I was hoping they'd make a core rulebook for imperials, but the DoR announcement has me thinking that they are going in a different direction. It's a good direction, but I still have my heart set on Imperial gameplay.

I've been thinking about it, and I kinda feel like you could make due with AoR materials. Going down the line:

- Gameplay shouldn't change that much in and of itself.

- Duty would probably work fine in and of itself, but if you want to differentiate, call it Ambition. That said, a mechanic where it you pursue your ambition too quickly or too strongly, it attracts unwanted attention,either from rivals, or from superiors telling you not to choke on your ambition.

- Species: Empire doesn't need a lot here, racist as they are. Maybe Kubaz.

-Careers and Specializations: Ace and Commander are fine as is. Diplomat and Engineer work well enough. Soldier and Spy are where we start running into trouble (Soldier is better suited for guerrilla warfare than Troopers, and Spy's scout really should be part of a Trooper career). Recruit is utterly useless for Imperials.

-Gear: nothing new required.

- Ships and Vehicles: Superbly covered by AoR. That said, a different selection of party vehicles may be required. The fighters just won't work the same.

- Adversaries are just fine as is.

Maybe a supplement to AoR to cover Imperial Gameplay?

Really, everything in AoR can be used as is with an Imperial campaign. I believe there are at least a few people on these boards who have played such campaigns in the past.

Soldier Trailblazer is a scout trooper, Soldier Sharpshooter is an elite Stormtrooper, Soldier Commando is "Riot" Stormtrooper, Soldier Heavy is a Heavy Weapons Stormtrooper, Soldier Medic is that and Soldier Vanguard is a Shocktrooper.

The only thing that would make this difficult, especially for players is the commissioned gear. Sure you have always ammo and nades and stuff at your disposal, but you can only have the standard issue, and you keep scavenged enemy weapons only for the current mission. And you canot modify your armor, since that is against rgulations, so your stuck with laminate all the time, unless you become a death trooper, then you can rock a heavy battle armor with fancy gadgets... that you can't decide upon which you get cause again, regulations!

If you want to have an imperial campaign, I'd strongly advise your players to strictly stick to officers, ISB Agents, COMPNOR Diplomats... such kind. If one of your players wants the soldier, urge him to play a noncom by taking leadership and discipline as his human free skill ranks, so he can make use of the squad rules with the detachment of Stormtroopers the players should have. And you should make the adversaries quite formidable from the start, so that your players get into the "mass instead of quality" doctrine of the empire.

Having a noncom and a Commander tactician as an academy graduate would take care of two players, another player could be a COMPNOR diplomat, who has the officer and noncom as his guard detachment. If you have a group of 4 make the last player either a EotE Colonist Doctor as a civilian hireling or medidroid to look after the diplomats health or perhaps a spy slicer with a crossspec of Analyst later on as an computer aide to the diplo. Or maybe a personal pilot for the diplomat.

Adjust the duty rewards in regard to the central players rise through the imperial ranks (the empire is very strictly hierarchic, so you need to tell your players, that their characters are definitely NOT equals), maybe after some success he becomes the Lordmayor of a city on the planet you've set your campaign on as a reward for his good work, then moves on to gouvernor of the planet, then maybe even moff of the sector someday. The noncom stays that, a noncom, and the civilians also stay what they are, (unless they crosspec enough into other territories) while the only other character who rises through the ranks is the commander.

The Empire is a very rigid affair, and field commissions are very rare compared to the alliance, where they have to do with everything they can get their hands on.

You definitely need the right group for that, you cannot have some "rebels" among your guys who always think they have to diss the higher ups or take their mouth too full.

If you implement a mission along Vader, have such characters who joke against their Sithlord be dealt an instant 5 wounds and strain as they gasp for air and let them be warned by Vader for their insubordination.

