Star Wars RP - Working for the empire ideas

[Gamezdude]

Im running a star wars campaign where the players are promoted to stormtrooper special forces (Shadow troopers I think)
and in the game, my objective is to display the brutality of the empire they are working for.

The ideas I have for each scenario are...(getting darker & more unethical for build up)
Dissolution of the senate
Assassination of rebel leader
Project blackwing (Experimented storm trooper zombies)
Gungan rebellion which results in the mass execution of the entire army

Any other ideas?

[Aotrs Commander]

Im running a star wars campaign where the players are promoted to stormtrooper special forces (Shadow troopers I think)
and in the game, my objective is to display the brutality of the empire they are working for.

The ideas I have for each scenario are...(getting darker & more unethical for build up)
Dissolution of the senate
Assassination of rebel leader
Project blackwing (Experimented storm trooper zombies)
Gungan rebellion which results in the mass execution of the entire army

Any other ideas?

Uh... The first thing I will point out - as my group have played Imperial parties more often when we play Star Wars than rebels - is that showing the Empire as the bad guys in that way will only work if, unlike our tables, the players aren't going to delight in the chance to play Evil like we do. The Empire especially gives you the chance to ham it all the way up to eleven, suffer not the alien and go all TIE Fighter on everything (especially if the group can manage lawful evil). So I would make absolutely certain that your players and you are on the same page and are not going to just revel in the chance to play panto-evil villains. (Because it IS enormous fun.) Else you might... Not quite get what you're going for.

(Also, you should absolute be clear in either case that the players should not create chaotic evil characters (or the equivilent) as those are not condusive to good play (unless you particulalry trist your players not to play it as Catastrophic Asshat - I run Evil campaigns, like, half the time, and I always mandate that!) If they are going to be Evil (seriously or comedically), to ensure that the Evil is done onlt to those outside the party (and ideally. their own side.) Now this may not be an issue if your players (or their charactrers) are going to be deeply horrified ect at having to commit atrocitis or whatever, but this is, like, Rule Number One in setting an Evil party and some fundemental it's worth mentioning in passing in what might be a corner-case.)



The current existant party I occasionally run 666 Squadron, the Tigersharks (though we haven't done it for a while) is basically an evil version of Rogue Squadron; i.e. ostensibly a special-ops fighter squadron. TIE Fighter itself, though thoroughly Imperial to the point of more or less making me a permenant Imperial loyalist, might be worth checking out, or at least some of the descriptions of the earlier missions (see wookieepedia, before the Zaarin attempted coup takes a lot of the attention); stuff like the Sepan Civil War (battle 2, I believe) is ideal fodder for adaption for your special-ops forces.

As our Imperial parties are not EVEN the only Evil party we have active (currently, we have, like two in rotation, which is as many as the good parties I run...!), one of those is even similar in scope. Albiet fantasy, it's a black ops covert unit working for the Dark Lord. Quests there have been respectively (from which you might draw ideas)

1) solving a break-in to a repsotitory of knowledge saving nonhumans (especially evil races) from genocide at the hands of an insane ghost human mage (nominally one the good guy's side, though obviously not good) - this got the party noticed and seconded to the black ops

2) Tracking down what happened to a missing undercover informant

3) Going to do some "basic" adventuring work for their own side, stopping a magic weather issue threatening one of the cities

4) In the good guy capital city, performing a double assassination (which had to be performed simultaneously because Magic (or Sufficiently technology in adaption)) without anyone even realising that they existed, let alone Done The Dirty Deed

5) Inflitrate a convoy crossing the sea (space?) to find out what the good guy nation is up to in the colonies (starting an arc); first part of this arc (and last current quest) was also, once again, stopping something evil-but-a-threat-to-everyone in the form of a sentient/sapient magical disease. (Evil is not monolithic.)



(The third Evil party is (in Rolemaster) evil by accident, not by design, as the concept for the campaign was basically a bit Stargate SG-1 exploration, but the best and easier fit for the groundwork was to use the Army Of The Red Spear (Aotrs) and thus making everyone LE Liches...)

Hopefully, that might give you some ideas.

[Cikomyr]

The best way of making sure that your players will actually grow to hate the Empire they are working for is if it screws them where they care.

For example. If they develop allies and good relationship with certain underhanded (but good-hearted) members of societies, have the local Imperial governor/garrison leader go against these allies for technical terms.

Whever the players develop something good with someone, have these people somehow hurt by the systematic oppression of the Empire. And eventually.. have these people ask a "favor" to your PCs, to get away with it, or maybe to just run away. Have the players pick between personal loyalty and ideological loyalty.

And quicker than you can say "Corrupt", the players will start double-crossing their employer, collaborate with organized crime or the actual bona-fide rebellion, and strike out on their own.

The thing is, you will never motivate your players by a Grandiose Ideological Demonstration. Because while, yhea, the Empire as a whole may do evil stuff, but they give me my gear and they pay well. Plus, the Gungan Rebellion is your backstory man, i dont want to screw it up.

Instead, you have to make your players realize that every individual rebels they meet have their own personal stories of blatant injustice that awakened. Hey, even Luke freakking Skywalker did not take arms against the Empire on an ideological crusade, but because his foster parents were carelessly and needlessly killed by the jackbooted thugs looking for two miserable droids

[RossN]

I'd second Aotrs Commander's concerns about being on the same page as your players. The thing about the Empire, part of the reason it is so popular, is that it looks so cool. Star Destroyers! TIE Fighters! AT-ATs! There is a reason that Kylo Ren and General Hux are basically in-universe Empire cosplayers.

One of the things you might want to consider is to give your characters superiors who won't look cool. Make their commander a weasel aristocrat who only got his post by family connections and have him (or her) steal their glory. Have him nearly get them killed by incompetence and then blame the PCs for his mistakes. Make it clear that a corrupt system like the Empire allows such a toad to achieve a degree of power. Sooner or later your PCs will be itching to get their well deserved revenge.

You might even want to introduce a 'worthy opponent' type to contrast with Commander Weasel. Not necessarily a Rebel but someone opposing the Empire who makes it a point to show he respects the PCs even if he's on the 'wrong' side.

[Gamezdude]

Both my players are anti empire at heart so they do have the motivation to turn. And I have stated, they will get their chance.

[Brother Oni]

Hey, even Luke freakking Skywalker did not take arms against the Empire on an ideological crusade, but because his foster parents were carelessly and needlessly killed by the jackbooted thugs looking for two miserable droids

Or Beru killed herself and Owen in an accident with a thermal detonator while the local Stormtroopers were attending yet another domestic dispute call at the Lars residence (https://youtu.be/LvswNDAAZCU?t=246).

[Cikomyr]

Or Beru killed herself and Owen in an accident with a thermal detonator while the local Stormtroopers were attending yet another domestic dispute call at the Lars residence (https://youtu.be/LvswNDAAZCU?t=246).

This sketch is so hilarious

[Corsair14]

I would go the other way. Depict the Empire as the good guys and the Rebels as the terrorists they are. Therefore when asked to do brutal things they aren't doing it out of malice or for the fun of it, they are doing it because they believe it needs to be done to hold these evil rebels in check. Seeing as most Imperial citizens and troops are perfectly normal people serving their country to make it a better and safer place for the people and their families. Very few individuals except at the very high end would be technically "evil." Even Death Troopers are mostly super well trained guys just doing their jobs for the good of the Empire.