What is YOUR canon?
Mine is Episode 4,5,6 as is (prior to the edits) with episode 1,2, 3 being a 12th hand account of what actually happened (ships, planets, characters existed, but to what extent, and how it actually unfolded, and the details of the encounters is considered vague). Everything else is considered moot.
What is YOUR canon?
Mine is Episode 4,5,6 as is (prior to the edits) with episode 1,2, 3 being a 12th hand account of what actually happened (ships, planets, characters existed, but to what extent, and how it actually unfolded, and the details of the encounters is considered vague). Everything else is considered moot.
Generally, and I know this will sound facetious but it's actually fairly close to the truth, everything is cannon except for Ja Ja Binks and that Gungan accent.
Aside from that, it's pretty much anything I'm familiar with that doesn't contradict itself. So currently that's Eps I through VI and as far through the Clone Wars as I've made it as yet (so up to mid-way through Season 3). I'm pretty completist and I wont drop anything unless there's a really good reason to. I am inclined to tone down the Jedi just a little bit to be more inline with Eps IV - VI, however, rather than some of the really crazy stuff.
Movies and Series are canon:
Star Wars Episodes I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX
The Clone Wars
The Rebels
But from the perspective of MY games and MY characters in MY part of the galaxy, the movies and series are just what they truly are "just stories that don't effect my life beyond their entertainment value"
When it comes to canon VS fun I'm on the side of FUN. That's why non-canon aliens might well be turning up. Friend wants a Klingon and who am I to say no when I want a Predator.
My canon is the original theatrical movies as well as Clone Wars taken with a huge bucket of salt. The movies are themselves the basis of the story and the important details, and are basically written in stone for me. With Clone Wars, what's important is what happened, not the details. For example, there was an episode where a group of younglings all use the Force to build lightsabers. Pure BS. This was only done because showing the parts floating around the field of view is more interesting than having each on bent over a workbench. What was important was THAT they were building lightsabers, now HOW they were building them. The key is knowing when things were done because they could be done, and when things were done because they were important.
Ironically, regarding the prequels, all of the most interesting material actually happens outside of the movies. Order 66 makes no sense without reading about the contingency plans and what the order meant. The while clone army is a little confusing without the contextual background material. But like the Clone Wars, the focus on that material is on the big picture, not the details.
When anything comes up for me, the original theatrical trilogy takes precedence. Next are the prequels and Clone Wars, followed by any comics or textual material. Lastly is video games. If I had to slash something from my game or overwrite something, video games (and any other roleplaying game left overs) are gone without a thought or remorse. I'd then pass over the textual material, though try to keep it in tact or not directly ignore (at best prepositioning it). Clone Wars gets a heavy dose of salt, by is otherwise good. The prequels are themselves good, but I find were poorly written, so I might elaborate or expand on their events. But the original trilogy, as it appeared on screens in the 1970's and 80's, would remain almost religiously untouched. They form the shared reality of anyone playing or talking about Star Wars. If I wanted to change something from the original trilogy, I might as well just make a Traveler game, because it isn't Star Wars anymore.
The movies, the books of the movies, and the Radio dramas are hard canon. Except I prefer to have the Ewoks replaced by wookiees, and instead of the forest moon of Endor it is Kashyyyk, and all that goes with it.
TCW is next. tho I like to think of a lot of it is embellished to make a good story things can be altered or changed on a whim
The other novels are a step down, any RPG resources, as well as all the comics are a bit further down
Any of the games are almost ignored. I might snag some material, like ships or planets, some history but the stories and characters are almost ignored. Lightsaber Styles is a stupid concept and does not exist in my game
The Ewok movies, Holiday special, Ewok Cartoons, Star wars kiddie books (Hand of vader) are ignored
My own goes from episode 1 to 6 (and future 7,8,9) and The Clone Wars (3D, not cartoon because its too "exagerated"). For me other resources like comics, novels or games aren't canonical until Leelan told so.
Of course, I use non-canon things in my game to expand my games/world but always knowing wich is a "Lucas choice" and what I decide to add (Kyle Katarns, Celestials, Jedi Lightsaber forms... etc)
Edited by Josep MariaWhatever i think is appropriate or interesting or useful. I'm more interested in creating the story of the players' characters than injecting anything from other sources directly. Something may show up indirectly or in passing though.
Everything is canon for me, but that doesn't mean I'll have everything appear in my games. If you can include Ackmena from the Holiday Special and if your players enjoys her appearance because how you portray her in the session, then why not?
