But if you are protecting elements from the players you are kind of being a crappy GM. Your players should be able to run over canon. If it makes sense. If you build a solid version of Darth Vaders and the players meet and kill them. You should let Vader die. And whatever happened in the movies is now changed.

Do what you want for your own games, of course, but don't call out GMs for being "crappy" if they want to make their Star Wars universe the Star Wars universe. The Star Wars universe is defined by more than its tech, and for some of us, saying "oh, Luke is no longer important, you players are the super-best" takes away from Star Wars.

And, on a broader note - in any story, your characters don't have to be the center of the universe for it to be a good story. Some players want to be that in their stories - fine, that's okay. Other players (and GMs) find the notion of making characters "central" or "the most important" anathema to the idea of a big universe.

You guys keep ignoring the part about giving these guys plot immunity is the problem that I have repeatedly said. Making Darth Vader immune to anything the players do to defeat him regardless of how effective it would actually be. Player hits Vader with a bar a dim bomb and succeeds in hitting and the GM say nope he survived...that is not cool. That is crappy gming.

If plot immunity is your only point, then I agree. But that's not what I, and apparently others, are reading into your point, because that only represents the tiny finale of what should be a pretty big story arc. There seems to be more behind your point about immunity.

Killing Palpatine requires the GM to present Palpatine. And I have no intention of presenting Palpatine, or really any other canonic figure, because that's not what the stories (so far) are about. Our stories have nothing to do with any of the canonic figures. We play little enough as it is, I have no desire to enter into the uber-geek-zone. So if that's what makes me a crappy GM, then you're trolling.

Now if my players were Star Wars savvy, and they all said "we've got 1000XP now, we want to go kill the Emperor", and they could present a good story reason and were committed to doing the story justice, well then I'd have a lot of work to do, but if they pulled it off, so be it.

I usually throw canon out the window from the beginning.

Sometimes drastic changes sometimes more subtle but I always run games with the understanding that there are no rails on the game and that the story is there (our) story so anything goes.

I enjoy adhering to canon, for the most part. I love seeing the game unfold within a script I am familiar with. I prefer to see the main events of movies IV, V, & VI unfold as they are meant to be, but with some assistance or involvement from our group. If Tarkin dies at the hands of the group before the Death Star blows up, then so be it. It doesn't change much. But once someone takes out Anakin as a kid and plays some alternative universe, my interest in playing drops to zero.

When I see some video-gamers trade all the best football players from other teams to their favorite football team or use hacks to give their favorite players ALL 100% in speed, power, etc.... and then proceed to demolish the league and feel proud of their "accomplishment", then I begin to understand the alternative-universe crowd because some people enjoy their favorite game the way they want to enjoy it. They feel it's "cool" to do something different. All things being the same, I have no desire to trade Tom Brady to the Cowboys and play that scenario out.

So if someone wants to have Leia wield dual lightsabers, marry Jabba the Hutt, and rule the universe from their throne on Alderaan, then let them have it. I just don't get what's fun about that.

I enjoy adhering to canon, for the most part. I love seeing the game unfold within a script I am familiar with. I prefer to see the main events of movies IV, V, & VI unfold as they are meant to be, but with some assistance or involvement from our group. If Tarkin dies at the hands of the group before the Death Star blows up, then so be it. It doesn't change much. But once someone takes out Anakin as a kid and plays some alternative universe, my interest in playing drops to zero.

When I see some video-gamers trade all the best football players from other teams to their favorite football team or use hacks to give their favorite players ALL 100% in speed, power, etc.... and then proceed to demolish the league and feel proud of their "accomplishment", then I begin to understand the alternative-universe crowd because some people enjoy their favorite game the way they want to enjoy it. They feel it's "cool" to do something different. All things being the same, I have no desire to trade Tom Brady to the Cowboys and play that scenario out.

So if someone wants to have Leia wield dual lightsabers, marry Jabba the Hutt, and rule the universe from their throne on Alderaan, then let them have it. I just don't get what's fun about that.

I have the same felling towards what you just typed. I can understand some people only wanting to play within canon, and that's OK. As long as the group and GM all agree on it and that's what they all want, then cool - roll them dice and have a blast.

