Hi all,

My friends and I are considering picking up the FFG Star Wars RPG systems as a change of pace from our DnD campaign of many years. The system as a whole looks refreshing with more of a narrative focus and seems to lend itself nicely to what our group would like. We're very interesting in doing a campaign that would be set shortly ABE where we would be part of an imperial navy garrison force in some outer rim backwater far from the conflicts of the ongoing war. The hope would be we ultimately are making governing choices to keep this area secured, and our party would have to decide whether they want to use their material and declare themselves defacto leaders (with all the issues present thereof), rejoin the larger imperial forces still conducting war, or something else. There would be a large pirate presence initially to contend with but ultimately the group would have to deal with the Empire or Rebel navies showing up.

My question is: how well would the Duty mechanics lend themselves to this kind of an approach? Would it need significant rework? From what I can tell it seems like it could be substituted relatively easily. Has anyone tried to run a similar style game? I would love any and all feedback.

Thanks!

Imperial campaigns work fine. Duty needs some tweaking and reflavoring (there's already a fan made Imperial Duty chart in circulation) and depending on the Players careers and specs you may want to rename some talents.

Starting gear may need to be adjusted as well to ensure flavor. (But probably not that much if you are willing to get creative)

Big picture though everything is the same. Duty represents your contribution to your employer and their confidence and willingness to invest in you. The Empire does that too, so no problem.

Based on the scenario you are describing, I'm not sure if Duty would be the best mechanic obviously.

Duty is supposed to represent the contribution of the PC's to a larger organization that they are a part of. Since they are very specifically "On Their Own", at least at the start, who will be providing them these contribution rank bonuses?

The only "larger group", based on your scenario that I think could work, would be the local population. If the local populace is familiar with the Empire at large, they will probably not like your PC's at first, and they would have to do a lot to gain their trust. Unless they just go for the "we're the new big dogs in town" approach I guess.

But if they do go the route of "winning the hearts and minds of the people", since they would likely be working from a negative standpoint, it might be better to set it up as an Obligation really. Local Distrust you could call it. And have it pretty high at first. Like 70+ In my opinion. It should come up a lot at the start of the campaign.

Also how much of the garrison will be around? A garrison can potentially be a LOT of troops, which would make it strange for your PC's to be the leaders, unless they were already in positions of leadership to begin with. So, I guess I have a series of questions that I think you answering might help your situation, but would also help me answer your question better

1. How many troops are in the garrison? A full compliment or just a handful of stragglers?

2. Is the local population (assuming their is one) friendly to the Empire, or are they neutral/hostile to their Imperial overseers? Important when they hear about the Rebellion's victory, they might decide to revolt.

3. Are your PC's officers or grunt troops? If they are grunts, it will be strange for them to suddenly become leaders, unless there is a lot of death in the upper ranks.

4. Are they still loyal to the Empire? Or were they like a lot of people who join the military because it's a good career option?