Normally when my group gets together for Star Wars night, we've made it tradition to begin the game in typical Star Wars fashion. After all the initial chatter has died down and everyone is ready to start, I say the words, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." and start playing the Star Wars theme. This serves to immediately put everyone in the Star Wars mindset, and a steady stream of Star Wars-y background music throughout the game helps to maintain that mood. There's extremely little off-topic chatter during our Star Wars gaming nights, unlike, say, when we're doing D&D or the Dresden Files RPG. I personally feel that the music is a big part of that, as it helps keep everyone's thoughts on the setting they're in.
With that in mind, here's where the silliness comes in. So, I recently accidentally convinced nearly my entire party to join the Empire. As such, I will now be running two campaigns, with everyone having made an Imperial character and a Rebellion character. For the Rebels, I'll keep my tradition the same. Star Wars theme song at the start of each game. However, I decided I'm going to shake it up a little when it comes to how I start the Empire games. Instead of the normal John Williams' fanfare that we all know and love, I'll instead be using this delightful piece from Star Wars Rebels:
So, what do you think? I'm hoping it'll help really set the tone for an Empire campaign that has a similar feel to it as the TIE Fighter video game, for example. Patriotic, fighting to maintain peace, justice, and security in the Empire.