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!

This is a multi-session situation. Doing so in game one seems inappropriate cause corrupt officials aren't generally easy to find. Have you got classes and races picked out yet, group resources? This shapes up in some ways that reminds me of The Trust from Stargate SG-1, it took several seasons to finally get the heads tracked down and it was generally through one off episodes through the seasons with stolen tech, knowing missions before the teams knew, etc.

I'd do sesh one with stopping the group, saving civvies, everyone gets a pat on the butt.

Sesh 2 - 5 or 6 having missions progressively get harder to accomplish due to the baddies knowing what's happening before your team does, 4 - 6 hopefully the group is catching on and decides to start hacking computers of the bosses, or even the cranky tech working on their gear.

6+ working their way down the rabbit hole, scrubbing missions rather than doing them, significantly changing mission parameters before or upon arrival to throw off the baddies. Possibly breaking away entirely from the Empire with stolen gear and possibly a small crew and decent ship (check mass combat rules here).

10+ If you're keeping this a single system trying to figure out who the head is. If rim based, finding out who is who. If galaxy based, this part will take longer.

Definitely multi-session and I really like the idea of first mission, all good. Atta boys all around. Then progressively have the baddies 2-3 steps ahead. It will really start to make them question everything. Thanks, this is why I ask.

Anymore genius from anyone else?

Race restriction to Humans and Near humans. Imperials don't care much for those alien weirdos.

Other ideas, Mostly taken taken from existing adventures:

• Stopping a criminal spice/drug lord. Potentially is selling some new highly addictive and deadly spice. (The adventure "tempest feud" has the tempest spice that could be used)
• Investigating a new deadly virus to discover a mad scientist who has created a plague virus and has is going to release it. (There was a clone wars episode kinda about this, the "blue shadow virus")
• Taking down a notorious pirate ring. You could possibly run the adventure "mask of the Pirate Queen" with tweaks, or just use the pirates as foes.
• The Zann Consortium is a Criminal Military Force not associated with Rebel alliance that could be a significant foe.
• The Star wars Saga book "Scum and Villainy" has a couple missions that are working for a grand moff. -An imperial officer at the academy has more recruits from his unit defect more than the others, PCs investigate. -Hutt lord has damaging info on a moff lord, break in a steal the incriminating info back.

May want to grab Takeover at Whisper base if you can, it's in the AoR beginner box. If not that, grab Operation Shadow Point from FFG's AoR section.

9 hours ago, ASCI Blue said:

May want to grab Takeover at Whisper base if you can, it's in the AoR beginner box.

This would be a really good start. The box is about a session's-worth of play, but the PDF followup can be anywhere from 3-5 sessions more. That would get your players familiar with the rules, and there are lots of opportunities to sprinkle your own custom plot hooks throughout the adventure.

Play the films in an Alternate Universe.... sorted.. where the RA fail to blow up the DS... they are sent off to Hoth,,,, they grab word of a possible rebel attack where the New DS is being built... yeah you get the picture.

End of season one of Star Wars The Clone Wars, Cad Bane held the Senate hostage to free the Hutt that helped Dooku kidnap Jabba's nephew.

So is the initial event a diversion or intended to cover up another crime?

How does it involve your players?

Maybe they blow the vault and try to take the building out to hide what they stole but your PCs survived the explosion and are desperately trying to prove their innocence by chasing the surviving terrorists who are being picked off by a group of bountyhunters in the employ of an Imperial Director...

What godawful secret are they trying to find?

Maybe another Sith Superweapon?

That enough?

my players have been recently involved in a political struggle over the seat of governor on Corellia, including assasination plots going sideways, alliances with criminal syndicates, pirates and Empire being made etc. This can well be played from ISB's perspective easily. For example the Empire is not happy with the existing Moff/Governor and is equally not happy withe Black Sun's plans to kill him and replace with their own puppet. So an ISB under cover unit is sent to find a suitable candidate, help him gain power through various schemes and alliances. this can be epic.

Also, it's not far away from the legends - check out Corellia's history on wookiepedia. this can give the players the feel that they were in the room where it happened and took part in some important events that shaped the world (without going against the cannon). same hook can be used in any other appropriate setting.

And for something completely different - it can be a special ISB task force which is going after various occult relics and treasures. As an easy example - Beyond the Rim from ISB's POV. Also can create a lot of moral conflicts on the way in addition to tons of adventures.

In either of these options the team can really feel like badass imperial officers, but at the same time it would not be imbalanced by access to unlimited resources due to covert nature of the job or remoteness from major hubs/bases.

Some of this will depend on how they build the characters, but if they have personal morals that are somewhat relatable, you could have them discover something like the dealings between the Hutts and the Empire for the slave trade, or some other enterprise that violates the Imperials sense of Maintaining Order. You could make it so that a corrupt officer looks the other way when humans are enslaved by the Hutts, and the characters discover evidence that the humans were loyal Imperial citizens, or at least not having any sign of rebellion taint as the false information suggests. You could have an Imperial Intel NPC feeding them these clues so that later they might ally with the Internal Imperial Affairs (or whatever it's called) group and do things for them. Essentially political officers and Soviet-Era GRU types.

fully agree.

and if the PCs want to be with the Empire but they are actually "lawfull good" characters and do think that the Emire is briging peace and prosperity to the galaxy (at least at the start of their journey), this would open up another layer of possibilities. I guess this can even start as a startrek-y ideallistic journey.

for example the PCs may be mid-rank Starfleet officers of an imperial light cruiser that is set to explore new worlds or fight off a foreign invasion or invesigate a mayday call from a distant planet/station. then the comending officer(s) gets killed away/mysteriosly diassapears and PCs are suddenly become in charge or need to contest command of a superior who is acting against the PC's beliefs or just starts to take dumb decisions.

and as the PCs continue their mission another imperial ship comes up having a completely different approach to the situation, which again goes totally against PC's morals and definitely outmatches the PC's ship in terms of firepower and has a thrawn-like captain in terms of tactical brilliance. having two imperial cruisers or even cruiser-vs-destroyer against each otehr can be an epic "battle ships" type adventure.

like always, limitless possiblities depending on what type of game the PCs and you want to have)))

since it is not classic star wars approach, it totally takes a lot of pre-game discussions with the group around character building. but if all PCs and GM are on the same page this can totally be an awesome and original experience.

Thanks guys, lots of great ideas!

You can look at corrupt officials or officers as the thing that subverts the players' point of view, which is a great dramatic turn to take and can force some fun and difficult decisions. If they're elite soldiers who care about getting the job done perfectly, then having someone who they are ostensibly subordinate to come in and take away their win is a great way to motivate action. They return to base having taken down an arms dealer only to have the system governor take all the weapons they seized and start his own arms dealing. Or being presented with an obvious target only to have an admiral suspiciously order them not to engage. Then it's up to the players to decide if their duty is to the Empire and the mission as they see it or to their orders because order and discipline are how they view their world.

I don't know if you want them to stick with the empire or eventually find their morals are incompatible and leave. I know its Legends and not in the movies (well we'll see when the Han solo movie comes out next year), but Han was actually in the imperial military before he discovered he disagreed with the wookiee slavery and fought and saved Chewbacca.

On 10/11/2017 at 7:26 PM, migs6000 said:

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 would play the **** out of a Rebel Specforce AoR game based on DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION.

Sit down. Watch 'Burn Notice'. Take notes.

On 10/25/2017 at 8:28 AM, LugWrench said:

Sit down. Watch 'Burn Notice'. Take notes.

all seven seasons! and don't forget to take breakes to play D&D!