I just realized that this system, with its emphasis on fringe elements and downplaying of the Force, might be a perfect tool for recreating one of the best Star Wars campaigns I ever played. Here, this should give you the idea:

doing something similar. Luke and Vader are both killed during the first death star battle. The characters get brought in to the main plot. I also bring in Asohka Tano and some elements from the old republic.

Ah, memories. Here is the background I gave my players for a campaign I ran a few years ago. The players started out very local in the most insignificant little backwater they could imagine (making Tatooine look like Coruscant by comparison), but in true Star Wars theme they went on to do glorious deeds on a grand scale. The campaign ended after the managed to infliltrate a super star destroyer variant as it was being retrofited to become a second Death Star, more mobile but with less firepower. The PCs managed to plant the explosives, fight off a major protagonist (the Jedi that trained the two force-sensetive PCs, now fallen to the dark side) and escape to the jungles of the prison moon below as the second Death Star went "super-nova". All through the campaign the only character they recognised was Admiral Ackbar. The rest are all dead...

Background:

Some say the rebellion was over before it really got going. Many who bear no love for the Galactic Empire and Emperor Vader claim the failure of the Jedis led to the downfall of the rebels and the final victory of the Empire. Parts of the story about the failure of the rebellion are public knowledge. Other parts are known to only a few.

What is commonly known is that after Chancellor Palpatine finally turned Anakin Skywalker to the dark side he sent his apprentice to destroy the Jedi temple on Coruscant, ordering him to slay anyone there. Even the youngest were not spared. Simultaneously the by now infamous Order 66 was issued, and the clones fighting the Clone Wars alongside the Jedis turned on the Jedis and killed most of them.

Only a handful of Jedis survived that day. The only two who managed to get back to the Jedi temple on Coruscant were master Yoda and master Obi-Wan Kenobi. After disabling the distress signal Darth Vader set in the Jedi temple they split up again. Yoda went to confront the Chancellor and Obi-Wan went after Darth Vader. Things did not go as planned.

After a furious battle with Chancellor Palpatine Yoda was overcome by the power of the dark side and slain. Obi-Wan fared better, and after fighting Darth Vader he defeated his former padawan, and left him to die. Obi-Wan then hurried to get Padmé, pregnant with Vader's twins, to safety.

The Chancellor, soon to be the Emperor, managed to save his pupil, and after Vader regained his strength he went after Obi-Wan with all his fury. Strangely Obi-Wan had chosen to hide away on Tatooine, a planet very familiar to Vader. There Vader confronted him four years after their first engagement. Vader had grown in power, and in the end he clove Obi-Wan in two, ending the life of his former master.

As the fight between Vader and Obi-Wan took place in the wastelands of Tatooine, word of his death was not spread beyond the neighboring settlements, especially since he had hidden his Jedi-powers from his neighbors. On the galactic stage many considered him dead anyway, so his death had little immediate effect. That changed 14 years later, when Princess Leia's ship was being pursued by Vader's Star Destroyer and she hid the plans for the Death Star on an astromech droid and sent it to find Obi-Wan.

Luke Skywalker knew of Obi-Wan (Ben), and knew he was dead. He eventually managed to get the message from Princess Leia out of the droid, and decided to join the rebellion. He set off to Alderan with the plans, flying on the Falcon with the crazy pilot Han Solo and his furry co-pilot.

Through shear luck (or perhaps clever design?) Luke and Han managed to rescue Princess Leia from the Death Star, get the plans to the rebel base, and set up a plan to take out the Death Star with a fighter attack. But as Luke had never really heard of the Force, let alone trained to use it, the attack ended in abysmal failure. All the fighter pilots, Luke included, were destroyed, and the Falcon shot down. The Death Star then targeted Yavin IV, the moon housing the rebel base, where Leia and a large group of rebels hid. They all died as the moon was disintegrated.

These were desperate times for the rest of the rebels. Friendly star systems defected from their cause out of fear of the Death Star. The remaining rebels decided that the time for extreme measures was upon them, and after leading the Imperial fleet on a merry chase to the far edge of the galaxy the rebels assembled every cruiser and fighter available to them and assaulted the Death Star head on.