All of the movies, except for the Holiday special. Most of the Clone Wars CGI, except for the final arc of season 5 and any arc where Maul appears, though his role in the final Mandalorian arc is taken by a former Jedi who was believed killed when his fighter was shot down during a mission with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan and who blames Qui-gon and Obi-Wan for the lack of a rescue mission because they reported no one survived the crash after the pilot was knocked out by his injuries. (Cheesy I know but much better than Maul surviving being cut in half and the long fall IMO.)
The Mandalorian arcs would take place on a world with a large number of people descended from Mandalorians. This avoids the massive clash with the Original Trilogy novelizations stating that the Jedi fought the Mandalorians in the war,though some clans and individuals will ally with the Republic for their own purposes. The Ryloth arc will take place on a world colonized by the Twi'leks rather than Ryloth itself thus involving clashing with the EU description of Ryloth's climate
Most of the non-Infinity EU would stand, including all novels and comics except those tht involve post death Maul. Game wise Empire at War's Wayland mission will take place on some other world in that sector, and the Alliance will not openly control any worlds until; post Yavin, and even than those will be very few though many will slip money, ships, and personnel to the Alliance
Force Unleashed I and II will be wiped though some characters from it will join or help found the Alliance.
Knights of the Old Republic will stand but rather than the Sith fleet being made up of advanced Republic models and ancient Sith models it will be composed of designs whose blueprints were stored on the Star Forge upgraded with republic weapons and hyperdrive tech plus gravwell tech for the Interdictor class, Any sources showing Revan warships in the Mandalorian war Republic fleet are actually from histories or arwork created hundreds or thousands of years after the war mixing the Star Forge ships up with Republic designed vessels used for the same role due to bad data and any images of Great Hyperspace War era Sith designs in Revan's forces were from similar historian errors.
This actually fits with how the Knights of the Old Republic game describes Revan's fleet before the Saga edition writers decided his fleet was composed of advanced Republic and Sith designs that were over a thousand years old. Plus it avoids the question of why would a military genius use a utterly outdated battleship class as a frigate when logically he would have access to much more advanced Republic corvette or frigate models, and why said genius would choose to equip his fighter wings with the cheap but outclassed Sith Interceptor when he should have access to vastly superior Republic models. In my setting the Star Forge could duplicate some Republic tech like weapons and capital class hyperdrives but not full warships or fighters, and not fighter, corvette, or frigate scale shielding or fighter size hyperdrives.
Oh and the Battle of Tannab changes so Lando rallies a fleet of ships from the planetary defense force, and any handy independent cargo ship crews who don't want to lose cargo or customers to pirates, or just like a good fight than leads the resulting force into combat rather than dumping a load of ship disabling connor-nets, that he just happens to be carrying, into the pirate fleet's path than using his tractor beam to throw rocks at them before leading the local defense forces in mopping up operations.
Edited by RogueCoronaEpisodes I-IX will be canon, along with The clone Wars cgi series, Rebels (series) and Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series. (Kyle Katarn).
Episodes I-IX will be canon, along with The clone Wars cgi series, Rebels (series) and Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series. (Kyle Katarn).
For me, episodes VII-IX will depend on what's in them. I honestly don't trust George Lucas (do any of us?) not to introduce something awful that we don't want.
Which reminds me of another thing I have dropped from canon: midichlorians. In my games, the Force is some intrinsic spiritual part of life itself, not some bastardized sci-fiacation of mitochondria.
I don't mind midichlorians. Especially after clone wars season 6.
Scientists (and Jedi it seems) will always try to explain things. Some things just are.
If you extrapolate from Clarkes 3rd law, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic., perhaps there could be a scientific explanation for the force, that in universe the tip of the iceberg towards this knowledge (midichlorians) have been discovered. The knowledge didn't help the Jedi any.
For me the idea of canon is pretty irrelevant to my games. We are playing my campaign in the EotE time frame of just after Episode IV. So A new Hope is definitely canon. What came before is history as written by the victor. The Jedi were evil and tried to take over the senate and murder the Chancellor. My players know that they will not be allowed to fight and defeat Darth Vader or Boba Fett. They cannot change in what is to come. They accept that. We don't have huge in game discussions on the merits or this battle or that battle of the clone wars, or get too deep in lore of the universe. I don't feel the need to go change a bunch stuff because I can or want to. Ewoks and Endor will never have a bearing on this campaign, so i don't worry about it. I am making up my own stories and adventures, and I am pulling in some stuff from the old Marvel comics into it, but I told the players, you can go look it up on wookieepedia, but don't expect my stuff and that stuff to match up.
