I think I handled this pretty well. The group got invited to the Bi-Annual Auction from the Honourable Guild of Armourers. This is attended by some very big-wig types in the underworld/legit world as well. A couple of Grand Moffs showed up. Xizor showed up. Fett showed up. Jabba and his big ole entourage showed up. It was a who's who of name dropping in the Star Wars Universe. The team was there on the behest of a Bothan wanting information from the auction. They were tasked with finding out who bought a specific item and for how much. It was interesting and they were intimidated by the big wigs. Xizor pretty much charmed the Twi'lek of the group. She couldn't deal with the pheromones. The succeeded in getting the info (it wasn't hard, they just had to be there). They also bought some awesome stuff. They hob nobbed with some of the big names and came out with some really good business contacts and even an acquisition job for the Guild.

My question is, how would you guys handle an event like this?

I understand that some groups like to keep the Major Players of the Universe at arms length, for fear that they might overshadow the players or that the players might disrupt canon somehow.

Me? BAH! I say Revel in it!

In our past games, we've saved Anakin from falling to the Dark Side (but couldnt stop Order 66), saved Palpatine (before we knew he was a baddie), had Luke turn to the dark side (long story) requiring Leia to be trained by our not-so-eager-to-train others Jedi, we rescued Han by the most blatant shoot Jabba-in-the-head scheme ever, we've messed about with continuity left right and center - and we've had a blast. Hell, in Jewel of Yavin, if my princess doesn't get to flirt with Lando, I'll be very disappointed. (You hear that, Mike?)

Will the Major Players of the Universe overshadow the players if Luke starts swinging a lightsaber? Yeah - so make sure the players are more awesome, more badass and have bigger moments of heroics than the MPotU do. Thus - problem solved!

thankfully my guys are just starting out so this was a great moment of **** a brick OMG THAT'S BOBA FETT AND HE'S COMING THIS WAY TO TALK TO US. I played the auction for the guild as a huge black-tie affair. it was fancy, they met high end names and made some really cool business idea/contacts. heck they have talon kaarde interested in running advertising for their recently established highly exclusive big game hunting lodge on Dxun run by a group of primitive Mandalorians that were stationed there for the past 4000 years. Good times.

I've been thinking about something like this as well. I'm setting my campaign a few years before the Battle of Yavin, so running into Han or Boba would not be out of the question. I'm pretty sure Jabba is going to make an appearance since he has already been mentioned in the Beginner Game online extra adventure. I'm not using the extended universe in my campaign, so I'm free to decide what the main characters were doing between movies.

I've toyed with having my daughter's team help Princess Leia escape from something because I know she would want to meet her. C3-P0 did mention that 'there'll be no escape for the princess this time', so I take that to mean the she had escaped other times.

I'm in the camp that wants what happens in the movies to still happen, so I'm hoping to avoid situations where my players will be in a position where they fight Boba Fett or steal Han's ship. I don't want to force story elements on them by keeping them from messing up what happens in the movies.

That being said, I'm also thinking of a second campaign where one of the characters has a Force vision that foresees the Rebel victory over Endor and then accidentally makes a change that gets the episode 4-6 heroes blown up on Yavin. The campaign will be about setting things right with what they know about what could have happened.

thankfully my guys are just starting out so this was a great moment of **** a brick OMG THAT'S BOBA FETT AND HE'S COMING THIS WAY TO TALK TO US. I played the auction for the guild as a huge black-tie affair. it was fancy, they met high end names and made some really cool business idea/contacts. heck they have talon kaarde interested in running advertising for their recently established highly exclusive big game hunting lodge on Dxun run by a group of primitive Mandalorians that were stationed there for the past 4000 years. Good times.

I could just see it. Boba Fett standing in the corner against some huge pillar dressed in a stupid nice tuxedo... and his helmet.

At some point in the very near future, my players are going to jump into the normally sleepy Outer Rim sector capital and find the Executor , Devastator , Tyrant , Avenger , Conquest and Stalker clogging up the local space. It seems that reports of a high-ranking Alliance operative in the area has brought Death Squadron out in force.

I could just see it. Boba Fett standing in the corner against some huge pillar dressed in a stupid nice tuxedo... and his helmet.

I've had fun with canon that happened "off camera" in the movies. There is a near endless amount of important things the players can do that ended up having impact of the movies. Espeically if you toss much of EU. Helping the Bothans deliver information about Death Star 2, scouting out Hoth, being involved in the reason Jabba moved from the city to his hidden fortress, etc, etc.

I love having the occasional big name show up in my game, although I try not to let it happen too often because I don't want the big name to overshadow the game. Plus, most of my players would be unable to resist trying to mess with them.

