These were mentioned a while back, and they are something that
I have given a good deal of thought on, so I thought that I would
add my two cents. (Note: I wrote this essay some time before the
Rules of Engagement sourcebook came out. Despite the fact that
it contradicts the official source once or twice, I stand by my
deductions)
Before I start, I suppose that I should mention my
qualifications, and a disclaimer or two. I have read a number of
addition SWRPG books after writing this essay, but at the time I
wrote it, I had read the 1st Edition rules, 2nd Edition Rules,
Elrood Sector book (g.g ?), and SWAJ 1.6. The Star Wars books that
I have read, and remember well enough to talk about are: The
Thrawn Trilogy, the Truce at Bakura, and the X-Wing books. And I
didn't like those enough to pay that much attention to them. I
will probably contradict any other source that you can bring, so be
aware that anything that I say is less than canonical in WEG world
(or the shared universe that is Modern Star Wars). The other
qualification that I can give is that I have talked with several
members of the Special Forces of three different countries (U.S.,
Israel, and... well, I promised him I wouldn't tell.), and I have
read a good deal on the subject. So, while I may not be as
accurate as I could be, I do have some knowledge of what I am
talking about. (though it may have been distorted by the egos of
the people that I talk to) Everything I say hear is purely my own
opinion, or that of the sources that I am basing this on, and may
or not be supported by fact.
Point 1: Definitions.
Before we start, it pays to discuss what we are talking about
when we say Special Forces. Essentially, a pair of things could be
meant. 1) Elite Units: Better armed, trained and equipped that
standard soldiers. When no mission specific troops are available,
these troops are given the missions that would normally require
SpecOps, but they are often expected to do the work of the ordinary
troopers. The range of abilities of these troops varies greatly,
from the super elite high tech Navy SEALS, to the marginally above
average Iraqi Republican Guard. Japanese Samurai, Medieval
Knights, and Israeli Golani and Givaiti would be other examples of
troops of this type. 2) Mission Specific troops: These troops
are expected to fill a few, related mission profiles, and may be
less than competent at the other aspects of warfare. German
specialized anti-terrorist units, Sayeret Egoz (Israeli recon
rangers), and the entire army corp of engineers all qualify as
troops of this type. Other examples include English bowmen and
U.S. Army Indian Scouts.
So which of those two are the Special Forces that we are
talking about? Some of both. In the end, when people say Special
Forces, they mean very elite units, which are often limited to
mission specific profiles. Regardless of other factors, Navy SEALs
are Special Forces, and Army Engineers (though they require a good
deal of training, and do very difficult jobs) aren't. And despite
the fact that the Republican guard was elite, they wouldn't be
called Special Forces, because they just aren't elite enough.
Point 2: In the Star Wars Universe.
That said, how does this matter to us? What are some special
forces that we would see in Star Wars? Well, let's split the sides
up, and examine each in turn. The Rebel Alliance, the Empire, the
New Republic, Imperial Fragments, and Others. But before we do
that, let's just make it clear just what we are looking for.
In our limited, non-space faring world, there are a number of
different types of Special Forces. For one thing, each branch of
the military (Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force), either have
elite units or are themselves elite units of other branches,
depending on the country and era. In addition, there are elite law
enforcement units (SWAT teams, Secret Police, etc.), and several
mission specific elite units (Anti-Terrorist Units, Recon Rangers,
etc.) In the Star Wars universe, all of these units would be
varieties of Army Special Forces, or of intra-planetary law
enforcement. In addition to these, there are the branches that are
caused by interstellar travel, which would each have elite units.
The Navy, the Fighter Corp, Space Marines (if they are not subsumed
into the Navy or the Army), and interstellar law enforcement. Some
of these units might be eliminated or reduced due to overlap, ie,
system governments might have one or two anti-terrorist units, and
rely on the galactic government if the situation is beyond their
abilities to deal with. Some of the Special Forces units in our
world exist simply due to rivalry between branches of the military,
and as this has become all Army, these units would never appear.
In addition to these, the Star Wars society could spawn any number
of mission specific units (Jedi, Jedi Hunters, Slicers, Biotech
warriors, etc.).
That said, let's take a look at the different sides:
Rebel Alliance: The number of military special forces that
they could have: 0. Wait, that doesn't sound right, let's check
again. 1,2,3,4... 0. Why?, you ask. We didn't see them, and if
they were there, we would have. If an American Senator, a Jedi
Knight (well, we don't have an equivalent....), and a person that
we feel like offering the rank of general to decided to go rescue
a pal (who we will also offer the rank of general to) from a crime
lord, you would figure that there would be one or two SpecOps
people there. And it wasn't just elite fighter pilots that made
the run at the second Death Star, as it was a large percentage of
the Rebel fleet that was attacking, and you would figure that they
were bringing along as many fighters as they could. However, that
is not to say that there are no Special Forces in the Rebel
Alliance. Because there is another category that I haven't
mentioned. That is, Rebels. They give speeches, they sabotage
government facilities, they riot. And there could be elite rebels.
