[Star Wars] What if the Empire Won?

[MarkB]

With multiple Death Stars patrolling an Empire, blockades and interdiction technology might become more important. A Death Star is almost too big to enter hyperspace as it is - its own mass creates a gravity well nearly sufficient to interfere with hyperspace jumps. That should make them exceptionally sensitive to the gravity-well-projectors of Interdictor starships, maybe even to the point where being knocked out of hyperspace would do them serious damage.

Capturing and reverse-engineering Imperial interdiction technology would be a high priority for independence-minded factions. A Death Star might be tempted out to quell an uprising on an Outer Rim trade route only for its return coreward to be blocked by interdiction blockades, starving it of essential supply convoys.

Which brings up another point: Running costs. I seem to recall reading that even a single Death Star tended to eat up resource, personnel and maintenance budgets comparable to half a space fleet. Having more than a couple of them on active duty might simply be untenable on purely economic grounds, the hulking space stations acting as massive resource-sinks straining even galactic-scale military budgets.

 

[Remathilis]

I had conjured up an idea, but it was a different take on RotJ, not ANH.

1.) Vader turns on the Emperor, but Palpatine is able to defeat him and Luke (both weakened from their long duel).

2.) The Ewoks can't (or won't) aid the rebels; the Imperials crush them on Endor. Han and Leia are taken hostage.

3.) Because the shields weren't down, the Alliance space battle goes very poor. While the Executor is still destroyed, the Death Star II is very much safe come the end of the War.

4.) A dozen surviving ships, including Lando and the Falcon, begin the process of reforming the alliance and moving into the Outer Rim and beyond to hide from the Empire's Superweapon.

5.) Leia begins her training under Palpatine, but the Spirit of Anakin begins to appear and begs her not to travel down his path to the Dark Side. Will she resist?

 

[Pbartender]

Huh. I just realized one other big advantage to having the Death Star survive...

Tarkin, who is arguably one of the coolest Imperial bad guys in the movies, lives.

 

[wingsandsword]

With multiple Death Stars patrolling an Empire, blockades and interdiction technology might become more important. A Death Star is almost too big to enter hyperspace as it is - its own mass creates a gravity well nearly sufficient to interfere with hyperspace jumps. That should make them exceptionally sensitive to the gravity-well-projectors of Interdictor starships, maybe even to the point where being knocked out of hyperspace would do them serious damage.

Capturing and reverse-engineering Imperial interdiction technology would be a high priority for independence-minded factions. A Death Star might be tempted out to quell an uprising on an Outer Rim trade route only for its return coreward to be blocked by interdiction blockades, starving it of essential supply convoys.

What if the Empire never discovered Interdiction technology and it was a Rebel invention?

Interdiction technology was discovered/invented in the middle of the Galactic Civil War after the Battle of Yavin, as the result of analyzing the bizarre alien growth known as the "Golden Sun", from the old d6 adventure "Battle for the Golden Sun". What if the Rebellion got the technology but not the Empire? Interdiction technology would make for a powerful force equalizer, being able to set up interdiction fields at distance to make it harder to move fleets, or Death Stars to protected planets and give them more time to flee, or provide unparalleled commerce-raiding ability. The first time they drop a massive cargo convoy out of hyperspace, keep them from jumping back, jam the subspace radios, capture the convoy and jump it out to an Alliance relay point they just scored a major coup in not just supplies but ships (albeit unarmed, but they are intact hyperspace-capable spaceframes). Even if they only get away with it a few times before major escorts start showing up, the presence of rebel interdictors means they control when the battle is over and who is chasing whom.

