Say you were head of Imperial R&D, What would you design for use against jedi?

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GiantToenail

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How would you equip troopers of the Galactic Empire against Jedi?

I was thinking about one of the better COD's (Infinite Warfare) and remembered it had the coolest doo-hickey you could slap on a cyber-shotgun, A reflex sight that would analyze an enemy and alter the trajectory of each pellet that it would every major joint/body-area resulting in a one-shot; Kicker was it was slow compared to the speed of combat, But is was still a slick sci-fi concept!

I want to know: what weapon/gizmo comes to your head when it comes to dispatching/capturing those glow-stick wielders? It doesn't have to be a resource intensive super weapon either but those are also welcome! It could be better tactics for normal troopers on the battlefield to utilize to gear they already have, unorthodox usage of the environment around them to use to their advantage or using improvised weapons that have a greater effect on jedi rather than conventional laser-arms or maybe a gizmo/weapon that's more economical but still an improvement to those troopers that have them.

I posted this thinking throwing a wrench in the works for my Jedi players would shift them out of the limelight and have the soldiers/hotshots of the group use their tactics and superior laser-weaponry to win the day instead of "Hokey religions and ancient weapons". Not to say hamstringing the Jedi players is good, I'm doing this because I had a more sith-centric warehouse raid already play out in the earlier sessions where the soldiers/hotshots played more of a support/sideline role in combat.

I've attached the image of the Cyber-DooHickey I mentioned.

What I'm thinking would equal the odds against those robe-wearing spinning tops!

Thinking about it more I thought that reflex could be a natural jedi killer if the empire ever implemented it; seeing as it's targeting all the main centers of movement for a jedi all at the same time, even one hit could take a jedi out of fighting-shape since agility is one of their main defenses against blaster bolts.

I didn't forget about deflecting either, As I see it jedi's deflecting blaster bolts is the same as a kid hopped up on his mother's bath salts whacking away wiffle-balls his buddies are tossing at him and thinking he's "Fucking Invincible!!!" with the flimsy wiffle-bat he thinks is his own personal hand of god.

It's not about if the jedi can hear/see it coming and hit it; it's about what he's expecting and what he'll get. So I'm thinking instead of having more kids toss wiffle balls at him and end up with more kiddoes getting knocked out with wiffle-balls at the end of the day how about I find the son of the professional pitcher of the cul-de-sac and 1 or two of his buddies and give them 5 proper bean-bags to pelt at the munchkin/brat/half-pint at a time while he's distracted hitting all the wiffle balls. He won't see/hear it coming or be prepared for the force of the bean-bags, even if he's dealt with them before he'll have have to keep dodging up until he retreats out of the area. Either way a win for the tupperware wiffle-ball kids!

So I'm thinking the empire send a small team of specialists with Slugthrowers with cortosis-coated buckshot with the biggest pellets reasonably possible (regular firearms as opposed to laser weapons since they hit with more force and are harder to see, and cortosis coating adding to that force) in with a regular array of troopers that're expected to come up against jedi. The cortosis balls could be heavily padded or rubberized too, in the case of Darth Vader wanting the heroes taken back to him alive like in the trilogy.

But then again sourcing the specialist operatives, manufacturing the specialist ammunition, and developing the high-tech reflex sight would be expensive material-wise, manpower-wise, and research-wise so this'd be in an extraordinary situation or commissioned by a higher command or something. Maybe I'll make a fan-comic about it, seems like a neat plot.

I've attached an illustration of the Wiffle-Maniac just in case he comes to your neighborhood, So you'll know what to expect.
 

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I'm not too familiar with Star Wars outside of the movies, the earlier video games, and The Mandalorian, but...well, couldn't pretty much any ballistic gun be effective against a Jedi? They don't seem to be fast enough to block bullets, which move much, much faster than blaster bolts seem to.

Barring that, maybe area-effect explosives or flame weapons.
 
I would start with tinfoil hats for everyone, to counter the Jedi mind tricks.

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As I watched Jumper yesterday, maybe some net or other restraining device that gives a shock to the Jedi, but instead of 1,000 Volts something to neutralize the midichlorians.

And something to block the Jedi Force-sense, so they are less likely to block incoming attacks.
 
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Sound. Unless the Jedi can tune out all sources of sound then they are going to be in trouble.

150 dB starts to damage internal organs and it's tricky to parry.
 
Stealth assassin droids. At least, in the old Expanded universe, Jedi couldn't detect droids solely with the Force.

Their main weapons would be Stun beams (those radial blue ones). Hard to parry THAT.
 
I think a underbarrell Grenade Launcher will do the trick just fine, a lot more reliable and a lot cheaper.

View attachment 60381
At that point, what is the "blaster" bit even getting you? A grenade will kill everyone just as dead as a laser bolt, especially if it explodes inside them. So you may as well double-down on the grenade launcher part, upgrade them to unguided micro-rockets, maybe give it rapid fire, and then...
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Exploding shrapnel grenade droids that throw themselves at lightsabers. Especially effective when first introduced to unsuspecting Jedi who respond to every sudden movement with a whack from a lightsaber.
 
