Imperial campaign start

[Xenon]

After GMing one shorter and one longer campaign set in the Rise of the Empire era (d20), I'm thinking of setting the next campaign in the Galactic Civil War era, with a twist... The heroes are Imperials (but not the stereotype ruthless officers or soldiers) and are currently in the academy on the planet of Carida. They are training to become navy troopers, officers, pilots, etc. and the first adventure would start in the academy's simulator (although the players don't know it; I'll give some hints here and there) with a simple enough mission (slightly tense, but simple overall).
After they complete the mission, they are told to report in to the commanding officer, at the specified coordinates. When they arrive there, the officer turns out to be none other than Lord Vader, with a squad of 501st troopers... and needless to say, he isn't happy for some reason and attacks. The heroes can be inventive and stall and try to injure him or escape, but I guess they will eventually be captured (or killed). This is when a familiar officer appears (he is one of the heroes' real senior officers) and tells them to exit the simulator immediately. Depending on how have the heroes reacted before, he will either congratulate or reprimand them, but in any case, he will send them back to normal, and order them to stop wasting time on the simulator.

This is the basic idea, which I intend to detail during the session. Plot ideas are also to have a prisoner or someone else show the PCs the atrocities the Imperials commit and have them rethink their allegiance. Has anyone got any ideas, comments, suggestions?

[Esoomian]

I actually played in a game where the players were Imperials but due to their location and commanding officers they weren't actually doing bad things.

They kept the peace on Imperial worlds where powerhungry nobility threated to usurp the throne (incidentally getting half the planet killed in a bloody civil war) and things like that.

It was interesting to play form the perspective of good people doing dood inside the evil Empire

[Endwyn]

Well, the easiest way to influence them with the evils of the empire is to have them commit the atrocity or be unable to prevent it.

For example, during adventure number one have the players work on a rebel sabotage mission. The rebels have destroyed to local holonet relays and have somehow stopped a lot of messages from being broadcast outside (or from outside) of the star system. They are to track down and find the saboteurs and then restore communications. Perhaps one of the rebels they meet recognizes one of the players. They cannot restore all the communications but some progress is made.

Mission #2 might involve tracking the rebel cell or another imperial mission. Command has fallen to the commanding officer of the system as communication is scarce.

Mission #3 should involve progress of tracking the rebel cell. Perhaps the imperial officer discovers that one of their own was recognized by the rebels and choses to exploit it. In the end the imperials discover that the planet is filled with rebel activity. To top it off the "jamming" equipment is located all over the planet, mostly in the major cities of the planet. A decision must be made about what do do with the rebel infested planet that has caused the thorn in the side of the imperials. Obviously imperial command has an easier time deciding to level the cities from space. Once this is done communications is restored. Then one of the players gets a back-logged communication from their sister/brother telling them they came to visit them and hope they can meet up in (leveled city).

That kind of arc can really change the way you view the "greater good", imperial law, and tactics.
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And Leia is your sister!
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[Hellcat]

If you can, try getting ahold of the Heroes & Rogues supplement WEG produced. It's got an entire chapter in it devoted to playing Imp characters, similar to what you're talking about I think. The second chapter discusses various types of Imp characters, runn ing an Imperial campaign, and even has several Imp character sheets.
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