Alright, so I'm sure that this has cropped up before, and I apologize to the veterans of this forum section - I only recently started looking into FFG:s Star Wars RPG, on account of my GM starting up an EotE game, played my first actual session just yesterday.

Anyway; What about the Empire?

Edge of the Empire obviously focuses on bounty hunters, explorers, criminals, various semi-neutral groups and their (mis-) adventures.

Age of Rebellion is clearly meant to focus on the rebellion, and the Alliance to Restore the Republic, operatives part of that, and their missions and their struggles against the Empire.

Force and Destiny is believed to primarily concern the Jedi, perhaps the Sith, in various capacities. I know virtually nothing about this, or how this would be portrayed in the Rebellion Era, considering that there's not that many of them around.

This covers many of the different iconic facets of the Star Wars universe, but there's one glaring omission to me. The Empire. Imperial operatives, stormtrooper commandos, spies, black op. scientists, death star operators. All those that aren't actually Sith, but just loyal subjects to the Empire - some may even genuinely believe that this is better than the Republic, and honestly, to many people, I am sure the Empire was.

It's just odd to me, is all. Has there been any words if they're considering making more Core Rulebooks in the future? Because it must've been discussed at length, I'm sure.

What gives?

3... 2... 1... GO!

(for what its worth, I'm with you on this... just waiting for a certain someone to come marching).

From the Age of Rebellion forums, it sounds like you can play pro-Imperial campaigns in AoR.

(An Imperial sourcebook for that set would be nice (and sell well) though.)

An Imperial sourcebook would be cool, but with AoR, it's actually not difficult to make Imperial characters. Just take the same stats and outfit them with the appropriate equipment. My brother and I spent a while discussing how to run a 501st campaign using the beta book; I assume the final product will make it even easier.

Round 4..... FIGHT!

Yeah, the way AoR beta is set up, you can effectively use that core rulebook and the equipment found within to create Imperial Characters. You could even use the same Duty system, having the Empire give them starting equipment and upgrade their base of operations as they complete more assignments (ie, level up Duty). All you have to do is replace the 'Age of Rebellion' title with 'Age of the Empire', there is no real need for an Empire Source book as such.

I have the eerie feeling that I've just started something bad...

From the Age of Rebellion forums, it sounds like you can play pro-Imperial campaigns in AoR.

(An Imperial sourcebook for that set would be nice (and sell well) though.)

An Imperial sourcebook would be cool, but with AoR, it's actually not difficult to make Imperial characters. Just take the same stats and outfit them with the appropriate equipment. My brother and I spent a while discussing how to run a 501st campaign using the beta book; I assume the final product will make it even easier.

These are both of course very true, which is also why I've asked myself why the Age of Rebellion is so emphatically focused on the Rebel Alliance, rather than a more general "Opposing Forces" idea, with a little bit of each from each side.

While it's a given that much of what is in AoR can be easily adapted to serve as a basis for an Imperial campaign, there's a number of inherent problems with tying AoR so closely to the Rebel Alliance. First, all Adventures will assume that the players are either serving the rebels or are part of the alliance. Secondly, virtually all fluff will be written from a given point of view - the Rebel Alliance's.

What with shared specializations across various careers in EotE and AoR, I wouldn't even mind if the Careers/Specializations would be much the same, and the fundamentals near-identical; but if the rebels are getting a full line to themselves, I think it is only fitting that the Empire would get one, too. Now, I realize that might be a bit much to hope for, and I guess I just feel that it would've been better if AoR wouldn't have been so exclusively Rebel Alliance as it became.

Round 4..... FIGHT!

I think we are well past Round 4 on this topic.

I imagine the game is set up for a Rebellion bias because it's more heroic. As the original films paint them as the "plucky underdogs" an Imperial game would amount to the PCs as galactic bullies. Interesting as a diversion but not really a long-term plan.

