Do you use the Star Wars canon and continuity in your games?

I read the "Using Star Wars Canon (Or Not)" sidebar on page 295 in the Core Rulebook and got curious how other GMs do it.

In the game I plan to run I think it will be a non-issue, as the Rebels VS. Empire will only be a backdrop and the stories from

the movies won`t affect much in how the player characters see the Galaxy and they will never encounter the main characters.

Although I might have some imperial clones of Greedo and of Cad Bane in an adventure or two...

I had presumed that I would stick to canon when I started GMing for my group a while ago. Then it occurred to me that it would be cool if my players found Obi-Wan Kenobi hiding in the bowels of a crashed republic vessel that never reached Mustafar. Obi-Wan then sets them on the road to becoming Jedi before he is killed by Luke Skywalker, Vader's hand. I think that when my players discover this little twist, it'll double the excitement because then everything is up for grabs.

My group does both kinds of campaigns. Sometimes we stick close to canon or at least the EU. Other times we've gone completely outside of canon tough.

My usual stance prior to the "new canon" announcement was along the lines of "everything in the movies happened, the rest is on a case-by-case basis." I'll probably stick to that, even more so now that most of the old EU has been shuffled into "Legends." But I also generally work around that "issue" by accounting for the fact that it's a big galaxy, and the film focuses upon a group that's attached directly to Alliance High Command where the PCs are most often part of different group that's further down the command chain, off doing their own part to fight the Empire.

The main time I completely disregard canon, films included, is if I'm deliberately running an Alternate Universe campaign where by design the canon is going to right out the window after a certain point. For instance, if Anakin didn't stop Windu and Palps died during that fight in the Chancellor's office, obviously the rest of RotS and the entirety of the original trilogy has just gone out the window.

I use and preserve canon as much as I can, but I add other things that I considered that doesn't brake game consistence or doesn't confron canon ideas

The main time I completely disregard canon, films included, is if I'm deliberately running an Alternate Universe campaign where by design the canon is going to right out the window after a certain point. For instance, if Anakin didn't stop Windu and Palps died during that fight in the Chancellor's office, obviously the rest of RotS and the entirety of the original trilogy has just gone out the window.

My group had a series of Saga campaigns based on that premise actually. I hope we'll go back to them someday. Palpatine's death led to an Chancellor election between Bail Organa, who wanted to pardon Mace Windu, and Tarkin who wanted to prosecute Windu for the murder of Palpatine. Organa won but Tarkin declared the election rigged and formed a Republic in Exile which led to a three way series of hot and cold wars between the two Republic factions and the CIS which is still ongoing in what would have been the OT era.

Mon Calamari is a major supporter of the Republic in Exile with Ackbar as Tarkin's navy commander and second in command while Lando, Han, and Dash Rendar are privateers and arch rivals. Han serves the Republic, Lando the CIS and Dash the Republic in Exile.

I had presumed that I would stick to canon when I started GMing for my group a while ago. Then it occurred to me that it would be cool if my players found Obi-Wan Kenobi hiding in the bowels of a crashed republic vessel that never reached Mustafar. Obi-Wan then sets them on the road to becoming Jedi before he is killed by Luke Skywalker, Vader's hand. I think that when my players discover this little twist, it'll double the excitement because then everything is up for grabs.

I really love these kinds of alternate takes on stories. I am a much bigger fan and supporter of comming up whit "what if" stories than obsessing over what is supposed to be canon or not.

What you like is what you use!

The Galaxy is a great platform for building stories, characters and worlds upon, with the Star Wars feel and atmosphere as main components.

Canon in my game runs on the following two tiers:

Tier 1 - The actual published materials for the game line itself. I get that Kessel was an actual planet in Rebels but it's a potato-shaped rock in the EotE Core book so, barring changes in a new edition, that's what it will be in the game. See also, Raxus Prime (though I explained that the planet was an idyllic garden world until the end of the Clone Wars, when the Empire bombed it into scrap and turned it into a garbage planet, just to be spiteful).
Tier 2 - The films, Clone Wars and Rebels.

Everything else is considered out-of-canon and subject to approval by me. Generally, if an EU/Legends concept does not conflict with the above, I'll allow it.

I don't use Star Wars Canon beyond Star Wars IV - VI and what's in the books for a particular game line for one simple reason... I suck at remembering canon! Heh. By keeping it restricted to that small slice of info, I can keep things straight in my head AND I get to add things to tailor the campaign to the characters and players.

However, I also make this very, very apparent to the players from the very, very beginning so that there is no misconceptions among the group.

The main time I completely disregard canon, films included, is if I'm deliberately running an Alternate Universe campaign where by design the canon is going to right out the window after a certain point. For instance, if Anakin didn't stop Windu and Palps died during that fight in the Chancellor's office, obviously the rest of RotS and the entirety of the original trilogy has just gone out the window.

My group had a series of Saga campaigns based on that premise actually. I hope we'll go back to them someday. Palpatine's death led to an Chancellor election between Bail Organa, who wanted to pardon Mace Windu, and Tarkin who wanted to prosecute Windu for the murder of Palpatine. Organa won but Tarkin declared the election rigged and formed a Republic in Exile which led to a three way series of hot and cold wars between the two Republic factions and the CIS which is still ongoing in what would have been the OT era.

Mon Calamari is a major supporter of the Republic in Exile with Ackbar as Tarkin's navy commander and second in command while Lando, Han, and Dash Rendar are privateers and arch rivals. Han serves the Republic, Lando the CIS and Dash the Republic in Exile.

Some of the best campaign ideas I've heard of from this game were where canon was irreparably altered. The players are then free to be the new protagonists.