As Background: I played many rpg games the last two decades, but one of the longest running was the WEG Star Wars RPG. We had a blast back in the days, although I found the rules system a bit lacking. Tried a bit d20 later, but didn´t like it very much, the system didn´t support the feel of the Star Wars universe enough in my opinion.

Recently, I stumbled over the FFG system and fell in love. Could be the Star Wars RPG I always wanted, time will tell. Fortunately, my group was very interested right on the spot, so I created a campaign.

First, I did what I always do, wrote down what I wanted for my campaign. This is what I came up with:

I want Star Wars, not Edge of the Empire: Okay, FFG, I was weak, I fell for it, you got me. The Firefly style is interesting, but the Firefly RPG is also a good thing, if I want to play low-life struggles, I would stick with this universe, which is in my opinion better suited for this kind of campaign. So I fell for the outrageous strategy of FFG (which I really despised) and bought all three books...

I want old Star Wars: In my Star Wars RPG years and through numerous games, books and shows, I have enough of “making Star Wars different”. In a RPG, I have no audience, so I can steal without regret and angered fan mail. I even not only want the feel of “old” Star Wars, I want everything: An evil Empire, Storm Troopers, TIE Fighters, only a handful Jedi, the Death Star and so on.

**** the EU: The movies are canon. Everything else is considered on a case-by-case basis. Didn´t like much of it anyway.

Power down Jedis: Okay, I must confess I liked the cool over-the-top Jedis. But my campaign is in the 80s. And my Jedis and Sith come from the 80s. Adventure Sword Fights, not Tiger & Dragon Samurais.

The characters are the center of the Universe – and underdogs: Yeah, the Universe is big – but Star Wars isn´t. I told many stories about Star Wars characters somewhere else living their own story next to the canon. And I find these stories somewhat lacking. To be one of many players in a bigger story, there are Universes which better support this, i.e. Westeros. Now, when I play Star Wars, I play a Space Opera. The characters doing no less than saving the Universe

Heroes Journey and myths: Many people say, Star Wars is a fairy tale, but I must insist they are wrong. Star Wars is clearly a myth. And I want to emulate mythic imagery. In the movies, you´ll find numerous mythic themes like Luke´s Campbell like Heroes Journey, Excalibur, old Jedis as mythical greek half-god heroes, Anakins descension to hell (to Mustafa) and so on. I´ll try to use them without stressing them too much. Being a myth and not a fairy tale gives me also the possibility to tell a tragedy. So, if it ends good or bad, depends on the players.

Give them the Millenium Falcon!: Yeah, the real one!

I took these criteria and wrote a synopsis for half a dozen settings. Made three infinities (one for each classic movie) and some in the future after VI. Than I sat down with my players and discussing, what they like best. We chose the infinity from episode V. Here it is:

Luke went to Bespin without being prepared, he neglected the warnings of his master, even after he failed in the cave. He should have known better.

He did not escape Vader, got frozen in carbonite and is brought to the Emperor. He was no full Jedi yet, so he fell to the Dark Side. But the bond between father and son was too strong for Palpatine, so they both overthrew him and “rule the Galaxy as father and son”.

Meanwhile, Leia liberated Han Solo, and then they went to Dagobah to get Leia trained, the Galaxy´s last hope. But Yoda died before he could finish her training.

Without Luke and Leia, the Rebellion is doomed to failure. After it was crushed, Han & Leia went underground, living a live as Smugglers. They got a child, a girl, and it was hidden like Leia: the girl will grow up as the daughter of a Duke on Corellia, without knowing, who her real parents are.

Leia & Han travel the Galaxy, and Leia suppresses her fate: The final confrontation of her brother. After many years of ruling and training, Luke finally confronts Vader, kills him and take the crown as Emperor for his own.

More than 20 years have passed, Leia´s daughter is 18 know and dreams of being an Ambassador at Coruscant, which her father, a gifted diplomat himself, denies her. Her (step)mother is a famous fighter pilot. What Leia´s daughter also not know: Her trusted Protocol Droid is in fact a assassin droid, programmed to protect her. And then, fate comes knocking.

