So, in that same brainstorming session, this past Sunday one of my players suggested gaming in the STAR WARS universe.  She wants to do a story in that , has plenty of ideas - but doesn't think she would make a good GM.

I'm willing to GM such a thing ....however....

 I don't know this Expanded Universe thing of the SW background. I've skimmed over wikipedia pages about it.

Basically I just know the 6 movies, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and the early MARVEL comic books that were not based on the movies. (anyone else remember the 6 foot tall green rabbit that had his own starship ?)

SO,....is it possible for me to run a STAR WARS game and basicallly just make shit up??

This player, Trina the Swimmer, suggested that I set such a campaign during the really old Republic - because aren't tjhat many books written about that time period...but she knows there were Jedi knights then...and Sith. (This was the same player that wants to be a female Daniel Jackson researcher type if we do a FarGate campaign .)

How much do I have to stick somewhat close to SW canon for her to have fun with it ?? and how far can I stray so its still my kind of thing without seeming too much like my TRAVELLER campaign??

- Ed C.

Quote from: KoltarBasically I just know the 6 movies, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and the early MARVEL comic books that were not based on the movies. (anyone else remember the 6 foot tall green rabbit that had his own starship ?)

SO,....is it possible for me to run a STAR WARS game and basicallly just make shit up??

Hell yeah.

My old group played a Star Wars game for many years, with it set in between ANH and RotJ.  This was in the years before the prequels were made, but it wouldn't have been any different otherwise (we all hated the prequels and refuse to acknowledge their existence in our game).

In retrospect, it was pretty similar to Traveller.  In fact, if we'd owned Traveller, we probably would have used it.  But there was still plenty of material that was decidedly "Star Wars".  My advice would be to pick up the old West End games d6 RPG, or Wizards new SAGA edition, and convert a few of the races and a few vehicles (I'm assuming you'll use GURPS).  

I'm also not sure I'd set the game in the time of the old republic... I'd stick with a Rebellion era game.  Afterall, by your own admission that's the part you are most familiar with.  And since you've read the old Marvel comics, you can see how there are heaps of stories that can be told that are interwoven with the original trilogy without interfering with it.

As for the rest of the expanded universe?  Fuck it!  Seriously... some of it is good, but quite a lot of it is rubbish.

POSSIBLE?!  Dude, It's ADVISABLE!

Look, Koltar.  Here' what you need to know about Star Wars:

• It's built out of "Flash Gordon", adventure serials and samurai flicks;
• It's about Good Vs. Evil;
• There's melodrama;
• There are Jedi; and
• There are hot rods.

There.  Everything else is 30 years worth of cruft designed to sell mediocre novels.

I'm running a Star Wars game now, and I'd say I know about the same amount of material as you do.

I'd advise seriously messing stuff up.

In my own game, the Star Destroyer at the beginning of Episode IV either shot down or tractor-beamed the escape pod containing R2-D2 and C-3PO.  I tried to figure out where things would go from there, and basically freed myself completely from canon while keeping the core SW elements.  So, I have Leia as a sith lord; a conflict brewing between Vader and the Emperor; force-sensitive evil Luke clones running around the galaxy; and the Rebellion confined to 3 Battlestar-like fleets, moving from empty system to empty system.

If you set stuff long ago or far away, you can do whatever you want.

If you want more inspiration, there's always Wookieepedia.  I dive into this whenever I want to get some extra info on something.  Seriously, it's insanely detailed - but I can add or remove crap whenever I want to.

-O

You could certainly do that, Koltar; and might even come up with better material than the godawful stories that apparently come out of the SW-novels. However, be prepared for one major problem: inevitably, geekdom being what it is, you'll have some drooling fanboy in your group claiming that what you're doing isn't correct because Crap Star Wars Novel #9823 says that actually Planet xy has bluish-green clouds not greenish-blue ones.

So the biggest problem I've found running SW is just like running the Forgotten Realms, there's always some loser who's read every book there is and is ready to call you on it. You need to be very forceful straight up in stating that the ONLY thing that is canon to you is the movies, not any of the books, and that players should neither expect material from the books to be correct, nor use information from the books as though it is real in the game.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditYou could certainly do that, Koltar; and might even come up with better material than the godawful stories that apparently come out of the SW-novels. However, be prepared for one major problem: inevitably, geekdom being what it is, you'll have some drooling fanboy in your group claiming that what you're doing isn't correct because Crap Star Wars Novel #9823 says that actually Planet xy has bluish-green clouds not greenish-blue ones.

So the biggest problem I've found running SW is just like running the Forgotten Realms, there's always some loser who's read every book there is and is ready to call you on it. You need to be very forceful straight up in stating that the ONLY thing that is canon to you is the movies, not any of the books, and that players should neither expect material from the books to be correct, nor use information from the books as though it is real in the game.

RPGPundit

I haven't found that so far...  It may help that none of my players are dickheads.

They know enough to appreciate the twists I'm putting on things (such as "midichlorians are parasites feeding off the Force in living beings and not the source of Force powers"), and to recognize that whatever they know about the SW Universe has been changed however I feel like.

-O

Quote from: RPGPunditYou need to be very forceful straight up ...

Ha ha ha!  "Forceful".

Seriousy, though, what Pundit said.

