Hey all,
I’m currently planning my first campaign using the FFG SW system and I would like to ask all y’all’s advice.

Background info: My campaign will revolve around 4 heroes with their individual reasons to hate the Empire, trying to join the Rebel Alliance. They start out with very little Duty and will basically be doing EotE kind of stuff for a while as they build up a reputation and try to impress whatever Rebel spies might be watching in the wings. As they reach 100 Duty, however, they will be recruited into the actual Rebel Alliance and be given a reward to spur them on.

Planning ahead, I know I want to make the Contribution to the Alliance rank thing an important feature early in my campaign (no later than the end of Act 1). So, thinking ahead, I want to come up with something interesting and cool to award my players with once the Rebel Alliance take serious notice of their PCs work. They are not starfighter group, so a bunch of Y-wings won’t be appropriate, and just rewarding them with an equipment dump seems a bit underwhelming. What’s more, the wanna-be Rebel crew will acquire a Rebel Base through game play, so a second one of those doesn’t seem appropriate neither.

Instead, I am thinking of giving the party a squad of Rebel Trooper goons to bulk up their numbers and allow the crew to spread their manpower out more during missions*. The question then becomes, what would be a cool way to simulate soldier henchmen in the game?
*I should add that I have had great success with this style of play – having an NPC henchmen group attached to the player character party – in other RPGs. This gives me the option to cut away from the main action for a scene or two, or even an entire session, to focus on what the grunts are up to in the wings of things, with the player taking on goon-NPC roles. Cool stuff.

The obvious answer is to give the PCs charge of a minion group, which is all fine; I can handle that. However, I want to make the reward squad a little more special than just five x 2-2-2-2-2-2 guys with a couple of relevant minion skills. In short, I want to give the squad a special ability of some sort, specifically one that makes them perferct for taking care of Stormtrooper squads to let the heroes focus on other stuff. So then, what do you think about this special ability for my hardy NPC squad?

Squad Fire : Attacks made by the Rebel Trooper squad against enemy minion groups gain the Linked 3 Quality.

Does that work? Or are there better ways to do a “cover fire” (against minions only) effect in the game? Do anyone have any experience with running PC-controlled minion groups in their games?

Do note, however, that I’m really new to the system and might be missing something really obvious here. (Also note that I’m not interesting in doing Mass Combat rules at this time. I like them, I just don’t want to do that at this time).

Both the AoR GM Screen and Rise of the Separatists has rules for running PC-led squads, so I would suggest looking at that first.

In brief, as a manoeuvre, the PC forms a squad with some minions and gets one formation benefit. It usually involves a boost die to certain skill checks, but could add setback dice against the squad. The minions themselves don't get a turn, they just boost the PC's skill checks (a triumph, however, can be spent to let the minions make a combat check). Any hit to the PC is instead against the minions.

These rules are designed to make minion groups easier to use but also to give the PCs more survivability as the minions are basically plot armour.

As to your new ability…it's way too potent. The way minions work is that they get more skill ranks the more minions are in the group, so you're basically double-dipping by not only letting them have the normal rules but adding the Linked quality. Instead, give the minion group a heavy weapon with either Blast or Auto-Fire. Both work great against minion groups!

All very good points! Auto-Fire & Blast are perhaps much better than my Linked Weapons idea; I like it! Also, good point on the double-dip thing.

I haven't read the PC-led squad rules you're refering to, but that sound like just the thing I need. Similar to NPC Astromech assistance, in a way, the squad is a feature of the PCs instead of being their own thing. Again, I like it

Warning with the squad rules, they die really easily. If they are simply assigned to the PCs and rotate out frequently, that isn't much of a problem, but if you want to use them as NPCs, you might want to consider something else.

1 hour ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Warning with the squad rules, they die really easily. If they are simply assigned to the PCs and rotate out frequently, that isn't much of a problem, but if you want to use them as NPCs, you might want to consider something else.

Well, yeah, they're minions . Minions die really easily.

Ok, minions are taken out really easily, but not necessarily dead-dead. Injured beyond the ability to continue. You can bring a few of them "back" since it's not death but incapacitation.

That being said, the sentient airplane does have a point that minions tend to fall quickly. But again, that's what they are designed to do. They are no-name grunts. If they have a name, they are at least a rival. So grab a squad-leader rival from the CRB and give 'em a name.

For those NPCs, either the GM can play them or just let one player decide to run the NPC after their turn is over. This way you don't have to worry about an additional initiative slot (does a player-run NPC generate a PC slot or NPC slot?) and you can have up to one NPC per PC, so they all get to take a "double turn".

Like all things in this system, it's all about what outcome you're looking for. Nameless grunts for the PCs to boss around they don't care a whole lot about? Minions using the squad rules. Major NPC with a name and rank? Rival. Note that the only mechanical difference between a rival and a nemesis is that the nemesis has a strain threshold. So unless the NPC needs that ST (for example, they are a social character) they are a rival. It's really simple and elegant, IMO.

24 minutes ago, c__beck said:

sentient airplane

YES! Finally someone addresses me properly!

Hey all y'all,

So, I'm compiling a quick reference sheet for my player detailing the rules and options for using her minion group (a squad of Alliance Infantry). However, since there are a gazillion books I'm not sure I've covered it all, yet. Can any of you spot anything I've missed including here? (For the record, I will also include the Spending Dice Results table for her, but I couldn't figure out a way to post it here. Also, for the record, the character's name is Vestra. For the final record, I managed to frag up the formating somehow and trying to fix things just makes it worse, so things are weird in the below post; please ignore that).

