There are a lot of "Alternative History" game concepts out there, basically if one key element to the canon storyline were changed they play out the "What if" scenarios.

One I don't think I've seen mentioned, is "What if Anakin doesn't turn on Mace, and they kill/capture Palps, and Order 66 doesn't get carried out"

What do you think would happen? Does the war continue? Or is peace made and the galaxy is split in half with a kind of Cold War situation. I think it could be a very interesting game setting.

Hmm... Not sure what would happen. I would have to think on that. The Cold War/uneasy truce sort of thing does sound interesting though, albeit after a bit more time of actual active war until both sides finally concede that this is going nowehere (at least nowhere good). And since you are talking about a game, it would give the chance for missions and adventures, as one side might still work to undermine the other despite the lack of open hostilities and war.

GM Chris of Order 66 podcast did a whole Alternate Universe campaign based around that one moment. Anakin doesn't attack Mace, Mace winds up killing Palps (at least that's the official story), and so the Republic doesn't fall.

Things don't turn out entirely rosy though, as Anakin leaves the Order shortly after, Anakin and Padme's marriage blows apart over the matter of their kids being Force-sensitive and whether or not they should be sent to the Jedi Order for training (Padme says yes, Anakin says no), and the BBEG of the entire campaign winds up being Leia herself under the influence of the Muur Talisman, with Luke acting against her by setting up a covert quasi-resistance movement, and the Death Star itself showing up in the climax.

One idea that I've been toying with is what if Ahsoka didn't leave the order? The easy conclusion would be that nothing much would change. She would have been Sixty-Sixed with the rest of the Jedi.

But part of me thinks Ahsoka stepping down was what drove Anakin's ambition to rise through the ranks. It also further fueled his fear of loss. He already lost his apprentice, he cannot loose Padme. Finally, Ahsoka was probably as close to him as Obi Wan was. She would have had a chance at preventing his fall to the Dark Side.

Ideas like these are fun to work through and are great fuel for epic campaigns.

GM Chris of Order 66 podcast did a whole Alternate Universe campaign based around that one moment. Anakin doesn't attack Mace, Mace winds up killing Palps (at least that's the official story), and so the Republic doesn't fall.

Things don't turn out entirely rosy though, as Anakin leaves the Order shortly after, Anakin and Padme's marriage blows apart over the matter of their kids being Force-sensitive and whether or not they should be sent to the Jedi Order for training (Padme says yes, Anakin says no), and the BBEG of the entire campaign winds up being Leia herself under the influence of the Muur Talisman, with Luke acting against her by setting up a covert quasi-resistance movement, and the Death Star itself showing up in the climax.

That's a cool take.

I also recently read an alternate version in the Star Wars Online Journal #2 by Owen K.C. Stephens called Shadows of the Rebellion where Luke joined Vader against the Emperor at Bespin and Yoda trained Leia, creating a 3 way galactic conflict. Its a pretty nice 6 page treatment that sets up the premise very well.

I have been re-watching TCW-series and was struck with how easily the season 2 episode the Zilla Monster Strikes Back could be turned into a pivotal moment for an alt-history. I am tempted to have the Zilla Beast simply crush the transport with Anakin and Palpatine both in it an move the story along with neither of these major player. Either that or the attack force Palpatine to show himself as a Sith Lord to save himself from the Zilla Beast and then be confronted by Yoda, Mace, Anakin, and I think there were 1 to 2 other Master Jedi present, whether he wins or losses, his power-base in the Republic would be severely compromised and would serve slap the Jedi council in the face with how easily they have been manipulated in corrupted.

To add, I took GM Chris' idea and ran my own campaign with the OP's pivotal moment as the divergence point, and even took some time to note where things had rather definitively changed.

Things such as...

- Senator Binks being the one to propose and rally support for the aging Clone Troopers to receive proper health benefits, housing, and most importantly fair compensation and rights as citizens of the Republic.

- Senator Bail Organa from Alderaan was voted to Chancellorship after serving a very brief stint as acting Chancellor, and quickly taking steps to dismantle the "emergency powers" granted to the office and make sure that something like Palps' rise to power could never happen again.

