What inspires you when you use the Star Wars setting and make the Galaxy your own, other than Star Wars?

For example, my players had no idea what Nar Shaddaa was and neither did I before we started playing this game.

To help me define the setting I have borrowed heavily from the movie The Warriors(1975) and how gangs work in that movie(and novel and xbox-game).

I have also used Bladerunner to describe that Nar Shaddaa feeling, the anime version of Metroplis to a lesser extent and after watching Dredd today, I`m going to use that too. To describe Tatooine and make it my own I have used american and italian westerns alot and even the Muse music video Knights of Cydonia. Mad Max: Fury Road with dusty speeders and teched out sandcrawlers would be awesome too, no that I think about it!

Ganks NPCs in my game look just like Daft Punk of course, maybe with a little Robocop thrown into it.

Our last game involved an ancient Jedi or Sith(?) temple and had some Indiana Jones to it, more or less...

So, what non-Star Wars descriptions or inspiration do you use in your game, either for your campaign or your player character?

Guardians of the Galaxy and Firefly, anyone?

Someone on here mentioned modeling a city after Knowhere. A city cunstructed in an around the hollowed out remains of an Exogorth.

I may have to take that idea.

I like Cowboy Bebop. About the only way I would ever enjoy a Bounty Hunter campaign or story is if it was styled after that.

Seeing as Star Wars has always drawn on them, a mix of samurai films, westerns, and a few 'knights in shining armor' romances are good places to start.

Mass Effect has a few things that I kicked around for ideas.

I've kinda mentioned it in my Non Illithid Brain Sucking thread but I see lots of inspiration in Firefly (which is probably so obvious, it's hardly worth mentioning) and Shadowrun. I think Leverage would also be a great source of inspiration but I need to do a little research to find out if that's true before I drop $$$ on the books/pdf's.

My whole campaign is set in an alternate timeline, though so it's mine from the get go... but maybe I'll start another thread to describe my alternate setting...

Someone on here mentioned modeling a city after Knowhere. A city cunstructed in an around the hollowed out remains of an Exogorth.

I may have to take that idea.

An Exogorth seems kinda small... Any other massive (and legendary, kinda not existing any more) creatures out there in Star Wars, that one could use for that?

Someone on here mentioned modeling a city after Knowhere. A city cunstructed in an around the hollowed out remains of an Exogorth.

I may have to take that idea.

An Exogorth seems kinda small... Any other massive (and legendary, kinda not existing any more) creatures out there in Star Wars, that one could use for that?

Maybe it has a hyperspace pocket in its head... Or something. Maybe it is a holodeck. Hey, there`s Star Trek Next Gen too!

Someone on here mentioned modeling a city after Knowhere. A city cunstructed in an around the hollowed out remains of an Exogorth.

I may have to take that idea.

An Exogorth seems kinda small... Any other massive (and legendary, kinda not existing any more) creatures out there in Star Wars, that one could use for that?

If I were to use the idea, it would have been a legendary and ancient one.

That and city would have been the wrong word. A large outpost would be more appropriate.

I tend to describe the jump points in civilised systems looking like the hyperspace gates in Cowboy Bebop and the Space Bazar in Firefly. All scanning checkpoints and holographic billboards.

Firefly, Bladerunner, Shadowrun and Cyberpunk, Babylon 5, Cowboy Bebop, Aliens, Warhammer 40k, westerns, fantasy, Traveller, Call of Cthulhu, Bogart films such as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon, and songs all contribute ideas to my Star Wars Verse and adventures.

I use a lot from the sci-fi and space operas I read, but I also draw heavily from the news.

Earth quakes, typhoons, hurricanes, jet crashes, cruise ships running ashore, celebrity scandals, elections, business and finance...

A lot of it may seem banal and mundane, but I don't just focus on tragedy and suffering, I also incorporate inspiring news.

From time to time I also write a short fictitious article or three and hand them out for the players to read. Call it adventure seed foreshadowing.

As an example, my players have an opportunity to affect the outcome of a local election by interacting with a long-time contact with quite a bit of local respect. If they do it could benefit them in the future "job" market, possibly obligate them further to this contact, perhaps even mean the difference between the local military establishment losing ground in political policy.

And, accidents happen. I've thought of having the pilot make a Hard Piloting check to avoid hitting a drunk Duro, with Despair resulting in his unfortunate death.

How about some Heist Flicks?

Go back to Star Wars' roots with some Spaghetti Westerns?

Perhaps some WWII movies?

Or you can just get your Jedi on with some Kung Fu and Samurai movies!

I think Cowboy Bebop and Firefly are going to be your prime examples for a lot of the EotE stuff. The occasional episode of 'Burn Notice' works well for F&D stuff. The out-in-the-cold good guy avoiding notice from [insert Evil Group Here] seems to fit F&D fairly well. "My name is Michael Westen...I used to be a Jedi, until..." Movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark can be inspirational, too. Hey, tell me you couldn't replace the Ark with a Jedi or Sith artifact, and have it work....

My Top 10 Star Wars Inspirations (in no particular order)

1. Ghost in the Shell for ecumenopoli and droids. Essential viewing for cyberpunk nouveaux-noir.

2. Mass Effect for interspecies interactions/politics and the varied life on highly populated worlds.

3. Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series for a nice combo of cyberpunk noir and space opera.

4. Battlestar Galactica for a read into a year-round spacer's life.

5. EVE Online for inspiration on space combat, fleet warfare, and intergalactic corporate conflict.

6. Warhammer 40K and the Eisenhorn series in particular for a ground-level view of politics, corruption, and heresy in a galactic empire.

7. Edward Burtynsky's Manufactured Landscapes for inspiration on how an alien industrial planet might look.

8. The Riddick franchise for a nice peek into the life of space criminals and the people who hunt them.

9. Iain M. Banks' Culture series, less so for close parallels with Star Wars society (they are VERY different), and more for a whimsical glimpse into what is possible in the universe, and how to see it with a sense of humour. (Also, still the best sentient robots/ships in all of literature.)

10. LucasArts The Dig. Weird and clunky and frustrating but still an incredible exploration into truly alien landscapes and minds.

I was going to run a Cowboy Bebop-esque game a while back but switched to a different idea before it got off the ground.

You could almost run rules "as is" Just Say the guns are normal, and do not have stun. A few of the Specializations might need tweaked, or some hand waving (like Bacta Talents)... you could just reskin that stuff though into whatever (that thing they used on Hawkeye in Avengers 2 for example).

Also I toyed with a Mad Max game for a bit while I was playing the new Video Game. Mild alterations to land vehicles really is all that would need.

If you look at the links in my signature you can see some of the Non Star Wars things I have run in the past. Currently I am working on a Campaign that is a modern with Magic kind of like The Secret World MMO.