Ex-StormTroopers

[Hellcat]

[Allembrande]

Just a character I created. I chose a random greek letter and 3 digit designation, why?
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Alpha 513 reporting for duty, sir.

[Hellcat]

The name reminded me of the aforementioned ARC Trooper.
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FLUFFY for President!!!!

Wanted Poster

[scott2978]

Well, as far as cannon goes, in the movies we can clearly see that not all stormtroopers are identical. Somce are taller or shorter, and they don't all have the same voice. So, they simply cannot all be clones.

I ran a game once with an ex-stormtrooper PC. His backstory was that he was a good gravball player and got offered a chance to join the Imperial team. The character was slowly brainwashed by Imperial propaganda and hidden drugs while on the team, until he was finally kidnapped and the Empire faked his death. Then he was entered into a secret program of brainwashing and drugs to create mass armies of stormtroopers. During a dangerous operation, he was left out of contact for an extended period. The combined factors of lack of continuous drug use and familiar surroundings enabled him to reject the brainwashing (to an extent) and defect to the rebellion, but he was never the same after all that brainwashing. He was a great character.

[KageRyu]

There was always speculation that the Stormtrooper were clones, even prior to the Prequels, however the Prequels suggest that they are ALL clones. I do not think they are ALL clones, as the empire disavows this. Here's my take on it as gleaned from numerous sources:

Troopers in the Imperial Military or Navy who stand out are selected for additional training, screened for loyalty, and inducted into the Stormtrooper corp. When this happen, they sacrifice almost all identity and swear unswerving loyalty to the emperor. When they arrive at the training centers, they are met by 100s of others who are almost the same, same build, same haircut (bald) similar facial features. This is done to preserve the lack of identity. These select troops are NOT the only stormtroopers.
Palpatine, using the S'parti chambers in imperial possession reinforces and augements these rare and select individuals with clones. Training and selecting elite forces is time consuming, and time is fleeting. These clones are pressed into training and service with the selected troopers, giving the impression they are drawn from legions and worlds Across the empire. The clones, obviously lack the finess of the specially selected individuals, hence there poor combat abilities.
Stripping the recruits of all Identity and taking every step to insure only those that fit in certain physical guidelines helps hide the fact that clones are being used to augement the Stormtroopers. And once their in that White Armor, they all look alike.
As for Ex-Stormtrooper players, I would say it is very rare for an Ex-Stormtrooper to appear due to their unswerving loyalty to the empire. It should be extreme Circumstances. Here was one of the Backgrounds I used to justify it:

[Trusty]

We don't play Stormtroopers as Clones...nor should you. Of course, we play in a SW universe where all the major characters (Minus the Emperor and Darth Vader) from the films don't and didn't exist. Though the major "overall" events (Vader killed Palpatine for other reasons...Emperor came back via Dark Empire...but never went away again in a Force Storm) did occur and we are about 10 years after the Dark Empire setting...

If you allow for EU stuff, you really open up more possibilities. Clones go insane, so therefore the Emperor did away with them. Though a Force Sensitive Clone rebuilt a clone army so in our "Universe", they are an "Empire" as well. As a matter of fact, we have the Sith Galactic Empire, the Mandalorian Empire, the Clone Empire, the Droid Empire, and the Republic Alliance all controlling different sectors in space (most fun since are characters in our campaigns are trader/smugglers/independents/Bounty Hunters.

But, back to the topic at hand. I have several ex-stormtroopers in seveal different campaigns with several different rpg groups over the years. Here are the reasons why some one would be an ex-stormtrooper that we've had so far.

1. Couldn't hack it (the discipline at least)
2. Abandoned by the Empire
3. Was turned by an alliance operative
4. Was actually an alliance operative who infiltrated the Empire
5. "Fell in love"
6. Imprisioned by the Alliance ("prison changes people")
7. Left because of conscience
8. Court-martialed, re-assigned to janatorial duties, then left the Empire
9. Accidently killed superior officer in "friendly fire" (not really ), when that excuse didn't fly; ran to avoid death sentence.
10. Was a squad leader, squad became disloyal and tried to kill him, they failed, but he became disloyal as well due to the experience.

...and my absolute favorite, and as a GM, I allowed this in the background out of pure appreciation of the creativity

11. The Imperial officers realized that "he" was really a she, and booted her out.

[KageRyu]

Here's the thing, Stormtrooper ranks being at least in part clones isn't EU, it is official, was official, and always will be. Lucas made hints and mention to this effect constantly throughout sources, interviews, and liscensed material in the 80's. Lucasfilm further endorsed this in the Star Wars Technical Journal written by them in 1994 and published via Starlog magazine. In addition, with the events as depicted by Lucas in Episode 3, for those who strictly adhere to the new films as cannon, he further reinforces and backs the fact that the ranks of stormtroopers are entirely, if not in part, clones.

Also, clones were only mentioned to go insane when they were grown at an accelerated rate (as was the case orriginally mentioned when first Lucas spoke of the clone wars in the 80s, and was mentioned in later EU sources).
The emperror maintains that he "abolished" cloning to the people to placate them as there was probably great concern over the carnage during the clone wars. Further, by banning the technology and destroying or impounding any non-imperial sources, the Emperror insure that only he has access to it, and thus no one else can grow an "instant army" to threaten him. It is possible, though not covered by the specific reign of the movies, that the people of the republic were outraged by the slaughter of Jedi at the hands of the clone troops, and Palpatine created the cover storry of the clones going insane to cover it up and further reinforce his need for military buildup.
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[therritn]

In Book 2 and 3 of the Bounty Hunter Wars series. Boba Fett is hunting an ex stormtrooper named Trisn Vossn't (you may check the spelling and name), whom he eventually captures

[Jedi Skyler]

[Volar the Healer]

[Phalanks Balas]

I propose an other background :

The ex-stormi was on a starship like a patrol boat, when it was attaqued by pirate vessels. The imperial ship was destroyed and few people were able to reach escape pods. The ex-stormi fled in a pod but this one was hit and damaged. The pod crashed on a primitive area and the ex-stormi was seriously wounded on the head. Some nomads took care of him then sold him as a slave. He realized what the Empire done with him (brainwash etc...) and after this moment considered that his new condition was the fault of the Empire. Due to his training he was able to escape (Can be a short scenario to introduce the player) and he is free again now.
Imperial rescue team has find the escaped pod but considered that everybody have been killed during the crash or died sortly after.
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Phalanks

A day you will be facing the guns of the Black Pearl. You will know what means damned pirates !

[KageRyu]

[Jedi Skyler]

Plus there's information in the novels (which even though some don't use as canon, they're still there) that comes right out and says that the Empire used both recruitment AND forced conscription- especially of political prisoners (or their family members) who were deemed of good enough physical shape to possibly survive the training.

[KageRyu]

I don't remember reading about forced conscription for Stormtroopers, this would tend to undermine their loyalty. I have read about it for regular Army and such though.
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[garhkal]

Well, Kyps brother, Zek, was one of those 'force conscripted, and he was training to become a ST..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!