I played the following as kind of an introductory scenario named BETRAYAL IN THE CLOUDS to test the rules: Han & Leia return to Bespin to steal a gem, which is fabled to contain the hidden knowledge of a Jedi Knight of old. With it, she could finish her training and become a Jedi Knight. With them, a hired team of friends and specialists go. Lev Arris, a spy and scoundrel, a female Ryn Bounty Hunter, a female Mirialian pilot named Dodger and a Nautolan slicer. But IT IS A TRAP!

The gem´s fake, the Bounty Hunter betrays them all, Luke Skywalker, the Emperor arrives and fights Leia, while the Ryn shoots the Nautolan off cloud city and Han Solo in the back. Dying, Solo gives his friend Lev a cube with a message for his hidden daughter. Leia is captured. Lev and Dodger take the falcon and fly to Corellia, to deliver the message, the Empire on their trail...

That´s it for now. When I´m in the mood, I´ll tell you about my first adventure ESCAPE FROM CORELLIA and the overall future I´ve planned: About Space and Blaster Battles, (hopefully) much humor, adventure and excitement, about a sleeping prince, three ghosts (the regretting one, the kind one and the bitter one) and a nightmarish descend into the Underworld.

Questions and comments are invited.

Keep on gaming,

Dennis

Sounds awesome! I love the parallel universe stuff!

I also like the alternative take. Thats the best part of any RPG, you don't have to recreate the wheel just steer it in the directions you like it to go, in your case an alternative timeline with all sorts of twists, bumps, potholes. Your game sounds like it is a lot of fun!

​I am running a game set right after the fall of the Republic, 5 weeks after. I really loved the Darth Vader: Dark Lord Rising. I am switching a number of things as well, but as with any system, down grading the Force powers could present a power curve problem for some groups. You could just limit things to the single Force career in the Edge of the Empire book, it isn't really that ruthless, the bounty hunter can lay out far more damage in short order and a lot of other careers can bend the rules in their own way. Let the players know what your expectations are and ask them what theirs are.

When a PC just mops up a scene or their abilities are really ruthless, play it out and talk afterwards. I know from playing the WEG d6 version, you could do some really wonky things with the Force in that game, some of the powers were much more devastating than in the d20 versions. We are limiting skill ranks to a certain amount (2) except the career specialization bonus skills which can be 1 point higher till a certain XP total is reached by a PC.

The group I am running for are all old school long time players like yourself, me included. We really are digging on the dice mechanics and the various interactions that can occur from them. WE have all played the previous RPG incarnations of Star Wars. We were pretty excited and skeptical, but we were pleasantly surprised.

The players will have a run in with Lord Vader at some point, it may only be cinematic initially, but depending on how they choose to proceed further on in the campaign, the might have an up close and personal visit. If Vader is Killed, all that means is that he wasn't the the ruthless Sith Lord he is made out to be, Anakin may have brought about the change, but he may not be the one to bring balance and neither may Luke or Leia. I'm looking forward to seeing what the players do with their PCs.

KSW

​I am running a game set right after the fall of the Republic, 5 weeks after. I really loved the Darth Vader: Dark Lord Rising. I am switching a number of things as well, but as with any system, down grading the Force powers could present a power curve problem for some groups. You could just limit things to the single Force career in the Edge of the Empire book, it isn't really that ruthless, the bounty hunter can lay out far more damage in short order and a lot of other careers can bend the rules in their own way. Let the players know what your expectations are and ask them what theirs are.

Oh, now I see, that can be really easily misunderstood. Didn´t mean "power them down" through the rules, I meant "the feel". Our Jedi will be more "Luke Skywalker" than "Obi van", if you know what I mean. I don´t power down the rules for Jedi, but I don´t wanna see them hopping around like a gummi bear, more like fighting with swords 50s adventure movie style (as I said, I really dig the martial arts jedi, but they don´t fit in my 80a campaign).

It is expected anyways, that our Jedi will the great hero in the end, the others won´t mind, even if she is more capable than their characters. Played a lot of "unbalanced" campaigns in the years, the players like it (did i.e. a Mutants and Masterminds campaign, where the player chose their power level, they really liked it, even if one is Superman and the other is Batman).

Luckily I don´t have to think much about the player expectations, because they picked that setting from half a dozen I wrote up after we talked what we will see.

Your campaign sounds jucy, in my write up, there was a dark times settings as well. Hope you will have fun with it.