Interest check for Star Wars: For the Glory of the Empire

[BlackStone]

Looking to see if there for a Star Wars role play in which players would play a non-standard Imperial commando unit.  The unit would be called the 581st, the Emperor's Blades, assigned to the the modified Gladiator Star Detroyer Blacklance.  The ship is the heart of one of the task forces making up the newly formed Fifteenth Expeditionary Fleet under the command of newly promoted Grand Admiral Thrawn.   This game will be borrowing elements from the popular TIE Fighter game in the sense there are challenges to the Emperor's rule who have set up vast resources in the Outer Rim in an effort to force the Emperor to fight a civil war on many fronts.   The most significant threat to the Emperor was his form heard of Research and Development, Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin.

The Battle of Yavin and the destruction of the Death Star had dealt a more telling bow to the Empire than the Rebellion knew.  A full two fleets of Imperial Star Destroyers were destroyed in the wake of the Death Star's demise.  They were among the best, brightest, the most ambitious, all hoping to play a part in the destruction of the rebellion.  Even Thrawn had been caught in the wake of destruction, the outer edge of the shock wave decimating his Victory II Star Destroyer, the Vengeance, forcing him to abandon ship.  Three years later, Imperial resources are being strained beyond limits, and for no apparent reason.  The loose of convoys and transport ships affecting Imperial garrisons and ports all along the Outer Rim, making them even more vulnerable to ht and run attacks by the Rebellion, causing them to gain in number.   It was during this point of vulnerability Zaairn and his allied attack, taking over the Imperial flagship Magestic.

The coup was thwarted by the arrival of Vice Admiral Thrawn on board the Victory Class Destroyer Vanguard along wit Darth Vader leading his famed Black Squadron in the TIE/d Defender prototypes.   One did not rise to the ranks of Grand Admiral by not adjusting to the ebb and tides of battle.  On board his Star Destroyer Glory, Zaarin get a swath of damage and destruction through the industrial hardof the Empire, crippling and bringing to a grinding halt productions for the TIE/In and TIE/A throughout the Empire, and making off with key technologies required to make the TIE/d be more then the single squadron of ships the Empire possessed.   With the damage inflicted, Zaarin and his fleet headed out to the Out Edge.

The last known course of Zaarin's fleet took them to the edge of the known Imperial boundaries, nothing of any military significance or importance, at least on the surface.  Something must be out there as the Fifteenth Expeditionary Fleet was formed overnight, as did Thrawns promotion, unprecedented in the brief history of the Empire and its known prejudices against non humans.  Thrawn was not one to sit and bask in the glory of past victories.  Within hours orders had been sent to the corners of the Empire, informing all of you to report for duty on board the Blacklance  under the command of the 581st Irregular Force RECON unit, the Emperor's Blades.

As far as systems go,  I am mainly leaning towards freeform with perhaps people using Star Wards SAGA to come up with a thumbnail snapshot of your characters strengths and weaknesses.  I want this game to be more about role play and story than roll playing and min/maxing.

Here are links to the active game threads.
Character Concepts and Roster
OOC Thread

[Cataclysmic Archangel]

Sounds interesting.  Is this going to be like the Wraith Squadron novels (albeit not rebel pilots), where they were pilots also, with 'alternate skill sets'?  Or more traditional commandos ferried in and deployed to do their dirty work?

Not sure what you meant on the Saga bit.  I'm a systems junky, but would be cool if it was just to make the characters so they have their guidelines, and then freeform the rp after.

[Kadigan]

I'd definitely be interested, especially if it is freeform.

[BlackStone]

Any form of system would only be to give payers a framework they can wrap their heads around for their characters so we do not all end up have a team of Bobba Fetts or Darth Vader level characters.   More like "think of your characters any anywhere between 8-10"  Once we start the game, it will be free form.

As for the concept yes I do want it to be more the Imperial flip of the coin of Wraith Squadron.  To me Thrawn was the type of Commander who knew the value of having an Elite, behind the scenes unit, especially when the area of the galaxy he would be operating in would either be neutral territory at best, behind enemy lines at the worst.

[Cataclysmic Archangel]

That's cool. So a pilot that has a full supply of alternate abilities.  Dibs on the TIE/D! (I actually have a few in my X-Wing collection, they're a favorite of mine)

If each person is to field a specific role, then I think Marksman/Sniper would do nicely.

[Fiver214]

I'd be interested as well. I'd be interested in playing a male face that can double as a close-in fighter, but if someone really wants to take either one of those roles I can easily be convinced to play the medic of the group.

[Anna Katrine]

Putting in my interest as well. A quick question as I don't know that much about the expanded universe stuff: The empire sort of hated aliens right? Wasn't that one of the main reasons that Thrawn's position was so special? that he was an alien that managed to climb the ranks.

