That being said, it would be cool to start a new campaign where the PC's are the Jedi sent to negotiate the truce between the Trade Federation and Naboo, instead of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, and just let the whole thing run as far off the rails as possible.

I think I just found my next campaign idea

I try to keep my players insulated from the established continuity. They're off doing their own thing. In the F&D campaign I'm rolling out right now, the Emperor is indirectly involved - the PCs were force-sensitives captured and brought to a facility for some basic stress testing and sorting, some to be discarded, some to be further evaluated as potential Hands - but they won't meet anyone important unless they really want to get involved in galactic events.

And honestly, I hope they don't. I enjoy EotE, where the players are forging their own destiny. I want to translate that feel of openness to my F&D campaign; if they want to go help blow up the Death Star in a few years, I'll let them contribute, but if they want to just try to make their way in the galaxy, trying to stay a step ahead of the Imperials, I'm more than happy with that.

I also introduce characters and organizations that aren't canonical. For example, in this campaign, a Hutt hoping for a force sensitive in his menagerie takes out a contract with The Lost - a slave-trading group that takes special orders, and is renowned for their ability to make people simply disappear.

Maybe Obi-wan actually trained Luke since infancy on Tatooine ("I've defeated Sith Lords! Surely I can deal with a moisture farmer who won't let me train his adopted son...") and they've set up a small Jedi Academy...and a twist in Act II comes when Luke takes Vader's offer on Bespin....

I had an idea similar to this a while ago - what if circumstances led to Obi-Wan crash-landing with a baby Luke on some outer rim hell-hole other than Tatooine? What if he raised Luke as his own son and then the time (and opportunity) came to send him out into the galaxy? How would that pan out?

It could also add a bigger twist when Luke learns that Obi-wan isn't his father and that Vader is. It might make Luke feel betrayed even more than in the movies.

Alternatively, Obi Wan and Luke both end up on Dagobah with Yoda the whole time.

That's...a very different Luke right there. Raised by Obi Wan and Yoda. In a swamp.

Hell, put both twins in that swamp. Leia as a fully trained Jedi on that life.

My last campaign was set 3yrs before ANH. The PCs played one shot adventures, got into their characters, earned points, and had free run of the galaxy. Then I sent them to Alderaan and their base. (About when it was to be destroyed in cannon.)

Vader "sensed" a connection to Leia during interrogation (moment of crisis) and took her and fled the Deathstar. The Falcon was down for repairs, and Han made a third hand contact, to get the PCs to move Luke and Ben to Alderaan. The Empire didn't destroy it because they are busy looking for Vader and Leia. Now the PCs are a new trilogy's heroes.

Its was fun to see them wince every time to go back to base, expecting to see the Deathstar in orbit, and the panic as Leia needs an escort for her "guest."

In mine some padawan walks into the Jedi Council meeting to deliver a message and then asks "Why is a Dark Lord of the Sith standing here?" There is a brief "wha?" and then a flash of green, purple and blue light and the future Emperor is no more.

Can't stand canon. Our game is our game. Borrow what you want. Discard what you don't. The players are the stars.

To be fair, if you are playing a canon game your GM simply wouldn't allow any of this. The padawan doesn't know what the player knows. It really isn't that hard playing a canon game with a GM using some forethought. There would only be a canon conflict if the GM allowed it.

I can't recall every getting into an "ut oh" moment and every Star Wars campaign I've run (except the first one) was a canon campaign. It's a big Galaxy with lots to do. If you add up all of the persons present or aware of what was going on in the OT, it is a miniscule part of the population of the Galaxy. It should be hard to get involved in on-screen moments unless the GM wants you to. Especially if you don't allow characters to know what their players know.

In my experience it's actually becomes more difficult to run a non-canon game then a canon game. You have to devote at least some mental time to figuring out and keeping track of what has changed. The butterfly affect can become a huge problem.

Player: So Luke will someday be dead now right?

GM: Huh?

Player: Well we just killed the smuggler Han Solo long before the rebels went to Hoth. Han won't be around to save Luke from freezing.