The rebels knew that they did not stand a chance in a straight up firefight, so they went for the only option they hoped would destroy the Death Star. All capital ships were to try to get through the Death Star's impressive firepower and ram the space station at full speed, trying to hit the main superlaser's tributary beam emitters, hoping for a chain reaction that could destroy the Death Star.

They almost made it. Three cruisers managed to ram into the Death Star, and the captains were dead on when they targeted the beam emitters. Unfortunately for the rebels the Emperor himself was on the Death Star. Emperor Palpatine managed to use the Force to turn the Death Star on its axis. The cruisers struck the side of the Death Star instead of hitting the main weapon system, and although they inflicted massive damage, the Death Star was not destroyed. The battle station and incoming Star Destroyers of the Imperial fleet then destroyed the rest of the rebel fleet as the remaining ships attempted to disengage. The rebellion was over.

Saving the Death Star took everything Emperor Palpatine had, and when his apprentice, Darth Vader, reached his side he knew he had an opportunity he might not have again in a long time. Without hesitating Vader slew Emperor Palpatine with his lightsaber, and took over as Emperor.

The big rebellion might have failed, but eventually small groups of resistance fighters started to form in the far reaches of the galaxy. No longer hoping for a quick resolution and the end of the Empire most of the groups focused on surviving, training for the coming conflict, and taking whatever pot shots they could at the Empire's forces. Most of the groups operated independently, so that the capture of operatives from one cell would not compromise other cells.

Many thought the Jedis were finished. This was not far from the truth, but a handful had survived. When Darth Vader murdered everyone in the Jedi temple 20 years earlier a group of young initiates aged 10-12 were on a field trip. The librarian in the Jedi temple managed to warn the pilot of their shuttle before Vader got to the center of the temple. The pilot wisely fled with the young initiates. After consulting Obi-Wan the pilot, alone with the Jedi children, decided to scatter the survivors throughout the galaxy to prevent the Emperor from hunting them down and slaying the last remaining Jedis in one fell swoop.

None of the young initiates were even close to being fully trained as Jedi Knights. They all tried their best to hone their abilities and learn new ways to use the force. All realized that there were mysteries hidden to them that used to be common knowledge to the Jedis. Many ended up focusing on few powers, whereas the old Jedis preached that every Jedi should be trained in as many aspects of the Force as possible. Several fell to the dark side without the guidance of the more experienced Jedi.

Some focused on the martial side of the force, precognition and lightsaber fencing. Others focused on moving objects with the force, while yet others had some ability to deceive the weak-minded. One of the secrets lost to most, if not all, was the secret to making lightsabers. This made the ancient weapons of the Jedis hard to get for the apprentices of those unlikely Jedi masters, and the secret of making them highly sought after.

The young Jedis nonetheless took on promising apprentices and trained them, but much knowledge had been lost. The power of a single Jedi, formerly able to lead assaults into blaster fire, lift starfighters with a single thought or healing the bodies through the Force, had become much less than what it used to be.

On Coruscant things were going in the opposite direction. Appreciating the value of Sith as enforcers and agents Darth Vader re-opened the Jedi temple, but re-focused it to teach the Dark Side of the Force, ignoring the tradition of Sith working only in groups of two, apprentice and master. Most of his Sith apprentices are individually far more skilled than the surviving Jedis, having most of the knowledge of their master at their fingertips, as well as the undeniable power of the Dark Side. Most assume that Vader has been careful in deciding what to teach his pupils and what to keep for himself to ensure his growing army of Sith does not betray him.

I ran an alternative universe campaign a few years ago where Luke joined Vader on Bespin to rule the galaxy as father and son.

The galaxy was split into 3 factions: New Republic, Imperials (under Emperor Palpantine) and the New Sith Order (under Vader and Luke). Good times!

I ran an alternative universe campaign a few years ago where Luke joined Vader on Bespin to rule the galaxy as father and son.

The galaxy was split into 3 factions: New Republic, Imperials (under Emperor Palpantine) and the New Sith Order (under Vader and Luke). Good times!

