'Canon' is always changing. Todays' 'canon' is tomorrow's 'Legends'. When the next bunch of films comes along, much of the new stuff will get demoted, a la Thrawn and Force Unleashed.

Which is part of why I don't think people should stress out over it. What they do in some cartoon doesn't affect my table.

^ This

That`s why I wrote this earlier: This is fiction. There can be endless "right" versions. Just look at all the different versions of the Joker, of Alfred and even the Batman himmelf! ... The roleplaying-verse exists seperately from both canon, legends and fan-fic but can mix all of them, focus one one of them or mostly make it up whatever fits the genre. Rule number 1: have fun! Let the players help with the worldbuilding with their backstories and during play with improv.

Maybe the crew meet Luke in a game, and he turns out to be a jerk... Yes, Mark Hamill he is one of the many Joker versions I mentioned, so why not have another version of Luke if you`d like too?

When you make the world and the characters in it your own, it all becomes so much easier to play around with it and improvise!

Make up your own cities, or just neigbourhoods in known cities, areas or whatever on a known planet in the fiction or even your very own, home-brewd star system. As long as it feels Star Wars and is fun, it`s all good.

Let canon, legends, fan-fic and RPGs inspire you, but don`t feel too bound to it! Have fun

Good stuff guys. Thanks alot. I've been running games for decades but am the sole gm most of the time. Nobody to discuss theory with. This is refreshing and really helpful.

There are some really useful PDFs at drivethrurpg.com, here's a link for some GM tools:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?filters=0_2320_0_0_0

Also, these PDFs are really helpful, with some good tips on how to prep less but still run an exciting game:

http://www.enginepublishing.com/online-store

If you still want to have an underlying story, that's great! I would suggest more than one, three being my sweet spot.

I know it's bad form to quote one's self, but I feel like I need to clarify this little point.

A story in this context is an ongoing plot generated from my mind, the PC's backgrounds, results from play, or offhand comments about "wouldn't that be cool?" The point is, I am not the sole genesis of these ideas, and moreover, I'll yank cool elements from anywhere cool happens - a TV show, a couple guys talking on the bus, or even a collection of 100-word fiction stories. Doesn't matter, as long as I like it it goes in the notes.

Laying out my campaign plots (I use Scapple) to keep tabs on all this allows me to give weight where weight is due. No background details get forgotten over time, new alliances and enemies are integrated and all of a sudden it looks like an FBI criminal network mockup. Relationships become apparent and now it's easy to see new ways to have plot elements interact. All of a sudden there's a flood of possibilities and one is left paring them down rather than grasping for something fresh.

Good stuff guys. Thanks alot. I've been running games for decades but am the sole gm most of the time. Nobody to discuss theory with. This is refreshing and really helpful.

[shamelessly copied from another post, but apt:]

If I may be so bold, I'd like to suggest PlayUnsafe as the key that unlocked this door for me. There are plenty of great books out there ( Play Dirty,Robin's Laws, The Lazy DM) that helped formulate this modus operandi but that one put it all together for me.

Laying out my campaign plots (I use Scapple) ...

Thanks for that tip! I've used their other product, Scrivener, quite a bit.

I picked up PLAY UNSAFE on Amazon and had it overnighted. A short but interesting read. Its a bit - out there - on the far left fringe of game structure as far as I am concerned but has some good information. Some of what the author discussed I can probably put to use.

Laugh, I gave it to my Chessmaster, incredibly traditional, rules mongering, gaming buddy and suggested a read. I got a call about 11pm that started with "WTF?"

I laughed my ass off.

Laying out my campaign plots (I use Scapple) ...

Thanks for that tip! I've used their other product, Scrivener, quite a bit.

Same! In fact, my GM Holocron and my stories live in Scrivener. I wish I could have my Scapple integrated into the binder, but oh well. It's already 80M and in need of a huge overhaul anyway

Using Scrivener as my dashboard during play is useful, too - the notes window that can pop up anywhere is highly useful (particularly when assigned to a gesture on my trackpad) and being able to link to internal and external images and documents has been a boon. I assume that as I make the transition from tabletop GM to online GM it'll become even more useful.

Laying out my campaign plots (I use Scapple) ...

Thanks for that tip! I've used their other product, Scrivener, quite a bit.

I was looking at Scapple after seeing this but I'm wondering what advantage it has over simply drawing text boxes in Word or something? Ive used that method for years. Am I missing something cool in the software?

I picked up PLAY UNSAFE on Amazon and had it overnighted. A short but interesting read. Its a bit - out there - on the far left fringe of game structure as far as I am concerned but has some good information. Some of what the author discussed I can probably put to use.

Laugh, I gave it to my Chessmaster, incredibly traditional, rules mongering, gaming buddy and suggested a read. I got a call about 11pm that started with "WTF?"

I laughed my ass off.

Haha, that was my first reaction as well, but I had to embrace it when I couldn't even get 5 minutes into a session without things going wildly off the ranch. I wouldn't say it's dogma for my style, more of a crowbar to open my mind to new possibilities.

I was looking at Scapple after seeing this but I'm wondering what advantage it has over simply drawing text boxes in Word or something? Ive used that method for years. Am I missing something cool in the software?

Perhaps your Word skills exceed mine - it wouldn't take much! Scapple allows me to put things in boxes, then interconnect them. It's like a mindmap (which I also use) but less inherently structured. I can drag nodes around and rearrange them and the connections stay in place.