I've got an Imperial campaign running where the players are assigned to a Gozanti-class cruiser with an NPC captain. I was quite clear with the players that we would be doing TIE Fighter style Ordinary Decent Imperials rather than Sith Lords in training wreck up the galaxy, which worked very well. The players were only allowed to choose between playing Humans and Droids and had the following career options (along with the associated ranks):

• Executive Officer (Co-Pilot): Lieutenant, Commander/Commodore
• Flight Officer (TIE Commander): Flying Officer, Commander/Squadron Leader
• TIE Pilot: Pilot Officer, Ace/Pilot
• Engineer: Petty Officer, Engineer/Mechanic
• Comms/Sensor Operator: Petty Officer, Spy/Slicer
• Loadmaster: Crewman, Diplomat/Quatermaster
• Gunner: Crewman, Ace/Gunner
• Stormtrooper Sargent: Sargent, Commander/Tactician
• Stormtrooper: Trooper, Soldier/Sharpshooter or Soldier/Medic

19 minutes ago, Major Tom said:

I've got an Imperial campaign running where the players are assigned to a Gozanti-class cruiser with an NPC captain. I was quite clear with the players that we would be doing TIE Fighter style Ordinary Decent Imperials rather than Sith Lords in training wreck up the galaxy, which worked very well. The players were only allowed to choose between playing Humans and Droids and had the following career options (along with the associated ranks):

• Executive Officer (Co-Pilot): Lieutenant, Commander/Commodore
• Flight Officer (TIE Commander): Flying Officer, Commander/Squadron Leader
• TIE Pilot: Pilot Officer, Ace/Pilot
• Engineer: Petty Officer, Engineer/Mechanic
• Comms/Sensor Operator: Petty Officer, Spy/Slicer
• Loadmaster: Crewman, Diplomat/Quatermaster
• Gunner: Crewman, Ace/Gunner
• Stormtrooper Sargent: Sargent, Commander/Tactician
• Stormtrooper: Trooper, Soldier/Sharpshooter or Soldier/Medic

Out of curiosity, did you allow them to eventually take any Force specs? In my experience, it's hard to play a Star Wars game without at least one player going Force-sensitive. It could make for an interesting game if one of them were hiding their Force sensitivity, but I can also see just saying no outright.

1 hour ago, Major Tom said:

I've got an Imperial campaign running where the players are assigned to a Gozanti-class cruiser with an NPC captain. I was quite clear with the players that we would be doing TIE Fighter style Ordinary Decent Imperials rather than Sith Lords in training wreck up the galaxy, which worked very well. The players were only allowed to choose between playing Humans and Droids and had the following career options (along with the associated ranks):

• Executive Officer (Co-Pilot): Lieutenant, Commander/Commodore
• Flight Officer (TIE Commander): Flying Officer, Commander/Squadron Leader
• TIE Pilot: Pilot Officer, Ace/Pilot
• Engineer: Petty Officer, Engineer/Mechanic
• Comms/Sensor Operator: Petty Officer, Spy/Slicer
• Loadmaster: Crewman, Diplomat/Quatermaster
• Gunner: Crewman, Ace/Gunner
• Stormtrooper Sargent: Sargent, Commander/Tactician
• Stormtrooper: Trooper, Soldier/Sharpshooter or Soldier/Medic

How do you handle the gear?

1 hour ago, SavageBob said:

Out of curiosity, did you allow them to eventually take any Force specs? In my experience, it's hard to play a Star Wars game without at least one player going Force-sensitive. It could make for an interesting game if one of them were hiding their Force sensitivity, but I can also see just saying no outright.

No force users or force sensatives as of yet, but I'm planning on introducing an Inquisitor in the next arc of the campaign. I've had a different experience to you with the Force in Star Wars games. Even going back to the WEG days (we skipped Wizards/TSR's version because D20) games have not usually involved any force attuned characters. If one of the players did come to me and ask to take a Force specialisation I'd certainly consider it as I'd agree that trying to keep that hidden would open up compelling stories.

1 hour ago, TheMOELANDER said:

How do you handle the gear?

