So the PCs in my game are enbarking on their second adventure and after that the campaign will evolve into a open world style game within the corporate sector with PCs being able to follow the main quest, do side missions, do jobs for important characters, or just make their own fun (and trash my carefully forged plans 😪).

A little bit of backstory is needed. Shortly after the battle of scariff the rebellion with knowledge of the death star, scatters their remaining naval assets. While the events of a new hope happen, the PCs will be helping a small rebel cell escape from a imperial assualt from their old clone wars space station home (a bunch of nomadic doctors turned rebel medical personnel). After this, the survivors (if there are survivors mwahahaha jk) will link up with Jan Dodanas assualt frigate and escorts who evacuated yavin.

Because of plot, the PCs have vested a interest in the corporate sector and the rebellion also have a interest due to (insert macguffin here). Dodana will restock the supplies and crew of the surviving vessels and will reorganize the group into a task force to investigate (plot item here) and disrupt imperial activities in the sector.

Over the course of the plot the PCs can go on side missions to help the cell grow, gain resources, and establish outposts. They are only starting with a converted pelta class frigate and a consular class corvette. However most of the cells growth will be done in the background. I was wondering to scale up the cells power and influence over time. They wont come under pressure at first but eventually both the CSA and the empire will be hunting (but also plenty of allies). The cell wont be getting help (yet) from the main rebel forces due to the distance, chaos from post yavin events and would also allow them to deny being connected to them. (Allowing them to continue buying from the CSA)

How powerful do you think they would grow and what resources do you think they would need to obtain. Do you think they would need to stay on the move or could establish a firmer presence in the sector.

1 hour ago, Samuel Richard said:

rebellion also have a interest due to (insert macguffin here)

The CSA representing a significant source of materiel for the Imperial Military, not to mention the various political and economic power and stability it provides and represents.

1 hour ago, Samuel Richard said:

Over the course of the plot the PCs can go on side missions to help the cell grow, gain resources, and establish outposts. They are only starting with a converted pelta class frigate and a consular class corvette. However most of the cells growth will be done in the background. I was wondering to scale up the cells power and influence over time.

Bit by bit and remembering that growth is a two-way street.

So first off remember that the Alliance is an Alliance. So the players don't have to literally recruit and train more people. Instead they can go out and find existing groups that are more-or-less already fighting the CSA/Empire and bring them into the fold. The Alliance gets bigger and the ability to coordinate the fight for greater strategic effects, the recruited locals get a source of plans, intel, materiel, and occasionally personnel.

So it can go like this:

There's already a cell of locals on Ord Bardue that have been commiting acts of sabotage, this can be fed to the player be alliance intel. The players go, link up, gain their trust, and ultimately convince them to go in with the Alliance.

As they get more groups on board, they will need bases to funnel materiel through, and a place to plan and coordinate everyone. So..player need to build abase. They can find a location, prep a site, and then go back to the recruited cells to acquire more materiel locally, directly assisting them in operations they are too small to execute themselves.

Rinse repeat (sort of).

At each place you can mix in additional details and complications. So like the first one or two might be easy to help give the players a foothold, but then you can start making things more interesting.

So like, maybe they hit up another local resistance group, and find out they are actually not compatible with the Alliance. you can always go Saw Guerra "too violent" but you can also make their politics and policies not compatible. It might make for a good "Cassian Andor Live" themed adventure or two where there's a group that's not "bad" but also not politically compatible with the Alliance and the players make contact and start to build a relationship, only to have to neutralize them when Alliance HQ decides that they'd be too disruptive and might cause more harm than good to the Alliance at large.

56 minutes ago, Ghostofman said:

The CSA representing a significant source of materiel for the Imperial Military, not to mention the various political and economic power and stability it provides and represents.

I'm putting in those () marks because if I filled them in, they are spoilers for the campaign. All of my players have accounts here and they may accidentally stumble across this. I trust them to not intentionally do it but stuff happens.

Cells grow by mitosis, when nutrients are abundant it enlarges and then splits into two smaller cells 😎

22 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

Cells grow by mitosis, when nutrients are abundant it enlarges and then splits into two smaller cells 😎

But their rebel cells, listen im trying to cure cancer and we need to know why they rebel!

On 1/9/2019 at 2:20 PM, Samuel Richard said:

How powerful do you think they would grow and what resources do you think they would need to obtain. Do you think they would need to stay on the move or could establish a firmer presence in the sector.

1

This all depends on you and your group. Do they want to settle down and set up defenses? That can make recruiting easier, but could lead to battles with the Empire. How powerful they grow is up to how you want the campaign to proceed. Do you want the PC's mostly on their own with maybe a squad in support? Or do you want them to be generals leading an army?

Most recruitment could be handled behind the scenes. I had some rough rules that expanded on the base building ruies that allowed for recruitment. Basically, as they installed barracks, more troops showed up. As they installed training facilities, they got more skilled, and had more rivals, not just minions. As they installed more armories, they got better gear to fight with. That sort of thing. I did run an adventure that they turned into a recruiting drive, suddenly picking up a group of skilled mechanics as an in-game reward rather than expanding their base between missions.

I feel like these are questions you should be asking your players. Regardless of the level of Imperial activity in a sector, I've always imagined that the Rebels don't recruit much out in the open. They don't do recruiting posters or have enlistment centers, because even if there's no Empire on that planet, they want to keep it that way. Bases like the ones on Yavin and Hoth are very unusual for the Rebellion. Whether they are on the move, or staying in one place it is more important to keep a low profile and protect their identities.

I use a simple three question test to determine whether someone is "part" of the Rebellion:

1. Have you ever provided aid or comfort to a member of the Rebellion? - Note that this need not be done knowingly!

2. Did a member of the Rebellion know it was you providing the aid or comfort?

3. Would you provide aid or comfort again if asked?

If the answer to all three of those questions is yes, then congrats, you're in the Rebellion - and you may not even know it! The character should expect to be recruited by the Rebellion at some point, or be on guard for the Empire to come sniffing around. I like this model because it really requires that the character, whether it is a PC or NPC, bring some sort of skills or assets to the table. They have a reason for helping out (or not helping) that drives their behavior, making them more than just a faceless minion. Being part of the Rebellion doesn't just mean you hang out with Rebels at their base or are under their protection. It means that the Rebellion thinks they can rely on you.

Actually mitosis answer is correct.

Building a cell isn't about getting bigger its about getting big enough to split. The whole purpose of cell structure historically, is to deal with repression.

Only one person of a cell had contact with another cell. So spies can be easily identified and while they can infiltrate one cell it doesn't spread to the whole organization.

Where a rebellion is wide open. Then a bigger structure can develop like military organization, fleets, squads, units etc.

While there maybe other coordinating cells devoted to bringing multiple cells into contact with leadership (if it exists), even those would be sized to fulfill it's purpose.

So for example maybe there's a cell for a city. Made up of Representatives from cells in the population or military cells. The city cell would elect someone to a larger cell up to planetary or sector and till you basically have the leadership council a sort of cell itself, for the whole rebel alliance.