/swg/ Vader's a badass edition

They take the robes off before fighting, no need.

He's one of the biggest reasons the first movie is my favorite movie.

What a class act.

ONE OF US
Ahem.
I've always wanted to play a SW game from the Imperial side where the Empire isn't portrayed as a bunch of mustache-twirling villains ruled by an evil mastermind. Also fuck midichlorians for being powerlevel bullshit that takes the whole point out of the Jedi's mysticism.
A couple of changes to the motivations and methods of the Empire (and the Emperor) would be plenty to definitively give them the moral high ground they arguably already have. A couple of ideas that pop into my head:
>Emperor Palpatine is not a Sith Lord that killed his master, but a Force-Sensitive trained by a Jedi Master who was sick of the Jedi Council's untouchability and the Senate's red tape. Bonus points if the same master trained Qui-Gon.
>With the formation of the Empire, the Jedi are dissolved and Force-Users are instructed under Imperial schooling (some might say propaganda) as servants of the general public who are educated and treated as commissioned officers and are accountable for their duties to Lord Vader and the Emperor.
>Lord Vader is the Imperial High Inquisitor (replacing in position the Inquisitor given in the animated series) who leads and disciplines the Empire's Force Users, acts as an instructor on combat and the Force from time to time, and acts as the effective arm of the Empire.
>Stormtroopers are either recruited from the Clone Troopers that wish to remain in combat (and are given proper right to retire as well as a pension if not) or volunteers trained by Imperial academies by former Clone Troopers and bounty hunters or experienced career soldiers. A draft would be an emergency method and the use of clones as forced conscripts would be seen as reason that the Republic was corrupt and treated them as tools rather than men.
>Probably tone down the racism against non-humans, especially because there are a lot of races, like the Kel Dor, that have their own Force Traditions the Empire can draw from.
Has anyone already run such a game?

Sure. But you see plenty of concept art and video game art with it on, and I'm looking for stuff where they're wearing armour without long tangle-tastic loin cloths or capes.

I like maintaining lore, I think the Human supremacy of the empire is a core concept of theirs, instead of changing you should look into justifying it. trying to change it would change the way you would think.

for the emperor, why don't you use the old idea that he was simply trying to prepare for the arrival of the yuzhang vong, just replace the vong with something you know. not stupid.

that way you can keep the classic emperor and vader which are both great characters in their respective ways, and just twist them ever so slightly. keeping vader as the emperor's enforcer is really fun to play, and his reputation will precede him when/if your players run into him.

I did an imperial based game and I always tend to show the brighter side of the empire, it brings order and stability. as well as change, may not be great for everyone but can do it, unlike the festering republic.

storm troopers are a complete separate military branch, and are selected from the imperial army for more training anyway clones simply aren't as reliable as born and bred humans, couple that with the kaminonan rebellions. and you got a distrust for clones.

you could have the force users fall under the jensarii or the imperial knights, or have them form underground force cults

don't make vader an inquisitor it doesn't fit him.

in fact don't use the inquisition they are stupid in the SW universe, just use ISB and have there be agents who are force users.

in the end keep palps and vader the way they are, to give some grounding for the verse your players are in, you can always make up new grand moffs, or officials who "truly" govern the empire while the emperor does fuck all.

The idea of a bunch of greek mystery cults that are basically fronts for force users is pretty neat.

Why not google Jedi without armor? Google rarely fails when asked with specific terms.

Because it gives them in street clothes or in the flowy things, barring one or two bits of concept art I already had.

I checked DDG to get out of the search bubble - nada.

It's really more of a Sith thing to wear just armor.
Robes are the symbols of the Jedi Order, so there's little reason for a Jedi to NOT wear them, even in combat because that just screams to everyone, "I AM JEDI!"
Of course, most Sith, at least named Sith, are going to have some sort of robes/cape/flowing loin cloth because they're trying to crib the Darth Vader style.

