I have to revise my earlier statement, I think I may have found a campaign setting for AoR after all. I've been reading the Pirates and Privateers, and the associated Far Orbit campaign book from WEG, and they are both excellent resources for a military setting that gives the players plenty of autonomy.

I'm not playing AoR - I got the book just mostly for the Keen New Mechanics more than anything - and I'm not very likely too with this batch of characters (who are either pretty pro-imperial or otherwise distrustful of the rebels) - but I've done plenty of Rebels versus Empire games over the years.

They tend to range from "Your commander tells you go do this" to the players needing to take care of some personal business to getting caught up in an anti-imperial mission by accident. The most recent Rebel v Empire game we did, it was set about 10 years after the Fall of the Republic and started as a bog standard Smuggling game before slowly turning into a Genesis of the Rebellion game. It was a little less "Go do this thing" and more organic as they had a stake in pulling the alliance together.

They were also one of the Rebel's black ops teams - you need a Moff assassinated? A listening post terminated? They were your go-to team. They did all the dirty deeds that would make boy scouts like Luke blanch. It added an interesting spin to a usually upstanding and clean game.

Movies need strong characters for the audience to identify with, and role-playing games need those characters to be the PCs...

I'm the other side of the fence - I enjoy cameos (or recurring encounters) with The Movie Characters. On the other hand, I love tweaking the movies - our all Jedi game were pretty close with Obi-wan and kept Anakin from turning at the fall of the Republic (and had been salting away resources in case The Worst happened, so they were in a good position once the order was taken down).

Or the time were Luke turned on Bespin and our teams "Jedi" (and I use the term loosely) had to train Leia as his replacement New Hope all because the players stuck their nose into Luke's long night on Hoth. That one had some interesting repercussions when Thrawn showed up six years later.

I completely agree that the players, not the movie characters, should be the stars of the game - but it's kind of cool if they can interact with The Movie Characters in a meaningful way too. One player (who was a good gambler but completely unsuited for an administration gig) wound up as Baron Administrator of Cloud City before giving it up to Lando after resolving the current crisis.

Movies need strong characters for the audience to identify with, and role-playing games need those characters to be the PCs...

I'm the other side of the fence - I enjoy cameos (or recurring encounters) with The Movie Characters. On the other hand, I love tweaking the movies - our all Jedi game were pretty close with Obi-wan and kept Anakin from turning at the fall of the Republic (and had been salting away resources in case The Worst happened, so they were in a good position once the order was taken down).

I'm also in the cameo using crowd. But then, my PC's are in the Rebel Alliance military, in 0 ABY. They missed the battle of Yavin by hours (2 of them thar hours...)

They've met Solo and Antilles, R2-D2, and Chewbacca.

And a bunch of former PC's. But they matter to the rebel alliance- they've killed two Interdictors in the last 7 weeks.

I like, and agree with, cameos, and by and large begin things running on the course established in the movies. However, I do NOT limit PC activity in order to preserve Canon - if someone does something that would affect the movie events, then affected they are.

I also work on the theory of "butterfly effect" in that the heroes merely EXISTING in the galaxy, where they didn't in the films, means that things might already be changed in minor ways that players may or may not pick up on. An example of minor changes is shown in my game with the brief cameo of a Trandoshan in a flight suit - Bossk. Because of how a PC's having a bounty on his head at a set point in the past affected the priority listing of bounties, Bossk ended up working different hunts than he otherwise does in the Canon. A minor change that means an established iconic is at Point B rather than Point A in the galaxy at a time and point when he MIGHT have cause to interact with the PCs later, if needed.

I had an idea for an AoR game set in an alternate timeline, where the main characters from the movies would either be absent or play very different, supporting roles.

Brief synopsis: in Episode III, Anakin has to spend 10 crucial minutes getting his speeder ready to fly to Palpatine's apartment after the Jedi go to arrest him; a precognitive Padawan in the temple foresaw his actions and mucked up his ride. By the time he gets there, Mace Windu has already sliced Darth Sidious into very small pieces after frying him with his own Force Lightning. Anakin loses it and attacks, but Windu drives him off. Order 66 is never issued, the Separatists are gradually ground down until they surrender, and the Republic stumbles along with some sage leadership in the form of Chancellor Bail Organa.

18 years later, strange and fearful reports of attacks along the Outer Rim reach Coruscant, and the PCs join a cobbled-together task force of Republic and volunteer ships from various planetary defense forces to investigate...

They were also one of the Rebel's black ops teams - you need a Moff assassinated? A listening post terminated? They were your go-to team. They did all the dirty deeds that would make boy scouts like Luke blanch. It added an interesting spin to a usually upstanding and clean game.

