Rise of the Inquisition
| Rise of the Inquisition | |
|---|---|
 | |
| GM | |
| Mark | |
| Game Status | |
| Early Pre-production | |
| Game Era | |
| Early Imperial |
“Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!”
—Inquisitor Fa'Zoll
It is a bright time for the Empire. After decades of instability, inept leadership, and political corruption followed by a destructive galaxy-wide conflict commonly called The Clone Wars, a man named Palpatine rose from the ranks of the feckless Senate to lead the galaxy into victory over the Separatists and founded the first Galactic Empire, imposing a New Order on a galaxy on the verge of collapse.
However not all is well in the New Order. The traitors of the Old Republic, the Jedi, were hunted down for their crimes but not all have been caught. To combat this threat, the Inquisitorius was formed to hunt down the remaining Jedi as well as other Force Sensitives who might destabilize the Empire.
Troubling reports of sabotage, espionage, and small-scale rebellion not tied to former Separatist forces are creeping up through the new Imperial intelligence agencies and reaching the ears of Imperial leadership. These are hastened by reports of hidden Jedi who survived Order 66. One of these groups has been targeted by the Imperial Council for investigation. This is where you come in....
The Team
It is the ascendancy of the Empire. The chapter of the Clone Wars and the Jedi has recently been closed while the insurgency known as the Rebellion is still in fetal form.
You will be playing a member of a covert operations team assembled by the Empire to investigate a mysterious and troubling report of sabotage and treason uncovered by COMPNOR. Team members will be from of one of the following organizations: The Inquisitorius; the Imperial Security Bureau; or the Imperial Intelligence Agency. (I’m looking for at least one from each agency.)
Inquisitorius
As members of the Inquisition, it is your job to deal with Force Sensitive individuals and either turn them to the Dark Side, or kill them; there are no other options for them. Inquisitors were also occasionally called on to break the will of resistant detainees held by Imperial Intelligence. All Inquisitorius members are Dark Side adepts or Dark Jedi, trained in use of the Force to track down and deal with the most dangerous types of opponents: other Force Sensitives. Early on, Inquisitors were ex-Jedi who were turned to the Dark Side, but as time went on, Inquisitors replenished their ranks with Force Sensitives found and indoctrinated by the Empire. Technically, the Inquisitorius is a division of Imperial Intelligence (see below), but they operate independently and report directly to Darth Vader and the Emperor.
Inquisitors tend to wear enveloping dark maroon zeyd-cloth robes as a uniform. Other than Darth Vader, they were the only people who could wear a lightsaber openly.
The Inquisition is being called upon because either Force-Sensitives are suspected, or perhaps some Force-empowered backup might be needed as part of this operation. Inquisitors are looking to bring remaining Jedi to heel and excise any other traitorous elements from the New Order.
Imperial Security Bureau
The ISB is a part of COMPNOR and is one of two intelligence agencies in the Empire. It is tasked with maintaining morale and loyalty in the imperial military, functioning more as a police force than intelligence forces. They have more of a public face than Imperial Intelligence. The ISB has both open and hidden operatives in the ranks of the military to keep an eye on the troops. They even have their own stormtroopers which operate outside the military command structure.
Officers had white versions of imperial military uniforms when stationed as official ISB members on board a ship, station or base, while infiltrators and undercover ISB members wore uniforms of standard to whatever Imperial military posting they were at. ISB stormtroopers were occasionally transferred into regular stormtrooper units where their armour and equipment allowed them to fit in anonymously.
ISB agents are attached to this mission as Imperial leadership wants answers as to why and how the ISB underestimated the growth of these insurgent actions. ISB agents are looking to redeem their organization and prove their effectiveness in the New Order.
Imperial Intelligence
More intelligence-oriented than its rival ISB, Imperial Intelligence (ImpInt) concerned itself with gathering information from both internal and external threats, not just within the military. Its methods tended to be more covert than the ISB and they had a reputation for breaking people they thought had information. Imperial Intelligence is a separate, independent organization that descended from the old Senate Intelligence Bureau from the Old Republic days. Although Imperial Intelligence has far fewer agents than the ISB (the ISB has 20 for every 1 that ImpInt has), ImpInt has far more successful missions to show for it.
Imperial Intelligence uniforms wear a grey version of the imperial military standard with undercover agents wearing whatever was necessary for their cover.
Imperial Intelligence is included on this team because they were the ones who first alerted the higher-ups about this COMPNOR-related oversight. ImpInt agents resent the overlap of duties from COMPNOR and seek to stay ahead of their rival organization and demonstrate that their superior training and experience is what the New Order needs to thrive.
Character Generation
General Notes
- The task force being sent after these insurgents are intended to be balanced between the Inquisitorius, Imperial Intelligence, and the Imperial Security Bureau. There must be at least one character from each agency for this campaign.
- There may be no more than two Inquisitors. Trained and trusted members of the Inquisitorius are few this early on in Imperial history.
- The team is focused on espionage and undercover work. Characters who approach problems with a heavy hand would not have been selected. Players should tailor their builds and backgrounds appropriately.
- Inquisitorius members lean towards being human through selection criteria but as the Force does not limit itself to humans, Inquisitors may be other races.
- Members of the ISB likely come from the Investigations or Internal Affairs divisions. They may also be an ISB Stormtrooper who accompanies a known agent and could operate undercover as-needed. ISB members may only be human.
- Members of Imperial Intelligence come from the Bureau of Operations ("The Bureau"), or the Adjustments branch. Imperial Intelligence members are likely human (especially from Adjustments), but The Bureau maintains non-human agents for better infiltration and undercover work. Other "non-desireables" may be used as informants, but not trusted agents. (See rules below about acceptable species.)
The Crunch
- Inquisitor character use Force & Destiny to generate characters, but must also select a Duty per Age of Rebellion.
- Inquisitors must have at least one advancement in lightsaber ability, representing formal training in its use.
- Non-Inquisitor characters use Age of Rebellion to generate characters. Interpret each Duty, Motivations, and any other rules as Imperial-centric. Ask the GM if in doubt.
- Default starting duty will be 5.
- Equipment: characters start with 500 credits worth of initial equipment requisitioned. No equipment labelled (R) can be purchased. Duty or Morality selections may adjust this initial starting credit amount.
- Additional equipment may be given on a per-mission basis
- Additional equipment may be requisitioned per Contribution rules
- Inquisitors must purchase a lightsaber as part of their starting equipment. This is their badge of office.
- No PC may play a droid.
- If the character is non-human, the race must be capable of speaking Basic without a translator. (This is a GM's call.)
- Some races may be discriminated against to such a degree that the Empire would not use them in a team like this. e.g. Wookies, Ithorians, Selkath, Jawas. The rule of thumb is that the farther the species deviates from human norm, the less likely the race would be trusted. (Not surprisingly, this goes a lot with the previous point.)
- Characters may not purchase talents higher than the 3rd tier (i.e. the 15 xp purchases). Characters will be operating without the might of the Empire's resources behind them much of the time, so they need to be versatile.