Almost the Legacy era. It was made up with three factions too. The Fel Empire in hiding, the New Sith Empire and the remnants of the Galactic Alliance.

I just realized that this system, with its emphasis on fringe elements and downplaying of the Force, might be a perfect tool for recreating one of the best Star Wars campaigns I ever played. Here, this should give you the idea:

INTERIOR: IMPERIAL STAR DESTROYER.

On the main viewscreen, the lifepod carrying the two terrified robots speeds away from the stricken Rebel spacecraft.

CHIEF PILOT: There goes another one.

CAPTAIN: Hold your—

The chief pilot triggers a blast of laser fire. The lifepod bursts into glittering debris.

This was the pivotal scene my GM changed: rather than let the pod crash on Tatooine, he shot it. The debris rained down over a large area of the desert, and a group of scavengers — the PCs — found it. An intact fragment of an astromech droid's memory core proved to have something of value to both the Empire and the fledgling Rebellion, drawing the PCs into a bidding war that also included assassination attempts, bounty hunters, and recruitment attempts. All from both sides.

Luke Skywalker never entered the picture. One PC knew "Wormy", but who'd bring that kid along?

Ben Kenobi? That crazy loon out in Sand People territory? No way. He's Uncle Creepy.

We didn't need some smuggler or his furry pal. We had our own ship, we just needed the money to fix it.

This one minor event, when changed, totally derailed the original plot and removed about 90% of the principal characters, leaving all the action to us and our attempts to make some profit on the side. That campaign was twenty years ago, and I still recall it fondly.

I'd like to try to duplicate that.

I would totally play this. Sounds awesome.

My favorite derailing of the movies happened during the Empire Strikes Back. So, here is Echo Base, just getting set up. Luke, setting the sensors, gets jumped by the Wampa and goes missing. When the search parties go out looking for him, the Jedi in our party finds him pretty quickly and Luke is rescued long before nightfall.

With nothing to distract him, Han gets the Falcon up and running and leaves to confront Jabba well before the base is locked down. The Empire attacks as depicted in the movie, but when Leia is cut off from her transport by the cave-in, there's no Falcon to escape on. She is captured by Vader with ease.

While Luke is training on Dagobah, Vader now has all the time in the world to plan his trap to snare the young Jedi. With the perfect bait on cloud city (why there? Why not) and all the pieces under his control and no pesky Heel/Face turn from Lando to save the day at the last moment, he drops the "I am your father" bomb and Luke turns to the dark side. Exit Young Skywalker, enter Supreme Commander Skywalker of the Empire.

Vader and Skywalker kill Palpatine and run the Empire from behind the scenes, pretending that Palpatine is still alive and in power. Yoda, seeing all his carefully laid plans go up in smoke, taps The Other as his backup plan - but now, he only has a short time left to live, so he calls in the PC Jedi that started this whole mess and made him complete her training.

(This was made humorous by the fact that our Jedi didn't want anything to do with training or furthering the order or any big destiny whatsoever).

So over Endor, the final showdown turns into a four way saber brawl, with Leia doing the whole "I feel the good in you" routine on Luke - which turns it into a 3-on-1 fight. Vader gets killed, Han remains out of the picture (pretty much), the PCs are a key player in the destiny of the galaxy, and peace reigns - at least until Grand Admiral Thrawn showed up and curb stomped everyone. (As in some of the ripples the players set in motion almost allowed him a successful campaign against the Republic - but that's an all different story for later)

When my core rulebook comes in and I start a session going, I'm planning on doing a bit of derailing so that the players can do what they want and not worry about following the patterns of the movies.

The divergent point that I plan on doing is during the Battle of Endor. Instead of Vader redeeming himself and saving Luke, he abandons his son and lets him die to Palpatine. From there, Palpatine realizes that Vader is too weak and no longer useful to him, so he executes him.

