Of course there is also the question of "what is canon?" Is it the films, if so which release/edition? Does it include the screenplays, novelizations, art books, etc? What about toys? Which EU and other "stuff"? What about information gleaned from observation of actual props and costumes?

In my Star Wars Valance the Hunter from Marvel Comics is canon, Han shot first, Wookies have thick nail but not "claws" per se, and Splinter of the Mind's Eye is canonical. As far as Splinter goes I include it because it is a great story and nothing in it conflicts with later Star Wars, including Luke's thoughts about Leia, he had those in both New Hope and Empire, and yes, Jedi did make that kind of icky.

If the game is set between New Hope and Empire are Empire and Jedi fixed events in the future or just probabilities if the PCs do not interfere?

Is the Wookipedia in? The race now known as Durians for example were captioned as "telepaths" in either the photos in the novel or early series Star Wars Cards, but they are no longer viewed that way. What about some of the fingernails on a chalkboard moments in the prequels? Or production notes, ideas and discussions?

I have not read nearly all of the "official" EU, let alone all of the unofficial published material. I remember some elements from the newspaper comics for instance, but not all. I played, but no longer have, a lot of the WEG Star Wars, a little d20 Star Wars, but none of the computer games.

How do I pick and choose? What about when a player uses source material I am not familiar with to make an argument about something in the game? If it is in the published game materials for EoE no problem. That is canon unles specifically and explicitly overruled.

I am currently reading Dark Lord: the Rise of Darth Vader, and most of that is probably in. I haven't read a lot of the EU in part because I live in a small town so getting ahold of it requires extensive effort, and in part because the excesses of Star Trek fiction turned me off to the genre of EU fiction in general.

For me the only reliable canon are episodes 1-4 since they happened prior to the campaign starting. Everything from here on out may or may not follow the movies.

As for the EU, I will pick and choose elements to include in my galaxy but much of it is out.

I use whatever I need to. My players could care less about doing what Luke did. They would rather have their own grand adventures.

Since I plan to start my game in 4 BBY, even the events of ANH are subject to change. Hopefully my players don't invest too heavily in beachfront property on Alderaan, but perhaps in my game the Death Star will have a different target - one more personally attached to one or more PCs.

I really want the characters to be a part of the "main story" rather than "shaun of the dead" so I made a big change:

Vader and Luke die during the Deathstar Battle., Han makes a "once in a lifetime" shot and takes out the Deathstar. Liea collapses on the floor and hears Lukes disemboded voice in her mind...

the Emperor now has lost both Skywalkers and the rebellion has lost a great hero and gained a great martyr.

in a far off secluded farm on a far off secluded planet Ashoka Tano wakes and yells out for Anikan...her hands covering her face as tears flow down her face.

my universe will have the new rebel base and jedi academy on Dagobah. The Emperor discards the rule of 2 and both sides begin searching for force users. The emporer begins reasearch into something called the "Dreadlords"

and the characters are right in the middle of this new war among the Stars.

I really want the characters to be a part of the "main story" rather than "shaun of the dead" so I made a big change:

Vader and Luke die during the Deathstar Battle., Han makes a "once in a lifetime" shot and takes out the Deathstar. Liea collapses on the floor and hears Lukes disemboded voice in her mind...

the Emperor now has lost both Skywalkers and the rebellion has lost a great hero and gained a great martyr.

in a far off secluded farm on a far off secluded planet Ashoka Tano wakes and yells out for Anikan...her hands covering her face as tears flow down her face.

my universe will have the new rebel base and jedi academy on Dagobah. The Emperor discards the rule of 2 and both sides begin searching for force users. The emporer begins reasearch into something called the "Dreadlords"

and the characters are right in the middle of this new war among the Stars.

That sounds cool. But what kills Leia.

She isn't dead...Vader and luke are. The Emperor doesn't know about her...yet. She begins to have dreams (force visions) with luke telling her to go to Dagobah. She takes a small scout fleet with her...Taa Dahh rebel base/jedi academy.

the characters get involved....welll I can't tak about that yet.

I'm going with the least amount of canon as possible: Episode IV.

I'm going with the least amount of canon as possible: Episode IV.

I like the cut of your jib.

There was a wonderful thread on RPG.net about what setting facts we have if we only use what appears in the first film (and just the film, so no novelization). It's amazing how little that is, and how much was made from it.

