So, I'm working on my silly NPC, some more, and moving into my favorite, most irritating step; the fluff. You know those people who can't play a character without having a five page backstory set up, even if the GM doesn't want to include much of it in their plans to give the players something to do? I'm one of those, but I have a similar predilection with NPCs, too. When I come up with a "good idea", they often grow into a much bigger thing. Anyway, I have two little things I'd like to ask for some help with, in regards to this character's past, and future:

1. Commander Killgrave is a Wedge Antilles-caliber ace, except he flies for the Empire, in a TIE, rather than the good guys, in a "real ship". In a scene where Reaper Squadron did something awesome, "Crossbones" is summoned to Imperial Center. It is here that he gets some recognition from the Emperor, and his new TIE Advanced v2 (the ridiculous creep I mentioned earlier). Whether Palpy was meeting him to check for Force-sensitivity, or just for the good PR, Killgrave would say the greatest privilege was getting to meet Darth Vader, if only in passing. He then makes his oath to hunt down, and shoot down each and every member of Rogue Squadron, to immense applause from the gathered masses (he's sort of their shining hero). Here's the dilemma; does anyone actually know of Darth Vader's ace standing, and piloting skill? We know he was Anakin Skywalker, and a great pilot, but most people don't; even Ahsoka was unaware for a good deal of a fight, and Sienar did fabricate him a special TIE, but I don't remember him dragging his armored butt into a fighter too often, back in the day, once he was the Emperor's enforcer, and while it would be cool to idolize Vader, and want to approach his level of skill, even without the special power the Dark Lord possesses, I'm not sure people, for the most part, know that about him; much of his time, he uses a lambda shuttle, or a (Super) Star Destroyer to get around, the same as any other important person, while most Jedi he'd chase down were not likely to fight him in space. I think he led Juno Eclipse's unit, before her, but...that's Force Unleashed territory. Would it be weird to have him as your ace role model?
2. Killgrave isn't a monster, like several of his teammates, or much of the Imperial leadership, and that's a problem. I don't really want him to just join the Rebellion, but he DOES serve a terrible, corrupt government, and once you rise to ivory heights, it becomes easy to see the tarnish on the other stuff, at that level. I also don't just want him to be afraid of betraying the Empire. Plenty of our people might think our leader is terrible, or maybe they felt that way about one of the previous three; they still don't organize an armed, Rhode Island-sized Rebellion to topple Trump, or overthrow Obama. How might I go about keeping him at least mostly loyal to his masters, while they build planet-busting doomsday weapons, and use dark magics to manipulate the masses to their own benefit? Like I said, we know the Empire is corrupt, but many in-universe people are unaware, or willing to turn a blind eye. He could keep justifying that sometimes hard choices need to be made, and vocal, but small, groups can make themselves sound bigger, and more of a problem, but for how long, before the Empire is revealed to be jerks? I like the loyal Imperial angle, but am never sure how to maintain it, when the leadership is so callous, and sometimes Saturday morning cartoon villain evil, or wasteful.

Thanks for your assistance, and sorry for the chapter-long blocks of text. Please have a great day!!!

For Thing #2, Killgrave can see the Empire for what it is: a corrupt, self-serving government. But he can also see what the Empire can do: be a source of order, justice, and security that a Republic could not provide. People can believe in the notion of an Empire without giving into corruptive practices. For some, living under the Empire was better than living under the Republic because, by golly, the Empire can get stuff done. You could also consider him a competent pilot/commander who is a moderating influence on the more extreme policies and actions.

Your over thinking things. Most people tends not to include the military, he likely knows the details of the fighter battle resultin of death star 1, and followed up from there to learn things and with his security clearance and job title, investigating starfighter engagements that "Vader" was engaged in probably got him the militarily relevant details with no fuss and no muss.

Now, my opinion of Donald Rumsfield (secretary of the DoD under Bush), I blame him for the second gulf war, he had an agenda "remove the evil Sadam Hussein from power" he was self deluded but I believe he honestly loves the United States of America. The point is that when the "true villian" is a perceived to be a high level functionary rather than the "leader" it's easy to hope that the problem will go away when the persons reresponsible are removed from power. And the restruction of the deathstar with Tarkin aboard means he won't ever hurt anyone again. Having a WMD like nukes or a deathstar as a strategic deturant that you expect to *never* use operationally is not hard to justify.

Vader is known as an Ace; The Force Unleashed (which is one of the many, many things I am glad Disney decanonised) only hijacked previously existing things. He flies with an elite group known as Black Squadron, however once he transitioned to the role of Admiral (The Empire Strikes Back) he was less involved in personally shooting down rebels and more in ordering people to do so. Vader was also very popular with the rank-and-file troops because he often accompanied them down in the field, the officers less so due to his habit of choking them.

10 hours ago, BipolarJuice said:

Vader was also very popular with the rank-and-file troops because he often accompanied them down in the field, the officers less so due to his habit of choking them.

I lol'd.

I have nothing useful to add, other than this sounds like a really great back story. Would love if you posted the final version here for use to read.

Fair Warning!!! Killgrave MIGHT be a little bit cheese, as I am not a total fan of their NPC building, where even Nemeses might be a bit underwhelming, compared to a PC, and the PC WILL have several other PCs, while the Nemesis will have Minion swarms, or something. It's a whine I've been making since I started talking about FFG Star Wars, I think, when I come from games where a BBEG CAN fight, alone, against the players, and give them a good challenge, being a dragon, a powerful wizard, or just a much more experienced battler than them, and I just haven't gotten that, like new Star Wars canon, it's just the way it is. For the most part, to make him BA, I used the rules for Inquisitor Nemesis creation, from Force & Destiny, but made a TIE Ace, instead. I figure, for the Ace Pilot Squad game, he'd be the big threat, at the end.