GM: Hmm. You may be right. Well someone else may have saved him. Luke will make a new friend named Sam. Sam is now the one who will later save Frodo, I mean Luke. Let me note that change in my spiral over here (**** it's getting big).

OR

Player: Let's fly to Tatooine. I want to compete in a pod race if they still exist there.

GM: Tatooine doesn't exist. Remember how the Death Star blew it up instead of Alderaan?

Player: Oh. oops. Wait, does that mean I can't pick up a Tusken staff-thingy either?

OR

GM: Ok you arrive at Bespin.

Player: I look around for the Millenium Falcon.

GM: Huh?

Player: Well, remember we killed Han a long time ago. So, he never won the Falcon in a sabaac game. So Lando still has it!

The players are also the stars in my campaigns. Avoiding conflict with the movie storyline doesn't at all imply the players have lost free will or have nothing left to do. Juvenile wailing of, "But I want to be the one who blows up the Death Star!!!" is simply avoided by not having the players show up at a battle that few in the Galaxy knew was going to happen in the first place.

Player: It's that year!? Oh good let's fly to Yavin and wait.

GM: You've never heard of Yavin. It's an obscure, empty moon in an obscure unpopulated system.

Player: Well, I look it up in the navicomputer.

GM: What exactly do you type into the navicomputer? What coordinates that you don't know? What name that you don't know? And why are you suddenly searching for something you don't even know exists? Does your character need to visit an Imperial mental hospital for an obligatory stay?

ETA: I have no problem at all with those that want to run a canon-changing campaign. It's there game, have fun, and no reason for canon-campaigners to dislike or be bothered by someone else's game. Some of us just prefer a Star Wars campaign instead of something quite different. Once canon is changed it really isn't Star Wars anymore but a setting just based upon Star Wars.

Yeah

I feel that running parallel to Canon can be good fun, but the characters cannot effect the existing Canon. Everything that happened in Canon happened.

Characters can be part of the movies, helping with the evacuation of Echo Base or flying in the Battle of Endor, but their efforts are part of the action and don't effect the outcome.

Yeah

I feel that running parallel to Canon can be good fun, but the characters cannot effect the existing Canon. Everything that happened in Canon happened.

Characters can be part of the movies, helping with the evacuation of Echo Base or flying in the Battle of Endor, but their efforts are part of the action and don't effect the outcome.

But, I think you have to be sure whatever piece of the puzzle the players are involved in can't throw a wrench into canon if they fail.

Example1: The PCs are at Echo Base during the Imperial attack. Their part is they must respond to the Ion cannon base to stop a platoon of Stormtroopers that just dropped in nearby to infiltrate and take it out. They must hold off the stormtroopers long enough to ensure the ion cannon can disable that Star Destroyer in orbit when the rebels evacuate. Sounds great. BUT, what if the PCs fail? The Ion cannon DID get off that shot. The GM could have some plans in place to ensure the PCs don't fail, but the players will also realize this if they know their GM won't change canon. Knowing you will win in advance isn't very exciting.

Example2: The PCs are at Echo Base during the Imperial attack. They are overwatch on the ground and/or air for the Rebel transports as they are being loaded and taking off. One of the transports that just lifted off calls out over coms that they have been attacked by TIE fighters and are going down in Sector 5 in the frozen tundra. The PCs respond in their motley assortment of craft to fend off the TIE fighters then search for the downed transport survivors before a platoon of Snowtroopers beats them to the crash site. No problems here if they fail and all of the survivors are killed or captured. No conflict with what we saw on screen. We didn't watch every single transport take off and make it to orbit. One could have crashed.

Yeah

I feel that running parallel to Canon can be good fun, but the characters cannot effect the existing Canon. Everything that happened in Canon happened.

Characters can be part of the movies, helping with the evacuation of Echo Base or flying in the Battle of Endor, but their efforts are part of the action and don't effect the outcome.