I long ago had a plan for a simple 3-barrel blaster. Pistol damage & rifle form. Place the barrels in a triangle about 1.5 lightsaber widths apart.

Or, you know, just a real laser that you turn on and wave around like a flashlight.
 
Apologies but I missed what system you're using for SW? That would be a big factor, tactically. System aside, the best weapons I've seen versus Jedi are (1) a whole lot (small army) of Stormtroopers making more attacks than can be avoided, or (2) a Sith warrior like Darth Maul (highly-skilled in 'saber combat). Maul was exceptional at using the reach of his dual-saber to frustrate foes by keeping them outside their comfort zone for attacks. It wasn't until Obi Wan fought his way inside Maul's reach that the Jedi could have a measure of success.

For me as a GM, I've learned to use overwhelming numbers to gain the advantage of action economy OR give the PCs equivalent foes who use exceptional tactics to gain the upper hand. Tactics trump technology in most situations.
 
1. I'd get the bioscience boys to cook up an airborne virus that specifically kills midichlorians (and simultaneously cook up the vaccine so I don't sterilize poor Palpy). I then seed the whole galaxy with drones that launch cluster bombs full of the stuff on every known settled planet that I need to "pacify".

2. Profit.
 
I don't know much about Star Wars, but I know in the Jedi Knight games the flak shotgun absolutely wrecks you and can't be deflected, so I'd go with tons and tons of those.
 
land mines

swinging your laser sword around aint going to do shit against getting blowed up from the feet upwards
 
As people have been saying AoE attacks, or attacks where the Jedi is overwhelmed by more projectiles than they can dodge or parry, would be effective.

If I were an evil Emperor I'd also be training squads of anti-Jedi force users, loyal to me, whose purpose would be to hunt down and eradicate actual Jedi. Even if my ninjasassins lose their battles with the real Jedi 50% of the time, I'm going to back my superior resources and larger population to get the job done in the long run.
 
>Slugthrowers with cortosis-coated buckshot

That. Short out the lightsaber.
 
A character actually discusses this in KotORII, as they used to work as an assassin for the Sith empire. Removing the name of the character since it is a spoiler:

Exile: "The idea of you fighting Jedi is riddiculous"

<Spoiler>: "Yeah, it sure is. And that's why I was so good at it. And that's why I wasn't fighting Jedi. I was killing them. People say killing Jedi is hard. It's not, you just have to be smart about it. No blaster, no getting close to them, no attacking them directly when you can gun down their allies instead. There's way of gassing them, drugging them, making them lose control, torturing them. I was really good at it. What's worse is that killing them isn't the best thing. Making them fall... making them see our side of it, that was the best."

Exile: "That's little hard to believe"

<Spoiler>: "Yeah, maybe you'll believe this - that's when fighting a Jedi, you wound the Padawan first, then let the rest take care of itself. Not only will the master move to protect the student but the Force bond between the two will mess up the master's head better than any stab wound. Anything else? That's only a sample of my arsenal."

Exile: "Tell me. I need to know how to protect myself, and others around me."

<Spoiler>: "If there's no whiny little Padawan, start shooting innocents - not to kill, just enough so that they're gonna die unless the Jedi does something to save them. And if their Jedi is stupid enough to use their Makashi lightsaber form against you, start shooting as fast as you can and drop them while they're exposed. Set mines, set a lot of them. Fire gas grenades, but make sure they have magnetic lock targetters so Jedi can't Force Push them back."

Exile: "How could you have killed Jedi?"

<Spoiler>: "I taught myself... techniques. It's hard for Jedi to sense what you're really thinking if you throw up walls of strong emotions and feelings. Lust, impatience, cowardice... most Jedi awareness doesn't cruise beyond the surface feelings to see what's deeper."
 
As people have been saying AoE attacks, or attacks where the Jedi is overwhelmed by more projectiles than they can dodge or parry, would be effective.

If I were an evil Emperor I'd also be training squads of anti-Jedi force users, loyal to me, whose purpose would be to hunt down and eradicate actual Jedi. Even if my ninjasassins lose their battles with the real Jedi 50% of the time, I'm going to back my superior resources and larger population to get the job done in the long run.
Although, if I was the Emperor, I'd be very wary of training soldiers to take out Force users. That could come back to haunt me. I'd have Darth Vader take care of Jedi for me. Unless that Jedi was his kid. I'm not dumb enough to put them in the same room together.
 
Actually I take it back. I'm going to create elaborate obstacle courses full of death traps and televise it on pay per view. At the start of each episode, my voice will say, "another visitor, stay a while, stay forever haahahahaha."
 
Nothing. They are all but extinct. It wouldn't make sense to invest effort into developing something to kill them. Just send a whole legion of stormtroopers if one of them pops up. I'm investing my time on flashier projects to pad my performance review so I can make Grand Moff.
 
