Pride of the Empire

Welcome to Pride of the Empire, the Non-canon Star Wars Stormtrooper game of fast paced explosions, blasting and all the great fun that comes along with it. Non-Canon, is a simple fast paced tabletop RPG designed to get you right into the thick of it with as little setup as possible.

Welcome new recruit

to the strongest fighting force of the galaxy, the mighty Empire under Emperor Palpatine. Following his guidance and wisdom, the Empire has grown to encompass dozens of systems under its control and protection. We maintain peace and order throughout the galaxy that hasn’t been seen since long before the weak old republic allowed the growth of crime syndicates and war to ravish the galaxy. With your might added to the emperor’s wisdom, we will maintain order and security throughout the galaxy.

You are to become a member of Boar Squad. The bottom of the bottom when it comes to Imperial service men/women/aliens. When the Empire found themselves the victims of a strong interplanetary push for equal rights, diversity hiring while facing many sexual harassment space-lawsuits they created the Boar Squad. You’re the unwanted ragtag group that gets sent out to pick up take-out, cleans the garbage compactors, searches for droids in the desert, and keeps the Empire nominally compliant with affirmative action regulations. When you’re not doing meaningless jobs, you’re given errand missions or are sent to R&D to test out new and dangerous experimental equipment.

Stormtroopers get blasted, blown up, eaten, squashed, vaporized, decapitated and dismembered on a daily basis...and those are the good ones. Unfortunately, you can assume that you’ll succumb to a similar fate. Fortunately the Boar Squad garrison is huge and filled with other faceless soldiers to take your place. Unfortunately, they’ll probably have a similar fate too. This game is designed minimally for the purpose of letting new ready-to-go soldiers rolled out quickly so the PC’s can get themselves killed in a firefight or by falling down an elevator shaft.

Mini History Lesson

So what else should you know about life as a Stormtrooper? The Empire grew very quickly and as a result there are many inconsistent or outright conflicting procedures and policies that change rapidly without notice or reason. Bureaucracy is running rampant bogging down the system in confusing paperwork while new bases and capital ships pop up and grow so fast that it’s become inefficient or nearly impossible to get around them. In addition the constant surprise rebel attacks, internal saboteurs and inept soldiers, even walking to the cafeteria aboard a Star Destroyer can prove deadly in hilarious ways.

Your goals

Your main job will be as general problem solvers, while also living up to the low standards of Boar Squad (Imagine Police Academy meets Full Metal Jacket with a lot of Three Stooges mixed in). You must always be on the lookout for rebellious or treasonous behavior, dangerous or unregistered aliens, signs of force-sensitive abilities or criminal scum and put it down while trying to not get blasted yourself.

The rebels won’t hesitate to kill you. Aliens won’t hesitate to eat you. Force users won’t think twice before dissecting you and if you exhibit treasonous or rebellious behavior, your fellow stormtroopers won’t hesitate to blast you. If you find yourself on a planet that the Empire decides shouldn’t exist, the Empire won’t hesitate to kill you. And above all, make sure to properly fill out all necessary forms, complete your paperwork and keep your armor clean or you may find yourself floating home.

So what’s life like within the Empire? Well a typical day involves waking up in your bunk which is identical to a few hundred all stacked 5 high in a bunk hall either aboard a starship or at a planet base. You log into your Empire datapad which provides you a wealth of information, and allows the Empire to monitor your health and location as well as recording your conversations and allowing you a constant direct line to your crew and supervisors. Then you take your Empire mandated medication to prevent tiring, PTSD and distractions. Next it’s time to clean and polish your armor before putting it on and then to the mess hall for your breakfast which is manufactured from various sources into a green goo which satisfies necessary nutrition and not much else. After breakfast you attend your squad meeting and receive your daily briefing and assignments.