From there, two major things happen:

1) The Rebellion is fragmented, no longer a Galactic power but isolated to several planetary events instead. This makes the Empire the ruler of most of the galaxy, minus one thing: the Hutt Empire. As the Galactic Empire expands, the Hutt Empire realizes that it is next in line, so they (through a series of several behind-the-scenes bribes and pay-offs) get the plans for the Death Star II and aim to distribute them around the galaxy; essentially, trying to start a second Rebellion, but with the Hutts at the forefront this time. That's where the players come in: They're the people that were recruited to deliver the plans.
2) Palpatine is the sole Dark Lord of the Sith and is now apprentice-less. Because of this, he momentarily abolishes the Rule of Two and turns the Prophet's of the Dark Side's base on Dromund Kaas into a Sith Academy. From that Academy, he will train Sith to serve him, hoping to find an apprentice from the many Dark Side users there.

All in all, should be interesting.

The derailing moment in my campaign is the finally of Obiwan and Anakins fight in Mustafar. Vader wins instead.

I have really left the game open to the players to change after ANH. The only change I made was to have the second death star being built around Kashyyyk, That is a "Big event" that really cannot be changed. But the players are free to play around in the sandbox and knock over anything they want. My players really have not been all that enthusiastic about joining the rebellion yet

The Imperial gunner fires on the lifepod destroying R2D2 and C3PO and the Death Star plans along with them.

What effect would this have on a campaign?

With the pod destroyed would Vader send detachments down to Tatooine?

With no droids, Luke wouldn't be in the Jutland Wastes and met up with Kenobi. Would anything else make Kenobi start to train Luke or was he just planning on keeping Luke hidden?

Tarkin would still destroy Alderaan and Leia would be terminated. How useful would the Death Star have been to the Empire?

Would the Death Star's attack on Alderaan and it's continued existence be a rallying point for the Alliance? Or would it keep the local systems in line as Tarkin suggests?

Without the Falcon leading Tarkin and Vader to Yavin, there is no attack on the rebel base. Without the plans, could the Alliance do anything to stop the Death Star?

Would Tarkin or Vader use the Death Star in a coup against Palpatine?

Without the Falcon leading Tarkin and Vader to Yavin, there is no attack on the rebel base. Without the plans, could the Alliance do anything to stop the Death Star?

Would Tarkin or Vader use the Death Star in a coup against Palpatine?

Well, in canon, the Empire first tries to blame the destruction of Alderaan on the Rebellion; when that doesn't fly, the Empire paints Tarkin as a rogue who acted without authorization.

I can easily see a compelling story born from the idea that Tarkin is a power-mad leader with a planet-smashing superweapon going against a galaxy-spanning regime.

Well, in canon, the Empire first tries to blame the destruction of Alderaan on the Rebellion; when that doesn't fly, the Empire paints Tarkin as a rogue who acted without authorization.

Never understood that. If you had spent years and presumably billions of credits building "the ultimate deterrent" why would you, the first time you use it, try to blame someone else? Surely the purpose of the Death Star was to say, "rebel and we'll blow up your planet." Unless Palpatine feared a backlash from blowing up a core world, but that doesn't seem to fit.

Well, in canon, the Empire first tries to blame the destruction of Alderaan on the Rebellion; when that doesn't fly, the Empire paints Tarkin as a rogue who acted without authorization.

Never understood that. If you had spent years and presumably billions of credits building "the ultimate deterrent" why would you, the first time you use it, try to blame someone else? Surely the purpose of the Death Star was to say, "rebel and we'll blow up your planet." Unless Palpatine feared a backlash from blowing up a core world, but that doesn't seem to fit.

Perhaps just the backlash since he didn't have it anymore?

Wow! I was digging through some old directories looking for a map template, and I found my old notes on the derailing of Hoth. While some of it I already told you guys, here's how the whole thing went down (circa about 1998 or so)

Start back at Hoth. Every group I've ever seen has at least one Jedi in the bunch. So, when Luke goes missing overnight, finding him quickly and easily with the Force shouldn't be a problem. One quickie rescue mission later, and Luke's back and out of danger. With nothing better to do, Han stays up all night and gets the Falcon fixed.

