I originally designed this for the d6 system, another galaxy, another time...

The team that acquired the Death Star plans (IV and VI)...and the handoff to Leia and Mothma (well the Bothan section chief anyway).

Kept the Empire off of Kenobi's and Yoda's scent. (for more force users).

Scouting, exploring, clearing out wampa caves for a future rebel base site on Hoth.(V)

Finding out and then warning Lando about the Empire's growing interest in Bespin. Planting the cyberbrain agent as his "ace in th hole."

Taking out/leading astray all the other bounty hunters away from Luke and co (V)

Infiltrating Jabba's palace, getting Lando in position, setting up the rancor's cell gate to catastrophically fail. (VI)

Sabotaging progress on the DS2 project, making it necessary for the Emperor to oversee the final stages.

There's more, but I just posted a few of the highlights here to get a feel from the GM community. What do you think? Worth converting to FFG?

Edit to add: Regarding canon. In my game, if the players failed, then the results changed the course of the movies, i.e. the rebel base on Yavin 4 was destroyed...I prefer big darn hero campaigns, not "why bother we know how this ends campaign." PCs are always the stars in my game, unless we're playing Sidekicks...not sure why it is an issue since EotE isn't canon out of the gate...unless you make it so.

Your Mileage May Vary, but the main reason I don't use canon is that my players would hate the idea of doing the 'donkey work' for the stars of the show.

We mostly play RPGs to get away from the stuff we do in real life... So if we can't even be the heroes in our fantasies, the ones who blow up Death Stars and rescue princesses and kill the bad guys, then what's the point?

Of course, if your players are okay with all that, then go for it. Maybe some people like being the unsung heroes.

It would work as a comedy campaign to do as a parody of the movies. This way you can mock the stars of the movies and make it seem like their over the top antics were the result of other people. The other people are the real heroes and everyone else got it wrong.

Your Mileage May Vary, but the main reason I don't use canon is that my players would hate the idea of doing the 'donkey work' for the stars of the show.

I'm not too fond of the Almost But Not Quite aspect. Well, you would have been at the Battle of Yavin, but you took the wrong exit from the turnpike and the half hour delay meant that you missed the whole thing. If you are going to use the movies, embrace them whole-heartedly. Come up with something meaningful for them to do at Endor instead of playing second fiddle.

Mind you, I am always willing to throw canon under the bus. Either way, I'd go whole hog or skip the movies altogether.

My suggestion? Talk to the players. If they like the sound of it, go for it. If, however, they want to wield a lightsaber, rescue the princess and blow up superweapons, I'd rethink your plans.

For me, rewriting canon was the answer, allowing me to build a less binary galaxy with multiple warring factions, where the PCs would be the Lukes and Revans and Hans of the plot.

For most, as far as I can tell, they provide an exciting and meaningful story that's far removed from the main events. Maybe they have to save a world that was never mentioned in the films, or something.

But your plans explicitly make them the gophers of the Important People. If they fail, their failure doesn't matter, and if they succeed, someone else gets the glory. (Or someone says "many Bothans died to bring us these plans. What's a bothan anyway? I dunno, maybe those prune-faced guys over there?" )

As Patriot says, you can play it for laughs, if the players like the idea. I think there were a few fan films that did just that; the life and times of a stormtrooper or a nameless rebel soldier.

But not everyone wants to play the guy who has to clean the refreshers in the Millennium Falcon. That's something you need to communicate to the players and get their agreement.

While being involved in some of the off-screen events mentioned in the movies is fine, this whole idea of "the guys behind the scenes for everything" would probably get old. Not only would it mean that they can only have so much impact because the canon events are right there restricting everything, it also means that they can only fail so badly... because the canon events are right there.

It's a big galaxy... the Imperial Navy supposedly has more than 25k ISDs per some sources, for cripe's sake. 100+ million inhabited worlds, 1000s of species, countless spaceports and crime bosses and Imperial military units... room for whatever outside factions you might want... room for dangerous or helpful aliens no one has heard of... innumerable nooks and crannies off the beaten path to hide bases and safeworlds...

I agree with Max. I've had players discover the Yavin ruins for the Rebels, steal prototype X-wings, and discover the secret Super Star Destroyer project. They seemed to like the connection to the films. But, it was a once in a while thing, not every adventure.

I've contemplated doing this a couple times, but beware of the pitfalls. If the movies are cannon in your game and your players are doing things behind the scenes to make what happens in the movies occur, then your players can't fail, right? So, as a GM, you'll need a creative way to still explain why things occurred in canon the way they did if your PC's fail or are killed. Otherwise, it's a slam-dunk success with no drama and that's no fun. Worst case scenario, you fudge rolls and your narrative as a GM so the PC's always win causing your players to lose respect for you as a GM (or your players start to feel invincible). Then your players may just start doing crazy stuff to derail the game. You certainly can pull this off, but don't underestimate the amount of contingency planning and work you'll need to do as a GM for it to go smoothly.