The closest my group came to was a decidedly "dirty dozen" game where we were mercs ( Ah, Deadeye Dug... ) hired by an Imperial Warlord. It was set a few years after RotJ.

EricB hasn't been around the forums for a few weeks now so it should be safe.

As said before, the AoR beta can handle an imperial game with little effort. There are heroes on both sides so get creative and have fun.

I doubt we will see any core books focused on the Empire. As already pointed out, you can use the upcoming AoR CB for that with work. I imagine we will see an Empire supplement once the CB releases. There may be information on running Imperial games in that. Beyond that I don't think you'll see much direct support. This is more a game of good guys battling the evil Empire.

Erik has been here, just not posting. He hasn't had a cause to...until now!

I think that they focus on the main D6 spirit where you can only pick the "good guys" and if you turn to the Dark Side the GM takes your PC. With a bit of imagination you can create Imperial Officers or "bad guys", no really need a "Empire Book" I think, but, more material will be great yeah

PS: I was waiting for ErikB too Logan XD

While I play mostly Rebel Alliance characters, I too wouldn't mind seeing something for Imperials.

This covers many of the different iconic facets of the Star Wars universe, but there's one glaring omission to me. The Empire. Imperial operatives, stormtrooper commandos, spies, black op. scientists, death star operators. All those that aren't actually Sith, but just loyal subjects to the Empire - some may even genuinely believe that this is better than the Republic, and honestly, to many people, I am sure the Empire was.

Besides what others have described, nothing in EotE and AoR precludes playing Imps except the whole " default setting/faction " thing... and the fact that as the reigning government, unlike the Rebels, your party and GM are necessarily going to have to work your way around that whole " military hierarchy " thing and what that does to the narrative, even if that has been discussed (i.e. playing an ad hoc 'special missions unit' that gets more autonomy than a 'conventional' military unit).

Also, for the character types mentioned above... we've already got NPCs for that -- much moreso in AoR than EotE -- if you want to use them as templates for modeling the building of a PC on.

It's a business decision. Does Fantasy Flight believe that there is enough of a demand for an Imperial game or sourcebook? If the answer is yes, then I'm sure they will consider publishing one. If the answer is no, then I imagine it will be up to creative players and GMs to make it happen, working with the material we've already got.

After all, this is the publisher who produced Black Crusade, which is somewhat analogous to what an Imperial RPG would be.

I'm curious, though... have previous iterations of Star Wars RPGs supported an Imperial campaign? What's the precedent?

It's a business decision. Does Fantasy Flight believe that there is enough of a demand for an Imperial game or sourcebook? If the answer is yes, then I'm sure they will consider publishing one. If the answer is no, then I imagine it will be up to creative players and GMs to make it happen, working with the material we've already got.

After all, this is the publisher who produced Black Crusade, which is somewhat analogous to what an Imperial RPG would be.

I'm curious, though... have previous iterations of Star Wars RPGs supported an Imperial campaign? What's the precedent?

Well I know that there's no shortage of would-be imperials out there. It's not all about the Sith this and the Sith that; the Empire holds a very primal appeal, and it must've been something they considered.

To my knowledge, I think the only book that went into it was saga's Rebellion Era sourcebook, and that may have only been as a sidebar. There was the "Murder on the Executor" module a while back. I think it was a wotc module for gencon. Was that an imp-themed module?

Otherwise, its all been about playing the good guys.

WEG had an entire Imperial Sourcebook. It may be on the holocron.

WotC published Dark Side sourcebook and that was the only book for bad guys since d6.

Round 4..... FIGHT!

I think we are well past Round 4 on this topic.

When WotC released their Dark Side book they devoted an issue of Star Wars Gamer to it. It included extra information and a Dark Side adventure. Saga had many era books with lots of information, but nothing specifically aimed at playing Imperials or Sith. That is, for the most part, left for the people playing the game to do.

I think that FFG may take a similar stance. Play what you want, but you just won't see much in the way of support for "evil" campaigns. A book detailing more of the Empire, much in the way that WEG did, I could see though.

