The Trouble with Stormtroopers

"Look at these blast points — too accurate for sandpeople. Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise." — Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars.

Ah, stormtroopers. They look cool and characters talk about them as though they are supposed to be impressive — the crack shock troops of the Empire. Yet many gamers seem to have no respect for them. For example, the idea that bad guys can't shoot is often referred to as "The Stormtrooper Effect" because of the number of shots that missed the heroes of the Star Wars series.

The ultimate show of disrespect, though, came from Wizards of the Coast in the new Star Wars RPG. They would have a Game Master represent stormtroopers as mid-level thugs with stats of straight 10s. Now, for the uninitiated, this means that while they are better at shooting things than the average man-on-the-spacelanes, they are just about as easy to take down.

Think about this for a moment. These are supposed to be the best troops the Empire has to offer. What does that say about the rest of the military? If these are the elite, how have they ever won any battles?

Okay, before we get into how to fix this problem, let's examine the stormtrooper issue more closely. Here are the stormtroopers as presented in episodes IV, V and VI of the series:

Episode IV: A New Hope

1. Stormtroopers assault and take Princess Leia's Corellean corvette under the leadership of Darth Vader. They are quick and efficient in dispatching the rebel troops.
2. While securing the ship, they spot Leia. They identify her as a passenger, set weapons for stun and stun her with one shot. Leia does shoot one of them, either wounding or killing him.
3. Sandtroopers are dispatched to Tatooine to retrieve the plans. Searching the area of the escape pod, they find a gear, conclude the involvement of droids, and successfully track those droids across the desserts of Tatooine to a jawa sandcrawler and from there to the home of Owen and Beru Lars. Failing to find the droids they coordinate the search of a larger area.
4. The search works: they stop the landspeeder containing the droids. Unfortunately, the speeder also contains a jedi knight (Kenobi), who uses Affect Mind to dissuade them from their search. (As far as I'm concerned, being tricked by Kenobi this way does not reflect poorly on them.)
5. The search works a second time, but they do not force open the locked door behind which R2 and 3PO are hiding. It's a little scene, but it does show that they respect procedure, if not necessarily local law. (For those of you who think this means that they only act "by the book" may I remind you that this was not a stressful situation. Their net was out and they had every reason to believe it would work. I do not see this scene as implying that they lack tactical flexibility.)
6. Even in the middle of a search, they investigate the report of a lightsaber being used. I could speculate a great deal about what this means, but it would be too easy to read too much into it.
7. They open fire on Solo and company, as well as on the Falcon itself, as they prepare to lift off. They do not hit any of the heroes.
8. Two stormtroopers are ambushed and taken out aboard the Falcon. They were outnumbered and ambushed in a place where they had no reason to expect attack. They had ostensibly been called aboard to give "a hand" to the scanning crew.
9. They pin the heroes in the detention center with blaster fire as they use the covering fire to close in on them. The heroes are forced to escape down the garbage chute.
10. While pursuing the heroes they are stalled and then chased by Han Solo with his screaming and firing. They lay a trap for him, but do not hit him with blaster fire (though they do drive him off).
11. At the bridge, stormtroopers shoot at Luke and Leia, but do not hit them.
12. Stormtroopers watch the lightsaber battle between Kenobi and Vader. They do not interfere, though they are distracted from their guard. In all fairness, "distracted" may not be the right term. Given that they took time out from their search on Tatooine to investigate a lightsaber sighting, they may have priority orders involving jedi. Besides, whether or not they have any such orders, who could blame them for wanting to watch Lord Darth Vader in a lightsaber duel?
13. When Luke screams after Ben is killed, the distracted stormtroopers turn and open fire on the heroes. No heroes are hit.

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Note: Stormtroopers are mostly used for intimidation and escort in this film, rather than combat.