Race

The Empire has become an equal opportunity employer, and since they opened the door, all matter of aliens and weirdos have come pouring in. Armor can be custom made for any alien body type. There are no race limitations in Non-Canon. I’m not going to list them all though, that would take too long. Pick something, or hell, invent something and discuss with your GM what bonus you’ll get for it. Each Race should have a bonus of 2 attributes and one drawback. Here are a bunch but feel free to create your own.

Races

Name	Bonus and drawbacks
Human	Your choice
Droid	+Smarts, +Wisdom, -Blast
Twilek	+Wisdom, +Stealth, -Smarts
Hutt	+Blast, +Wisdom, -Stealth
Ewok	+Stealth, +Smarts, -Wisdom
Jawa	+Smarts, +Gearhead, -Wisdom
Wookee	+Smarts, +Blast, -Stealth
Duros	+Gearhead, +Wisdom, -Stealth

Time to Drop Knowledge

Want a differnt race? Want to play a Rancor or whatever the fuck a Yoda is? Hell yeah! Go nuts work it out with your GM and make some happy memories

Attributes

There are 5 Primary Attributes can range from 1-20. All characters get 12 total points to divy up as they see fit among the 5 Primary Attributes which represents a general idea of the character and adds an equal bonus to all the skills associated with it. Next choose 6 Specialty Skills (one of them is required to be within the Blast attribute due to your combat training) which gives an additional +3 points to that particular skill.

Wisdom

• Assess the Situation
• Bootlicking
• Bluff
• Intimidation

Stealth

• Agility
• Hide
• Disguise
• Sleight of Hand
• Sneaking

Blast

• Demolitions
• Blasters
• Exotic Weapons
• Thrown Weapons
• Unarmed Combat

Smarts

• Planetary Customs and Government
• Traverse and Exploration
• Medical
• Wildlife
• Survival

Gearhead

• Droid Ops and Maintenance
• Chemical Engineering
• Computer Use and Hacking
• Vehicle Ops and Maintenance
• Weapons and Armor Maintenance

Your Seedy Past

What did you screw up that landed you on Boar Squad? This backstory will gain you +1 bonus to a single Attribute but also a -1 to a different attribute which you can lose by correcting what you did wrong. Maybe you’re just a really weird looking bug-faced alien, or a real stormtrooper who got demoted, or perhaps you were forced to enlist as part of a plea bargain after damaging a speeder while working as a valet. This story also acts as a sore subject or motivation for your character. If they can (or at least REALLY try) to correct it, the negative can be removed at the GM’s discretion. Such as: You somehow scored a negative score on your academy placement exam. At the academy you threw an insane party that resulted in damage to Darth Vader’s Tie Fighter. You damaged a speeder while working as a valet and joining the Empire is part of your plea deal You’re a weird alien political hire and they want to keep you out of the way. You were at one point a decorated hero but you accidentally slept with an officer’s daughter.

When You’re On the Job

When there’s a mission to do, your role in the Empire will be one of the following:

• Ground Pounders (Stormtroopers/snowtroopers/etc) +1 to a Blast Skill

• Calvary Transporters (ATAT/ATST Drivers) +1 to a Smarts Skill

• Imperial Navy (Gunners and Tie Pilots) +1 to a Gearhead Skill

• Bridge Crew +1 to a Wisdom Skill

• Pathfinders (Scout Troopers/Biker Scouts) +1 to a Stealth Skill

On Your Down Time

When there isn’t anyone around that needs blasting, you’ll have a secondary job in a SERVICE to keep you out of trouble. Choose one, or roll % or something.

