Behind the veil of darkness, which is the Galactic Empire, resides those individuals whose sole purpose it is to manipulate and control the galaxy for their own desires and profits, those who aim to take advantage of the weak, and even those who care only to protect the innocent from the corruption that has permeated a galaxy controlled by a corrupt Galactic Empire and everything that that government represents. Although there are some key individuals in the galaxy who have amassed enough wealth to the point where any of those things are possible, normally these actions are carried out by the millions of various organisations, both legal and criminal, which exist within the Star Wars galaxy.
Surviving on the Edge of the Empire is not an easy life, and aligning oneself with an organisation can bear fruit in the form of protection, additional profit, lucrative deals and even the removal of the occasional member of an opposing faction – especially those who are getting just that little bit too close to the almighty credit. Characters who attach themselves to an organisation can find their Obligation reduced as well, but they also might find their freedom stifled as they become “representatives” or “front-men” for their employers.
Organisations such as those run by the Hutts, smuggling rings, spice runners, swoop gangs and even the Rebel Alliance have rules that their members must follow in order to survive and flourish in the galaxy, and characters may soon find that their own attitudes and morals are at odds with those of the organisation they have pledged their allegiance to. Conversely, characters may run into the problem of leaving an organisation or working with another competing rival group. These choices can have their own consequences, and may become dire indeed, with turncoat employees finding themselves on the wrong side of an air lock, especially within cartels where legal and moral ambiguity are the order of the day.
WHAT IS AN ORGANISATION?
An organisation is defined as a group or business with a common purpose. Examples of organisations include Black Sun, the Zann Consortium, the Mantis Bounty Hunter Syndicate, and the Mandroxan Crime Cartel. Each organisation has their own strengths and weaknesses which its members normally possesses, or in the case where an organisation has access to individuals who have a specific skill set.
The rules presented here allow game masters the ability to define an organisation with minimal effort. The statistics display the details of the organisation in a quick and easy format that the game master may quickly peruse without having to scan through reams of text. It also provides the game master with the tools to allow quick resolution of interactions between player characters and members of an organisation without needing to know the statistics of each individual. It also gives the game master the tools to quickly set difficulties to determine what a character may know about the organisation’s goals, resources or anything else the players may wish to know about the organisation itself.
BASIC ORGANISATION FORMAT
An organisation has several basic descriptions which provide the foundation of the organisation. There are 8 categories, described below:
Type: This describes whether it’s a small gang, an entire criminal syndicate or a reputable organisation.
Area of Operation: This is the main planet or sector of space that the organisation operates from.
Base of Operation: This is the exact location of where the organisation has its headquarters. This can be the planet or a more specific location. Obviously, when it comes to larger organisations, such as those which have multiple bases across the galaxy, the base is still where the overall leader of the organisation primarily resides.
Leader: This is the name of the overall leader, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), or Crime Lord who is currently in control of the organisation. This may change from time to time as politics and control changes within the organisation.
Motivation: Each organisation has its own goals and strategies in order to survive in the Star Wars Galaxy. Normally this is used to maintain the status quo or to increase their power base. In order to focus their efforts and provide them with the necessary drive, much like characters, each organisation has a motivation. This can range from profit, to intelligence or even destruction of a particular species. The choices are limitless, but the choice must be what drives the organisation to do what it does.
Attributes: Each organisation has six basic Attributes in the same way that a character has. These are different from the regular statistics, and consist of Hostility, Intelligence, Size, Notoriety, Influence and Resources. Each attribute ranges in value from 1-6.
Skills: An organisation, again like a character, possesses skills. These represent the focus of the organisation and what skills the organisation can access quickly.
Description: The final section of an organisation is a short description and can include the history of the organisation, a brief description of its members, and other key details that a game master may find useful.
ORGANISATION ATTRIBUTES
In these rules, in the same way a player character or NPC has attributes, so does an organisation. The organisation’s attributes differ from those of the organisation to reflect the diversity that an organisation has being a larger group of individuals as opposed to a single individual. There are six attributes of an Organisation namely Hostility, Intelligence, Size, Notoriety, Influence and Resources. Each attribute ranges in value from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6. Each attribute represents the overall abilities of the organisation to deal with situations it encounters, and how it responds to those who interact with its members.
Each attribute provides different information about the organisation. The number to “create” the organisation is left to the imagination of the game master. Table 1 – Organisation Construction does provide loose guidelines for game masters in creating an organisation. These numbers are based on the overall size of the organisation and its power-base. The game master should never be limited to these amounts as each organisation should be based on what the game master feels suits the organisation best in so far as what role they envision the organisation having in their story.
| TABLE 1: ORGANISATION CONSTRUCTION | ||
| Range | Type | Examples |
| 6-8 | Small | Rebel Cell Swoop Gang |
| 9-10 | City-Wide | Local Police Force Local Crime Syndicate |
| 10-12 | System-Wide | System Defence Forces Military Forces/Groups |
| 12-14 | Multi-System | Regional Governments Tapani Noble House |
| 14-18 | Sector-Wide | Corp. Sector Authority Antarian Rangers |
| 18-20 | Region-Wide | Black Sun Jedi Order |
| 20+ | Galaxy-Wide | The Galactic Empire The Rebellion Alliance |
Next week we will discuss the attributes that each organisation has at its core, which provide the game master with the raw statistics to easily utilise the organisation and its resources at a glance.
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