A Galaxy on the Brink: Running Rebellion‑Era Games in the Wake of Andor Season 2

Andor’s second season is about to wrap, showing the Rebellion still scattered, scared, and largely nameless just before Rogue One. Viewers who came for tense spycraft and stayed for monologue‑fuelled hope are now itching to tell their own stories in that same twilight before the dawn. For GMs, it’s a gift: a moment when the Star Wars timeline is wide open, the Death Star is only a rumor, and the Rebel Alliance barely exists outside whispers in back‑alley cantinas, and in scattered groups only beginning to coalesce around Yavin IV.

At this point in history, Mon Mothma funds guerrillas with laundered family credits (up until she makes her stand in the Senate), Bail Organa leaks intel under Senate immunity, and Saw Gerrera wages a scorched‑earth war against anyone wearing Imperial gray. Inter‑cell mistrust is so rampant that the word “Alliance” feels aspirational. Even the symbol that later beams across X‑wing fuselages is missing; local groups fly their own heraldry or none at all. This fragmentation is gold for tabletop play: it gives players a reason to build something from scratch instead of slotting into a monolithic command structure. Missions are intimate, stakes are personal, and one botched supply run can doom an entire sector.

Themes to Spotlight

Scarcity: The heroes lack starfighters and capital; what they have are modified freighters, black‑market bowcasters, and one grizzled contact who can maybe forge transit documents—once. Make fuel, credits, and safe houses tangible resources tracked on a communal sheet.

Paranoia: Imperial Security Bureau moles lurk everywhere. Let players wonder if the pilot who just joined actually reports to Colonel Yularen. Rules for opposed Deception or social contests can drive tense interrogation scenes before any blaster is drawn.

Ideological Fault Lines: Cassian’s story shows rebels debating whether terror tactics are justified. Put that friction on the table: pacifist diplomats, separatist veterans, and Partisan hard‑liners may all inhabit the same cell. When players plan an op, require unanimous consent or force a vote; majority rule feels messy, which is perfect.

Structuring a Campaign of Sparks

Start with a single planet. Draw three concentric circles: innermost is the players’ cell; middle hosts neutral smugglers, local crime lords, and sympathetic bureaucrats; outermost holds the Empire and rival rebel factions. Each successful mission pulls one NPC from the outer rings inward—alliances literally solidify on the page. Conversely, failures push circles outward: contacts ghost the cell, stormtrooper patrols swell, and the planet tilts toward martial law. This visual tracker helps players see the movement they create, even when victories are small.

Episode pacing benefits from the “three‑job arc.” Job 1 is acquisition—stealing intel, medicine, or weapons. Job 2 is leverage—using that prize to sway a potential ally. Job 3 is exposure—risking everything in a public strike that inspires onlookers. After each arc, time jump weeks or months; the galaxy shouldn’t pause while the team recuperates. They may return to find Imperial customs cracking down because of their last stunt, or discover that a different rebel group claimed credit for their sacrifice.

System Tweaks and Toolkit Picks

Star Wars D6 already hums with cinematic action, but slimming starting equipment and capping Force Points to one per session keeps rookie rebels scrappy. FFG’s Age of Rebellion shines if you remix Duty into Trust: characters earn Trust by completing clandestine objectives; spend it to call in favors from allied cells. For narrative indies, Blades in the Dark reskins smoothly—crew sheets become cells, Heat tracks Imperial attention, and downtime actions cover propaganda broadcasts or forging chain codes. Whatever rules you choose, embed a Hope Meter: a shared pool that rises when the group sparks community uprisings and plummets after collateral damage. When Hope hits zero, rumors of Alliance unity stall, or a contact flips to the Empire.

Table Techniques That Capture the Era

• Secret Agendas: Give each PC a sealed envelope at session zero—one might be an ISB informant ordered to keep the rebellion small until it’s controllable. The tension echoes Luthen Rael’s ruthless calculus.

• Resource Clocks: Track blaster power packs, bacta stims, and stolen credits as radial clocks. Every tick consumed without replenishment nudges players toward black‑marketeering or riskier raids.

• Civilian Repercussions: After every mission, ask who paid the price. Maybe a safe‑house owner is arrested, or new checkpoints choke trade routes. Encourage the table to role‑play fallout scenes even when no dice are rolled.

• Cameo Ceiling: Resist the urge to drop Luke or Leia. Unknown names doing impossible things are truer to the era’s tone. Save canon icons for a hologram cameo that costs the group dearly to obtain.

• Countdown to Scarif: Pin a real‑world calendar behind your GM screen; mark Scarif one year out. As sessions pass, slide a red ribbon forward. Players feel history bearing down, knowing their unsung deeds pave the way for those Death Star plans.

Star Wars glows brightest when ordinary beings face monolithic evil armed with nothing but grit and a battered astromech. Season 2 of Andor reminds us that the Rebel Alliance begins not with trumpet flourishes but with quiet sabotage, whispered passwords, and nervy trust falls between strangers. Put your table in that crucible. Let them bicker over methods, scramble for parts, and choose whether to become the firebrand who unites a fractured cause or the ghost who keeps it alive just long enough for a farm boy to light the spark.

May their rebellions be messy, human, and unforgettable.