Ok fellow GMs, I need some help. My group of x-wingers has expressed interest in AoR and play as Imperials.

They will probably be a spec ops team but here's my starting idea but I need some help.

First session they get called to a terrorist organization (not Alliance) that are holding a building full of civilians hostage. From there I want them to save the hostages but I want them to discover a deeper conspiracy. Almost like a Deus Ex type vibe.

I want corrupt Moffs and officials, criminal organizations, spies and betrayal. I want them to travel as they uncover more and more. Enough that it could possibly rock their beliefs in the Empire.

I don't really want to much Force stuff or Vader.

If I can get some ideas from the community I think that will kick off the creative juices for me. Any help is greatly appreciated!

While not using Imperial PC’s, I was tossing around some ideas along the lines of a corrupt Moff a) after listening to the audiobook of Lords of the Sith And b) when brainstorming ideas for several campaign concepts for my newest group to pick from. Let me see what I can remember (because they totally didn’t pick the idea that would have had those elements).

- Moff is in business with the most prominent local organized crime boss.

- The Moff helps keep his/her partner at the top of the heap by cracking down on the other organizations.

- The crime boss has another mysterious benefactor that the Moff doesn’t know about. The crime boss doesn’t even know who it is. It’s the Oversector’s Grand Moff, who has use of the Moff, but also sees him/her as potential competition/problem. Eventually there will be some...tension. (I’d planned to use the holographic representation of Blackhole for the “mysterious benefactor’s” look.)

The rivalry between Imperial Intelligence and the ISB is always good fodder for this sort of campaign. While Imperial Intelligence mostly plays the long game and prefers to quietly wind up loose threads and see where they lead, ISB will trample in with their jackboots and overturn every stone looking for traitors and dissidents. Your players could stumble into a situation where Intelligence has allowed some local resistance groups to grow stronger in order to see if the "real" Rebel Alliance makes contact with them, while the ISB just wants to round up some traitors right away. Then both sides could be trying to get your players to do their bidding at the same time.

1 hour ago, Krieger22 said:

The rivalry between Imperial Intelligence and the ISB is always good fodder for this sort of campaign. While Imperial Intelligence mostly plays the long game and prefers to quietly wind up loose threads and see where they lead, ISB will trample in with their jackboots and overturn every stone looking for traitors and dissidents. Your players could stumble into a situation where Intelligence has allowed some local resistance groups to grow stronger in order to see if the "real" Rebel Alliance makes contact with them, while the ISB just wants to round up some traitors right away. Then both sides could be trying to get your players to do their bidding at the same time.

Hmmmm, very interesting. I like this concept so far. I need more though, I need a big bad that is pulling some strings to really change something.

Drop the Inquisitorious into the middle of it. A particularly sneaky Inquisitor is playing the ISB and II against each other. They don't care how many Rebels are caught, but they're fanning the flames to smoke out any Force sensitives.

The civilian hostages are either a misdirection, and the bad guys are actually there to steal some information from a local server, that is vital to the Big Bad's plans. Or, one of the hostages is a Person of Interest for the Big Bad. Perhaps a political rival he wants to remove in a way that doesn't lead back to him. Or perhaps the child of a rival he wants to use as leverage. Perhaps the Big Bad even is playing both sides, hiring the criminals to take the hostages, but also working to get your PC's squad there to rescue them. This could garner him political capital with the locals for "being tough on crime" and also get him a favor owed by the above mentioned rival (who was saved/had their child saved by the Big Bad).

The criminals, becoming suspicious of their "puppet" status in this whole affair, finding themselves in WAY over their heads, might make hints here and there that the PC's overhear, leading your player's to think something more is going on.

If you are taking a Force related angle with things, perhaps he is working to find a way to medically identify people with Force sensitivity (not midichlorians, screw that noise), so that he can instigate a purge. It doesn't necessarily have to actually work, but it could be something he's investing research and development into.

If you are keeping it mundane, it could simply be a political move up the ladder. He's setting up multiple members of the government to be replaced, or to be moved to his side of the political debate, further escalating him into a higher level of power.