>It's really more of a Sith thing to wear just armor.
or they go in completely the other direction

"it's like every fashion designer in the galaxy went over to the dark side" - Kira Carsen

That's Sith Sorcerer. Basically the Wizards of the Sith. They do that because they want to be Palpatine.

Alright, I'm doing some concept revisions:

Justifying human supremacy is easier done by people who are actually Imperials than players, though it would provide a nice roleplaying opportunity. It wouldn't be the result specifically of direct policy, but of the fact that a lot of the big players in the Empire are human. I think protections against xenophobia would be legally kept but effectively ignored. After all, clone troopers were human and they were the heroes of the Clone Wars, protecting the future citizens of the Empire from the alien Trade Federation. The Emperor and Lord Vader were also human.

The Emperor foreseeing the fall of the Jedi and creating the Empire to enforce order from the ruins of the self-destructive and petty Republic might be all the justification he needs, now that I think about it- He believes Anakin really did bring balance to the Force by eliminating the burden of the Jedi.

The Imperial Knights would hold onto most of the Force Users and Imperial ex-Jedi (the younglings might have been recruited and not killed) who are Force-Users and believers in the force but don't subscribe to Jedi beliefs, seeing the Force as a method to restore order and protect the innocent, not believing in the light or dark side but just that it is a Force that can be applied, an inherent quality to the universe, a sort of vital energy.

Focus on the moffs is an excellent idea because the Empire is deliberately de-centralized, so as opposed to the stuck-up Senate that always gets up in the business of its constituents, the Empire is a protective force that only regulates to enforce order and universal, unbiased Imperial ideals, rather than a Senator's personal agenda- and lets most areas govern by rules that fit the system best, with (presumably) only the best of the best achieving Imperial governorship, decreasing hereditary corruption.

Does Luke in stormtrooper armor count?

You can play good people in the Empire without changing the Empire itself, that kind of undermines the entire point of the empire. Where does the conflict even come from in this utopia of yours?

obi-wan had armored robes

Tales of the Jedi had quite a few.

Just because the slightly modded Empire has (some) good ideas and intends to enforce them doesn't change the fact that the shift in allegiance will at minimum step on toes regardless of intent, if not break a few feet under heavy boots.

Systems used to non-Imperial ruling styles will chafe under the changes. The heavy-handedness of Imperial propaganda will lead people to believe that the whole Empire is a crock of shit, the dissolution of the Senate will raise some serious questions about the right (or lack therof) of the Emperor to rule, a bad choice of Moff would mean serious repercussions for the Empire as a whole.
Aliens would see the Empire in a bad light, decentralization could lead to the rise of corruption not directly related to the head leader. Imperial methods could be brutal. Slave labor as a form of criminal punishment would be kept, along with the issues that spawn from it.
The Empire would probably have its political enemies executed or arrested, not all rightfully. People looking for a quick step up in rank could cheat newly-implemented Imperial systems before the flaws could be found.
Crime lords could take the shift of power in their favor during the turnaround time from Republic to Empire. Some people may not accept the Empire at all, taking the break from the Republic as a chance for self-government. Does the Empire take control of these new independents or not? Are they responsible for old citizens of the Republic?
The Jedi were generally decimated, but they're also powerful individuals in their own right and have sway in some societies that champion them. If the Emperor is killed, who takes his place? How does the Empire standardize education? What about powerful businessmen that don't agree with the Empire's philosophies, standards, or methods? Who's going to pay for all of these reforms? How long is it going to take, and how can the Empire guarantee their effectiveness?

There are a lot of things that can and will go wrong.

I don't?? I was just giving the dude ideas for his world that he wanted, and you can get conflict just fine with the moffs themselves, humans will always be greedy, and there always be someone who wants more.