The Yuuzhan Vong captured Coruscant with en-masse suicide runs on the planetary shields, showing that if you smash enough heavy physical things at a planetary shield (designed to protect from capitol ship turbolaser fire, not rapid-fire physical collisions focused on one small area) it will collapse. Take a few super-large convoys with dozens of ships (like as depicted as major commerce raids in the X-Wing game series), slave-rig them together, and you've got the ability to bring down a planet's shields. Take the Rebellion itself into Coruscant space for a battle that the Death Star can't equalize (can't fire on the capitol world), and with planetary shields down go right for attacking high-priority targets like the Imperial Palace with similar suicide-run attacks. You don't need a fleet of capitol ships to strike a Core World, just a couple of huge merchant convoys you captured.

Just trying to get creative with asymmetrical warfare in the Star Wars galaxy.

 

[M.L. Martin]

The Yuuzhan Vong captured Coruscant with en-masse suicide runs on the planetary shields, showing that if you smash enough heavy physical things at a planetary shield (designed to protect from capitol ship turbolaser fire, not rapid-fire physical collisions focused on one small area) it will collapse. Take a few super-large convoys with dozens of ships (like as depicted as major commerce raids in the X-Wing game series), slave-rig them together, and you've got the ability to bring down a planet's shields. Take the Rebellion itself into Coruscant space for a battle that the Death Star can't equalize (can't fire on the capitol world), and with planetary shields down go right for attacking high-priority targets like the Imperial Palace with similar suicide-run attacks. You don't need a fleet of capitol ships to strike a Core World, just a couple of huge merchant convoys you captured.

It's been a while since I last read Star by Star, but if memory serves, the only reason that tactic worked was because those ships were laden with hostages, allowing them to get within range without starships or planetary defenses shooting them down. The two problems with that are:
1) It's far too Dark Side a tactic for the Rebel Alliance to endorse;
2) The Empire has no reluctance when it comes to civilian casualties.

 

[fireinthedust]

IMHO: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzoeEdW-EDQ]How you should begin your campaign![/ame]

Failing that: What is your game night going to look like? I mean, encounter by encounter? Problem by problem? What are the things you're going to need your players to do? I ask because I've tried the SW campaign, and getting individual sessions going is so key to knowing what you want to do with the setting. Well, for changes.

civil war: well, lots of smuggling runs between sectors. Also, the various things the party needs could be on different planets in different sectors. Not only that, but you could raise the tension by having random skirmishes of fleets of Star Destroyers throughout the campaign. Is the session getting boring? Well, Tarkin and Thrawn have suddenly decided to duke it out!

Tarkin (DEATH STAR) vs. Thrawn (amazing tactics, and he basically never loses). Interesting fight right there.

hidden jedi groups: well, you've got the example from Force Rising game (wii, xbox); imagine all the other Jedi who didn't get killed in RotS. You've also got Yoda, who didn't die when ObiWan did (or didn't).
As an aside: I actually have an idea for a Mace story, if he survived. I had a design for him, and I think it'd be an interesting sceme. Cool one for a campaign, too.

ancient treasure hunt: think Indiana Jones! Well, you like Lucas already, right?! So while you're skipping about the galaxy, between Moff territories, have the PCs hunt for relics.

playing the heroes: would your players want to *be* luke and han and leia? If not, then killing them off on Yavin would be an amazingly important thing for the campaign. Otherwise there's the risk of reinacting, right?

do not kill the ewoks : they are not as bad as gungans! I mean, did you not grow up on the cartoon? I grew up on the cartoon. They were cool. Both Droids and Ewoks were good shows (different but good). Ewoks have street credit.
Gungans are in theory good, if you play them the way they should be: hardened warriors. Jarjar is the goofy, racial stereotype (like the Twins in Transformers 2) that is offensive, and THAT is why he's so hated. He's what's known as the "nyah nyah" and for some reason films and tv shows think the audience wants them. That the twins exist doesn't mean I hate transformers. That Jarjar does (not as uncool in Clone Wars episodes, imo), doesn't have to ruin gungans (though the glowing balls sucked).

 

[Ghostwind]

Maybe the prescence of a Super Death Star would force the Rebellion to secretly build a Super Star Destroyer or steal the existing one.