But, I think you have to be sure whatever piece of the puzzle the players are involved in can't throw a wrench into canon if they fail.

Example1: The PCs are at Echo Base during the Imperial attack. Their part is they must respond to the Ion cannon base to stop a platoon of Stormtroopers that just dropped in nearby to infiltrate and take it out. They must hold off the stormtroopers long enough to ensure the ion cannon can disable that Star Destroyer in orbit when the rebels evacuate. Sounds great. BUT, what if the PCs fail? The Ion cannon DID get off that shot. The GM could have some plans in place to ensure the PCs don't fail, but the players will also realize this if they know their GM won't change canon. Knowing you will win in advance isn't very exciting.

Example2: The PCs are at Echo Base during the Imperial attack. They are overwatch on the ground and/or air for the Rebel transports as they are being loaded and taking off. One of the transports that just lifted off calls out over coms that they have been attacked by TIE fighters and are going down in Sector 5 in the frozen tundra. The PCs respond in their motley assortment of craft to fend off the TIE fighters then search for the downed transport survivors before a platoon of Snowtroopers beats them to the crash site. No problems here if they fail and all of the survivors are killed or captured. No conflict with what we saw on screen. We didn't watch every single transport take off and make it to orbit. One could have crashed.

You've got my point exactly with Example2!

You can be part of the story without effecting the outcome. Obviously Example1 is something to avoid.

I think it's best to set games in the EU. That way, if players want to change written fate, they can simply pay 2 destiny points (So they look like Mouse Ears...) to do so.

Yeah

I feel that running parallel to Canon can be good fun, but the characters cannot effect the existing Canon. Everything that happened in Canon happened.

Characters can be part of the movies, helping with the evacuation of Echo Base or flying in the Battle of Endor, but their efforts are part of the action and don't effect the outcome.

The main thing, as I said earlier, is to make sure that their actions still matter. That doesn't have to be affecting the canon events to do so. If anyone has ever watched the series Daredevil, that's set in the same events and timeline as the Marvel movies like The Avengers and Winter Soldier. Yet it still matters that Murdoch is battling to save one person's life at a number of points and oppose a corrupt industrialist. Nobody gets to the end of that series and thinks "but they didn't save the world", you get to the end of it and go "wow - that was tense". It's all about framing what you care about. It's why I don't regard living within Canon as a trap.

I get some of the objections, but this is a game not a legal document. And each game is unique to that GM and players. It is theirs to inhabit and flesh out. One of the other threads has people arguing about whether the colors of the lightsaber blades must be only green, yellow or blue as though that really matters. This is a game derived from a work of fiction. Even the owners of the franchise have played around with "canon".

And each game is unique to that GM and players. It is theirs to inhabit and flesh out.

One of the other threads has people arguing about whether the colors of the lightsaber blades must be only green, yellow or blue as though that really matters.

Isn't personal beliefs on lightsaber colors one of those "unique" things that is "theirs to inhabit and flesh out"?

And each game is unique to that GM and players. It is theirs to inhabit and flesh out.

One of the other threads has people arguing about whether the colors of the lightsaber blades must be only green, yellow or blue as though that really matters.

Isn't personal beliefs on lightsaber colors one of those "unique" things that is "theirs to inhabit and flesh out"?

Exactly.

And each game is unique to that GM and players. It is theirs to inhabit and flesh out.

One of the other threads has people arguing about whether the colors of the lightsaber blades must be only green, yellow or blue as though that really matters.

Isn't personal beliefs on lightsaber colors one of those "unique" things that is "theirs to inhabit and flesh out"?

Exactly.

Ok, then why did you add the qualifier, "as though that really matters"? Apparently it does matter to some and YOU yourself are saying it's their world to flesh out.

Yeah

I feel that running parallel to Canon can be good fun, but the characters cannot effect the existing Canon. Everything that happened in Canon happened.

Characters can be part of the movies, helping with the evacuation of Echo Base or flying in the Battle of Endor, but their efforts are part of the action and don't effect the outcome.

