So your players join the Rebel Alliance

[jhilahd]

Do you have them go through basic training and get "enlisted" ranks?
Or do you just start them off as part of the Alliance and dispense with ranks?

Just going through the Alliance sourcebook(still reading it), it seems to hint that all new comers go through basic upon joining.

I had never considered it before, but did Han or Luke do the same thing? Not that it matters, but why give these new guys promotions like that? I know, I know, they did magnificent things. They're heroes.

Yes yes... but let me shift that back to our players? Do you or would you to your own group?

I've got a bunch of raw recruits. Some have played before, and some have never played. We just ran our first mission, and I got to wondering, who outranks who?

This is probably more of a personal choice than a true game choice/mechanic. But I wanted to get soem thoughts from other GM's.

Thanks!


***edited because of the typo in the header.

[PsiberDragon]

My thoughts: It depends on how you want to run it...

if you want to run it pretty much as soldiers/freedom fighters, then yeah, you might want to have "basic training".

Otherwise, I'd say have them be volunteers... and the "training" they get is who to contact when, until they prove they can be trusted, the have them introduced a little farther up the food chain each time...

as for who outranks whom... whoever owns the ship calls the shots. Otherwise, after they've moved up in ranks... have whoever seems to be the natural leader be the commander, and go down in ranks from there...

Take, for example GENERAL Calrissian... Lando was a scoundrel... GENERAL is a leader.. it was pretty much through "field promotions"... acts of bravery (stupidity and/or blind luck), attrition (someone higher up dying, so they need to fill the ranks), or contributions (in the form of service or whatever... )...

that's pretty much how Lando got his commission...
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"Love like you will die tomorrow. Hate like you will live forever." - Unknown

[Kayle Skolaris]

If you look at historical rebellions and revolutions, there is rarely a chance for new recruits to undergo any sort of real basic training. Indeed, lack of training severely hampered the early efforts of the American army during our Revolution. George Washington went from Virginia farmer to General of the Army with nothing in between. Many other early American generals, colonels, majors, etc. did the same thing. They were simply given a rank on the spot by whoever was inducting them into the Army. Do a little historical research and you should begin to get some ideas. Wikipedia is great for this sort of thing.

[masque]

Well, Washington wasn't just a farmer, he had been a colonel in the French and Indian War. That definitely played a role in his recieving the general position.

As for the players, if you have the joining the Rebellion "regular" army, then sure, give them some basic training, if you're running a military centered campaign. If, however, you want your characters to be more like Luke, Han and the rest, have them be special operatives, indepedent agents who are aligned with the Rebellion, but not a formal member of the Alliance military heirarchy. That's generally how I run my campaigns. The party has an Alliance liaison who hooks them up with info and jobs, and then leaves them to their own devices on how to accomplish their goals.
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Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

[Kayle Skolaris]

In that context, Leia would've been Han and Luke's initial Alliance liaison.

[gollummen]

In my campain I made sure the players came in a position that was interesting for the rebel alliance. The players had worked as local town guards and responded to a assistance call from sandtroopers in heavy battle against tusken raiders (one player died).

After that the players would recieve a shiny medal from the sector Moff himself, onboard his flagship "The Iron Fist". Therefore they were contacted by rebels who asked them to smuggle bombs aboard and kidnap the moff. The mission succeded and after that they were offered a job as special forces (SWAT-like)
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All stats 2D, except: brawling parry: versus boxing 2D+2, melee combat: swords 3D, melee parry: swords 2D+2, languages: english 2D+1, scolar: history 3D, scolar: social studies 2D+1, brawling: boxing 2D+2, computer programming/repair 2D+1.

[Xynar]

I usually start them off as a Mission Group and then upgrade them later to Spec Ops.
(See Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments From the Rim for more information on Spec Ops and Mission Groups)
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Xynar
The Great Adventurer

[jhilahd]

Thanks for the great feedback!

I hadn't considered the American Revolution for a resource for SW. Nice. Thanks again!

[Kayle Skolaris]

Any revolution is suitable for stripmining, really. From the Spartacus Uprising of ancient Rome to the October Revolution of early 20th century Russia.

[Rasputiza]

Yep, basically, when revolutions (or resistance movements) start up, everyone with previous military experience tend to be assigned responsibility tasks, really green volunteers tend to fill the ranks, to be later promoted on the battlefield (on a "those who survived are promoted" basis).
Every resistance movement in Europe during WWII experienced similar mechanics.

If your players show a fair degree of technical and military skills, they could be assigned lower officier ranks on the spot (sub-lieutenant or lieutenant, as istance), otherwise they could get some grades assigned after one or two missions...