- Senators Mon Mothma and Garm Bel Ibis remained "friendly adversaries" in the Senate, working together in their own way to ensure that Bail's efforts to avoid an all-powerful Chancellor's office were successful.

- After Anakin and Padme had their break-up, Anakin wound up living out the rest of his days with Owen and Beru on the Lars family moisture farm, and actually found a sense of peace and contentment with such a simple life.

- In the wake of Palp's manipulations, Yoda realized how close of a shave it was and started gradual reforms to the Jedi Order to shake off the stagnation (sadly those efforts were stymied by other Council members, foremost among them Mace Windu).

- Kenobi semi-retired from active field duty and took up training of Initiates as Yoda had done, and doing much better with younglings than he'd ever done with Anakin.

- Leia eventually became the Order's main contact with the Chancellor's office, and spent her apprenticeship training under Obi-Wan, who was reluctant at first but eventually relented, while Luke was apprenticed to an itinerant Jedi Master by the name of Donovan Morningfire, and that their respective educations couldn't have been more different; Leia was molded into the ideal Jedi in terms of following the Code, while Luke was much more savvy about the galaxy (and joked that he could fluently order a drink or insult someone's parentage in any language) and willing to question authority in addition to being an utterly fearsome duelist that could rival his father.

- Shortly after the Clone Wars, Bail adopted the daughter of his top aide Sheltay Reltrac, named Winter, and she would go on to become the legitimate ruler of Alderaan after her adopted mother passed and Bail stepped down to enjoy a quiet retirement from politics. Rumors abounded that Princess Winter and Luke Skywalker were "an item" in much the same vein as Anakin and Padme had been, but nothing conclusive beyond them being very good friends in the wake of Luke and his master Donovan performing a very daring (some say borderline-insane) rescue operation after pro-Separatist terrorists staged a kidnapping of the Alderaanian princess and her immediate retinue.

- Padme pretty much resigned after the Clone Wars due to scandal over her being married to a Jedi, and spent her remaining years performing charity works in and around the Naboo system, as well as performing guest lectures on politics at Theed's Royal House of Learning.

- Galen Marek became a proper Jedi Knight, though with no real exceptional ability in the Force, serving the Order as a Sentinel in their heightened efforts to prevent the Republic's halls of power from being subverted by dark side influences. He was typically seen with a protocol/logistics droid named Proxy that assisted him on missions.

- Asajj Ventress was unaccounted for, with various sightings of her cropping up in the decade following the Clone Wars.

- Boba Fett ultimately died a nobody, getting ganked during one of his early outings as an independent hunter.

- With the Republic's military being scaled back dramatically, Tarkin retired to his family estates on Eriadu, and lived out the rest of his life in comparative obscurity.

A lot of this was stuff that most of my players probably wouldn't care about, with only a few of them planned to come up in the campaign at all. But it was nice to have in case the matter did come up, and fun to concoct "what if?" stories for various characters.

The first issue to be tackled here is the immediate reaction to when Mace calls an emergency senate meeting and says (something along the lines of):

"Several hours ago the Jedi Order acted on information that Supreme Chancellor Palpatine was a Sith Lord. When we confronted him in his office he confirmed our fears and attacked us. In the ensuing confrontation he, as well as Masters Agen Kolar, Kit Fisto and Saesee Tiin were killed. A representative from the Jedi council will take over his position until elections can be held."

The Jedi pretty much just pulled a coup de'tat. How does the senate react to this? Who believes Mace and Anakin and who doesn't? Are the other members of the Council okay with this? Does anyone else have the authority to execute order 66?

With regards to the separatists: I think after the deaths of Dooku and Grievous they would probably fracture significantly and cease to be a threat to the Republic but that could be averted if more systems left following the Coup.

The first issue to be tackled here is the immediate reaction to when Mace calls an emergency senate meeting and says (something along the lines of):

"A representative from the Jedi council will take over his position until elections can be held."

