[Star Wars] What if the Empire Won?

[Primitive Screwhead]

Reduced capability of the stormtroopers and increased numbers as the clones get farther away from the pure versions of earlier times, trading for reliance on technology as a means to stay in power...meaning the rebellion swings the other way...smaller teams of skilled operatives that focus on sabotage and negating tech. This makes it more survivable to be a sabotage team and open up lots of options for game play.

The rebellion is scattered into the population and fighting from the inside, if human formed.. hiding out in far flung battle groups ala battle-star galactica for those of non-human origans. Most of the fighting is asymetrical warfare with a sprinkling of deep strike missions in massive battle groups that recede back into the depths of the Rim before a defence can be mounted.

Bring in Thrawn into the political mess mentioned above with the Moff's survival, but I would do away with the Death Stars. Perhaps leave the prototype working, but marked as a failed experiment. {simply from the viewpoint of game entertainment.. having the death star show up would be like Elminster}


The rebellions focus to 'win' would be to encourage the political warfare between the Moffs, resource the Hutts and corrupt the corporate sector.. all as a means to stretch the emporors control over the Empire.
As a sudden change down the road, have the emporor die/removed/missing... the tension between factions could devolve rapidly into outright warfare... which probably isn't as good a result for the general population....


Possibly find a way to 'spark' force capabilty in non-humans, turning the Empires prejudces against them.

 

[wingsandsword]

Kinman Doriana appears to believe it, according to Outbound Flight, but all we can really tell is that Sidious/Palpatine knew about the YV threat. Personally, I think the only thing that it really impacted was methodology--without that threat, Sidious may have preferred a less militarized Empire to rule over, since it would reduce the number of threats to his control.

Yes, Palpatine/Sidious knew about the Yuzzhan Vong threat, but just how big of a menace were they seen to be, and how much of a motivator were they for his actions? Then again, by other EU canon he knew of several other potentially huge biotech-using alien menaces from outside the Empire that could have theoretically been as big of a menace. The Charon, from the alien dimension of Otherspace (normally accessible only through a severe freak hyperspace accident), that sought to exterminate all life that wasn't them as a religious crusade. They were only key in two adventures for the WEG d6 SWRPG, but were mentioned in a few other WEG products as being things the Empire was well aware of (like in the storehouse at Mt. Tantiss having relics of their biotechnology). The Ssi-ruuvi had biomechanical weapons technology that could have been a serious menace if not contained when they were, and canonically were later defeated by the Yuuzhan Vong out in the Unknown Regions after being seriously weakened by the tenuous Empire/Rebellion alliance of the Truce at Bakura.

One thing as to future directions for things to go, look at Dark Empire (and the extrapolations in the Dark Empire Sourcebook WEG made). It has also been laid out canonically that Palpatine wanted to eventually move beyond superweapons and a conventional Galactic Empire into transitioning the Galaxy into a Dark Side Theocracy/New Sith Empire, discarding the rule-of-two and having the descendants of Anakin Skywalker as his new nobility (and elite force-using servants) with undying clones of him as the eternal ruler, drawing unheard of levels of power by siphoning tiny amounts of life force from the populations of entire planets (and eventually the Galaxy), making him nigh-godlike and them weak and complacent while he spends centuries or millennia compiling all knowledge of the Dark Side of the Force into one gigantic compendium of Force knowledge. Unfortunately he never got further than some limited groundwork and early steps in this process before he was killed the first time, and tried to make it operational when he was ressurected but it never got quite off the ground before he was permanently killed.

 

[Pbartender]

• Obi-Wan Survived: Sensing that his death would not play as good of a role as it should, Ben escaped the Death Star with the rest of the heroes. He continues to train Luke, and proceeds to train Leia as well (though potentially hiding the fact of Luke & Leia's relationship until the twins determine it on their own). The two go to Yoda for further training.

I had a similar idea...

The critical premise:

When the Millenium Falcon emerges from hyperspace into the debris field of Alderaan, Han Solo takes Obi-Wan's advice straight away and breaks off in time to escape without getting tractor beamed by the Death Star.

Result:

Obi-Wan lives, but Leia is executed. The Death Star is not destroyed. Yavin 4 is destroyed along with most of the unevacuated Rebel forces there, but not immediately -- without the tracer on the Falcon, it takes a lot longer to track it down. The Jedi Order survives in the form of Luke, Obi-Wan and Yoda, but the Rebellion is scattered to the four winds without its military leadership and high command.

 

[Ghostwind]

Does anyone know the release date of the Rebellion Era Campaign Guide?

 

[Orius]

And can I say how refreshing it is to see a SW thread that doesn't devolve into "EU stinks, the Vong stink, the only real canon is Episode IV where Han shoots first (and shoots up the entire Mos Eisely cantina)!"

You forgot the prequels! Can't have a Star Wars thread where someone isn't going on about how badly Lucas ruined his childhood. Not just here, but on every single forum that exists on the internet. It's like beating a zombie horse that's been reduced to 0 hp.

Ewoks and Return of the Jedi in general can also fall under this.