An example of this could be... your PC's assist a group of Bothan spies to steal the Death Star II plans before the events in 'ROTJ'. Your PC's must steal and escort the plans across the galaxy while evading the Imperials. At some point near the end of the adventure the PC's discover that the Bothan spies they are escorting, and their Death Star plans, are fakes. Your players were unknowingly decoys to give the real Bothan spies (who your PC's never met) a chance of succeeding at the real mission elsewhere. If your PC's succeed, then great... they helped the 'behind-the-scenes' events prior to 'ROTJ' occur. Conversely, if your PC's are killed by the Imperials... no big deal as they still managed to act as decoys and successfully helped the 'behind-the-scenes' events prior to 'ROTJ' occur. Either way, canon is safe and you don't need to pull any punches as a GM.

Conversely, if your PC's are killed by the Imperials... no big deal

That's the problem right there.

Either way, success or failure, the PCs actions are meaningless.

Who wants to play that? You may as well just watch the movies again and not bother with a game.

Either way, canon is safe and you don't need to pull any punches as a GM.

To further expound on what Maelora said: F cannon. F it right in it's stupid head. Either fully commit to making the players (and not Farmboy) the star or stay the hell away from Yavin/Endor/Hoth. The players should be able to make meaningful changes to their universe, good or ill, canon be dammned.

Yeap, I don't think you can have cannon, and the characters "close to the action" from the movies, and a good game.

One of the things I appreciated about several of the HERO 5th edition "genre guides" was that they discussed various elements that work in fiction but don't work so well in an RPG. I'd say that "have the PCs be right there in the action from the movie/book" is something that almost never works.

Either way, canon is safe and you don't need to pull any punches as a GM.

To further expound on what Maelora said: F cannon. F it right in it's stupid head. Either fully commit to making the players (and not Farmboy) the star or stay the hell away from Yavin/Endor/Hoth. The players should be able to make meaningful changes to their universe, good or ill, canon be dammned.

Now I want a t-shirt that says that.

Or a tattoo.

"F canon"

I wonder how many people would get read the shirt, and grasp the meaning.

Maybe they'd confuse it with an "F bomb", because they'd confuse "canon" with "cannon".

No one enjoys being the R2-D2's and C3PO's of the universe forever. Players want to be the stars of their own stories, drive events, and be the heroes. They don't always want to support notable NPC's or run to powerful NPC's to hide behind. Beware the GM NPC... the all powerful NPC that solve's all the PC's problems while the PC's sit there and watch. But then, maybe you and your players want to experience something different and that's cool too.

As a player, I participated in several games like the one described, and honestly they either weren't that enjoyable or, worse yet, frustrating. I don't advocate running a 'behind-the-scenes' game or series of adventures for the reasons I mentioned in my earlier post (and for reasons voiced by others since), but to each their own. If you have a group of players that really want to play in this type of game, then hey... give it a shot to make your players happy. Different people like different things. No one in these forums can tell anyone else how to play the game or how to have fun.

However, there are plenty of adventures out there that deal with people, places, and things that appeared in the movies. 'Escape from Mos Shuuta' occurs on Tattonie, Lando appears in 'The Jewel of Yavin (piss off autocorrect)', etc. Star Wars D6 also has a wealth of adventures that ties in movie elements that can be converted over to FFG rather easily. Though not hardcore canon, such modules give your players a 'short and sweet' encounter with movie elements. Have you considered going that route? Personally, these are the types of games I run for my group and we all enjoy it. My players clearly told me they want to fiercely follow the canon of the movies, so that's the situation I find myself in about 2-3 times a month.

Lando appears in 'The Jewel of Gavin',

I'm actually from Glamorgan, in Wales, so now I really want to redo that adventure as 'The Jewel of Gavin & Stacey'.

Apologies if you're not from the UK and don't find that amusing

However, there are plenty of adventures out there that deal with people, places, and things that appeared in the movies. 'Escape from Mos Shuuta' occurs on Tattonie, Lando appears in 'The Jewel of Yavin (piss off autocorrect)', etc. Star Wars D6 also has a wealth of adventures that ties in movie elements that can be converted over to FFG rather easily. Though not hardcore canon, such modules give your players a 'short and sweet' encounter with movie elements. Have you considered going that route? Personally, these are the types of games I run for my group and we all enjoy it. My players clearly told me they want to fiercely follow the canon of the movies, so that's the situation I find myself in about 2-3 times a month.