In my case it would be a "FanGirl" , not a fanboy. My group is 3 women and one man  - remember?
 Thing is , she is darn cute, shy and a competitive swimmer...evemn in her 30s.  Okay I'll shut up now ...I'm being WAY obvious here.

She is a really creative gamer tho,....many times the best ideas in the TRAVELLER campaign happen because of ideas that she suggest or bits of business that she remembers from past game sessions.


- Ed C.

I'd just use the first movie, and take it in whatever direction you want -- just like the Marvel Comics did.  (Did anyone else read Star Wars II?  It was like Star Wars crossed with Forbidden Planet -- weird + awesome!)

Set the tone by deliberately showing things that break with Lucas' storyline.  Go back and look at Ralph MacQuarrie's artwork and listen to the original sound track.  Watch some Flash Gordon -- get that in there.  Watch David Lynch's Dune -- yeah, that's good stuff -- in it goes.

If you can remember when you were a kid -- what did you think was going to happen after Empire Strikes Back?  What did you think was going on when you saw the trailer for Return of the Jedi?  

I thought Luke would have to go on some kind of quest to get his Lightsabre.  Somehow I got the clips I saw of Endor confused with the footage from the end of the first movie and thought there was going to be a battle in Greek Ruins, like in Clash of the Titans or Jason and the Argonauts.

After the horrible prequel trilogy, why would you even WANT to try and stick to "official" canon?  You know you can do better.  Remember when Star Wars was awesome?  Go back there.  That's where you want your game to start.

Pretty much what everyone else said.  The movies offere the best start and reading a few alternate materials (like a novel or two or some comics) gives you an idea of all the wonky directions you can pull the SW universe.  With Star Wars, less information is actually better than all the information IMHO.

I do things all the time that don't jive with the expanded universe, and I like it that way.

I usually when running a SW game, ignore whatever I didn't like, and run with what I did. So no weird bio genetic aliens (Yuushon Vong) when I run the future, My  Darth Vader was never Anakin Skywalker emo teen.

I've found it works great, and most Star Wars "fans" aren't versed in the two million expanded universe stories anyway. Even then there alternate futures, comic book pasts, and a LOT of different things that make canon a hoary mess--that lets me ditch it all and do my own fun thing.

On the other hand, I adored Knights of the Old Republic 1 (video game, the comics were good preceding it too) so utilizing bits of that part of the EU, I could run an amazing game. I actually wanted to run a game called New Republic Knights, about a group of teen jedi drawn from across the galaxy on Yavin 4 under Kyle Katarn (Dark Forces/Jedi Knight Academy) and oft absent Luke run sort of like an anime "magical school" setting (where the kids have hijinks/romance/crazy adventures)

Quote from: obrynIt may help that none of my players are dickheads.

99% of all gaming problems can be solved by not playing with dickheads.

Here's an idea that I ran with very successfully with two players; don't be footsoldiers. Be Important and Powerful People. One was the commander of an entire Star Destroyer, the other was an Emperor's Hand. While on an important mission for the Emperor to ferry scientists to a fringe-world, where crystals that were to eventually become key components of the Death Star's planet-killer laser were located, they crossed paths with a time-suspended Sith Lord who had been in stasis for 6,000 years. Once he knew the current Galactic Situation (What, no Jedi? Only one Sith Lord? And a relative n00b at that? Woo!) decided he wanted to depose the Emperor and take over.

One whole planet was fried in the first two sessions of the adventure in a failed attempt by the Star Destroyer commander to wipe out the Hand (who he thought had been compromised) and the threat of the ancient Sith Lord. From there, hilarity ensued, such as private audiences with the Emperor, both PCs literally at each other's throats, squadrons of Star Destroyers locked in mortal battle over Yavin IV - culminating in the new Admiral ramming the Hand's ship with the shattered remains of his own Star Destroyer in a last great act of defiance.

Darth Vader, deposed as the Favorite Son of the Emperor by the newly powerful Hand (trained by, and eventually executioner of, the Sith Lord), joining forces with Yoda to defeat the resurgent Emperor and restore the lost balance to the Galaxy, the ever-loyal Hand (who was loyal to the ideals of an Empire/Republic, rather than the man at its helm) at their side. fighting with the Rebellion, no less. Stuff like that.

Why limit yourself? Take the reins and run that badboy into the ground.

Think BIG.

When I ran WEG's Star Wars back in the day, my setup was that nothing other than the first five minutes of the first movie happened. You remember that seen where the two R2D2 and C3PO fly away in the escape pod, and the gunners on the star destroyer don't bother to shoot it down because there are no life signs on it? In my game, they were bored, and needed to 'zero the targeting system' or some such shit, and pasted it anyway.

After that, it was all blank slate. Ran great. Ignore the novels and comic books and all that other crap. All the Expanded Universe does is cannibalize itself, anyway. Read the stuff that the first movie was based on, back when it was just a weird quirky little homage to old-timey movie serials that was supposed to flop.

There's one line and one line only I've learned to use with "Setting Whores". This has come up in my Exalted games before, and I now use it for everything else.

SW: Wait that couldn't happen because, like,  there's only ever 2 Sith at any given time!

Me: Oh yeah...where'd you hear that?

SW: It's in "Retur...

Me: Oh, well I guess that Movie/Book/Comic was wrong!



Or the alternate:

Me: They Lied!