Here are a few ideas:

• Civil War: With the Death Star surviving, and thus Grand Moff Tarkin surviving, the Emperor has a new threat to his power—the ambitions of Tarkin and his allies in the Imperial military. The galaxy still faces civil war, but between two ruthlessly evil forces. Tarkin makes an allegiance with Thrawn (who introduces the ysalamiri), giving Tarkin's forces an edge against threats like the Emperor and Vader. The Rebels try to rebuild their strength, and do what they can to bide their time and strike when the survivor is weakest.

• 
  
  That's interesting, but again I'm not sure if Thrawn would be all that interested in fighting an internal war.
  
  

  [*]The Hutt Star: The Hutts invest their criminal wealth in building their own Death Star, and make a play for outright conquest (or, at the least, maintain their sovereignty over their systems).

  
  They did something like that in the EU book Darksaber, except they just built the superlaser and didn't bother with all the stuff the Death Star had. However it was a KJA book, so opinions on quality may vary.
  
  

  [*]Windu Survived: In a "what a twist" sort of moment, it's learned that Mace Windu survived (though badly burned & sporting a prosthetic hand). He forms a insurgent faction bent on destroying Vader and the Emperor. Perhaps he falls to the Dark Side himself, fueled by anger at the destruction of the Jedi Order.

  
  That could be interesting.

 

[M.L. Martin]

Does anyone know the release date of the Rebellion Era Campaign Guide?

July 21st--just under two weeks from now.

 

[MarkB]

I'm toying around with the idea of running a Star Wars Saga game set during the Rebellion era. The major storyline would be, however, that the Empire has defeated the Rebellion. The battle of Yavin went poorly and the Death Star wasn't destroyed. What is left of the Rebellion is scattered over the entire Galaxy, in hiding and doing everything they can to avoid being captured.

What other aspects would you incorporate into this setting?

I remember reading an Elseworlds-style Star Wars comic based on that premise. It started with Luke's proton torpedo detonating halfway down the Death Star's exhaust tube (disrupting its systems enough that some of the people on Yavin-4 had time to evacuate), and ended with

Spoiler

Yoda Force-dropping the Death Star onto Palpatine in his palace on Coruscant

.

I had a similar idea...

The critical premise:

When the Millenium Falcon emerges from hyperspace into the debris field of Alderaan, Han Solo takes Obi-Wan's advice straight away and breaks off in time to escape without getting tractor beamed by the Death Star.

Result:

Obi-Wan lives, but Leia is executed. The Death Star is not destroyed. Yavin 4 is destroyed along with most of the unevacuated Rebel forces there, but not immediately -- without the tracer on the Falcon, it takes a lot longer to track it down. The Jedi Order survives in the form of Luke, Obi-Wan and Yoda, but the Rebellion is scattered to the four winds without its military leadership and high command.

Maybe take it back even further. When the blockade runner comes under attack above Tatooine at the start of Episode IV, Captain Antilles realises first thing that they're out-gunned and he needs to get the princess to safety. He packs her into an escape pod along with a couple of handy droids as an entourage, launches her down to Tatooine, then turns and fights the star destroyer to cover her retreat.

Result: Leia, Threepio and Artoo make it to the surface intact along with the Death Star plans, but a far more intensive search is launched for her than would have been for a seemingly-unmanned escape pod. She survives, hiding out at a moisture farm under the kindly care of the Owens, but remains pinned down on Tatooine until some time after the rebel base is found and destroyed. She, Luke and Obi-wan are left with the task of founding a new rebellion from scratch.



I've been considering a variant campaign myself lately, but taking an earlier detour, during the Clone Wars. The Jedi actually get their act together and expose Palpatine as a Sith, taking him down in the process, but the event's shocking implications shake peoples' faith in the Republic galaxy-wide. More systems secede to the Separatists, the Clone Wars peter out in an uncomfortable armistice, and fast-forward back to what would have been the Rebellion era and we have a galaxy divided into the Republic and the Confederacy, the two factions on the brink of conflict, with the Jedi trying and failing to promote stability between them.

 

[bastrak]

All Ewoks are exterminated by the Empire.

 

[Particle_Man]

All Ewoks are exterminated by the Empire.

I'll see your Ewoks and raise you the Gungans.

Another thought . . . Time Travel. Someone from the happy future travels into the past and gives Palpatine the heads up. Forewarned Palpatine, the master planner, takes appropriate steps to ensure his Empire's continued existence.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Further idea expansion from my idea of the mobile, capital ship based version of the Republic with multiple Death Stars.

Mon Calamari once the rebellion on it succeeds would become even more important then it ever was in the original timeline, it would also though be in even more danger of Imperial reprisal with multiple Death Stars abound. I imagine the sector would be even more heavily patrolled by Rebel capital ships and the use of subterfuge to keep Death Stars away from the sector would be a top priority.

The production of adaptable, hidden capital ships I think would be the new cornerstone for the Rebellion. The modular lumps and bumbs on the ships could be exchanged for camouflage for asteroid fields, debris fields, etc. They would also be larger being the main base of operations for the Rebellion.

I think with the failure of Yavin-4 the Rebellions love of the advanced starfighter would end as well. So having the Rebellion signified in space combat by squads of X-Wings would be over. They would still exist but would be viewed in a colder light.

Looking for the Katana fleet would be something the Rebellion would pursue a lot too.