Morning comes. Han now can leave guilt-free long before Echo base is shut down to departing ships. So he's long gone when the Probot is discovered (a side trip for the PC's?), and putout of commission. The Battle of Hoth goes just about the same as depicted in the movie-with ONE notable exception. Leia is cut off from her transport by the cave in-and has nowhere else to go. She falls into the clutches of the Evil Lord Darth Vader. (Dont like 3PO? Heres your chance to melt him down into who knows what.)

Luke goes to Dagobah as shown, and undergoes the training. Vader, however has the perfect opportunity to set whatever trap he wants. He, I imagine would want a much more controlled location than in the middle of a city, and Bespin was far away anyway- I'm sure there's much more likely places for a trap.

The game can go several different directions here. The Rebels, when they find out about Leia's fate can try and mount a rescue mission (the players?), or they can just abandon her to her fate. Lets run with the rescue mission, for the sake of argument (thats what my group did)

Leia will more than likely be snatched from the Empire, because that's what Players do. They manage to spirit the princess away- but the damage has been done. Luke, not knowing that she's free, walks right into Vader's trap.

However With no Lando and the Falcon to save him, with the "I'm your father" bombshell, and with no where else to go, Luke joins his Father. Exit Luke, Jedi wannabe, enter Supreme Commander Skywalker.

Yoda, seeing his well laid plans go up in smoke, pulls his ace in the hole. He gets the PC Jedi to bring her to Dagobah for training. Realizing that he's working with a short deadline gives the accelerated training course and passes the ball to the players before croaking.

Meanwhile, not everything is right in the Imperial camp. Vader completes Luke's training. With their combined strength they kill Palpatine and being order to the galaxy. They proceed as the Emperor planned, and lure the rebels into a trap at Endor.

Meanwhile, Fett doesn't die on Tatooine (tho he might catch up to and deliver Solo to the Hutt), and Mara Jade gets all pissed at Luke because he actually >DID< kill the Emperor.

Things go much the same way at the battle of Endor. Since they need 2 new generals, and since the PC's (I'm assuming) have been in the rebellion for some time now, they get the jobs of leading the fighter attack and the ground assult.

Let them come up with a plan. Mine bypassed the Ewoks and landed straight at the shield bunker. They bluffed as long as they could, then started shooting the rest of the way

Leia goes to try and get Luke back from the dark side (dragging the PC jedi along?). Things go badly, Vader tries to turn Leia, and when it becomes obvious that she wont, he has Luke kill her. Luke, of course wont, and with the right amount of pressure might turn back. Assuming everything worked out, the children of Skywalker kill Vader, the Death Star is destroyed, the Empire is busted up, and everyone lives happily ever after...

Or do they?

So, we have a Leia without a Han. No kids- and Prince Isoder now has a clear launch window to marry Leia. A strong alliance between Hapes and the Republic might throw Thrawn off the track a bit.

No that Luke has already had a taste of the Dark Side, he might open his Jedi Academy earlier than he did in the books. This leaves you open to use the Jedi Academy trilogy in whatever manner you want.

And when Thrawn shows up, things get real interesting. No Jacen/Jaina Twins means that the motivation for C'both wont work and Thrawn has to use something else to win him over (or to heck with C'Both - Thrawn's working with my nemesis Dark Jedi in my game, but we'll get in to that in a sec).

No assassination attempts on Leia menas that the Nogri never get the chance to make the Lady Vader Connection. They never find out they've been betrayed by the Empire. That means that while the battle at Bilbringi goes poorly for the Empire, they don't lose Thrawn. The Empire goes on to win the battle- and tip the balance of power once again.

Final result - imperial victory, all from one incident on Hoth.

Now, if your players have their own Dark Jedi nemesis (and who doesn't?), Thrawn, I imagine, would much rather work with someone sane and focused, than a nutcase. With the tactics of Thrawn and a good Jedi at his side, things could go much different (no takeover at Mount Tantis by C'both, no wasting time tracking Luke, no in fighting and so on- the possibilities are endless).

For added fun with the weird tech at Mt. Tantis, throw in the Hypergate from Graveyard of Alderaan, a prototype World Devastator, and just about anything else you could think of! (I like the cloaking devices on missiles 'mself- shoot 'em at unsuspecting rebel flagships, and KABANG!!! Bye-bye Ackbar...)