But, I think you have to be sure whatever piece of the puzzle the players are involved in can't throw a wrench into canon if they fail.

Example1: The PCs are at Echo Base during the Imperial attack. Their part is they must respond to the Ion cannon base to stop a platoon of Stormtroopers that just dropped in nearby to infiltrate and take it out. They must hold off the stormtroopers long enough to ensure the ion cannon can disable that Star Destroyer in orbit when the rebels evacuate. Sounds great. BUT, what if the PCs fail? The Ion cannon DID get off that shot. The GM could have some plans in place to ensure the PCs don't fail, but the players will also realize this if they know their GM won't change canon. Knowing you will win in advance isn't very exciting.

Example2: The PCs are at Echo Base during the Imperial attack. They are overwatch on the ground and/or air for the Rebel transports as they are being loaded and taking off. One of the transports that just lifted off calls out over coms that they have been attacked by TIE fighters and are going down in Sector 5 in the frozen tundra. The PCs respond in their motley assortment of craft to fend off the TIE fighters then search for the downed transport survivors before a platoon of Snowtroopers beats them to the crash site. No problems here if they fail and all of the survivors are killed or captured. No conflict with what we saw on screen. We didn't watch every single transport take off and make it to orbit. One could have crashed.

Re: Example 1

Success: The PCs hold off the snow trooper assault long enough for the cannon's crew to disable several Star Destroyers. The vast majority of the Rebel troops (including the PCs) successfully evacuate Hoth, and later meet up at the rendezvous point. When the time comes for the attack on the second Death Star, the fleet is at full strength, and the only thing they need is a discrete strike force landed on the forest moon to disable the shield generator. They even have a few ships on side missions designed to lure Imperial forces away from the real target. It's a tough mission, but with the fortuitous help of the local natives, they overcome heavy odds, and succeed. The Rebel fleet destroys the Death Star, killing the Emperor.

Failure: The PCs fail to hold off the snow troopers long enough for the cannon's crew to do their whole job. In fact, they manage to disable only a single Star Destroyer, and the Imperial fleet collapses in on fleeing Rebel ships. Most of the Rebel fleet at Hoth is destroyed, leaving only a few stragglers (conveniently including the named folks we see in later scenes). The PCs barely manage to escape capture themselves, because the fleet is oddly focused on one particular light transport. The decimated rebellion now only includes enough people to cobble together a discrete strike team for the forest moon mission, rather than a fully equipped infantry detachment. They're forced to cobble together a high-risk plan, and only succeed due to the fortuitous meeting with the local natives. Every last ship in the rag-tag Rebel fleet is approaching the Death Star, and it's going to take a miracle to get the job done.

We only *saw* the cannon tag one Star Destroyer. That doesn't mean that they only wanted to tag the one. There's a lot of ambiguity to go around, when you start picking at the edges of cut scenes. In fact, we don't actually know that what I described isn't *exactly* what happened behind the screen wipes of Empire. I've just described two entirely different outcomes that can still rationally, and logically flow to the climax of next film.

One in which they chose the strike team, because it's the *best* option available to prevent the Empire from firming up their stranglehold on the galaxy even more.

The other in which they are forced to chose the strike team option because it's the *only* option available, and if they fail, the galaxy is doomed.

Can you tell me, for certain, whether the team sent to defend the Ion Cannon was successful or not?

Yeah

I feel that running parallel to Canon can be good fun, but the characters cannot effect the existing Canon. Everything that happened in Canon happened.

Characters can be part of the movies, helping with the evacuation of Echo Base or flying in the Battle of Endor, but their efforts are part of the action and don't effect the outcome.

But, I think you have to be sure whatever piece of the puzzle the players are involved in can't throw a wrench into canon if they fail.

Example1: The PCs are at Echo Base during the Imperial attack. Their part is they must respond to the Ion cannon base to stop a platoon of Stormtroopers that just dropped in nearby to infiltrate and take it out. They must hold off the stormtroopers long enough to ensure the ion cannon can disable that Star Destroyer in orbit when the rebels evacuate. Sounds great. BUT, what if the PCs fail? The Ion cannon DID get off that shot. The GM could have some plans in place to ensure the PCs don't fail, but the players will also realize this if they know their GM won't change canon. Knowing you will win in advance isn't very exciting.

