Hey Beta Developers - give us Imperial and Rebel options!

By Stormtrooper721, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beta

Been having a great discussion on the Beginners forum about running an Imperial campaign but the current options are limited:

Class - Specialties
Bounty Hunter - Assassin, Gadgeteer, Survivalist
Colonist - Doctor, Politico, Scholar
Explorer - Fringer, Scout, Trader
Hired Gun - Bodyguard, Marauder, Mercenary Soldier
Smuggler - Pilot, Scoundrel, Thief
Technician - Mechanic, Outlaw Tech, Slicer

Could we add two other classes to the mix:

Imperial - with the Specialties of Officer , Pilot, Soldier

Rebel - with the Specialties of Officer , Pilot, Soldier

I'm thinking of an Imperial campaign with perhaps a force-sensitive jedi-hunter, an Imperial Officer, a couple Stormtroopers, a bounty hunter and a few NPC Stormtroopers to help them out and act as redshirts. Hunt down pirates and Rebel scum and the like.

Other players may want to run a campaign as Rebels. Not everyone likes to play Fringe. Some of us like to commit to the cause.

Stormtrooper721 said:

Been having a great discussion on the Beginners forum about running an Imperial campaign but the current options are limited:

Class - Specialties
Bounty Hunter - Assassin, Gadgeteer, Survivalist
Colonist - Doctor, Politico, Scholar
Explorer - Fringer, Scout, Trader
Hired Gun - Bodyguard, Marauder, Mercenary Soldier
Smuggler - Pilot, Scoundrel, Thief
Technician - Mechanic, Outlaw Tech, Slicer

Could we add two other classes to the mix:

Imperial - with the Specialties of Officer , Pilot, Soldier

Rebel - with the Specialties of Officer , Pilot, Soldier

I'm thinking of an Imperial campaign with perhaps a force-sensitive jedi-hunter, an Imperial Officer, a couple Stormtroopers, a bounty hunter and a few NPC Stormtroopers to help them out and act as redshirts. Hunt down pirates and Rebel scum and the like.

Other players may want to run a campaign as Rebels. Not everyone likes to play Fringe. Some of us like to commit to the cause.

The next Core book to be released after the Fringe book is the Rebel book…

Kallabecca said:

The next Core book to be released after the Fringe book is the Rebel book…

When will the Imperial one be released?

Based on what they've shown… there isn't an Imperial specific book, but I'm guessing the Careers in the Rebel book will work for both sides. A pilot is a pilot, an officer is an officer, kind of thing.

The next game to be put out should be called, tentatively, "Star Wars: Age of Rebellion" and should hit shelves in Q1, 2014. As I understand it though, it is not intended to simply a act as a rebel source book, but instead as the 'military based Star Wars Core Game Book'.
Post Note: Given precedence from the Warhammer 40k line of books, in the off chance that the Empire is not directly covered in the core release then they should be taken care of in a supplement soon after.

Stormtrooper721 said:

When will the Imperial one be released?

same time as the Krakken

Tassedar said:

Stormtrooper721 said:

When will the Imperial one be released?

same time as the Krakken

Nooooooooo!

awayputurwpn said:

Tassedar said:

Stormtrooper721 said:

When will the Imperial one be released?

same time as the Krakken

Nooooooooo!

Great where did I put my Madusa head?

In regards to the OP, an Imperial campaign has never really been an officially supported option in pretty much any official iteration of a Star Wars RPG.

WEG discussed it briefly in their big pre-gen character book (Heroes & Rogues?), but otherwise figured the PCs were either independent operaters (smugglers, scouts, and bounty hunters) or were part of the Rebellion/New Republic.

WotC again brushed up against it with their Dark Side Sourcebook, although most of that was intended more as a GM resource than anything, and even then mostly focused on dark side Force-users rather than Imperial characters. I believe it also got a brief mention in the Rebellion Era Campaign Guide for the Saga Edition line, but that's about the extent of it.

As others have said, the Age of Rebellion book is slated for 2014, though there's not been any specific announcement beyond that on FFG's part. Right now, EotE is focused on the independent operators of the Star Wars universe, the pre-movie versions of Han Solo and Lando Calrissian, before they got tangled up in the Rebel Alliance's "glorious revolution." Now, that's not to say that you can't run a campaign in EotE with the heroes being tied to the Alliance; perhaps the default starting Obligation for all the PCs is to the Rebellion rather than to separate causes (though you could easily have any extra Obligation the PCs choose to take be of a different sort). They're just probably not going to be part of the rank-and-file, instead being what WEG called a "Mission Ops" group, which was a short-hand term for the usual rag-tag group of generally-heroic iconoclasts that most player groups are composed of.

For an Imperial campaing, it's easy enough to re-skin the existing Careers and Specializations to have the PCs be part of the Imperial military if that's the sort of campaign everyone in your group want to play. I'm currently playing an semi-retired Clone Trooper in a Skype game, and I simply used the Hired Gun career with the Bodyguard and Mercenary specializations to reflect his training (he's also a bit of an old geezer by Clone Trooper standards, which I figure accounts for why he's not the utter hardcore badass that most veteran soldiers would be after a decade of combat experience).