If the final fate of the Republic doesn't sit well with you, I'm sure something could be arranged for the Empire to eventually lose (easy I'd say, considering how these personal conflicts between dark Jedis and player teams work out). But that's outside the realm of my post here.

Thats about as far out as I've planned it, but a good GM should be able to figure out what'll happen in the rest of the books.

A game i was involved in and even ran on occasion resulted in the gm allowing Luke to turn to the dark side at the end of empires and we had a couple of run ins with Vader and his apprentice such as when we stole Vader's personal shuttle after Luke broke the front landing platform of our ship.

He then had us venture into a parallel universe with Daleks and Cyberman whilst using said shuttle under a very weak cover aboard a star destroyer before he decided on a reboot.

I knew of a way around this but one of the other players (and also an occasional gm) chickened out because he thought I was going to mess up his character.

Anyway I was picturing having them returned to the star wars universe but stuck 20 years in the past the idea that my character had them frozen in carbonite to avoid them being captured or worse converted and hid them on the world where they crashlanded.

He died a few months before he could contact the only memebr left behind but arranged for a message and a team to help recover them.

The idea was that the team would become their new characters in a game set in the Tapani Sector where they operate as mercenaries with the option of being part of the rebellion or whatever else they wanted since I planned on running this with edge of the empire.

Shame they didn't go for it, but maybe one day I can set this up with the idea they're being used to correct the mistake of the other universe where Luke went bad this time maybe they can prevent that future.

Hmm nothing says I can't run this 20 years in the past though!

There are a lot of good ideas here. I'b been in a long Duet with my wife in the SW universe after Endor. I had plans to derail the SW universe and mix some of what my wife did.

Mine however I was plan to have Leia go to the Darkside, and Luke ends up falling out the picture as a failed Jedi in exile. Having tried to be reasonable to his sister and then failing. I like the Hoth idea where Leia get's captured. However, I would certainly love some suggestions on actually turning her political views.

Leia however has already been tortured by Vader for information. There is also the lack of Vader knowing that it's his daughter. So anyone have any suggestions.

Once the battle of Endor takes place, I plan to use my wifes ideas and move the Empire into a civil war of due to fact the Empire treats non humans as second class.

The last Star Wars game I ran (d20 system) was based on the premise that Luke didn't use the Force to shoot his torpedo into the Death Star. As a result the Death Star destroyed Yavin, the Rebel Alliance was pretty much decimated and the Empire ruled supreme.

The campaign then took place afterwards where the weight of the Empire's size was beginning to lead it towards fracturing into rival faction, much like the Roman Empire did.

i once did this, in my version i had luke suffer from rage and gave into the darkside when he witnessed obi-wans death at the hands of vader, in turn he rushed out lightsaber in hand and was then stuck down by vader himself. Han and the others escaped where han himself had no reason to return and cashed out his debt to jabba and resumed work for him. Vader was unable to make sense of why his mind was thinking upon the young man he killed, a boy who came with obi-wan and had his very lightsaber and was unable to shoot down wedge. Wedge managed to destroy the death star with the targeting computer at the cost of his life, without his stabilizers he was unable to pull up and crashed into the trench wall. without luke, wedge, and han the rebellion has further degraded to guerilla warfare, while palpatine continues to grip the galaxy under his rule.

My players actually started off being on a transport, which was not only boarded by disabled by the empire looking for rebels. When the empire found nothing and left, they were left defenseless to pirates and were taken as slaves. This eventually set them into meeting with jabba and working with figures like Han Solo and Boba fett. eventually they would begin to take odd jobs helping the rebellion or empire and overtime they would play parts in galactic events as they spiraled and changed. at many intervals they would be investigating ancient jewels that would form a holocron that the emperor was seeking, this holocron would lead to the world of Tython where a powerful secret could change the fate of the galaxy. Often the heroes were at places and battles from both the film and books. One player for instance was related to obi-wan, Where i played that he did have an illegitimate heir from Duchess Kryze of mandalore and thus he began to tread a path to force training and restoring the jedi.