Example2: The PCs are at Echo Base during the Imperial attack. They are overwatch on the ground and/or air for the Rebel transports as they are being loaded and taking off. One of the transports that just lifted off calls out over coms that they have been attacked by TIE fighters and are going down in Sector 5 in the frozen tundra. The PCs respond in their motley assortment of craft to fend off the TIE fighters then search for the downed transport survivors before a platoon of Snowtroopers beats them to the crash site. No problems here if they fail and all of the survivors are killed or captured. No conflict with what we saw on screen. We didn't watch every single transport take off and make it to orbit. One could have crashed.

Re: Example 1

(my snip)

Can you tell me, for certain, whether the team sent to defend the Ion Cannon was successful or not?

Ok, this is a good way to resolve a failure in this ONE exact scenario. That wasn't the point of my examples though. I was pointing out how you need to avoid scenarios where the players MUST win (or fail for that matter) to keep canon from changing. Poking a hole (a good one) in my one example doesn't invalidate the point I was trying to make.

Ok, this is a good way to resolve a failure in this ONE exact scenario. That wasn't the point of my examples though. I was pointing out how you need to avoid scenarios where the players MUST win (or fail for that matter) to keep canon from changing. Poking a hole (a good one) in my one example doesn't invalidate the point I was trying to make.

This a reasonable point, but pretty easy to accomplish in practice. IMO it's fine to have scenes that are parallel, right to tangentially touching, the canon we see on screen. So long as you're not putting PCs directly *in* a canon scene, its easy to avoid "throwing a wrench" into canon.

So, first off, It's really easy to make sure a party fails in any given encounter, so that half is much less of an issue, so the focus really should be on what happens when the party *fails* when they're supposed to *succeed*. A good, consistent way to maintain canon and but to make the outcome matter is tie the player's reward to the outcome. Some examples of this would be:

• Congratulations, you defeated that AT-AT and saved this platoon. They'll help you in a later adventure. =D
• You weren't able to find the spy and they blew up that cache of weapons. Sorry, we can't spare any concussion missiles to reload your ship's magazine. =(
• You saved R2! He's able to help repair your ship. It'll take 2 days instead of 3. =D
• You weren't able to rescue Han Solo after he got caught by that bounty hunter on Ord Mantell. Luckily he freed himself, but we had to send a transport to pick him up. You guys were fine without his help after that, right? =(

You can even make sure the outcome is the same either way, e.g. when the outcome needs to be failure:

• You botched the pick-up for the plans, and instead many Bothans died to bring us this information... =(
• You nailed the pick-up, but it was a decoy, and instead many Bothans died to bring us this information... =(

Or success:

• You successful recovered the schematics we needed from the wreckage of the Tantive IV, here's some cash!
• You totally failed to recover the schematics from the wreckage of the Tantive IV, we're not paying you. Luckily we found back-ups in R2 data base.

Heck, you could even say this kind of manipulation happens in canon:

• Leia succeeds resisting the coercion to reveal the location of the rebel base. "They're on Dantooine" Cool, blow up Alderaan anyway.
• Leia fails resisting the coercion to reveal the location of the rebel base. "They're on Yavin IV" cool, blow up Alderaan anyway.

And finally, it's really hard to kill characters and nemeses in this game. There's no reason you should have to worry about a major character (Luke, Leia, dying if they're needed later in canon. And if by some HORRIBLE luck this does happen, change the roll or work around it.

• This crit says Chewie loses a leg... Yeah, no. He takes a hit to presence instead. Or something.
• C-3PO dies in a speeder wreck. Oh well, we get his memory core and slap him in a new protocol droid body. Hey! This one even has a sliver lower leg too!