• Armed Services: You’re a full time Stormtrooper and patrol the halls of bases, keeping everyone nervous and a bad nights sleep away from blasting a defective soda machine +1 to a Blast Skill

• Armed Services Support: You’re in charge of reloading the baster batteries and making sure that the tie fighters are always prepped and ready to explode dramatically +1 to a Gear Head Skill

• Central Processing: New employee training, paperwork, forms, releases and making sure everyone gets their paychecks +1 to a Wisdom Skill or Smarts Skill

• “Internal Security”: Choose or roll twice, you’re a spy in the first service reporting back to the second +1 to a Stealth Skill

• Internal Security: You investigate any wrongdoings or more realistically, you watch monitors and time people’s bathroom breaks.+1 to a Wisdom or Body Skill

• Human Resources: Hiring, Firing, dealing with arguments and someone’s always mad about other people eating their lunch out of the breakroom fridge +1 to a Smarts Skill or Wisdom Skill

• Production and Logistics: Speeder Assembly, Food Vat Chef, Storage inspection and all the other things that sound fun with a wrench or a clipboard in your hand+1 to a Gearhead Skill

• Power Services: Got to keep the lights on and the space toilets flowing but it’s the best place to be if you like dumpster diving +1 to a Gearhead Skill

• R&D: You get to test new ways to blast, blow up, incinerate or squash an enemy, best accidental death and dismemberment benefits in the Empire. +1 to a Blast Skill or Gearhead Skill

• Technical Services: Blast doors and shield maintenance, tech support and blaster inspections because even the Empire has a few nerdy Stormtroopers+1 to a Wisdom or Gearhead Skill

Teamwork

A team of stormtroopers work best when they work together. Each player gets 10 Teamwork points a game session and they don’t carry over into the next (assuming you’re even still alive by next session).

Spending a teamwork point can add a single dice roll (D20) divided by 2 and rounded down to any other roll (so a bonus anywhere between 1 and 10) and these can be used at any time, even when it’s not your turn. These should be roleplayed for added excitement and can add to a player’s skill roll, to subtract from an enemies skill roll or to create a minor overall modifier to either side. Some examples are providing cover fire, drawing out an enemy or blasting a fire suppression droid and causing a smokescreen. Now teamwork can also be used to oppose a roll, if you need to stop a blaster happy stormtrooper, or suspect someone in your team is a traitor, you can spend a teamwork point to reduce their roll.

Leveling Up and Rewards

In pride of the Empire your characters don’t level up. They can receive promotions which can grant them additional training and skills as well as better career opportunities and credit rewards. Characters get promoted when they do something amazing, clever or memorable in service to the Empire. The Empire rewards their stormtroopers that not only come back but come back successful, so let the players add 3 skill points to their character as well as a weekly credit balance increase and any other fun appropriate rewards you can think of (Such as vacations to exotic locations, experimental new weapons, Rat-themed theme park passes, or space drugs.

Time to Drop Knowledge

Private--Corporal--Sergeant--Lieutenant---Senior Lieutenant--Captain--Major--Lieutenant Colonel --Brigadier General--General--Lord General

Combat

Pride of the Empire doesn’t have Hit Points because HP is pretty dumb and unrealistic. To use a more dramatic and narrative system and to keep combat moving, Pride of the Empire has stolen the system used in Paranoia.

Each character has 7 stages of wellness that ranges from Snafu to Vaporized to represent how close to dead you are. They are: Okay, Snafu, Wounded, Maimed, Down, Killed, Vaporized.

• Snafued means a character can’t attack in the next round in order to gather themselves. They can still take other actions or run. Snafu automatically corrects after 1 round. This is like the close call that makes a character huddle behind a table and wish he was somewhere else.

• Wounded means the character is Snafued as well as needing medical help. They can’t spend any teamwork points on themselves but can spend on others. A simple blaster shot to the arm or a knife to the leg.

• Maimed means the character is Snafued the next round and also one of their limbs has become useless or absent and can’t spend teamwork points on themselves but can spend them on other players’ rolls. Don’t let a Wookie tearing off your arm ruin your day.

• Down is pretty self explanatory you can still mumble or pull a trigger. But you aren’t going anywhere on your own but you can still spend teamwork points on others but not yourself.

• Killed means dead and can only spend teamwork points on others in amusing and chaotic ways as you describe how your lifeless body is still in play.