What about Scrivener? Im familiar with it as a writer's tool. Is it that useful with Game Management? I know some tools like this are awesome but you spend more time making sure you use it than you do working on the game itself.

Also, how would you handle having your notes and such on screen if you use your computer to show graphics and the like to your players? I have a 50" plasma as my monitor that I use to show pictures, maps, tactical displays etc. when we play. Guess I would need another screen for something like Scrivener?

I was looking at Scapple after seeing this but I'm wondering what advantage it has over simply drawing text boxes in Word or something? Ive used that method for years. Am I missing something cool in the software?

Perhaps your Word skills exceed mine - it wouldn't take much! Scapple allows me to put things in boxes, then interconnect them. It's like a mindmap (which I also use) but less inherently structured. I can drag nodes around and rearrange them and the connections stay in place.

Ah well yes, moving the boxes in word would require new attachments, thanks. I was just wondering. I have used a sort of flow chart for my game plotlines for quite a while. Got turned on the to Mind Map several years ago and it just made sense.

My general approach to Legends is "only go for the best". Luckily, there are a lot of resources to help you select those "best" items.

One of the biggest successes for me, personally, has been the comics catalogue. While it may not be in the same time frame as you're using, the Knights of the Old Republic (Zayne Carrick) comics are really excellent source materials for inspiration. The Legacy series also has some bright spots.

What about Scrivener? Im familiar with it as a writer's tool. Is it that useful with Game Management? I know some tools like this are awesome but you spend more time making sure you use it than you do working on the game itself.

Also, how would you handle having your notes and such on screen if you use your computer to show graphics and the like to your players? I have a 50" plasma as my monitor that I use to show pictures, maps, tactical displays etc. when we play. Guess I would need another screen for something like Scrivener?

It's really quite useful - the aforementioned integration of Scapple and the ability to use checkboxes would round it out nicely. I too can get stuck in that "configuring the tool versus configuring the game" mentality and I've vetted quite a few tools before I ended up here. I still use Evernote (checkboxes, NPCs, drop links into Scrivener pages.) This is enough, without being too much for me.

So I hooked a projector up to my laptop. I would throw maps, pictures, text, whatever up on the screen. Scrivener was for my use alone, but I would pop out pictures to throw up on the screen. I never used it as a dashboard and I'd probably use a virtual tabletop for that if I needed to.

What about Scrivener? Im familiar with it as a writer's tool. Is it that useful with Game Management? I know some tools like this are awesome but you spend more time making sure you use it than you do working on the game itself.

I don't use it for game planning, for that I use Notability. My game prep tends to be in point form* so it's plenty good enough for me. It syncs to my iPad so I can view it behind the GM screen.

* for special minions and the like I will use OggDude's GM tools and just print them out.

Statistically, roughly 90% of all hacks come from insiders. People who are using or abusing their existing access to do something they shouldn’t. Sadly, most of these hacks are never discovered, or if they are discovered they are quietly dealt with and nobody hears about them. Most of the big attacks you do hear about are from disgruntled employees who are doing something as they leave.

Of the remainder, about 90% are done via social engineering, to get credentials from unwary insiders. Maybe you leave a bunch of “free” USB thumb drives laying around in their parking lot, or you get someone hired into their cleaning crew and they swap out some of the power strips for units that look identical, but actually include network sniffer hardware. Or maybe you spear-phish some executive who can’t be bothered to check that he’s actually being sent to bankofamerica.com instead of bank.of.ameri.ca.co, or whatever.

Seems like somebody else has seen "Mr. Robot"

I started using onenote, and I am very happy with it so far. But I'm still new to using this "cloud" stuff even tough I've been using a computer since I was wearing diapers. Yes, there are pictures, but those are not for the internet to look at.

What everybody else said. I'd just add that you should probably check in the beginning of a play group basically what is canon, if something like that exists and to what extent in the same way you would describe the time frame of the campaign. Most campaigns so far have started after Yavin, since it's the most memorable time frame for most. At some time I want to do an old republic campaign as much as I would like to do a "Jedi High" campaign - which probably would be set in the legends canon since there is no current canon for that.

A word that originates from tumblr I think and that fits very well is the word "Head-Canon" Everbody has one. Yours is the reality for the game.

Seems like somebody else has seen "Mr. Robot"

That trick is as old as the USB thumb drive itself. Wait until you see a USB dead drop in the wall of an old building in the sketchy part of town!

Seems like somebody else has seen "Mr. Robot"

Actually, I can’t stand that show. I tried to watch it once, and had to quit halfway through.

They get closer to how it actually works than CSI Cyber, but it’s still pretty laughably far off — far enough to actually be painful for me to watch.

Watch some of the videos from Chaos Communication Congress, the Black Hat conference, and DEFCON. Play around with tools like Metasploit.

Trust me, this is a Pandora’s Box that you do not want to open with regards to your Star Wars game.

Seems like somebody else has seen "Mr. Robot"

Actually, I can’t stand that show. I tried to watch it once, and had to quit halfway through.

They get closer to how it actually works than CSI Cyber, but it’s still pretty laughably far off — far enough to actually be painful for me to watch.

Aww, it wan't THAT bad. Still, when <spoiler> was under attack, a smart admin would have gone and unplugged the router's uplink but what do I know? ◔̯◔