Stormtroopers

[Son of Fire]

I was looking over some stats for npc’s tonight when I was struck by something.
Stormtroopers suck, I mean they are really pathetic. Now before you all scoff and say “of course they suck! Look how they got chumped in every movie!” look at it from a different perspective for a moment. Look at what they are supposed to represent.
Stormtroopers are supposed to embody pure militarism, the very essence of the Empire, the Empires elite shock troops and line breakers, superior to the naval and army forces of the rest of the Empire. And autonomous highly trained and disciplined fighting force feared thought the know galaxy! This is represented with a piddlie 2D in their stats. Heck some Imperial infantry have better stats then that! Sure Luke and the crew trounced them. But who wouldn’t? It was their movie! They where the pc’s (with a lot more of a generous start then most pc’s) so it would only make sense to have them spanked when they deal with them. But if we look outside direct confrontations with the main players the won almost every other encounter. The Corillian Corvette’s crew was taken in minutes, and the same for Echo base on Hoth. Of course there was the Ewok thing, but that was due to a lot of off screen factors (vastly outnumbered, lack of terrain advantage, loss of the Emperor, loss of the base and the AT-ST, etc) in addition to having the best Rebel commando units available.

Now can someone explain why the one of the most highly trained fighting forces in the galaxy have the stats of a common man?
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"My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself." - George Bernard Shaw

[Loc Taal]

I definitely agree with you. Here's what WEG says about this exact question in the Gamemaster Handbook Second Edition:

[Crell Damar]

you know storm troopers get to make combined action shots with no multiple action penalty, AND if someone's moving more than 10m they get a +2D to their shot from their MFTAS (did i abbreviate that correctly?)

StormTrooper A: "We Got A Runner!"

StormTrooper B: "...I got em..."


and ALSO on top of that, you don't always have to use standard everyday run of the mill stormtroopers... on occasion the imperial royal guard takes stormtrooper duties *in stormtrooper armor* to make sure their skills stay sharp... now ask yourself this... 5D dex anyone?


and don't forget, you can always use experimentally cybernetically enhanced storm troopers too

there are always ways to keep the PCs challanged... just don't go too overboard with the cybernetics...

i did once , and he was a monster... untouchable... so i scrapped him

[Son of Fire]

Now correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t a 2D for stats the average that a human can have? And if that’s the case how come these “elite” units have the galactic average for humans and are considered elite? For then they would not be skilled for a normal at all. They would just “be” normal.

Lets add it up, a starting character gets 18D for stats, while a Stormtrooper gets 12D, understandably they are not a good as the pc’s, but such a variance takes almost all threat value out of them. In fact an Imperial Army Trooper has the same total value, that being 12D. To me that hardly represents that galactic elite, they are not even elite among there own peers.
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"My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself." - George Bernard Shaw

[Crell Damar]

their attributes are average, but their skill is better than professional so...

[Loc Taal]

[Son of Fire]

I wonder how the Royal Guard can have a Dex of 5D when the human max is 4D?

The thing is this though, if you add up the points for Imperial Army Troopers and Stormtroopers, they have the same dice value…12D stats 7D skills. That’s seem more than a little off consider that the Stormtroopers are supposed to be the elite of the Imperials. Further, shouldn’t Stormtroopers who are supposed to undergo some of the most rigorous training in the galaxy have that reflect in their stats?
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"My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself." - George Bernard Shaw

[Crell Damar]

stats mean little to nothing in this system, with the exception of trying skills you're not trained in... but other than that and soaking, it's all about the skills

[Son of Fire]

And that’s exactly the reason it should be present.
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"My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself." - George Bernard Shaw

[garhkal]

Other things to make your stormies feared...

1) Smoke grenades. With their MFAS helmets, they need not worry about the smoke.
2) The movement penalty, +2 to their targeting for those moving more than 10... dont forget this!!!
3) Have them be used to their armor, so they suffer no dex penalty
4) Combined fire. I cannot stress this enough!
5) Cover/consealment, same as combined fire. They are foolhardy and fearless but they are not stupid.
6) If all else fails, say they are a veteran squad (platoon) and give them 2d extra in their blaster, dodge and brawl/parry skills, and 1d extra for the others.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[KageRyu]

Ok, not only is this thread from 2 years ago. But all of the above examples just listed in "resurecting" this post were made by myself and other in a newer thread that has also been posted too. Really, do we need to do this?
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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