A couple of you guys should look into Star Wars Infinities. It's Star Wars What If's done by Dark Horse.

New Hope: Luke's torpedoes don't destroy the death star.

Leia gets captured and turned to the dark side (she's force sensitive too), Luke almost goes insane from the force failing him, but Obi-wan's ghosts calms him down.

Empire Strikes Back: Luke dies in the cold on Hoth.

Leia then gets trained by Yoda and near the final stages of training, Vader tracks her down on Dagobah.

Return of the Jedi: Things to wrong in Jabba's Palace.

Luke doesn't get to Yoda before he dies, and Vader tracks Luke to Dagobah, capturing him and bring him to Endor. Leia goes on a one woman rescue mission to save Luke, resulting in Vader facing off against both his children.

They don't really leave much room for PCs, but they do take into account some facts above posters forgot about.

Read the Star wars Infinites, they are alright. But Yoda killing the Emperor by ramming Coruscant with the Death Star was a bit silly. I did like the Imperial Guard with the double bladed lightsabers.

But they don't explain what the Star Wars universe would be like if the Imperial gunner had shot the lifepod carrying the droids and Death Star plans.

Read the Star wars Infinites, they are alright. But Yoda killing the Emperor by ramming Coruscant with the Death Star was a bit silly. I did like the Imperial Guard with the double bladed lightsabers.

But they don't explain what the Star Wars universe would be like if the Imperial gunner had shot the lifepod carrying the droids and Death Star plans.

well, luke would have stayed on another year with uncle owen, han would have taken work elsewhere to pay his debts, and leia would have been tortured to the darkside or death. The death star may or may not have gained the yavin base location, but without the plans the rebellion would have ben crushed. In the end i imagine that alderaan's destruction would have forced Obi-wan to take action with luke and trained him with yoda. Eventually Luke and obi-wan would have to find allies to defeat the emperor and form a stronger rebellion, and sorta mimic Galen marek's story.

Also i loved how my players handled history change, they brought in the idea of securing old CiS worlds who were disgruntled with how things played out, reviving a second droid army for the rebel alliance. The Mandalorian of the party went home and through a challenge of hunting and trial of combat he began uniting clans to aid the rebellion in return for politcal favors in the future. They also secured through a series of long drawn out stories super Kolto, but purifying the progenitor and resotring the lost power of kolto itself, securing the medical water for the rebellion.

in the end the story ran 3 whole episodes, about 20 sessions a piece and 2 whole years to run. The managed years ABY 01-10 and shaped the galaxy with their efforts. The empire was still around, but more compromised, the rebellion had restored a republic but still wagin a war, and darth krayt had surfaced to bring a 3rd faction into the warfront. Our main Jedi had restored a new jedi academy by having trained 10 force sensitves, who in turn trained 10 and by the end he had an order 200 man deep after 5 years in game time. In the end they restored the Jedi order, stoppped the sith and brokered a new Empire under an elected emperor, which of course worked in peace with the republic. Not bad, had a few deaths on the way, but eventually the universe was their shaping from their successes and failures.

How's this for an alternative?

A couple of you guys should look into Star Wars Infinities. It's Star Wars What If's done by Dark Horse.

New Hope: Luke's torpedoes don't destroy the death star.

Leia gets captured and turned to the dark side (she's force sensitive too), Luke almost goes insane from the force failing him, but Obi-wan's ghosts calms him down.

Empire Strikes Back: Luke dies in the cold on Hoth.

Leia then gets trained by Yoda and near the final stages of training, Vader tracks her down on Dagobah.

Return of the Jedi: Things to wrong in Jabba's Palace.

Luke doesn't get to Yoda before he dies, and Vader tracks Luke to Dagobah, capturing him and bring him to Endor. Leia goes on a one woman rescue mission to save Luke, resulting in Vader facing off against both his children.

They don't really leave much room for PCs, but they do take into account some facts above posters forgot about.

Don't forget where Luke turned Vader back to the light side and they beat the emperor and they rebuilt the Jedi Order together.