I was discussing the Clone Wars TV show with someone else and expressing my disgust and how it overwrote a lot of novels and established stuff, but I won't get any further into that. It basically served to make me ask myself what was in my universe, as a GM. What information do I take with me to the gaming table?

So I boiled it down.

1. The original trilogy is cold hard fact.
2. The EU basics exist - datapads are a thing, holocrons exist, and the list of general stuff: alien species, planets, the Imperial Security Bureau, Black Sun, the Hutt Kajidics, etc, but no events outside the OT.
3. Whatever events and characters I choose to bring in from the Legends EU, which are re-purposed and given new twists for the sake of the game.

And that's the extent of the universe when I GM. No Gungans, no Yuuzhan Vong, no Waru (look up the Crystal Star novel and you'll understand), and the Clone Wars are just some nebulous thing talked about in past tense. If I ever GM something in the Clone Wars, it will all be rewritten, and if I ever GM something in the Old Republic era, the KotOR games will be our canon and our reference point, just like the OT in most of our games... I choose to have a universe like this because it contains all the things I love without the things that I felt got convoluted and contradictory.

This is not a thread to argue one view over another, but tell me, what's in your universe when you GM? Do you embrace every scrap of fiction and every animated episode, every comic book page in existence? Have you cut specific things out, or are you like me, and cut out all but specific things? Why do you choose one view over another?

Frankly I don't know most of the EU.

I bring the OT, PT, Rebels, and the stuff in the FFG books into my universe. Most of it really doesn't mean a hill of beans though because most of the planets, organizations, and other stuff I create as I need it. If something already exists, I may use it, but I try to avoid stepping into the trap of not knowing some obscure item about the EU.

I certainly mine the EU for ideas, but for me: Movies and TV are the only really solid sources when speaking in broad strokes anyway. After that I pull or add what I need, after all most people don't know the first thing about all that EU junk. I'd rather not spend an hour dwelling on the story of the Skywalker/Solo family tree just so the players are all on the same page about this or that. I'm running 2 campaigns right now where followers of the EU will see some neat Easter Eggs, but my players who don't follow the EU won't be missing anything because those Easter Eggs aren't critical to their story in any way.

Knowing pretty much nothing about the EU, what is in my setting is the official canon. The films, TCW and Rebels. Basically it's that and anything I read in the RPG books.

I'm faithful to Canon/Legends to the extent I'm familiar with it. The bits I use I research on Wookieepedia to give it more depth.I don't see any challenge in integrating anything, the Galaxy still has a lot of room to do your own thing besides what's already established. But what I use is mostly only planets, aliens and technology. Not so much existing characters or events.

Knowing pretty much nothing about the EU, what is in my setting is the official canon. The films, TCW and Rebels. Basically it's that and anything I read in the RPG books.

Yep, ditto, though I rely a lot on TCW for visuals and flavour (cantinas, Coruscant underworld, etc)

For my games, I typically start with the RPG materials and work from there. I give stuff in the RPG more weight than even the movies as it's already in the medium that I'm playing.

FFG books draw from all late 80's and beyond EU, including some of the worst of the EU(TFU anyone). Where there is a conflict between two sources I tend to choose what is canon over legends, where no conflict exists hey wonderful I have more material to help flesh out my game world.

WEG provided excellent source material for the 90's novels that helped popularize much of the EU, and provided sourcebooks for most the earlier EU novels prior to the New Trilogy or New Jedi Order series, it also avoided making too many ground breaking changes to the setting, and left alot of what was in the past unexplained.

The comics of the 90's and on tended to do more to develop the ancient history in the EU, or far future prior to the EU canonhammer dropping.

Saga had the advantage of the pre-trilogy laid out and largely applied its d20 loot and character class mechanics to the genre by making the Jedi classes and crystals, and since KotOR based its mechanics off Saga and was wildly popular where previous Star Wars games had been meh, they had an impact of the EU. Saga largely offered what videogames of the 21st century EU or New Jedi Order gave us, because the Old Republic game is still running in its EU quasi canon state i expect content provided from Old Republic will be viewed as favorable EU material for FFG.