My idea that I have is: What if you could go back in time and kill Hitler before WWII kicked off? Would our world be any better for it? What if doing that you unleashed some other great and powerful ruler that caused the world to plunge in to a nuclear war that devastated the earth and it's population, so they went back in time to destroy him, and we have Hitler and WWII as we know it because it was the better of the two evils. So for my game I want to do something like this, except without time travel. But I want to bring about a new despot, that if not defeated, could wreck the whole universe, wipe out Vader and Papa Palpy, and rain down mass destruction. So by defeating this new guy, it keeps Vader searching for Luke and invading Hoth. So what if Vader and Palpy are the lesser of evils and they survived because something much worse was taken out by my group of PC's? So I can keep canon, and still have my group really effect the galaxy.
When it comes to canon VS fun I'm on the side of FUN. That's why non-canon aliens might well be turning up. Friend wants a Klingon and who am I to say no when I want a Predator.
If movies are canon, then you need to watch the fan movie "Imps". Episode 1 has a Predator in it. 
When it comes to canon VS fun I'm on the side of FUN. That's why non-canon aliens might well be turning up. Friend wants a Klingon and who am I to say no when I want a Predator.
If movies are canon, then you need to watch the fan movie "Imps". Episode 1 has a Predator in it.
Awesome!
.Which reminds me of another thing I have dropped from canon: midichlorians. In my games, the Force is some intrinsic spiritual part of life itself, not some bastardized sci-fiacation of mitochondria.I can't agree more. I also hope Force and Destiny doesn't incorporate a mechanic for midichlorineitis..
I consider the movies canon, however I've set most of my games pre destruction of Alderan, so I don't have to worry about it too much.
Once the AoR book is out, I plan on blowing up Alderan and giving my PC's the opportunity to join the Rebellion. I'm hoping to have my players bond with NPC's living on Alderan, when it's destroyed, so as to give them an emotional reason to enlist.
For some reason my players get really nervous when a job calls for them to spend any time at all on that planet. Good times.
I may or may not have another thing I'm dropping from canon. Haven't decided yet, but have just got to the episode "Massacre" in The Clone Wars. This is the one where Dooku's armies invade Dathimir (sp?) and kill the witches. It was a good episode and Ventress is becoming a really interesting and even sympathetic character (well, pitiable, at least). However, zombies are pushing the bounds of what I expected from Star Wars.
I was okay-ish with the witches up until this point. I guessed they were Force users outside the Jedi-Sith system and using witchy-paradigm for their visions seemed alight. Levitation is simply a parallel of the Jedi and Sith Force movement (or is it? The Jedi cannot "fly" so far as I recall, but the Night Sisters seem to actually levitate in their rituals). I was tolerant of the way they infused Savage with energy to make him into the "monster" version of him. Voodoo dolls and risen dead, I'm not sure about. They did seem to have their dead in some sort of preserving cocoons. Not sure about that.
Anyway, this is a potential issue. I'm not sure about it yet as it's quite surprised me. Is this a common dividing point of cannon for other people as well?
One should never say the players aren't alowed to kill XXX. There story is your players and your story. The main characters are no longer the heroes of the movies. The PCs are now the main heroes. You should treat them as such. once the PCs step into the game they should have the freedom to try to do anything.
One should never say the players aren't alowed to kill XXX. There story is your players and your story. The main characters are no longer the heroes of the movies. The PCs are now the main heroes. You should treat them as such. once the PCs step into the game they should have the freedom to try to do anything.
Agreed. It is acceptable however, to set Vader's stats very high. 
One should never say the players aren't alowed to kill XXX. There story is your players and your story. The main characters are no longer the heroes of the movies. The PCs are now the main heroes. You should treat them as such. once the PCs step into the game they should have the freedom to try to do anything.
Agreed. It is acceptable however, to set Vader's stats very high.
Yeah I once had a PC had the Battle of Yavin try to shoot Vader down while flying cover for Luke. It did not go well. Fortuantly in the campagin I was part of at the time there was a small but functioning Jedi Order within the Alliance and one of the Jedi PCs used the Force grab my character's ejection seat while flying away from the Death Star after Luke torpedoed the reactor.
The movies and TCWs. However just because something is canon doesn't mean it's good, and just because it's EU it sucks. I use what I think isn't F-ing stupid mostly.
One should never say the players aren't alowed to kill XXX. There story is your players and your story. The main characters are no longer the heroes of the movies. The PCs are now the main heroes. You should treat them as such. once the PCs step into the game they should have the freedom to try to do anything.
One should never say never.
My personal canon:
For me, episodes VII-IX will depend on what's in them. I honestly don't trust George Lucas (do any of us?) not to introduce something awful that we don't want.Episodes I-IX will be canon, along with The clone Wars cgi series, Rebels (series) and Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series. (Kyle Katarn).
You know Lucas has nothing to do with the new movies, right?