Two things to consider.

1. A Jedi's strongest weapon is not his lightsabre duelling skills but his Mastery of the force including their training as a negotiator and diplomat. Weapons and equipment is redundant if the jedi convinces your troops to fight for the rebels. So I'd say systems that allow a jedi to be identified and tracked on a planetary scale is the absolute number on priority.

2. The Empire for the most part thinks the Jedi are a spent force. It is such a central premise of the setting that two of the original trilogy movie titles reference it. In that context the only two known and powerful force users to the Empire are the Emperor and Vader. As mentioned training specialists to be able to easily assassinate force users seems risky for little strategic upside.
 
Two things to consider.

1. A Jedi's strongest weapon is not his lightsabre duelling skills but his Mastery of the force including their training as a negotiator and diplomat. Weapons and equipment is redundant if the jedi convinces your troops to fight for the rebels. So I'd say systems that allow a jedi to be identified and tracked on a planetary scale is the absolute number on priority.

2. The Empire for the most part thinks the Jedi are a spent force. It is such a central premise of the setting that two of the original trilogy movie titles reference it. In that context the only two known and powerful force users to the Empire are the Emperor and Vader. As mentioned training specialists to be able to easily assassinate force users seems risky for little strategic upside.

3. Send a Death Star. Can't dodge a Death Star.
 
3. Send a Death Star. Can't dodge a Death Star.

First time round the Jedi destroys the Death Star from the outside, second time round he comes inside the Death Star and kills the boss, the Force only knows what the Jedi would have done if there was a third Death Star.
 
First time round the Jedi destroys the Death Star from the outside, second time round he comes inside the Death Star and kills the boss, the Force only knows what the Jedi would have done if there was a third Death Star.
Just make Death Stars Jedi-free zones. And ban all Jedi from flying.
 
Any weapon that can be used against Jedi could also be used against the Sith. Not sure the Emperor would be too keen on his own staff developing weapons that could be used against him by a rival within his own ranks.

This occured to me when I thought they could make a virus that kills people whose midichlorian count was too high. That would also kill Vader, etc.

Now this could be an interesting flip on a SW campaign - players are Imperials working at a base thats been developing an anti-jedi weapon. Then vader shows up for a surprise inspection, realises whats happening and just starts killing everybody. They escape, etc, etc but are now wanted men, etc etc.

And now I want to run a SW game... curse this attention span of a goldfish!
 
Vader is more spacesuit now than man. I think he'd probably be able to avoid catching a midiclorian-killing virus.
 
Vader is more spacesuit now than man. I think he'd probably be able to avoid catching a midiclorian-killing virus.
Only if other people around him are also wearing masks
 
Only if other people around him are also wearing masks

I dunno. We know his suit is pressurised, that he can survive in near vacuum at least for a little while, and it's reasonable to assume his helmet is efficient at filtering out particulate matter to stop it getting into his badly damaged lungs. I'm not convinced he'd be susceptible to an airborne virus.
 
Flamethrowers or airburst frag grenades that would detonate in front or around the sword wielding fool
 
That would sure be :shade:

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An eye opener...

Yeaaaah!

2. The Empire for the most part thinks the Jedi are a spent force. It is such a central premise of the setting that two of the original trilogy movie titles reference it. In that context the only two known and powerful force users to the Empire are the Emperor and Vader. As mentioned training specialists to be able to easily assassinate force users seems risky for little strategic upside.
I loved the way Rebels managed to create 2 powerful force users, and then also gave a rational reason for them not to be in ANH.
But wouldn't the Inquisitors count as trained specialists?
Ok, their number is small, and the original question was about Trooper equipment... Back to the drawing board...
 
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Scatterlaser blaster. Parry those 30 laser shots coming at you simultaneously, Force bitch:devil:!

Similarly, sandcaster, preventing laser swords from functioning since times immemorial...:shade:
 
Any weapon that can be used against Jedi could also be used against the Sith. Not sure the Emperor would be too keen on his own staff developing weapons that could be used against him by a rival within his own ranks.

This occured to me when I thought they could make a virus that kills people whose midichlorian count was too high. That would also kill Vader, etc.
I'm no expert, but isn't part of the Sith creed essentially extreme social darwinism? If you create something strong enough to take your position away from you, or if you don't fight hard enough to maintain your position, then you deserve to have it taken away from you?
 
I'm no expert, but isn't part of the Sith creed essentially extreme social darwinism? If you create something strong enough to take your position away from you, or if you don't fight hard enough to maintain your position, then you deserve to have it taken away from you?
No no, that only applies *between* Sith lords.
 
Midichlorians? ...Midichlorians? Never heard of them. And never will.
 
The Empire has mobs of clones, right?
An EMP.
Then you just crush the Jedi with numbers. If a lightsaber has zero electronics, then you'll need a different approach.

No collateral damage.
 
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