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Post by Falconer on Dec 15, 2014 15:26:44 GMT -6
I’ve been in a big Star Wars mood, so I am thinking of striking while the iron is hot and just getting a game going without overthinking it. I snagged a WEG 1e rulebook, and, there is some advice I don’t care for, but the mechanics look playable, so, why reinvent the wheel? I won’t be getting deep into the WEG/EU canon, as IMO the level of detail actually goes against what made Star Wars great. I have skimmed through some of the supplements and actually felt my interest in SW lowering as I got bogged down in un-inspiration. So, I’m sticking with the core book and my imagination and non-SW influences.
My thought is to start the players as playing Luke, Han, Chewbacca, etc., starting right after the Battle of Yavin (Star Wars ’77, AKA, Episode IV), and go straight into an alternate timeline in which anything can happen. Those characters may well die, and new ones take their place. I may abandon this idea, but I like it because it means no-one will have any illusions that the ESB/RotJ continuity is still in play, or that their characters are small potatoes and/or cheap knockoffs of the real heroes who are off somewhere else.
I'll map out a small area of each planet, with the exception of Tatooine, which will be worth returning to again and again. I’ll try to make sure to have at least 3 missions prepped at a time, so they have plenty of options of what they want to do at any given time.
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Post by geoffrey on Dec 15, 2014 17:25:51 GMT -6
...starting right after the Battle of Yavin (Star Wars ’77, AKA, Episode IV), and go straight into an alternate timeline in which anything can happen... Excellent choice. I personally would also ignore everything in the other movies. Yoda, for example, wouldn't even exist. It would be the 1977 film and products of my imagination.  |
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Post by Falconer on Dec 15, 2014 20:07:37 GMT -6
personally would also ignore everything in the other movies. Yoda, for example, wouldn't even exist. It would be the 1977 film and products of my imagination. That’s the idea, but here’s the question: Do I state right from the beginning that the other movies and cartoons and books don’t exist, causing a possible crisis of imagination on the front end? Or, do I just try to steer clear of post-1979 material, but let them overall keep their preconceptions — but that might stifle what I want to do, and/or cause an argument every d**ned time I go against canon? One of the interesting things about the original movie is that it DOES heavily imply that the destruction of the Death Star means the overthrow of the Empire. The opening crawl mentions “the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy.” Or this bit from the script: “Striking from a fortress hidden among the billion stars of the galaxy, rebel spaceships have won their first victory in a battle with the powerful Imperial starfleet. The EMPIRE fears that another defeat could bring a thousand more solar systems into the rebellion, and Imperial control over the galaxy would be lost forever.” Or this exchange: “How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?” “The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.” So, what do you think? In the Marvel comics, the Rebellion doesn’t abandon Yavin 4. I presume it would be difficult to bring a thousand systems into your Alliance if you keep hiding your bases. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 15, 2014 21:09:22 GMT -6
“How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?” “The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.” Sounds like a good setup for something like the Warring States period or the Italian Wars. |
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Post by barrataria on Dec 16, 2014 11:34:03 GMT -6
That’s the idea, but here’s the question: Do I state right from the beginning that the other movies and cartoons and books don’t exist, causing a possible crisis of imagination on the front end? Or, do I just try to steer clear of post-1979 material, but let them overall keep their preconceptions — but that might stifle what I want to do, and/or cause an argument every d**ned time I go against canon? I worried about this a lot whenever I started a new SW game. Don't. Of course it depends on your players; if you run a public game in a store I think it's quite likely you'll have super SW nerdcanonlawyers in your face. If you are gaming with quality gamer friends they should slip right in. I do think that your idea of starting with the movie characters at the end of "Episode IV" (sorry) would give a nice clear break and make abundantly obvious what you are doing with the campaign. Your ideas on Vader will probably throw people, but I don't know that you need to disclose it at the beginning rather than expose it during play. Maybe the team sees bounty notices or runs across a Vader-subordinate or something to give some exposition of how you're rejiggering the Empire from the ESB/RotJ model. I'm a little envious... you're going to have a blast. Such a great game! If you do run, please report how it goes... I'm going to have to deal with this "new canon" business again next year when they extend the timeline into when I've always set my games. |
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Post by Falconer on Dec 16, 2014 13:20:29 GMT -6
I do have one guy who is super immersed in the EU, who won’t like some of what I’m doing, but assuming I can get the rest of the group on board and we’re having a blast, he won’t be a problem. The Vader thing is actually Geoffrey’s idea (great thread), but I am more or less running with it, tempered by some of the comments in the thread plus my own ideas. |
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Post by barrataria on Dec 16, 2014 17:53:53 GMT -6
I do have one guy who is super immersed in the EU, who won’t like some of what I’m doing, but assuming I can get the rest of the group on board and we’re having a blast, he won’t be a problem. It's such an evocative universe that should be no problem. I ran a fun pre-Jedi force user campaign set before the Tales of the Jedi... basically space opera with some SW aliens and familiar planet names. Anyone with an interest in SW or science-fantasy will get sucked in quickly. One more thought on WEG SW materials... there are a LOT of aliens, some horrible and some very cool. I imagine you have plenty of Trek universe things to crib, but mining the SW books for aliens might be useful to you. I've actually been using some for ideas for human races in a fantasy setting I'm messing with. |
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Post by Falconer on Dec 16, 2014 20:48:12 GMT -6
The original movie is pretty much all humans. There are no alien Imperials; there are no alien Rebels. Nobody on either side even knew what sort of “thing” Chewbacca was. I’d like to go for that vibe: a very much human-dominated galaxy; and there would be a vast, uncatalogued miscellany of weird aliens lurking in the unsavory corners of the Empire, and I won’t be focusing on any one species, let alone its language and melodramatic history and unique concept of etiquette.