Oh, yeah, and the whole deal where people who don't toe the Imperial line to the max are considered crackpots, rebel scum, or rebel scum sympathizers. Plus, you know, the rebel scum that will inevitably arise and perceived or real atrocities committed by Imperial agents and military forces to crack down on rebels.
A member of the Imperial elite may believe the law-abiding have nothing to fear from being monitored, but rights to privacy are very important to a LOT of people. Some formerly loyal Imperials may question the cause due to pressures they face in the field. Some of Palaptine's ideas will just plain be wrong, particularly the Tarkin Doctrine as both be a force for order but also the biggest reason for people to join the Rebels.
And if that Death Star ever gets fired, you know someone's going to mutiny somewhere.
The point is that no government that big is going to be a perfect blameless system made from gold, ivory and marble. This is still the Star Wars universe, just with more reason to be an Imperial from an ideological perspective.

>To the guy in the last thread asking about Imperial Assault
The skirmish mode can be a lot of fun. The map and mission system provides variety to how games might go and what lists might do well. And the command card system introduces an element of hidden information and surprises.

The biggest downsides are setup times (if you are using the tiles), the investment (it isn't a cheap game, even for just the base set), and the fact that the figures are unpainted (although for some people that is actually a positive).

If you end up getting it, I recommend figuring out a few skirmish maps that you like playing on and getting vinyl maps printed out for those rather than always having to build the maps with tiles. It can save you a ton of setup time.

I also recommend that you don't overlook the campaign mode. As long as you have a consistent group, it's a blast to play through.

Also, note that the latest tournament FAQ changes how scoring is done for multi-figure groups. Before, you had to kill off an entire group of Stormtroopers to get the 6 points for them. Now if you kill 1, you get 2 points; if you kill 2, you get 4 points. The change really nerfs some advantages that multi-figure groups had. No running away with the last survivor of a group to deny your opponent points, and if you play Reinforcements, your opponent can get more points by re-killing your figures.

>Muh Empire Apologism

Man if you want to play good guy imperials just do Fel Empire. In Legacy they even have their own force order the Imperial Knights who care about "the force as embodied by the emperor" and they recruit non humans into the stormtrooper core

>core
>not corps

God I feel so dumb right now

How about some big ship love?

Starkiller Base Pilot
-FCS
-Hyperwave Comms Scanner

Starkiller Base Pilot
-FCS
-Hyperwave Comms Scanner

Lieutenant Dormitz
-FCS
-Hyperwave Comms Scanner

This can counter deploy against any list and chuck red dice like mad. Takes a bit to turn around though. Even with 1 red turns.

>don't use the inquisition they are stupid in the SW universe
>I am so assravaged over inquisicopters that I can't see their potential for fun and interesting interaction

>in fact don't use the inquisition they are stupid in the SW universe
Fuck you, Jerec was cool as shit.

where would a bunch of no-name rebels, like duty level 0-2, get a hold of enough men to man a CR90 sized vessel?

Depends. Will they get mad if you give them all Obligation: Debt?

two of them already have obligation, crime and bounty

A rebel cell that's evacuating their post because it's been compromised/burned. it's an action scene and gives the NPCs some flavor.

>I think the Human supremacy of the empire is a core concept of theirs
Why?
In the original movies, you can coun't the aliens used by the alliance and the empire on both hands.
You could argue that the republic is a mostly human sphere and the alien species are mostly present on the fringe, but in the prequel you got aliens of all kinds on coruscant, even the senate is full of them.
I can see why the empire would hate droids, jedi, or even clones. But all aliens? They aren't lacking in srapegoats.

The aliens were a huge scapegoat for the Empire.

The CIS leadership, with the exception of Count Dooku was almost entirely non-human. Similarly, Imperial propaganda had it that the Senate was so bureaucratic and corrupt *because* there were so many aliens present.

The majority of the Core World systems were human-dominated, and it is from these worlds that the Empire drew most of its strength, both in manpower and economic output.

>empire hates clones
Given that the clones were the army responsible for setting up the empire, why would they hate clones?

New article on no disintegrations is out. looks like we'll be getting Mando armor and rockets.

Mutiny.

