Hi, everyone,

Please accept my apologies if the following question(s) either has or have been addressed in another thread. I'm new to Fantasy Flight's Star Wars RPG franchise (obviously I'm playing Force & Destiny) & haven't played either of its predecessors. Your patience & help is greatly appreciated.

I've read the Core Rulebook, but I'm still having some degree of difficult placing the F&D narrative in the Star Wars chronology. Specifically, in what year should I place the events of F&D? I understand it's post Order 66, but how far in advance of the Battle of Yavin should I start game play? I feel making a year explicit to my players will add a level of context they will appreciate.

As a fledgling GM, I'll have more questions to follow, I'm certain.

Thanks.

All the careers, specializations, and gear in the book are archetypal in order to let you choose the era in which you play. None of the character building steps state outright that you are a Jedi, a Je'dai, a Sith, part of the New Jedi Order, or a Knight of Ren, among other possibilities. There were all manner of blaster pistols and rifles, grenades, lightsabers, slugthrowers, survival kits, etc. throughout Star Wars history. With just what's in the core book, you could play in the Clone Wars era, the Old Republic era, the New Republic era, the Legacy era, or some era that you make up yourself.

However, by default the game assumes you're beginning play shortly after the Battle of Yavin. I typically start games one to six months after the battle, depending on how widespread I want the news of Alderaan's destruction and the burgeoning rebellion to be. But I've also started a game two years before the Battle of Geonosis, and I've started a game 135 years after the Battle of Endor.

The only limit on what era you want to play in is your interest and imagination. (And, I guess, the limits of your players' interests and imaginations as well.)

Thanks for the response.

Would you mind providing the page number(s) in the F&D Core Rulebook where you found the events of most F&D campaigns begins "play shortly after the Battle of Yavin?" Although I've searched for it, I'm still missing it, & the map of the galaxy on pages 348-349 include the planet Alderaan, so I'm uncertain the suggested time-frame in which to begin a campaign is ABY.

Thanks again. I'd certainly enjoy reading what the book says about chronology if you don't mind taking a minute to provide page numbers.

I think if you read any of the "fluf" text about Species, Careers, Specialisations, Equipment, the GM chapter, the Galaxy chapter and the NPC chapter it's clear that the theme is set during the "Dark Times". The Empire is constantly referenced, the fact Force Users are in hiding etc.

But nowhere will you find an exact date. This system is designed specifically to be time agnostic, with only a time period as a general setting. The designers did this deliberately to allow groups more freedom when choosing their setting.

So the question should be "What time period does YOUR group want to play? And what do you want to be in that time period?"

Are you all Inquisitors, trained by Darth Vader?

Are you a bunch of untrained Force Users, unaware of your ability to use the Force, brought together by the Force itself for some mysterious purpose?

Are you Rebells, fighting the good fight?

Are you Jedi in the Clone Wars?

Are you Jedi fighting in the Sith War?

Are you students of non-Jedi traditions trying to survive under the Empires rule?

Are you all former Younglings saved by a Padawan from the O66 purge?

A group of Force Users hiding behind the masquerade of being performers, traveling the Galaxy fighting crime or the Empire along the way?

On a low tech world with zero knowledge of the Galaxy and everyone are "wizards & knights"?

Or a mix of the above?

Actually the closest you get to a "date" is the opening crawl of the book. on the page before the Credits and Contents. That small 3 paragraph piece outlines EXACTLY when the books text is set.

The game is pretty much set whenever you need it to be. There isn't much stat wise that is tied to a particular year. Just some loose general assumptions, the fall of the Jedi Order, the end of the Clone Wars, the rise of the Empire, a rebellion is play etc etc. So instead of looking for a year in the book just pick a specific year that you want to focus on and go from there. If you browse through the pbp games on here you'll see that they cover a wide berth of time frames and that's mostly because the rules themselves are not timeline specific.

So focus on what year you want to run the players through as opposed to what year the books themselves say.

Thanks for the replies.

I'm going to use the timeframe established by "Star Wars Rebels:"

"Set fourteen years after Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and five years before Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Rebels takes place during an era when the Galactic Empire is securing its grip on the galaxy. Imperial forces are hunting down the last of the Jedi Knights while a fledgling rebellion against the Empire is taking form."

Like all tabletop RPGs, as GM I understand I have the liberty to be as creative as I want and establish as many house rules as I choose, but selecting this date in the Star Wars chronology seems most congruent with the intent and spirit of the information contained in the Core Rulebook. Plus it's a vague time in the Star Wars history - albeit quickly becoming less so with "Rebels" - one that allows for creative license and provides my players with an opportunity perhaps to affect future canonized events in a subtle (or not) way. All said, I know my players and this is what they'll find most intriguing and from which they'll derive the most fun.

Of course, this is merely our first campaign. Perhaps when the novelty wears off, we'll explore new characters and new adventures that occur an even longer time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Thanks again. I really enjoyed reading your comments here and in all the other topic threads across this forum.

Page 12 of the book says, "Save for a lonely few- a wise master and a young farm boy turned Rebel hero- their (Jedi) legacy is all but extinct."

I took this to mean that the events of A New Hope have happened and the Death Star is destroyed. I think page 12 gives an excellent idea of the time frame.