Fair point (I was just messing with you )

I think Desslok's point was that it's REALLY hard to stick close to canon and engage the PCs in the movie events.

If you want to stay canon, it's usually best to give the PCs a meaningful story that happens somewhere outside of what we see in the films, or else they tend to get demoted to being 'extras' in someone else's movies.

Lando's role in JoY was actually quite incidental to the plot - he doesn't interact with them much outside chatting at the party. You could remove him if you wanted and it wouldn't make a lot of difference.

I found the WEG version a bit heavy on the 'movie character gives you a quest' angle, which is why I prefer FFG's version. It makes it easier to remove canon (which it clearly states you are free to do) and even if you don't, it opens up the world beyond the movies and gives the PC protagonists time and space to be their own heroes. For example, 'Escape From Mos Shuuta' is set on Tattooine, but there's no cheesy cameos or anything that feels intrusive to what the players are doing.

The topic creator was suggesting a game entirely made up of that though, which may not appeal to a lot of players, especially if they are expecting to be the heroes.

When playing in the sandbox of the movies, what's worked for me is coming up with other "big" events and enemies for our group. For example, while the first movie concerns itself with Luke, Leia, Han and the Death Star, my players were dealing with what I called Starbreaker battle platforms. Visually modeled on original series BSG Cylon Base Stars, Starbreakers were intended to supplement the Death Star. They, and the officer in charge of the program, became recurring thorns in the group's collective side. It allowed them to still have big victories while staying out of the way of what we all "know."

When using SAGA a few years ago, I was able to start a campaign during the Republic Era, by having the group on Naboo, supporting Qui-Gon and Obi Wan while they did their thing. They basically unlocked or prepared / laid the ground work for a lot of things that the characters in the Phantom Menace main film did, but then slowly, gradually, did their own stuff, like rescue civilian prisoners from the droid army. After the events of the first film wrapped a few episodes in, they started getting tasks from Yoda, Mace Windu, etc. go to this planet spy on the Trade Federation. Go to that planet, investigate this disturbance in the Force.

Then along the way, they made their own enemies and allies, and the events of the larger galaxy, the clone wars per se were sometimes involved, sometimes not. Mostly it as about their personal stories, relationships and Triumphs and losses and encounters with continuing bad guys. I ran that campaign for 26 sessions, lots of fun. We never got to Order 66.

My players like to rub up against canon but our shenanigans usually take us well away from any of that.

I've run a few games where we've flirted with canon. My players always enjoyed it, but I (and my advice to the OP) is be very subtle with your flirtations. Make them occasional easter eggs, not "in your face" plot points. Make you PCs peers of the movie stars, doing equally vital things that have as much impact as the movies but in different locations. Imagine your PCs sitting around a campfire with the trilogy stars telling stories - if theirs seem pale in comparison, you need to step it up.

A couple of examples of what I mean by this. One of my group had successfully completed and adventure and was delivering their cargo to the Rebels. To help cover the exchange, the Rebels were dressed as Stormtroopers, who received the precious cargo my PCs had stolen and were going to ferry it back to the Rebel hideout. The exchange went down and the adventure was over, but in the closing cutscene, it was revealed that the Rebels in Stormtrooper armor were Luke and Han. The overall implication is that they were doing gruntwork for the PCs.

Another example had the PCs on Hoth during the days leading up to the Battle of Hoth. One of the PCs had developed a crush on Leia, and was always trying to outdo Han. The group had made friends with Wedge Antilles, and it was a running joke that Wedge (out of boredom from Hoth patrols) had taken up ice sculpting to pass the time. The PC, being always working an angle, convinced Wedge to do an ice sculpture of an Alderaanian Rose and left it in Leia's chamber for her to discover.

Nothing ever came of it. Next time he saw Leia, she was wondering where Luke was, leaving the PC totally confused.

It wasn't until we were watching Empire a few days later that he heard C-3PO and R2 on their way to ask Han Solo about where Luke was. As they come around the corridor, 3PO clearly says, "I didn't tell you to turn on the thermal heater, I merely mentioned it was freezing in the Princess' chambers. How we're going to dry out all of her clothes I have no idea."

With sheer horror he put together the timeframe and realized what had happened.

All these things go towards making the PCs feel like peers and friends of the trilogy characters, and provided the other elements of the campaign are as big as toppling Vader and the Emperor they'll feel part of the universe instead of "little guys." There are lot of 'Uber-death-weapons-of-Doom' and BBEG's in the galaxy, have your guys go get 'em.

It can work, you just gotta tell your players it's basically a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead campaign. Or, you know, Tag and Bink are Dead. Which is just the same thing, already in Star Wars.