Our gaming group is still playing through the Tyrants of Lothal campaign, we have two games to go. But in this weekend's semi-regular gaming session, one of us couldn't make it. We still wanted to play IA, but without either finishing that campaign or starting a new one. A one-off, one-day mini-campaign was called for, and (as the Imperial player) I decided to experiment with something a bit different.

So the night before (having not had much notice) I bashed together some Hero sheets using the Kensei Imperial Assault Tools Suite . For example:

Obviously that's a completely unique anti-hero - except - how unique is it really? Not very! That's actually identical rules to Biv Bodhrik. I also made anti-hero equivalents of Jyn Odan, Diala Passil, and Gideon Argus - a selection of play styles, four available for three anti-hero players to choose from - complete with custom-made and printed Hero sheets and Class cards. I also set aside models for a Death Trooper, Greedo, The Grand Inquisitor, and Agent Blaise to represent the anti-hero characters.

Next was to put together a story. To do this I chose three missions we had not yet played, and just made up different words on the fly as we played through those missions, naming the whole campaign The Emperor's Reach :

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You are an elite Imperial hit squad, hand-picked by the Emperor himself. In the aftermath of The Empire Strikes Back, the ISB have learned the location of a Rebel base. Just as you arrive, the Rebels initiate the self-destruct sequence! You must locate the hidden escape hatch and pursue the fleeing Rebels before the whole base blows up. ( Mission: Incoming, Core Set )

You failed to pursue the Rebels. They knew you were coming and escaped in time. There's only one possible explanation - there must be a traitor among the Imperial forces! The ISB are getting reports of a Rebel raid. Perhaps they are trying to extract the traitor before we can find, torture, and kill him. You must interrupt the Rebel raid, capture the traitor, and rescue the Imperial forces that are under attack. ( Mission: Friends of Old, Core Set )

Well done, you caught the traitor and rescued the Stormtroopers. Using torture on the traitor, we have learned the identity and location of the main Rebel command ship in the sector. We will infiltrate you on board where you must disable that ship's hyperdrive, so the Rebels cannot flee, then make your own escape. ( Mission: Infiltrated, Twin Shadows )

Next, I had to plan the XP and progression structure. I used Twin Shadows as the basis, though that had four games not just three, so I awarded an extra XP to all players after every game, and let the players choose from Item decks I, II, then III in each upgrade phase. I ignored Agenda completely.

Finally, I needed to set up some Rebel forces for the Imperial anti-heroes to fight against. Basically I swapped in equivalent units - for example Stormtroopers became Rebel Troopers, Imperial Officers became Alliance Smugglers, Royal Guard became Wookiee Warriors, etc. Some units caused problems but it wasn't insurmountable - I had to swap Probe Droids for a Rebel Saboteur with group size 1, for example. And, I chose suitable unique figures where appropriate: thus Lando Calrissian turned up in the first game (he costs a point more than the Elite Imperial Officer he replaced, but I used a slightly cheaper unit elsewhere to compensate) and Leia Organa in the finale (which had the opposite problem and solution).

With that we were set - The Emperor's Reach campaign could begin!

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You'll have worked out from the text above that the players lost the first game (very narrowly - if they had passed a few more Tech or Might tests they would have won), won the second game (easily), and lost the third (only just - against overwhelming odds they slew Rebels by the dozen, but I wounded the last of them just before they could achieve their objective and make good their escape). So the overall victory went to me and the Rebels. Really good fun, and no less so for being a short, single-day campaign.

I'd already told the players I would be making up the story on the fly, but they seemed to buy into it. They were also unsurprised to learn that the missions were just re-skins of ones we hadn't played before, though I don't think they consciously thought about it until I told them. This mostly worked too, with some oddities - the second mission is much more about rescuing the troopers than killing the traitor (which isn't technically even an objective). Makes perfect sense as Gideon's side mission, but the players were asking "hey, we're the Empire, why are we bothered about rescuing Stormtroopers? Plenty more where they came from!". A fair question, though they played into character by saving only the two troopers they needed to win, and deliberately leaving the third to die!

They had no idea the anti-heroes were simply reskinned heroes, though, until I revealed that at the end - which is really nice, because all those heroes have been used in our previous campaigns. Jennet White-Eye, the ruthless Rodian mercenary working for Imperial pay, seemed to them to be totally different to Jyn Odan, even though they are mechanically identical. So all in all, everything seemed like a fresh and all-new experience for our eighth campaign... even though actually, it was only partly new. I was really pleased with this.

Lessons to learn for the overall campaign: the XP and credits progression didn't feel right, only three opportunities to buy skills made it really hard and I'm not sure the right amounts were awarded, and they definitely didn't have enough cash. I hadn't had much time to plan it. I probably need to check the progression for all the different campaigns of different sizes, and plan for future custom campaigns of various sizes, as well as determining when to use story missions and when to use side missions (the XP and credits awards differ substantially for story and side missions).

Bashing together some random missions and making up a story on the fly worked fine in principle and practice, though. We've played eight campaigns now, and that's been 55 missions - there are still 78 we haven't played yet! So we're less than halfway through, we could keep playing more and more campaigns for as long as people don't get bored, of which there's no sign yet. Just needs a bit of creative storytelling and a bit of thought on my part.

Lessons to learn in the game: I knew the choice of Rebel units would be limited compared to Imperials (I deliberately chose not to mix in any Scum, too, though in principle there's no reason why not, Scum could happily fight alongside Rebels). I hadn't realised quite how samey they'd be, though. Rebel Troopers, Echo Base Troopers, Rebel Saboteurs, and Alliance Rangers are only subtly different yet they were the overwhelming bulk of the enemies, so it felt a tiny bit monotonous. Normally, even in the Core Set you have Probe Droids and E-Webs which play totally differently, never mind the Riot Troopers and Jet Troopers and such like that come later.

Alliance Smugglers worked fine as Officer replacements, though I only had one figure, so had to sub in replacements when more were needed. And Wookiees are, on paper, perfect replacements for Royal Guard... but it turns out the extra Health (11 not 8 ) makes them really, really hard to shift, which was really problematic in the final mission; the anti-heroes had to put so many attacks into them, that achieving their objective became very difficult.

Overall though, the issues raised in the last couple of paragraphs were pretty minor. Making up a campaign on the fly was pretty easy and means we can keep playing for years without ever having to play the same mission twice. Fighting as Imperials, against Rebels, was a nice change of pace for the other players. And although there are some quirks with using Rebel units instead of Imperial ones, it basically works just fine.

If you've got a regular gaming group and want to try something different, without necessarily making up a load of custom heroes, units, and missions from scratch (nothing wrong with that, in fact it sounds like fun, it'd just be a lot of work to make something balanced enough for a satisfactory experience!), I heartily recommend taking inspiration from this example. Try an anti-hero campaign and see how it works for you.

This is a really fun idea! Looking fwd to trying it when we get home.