So, yeah, the point is valid, but often easily resolved. Actually, the missions in Imperial Assault have a lot of clever ways of dealing with issues that come along when the players fail.

My game is definitively non-canon. It is set eight years into the New Order. Episodes I-III and the Clone Wars tv series are presumptive facts on the ground. The main characters are a Jedi Knight (newly minted just months before Order 66) and two younglings she saved, who are now padawans. The only canon tweaks I made from the outset were: 1) Padme is alive, and 2) Yoda has passed into the force (could still appear as a force ghost), and 3) Obi-Wan foresaw the empire was closing him and his charges on Tattooine and fled. Padme (and probably Ahsoka) are going to be early resistance leaders. The Jedi Knight wants to found a New Jedi Order that is, in her estimation, "more in tune with the Force" and less "hidebound and arrogantly lulled by orthodoxy" The padawans want to overthrow the Sith, of course. Its their story. Iconic characters and the OT aren't sacred cows. I'm going to let the story unfold however it unfolds. I'm not worried if the OT is averted or not.

*giggles uncontrollably as she feels another wall of pink coming on*

Okay, so, I have a kinda strange relationship with the cannon ... ironically similar to what Disney has with the EU.

I believe that cannon exists as it is written until my players specifically change it. As an example -

My PCs were all defected Imperial pilots that formed a squadron. They wound up stationed on Hoth, and one of the PC's was crazy infatuated with Leia. He's sitting around talking to Wedge Antilles in the commissary as Wedge is working on his ice-sculptures (it was previously suggested that Wedge "get a hobby" because all he ever did was practice in the simulator and was embarrassing the PCs in flight exercises because of it - and hey, what valid hobbies are there on Hoth for crying out loud!). While talking, he decides to roll to see what he could do to gain the affection of Leia. He succeeds, and the suggestion of getting her a gift from her home planet of Alderaan comes up, which will be tough because it's an asteroid field. I had planned on running the adventure "Graveyard of Alderaan" which this would work as a nice hook to, but instead, the PC gets the brilliant idea of getting Wedge to make an ice sculpture of a rare Alderaanian flower. As Leia and Han are in their "angry" stage, it stands to reason that he could conceivable woo Leia.

So I let him roll for Wedge, and lo and behold, the roll is a crazy success. He takes his prize to Leia's quarters but she isn't there. R2 and 3PO are, however, and he leaves it with them along with a heartfelt message that he makes R2 promise he'll play to her when she gets the flower. He leaves, happy and full of himself, convinced he is one step closer to getting that "no good swindler out into the frozen tundra."

A session or so passes and nothing happens. Leia is pleasant to him, but nothing unusual or uncommon towards the other pilots (Wedge included). The player starts losing his mind, wondering what happened. Finally, I sit with him as we're watching Empire and the scene with R2 and 3PO in the hallway at Echo Base comes on and I tell him to pay very close attention. The following comes on screen (taken from the script):

INTERIOR: HOTH -- REBEL BASE -- ANOTHER ICE CORRIDOR

A familiar stream of beeps and whistles herald the approach of Artoo-Detoo and See-Threepio, who appear around a corner and move along an ice wall toward the main hangar.

THREEPIO: Don't try to blame me. I didn't ask you to turn on the thermal heater. I merely commented that it was freezing in the princess's chamber.

Artoo beeps

THREEPIO: But it's supposed to be freezing. How are we going to dry out all her clothes? I really don't know.

Artoo beeps a stream of protesting whistles.

THREEPIO: Oh, switch off.

It was priceless, he turns around and stares at me open jawed ... it was priceless.

So, in summary, I tend to let the players do whatever they want, and most of the time I try (as Lethal Dose suggested above) to make it so those actions ALLOW the movies to take place, such as being the off screen references that are mentioned. If however, they do something so huge that it would make an effect on the plot, then I will change things to accommodate s I'm not afraid of charting untold territory (I've already re-written Episodes 1 and 2 for my current campaign, though it ends in a place where the Clone Wars and Episode 3 aren't really affected unless I want them to be at a later date),