I have some adversaries for the AoR PCs that are pretty much exactly that.

I had an idea for an AoR game set in an alternate timeline, where the main characters from the movies would either be absent or play very different, supporting roles.

Brief synopsis: in Episode III, Anakin has to spend 10 crucial minutes getting his speeder ready to fly to Palpatine's apartment after the Jedi go to arrest him; a precognitive Padawan in the temple foresaw his actions and mucked up his ride. By the time he gets there, Mace Windu has already sliced Darth Sidious into very small pieces after frying him with his own Force Lightning. Anakin loses it and attacks, but Windu drives him off. Order 66 is never issued, the Separatists are gradually ground down until they surrender, and the Republic stumbles along with some sage leadership in the form of Chancellor Bail Organa.

That sounds a lot like my setup. Only Anakin is killed too, and Alderaan still gets blown up (though nobody of import was on it when it was).

I'm joining a game set somewhere between a few months to over a year ABY (GM hasn't nailed it down yet).

Our team is being deployed to the Glief System (made up by the GM) in the Ploo Sector, to stir up trouble and draw Imperial attention away from other Alliance operations. We have carte blanche on how to do this, with the caveat that we should try to preserve the Alliance's reputation.

I like this idea. A lot.

My player party is based on the MC40a Mon-Calamari Light Cruiser Miflax , as one of the several special operations teams operating out of the cruiser. I felt it was a good balance between zippy special-operations speedster and majestic capital ship. Right now they're in the middle of a firefight between a drug-ring of shady rebels that are trying to sink the ship and the Star Destroyer Abstention , which followed up on a lead to stamp out that same drug ring.

What I wanted to do was start the first movement of the campaign with a plot that could help elevate their standing in the alliance quickly. By performing the missions and then saving the ship they can be respected and interact with the major players on the ship easier than if they were nobodies without branching back stories (which is three out of my four players). So far they seem to be having fun.

I did my first cameo a few sessions ago: General Rieekan. Not that anyone of my players recognised the name... and the character isn't that fleshed out in the movies, so isn't perhaps that memorable. Still fun, mighty Alliance general... never have I seen some of my players be that humble and scared, I mean, they fear the Empire - but these rebel dudes, they didn't feel at all safe and rightly so.

I like, and agree with, cameos, and by obligationlarge begin things running on the course established in the movies. However, I do NOT limit PC activity in order to preserve Canon - if someone does something that would affect the movie events, then affected they are.

I also work on the theory of "butterfly effect" in that the heroes merely EXISTING in the galaxy, where they didn't in the films, means that things might already be changed in minor ways that players may or may not pick up on. An example of minor changes is shown in my game with the brief cameo of a Trandoshan in a flight suit - Bossk. Because of how a PC's having a bounty on his head at a set point in the past affected the priority listing of bounties, Bossk ended up working different hunts than he otherwise does in the Canon. A minor change that means an established iconic is at Point B rather than Point A in the galaxy at a time and point when he MIGHT have cause to interact with the PCs later, if needed.

To answer the thread question. I used the rebel contact from Duke Piddocks gathering and one of the players obligation to get them into the Rebellion. They are being treated like an early version of Wraith squadron/CIA. Keeps the feel of both books and both obligation and duty play parts.

I like, and agree with, cameos, and by obligationlarge begin things running on the course established in the movies. However, I do NOT limit PC activity in order to preserve Canon - if someone does something that would affect the movie events, then affected they are.

I also work on the theory of "butterfly effect" in that the heroes merely EXISTING in the galaxy, where they didn't in the films, means that things might already be changed in minor ways that players may or may not pick up on. An example of minor changes is shown in my game with the brief cameo of a Trandoshan in a flight suit - Bossk. Because of how a PC's having a bounty on his head at a set point in the past affected the priority listing of bounties, Bossk ended up working different hunts than he otherwise does in the Canon. A minor change that means an established iconic is at Point B rather than Point A in the galaxy at a time and point when he MIGHT have cause to interact with the PCs later, if needed.

Agree. The group I am running can impact the universe in various ways. Otherwise they are second fiddle to the movies and books. I want them to feel like their activities count.

Canon only exists prior to the start of play in my game - everything after that point is merely "the way it should go if they don't muck it up!"

But I'll do things where PC actions allow major canon characters to carry onward towards the events of the movies. Such as escorting the MF out during the siege of Yavin... and screening it from the ties and the interdictor.

Canon only exists prior to the start of play in my game - everything after that point is merely "the way it should go if they don't muck it up!"

This.