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Minion rules
Minion groups act as one unit (i.e. one “character”). They make all checks as a team and have a rank in their listed Group Skills equal to the number of members in the squad minus one, to a maximum of 5. Vestra’s Squad starts out with 6 members, and the therefore count their group skills (Melee, Range [Heavy], and Vigilance) as 5.

The Squad Wound Threshold is equal to the listed Minion WT (i.e. for an individual member) multiplied by the number of active members in the squad; Vestra’s squad of Alliance Infantry has a Minion WT of 5 and containing 6 members, giving the squad an effective WT of 30. Each time the squad suffers Wounds equal to the individual Minion WT (5 in this case), the squad loose a member (who is incapacitated, critically injured, or dead).

Minions cannot suffer Strain, suffering Wounds instead.

Take one for the team
Vestra may redirect hits she suffers to the squad (all or nothing, not parts of hits).

Initiative
If lead by Vestra (i.e. operating as a squad), they activate during Vestra’s turn. Either Vestra OR the squad may make the initiative check.

Change Formation
Squad Leader makes a Leadership check as a maneuver , difficulty ( ♦♦ ) while in combat, otherwise (-) or ( ♦ ). + 1 Boost if the targeted minions possess the Discipline skill.
--DIG IN : Assume defensive positions. + 1 Setback to attacks targeting the squad or its leader.

· --SKIRMISH : Assume overlapping fire arcs to scan for enemies. + 1 Boost to squad or leader’s Vigilance when determining initiative; + 1 Boost to Perception to detect enemies; enemies must spend one additional ADVANTAGE to activate Auto-Fire or Blast qualities targeting the squad.

-- --CLOSE IN : Concentrate fire on single target. + 1 Boost to squad’s attacks.

· --MISSION SPECIALIST : Squad focuses on a non-combat objective. Squad may perform a single Computer, Mechanics, Medicine, Skulduggery, Survival, or Knowledge check using the Squad’s relevant Characteristic and the Leader’s Leadership skill in place of the check skill. Max equal to Squad Leader’s Leadership Skill ranks per session.

· --COMM SILENCE : Focus on silence and concealment. + 1 Boost to Stealth checks.

· --SEARCH PARTY : Organize a search grid. + 1 Boost to Survival checks to track a target. + 1 Boost to Perception checks.

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So, there we are. Can you guys think of anything else (beside the "how to spend dice results" table) that I could include in the Squad Leader Summary for my player? Thanks 🙂

Looks good to me. I know the squad rules have their place, but I find this preferable and might use it if it were to become relevant.

Then it had this gobbledygook that I'd like a translation on:

3 hours ago, angelman2 said:

if the targeted minions possess the Discipline skill.

Huh that's weird. Well, I don't need it translated anymore.

41 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Looks good to me. I know the squad rules have their place, but I find this preferable and might use it if it were to become relevant.

Um... so, I happen to be easily confused and... huh? Aren't these the squad rules? 🤔 Do you prefer the squad rules to the squad rules? I... struggle 🤨

41 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Then it had this gobbledygook that I'd like a translation on:

Huh that's weird. Well, I don't need it translated anymore.

Again... confused... Huh? 😝

Also, I'm currently watching a Stephen King show so I'm even more confused than usual 😜

18 minutes ago, angelman2 said:

Um... so, I happen to be easily confused and... huh? Aren't these the squad rules? 🤔 Do you prefer the squad rules to the squad rules? I... struggle 🤨

These are different than the squad rules. In the squad rules, a minion is defeated for each hit, regardless of Wound Threshold. They also do not get an attack.
I may have misunderstood your write-up though.

19 minutes ago, angelman2 said:

Again... confused... Huh? 😝

It's the stuff at the end of this line:

4 hours ago, angelman2 said:

Squad Leader makes a Leadership check as a maneuver , difficulty ( ♦♦ ) while in combat, otherwise (-) or ( ♦ ). + 1 Boost if the targeted minions possess the Discipline skill.

When I highlighted it and clicked "quote" it translated it into what it was supposed to be.

1 hour ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

These are different than the squad rules. In the squad rules, a minion is defeated for each hit, regardless of Wound Threshold. They also do not get an attack.

Wow, I thought I had listed the actual Squad Rules! I must have misunderstood something and insta-house rules. I've totally missed that squads can't attack ('cause formations like "Close" make it seem like they get a bonus when they attack). Again, I'm confused. Oh well 🙂

Edit: But I see now that squads don't have a turn. I assumed this meant that they made their attacks during the squad leader's initative slot, but perhaps they don't?

As for the " gobbledygook ", I guess you see something different from what I see on my end. Interesting 😄

17 minutes ago, angelman2 said:

Wow, I thought I had listed the actual Squad Rules! I must have misunderstood something and insta-house rules. I've totally missed that squads can't attack ('cause formations like "Close" make it seem like they get a bonus when they attack). Again, I'm confused. Oh well 🙂

I believe that formation gives a Boost to the leader's attack.

18 minutes ago, angelman2 said:

As for the " gobbledygook ", I guess you see something different from what I see on my end. Interesting 😄

Huh. Odd.

3 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

I believe that formation gives a Boost to the leader's attack.

So the leader becomes "the squad" with budy-upgrades? Interesting. I guess I interpreted the, "Add BOOST to any attack made by the squad while in this formation", to mean that the minions got their own attack. Darn, FFG games can be hard to internalize sometimes 😉

Something I've done is to let the squad leader (which is one of the PCs) to do an average leadership check to direct the squad. If she gets 2 successes on the check the squad can make 1 attack