A very good question.
Hell, they even performed Palpatines orders to the letter, so why should he have just switched from clone troopers to regular mooks?

They got old and were too expensive to produce, it's easier to just recruit normal people and train them than to grow them from scratch.

Being aboard a space station full of scum and villainy that gets attacked by the empire and then just putting up a sign saying "Wanna shoot at that SD with warship guns? Sign ups this way!"

Maybe if the empire didn't spend all its money on doomsday weapons that get blown up by simple star fighters, they could afford and actually decent army.

clones are expensive, and take ten years to grow.

>an actually decent army
The Imperial Army is good, Stormtroopers are even better. It's just that you barely ever see them winning because the plot demands it.

Ben Kenobi please go.

The Force flows through all living beings, and I with it. You shall not be rid of me.

I've always assumed that the clone army was quickly dismantled after the war as a way of cementing the legitimacy of it all. "The Empire is for the people by the people," and other such rhetoric. It makes people trust the army more (because, don't worry, it's other real people and not mindless clones) and that's obviously a great thing for a group wanting to consolidate power.

In an EotE campaign coming up I'm rolling a Togorian Gadgeteer. Would it be viable to use jury rigging, and crafting rules to make a powerful brass knuckles set as my primary (brawl) weapon?

We're playing a bit of an espionage-esque campaign so carrying a big ass blaster rifle/carbine may draw too much attention. Aside from the knucks, I've stowed away a grenade and a holdout blaster in my pockets.

Rebels explains that the clones were forced to retire as they got too old, and the Empire simply didn't continue the cloning program. Perhaps it was because the program was too expensive, perhaps Jango's genetic material used for the cloning became degraded over time, perhaps the Empire had more populist motives as you claim. We're not really given a specific answer, but do we really need one?

>clones were forced to retire as they got too old
Or they could be instructors at imperial academies.

The Clone Wars did mention that Jango's DNA was degrading and causing more and more mutations the more they made.
And then wasn't the cloning facility on Kamino destroyed anyway? Killing all the people who knew how to make the clones and All the original samples of Jango's DNA.

We only really see stormtroopers fight against Jedi and highly trained mercenary-types. Against the average Rebel militiaman or the cheap-ass crew of a pirate they probably fare much better.

Some of them probably are. The only ones we've met have been guys who performed brain surgery on themselves and pretty much deserted

They didn't desert. Even though they removed their inhibitors, they served until the Empire retired them.

Here have a blooper
youtube.com/watch?v=1S9E90nVDYs

I also heard when he smoked he'd wear a glove so that when he shook peoples hand he wouldn't get nicotine on them.

If you like Cushing go watch the Hammer Dracula films. You get to see him killing Christopher Lee.

While brass knuckles wouldn't be bad, I would personally use my Tinkerer on a shock glove to give it two hard points, then give it a weighted head attachment, mod it, then use jury-rigging to lower the activation cost of concussive. You'll be pretty good at neutralizing opponents with that and the Gadgeteer's brawling techniques.

>Against the average Rebel militiaman or the cheap-ass crew of a pirate they probably fare much better.
As we saw on the Tantive IV and on Hoth, stormtroopers absolutely destroy Rebel grunts who don't have the luxury of plot armor.

Yeah, if you like Peter Cushing, the best way to honour his memory is by watching his other, more obscure films.

Don't forget, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price all were in the same sets of films at the same time.

I'd reccomend:

>The Curse of Frankenstein
>The Revenge of Frankenstein
>Horror of Dracula
>The Mummy
>The Brides of Dracula
>The Hound of the Baskervilles (which you've probably already seen if you're from certain parts of Canada, as it's part of your high school curriculum)
>Twins of Evil
>Tales From the Crypt
>The Creeping Flesh (one of my favorites)

Cushing was part of an acting tradition that barely exists any more, and we're all worse off for it.