The last big name I had the players encounter was none other than Darth Vader himself. I didn't stat him out but played him as an event. He was overseeing an Imperial archaeologist's dig on Korriban, partially to make sure the team was respectful to the ancient Sith and partially because the Emperor had sent him there as punishment for letting the Death Star get blown up. So he hated being there and really had no interest in whatever minor schemes the Imperial archaeologist was involved in. It was more fun seeing my players trying to tiptoe around Vader while impersonating an Imperial officer and trying to stay as far away from the main tent as possible than anything.

I love big name dropping. My previous experience with Star Wars RPG's was as a player with Saga Edition, and the end result was a large amount of the Rebellion leadership dying - Mon Mothma, Leia, Bail Organa, Jan Dodonna - and the small group of Jedi PC's forming their own militant Rebellion, destroying the first Death Star in orbit above Despayre and saving Admiral Ackbar.

As a GM for EotE, I've created what I'm referring to as the Alternate Universem or AU. Darth Vader is Emperor, Mara Jade has taken the Darth Sykin name after formally becoming Vader's apprentice, and Black Sun has taken over the Imperial Intelligence division. The players started as mercenaries for Black Sun, but have now proven their worth and are being sent on missions to perform objectives that the Empire cannot be perceived to have authorised, often alongside Darth Sykin. I have plans to introduce multiple big name characters later in the campaign also, to enhance the AU.

However, some people don't want to conflict with existing canon, and that's also perfectly acceptable. I just enjoy the look on my players faces when I describe someone they clearly know from the books, games or films!

I've had some downright odd experiences with including big names. For one AoR campaign I ran, I essentially lifted and expanded on the Battle of Corellia from Rogue Squadron. It was pretty much a blast but one of my players decided he thought Luke Skywalker was a jerk! As the fallout from this adventure kept going, all of my players became convinced that General Rieekan was an Imperial spy. They also absolutely refuse to trust Crix Madine, PERIOD. They hung out with Han and Chewie for a bit. Han even ended up helping save one of the PC's son. His wife and brother didn't make it, unfortunately.

I'm thinking when we start up a new campaign in the next couple of weeks here that I may make Rieekan "defect" to the Empire as some sort of ridiculous undercover work.

At some point in the very near future, my players are going to jump into the normally sleepy Outer Rim sector capital and find the Executor , Devastator , Tyrant , Avenger , Conquest and Stalker clogging up the local space. It seems that reports of a high-ranking Alliance operative in the area has brought Death Squadron out in force.

I sprang this on my party recently and I thought it went fairly well. They jumped into the system and detected the fleet and prepared to jump out, only to be intercepted by a squadron of TIE Interceptors and ordered to come aboard the Executor. The PCs started to sweat a bit when they put them through a real customs inspection instead of the half-assed ones they'd come to expect from the Minos Cluster.

The Bounty Hunter PC was taken at gunpoint off of the ship with no explanation and taken to a waiting room where there were a bunch of other bounty hunters. In a near repeat of the bounty hunter scene from Empire, Lord Vader shows up and tells the bounty hunters that a high-ranking Alliance terrorist named Leia Organa is suspected to be operating in the sector and that she has a 250,000 credit reward for her capture. He also casually mentions that she may be in the company of another Alliance terrorist named Skywalker and that he has a 500,000 credit bounty on his head. He reiterates that they are to be taken alive, with "no disintegrations".

There was a bit of a tense moment for the Bounty Hunter PC, who has expressed a desire to dabble in the Force Sensitive Emergent spec tree as Vader walked down the line of bounty hunters as he spoke and stopped directly in front of him for a moment and stopped talking. I told the PC that he got the definite impression that Vader seemed to be looking at him and the character felt odd for a moment. Then Vader just walked by as if nothing had happened.

It must have been a great moment for your players.

Name dropping or spotlights on NPCs can be a lot of fun and add some excitement for the players. You just have to be careful that the celebrity NPC doesn't start overshadowing the heroes.

For example, I'm going to run my group through a "Tatooine Manhunt" updated for EotE. Jodo Kast (the Boba Fett wannabe) is a major part of this and it's preordained that once defeated he will rocket pack to escape instead of getting killed. This sets up a future adventure where the heroes are trying to hunt down Jodo Kast and run into the real Boba Fett. The adventure isn't structured in any way that combat should occur with Boba Fett; he simply claims that if the heroes get to Jodo Kast first he's willing to pay them a bounty for defeating him but not killing him (Boba wants that thrill for himself). I'm looking forward to the "awe crude" moment when the heroes first encounter the infamous Boba Fett; I'm going to try to portray him with all the stoic intimidating ambiance that I can muster. This is just an example of how a major NPC can show up, slip off camera for the action of the adventure, and then show up later without stealing the PC's fun.