Heroic rebel forces striving to topple the corrupt and evil regime is a staple in a lot of fantasy and science fiction media out there. In fact, it’s the central tenet of the original trilogy of Star Wars films. Hell, I’m an American and tomorrow we celebrate the birth of our nation which was itself born out of revolution and rebellion.
With rebellion being such a common trope and theme in the media we consume it is very understandable that many players would want to take on the role of these resistance members fighting the good fight against the forces of evil.
But equally as appealing oftentimes is the idea of an “Imperial Campaign,” especially in the realm of Star Wars. I think it is the concept of humanizing a faceless, evil organization and working within the system to take down those that would upset the status quo and the desire to explore being the “bad guys” that appeals to players. Because after all – one man’s freedom fighter is another’s terrorist. And it’s easy to forget that these rebels are actually political dissidents fighting against the established (however illegitimate sometimes) authority in most cases.
Both of these games could see the players having to take some very unorthodox and potentially unsavory actions in the pursuit of their goals – the rebels because that’s the only way they can fight against a better equipped and numerous enemy and the other side because they need to adjust their tactics to fight their enemy. After all, the Imperial Storm Commandos were created by Crix Madine to combat the rebels’ tactics.
Sometimes, a play group is okay with exploring those possibly compromising moral issues in their game. If that’s the case than go for it. But other players may not be comfortable facing those kinds of issues in what is one of their methods of escaping the real world. So, how do you run one of these kinds of games without forcing the players to compromise their morals? I think there are a few things that you can establish early on that will help prevent them from coming up or at the very least make them easy choices instead of agonizing.
1) Let Your Players Be The Heroes
This one seems really simple at first, but it can quickly become lost in a game of questionable moral decisions. If the PCs aren’t doing something for the correct reasons, it can make it harder for them to feel that they are “heroic” for doing it. Now, this isn’t to say that you can’t occasionally put them in questionable circumstances, but make sure that the focus stays on them and their actions instead of outside forces – heroic action is capable from whatever decision they make, but one might lead to higher heroics from the character. A great example of this kind of decision is the ending of Mass Effect 1. You can choose to commit some Alliance forces in order to save the Citadel Council’s flagship, but in doing so put a higher cost on the Alliance troops fighting against the enemy. Or you can forgo saving the Council in order to commit all Alliance ships to the attack on the enemy flagship. Both decisions result in the same end game, but one is clearly the more “heroic” choice.
This point is especially important for an “Imperial Campaign.” The PCs may be working for an evil organization, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be the heroes of their own story. Maybe they work against the system. Maybe they work outside the system. Maybe they’re going to defect to the rebels later. Or maybe the particular rebel cell they’re going after doesn’t care about keeping the rest of the population safe if it means driving out the Imperial forces. Find a hook to turn the bad guys into the good guys.
2) Know Your Enemy
This is another one that may seem simple at first, but if the PCs know who they are fighting and can keep the focus on that struggle, it can really solve a lot of potential problems before they begin. I had the pleasure of playing in GM Brev’s Inglorious Rebels campaign where we were essentially assassins for the Rebel Alliance tasked with taking out particularly cruel and vile Imperial targets. By keeping the focus on the mission, Brev was able to keep the story moving and keep us from lingering too long where issues in what we were doing could crop up. Funnily enough, I think it pushed us towards higher heroics when the chips were down and were faced with compromising situations. I had a character that literally stormed an enemy ship on his own to rescue a number of slaves. Oh, and did I mention that the ship was breaking up around him? I wasn’t about to let our characters be responsible for the deaths of innocent people aboard that ship.
3) Make Collateral Damage a Concern, Not a Consequence
This one ties into what I was just talking about at the end of the last point. The characters are going to cause collateral damage. Other people are going to stand a chance of getting hurt. That’s war. And when you’re talking about rebellion (or putting one down). But if you give the PCs every chance to mitigate the chance of collateral damage instead of simply making it a consequence for failing a dice roll you’re going to have happier players, and players that are going to put their all into making sure that they are not the ones that are going to be causing the destruction, or if worse comes to worst, they will have done everything they could have to stop it. It should not be their fault that innocents were hurt or killed. Their actions might inadvertently lead to it, but it should never be a direct consequence of failure. And it will lead to heightened heroics from your players when they know they are capable of saving people.
There are plenty of other things that you can do to ensure compromising situations don’t ruin the fun for anyone at your table in a game like this, but these seem to be the big three that all of the others fall from.
Ideas of your own? Stories of your own Rebellion or Imperial games? Let me know in the comments!
Ben Erickson
