I've been formulating a possible Age of Rebellion campaign in my head and wondered if the more experienced minds around might have insight to offer.

Star Wars: Imperial Commando

• Inspired by the "Republic Commandos" game as well as a lot of content from the Clone Wars series
• Players take the role of a squad of Imperial Stormtroopers in the Mid Rim
• "Good Guy" (or at least not explicitly "Bad Guy") Imperial Campaign
• Using Age of Rebellion with the Duty System

Overall Campaign Structure

• Academy Days: Starting adventure in which players are completing their training at one of the Imperial Academies. While in their final months they start to suspect that one of their classmates is a rebel sympathizer. Adventure concludes with a rebel attack on the academy, several of their fellow cadets being killed in battle, and the players probably being awarded for their participation in the defence, graduated, and mobilized as a stormtrooper squad.
• War in the Mid Rim: Players are mobilized to fight against a rising tide of criminal activity and violent revolutions in the Mid Rim. They move from battle to battle, eventually gaining some fame and notoriety among their superiors. When their reach their first contribution rank (which coincides with a major climax to the campaign they've been serving in) they have come to the attention of someone in the Imperial Special Forces Branch, who has them reassigned and reformed as a Commando Squad.
• Imperial Commandos: Players are deployed on their first mission as Imperial Commandos, which develops into the hunt for a key rebel leader who they already became aware of in their previous campaign (perhaps the mastermind of the attack on the academy?).

Antagonists:

• Local Criminal Organizations
• Extremist Rebel Factions
• Separatist Holdouts (if set in the early imperial period)
• Imperial Traitors
• Order 66 Survivors?

Other Thoughts:

• I'm wondering if it might be suitable to start off all the characters as Imperial Cadets (Dawn of Rebellion) at character creation and make sure they get enough XP in their first adventure to take a second specialization, representing that they have specialized in a field in the final year of academy after more general training? Or does this rob the players too much of their agency in character creation?
• I'd like to avoid the often seen "Imperials realize Empire is bad and defect" plot without going full "bad guy campaign". There's nothing wrong with that plot idea but it's not what I'm shooting for. My intent is to show things from the perspective that a) there is good reason why good people would support the empire, and b) armed revolution isn't all heroics and flowers.

I'm still quite new to GMing and playing FFG Star Wars. I'd be very curious to know others' thoughts on this idea.

Thank You

I would just give the PCs a second spec, either at creation, or perhaps following the first adventure as you suggested. Giving them all the same spec (Imperial Cadet) might seem appropriate, but I would (and did) just let the players pick.

When I did this, my thoughts on the idea evolved from:

1. Okay, give them all Imperial Cadet.
2. Hmm.. Maybe any appropriate universal spec?
3. I guess a career spec would work...
4. Frekkit. I’ll just let them pick any **** 2nd spec they want.

Ultimately, I just gifted a second spec of the player’s choosing, to represent specialist training and flesh out/ individualize the characters. In the case of an out-of-career 2nd spec, I did require an expenditure of 10xp; I started them with an extra 30xp or so, so this would not need to come from “starting xp.”

I think I'd be inclined to agree with your approach, regarding just giving a second spec to show their specialist training and give them some more individual control.

Does an extra 30xp or so significantly alter how strong they are as starting characters?

5 minutes ago, ProfessorTerrible said:

I think I'd be inclined to agree with your approach, regarding just giving a second spec to show their specialist training and give them some more individual control.

Does an extra 30xp or so significantly alter how strong they are as starting characters?

I gave my players a free specific spec (Death Watch Warrior) since they were playing Mandalorians (not Death Watch), and I think it works fine.

No, 30 XP will not significantly alter how strong they are. It will affect it, but not all that much.* If you are giving them a free second spec, I would suggest also giving them bonuus XP. 30-50 should work fairly well.

If you look at it in a talent tree, that's a tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 talent. If they go broader and don't shoot straight up, that's 4 tier 1s and a tier 2 or 2 tier 1s and 2 tier 2s. Split that by 2 trees, and it isn't all that much at all. and that's if they focus it all into talents.

If you look at it for skills, you find something very similar. It goes an even shorter distance if they buy into a non-career skill.

2 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

I gave my players a free specific spec (Death Watch Warrior) since they were playing Mandalorians (not Death Watch), and I think it works fine.

So, mechanically speaking, would I be correct in saying that I'd be letting them take whichever career/spec represents their specialization, and that imperial cadet is their free spec? That way they still get their starting career skills at character creation?

30 minutes ago, ProfessorTerrible said:

So, mechanically speaking, would I be correct in saying that I'd be letting them take whichever career/spec represents their specialization, and that imperial cadet is their free spec? That way they still get their starting career skills at character creation?

Yes. They get the career and specialization, and then they get the second spec.

I would do it that way. Let them start as whatever they choose so they can create unique characters, then grant them Imperial Academy Cadet to represent their regimented training. They'll gain a broad range of career and spec skills and open up the possibility of varied Signature Abilities if the game lasts that long.

Thank you all.

I've gotten pretty comfortable with the rules on a technical level, but I'm still getting that "feel" for how they all fit together in the most reward way.

I was giving some more thought and wondered if anyone has seen an alternate system for how to handle equipment in a military-style campaign.

The idea of getting money as you go and using that to finance your gear doesn't feel right in a conventional military sense. I was wondering if perhaps the players should have instead some means of advancing what equipment and armament is available in their armory, and then they can access it as needed?

Just an idle thought.

The Contribution rank is one way of granting gear, but you could also allow the PCs to requisition gear for certain missions. This wouldn't really belong to them, and they may be held responsible for the loss or damage of the gear, but they wouldn't have to pay for it up front (they probably wouldn't have a personal armory, though). In an Imperial campaign, resources are much more available and are going to be much more GI than in a Rebellion campaign. They would also have a steady pay, though that number and the frequency is up to you.

This is something of a double-edged sword, because they may be much more restricted in what gear they are allowed to use, as the Empire tends to frown on individuality and that may extend to weaponry and gear as well. I would caution against restricting them to the stuff with an Imperial label, though, as that is a fairly small selection of gear. Just exercise your best judgement in what equipment would be permissible (and take a long hard look at the restricted gear to make sure it would be legal for them).

If I were to run a campaign like this I'd use Contribution Rank as a benchmark. To start, they get a standard load out for any mission: primary weapon, sidearm, stimpacks, reloads, comlink, etc.

For anything additional, make a list of all weapons and equipment the military would reasonably hand out. If they're level 0, they have ready access to anything Rarity 4 or less. Each rank up increases that Rarity availability.

I'd also create a quartermaster NPC who can get some off the books stuff they can buy or barter for. That'll give some fun flavor and let players with social skills flex a bit while negotiating.

And they could certainly acquire gear from more illicit sources while on mission.

I'd recommend checking out my unofficial adventure module "Imperial Storm Commando". It's similar to what you've proposed.

Looking for an Imperial Campaign? It's finally here! Check out the Imperial Storm Commando Unofficial Adventure Module, a 174 page book with 4 full adventures for Age of Rebellion.

https://app.box.com/s/yeabou6jt02qbnpcrjxnoja5uqvgn3i3

In this module the players are Imperial Storm Commandos, the Elite within Elite Stormtrooper Corps. The PCs play as a part of the 501 ^st Legion under the command of Darth Vader, attached to the recently formed Death Squadron

--Lagspike

2 hours ago, Lagspike said:

I'd recommend checking out my unofficial adventure module "Imperial Storm Commando". It's similar to what you've proposed.

As a matter of fact, since I started looking into this topic, I did find that and have downloaded it.

I like what I see, it's good stuff.