Skills: Brawl 2, Charm 1, Cool 3, Discipline2, Gunnery 4, Leadership 3, Piloting (Space) 4, Ranged (Light) 3, Vigilance 2, Warfare 3, All other Knowledge Skills at 2
Talents: Adversary 3, Brilliant Evasion, High-G Training, Improved Field Commander, Intense Presence, Quick Strike 2
Abilities: Aura of Command (F&D, p.420), Additional Combat Turn
Equipment: Heavy blaster pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 7, Critical 3; Range [Medium]; Stun setting), flight suit, sensory augmentation package (add 1 Advantage to any Perception checks made by the character), ballistic long coat (see armored clothing), “Endgame” astromech droid, TIE Advanced v2.

So, he has more Talents because I think he should; a party of PCs will have many, especially between them, and be tossing Boosts, around like candy, and a sole NPC needs to be able to handle that. Besides, the book makes it feel more like it's for ease of bookkeeping, which I'm willing to add a little onto, as I'd be the GM. I especially like Intense Presence, as it gives him a way to regain Strain, a limited resource, while also helping the PCs to have some Destiny (it's a good reason for him to flip), while he can also afford to take the strain for his fighter. Like I said, a little cheese, but that's where he's at, so far. For gear, everything's pretty standard, except his ship, which is being problematic, elsewhere. The good people at FFG never statted Vader's, or the Grand Inquisitor's TIE variants, to my knowledge, leaving me to try to, and having a ship as good as a TIE, with the resilience of something better (Vader's TIE was neither slow, nor fragile, but doing that smacks of bad form). As such, the details of his ship are still a bit up in the air, but imagine the Inquisitor's TIE Advanced v1, from Rebels S1, with an internal droid socket sandwiched behind Killgrave's chair. Endgame is a decent astromech, whose personality got penned in by a certain ship mechanic who hopes, and prays, that the dashing Killgrave will return, every time, and is probably an R2, because if I say R7 equivalent, with his own ship, I'm going to have to duck out of fire, again. In battle, be is often accompanied by four TIE hunters, or interceptors, in formation with him, sort of like strap-on health, that also occasionally fires, when he spends Advantage, but he's pretty good about seeing his men safely home, so they look forward to being his escort.

Anyway, a few liberties, certainly, but, for the most part, an F&D Nemesis build, in the form of a TIE Ace unmatched.

Issue #1: Short Answer: It can be as known as you want. You are not beholden to canon. But there were decades of stuff going on that we don't see, so there is no reason to think that Vader wasn't going out in a fighter and kicking butt across the galaxy. We see he was sent to destroy the Phoenix squadron in Rebels, and they were hardly a high level threat at that point. So there is precedent for him going out on missions. And he was in command of a squad at least one time in New Hope, so again, no reason to think this was an isolated incident. So yeah, if you need the common troops to know he was a good pilot, then just have it be known. Say there were several high profile engagements where he took part, and he kicked butt. Witnesses saw him doing stuff like Poe Dameran did in Force Awakens.

Issue #2: I think one way you can help yourself to know when he draws the line, is to establish a Line for him in the first place. You say he is a relatively good man, so give him some morals. Give him some things that he will bend for morally speaking, and one or two that he simply will NOT. Have those things be the tipping point, if they ever show up. Perhaps he abhors the idea of killing people who have surrendered, and he hears reports of various Captains and Moffs executing prisoners that were helpless. Perhaps he will not stand by slavery, and he learns that the Empire "liberated" a planet from Rebellion control, only to learn that the entire population were put into forced labor camps. Stuff like that. Obviously adjust for your campaign, but you get my point. Have there be a few things that he simply cannot rationalize away, when he sees the Empire doing them. Then, introduce those things.

Or, perhaps you can have the PCs' motivation for a particular encounter, line up with his own morality. Perhaps they were responding to a distress call, and showed up to rescue the people, who just happened to be Imperial citizens. At first he thinks the distress call is due to the Rebel presence, but notices that they are in fact, engaging in rescue actions, debarking the crew and passengers before the ship blows up. Seeing a group of Rebels, saving people in need, even if they are technically part of "the enemy" might make him question who is right/wrong in the situation.

When I'm writing up "bad guys" for Star Wars and I need justification, look at the Germans in WWII. Not everyone was a member of the SS. There were A LOT of officers who were "just following orders".

The Empire, like any totalitarian government, spends a lot of blood and treasure on propaganda. There's a reason why the Stormtroopers are indoctrinated as shown in Episode 7.

For your Ace pilot, I'd suggest giving him a code of morals. Think of it as Lawful Evil or Lawful Neutral from a D&D perspective. He has no problem enforcing the laws of the Empire until X happens. X can be anything from enslaving children to blowing up entire planets.

Ep7 Stormtroopers aren't Ep6 Stormtroopers.

The First Order literally steals children and moulds them the way they are. The Empire's stormtrooper corps are volunteer soldiers who get picked out of the Imperial Army when they conform to certain physical and behavioural standards.

On 5/29/2017 at 6:00 PM, BipolarJuice said:

Ep7 Stormtroopers aren't Ep6 Stormtroopers.

The First Order literally steals children and moulds them the way they are. The Empire's stormtrooper corps are volunteer soldiers who get picked out of the Imperial Army when they conform to certain physical and behavioural standards.

If this is true, then why in Star Wars: Rebels, is Esra in a training facility for children?

4 hours ago, P-Dub663 said:

If this is true, then why in Star Wars: Rebels, is Esra in a training facility for children?

That is an officer academy. Kids are sent there by their parents.