If I am right in my suspision then it would be cool to either play an xenophobic member of the team or an alien that the other's despise.

[Kadigan]

If it would be allowed, I was thinking something akin to Guri. After all "one of a kind" is more of a sales pitch.

[BlackStone]

Thrawn was a bit more progressive than most of the Imperial leadership, and as such him having non-humans, even an humanoid replica like Guri, in one of his elite if irregular forces would not be out of character.  Thrawn believed in the vision behind the Empire, that the galaxy needed to be united behind one centralized leadership over individual freedom.

As far as the make up of the team, the basic framework I would like to work around would be the following.

1) Leader
2) Pilot Specialist
3) Medic
4) Marksman
5) Demolitions
6) Slicer

At least off the top of my head.  Not saying we need to have six players to start, any combination of the above would work.  They way I see it in my mind, one could be a specialist in one skill set above, expert in two, or skilled in three, if that makes sense to folks?

[Fiver214]

Cue me up for the "leader bracket then. Seems to fit what I originally wanted best. If someone especially wants the role, however, I'll switch to medic.

[Kadigan]

I'd be interested in demolitions I suppose. Or muscles if such a thing were to exist..Guri was pretty strong.

[Florence]

I could be interested if there's room! I'm always happy to serve the Empire :>

[Cataclysmic Archangel]

Wow.  missed a lot of replies!

I already put my hat in for Marksman.  I was also considering 'hand to hand', but quite a few have mentioned that.  Since sniper might be a super-specialized role, I could also be munitions of all sorts... part sniper, part gunslinger, part 'give me that blaster and I'll give you 4 microns better accuracy'.

Which also means we might need a grease monkey.

[Anna Katrine]

I can figure out a character for whatever we might end up needing as long as it is not the leader :) I've got some exams at the moment so I don't mind taking a backseat for now.

[BlackStone]

It looks like we do have enough interest.  I will start with character generation, sheets, and OOC thread by the weekend.

[Florence]

Depending on what other people are interested in, I'm thinking I could play a sniper, pilot or a medic. Maybe even the team leader if no one else is interested in that role.

Alternatively, if we maybe need a heavy weapons expert, I could do that.

As for race, I have a human replica droid I'd love to use, but she's more of a mercenary/bounty hunter. Also got a Miraluka, but I imagine any living Miraluka in the Empire are probably shuffled off into the Inquisition like Jerec. So she'll probably just be a boring ol' human.

[Fiver214]

I'll go ahead and compile a list of who volunteered for what, just so we're all on the same page and don't have to keep scrolling through each individual post to keep track.

• Leader - Florence, Fiver
  
• Pilot Specialist - Arcannyx? Florence
  
• Medic - Fiver, Florence
  
• Marksman - Arcannyx, Florence
  
• Demolitions - BarbaraGordon
  
• Slicer -
  
• Any - AnnaKatrine
  

This is just to show what people have shown interest in; I'm not going to assume anyone's priorities.

[Cataclysmic Archangel]

I don't think I ever said anything regarding pilot.  I think that comment was more because the Wraith Squadron novels were all about fighter pilots who were all skilled in other things.  if Blackstone was going that route, they ALL of us would be skilled pilots, because Wraith Squadron was all X-wing pilots.

If he's not going that way, you'd need one to run the shuttle, but that's about it.

I've mentioned marksman (with a side of other weaponry), much like what Florence just stated.

I've also mentioned hand to hand, but I believe that was brought up.

However, since I also see that no one has shown any interest in slicer...

[Fiver214]

• Leader - Florence, Fiver
  
• Pilot Specialist - Florence
  
• Medic - Fiver, Florence
  
• Marksman -  Florence
  
• Demolitions - BarbaraGordon
  
• Slicer - Arcannyx
  
• Any - AnnaKatrine
  

Right? If anyone else would like to volunteer to a specific one, I'll change up the list.

[Cataclysmic Archangel]

• Leader - Florence, Fiver
  
• Pilot Specialist - Florence
  
• Medic - Fiver, Florence
  
• Marksman - Arcannyx, Florence
  
• Demolitions - BarbaraGordon
  
• Slicer - Arcannyx
  
• Any - AnnaKatrine
  

Right? If anyone else would like to volunteer to a specific one, I'll change up the list.

Sorry, I guess I'm not being very clear with my wordsmithery today.

[BlackStone]

Going to take me a few more days here.  Sick kids and real life obligations.  Blarg

[Florence]

Ha! It's cool, I was just worried because I haven't checked on this in a few days and thought it might have run off without me!

[BlackStone]

No not at all, just work and real life drama unfortunately. 

[ShadowFox89]

 Man, I wish I saw this earlier. Have any room left?

[BlackStone]

My apologies for how long things have taken.   Here are links to the game threads.

Character Concepts and Roster
OOC Thread