Finally, a song: youtube.com/watch?v=c_w45Ad5xZI

One facility was heavily damaged. Not all of them. They still were creating clones up to the end of the war, with those last few batches continuing to serve the Empire through at least Yavin and Hoth.

Continuing the Space Nazgul idea from a few threads ago. Knights of Ren as the Space Nazgul, with a horrifically corrupted Kylo Ren as the Witch-King: alright idea or too stupid?

What's the terrifying, corrupting artifacts in this scenario? The gloves of Darth Vader?

Depends. are you going to do the screeching every time the players encounter them?

If so, yes

gloves
Too obvious. I was going for some sort of connection to Nihilus rather than overt artifact ownership. Old Munchy made contact with Korriban's dark side nexus when he was buried and I wanted to expand on that concept. Being that powerful and that close to a dark side nexus should do more than let you float around and insult newfags like Darth Krayt. Probably some Sith fanboys did their homework and achieved a state of being similar to Nihilus, but far weaker. Current working explanation is a coin toss between "possessed by fragments of Nihilus' spirit" and "Sith alchemy, I don't gotta explain shit."

If you'd like to do this, split a sheet of paper in half. One one half write down the thematic and literary characteristics of the Nazgul. On the other, the characteristics of the Knights of Ren.

If they significantly overlap, then you're OK. If one feeds into the other, then you're also OK. But if not, you're really diminishing the result by mixing oil and water.

Here's my quick list:

Nazgul: spirits, hateful, ancient kings corrupted, represent the folly and ambition of man, barely exist and are held together by sorcery, dispatched by a powerful otherworldly figure, wholly evil

Knights of Ren: people, students, seduced by the Dark Side, human, conflicted, the new generation, represent the folly of the teacher and the conflict of youth vs experience, lead by a corrupting but equal leader but backed by a shadowy power, not wholly evil

Yeah, I'm not seeing it. The Knights of Ren might try dressing up as Nazgul-like figures to evoke them and the same tropes they draw on, but they aren't actually the same thing.

Draft 3 of my Star Wars Fate Core hack is up.

There are a fair number of other hacks out there, but I like mine for its simplicity. There are no extras, no new mechanics, no major changes to the rules. It's evocative rather than prescriptive.

It also has fancy fonts.

Good point. But on the other hand, even the Nazgul had to start somewhere. There would have been a point in time where they had only just transformed and were still new to whole 2spooky gig. And given that we don't know the exact nature or backstories of the Knights of Ren or Snoke yet, it's difficult to say how well they really match up to the Nazgul in motivations. Unless I've missed a fuckton of nucanon material, most of them haven't gotten much info besides the fact that they're dark siders who aren't true Sith. So there are plenty of blanks to fill that could feasibly be adapted to the whole Ringwraith schtick.

I think "new Nazgul testing out their powers" is, from a literary point of view, kind of a dead end. It feels wrong.

The shticks of both factions are incompatible, from my point of view. Sorry. The Dark Side corrupts your humanity, but it doesn't turn you into a ghost made of spite and a lust for power. It lessens you, but in a very mortal, very life-based way.

These. Ignore Rebels, Inquisitors are based as fuck when done properly

...

Force Ghosts corrupted by Darth Nihilus are better than anything to do with Ren. Hell, I would take Kyp Durron, the Suncrusher and Corran Horn as villain protagonists over *anything* to do with Kylo Ren.

If we're doing Nazguls in Star Wars, they should be cyborgs. Like Vader, they are barely alive and kept together with inhuman machinery, and you can add in brain modifications in the style of Dengar that disables any non-darkside emotions.