• Vaporized means your character is now a thick red spray hanging in the air.

Alternatively, when it comes to destroying vehicles, droids or vending machines use the following: Okay, Light Damage, Impaired, Heavily Damaged, Busted, Junked, Vaporized.

Killing things

So to begin simply...You have a Blast attribute which represents all of the violence you're capable of dishing out. Within the Blast attribute, you have skills that represent how you might be better with certain modes of killing rather than others. You will add the number of the appropriate skill when you're using a weapon assosiated with that skill.

When you decide to try to kill something, you'll first roll a d20 and add in the appropriate Violence Skill modifier ( Your GM will compare that result to the defense of the thing that you’re trying to destroy and tell you if it's a hit and by how much you exceeded that defense number)

Next you will look at your weapon where you will notice a number called a boost number. Take the ammount that you exceeded the defense by and divide it by the boost number (which can be different for every weapon), the result is how many steps the damage increases.

Tools (for Killing)

Cookie Tastiness

Weapons	Damage and Boost
Vibro Blades	S3K
Blasters	W3K
Ion Blasters	L3J
Heavy Repeater Blaster	S3K (can hit multiple enemies close together)
Frag Grenades	W3K (can hit multiple enemies)
Thermal Detonator	W2V multiple targets (illegal)
Ion Grenades	L2J against equipment
Flamethrowers	S3K short range, can hit multiple targets
Slug Thrower	W3K
Sniper Blasters	W3K with significantly increased range
Stun Gun	Stun effect lasts for rounds equal to ½ the AC exceedance
Debris	O4W
Lightsabers	W2K ignores armor (illegal)
Unarmed	O5K
Sword	W5K
Ship Blasters	vs People: W2K / vs Ships: L3J

Backfires

If the roll is a 1 or 10 less than the AC, it backfires. Be creative and make it amusing. Rifles will blare an alarm, overheat or explode, grenades may explode early, late or not at all, and vibroblades may break, splinter or fly out of their hand and embed themselves in teammates.

Also note that weapon modifications are not approved by the Empire’s code of standards under the Uniform and Equipment Policy 1007-282 and will void the warranty and probably get you labeled as a troublemaker. Such illegal modifications such as extended/NVG scopes, barrel cooling, flash suppressors, charge exciters, ion additions and others. Treat each modification as adding an appropriate bonus to the skill roll unless you make a vorpal weapon which can increase the max damage to V.

Tools (Not for Killing)

As a trusted employee of the Empire you’re issued certain other equipment automatically to aid you in your never ending quest to seek out new life and squash/enslave it. All equipment is the property of the Empire. Lost or damaged equipment is heavily frowned upon and can get troopers demoted, sent back to the academy for retraining or even terminated.

All players have a personal data pad with a wireless uplink to the helmet as well as the galaxies best data plan. The PDP includes mission specific information and notes and also store copies of the Imperial handbooks to remind soldiers of policies, procedures and regulations. The datapad is also capable of two way video and audio communication, universal language translator, GPS locator, a recording device for catching traitors in the act, a scanning device and allow for the hacking of computer terminals. The personal data pad can also freely download additional features as necessary to prevent boring shopping trips for random equipment that may be needed.

Perhaps the most important is that your PDP allows for instant communication to the Empirical Computer which you can use to get mission updates, make reports, check in and ask for advice (assuming you're the proper security clearance and the computer is in a good mood that day).

Protecting Yourself

All troopers are supplied with armor and matching helmets. Making unauthorized adjustments to their helmets to increase their visibility or survivability is treasonous. All creatures, enemies, players, explosive crates, ships etc. have a base 10 AC. Armor can increase it, size can increase or decrease based on its size, cover and running can increase AC and it’s up to the GM’s discretion as to what pluses or negatives are applied as they see fit.