I'm going with the least amount of canon as possible: Episode IV.

I have thought of doing this as well. Here is the list of how things would be different if we only used episode I'VE.

Here is how things could be different in this new Star Wars universe.

--Vader would not be Luke’s father

--Luke would not be the son of The Chosen One

--Anakin would be a normal Jedi who actually was murdered by Darth Vader

--Vader would have been the one to kill many of the Jedi over the course of years as the Jedi purge took place

--The Emperor would not be a force user

--Vader would be a special agent of the Emperor and not his second-in-command

--Princess Leia would be the highest ranking rebel (replacing her father)

--Luke and Leia would not be siblings

We do not know how long the Empire has been in existence,

We know that the Rebels won their first major victory gaining the Death Star plans.

Depending on which edit, we have Jabba and Boba Fett (although the latter is not named) and Luke's father's light saber may have been either blue or green.

There was a conflict called the "Clone Wars" in which Obi-wan Kenobi was a general and fought alongside Leia's father.

The Jedi knights had been in existence for twenty thousand years (a thousand generations)

It is unclear what Lord Vader is lord of, and Darth is given as a name rather than a title.

Hidatom, I like your ideas for a varrient history. I am actually considering setting my game at some undefined point prior to the Battle of Yavin. The Empire is in power and Luke Skywalker is a young farmboy on the backwater planet of Tatooine with no idea what his destiny may have in store.

As far as the story that unfolded in the classic trilogy, that is the future that will happen if nothing occurs to make events take a different course. All I am initially going to tell my players is "it is Star Wars, in the Outer Rim, after the Empire has come to power." Unless they ask I will not even mention the rebellion. Indeed the biggest question I have right now is whether or not the organized Rebellion has begun.

I'm going with the least amount of canon as possible: Episode IV.

I have thought of doing this as well. Here is the list of how things would be different if we only used episode I'VE.

Here is how things could be different in this new Star Wars universe.

--Vader would have been the one to kill many of the Jedi over the course of years as the Jedi purge took place

Except that there is no Jedi purge mentioned in the first film. "The Jedi are all but extinct" is all we get. The only Jedi that we know Vader killed was Luke's father – who's name we didn't get until RotJ, so no "Anakin" either.

It's really amazing how little setting info is in Ep IV compared with how much we assume/remember.

I agree with the general sentiment that you want to go with as little cannon as possible. There are three main reasons

1: you want your game to be about your players not Luke and Han. (granted this is less of an issue if you play Edge of the Empire as intended)

2: As a GM you want to know more about the world than your players. You don't want you players to say "Wait a minute, blah, blah, blah, you just contradicted wookie honor codes, blah, blah blah. As the GM you need to be able to be the creator of your gaming word. Now I warn you off the bat that those wookie honor codes might be very important to a player. If that is part of what makes Star Wars cool, for them, then you might have just cut out a big part of why they wanted to play your game if you cut them. So talk to your players. Find out what they love about Star Wars, what is important for them to see in the game and what is important for them to keep consistent with their vision of Star Wars.

3: You should do what you think is cool For example there will be no Midichlorines in any of my games. There will be more than 2 Sith in the entire Galaxy. And the Republic will have its own army. Oh, and a Jedi falling in love and getting married will not be the path the dark side. I think those canonical aspects of Star Wars are dumb, so in my game I will change it so it is more COOL.

I agree with knowing before hand what your players know of the SW universe. If you have a player that knows the EU stuff back and forth, talk with that person before hand about your adventure maybe not being as technical as they may want it.

On the flip side you could recruit that person for specific information about a world or species that your going to incorporate into your adventure without spoiling to much for them of course. This approach will help them beacause they contributed their great knowlege of the SW verse as well as allowing you to let them know before hand that you're not going so deep into all of it.

I for one haven't been so much into the EU stuff but I am taking steps to pick up books that will educate me on the subjects so I can appeal and GM to both fan types.

IMO, anything canonized by Wookiepedia (basically the go-to place for universe canon) is canon. There is no wiggle room unless the things are ambiguously canon. If a character they meet survives in a canon source, he WILL survive, no matter what.

If they meet Boba Fett, nothing they ever do will kill him, no matter how hard they try. And no, not even if they are playing a Sarlacc.

If they run in to Chewbacca, nothing they ever do will kill him, no matter how hard they try. Unless, that is, one of the characters are playing a moon during the Yuuzhan Vong war.

