A few thoughts on SpecOps in Star Wars


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.

Well, I think that that is it. Whaddya all think?
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