Those are some broad ideas, other random thoughts of goals that you could include are:

He's looking for some "lost fleet" that records show was somewhere near the system, and he needs the data to track them down. Having that ancient Sith Fleet (or whatever group you want) would give him Ultimate CONTROL!!! in the system, letting him sit back, steeple his fingers and cackle like a loon.

Secret Big Weapon, and he's covering his tracks from the various groups he outsourced for some of the work. Removing the people who know anything about the project, so they can't link it back to him.

He did something really bad, and is trying to remove trace of it.

Honestly, if you watch any political thriller movies (Tom Clancy's stuff would be a good starting point I think), you can get a lot of ideas for plots that "People in Power" would be doing, that the heroes have to foil.

Pop this one on your players especially is they are special ops unit.

They go after dirt on a MOF but find out some one has beat them to the target. The other team has tripped the a silent alarm and the Imperial authorities are already on the way before the players enter the target area. You should get the gist from here.

As always if any member of team is captured are killed the secretary will disavow all knowledge of your existence.

Palpatine is a Sith Lord.

7 hours ago, Kiowa706 said:

Palpatine is a Sith Lord.

And the albatross fly at morning.

What is the context of this statement?

10 hours ago, Kiowa706 said:

Palpatine is a Sith Lord.

16 hours ago, KungFuFerret said:

And the albatross fly at morning.

What is the context of this statement?

Easy, as far as I am aware, he wasn't open about his Sithness with everyone. So it's very likely that outside of high command, it isn't known what he truly is. A spec ops team could figure this out through various means and either agree with it, or not. Use that and see where things go. Perhaps they embrace it. Or, it was they who started feeding intel to Rebel forces. Or, they give up and go rogue, becoming mercs for hire out in the Outer Rim. Lots of possibilities with that one statement.

1 hour ago, Kiowa706 said:

Easy, as far as I am aware, he wasn't open about his Sithness with everyone. So it's very likely that outside of high command, it isn't known what he truly is. A spec ops team could figure this out through various means and either agree with it, or not. Use that and see where things go. Perhaps they embrace it. Or, it was they who started feeding intel to Rebel forces. Or, they give up and go rogue, becoming mercs for hire out in the Outer Rim. Lots of possibilities with that one statement.

Ah, I thought you were correcting someone in a previous post or something. It was structured like how some people post when they are pulling a "well technically" kind of post.

How about it's being used to smoke out a suspected rebel cell except their target is a former Separatist leader who escaped detection and is trying to help rescue the actual rebel cell as this operative is the Fulcrum Agent in this Sector?

The Imperials are aware there's a leak but unaware it's one of their own?!

I can see how that could be taken that way. Guess that was my fault. But lots of possibilities for using that as a direction.

3 words: imperial bioweapon division

3 hours ago, Samuel Richard said:

3 words: imperial bioweapon division

If you make it Imperial Bioweapon Section, you can call them the IBS

2 hours ago, KungFuFerret said:

If you make it Imperial Bioweapon Section, you can call them the IBS

I'm stealing that

3 minutes ago, Samuel Richard said:

I'm stealing that

Go right ahead, IBS is a serious problem for many people. If your players suffer from IBS, be sure they consult a doctor.

5 minutes ago, KungFuFerret said:

Go right ahead, IBS is a serious problem for many people. If your players suffer from IBS, be sure they consult a doctor.

Make sure it ain't the doctors who gave you the illness in the first place.

Theres a season of 'Burn Notice' where the Intrepid Hero figures out that he was blacklisted in order to facilitate his recruitment into an 'off the books', private special forces organization. One that can 'do what needs to be done'. After outing the organization, and nearly destroying it, he discovers that the organization had help from his former instructor/mentor who is now the head of the CIA...who is helping the organization rebuild and continue 'doing what it must'. Take a spin through the seasons and episodes. That should give you some very interesting ideas.

The ccorrupt moff hires a group of mercenaries to launch attacks across his system, and then kidnap him and a bunch of ther imperial officers so that when he "negotiates" for his and the hostages release he will be a hero. But, your Players have been sent to rescue him.