I'm not sure if I see a Jedi assuming leadership even on a temporary basis for several reasons. Dark Sidious revealed has to be a slap in the Jedi Council's face regarding how mislead and manipulated they have been, which argues against any sort of jedi stewardship. I also have to believe that the Senate has some sort of line of succession since it isn't yet a dictatorship.

I agree completely that with the Sith puppet-master gone, unity and motivation among the Seperatists has to suffer. The war would drag on some but would have sputter to a close before too long.

An interesting question on this alt would also be is Anakin still the chosen one, and if so what balance would be bring. Without the push from Sidious, would he still bring destruction to the Jedi Order and parity between the Light and the Dark. I'm just not sure if I have seen him as presented a reformer of the stagnation and dogmatism of the Jedi Order. On the other hand may he & Padma reveal their marriage and he becomes the nucleus of a group of Grey Jedi.

I'm not sure if I see a Jedi assuming leadership even on a temporary basis for several reasons.

IIRC (which I might not, it's been a while since I watched RotS) a Jedi assuming leadership was the plan but even without that it's arguably still a Coup. WRT succession Mass Amedda was surely next in line which causes issues as he was very much Palpatine's pet (Who know how much of that the Jedi suspected but a lot is plausible).

IIRC (which I might not, it's been a while since I watched RotS) a Jedi assuming leadership was the plan but even without that it's arguably still a Coup. WRT succession Mass Amedda was surely next in line which causes issues as he was very much Palpatine's pet (Who know how much of that the Jedi suspected but a lot is plausible).

If that's the case, than It would seem a case of the Jedi learning nothing from the incident and a good reason to play out the decline of the Jedi Order, just in a different form.

I never remember the blue horned guy's name, but I'll assume that is Mass Amedda. I've always wondered if he was a force user as well as Palpatine or just a completely corrupt politician and right hand man to Palpatine.

IIRC (which I might not, it's been a while since I watched RotS) a Jedi assuming leadership was the plan but even without that it's arguably still a Coup. WRT succession Mass Amedda was surely next in line which causes issues as he was very much Palpatine's pet (Who know how much of that the Jedi suspected but a lot is plausible).

If that's the case, than It would seem a case of the Jedi learning nothing from the incident and a good reason to play out the decline of the Jedi Order, just in a different form.

I never remember the blue horned guy's name, but I'll assume that is Mass Amedda. I've always wondered if he was a force user as well as Palpatine or just a completely corrupt politician and right hand man to Palpatine.

He's not a force user, just the vice chancellor (I couldn't find any information on if he knew Palpatine was a Sith but he was definitely in on the plan to bring down Valoran). To be fair, the Jedi Order (in EU) survived not learning anything from Revan or assorted other fallen Jedi for several thousand years but that is totally a direction one could take it.

My group has run several campaigns in a setting much like the one being discussed here.

In our setting the Chancellor elections came down to a race between Organa, who supported the Jedi, and Tarkin who wanted to prosecute Windu and impose heavy restrictions on the Jedi Order. Organa won but Tarkin and his supporters declare the elections rigged and form a Republic Government in exile. During all this time the CIS are rebuilding their forces and while they lack the strength to overwhelm either faction neither has the strength to crush them either. This leads to decades of hot and cold wars between the three factions with many worlds also declaring themselves neutral.

This leads to some interesting changes in character placement as well. For example due to the number of non-human worlds allied with him Tarkin has to scrap any pro-human anti-non humans urges he has. At first this is just a cover but over time his feelings actually do change. Dac is one of the worlds in question and by the time Yavin is taking place in canon and Legends with Ackbar as commander of the RIE navy and Tarkin's heir apparent.

There's a lot of fleet mixes different from canon or legends as well. KDY is playing both sides against the middle with Kaut Producing ships for the Republic while Rothana is part of the RIE but gets some canon KDY designs. SFS is also RIE as are the Verpine so you have TIEs, V-17s, and B-Wings flying off MC80s, Vindicators, and Nebulon-Bs against A-Series Interceptors, Eta-Series Interceptors, A-Wings, X-Wings and Y-Wings based off Impstars and Victories with Gladiators plus Corellian and Alderaanian escort ships while the CIS is flying T-Wings ad Novaswords off a mix of Clones Wars and new designs.