All damage reduction comes before any boost damage. For example

• Stormtrooper/Ground Troop Armor DR1
• Royal Guard Armor DR2
• Mandalorian Armor DR2
• Battle Armor DR3
• Possession or use of any other unapproved armor is considered treasonous.

So damage is reduced by steps before the boost is calculated. TK44769 blasts some rebel scum with his blaster (W3K) and hits 16 vs 10. The skum is wearing stolen ground trooper armor that reduces the damage by 1 step which reduces the bare minimum damage possible from Wounded to Snafued. Then the boost (6 because that was how much they exceeded the AC10 by) is added which increases the step by 2 (because of the 3 in W3K) which increases the damage up to Maimed.

Time to Drop Knowledge

So if it helps think of it this way. Armor doesn't necessarily reduce incoming damage as much as it makes weapons less damaging against it.

Vehicles and Vehicle Combat

So you want to enslave the galaxy faster than usual? That’s great! The Empire has a whole bunch of extremely “safe” and “reliable” equipment at your disposal. From agile ships to quick speeders to mobile fortresses, you’ll be stomping and blasting rebels to your heart’s content.

Vehicles essentially do what you want them to, until they don’t. You’ll need a good piloting skill and a bit of luck to pull off navigating an asteroid field, but for simple point A to point B you should be fine right?

Vehicle to vehicle combat (Tie vs X-wing) should be simply treated the same as person to person combat. Ship blasters should deal the same range of damage as the handheld blasters and Vehicle Ops skills rolled in lieu of an attack should provide advantages to hit for the following round. Vehicle to person combat should see the damage increased one step (W3K will become M3V) with the victim err, person on the ground getting a bonus to their AC and treated like a small or tiny target based on distance. Person to vehicle combat should be the reverse of the above. Aircraft will have a minus to their AC due to size and distance, while handheld weapons damage will be decreased by one step. If the person on the ground has any type of artillery or oversized weapons, treat it as vehicle to vehicle. Keep it simple.

Other combat stuff

Your GM is in charge. They will be fair, until they arent. Your job is to be entertaining and more entertaining characters get more freedom. How much can you do on your turn? Thats up to you and the GM to decide and argue out. Sure you can probably run across the courtyard and dive behind the wall, but if you expect to pick up, arm, aim and throw a thermal detonator in addition to that, the GM will probably say no.

Quick Character Creator

• 1d8 starting race
• 1d5 past bonus attribute
• 1d5 past negative attribute
• Choose 6 skills (One being within the blast attribute) to receive a +3 each
• 1d5 job
• 1d10 downtime responsibilities

Then Everything goes wrong

The Empire has invested a lot in you, and because of the violent nature of the life of a soldier, the Empire has taken certain precautions to ensure you do the most to aid the cause before you die.

The Empire has cloned you, you're welcome.

Every soldier in the Imperial Military has had their DNA and conciousness uploaded into a massive database. Every soilder receives 6 clones of themselves which can be activated and sent out to replace fallen troopers nearly immediatly. So don't feel bad if you exploded, got sucked out of an airlock or impregnated by a space-parasite. Your Empire has your back.

Nothing Works like it should

Although the Empire is the ultimate power in the universe, things have a tendancy to go wrong. Buracracy runs rampant, sectors witihin the Empire don't communicate at best or hate each other at worst. Most work is done by stormtroopers without proper training or educaton, so it's understandable when an airlock goes on the fritz and sucks a batallion into space or when elevators miss their stop and instead rocket upward at a speed that reduces occupants to jelly. Equipment malfunctions, blasters don't shoot straight, cleaning robots go on killing sprees, rebel infiltrators sabotage equipment and there are no guard rails over endless pits. FUN! Danger is everywhere and anyone could be a rebel in disguise! But don't dare question the Empire, that's treasonous and treason is a death sentence. Thank God for your clones that always come out prefect and not mutated monsters. Just make sure to fill out all required forms, have them stamped, notorized, signed and accepted.

Just remember, the Empire loves you.