Who knows? As the campaign progresses and my imagination dries up, I may well mine the WEG books more, but right now, my instinct is to try to play it core book only.
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Post by geoffrey on Dec 16, 2014 22:13:46 GMT -6
I'd go with the Empire collapsing and the Republic re-asserting itself in the wake of Luke destroying the Death Star. After all, blowing-up Alderaan had to be extremely shocking and unpopular amongst the entire galaxy. (Imagine if the president of the United States launched a full-scale nuclear attack on Denver, or something like that.) Not to mention the dissolving of the Senate just a day or so before the Death Star's destruction. The Senators would immediately re-convene the Senate, give the de-fanged Emperor the death penalty, and that would be that. Things would be just like in pre-Empire days...except that the Republic would have no Jedi.
I agree about the 1977 Star Wars film presenting a human-dominated galaxy. The only wrench in that is the cantina. That's a LOT of different aliens. Of course, this was meant as a joke (standing in for walking into a TOUGH bar), but there it is. I'd probably consider these aliens as beings from outside the areas governed by the Empire or by the Republic. After all, Tatooine is definitely a backwater. It is probably on the border of the Empire/Republic. Just a hop and a skip that way is the "alien sector" that is just too d**n weird for anybody to even want in the Republic.
I'd expect the players to just deal with it. I'd present the campaign setting in a single sentence something like this: "This campaign is set in the sort of Star Wars galaxy imagined by countless youngsters in the summer of 1977."
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Post by Falconer on Dec 17, 2014 17:17:32 GMT -6
I will just follow “episode logic,” as I think I mentioned in another thread. The episode presents a situation — the Senate was dissolved because of the Death Star — which the heroes subsequently destroy, so the everything simply resets to the status quo — how it was before the episode. So yes, the Senate reconvenes. But the Emperor has managed to stay above it all. Remember, he’s controlled by his assistants and boot-lickers, shut away from the populace, whose cries for justice do not reach his ears — or at least I’d let that be the conventional wisdom. Tarkin was solely responsible for Alderaan, etc. Though definitely the Rebellion continues to generate sympathy.
Of course there are meant to be aliens, my point was to emphasize the morass of weird, despicable, unique creatures in backwaters like Tatooine, rather than have each planet be the honorable homeworld of an entire noble race. No non-human Jedi, either.
On another note, I was thinking of either calling my campaign “Space Wars” just as a wink to you guys, Finarvyn and Geoffrey (“because it’s a totally original universe of my own creation!”), or “The Further Adventures of Luke Skywalker,” to be replaced with “The Adventures of _______” (whoever the Jedi-wannabe character is).
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Post by Falconer on Dec 18, 2014 8:34:22 GMT -6
Some interesting 1980 quotes from Mark Hamill from Starlog — so, post-ESB, but still fascinating.
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Post by barrataria on Dec 18, 2014 12:02:54 GMT -6
Of course there are meant to be aliens, my point was to emphasize the morass of weird, despicable, unique creatures in backwaters like Tatooine, rather than have each planet be the honorable homeworld of an entire noble race. No non-human Jedi, either. I never thought about that, but I guess there weren't any nonhuman rebels (outside of Chewbacca, the later-to-be-amnesiac-Kashyyk-general-and-friend-of-Yoda). I was going to say that you didn't see aliens outside of Mos Eisley because the film took place mostly on the all-Imperial Death Star, but the closing celebration was pretty clear. You could also consider Tatooine and the "Outer Rim" as where the alien races are, mingling and coming into contact with the Empire on the wild frontier. Maybe the Empire obliterates whatever aliens they contact when they settle worlds, on purpose or on accident or both. |
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