Playing the Empire

Bren · December 31, 2014, 10:46:21 PM

Quote from: Ronin;807002Has anyone ever ran an Empire campaign where the characters were part of the Empire, instead of the Rebels or what not?

Yes. A number of people (not me) have done that. It tends to be a common niche subject (often accompanied by a desire to create better Stormtroopers) though as a setting it is probably less popular than a fringer campaign where no one is a Rebel or an Imperial (I have run that.)

Quote from: Simlasa;807004Didn't one of the Star Wars RPGs have a supplement aimed at just that sort of thing? Maybe I only imagined I saw it.

Heroes and Rogues was a supplement that consisted of character templates that included Imperials, Neutrals, and Rebels. It included guidelines for running an Imperial campaign.

Daztur · January 01, 2015, 01:44:52 AM

I`d have a hard time running this without seeing a mutiny within the second session. Evil is one thing, obediant evil is another.

Maybe the PCs get to be the governors tasked with keeping the local systems in line?

Bren · January 01, 2015, 05:00:33 AM

Quote from: Daztur;807201I`d have a hard time running this without seeing a mutiny within the second session. Evil is one thing, obediant evil is another.

Then don't run it?

It doesn't sound particularly interesting to me either. I'm not interested in playing villainous characters (either as a player or as the GM). When I play (or run) Star Wars I want either shades of gray for a fringers campaign and for fringer characters or else I want a fairly unambiguous good vs. evil dichotomy for a Rebellion campaign. If I want a morally complex setting, I play something else.

Simlasa · January 02, 2015, 01:49:26 PM

Quote from: Bren;807187Yes. A number of people (not me) have done that. It tends to be a common niche subject (often accompanied by a desire to create better Stormtroopers) though as a setting it is probably less popular than a fringer campaign where no one is a Rebel or an Imperial (I have run that.)

Yeah, I'd have more interest in the 'fringer' thing... which is my taste in 40K based games as well.

Bren · January 02, 2015, 02:09:17 PM

Quote from: Simlasa;807400Yeah, I'd have more interest in the 'fringer' thing... which is my taste in 40K based games as well.

One of the more hysterical game scenes in our Star Wars campaign was a crossover adventure that ran the fringers into the Rebels. The look on the face of the Rebel characters/players as the fringer Smuggler Captain insisted on actually being paid per head for each rescued prisoner she transported from the space dungeon to freedom was absolutely priceless.

Rincewind1 · January 02, 2015, 02:10:27 PM

Actually, I've seen many Empire - based campaigns, including just playing line Stormtroopers. My mates always fondly remember the day one of them one - shot a Jedi Knight as a lowly Stormtrooper in 1e WEG.

I guess sometimes it just gives that murderhobo itch to scratch? Or you can focus on military operations and scratch out the whole "murdering/deporting species into slavery" parts of Empire, at least from player view.

RPGPundit · January 04, 2015, 10:28:34 PM

Nope, never did it. No "sith" campaign either.

Dirk Remmecke · January 05, 2015, 12:07:13 PM

Quote from: Emperor Norton;807056The name has been around since early versions of the script. Details didn't come/exist until later.

Five mentions in the script, but not in the dialogue:
http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Star-Wars-A-New-Hope.html

Also, no Imperial campaign (or even one-shot) here, and no desire to start one.

Armchair Gamer · January 05, 2015, 02:05:37 PM

Quote from: Bren;807187Heroes and Rogues was a supplement that consisted of character templates that included Imperials, Neutrals, and Rebels. It included guidelines for running an Imperial campaign.

There are two other mentions I can recall: The WEG Gamemaster's Handbook included some notes on Imperial games--basically either play up the 'ordinary people on the Other Side' or 'conflict of conscience and duty', IIRC--and WotC's Dark Side Sourcebook. The latter pretty much declared that for a properly Star Wars feel, the end result is that (to paraphrase The Dark Knight) you either die the villain, or live long enough to see yourself become the hero and work to undo your own evil.

Premier · January 05, 2015, 03:08:25 PM

I've run a one-shot game twice (at a con and a preliminary test) a few years back, not quite Imperial but sort of. Lord Vader's Robber Barons. The PCs were Vader's henchmen in an alternate Star Wars universe where nothing beyond the first film was ever written, and Vader was a sort of independent lord occasionally working for the Empire. The adventure revolved around finding out why Vader hasn't returned from his latest stint with the Empire. Turned out he was on some experimental battlestation headed for Yavin, but when the Robber Barons arrived, they only found a field of expanding debris where the station was supposed to be...

tenbones · January 05, 2015, 03:45:44 PM

I've played in an Empire game set in the Old Republic era. I was a Chiss Ascendancy envoy working for a Darth as an agent in Imperial Intelligence. My cohorts were operatives that worked likewise as hired-hands for IIS.

To be honest it depends on what you're setting the game up for. Are you talking bout war? Or spec-ops? Or infiltration? Anything you do on the Rebel side you can do on the Imperial side. Just that some of the "issues" you'll be dealing with are darker.

jeff37923 · January 05, 2015, 03:47:23 PM

Quote from: Ronin;807002Has anyone ever ran an Empire campaign where the characters were part of the Empire, instead of the Rebels or what not?

Yes, and it was awesome every time when we used d6 Star Wars.