilla (smirk - giggle) okay I'll try that sentence again.

We're running an EotE game and are pretty closely following EotE conventions. However we recently were impressed into Imperial Service under the Military Intelligence (MI).

In game, I think the reasoning is that as we go about doing our normal line of business (Merchants and Mercenaries) we'll also have opportunities to snoop around a bit and collect valuable information. We're also expected to conduct missions for MI as the occasion requires.

Part of what is making this twist work is that there are a lot of Imperial bureaucracies and while we're 'trying' to make good with the Empire, we're seeing friction between the various departments. And we're definitely feeling the heat.

We also just finished our "first mission" and dealing with that fallout will affect the direction of the Imperial contracts.

Also the ISB are just a bunch of over zealous ignorant buffoons, who meddle where they shouldn't. Their training is all indoctrination and not practical skills. If you want to get into real Spec Ops, check out the Military Intelligence. Those guys actually know what they're doing.

Another (scary) opportunity would be to work with the Inquisitors. The get the best kit and everyone (well almost everyone) has to jump when they say 'boo'.

Yeah, I can see a lot of potential opportunities for an Imperial based campaign and I'd recommend taking a hard look at the AoR career trees for Imperial operatives.

16 hours ago, Ghostofman said:

Emphasis mine.

Gonna strongly disagree. Soldier is the most obvious Career, but saying that by running a trooper campaign all players must be Soldier career is just short sighted.

Just off the top of my head:

Commander Tactician: Stormtrooper Officer type

Engineer Saboteur: Stormtrooper Combat Engie/Sapper

Spy Scout: Scout Trooper

Diplomat Analyst: Comm-Scan Intel trooper

Commander Instructor: Stormtrooper senior NCO type

And if you swap out Obligation for Duty that also opens up EotE careers and specs. When you do that you can get a lot more flavor too.

Compare Soldier Commando to Hired Gun Merc Soldier. These both occupy a similar slot, but directly compare then and you get very different results. One is a fighter through and through, the other is more a Frontline squad leader.

And other Specs give options. Bounty Hunter Assassin, Survivalist, and Explorer Scout would all be suitable specs for a Scout Trooper.

So while Soldier is the obvious Career for a Stormtrooper, it's not the only one. Yes some are better fits than others. Some might require you to spend a little more XP on Ranged:heavy than others. The end result though is there's plenty of options if you are willing to look for them.

I see your point. Although, personally, I think Diplomats and Commanders wouldn't suit. Stormtroopers are all very combaty, even their leadership. A lot of the intel work is left up to other branches of the Imperial military.

I can't stop brainstorming an Imperial campaign now. I am now thinking that the opening chapter would be Stormtrooper training. Everyone HAS to pick a basic soldier specialisation for that. Have them start in an academy and go on a first mission together as a squad. Have the mission go horrifically wrong and have the party survive despite that. Then they get selected for ISB trainng; everyone picks a different spec to refine their new role in the ISB

Take a look at Task Force 99 . These guys are canon.

20 hours ago, McHydesinyourpants said:

I can't stop brainstorming an Imperial campaign now. I am now thinking that the opening chapter would be Stormtrooper training. Everyone HAS to pick a basic soldier specialisation for that. Have them start in an academy and go on a first mission together as a squad. Have the mission go horrifically wrong and have the party survive despite that. Then they get selected for ISB trainng; everyone picks a different spec to refine their new role in the ISB

I would go for something like this, but twist it the other way. In Legends, much of the stormtrooper corps were "recruited" (press-ganged) into service from their Imperial controlled homeworlds. I would ask players to start with any spec they wanted to represent their pre-military life, then give them a free Soldier or Recruit spec after the training mission.

While allowing for richer RP, this also opens up the Signature Ability options, so the entire party isn't limited to two choices.