Making ex-Imperials within the AoR beta has been pretty easy to do. I think that book could be reskined in black/grey and given some Imperial art and it's good to go. Maybe alter the language a bit, but it's pretty solid for either faction.

Having said that, I'd definitely pay money for some type of Empire source book. Something about the scale of EtU that's about the Empire instead of Exploring. That'd be interesting enough for me to drop ~25$. I think I'd get a fair amount of utiliy from it.

To my knowledge, I think the only book that went into it was saga's Rebellion Era sourcebook, and that may have only been as a sidebar. There was the "Murder on the Executor" module a while back. I think it was a wotc module for gencon. Was that an imp-themed module?

Yeah, Murder on the Executor had the PCs as Imperials stationed aboard said vessel, with the adventure taking place around the time of the Battle of Hoth.

For the most part, the Star Wars RPGs have focused on playing the good guys, be it Rebels during the Rebellion Era, New Republic post-RotJ/NJO, or Jedi/Republic for pre-ANH settings such as the Rise of the Empire/Clone Wars.

The Dark Side Sourcebook for WotC's OCR system was a major break from that trend, although much of that was really slanted towards providing the GM various new tricks and powers for Dark Sider NPCs. The Rebellion Era Campaign Guide for Saga Edition didn't really devote much information to running an Imperials campaign, but they did at least discuss the notion. Been a while since I've referenced it, but I think the Clone Wars Campaign Guide did something similar for having PCs that were fighting for/with the Separatists rather than against them. The most WEG did in terms of Imperial PCs was have a few pages in the Heroes & Rogues book (which was pretty much a collection of new character templates) to the topic, with an emphasis on "you're playing bad guys in a bad guy organization, things aren't going to end well for you unless you're just as cutthroat and ruthless as your peers."

As others have said, both here in this thread and in similar threads, if FFG feels there's enough of a demand and the product would sell, then they might consider a sourcebook slanted towards an Imperial campaign. But the fact also exists that a lot of the existing material, particularly the Duty mechanic as well as the careers and specializations found in Age of Rebellion can be adopted to work for an Imperial campaign already, with the Duty options maybe taking on a bit more of a sinister bent to account for the simple fact the Empire aren't the setting's good guys.

OMG, what have you started now???

Personally, I will be very surprised if we see specific rules and books for Imperial players. Reading every single book - including Enter the Unknown - makes it adamantly clear that FFG's default is that the Empire are the Bad Guys and the players will be playing heroic freedom fighters or clever independent scoundrels.

And that's fine. There's nothing wrong with having a focus for a game. In One Ring, you can't play orcs. In EoE, you can't play Hutts. In WHFRP, you can't play skaven, chaos warriors or dark elves.

However.

There's nothing stopping you playing Imperials if you want; all the AOE careers are suitable for any military type really. An Imperial Ace or Commander wouldn't look too different, mechanically, from an Alliance one.

I myself put a lot of effort into changing the fluff for my game, and there's no reason a GM couldn't do the same for playing Imperials if he wanted, providing his players were okay with it. For me, the biggest changes would be the fluff - the Empire seems to be a lot more tightly-controlled and centralised, making it harder to play PCs. And if I was an imperial, I'd be a LOT more worried about my superiors than the Alliance...

So why we would even need a book for it? AoE has the careers, right? You have stats for TIE fighters and the like. I don't expect FFG will do a book about 'alternate canon' just for me, and I don't see why you'd really need them to do a separate book to play Imperials.

I will lay good odds that the actual AOE book will have a little sidebar in it somewhere saying something like this:

"AoE is written assuming you will be playing heroic Rebels. If you want to play Imperials instead, go ahead. It's not like we can stop you, anyway."

Oddly enough, our own canon would probably be pretty fertile ground for an Imperial PC set-up, with Anakin and Palpatine dead, and Tarkin being ruler of an Empire riven by a vicious four-way civil war...