For myself, and my two game groups, if we want to do that, we will just play as the characters form the movies and follow the movie pretty much as it happened. Or better yet to save us from boredom, we'll just watch the movies.

This is no judgement on anybody. Each group gets its enjoyment in different ways, just as each player and gm has different aspects they find most enjoyable. In my opinion, I think adhering to canon is silly, but I won't say it's wrong to do so.

Thing is - it doesn't matter if Canon is sacrosanct or not. All that matters is that the issue was hammered out in the pre-game planning. In the same session where everyone brainstormed on setting, character type, and general theme of the game, a group should establish the boundaries for Canon. That way everyone is all on the same page right from the get-go and nobody is disappointed when they try and shank Young Annie and fail.

I enjoy adhering to canon, for the most part. I love seeing the game unfold within a script I am familiar with. I prefer to see the main events of movies IV, V, & VI unfold as they are meant to be, but with some assistance or involvement from our group. If Tarkin dies at the hands of the group before the Death Star blows up, then so be it. It doesn't change much. But once someone takes out Anakin as a kid and plays some alternative universe, my interest in playing drops to zero.

When I see some video-gamers trade all the best football players from other teams to their favorite football team or use hacks to give their favorite players ALL 100% in speed, power, etc.... and then proceed to demolish the league and feel proud of their "accomplishment", then I begin to understand the alternative-universe crowd because some people enjoy their favorite game the way they want to enjoy it. They feel it's "cool" to do something different. All things being the same, I have no desire to trade Tom Brady to the Cowboys and play that scenario out.

So if someone wants to have Leia wield dual lightsabers, marry Jabba the Hutt, and rule the universe from their throne on Alderaan, then let them have it. I just don't get what's fun about that.

As someone who prefers non-canon games (or at least games that aren't concerned with adhering to canon) I'd say it does involve a high amount of trust at the table. Though FFGs game is a high trust game to begin with it's even a little more so when the GM and players feels fewer constraints about where the story can go and what can be achieved.

My biggest problem with canon games where canon elements actually enter the game is playing second fiddle to the "real" heroes of the setting. You can also enter into issues as mentioned above where certain things simply cannot be changed if canon is going to be preserved and so either the GM has to totally avoid these things or perhaps resort to making some things artificially impossible. And just as a player or GM who breaks the high trust "contract" at the table can wreak havoc by "ruining" the setting so to can such players or GMs purposely set out to break canon and cause problems.

A skilled GM and invested players can make a canon or non-canon game lots of fun but it just takes an understanding up front what kind of game it's going to be. In the alternate games I've played in the GM was upfront about it and even discussed the major ways in which the setting departed from canon. Not all details were shared but the big departure point was highlighted and the immediate aftermath so the players knew what to expect. It can also be fun to play in the Star Wars universe but still be surprised by the plot and meta plot.

If I step back and think about it, I'm not really concerned about preserving canon, it's that I'm not that interested in presenting stories that intersect with those already told, especially the main story arcs. My first instinct is to yawn and stretch and shout "Booooooring!"

The galaxy is huge. I use the canon as news fodder/rumors/etc... in the periphery of the story going on with my players. Like occasionally coming across wanted posters for some people... heheh.

Reminds me of the old WEG Adventure books that they were publishing that had various new Rebels and Imperials...

As soon as you roll the dice technically you're 'breaking canon'. I personally prefer to think of it as adding to canon. Plus it's too easy to let them 'kill' the emperor only to have it be some clone or whatever, in which case it ends up just being one of the myriad of attempts on Palpatine's life that occurred I'm sure.

I, personally, follow movie canon (now easier with the new legends distinction).

However, that is for back story and timeline. I usually set up my own sector if space with its bbeg's and planets.

The galaxy is very big. Imperial superweapon projects don't have to be big stations, they can be hyperdrive theorists working on a .0 hyperdrive engine.

A previous campaign ended with the players killing Lord Vader and blowing up the Death Star.

In the current campaign the characters are members of the new Jedi order started by the Vader-killing characters.

So, I would let them, I'd do my best to make it difficult for them, but I wouldn't stop them.