All three factions have privateer organizations with Han and Chewie in the Republi's, Dash in the RIE's, and Lando in the the CIS counterpart

If it was announced a Jedi had killed the Emperor, even IF known to be a Sith Lord, wouldn't the Clone Army still be hard-wired to be loyal to the dead Emperor?

There were obviously at least 65 more Imperial Orders. Would not one of them deal with what would happen if the Emperor was killed? Even if Palpatine was so vain not to consider death, and thus there was no such order, what would the Clone Army do when the target of their highest loyalty died? I'm guessing what would follow would be the Clone Army versus the Jedi. With the Jedi still not knowing it was coming. If there was an Order 77 that said, "If I die, kill all Jedi", you still might have the same result. If there was no such order, there wouldn't be a Galaxy-wide surprise attack, so many more Jedi would survive to be part of a longer lasting Jedi vs. Clones war.

Who would end up in charge of the Clone Army? Palpatine might have specified an "heir" for the Clones in a secret Order. Anakin? If Palpatine didn't imagine he would need an heir specified for the Clones to follow, then I'm not sure where their loyalties would fall next. The next elected Chancellor? If they believed the Jedi, who killed Palpatine, were influencing the election, was there a top-ranking Clone commander to take over?

In regards to Order 66, The Clone Wars TV series revealed that said order would be enforced via what amounts to brain-control chips. The other General Orders were there as something of a smokescreen (at least in Legends) so that Order 66 wouldn't stand out. In fact, Order 65 could be invoked by the Jedi as they had proof that the Supreme Chancellor was a traitor and threat to the Republic, though Order 65 had a bit more bureaucratic language in comparison to Order 66.

Personally, I'd like to think that if Anakin didn't intervene, he might suggest that instead of Mace or any other Jedi simply walking into the Senate and saying their charge now, that he'd put forth Padme's name to act as an intermediary until the immediate crisis (namely, how far did the Sith's corruption of the Senate go?) was resolved. Then again, maybe I'm giving them too much credit. Of course, given the Republic was in the midst of a war, there had to be a number of emergency contingency plans in case the Chancellor was compromised or killed, including one where the Jedi Order assumed temporary control of the Senate until a replacement for the Chancellor could be vet'ed and put into place.

Mas Amedda, at least in Legends, was fully aware of Palpatine's true nature and ulterior motives, and was a full conspirator in his schemes.

But yeah, it would be a thorny state of affairs, to say nothing of the guiding forces behind the Separatists have all been removed by that point; Dooku's long since lost his head, Grievous is burned out, and Sidious is toast. What's left isn't really suited for running a war, and will probably wind up pushing for peace once the Republic (who does still have their top leaders) starts to actively fight and win the war as opposed to being subjected to Palpatine's efforts to drag out the whole thing.

If it was announced a Jedi had killed the Emperor, even IF known to be a Sith Lord, wouldn't the Clone Army still be hard-wired to be loyal to the dead Emperor?

There were obviously at least 65 more Imperial Orders. Would not one of them deal with what would happen if the Emperor was killed? Even if Palpatine was so vain not to consider death, and thus there was no such order, what would the Clone Army do when the target of their highest loyalty died? I'm guessing what would follow would be the Clone Army versus the Jedi. With the Jedi still not knowing it was coming. If there was an Order 77 that said, "If I die, kill all Jedi", you still might have the same result. If there was no such order, there wouldn't be a Galaxy-wide surprise attack, so many more Jedi would survive to be part of a longer lasting Jedi vs. Clones war.

Who would end up in charge of the Clone Army? Palpatine might have specified an "heir" for the Clones in a secret Order. Anakin? If Palpatine didn't imagine he would need an heir specified for the Clones to follow, then I'm not sure where their loyalties would fall next. The next elected Chancellor? If they believed the Jedi, who killed Palpatine, were influencing the election, was there a top-ranking Clone commander to take over?

I think believing there are at least 65 other orders is a fallacy personally, If I was a paranoid power-mad megalomaniac I wouldn't ever lay out may secret order in such a neat orderly linear way. Just my opinion.