If they meet The Emperor, nothing they ever do will kill him, no matter how hard they try. Unless, that is, one of the characters is Darth Vader.

Basically, if the campaign I'm running is sticking to canon, it is sticking to canon. If I am running an AU universe, then they can **** with it as much as they want. But, if it is in the canon (which I definitely prefer doing,) then it WILL stick to the canon. But, I guess that's just me.

My players would not enjoy a campaign like that at all. Some of them would actually rail against it just to **** with a GM that values canon over game play.

Except that there is no Jedi purge mentioned in the first film. "The Jedi are all but extinct" is all we get. The only Jedi that we know Vader killed was Luke's father – who's name we didn't get until RotJ, so no "Anakin" either.

It's really amazing how little setting info is in Ep IV compared with how much we assume/remember.

I am currently running a Star Wars game (d6 rather than FFG), and I have taken only the original films as canon (ok, that and the Thrawn trilogy).

I came to the conclusion that the Jedi were kind of dissapearing of their own accord (maybe wth some covert help from interested parties, such as Palpatine). There were just fewer and fewer of them, to the extent that 1 Master and handful of young inexperienced knights (4-6) during the Clone Wars would be a major deployment for the Order. The reason that they could no longer be the guardians of the Republic was simply that there were too few of them to do really do anything but make a token effort, at best be figureheads and examples to follow.

I have tosay, the canon thing is slightly complicated for my game as the only canon is the future (as my game is set pre-New Hope).

Our group has decided to go pre- New hope as well. We are going about 2-3 years prior and a New Hope will happen. As for the ESB and RotJ, we have yet to decide on whether or not they will play out.

I'm going with the least amount of canon as possible: Episode IV.

I have thought of doing this as well. Here is the list of how things would be different if we only used episode I'VE.

Here is how things could be different in this new Star Wars universe.

--Vader would have been the one to kill many of the Jedi over the course of years as the Jedi purge took place

Except that there is no Jedi purge mentioned in the first film. "The Jedi are all but extinct" is all we get. The only Jedi that we know Vader killed was Luke's father – who's name we didn't get until RotJ, so no "Anakin" either.

It's really amazing how little setting info is in Ep IV compared with how much we assume/remember.

The purge wasn't mentioned by name but Ben did say that Vader helped the Emperor hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights.

Stating "Wookieepedia is canon and canon will be rigidly adhered to in this game" is fine. It lets the players know what to expect right up front. Stating "Only A New Hope is canon." Is also fine.

As long as everybody knows what is and is not considered canon, no problem.

As for players who exploit player knowledge over character knowledge to mess with the GM, eg "Let's tell the Empire the Rebels are moving to Hoth" or "let's go to Tatooine and kill Anikin while he is still a baby" in my opinion they are being jerks. I will not hesitate to evict such people from my games. If your fun comes from being disruptive and intentionally trying to derail the game, then you are not worth the effort of running a game for.

For my campaign, I wrote a lengthy Facebook note for my players to read. Here is the note reprinted for your entertainment. (Spoilered for those who don't want to read the wall of text.)

(i.e. Han shot first, period. He felt no hesitation or remorse about shooting Greedo.)

Yes, but it would be more accurate to say that "Han shot greedo". It wasn't "first" because Greedo never actually shot at Han, nor did anyone else shoot Greedo. The original theatrical version of Star Wars only showed Han shooting Greedo with no retaliation.

Sorry - pet peeve.

I love the special editions of the OT but Gredo shooting first was the stupidest change made. It is perfectly fine to shoot someone that is threatening to shoot you.

I love the special editions of the OT but Gredo shooting first was the stupidest change made. It is perfectly fine to shoot someone that is threatening to shoot you.

It's not stupid from a perspective that rereleasing the film with the original scene would give it a PG-13 rating (which didn't exist when it was first released).

It's still stupid from a story and filmmaking perspective.

I love the special editions of the OT but Gredo shooting first was the stupidest change made. It is perfectly fine to shoot someone that is threatening to shoot you.

It's not stupid from a perspective that rereleasing the film with the original scene would give it a PG-13 rating (which didn't exist when it was first released).

It's still stupid from a story and filmmaking perspective.

Wait. Was that the reason? I would have thought that the BBQ'ed family would have done it alone.