The PCs have the might of the Empire behind them. If they can make a good case for something being key to their mission success then they get it (the TIE Reaper shuttle they borrowed in the last arc being a prime example). Of course the thing they want needs to be available where they are and a superior officer can trump their CO (a Lieutenant Commander) if I need to keep something out of their hands. Given their regrettable record with interrogation 'droids it's unlikely they'll be able to get those again though...

One thing to add. If you are going to have an Imperial game involving PCs piloting fighters the standard /ln TIE is incredibly fragile. We nearly lost the Flight Officer in the first session leading his men against two elements of Y-Wings. As the PCs ship is on attachment with the ICS I provided them with two /lns, an /sa and a /br, so he has now taken ownership of the /sa, which takes punishment much better.

22 hours ago, Major Tom said:

One thing to add. If you are going to have an Imperial game involving PCs piloting fighters the standard /ln TIE is incredibly fragile. We nearly lost the Flight Officer in the first session leading his men against two elements of Y-Wings. As the PCs ship is on attachment with the ICS I provided them with two /lns, an /sa and a /br, so he has now taken ownership of the /sa, which takes punishment much better.

Keep in mind that just because a starship goes above its hull trauma threshold doesn't mean it's destroyed, just disabled. A Combat Repairs action that brings the damage down below the threshold puts the ship back in the fight, just like healing up a wounded character who's dropped due to exceeding his wound threshold.

On 14.7.2017 at 11:31 AM, TheMOELANDER said:

The only thing that would make this difficult, especially for players is the commissioned gear. Sure you have always ammo and nades and stuff at your disposal, but you can only have the standard issue, and you keep scavenged enemy weapons only for the current mission. And you canot modify your armor, since that is against rgulations, so your stuck with laminate all the time, unless you become a death trooper, then you can rock a heavy battle armor with fancy gadgets... that you can't decide upon which you get cause again, regulations!

Eh, depends on where you are. You shouldn't exactly bring scavenged and modified stuff to parades, but as long as you're far out of sight, I could imagine many ambitious officers turning a blind eye to their pet soldiers' cavalier approach to gear modification as long as it brings them results. Right up until someone from on high carries out an inspection, in which case they are shocked, shocked I tell you, to find that someone would dare modify the perfect imperial equipment and get caught doing so.

On 7/13/2017 at 3:23 PM, MitchPelon said:

- Duty would probably work fine in and of itself, but if you want to differentiate, call it Ambition. That said, a mechanic where it you pursue your ambition too quickly or too strongly, it attracts unwanted attention,either from rivals, or from superiors telling you not to choke on your ambition.

Duty stays the same. There's an existing Imperial Duty chart out there that someone made that's actually pretty good.

Remember Duty isn't just rank, it's also a payoff system to offset the fact that military campaigns typically will see the players issued gear instead of having to buy it all out of pocket.

Low duty, basic gear, higher duty more specialty gear. Just cause you went Soldier:Heavy doesn't mean you get a heavy repeating blaster day one.

Quote

- Species: Empire doesn't need a lot here, racist as they are. Maybe Kubaz.

They could take almost anything. The Empire is human heavy, and you won't see many nonhuman officers and such, but the Empire also contracts out.... A lot... There's plenty of reasons for nearly any species to be around.

On 16.7.2017 at 11:08 PM, Cifer said:

Eh, depends on where you are. You shouldn't exactly bring scavenged and modified stuff to parades, but as long as you're far out of sight, I could imagine many ambitious officers turning a blind eye to their pet soldiers' cavalier approach to gear modification as long as it brings them results. Right up until someone from on high carries out an inspection, in which case they are shocked, shocked I tell you, to find that someone would dare modify the perfect imperial equipment and get caught doing so.

True dat!

If your group also plays more in the intelligence community, then modding gear is of course a viable part of it. Every edge you have, the enemy doesn't notice on your gear is a boon. The Spy career book will be particularly useful for those who want to dabble in the ISB. You can even drag the old Legends "Hands of the Emperor" group into it, to give your troupe a force user.