1. Snowtroopers, with Imperial Army support, successfully take the rebel base on Hoth.
2. A stormtrooper blasts C3PO to pieces.
3. Chewbacca begins to assault stormtroopers in an attempt to rescue Han, but Han stops him before the troopers open fire.
4. Finding themselves suddenly surrounded, a group of stormtroopers (that had been escorting heroes) surrender rather than fight. It's an interesting choice, but we don't know what their orders are.
5. Stormtroopers harry the heroes with blasterfire while they make good their escape. No heroes are hit.

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

1. Scouttroopers encounter the heroes and are defeated.
2. Stormtroopers successfully capture the rebel ground team (including heroes).
3. Stormtroopers, including AT-ST support, are soundly and easily defeated by . . . by fierce . . . ewok . . . . Oh, face it. They were defeated by Deus Ex Fuzzy.
4. Somewhere in there, a stormtrooper successfully shoots and damages both R2 and Leia.

It's kind of interesting to lay it out this way. Let's look at what we might learn from this:

1. Stormtroopers almost never hit main characters.
2. Every time we see stormtroopers fight (non-hero) rebels, the stormtroopers win.
3. Stormtroopers may or may not have the greatest discipline, but they are organized, communicate well and demonstrate an understanding of tactics.

Now that first point is pretty damning, and has led to no end of derision. Fortunately, one of the things WoTC has done right in the Star Wars RPG is give us an excuse for this: Vitality Points. Because Vitality Points represent luck, skill and so forth, a character can lose VP without appearing to have been hit. Looked at through this lens, we see that while the main characters may not have been wounded often by stormtroopers, they may well have lost a good deal of VP in fighting them.

The second point should not be glossed over. Every time stormtroopers have matched up with rebels who were not main characters, the rebels have come up short. Nothing seen onscreen suggests that these victories have been Pyrrhic. Now from a strategic standpoint, the stormtroopers have been fighting from a stronger position, but twice they have entered battle from a tactically inferior position: invading Leia's ship and invading the base at Hoth. Since we have no reason to believe that these victories have been costly, it is reasonable to conclude that the stormtroopers either matched up well with, or outfought, the rebel troops.

The reason that I stress point three is twofold. First, it helps explain point two. Second, it illustrates that stormtroopers are well-trained. Whether or not they can take down main characters, they act like elite troops.

These do not sound to me like mid-level thugs with average stats. I am currently deciding between making stormtrooper a class or a prestige class. I see a lot of arguments both ways, and am currently leaning towards prestige class. I just have to decide on the benefits first.

So if stormtroopers are something special, what about the rest of the Imperial troops?

This is the way I see them breaking down:

Imperial Navy:

They all have at least one level of soldier, to represent primary training. Beyond that, they tend to progress as either soldiers, diplomats or experts, depending on their jobs. Some, of course, eventually enter prestige classes such as officer, elite trooper and starfighter ace. Other classes are possible as well, but not as common.

Imperial Army:

The Imperial Army troops also start with a level of soldier. Beyond that, their progress varies greatly with assignments and future training. A sloppy base on a backwater world will produce people who progress as thugs, or, if they are motivated, fringers or scoundrels. A crack unit will tend to progress as soldiers. There will still be some experts in fields such as medicine and engineering and probably a few diplomats. Individuals may still reach prestige classes, of course, and even a sloppy base may have one hot squad. Most often, though, Imperial army soldiers will alternate progression between soldiers and thugs, varying with their training and combat experience.

CompForce:

CompForce is made up primarily of thugs, with a smattering of experts and diplomats. "Hero" classes are fairly rare among them.

I suppose at this point I should say something about the ewok matter. But I won't. I could give you a long, coherent argument against that whole scene, which was the biggest farce of the Star Wars movies this side of Greedo getting off a shot. If you disagree with me on this point and feel that the ewok skirmish makes perfect sense, then by all means use it as evidence and emasculate your stormtroopers until they're the keystone cops, or seek whatever solution you wish. Personally I prefer a less arbitrary campaign world.

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