The military arm of the Rebel Alliance (which is the part that we
saw in the movies) might not even know about these individuals, and
they would be very hard to get out of where they were in order to
help rescue Han. So, the most obvious sort of Special forces that
the Rebel Alliance could have would be Assassins, Sabotage and
Demolition groups, and Slicers, as well as elite PR and planning
groups.
The Empire: The most obvious group that could be viewed as an
Imperial Special Forces would be Storm Troopers. The problem with
that view is that we never see any imperial troopers other than
Storm Troopers. True, the Empire might have found the events to be
important enough to send nothing but special forces in to the
various situations, and for many of them it does make sense.
However, all the soldiers seen inside the Death Stars were storm
troopers (or technicians and gunners of various sorts), which would
be sort of like crewing a battleship exclusively with SEALs. So,
perhaps they are elite troopers, but not exactly elite enough to be
termed special forces.
The next group that should be looked at as special forces are
the storm trooper variants. The ones that appeared in the movies
were Desert, Snowtroopers, and Biker Scouts. These could easily be
viewed as being Special Forces, or they could just be ordinary
units with limited mission profiles. Frankly, the performance and
uniforms of the biker scouts leads me to believe that they are not
what we would term special forces, but that's just my opinion.
In addition to these, the Emperor's Guard could very well be
special forces, as could the TIE pilots in Vader's personal wing.
Finally, we have to deal with what never appeared in the movies.
While there is no reason to assume that it would be impossible for
the Empire to have Green Beret or Sayeret equivalents, we should
have seen them had they been there. "A full legion of my best
troops" implies that the people that wore white armor and got
whacked around by teddy bears with sharp sticks were the best
wilderness troopers that the Empire had. And there is no reason to
assume that wilderness forces were the only part of a unified
military command that were not what would be called special forces.
The Emperor was probably confident enough in the abilities of his
elite stormtroopers not to authorize the creation of military
special forces. However, there probably were anti-terrorist units,
counter-intelligence, and secret police whose members could be
elite enough to be called special forces.
The New Republic: Here, things are wide open. Rebels more
skilled than most could be grouped together as elite units, and one
or two strong personalities could turn these units into special
forces equivalents. Of course, special forces tend to cost
governments much more than standard units, and the New Republic
probably isn't funded well enough to support that many special
forces units. Rouge Squadron would probably be one example of a
unit of that type.
Imperial Fragments: Not only could these preserve those
special forces that the Empire itself had, these could also create
others, to fill those gaps that lead to the Empire's fall (imagine:
highly technically advanced warriors capable of defeating short
pudgy creatures with pointed sticks!).
Others: Here, we have the one form of soldier that would
clearly qualify as a special forces operative ever to appear in the
movies... Guesses anyone? No, while she may have been such,
that fact was never brought out in the movies, so Aunt Beru doesn't
count... No, not the Rancor trainer guy. No, No, No, Bib Fortuna
was a Weak Minded Fool, not a Super Elite SpecOps Warrior. Yes, I
am referring to the one, the only, the unfortunetly mortal, Boba
Fett. Exactly what his back story was, I won't get into, and
whether or not the fact that the Almighty Sarlacc burped after
swallowing him indicates that he isn't coming out, does not concern
us. What does is that his uniform, demeanor, and skills (He
pointed a rifle at someone. Clearly he is a dead accurate shot.)
all point to a special forces type of individual. While we haven't
seen that many examples of this sort of thing in our world, special
forces units can outlive their governments, and there are
apparently alot of defunct planetary or interplanetary governments
in the star wars galaxy. In addition, while the Empire didn't seem
to be the sort of organization that would put up with crap like
people insisting on complete military autonomy, there are alot of
edges to a Galactic Empire, and worlds could be subject to the
empire in name only, or just having some limited independence,
which is the sort of situation that would lead to large numbers of
Special Forces type units, as small and deadly would be the ideal
for groups like these.
Point 3: Neat stuff.
For many people, Special Forces implies military units with
the coolest toys. And in many ways, that is true. While SEALs are
basically trained to be dropped naked on a beach, armed only with
a pair of pliers and a bent spoon and take out all target SAM
batteries within 80 klicks, generally speaking they are given all
sorts of junk. Explosives, weapons, surveillance devices, and
other equipment is all several decades ahead of the rest of the
army. While this makes sense in terms of their effectiveness and
the amount that the governments has already spent training them, it
would probably be best to avoid giving units this sort of firepower
in RPG universes. For a couple of reasons. First of all, if you
are going to make a party of SpecOps people, and you equip them
with this sort of stuff, they have nothing to look forward to.
Except bigger and badder versions of the same, and once you start
down that road, there is no turning back (despite the fact that
this is a quicker, easier, and more seductive method of creating
RPG special forces). Second of all, if you plan on using these
spec ops people against your party, they may very well kill them,
as PCs are good at killing NPCs. Then, they take all the bad guys
stuff, and you have the same problem all over again. Or, they will
have so much stuff that they will wipe the floor with the PCs, and
players tend to start skimping on background and roleplaying after
they lose three parties in three sessions.
Still, they should have some cool stuff, because in the end,
that is one of the reasons for having special forces in the first
place. A very delicate balancing act must be performed in order to
keep them rational, and at the same time, keep them interesting.