Just throwing another idea into the mix for discussion.

 

[Klaus]

Too in the face.

Although the Rebellion could foster dissent and strife within the Imperial Ranks, leading to infighting. Back in the day I read a Marvel comic where some Imperial officials grew tired of Vader's Force chokes and decided to eject him into space.

I was wondering: if Han listens to Obi-Wan and leaves before reaching the Death Star, there's no way for the Empire to know of the base at Yavin 4. After seeing Alderaan destroyed, Leia would rather die than betray the Alliance. Wthout her, Obi-Wan, Luke, Han, Chewie and the droids have no way of knowing the base's location (unless you play the Deus Ex R2-D2 card).

So you have the Death Star fully in control of the Outer Rim, the Alliance roaming the Galaxy in a BSG-style fleet (not unlike the Galactic Alliance in the Legacy era), and Han and Chewie getting some smuggling help from Luke and Obi-Wan while the latter trains the young Skywalker as a Jedi. If Han manages to pay off Jabba (since he doesn't stay with the Alliance), he remains a smuggler in "good standing".

Now what if Mace Windu survives to become a Light Side version of Vader (or not... maybe he pulls a Wolf Sazen -- a zabrak Jedi from the Legacy era -- and retains his severed arm instead of putting a prostethic on)?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Lots of neat ideas.

My turning point might be Endor. Darth Vader orders the bombardment of the djungle and Ewok settlements in a 500 miles radius around the Shield Generator.

The whole "sneak in" plan of the Rebels would need to be revised considerably if there is no forest to take cover in. They would basically have to land directly on the shield generator base and fight their way through, which seems unlikely to work.
So, instead of the plan they went with in the movie, they try to smuggle a big ass explosive into the base using their captured Shuttle. It is really a suicide operation. This might change who is found in the shuttle - would it be some of our favorite heroes? Would Han blow himself up for the Alliance? Would Alliance Command risk their Princess and their only Jedi Knight?
Probably not.

So, instead, in go the PCs. Let's see how they get out of this. Unfortnuately for them, for safety reasons, the shuttle is guided to a different landing platform and the three powerful Ion Cannons (this wasn't mentioned in the reports!) surrounding the base will make it impossible to get the Shuttle.

Whatever the PCs do, it won't kill the Emperor or Vader, since neither is on the base, and without Luke to interfere with Vader, Vader won't turn against Palpatine. If the PCs are lucky, they make it out alive and the Death Star and the Executor are destroyed, but Palpatine and Vader escape, and the Rebel Fleet is severely weakened.

----

Another take might be that the Emperor simply falls into the shaft, uses the force to soften the fall. As he recognizes the Death Stars destruction is imminent, he escapes aboard a Shuttle. Vader dies or dies not (depending on preference), Luke escapes, the Death Star blows up. The Galaxy does not revel in the big Rebel Alliance win, since the Emperor is still around.

The Emperor now needs a new Sith Apprentice... Mara Jade, perhaps? Or that nameless TIE Fighter pilot that had defeated the traitors Harkov and Zaarin?
The Death Star project was a neat idea, but seriously, both plans to use it failed, and he won't be able to make a third Death Star unnoticed. So, back to systematically hunting down the Rebels and their supporters all over the Galaxy. Who could lead a strategic operation like this better than Grand Admiral Thrawn, who had already proven himself in destroying Imperial traitors that were trying to defect to the Rebels or just replace Imperial authority?

 

[MarkB]

Huh. I just realized one other big advantage to having the Death Star survive...

Tarkin, who is arguably one of the coolest Imperial bad guys in the movies, lives.

Very true.

Y'know, without the pursuit of the Rebels to keep Vader busy, it surely can't take very long for Vader and Palpatine to start getting on each others' nerves. Maybe Vader will train up Tarkin as a new apprentice - Darth Helsing? - and make a bid for galactic domination himself.