Which brings us to FFG which truly has the best opportunity to expand on the line further as Next trilogy and stand alone films, novels, comics and a complete Clone Wars and Rebels content become available for them to develop off of though I am not expecting too much new content until we see what comes out in theaters

All the members of my group are "everyman" Star Wars fans. In that they are about as hardcore as the next guy. This allows me to do...basically whatever I want in terms of story. I have a deep seeded romance with the Old Republic EU, and I borrow HEAVILY from that. But it is mostly up for grabs. I have the advantage of being able to make up whatever I want without anyone pointing their nose up at me.

Movie canon is fact. But some of it is my personal interpretation vs. WEG/EU's (a.i. Sandtrooopers & Snowtroopers are just normal Snowtroopers in field gear, not special units).

EU I use and abuse. I take what I want piece by piece and change it however I want.

My base universe is everything in the Rebellion-era EU books. The future hasn't happened yet, since I'm starting about a week after Alderaan and the battle of Yavin. The Clone Wars as an event happened, but not in the recent memory of anyone alive. I pushed it back about another 50 years, made Obi-wan and Anakin older, and Anakin's transformation to Vader a couple decades after the Clone Wars. Order 66 didn't happen / doesn't exist, it was Vader, over a series of years, hunting down Jedi.

That's mostly just for flavor. The nitty gritty bits of the universe are from the original trilogy and Rebellion-era EU with very "old" gear being clone-wars vintage. My players aren't going to affect the universe to any degree that would conflict with the books. They're the spear carriers in the background, the business just down the street from the cantina where Luke and Obi-wan meet Han, one of the many ships flying in the background at Bespin, etc.

FFG books draw from all late 80's and beyond EU, including some of the worst of the EU(TFU anyone).

*cough* ... I won't argue TFU but I beg to bring up Waru. Nothing ever tops Waru for being the utter worst of the EU. Seriously, read the article. Cringing and cries of disgust are appropriate, but not required.

That's the issue with a lot of the EU novel's and comics that chose to touch on the heroes of Yavin honestly. I personally feel the EU served the setting best when it focused more on supporting characters rather than trying to make every book about the next super weapon to destroy the galaxy

That's the issue with a lot of the EU novel's and comics that chose to touch on the heroes of Yavin honestly. I personally feel the EU served the setting best when it focused more on supporting characters rather than trying to make every book about the next super weapon to destroy the galaxy

My favorite part of the EU for roleplaying is the X-Wing series, especially the Wraith Squadron books. The biggest main character is Wedge, and only cameos from anyone else (Han). The rest, especially Wraith Squadron, we've never seen before.

With a universe this vast, it pretty much boils down to: If I can remember it, it's canon. That means that my game consists of whatever sourcebooks are at the table, the 6 movies, Heir to the Empire, 107 Marvel comics and the Holiday special. Everything else? That's way too much to keep track of.

the 6 movies, Heir to the Empire, 107 Marvel comics and the Holiday special.

6 movies? Why does everyone always forget about the ewok movies?

There are 9 SW movies, including the holiday special TV movie.

Sometimes I wish there were just 3.

3 movies are Canon to me, everything else is optional to be brought in at the GM's discretion and not because a PC says "I saw this in an old comic once".

Some things leave me wondering.

What if Jedi Knights were effectively Ronin and the Samurai version were Republic Knights which changed to Imperial Knights when Palpatine usurped control creating his Galactic Empire with Vader as his Grandmaster of his Imperial Knights.

Obi-Wan was a former Republic Knight who became a Jedi Knight during the Clone Wars until Palpatine betrayed Dooku using the Jedi as scapegoats for his crimes.

Still until I can run this, threads like this serve as a good way to see what might work.

