I'm starting a game set just before The Force Awakens , and could use help getting a handle on the fine details about the state of the Star Wars galaxy.
What I have so far, based on Shattered Empire comics, Aftermath books, Bloodline book, Uprising mobile game, and Star Wars: Battlefront, as well as some reading between the lines...
Canon Events
- Pilot Shara Bey escorted Leia Organa to Naboo to help rebuild the New Republic Senate led by Mon Mothma.
- The Emperor’s recorded message enacted Operation Cinder, which manufactured natural disasters scouring planets like Naboo & Burnin Konn. Lando Calrissian helped Shara & Leia shut it down.
- Later, on an undercover mission Shara helped Luke Skywalker reclaim Force-sensitive trees from an Imperial laboratory. She and her husband Kast Ameran resigned and settled down to raise their son Poe Dameron.
- Imperial Governor Adelhard of the Anoat system instituted the Iron Blockade, relying on Commander Brod, ruthless leader of the Purge Troopers. Guerrilla groups banded together to fight back and joined the Rebel Alliance.
- Acolytes of the Beyond purchase Darth Vader’s lightsaber and other dark side artifacts.
- Jawas discover Bobba Fett’s armor scoured by acid.
- An unknown Imperial Fleet Admiral wants to rebuild the Empire and has something dangerous and mysterious tucked away.
- 5 ABY, a year after destruction of the second Death Star, the Battle of Jakku took place over a hidden Imperial weapons cache. It ended the Galactic Civil War with the Rebel Alliance victorious and the signing of a tense truce that involved the disarming of the Empire.
Technology to Convert
While The Force Awakens Beginner Game has First Order Stormtroopers, it doesn't offer stats for vehicles/ships like the TIE/fo, TIE/sf, T-70 X-Wing (and probably the T-75, T-80, and T-85 X-Wings), Upsilon-class shuttles, or Resurgence-class star destroyers. Could be as simple as finding closest approximation in core books, not sure yet.
State of the Galaxy ~30 ABY
The Galaxy is in chaos – power is up for grabs.
The Empire fell 25 years ago. The war is over…so the New Republic would have us believe. Those who rejected the surrender – known publicly as the “imperial remnant” fleet – fled into the Unknown Regions. Criminal war profiteers find themselves scrambling in search of new markets, trying to extort exorbitant prices from the fledgling Resistance, inciting Mandalorian rage, and brokering secret deals with the First Order. In the vacuum of power, the Hutts who were allied with the Empire have suffered losses in their vast criminal network and the ruthless Black Sun is on the rise.
Some of the new criminals and paramilitary forces are secretly funded by the First Order, such as the Amaxine warriors who were used as proxies to fund the Nikto crime lord Rinnrivin Di’s cartel before Leia exposed them.
Other power groups scramble for control of planets once under imperial occupation, including the Confederacy of Corporate Systems, the New Separatist Union (a callback to the Separatists of the Clone Wars), and the Sovereign Latitudes (space pirates attempting self-governance).
The New Republic is mired in Byzantine politics.
After accepting the Empire’s surrender at the Battle of Jakku, the New Republic was formed in its ashes, championed as a new hope for the galaxy. However, political battle lines were quickly drawn between Populists (who advocated for upholding planetary rights) and Centrists (who advocated strong united galactic government) that crippled the New Republic from getting things done. A couple years ago, the Centrist leader Lady Carise Sindian failed at a movement to secede from the New Republic and support the First Order, but in the process ruined Princess Leia’s senatorial career. Moreover, corruption and bureaucratic ineptitude is rampant in the New Republic.
The fledgling Resistance is hanging on by a thread.
After Leia Organa Solo’s senate seat was undermined by revelations of her being a child of Darth Vader, the disgraced former senator established a rogue organization to deal with rising threats the New Republic turns a blind eye to. This Resistance began in a private hangar in the outskirts of Hosnian Prime’s capital city, drawing on old rebel allies like Admiral Ackbar, and amassing an armory from seized smuggler’s cargo. However, relations between the New Republic and the Resistance disintegrated when a spy outed Leia as the General of the Resistance and political pressure forced the Resistance to leave Hosnian Prime. Now, a ragtag fleet of starships travels toward the Outer Rim in search of a suitable planet to establish a new home for the Resistance.
The First Order has returned from the Unknown Regions.
The First Order was constructed out of the remains of the Imperial Navy (the “imperial remnant”), with those loyal to the Empire fleeing to the furthest corners of the galaxy to lick their wounds and plan a counterattack. It has taken over 20 years, but they are finally solidifying their position with allies in the senate and criminal organizations. The First Order is well aware that the New Republic doesn’t see them coming and won’t be able to unite against them when the time comes. First Order spies and scout ships have become a growing threat in the Outer Rim, where they sabotage Resistance plans, bully minor planetary governments, and abduct children to be trained as stormtroopers.
The reborn Jedi Order was decimated by the Knights of Ren.
Luke Skywalker began training a new order of Jedis on the planet Devaron. Though he managed to recruit the help of a handful of fallen Jedi Knights surviving Order 66, they rarely saw eye-to-eye with Luke’s approach. However, his prized pupil, Ben Solo (“Kylo Ren”), fell to the Dark Side and converted many of Luke’s students to join him; these Knights of Ren slaughtered those padawans who would not join their cause. Only a handful of padawans escaped thanks to the self-sacrifice of the last aging Jedi Knights; the Knights of Ren relentlessly hunt down these padawans wherever they find them. In the aftermath of this tragedy, Luke Skywalker went into self-imposed exile and many believe the Jedi order will never rise again.
Edited by Quickleaf