As far as being hardwired to the empower, I could see that, but I just don't see him appointing an in case of death successor. It is not the Sith way to give power, it must be taken.

I am far more likely to believe an in case of death contingency plan being hardwired into the clones that causes them to burn everything down instead of just attacking the Jedi. A universe in flames scenario. You could even have resistance clone that fight off/burn out their chips working as a fifth element in the clone army slowly deactivating their fellow clones chips as the great mass of their brothers cause untold destruction across the galaxy. Flip the Jedi script and have the damaged but not destroyed Jedi Order suing for peace with the Separatist and co-opting them to fights along side the droids against the clone army.

Apparently, alt history or no, once he loses out in a galaxy far far away, Darth Sidious's next target is a city in the Ukraine

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/29/star-wars-emperor-palpatine-wins-ukraine-city-council-election

Also, wookies get no respect

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/26/chewbacca-detained-for-lack-of-id-while-driving-darth-vader-to-ukraine-election

It was actually established in Legends that there were 150 General Orders, with Order 65 being the one to arrest the Chancellor and Order 66 being the one to terminate the Jedi. Remember how mired in general bureaucracy the Republic was at this point in time; it's not surprising that in putting together such a vast army on short notice that there'd be a slew of "just in case" contingency orders put into place.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Contingency_Orders_for_the_Grand_Army_of_the_Republic:_Order_Initiation,_Orders_1_Through_150

As you can see, of the sample Orders listed, only Order 66 didn't have a bunch of extra bureaucratic protocols added, ostensibly due to the Jedi being such a dangerous threat if they went renegade that such extra protocols would be detrimental to successful execution of the order. So Palps was actually cunning enough to hide the master stroke of his plan right in plan sight as a line item in a long list of contingency orders.

This is one of the good things about Disney tossing much of the EU to "Legends" status. We can freely speculate that something else may have happened without being constrained by the opinions of one of the many EU masses. Especially when speculating on an alternate Star Wars history. It's fun again. We can again say, maybe this happened, or could of happened without, "Well in Revenge of the Gundan, Volume 125, recall that...."

It was actually established in Legends that there were 150 General Orders, with Order 65 being the one to arrest the Chancellor and Order 66 being the one to terminate the Jedi. Remember how mired in general bureaucracy the Republic was at this point in time; it's not surprising that in putting together such a vast army on short notice that there'd be a slew of "just in case" contingency orders put into place.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Contingency_Orders_for_the_Grand_Army_of_the_Republic:_Order_Initiation,_Orders_1_Through_150

As you can see, of the sample Orders listed, only Order 66 didn't have a bunch of extra bureaucratic protocols added, ostensibly due to the Jedi being such a dangerous threat if they went renegade that such extra protocols would be detrimental to successful execution of the order. So Palps was actually cunning enough to hide the master stroke of his plan right in plan sight as a line item in a long list of contingency orders.

Wait, so these orders were public knowledge? And the Jedi didn't object to Order 66 being a blatant kill order and not a go peacefully or lethal force will be used? I know this is Legends, but I just have a hard time buying it. The Jedi were hocked into the power structure enough that someone would have brought this up and objected.

If these are General Orders, then why would the chips from TCW be needed for compliance?

Not trying to start an argument or discussion on this, but in my personal head canon I'll keep them secret chip enforced orders - it just makes far more sense to me personally.

If these are General Orders, then why would the chips from TCW be needed for compliance?

Donovan mentioned that they were Legends status. Likely, they are no longer canon.

I like the idea that Anikan still turns dark and as Mace is killing Palpatine Anika s fear of losing his mentor turns him. Mace dies and Palpatine is about to die. As he is dying he tells AniKan the Jedi are corrupt. Become Darth Vadar and revenge my death and rescue the Republic from the corruption of the Jedi. Since Anikan does not have the political ties or social ability to lead he fails in getting the Senate to listen and in anger lashes out at them. The order 66 gets activated when they see a Jedi attack the Senate. Then the seperation of the Republic begins.