I take inspiration from the movies and anything else I feel will add to the game. And if I so choose the players can save the galaxy or not and Luke and Leia can never have been. I will use or pitch whatever I think will work for the game.

I keep almost everything, myself. I own 80% of the 'legends' novels, the 30th anniversary comic series (which was a large swath of samples, basically) and most of the games. I've seen the Tartavovsky (sp) clone wars cartoons but neither animated series in recent memory.

The only things I would cut are Waru (yes, I own crystal star) and the Ones (Father, son, daughter, and Aboleth, and including their weird tower out of Scourge). I am fine with extragalactic threats like the Vong, but not extra-dimensional ones. Heck, even the gem-pooping space whales are better, in my book. In my campaigns they just don't - and won't - come up, ever. They're not what Star Wars is, to me.

The SW universe is so big, I don't see a need to change things just for the sake of room. The heroes of my AoR game can certainly make as large a contribution to the Alliance as the movie heroes, exposing and defeating threats just as severe. My Edge group won't be saving the galaxy, so it's all just set dressing. Haven't really had much of a FaD group form yet but there are plenty of tombs and artifacts of those who came before, light and dark.

Some folks (on the boards, not my players) complain about a feeling of not mattering, not being able to change the swing of galactic progress in this style of game. What hubris. I challenge any one of them to go out and change the progress of our own world, much less the millions of planets in SW. Galactic events tend to hinge on the right person in the right place at the right time, and they usually have either Skywalker or Solo as their surname. The everyman really doesn't have the chance to do such a thing, so I don't find it unrealistic that it doesn't happen. And any contradictions that wind up cropping up in my own game - bunkers failing to be blown, political targets who escape an attack - I chalk up to the law of conservation of history, where the events are bound to play out in the larger scale. (It's another group who finally blows the bunker, or they get a second chance to capture their target, etc.)

I was discussing the Clone Wars TV show with someone else and expressing my disgust

sorry I stopped reading

I was discussing the Clone Wars TV show with someone else and expressing my disgust

sorry I stopped reading

Good sir, are you trying to start an argument or be witty? I'm entitled to an opinion and specifically stated that this thread is not for arguing one viewpoint or another.

I suspect somewhere in between. The folks who really enjoyed the Clone Wars show deal with a ton of hating on something they like. Other posts I've seen by him aren't directly inflammatory so I think this one was intended a little tongue in cheek.

I watch Clone Wars while I'm eating or, sometimes, doing something else near the computer. I enjoy it, but don't expect to find it as engaging or "realistic" as the movies or novels. Some things annoy me, but I can suppress the annoyance to enjoy something Star Wars.

Switching back toward the original topic, I'm curious about how others feel about something that is NOT in my universe. Or rather, it exists in the universe, but it will never appear "on stage" during gaming. That is the Force. I ruled no Force sensitives, exiles, etc. for characters. Likewise, I promised they would not run into anyone using the Force. For Edge of the Empire I thought this was much more appropriate. The vanishingly tiny percentage of Force sensitives in the galaxy compared to the number of Smugglers, Bounty Hunters, etc. means that the group shouldn't know one or meet one.

Obviously this wouldn't work well for a Force & Destiny campaign. It might not even work well for an Age of Rebellion campaign. But for Edge of the Empire, I think it works well and is an improvement.

I don't think characters should start as force sensitive.

A gm could make a player force sensitive if the story calls for it, if they've been in a lot of situations where the outcome could have been unknowingly influenced by the force.

The Clone Wars have been a great reference point to me, and I use anything from the 6 main movies and the TV shows as the basis from my world, with one exception: the Night Sisters of Dathomir use a twisted version of the Force for their magic, instead of the non-Force magic presented in the Clone Wars when they literally raised a zombie army. It hasn't come up but it's the one thing in "canon" that I just can't stand.

I've also created several creatures and locations in the universe that are only "canon" for our game, which has been fun.