>The Dark Side corrupts your humanity, but it doesn't turn you into a ghost made of spite and a lust for power.
>Nihilus became so absorbed by the dark side of the Force and his hunger that his physical body began to erode. Knowing that he would succumb to death if he did not act soon, Nihilus ripped his spirit from his body and encased it in the armor he wore, thus allowing the dark side to consume his useless body. Using the Force, the Sith Lord was able to keep his robes, armor and mask together, giving him some form while allowing him to use his Force powers as well as a lightsaber. Apart from that, he no longer had a physical form and became simple, primitive intent.[2]

The ghost part worked for Nihilus, though he was more about hunger than spite and ambition. Good point about newbie Nazgul not quite fitting well. So the Knights of Ren idea is nixed. Corrupted ancient Sith ghosts or worshipers makes more sense, then.

this picture always makes me smile.

inquisitors are great because depending on how you need them, they can range from quirky miniboss squad to big bad for your campaign.

My game has this guy, who's a sentient force-shark thing. A natural dark side user, he hunts and eats other force-sensitive beings because they taste good.

>Trying to watch Toronto Regional
>Casters don't know the rules
>Casters literally cannot count

link?

Twitch: VTTV live
End of round 3 of 6, and players are starting to show fatigue-mistakes.

>Vader's a badass edition

How did that happen?

Crits, man. Fucking crits.

You ain't kiddding.
I just caught the ending of that game and I could tell the Scum player was screwing up

>Group of Pathfinder players I want to get to try Age of Rebellion
>One is up for anything and likes Star Wars
>Another is a whiny shit that will go with whatever the group wants, also likes Star Wars
>One is stupid and will play anything as long as he gets to try and be a murderhobo, indifferent to Star Wars
>The last is the only hard no and his justification is that "space makes no sense, everything should be on the ground", hates Star Wars and has only ever even seen Episodes II and VII.
How do I convince them? Also, tips on letting a murderhobo think he's murderhoboing while keeping him reigned in and not fucking up the experience for the others?

Personally, I always just assumed that clones were elite units that made up about 20% of the GAR, its just that we only ever saw clones because they worked so heavily with the Jedi. But yeah, for non-essential missions, you saw a mix of local planetary forces, and human republic troopers.

There is a precedent in the EU and current canon for force ghosts of the darkside, in saying that they're not quite like the force ghosts of jedi but a manifestation of the darkside which mimics those it takes the form of.
What you might look at as points out, they're not likely to be brought into being by a barely trained scrub like Ren, however...

They could come about through someone far more powerful in the force, finding an extremely corrupted source of the darkside and Ren acts as sort of a temporal anchor to him given his darkside fuckery, lineage and he simply tells them what to do. Course, how much they listen and what they can do are really up to the GM when it comes to the effects. Having spooky stuff in SW is kind of fun, when that blaster bolt sails clean through that creepy arsehole in the ratty robes, the look on the PC's face goes from 'you being serious' to 'poo is coming out now' when you nod and mention force lightning starts to crackling around.

Then just to be a dick, its now their face looking back at them from under the robes
This is usually why I'm "not allowed" to run horror games any more

Tell the whiny little shit that he'd better keep a lid on it or find another GM. Give him the ol' eyebrow raise if he starts beaking off during game.

Fire the murderhobo.

Fire the "no space" idiot too. He'll either sabotage the game or just bitch the entire time.

Try and find 2 non-RPG players from your friend group or whatever. Ideally, one of them should be respected or well liked by the whiny player, so he'll start behaving.

...

Wait, what's happening here? Did Oola get raped by the Rancor instead of eaten and deliver a baby for Malakiki to tend?

Play force and destiny on the planet where people crash landed that's basically classic fantasy. Keep him thinking it's just a fantasy campaign using the game rules, get him invested, then have them find a working ship or have the Empire invade when it's too late for him to ditch and he cares too much about his character and the game

The man has tits on his helmet.

Sodomize them all to assert your dominance

>General Kenobi, this is demeaning
>Stop

Who says being eaten by the Rancor is deadly? Once you get past those teeth it's fairly soft going.

This is a stupid idea.

Games are about collective storytelling and bargaining. You can't tell your players "We're playing a lighthearted fantasy game about mischievous goblins and cute little fairies, like a cartoon." and the switch to Berzerk three sessions in without their consent. It's not what they signed up for.