I do have the Rebel Alliance give my AoR players some missions. Sometimes, they are given a simple mission which leads them to something bigger and better. The players do have some freedom to choose what they do. Indeed, I will sometimes give them a choice where they can pick either task A or task B, but they can't do both. I also do things so that they can see that they are having an effect on people in the galaxy. I also have them contacted by folk they aided in the past to give them a new task. So missions don't all come from the Rebel Alliance chain of command.

Canon only exists prior to the start of play in my game - everything after that point is merely "the way it should go if they don't muck it up!"

I'll add here that a GM should be clear about any pre-start-of-play divergences of canon, to set players' expectations -- but yes, after-start-of-play is fair game.

Only played the sample adventure. Tried a few ways to finesse the situation but ended up brute-forcing it. The disparity between minions and rivals was confusing to new people, both in how much less threatening a group of people with guns could be than some other guy in the same uniform, rank and with the same gun could be, and in how easily a grenade could wipe out a bunch of minions but just annoy the rival.

Play wise it was exactly like EotE, which should come as no surprise since it is EotE with low level characters and class doesn't really give low level characters anything especially unique. It was mostly just who has the highest skill + ability combo for the task.

Tried a few ways to finesse the situation but ended up brute-forcing it.

All RPG stealth missions are one failed hide check or fast talk roll away from turning in to a massive firefight with every goon in the building.

I'll add here that a GM should be clear about any pre-start-of-play divergences of canon, to set players' expectations -- but yes, after-start-of-play is fair game.

That is what I call a definite must. SW has a huge amount of material.

For our group canon is limited to the FFG books, the movies and the clone wars. Not because the other material is bad or anything, but most of us have not read the mountain of novels and we don't video game. We do add in things case by case, but in general this keeps us all on the same page.

That is what I call a definite must. SW has a huge amount of material.

For our group canon is limited to the FFG books, the movies and the clone wars. Not because the other material is bad or anything, but most of us have not read the mountain of novels and we don't video game. We do add in things case by case, but in general this keeps us all on the same page.

It can be even more important if the group is versed in the lore material, but the GM should set this expectation during character creation so that players can come up with appropriate character concepts, as well as set the expectations of how unspecified lore will be treated -- i.e. " all EU except this", or " no EU except this" -- as well as offer an opportunity during this point for the players to inquire about and get the GM's 'canonicity' decision on specific material.

Moreover, if the point of divergence from canon is something that takes place before play (thereby making the setting Infinities even before play and after your "what EU lore is canon" decisions, or if you're disregarding parts of or whole movies) and the PoD and its effects would be known to whoever your characters are creating, then you must indicate the where-and-what is different.

Like, say, if your player characters would have just gotten together some time after having all heard the breaking news on an illegal holofeed that His Imperial Majesty Palpatine and Darth Vader were literally just struck down by Vader's lightsaber, at a public promotional ceremony by a junior officer, who then threw off his uniform to reveal something approaching Jedi robes and declared himself to be Luke Skywalker -- who'd been AWOL from the Rebellion for months after Yavin...

Like, say, if your player characters would have just gotten together some time after having all heard the breaking news on an illegal holofeed that His Imperial Majesty Palpatine and Darth Vader were literally just struck down by Vader's lightsaber, at a public promotional ceremony by a junior officer, who then threw off his uniform to reveal something approaching Jedi robes and declared himself to be Luke Skywalker -- who'd been AWOL from the Rebellion for months after Yavin...

You had my curiosity, now you have my attention.

We will begin integrating AOR into our campaign when the Core book is released.

I am planning on running an AOR campaign within our EOTE campaign. While the characters will decide whether or not they are commissioned officers in the Alliance at a future date, they will be assigned missions from a crime lord. The crime lord (unbeknownst to the characters) is an Alliance operative in the Minos Cluster and he is sending them on missions under the guise of paying off their Obligations to him. The crime lord is fond of the usual crime lord tactics of holding his agentsresponsible for every little infraction while smuggling his goods (perpetuating a series of favors (as Obligation) for the Rebellion from an unwitting crew), making people disappear (agents of the Alliance who need to fake their deaths or escape from Imperial manhunts), or otherwise utilizing the criminal skills of his operatives to subvert the Empire and —whether they realize it or nor— aid the Rebellion.

I do not plan to reveal their involvement with the Alliance (assuming they don't figure it out for themselves) until the crime lord is killed by a rival organization and leaves them one last mcguffin which will be his files on Rebel operatives in the Cluster. The fact that they appear complicit with the missions will ensure they do what is right and turn it over to the Alliance instead of the Imperials that are hunting for it. Or, at least toss it into the nearest sarlacc or volcanic fissure.

But all their successful missions will translate into an appropriate amount of Duty when their involvement is disclosed. Until that point, I will filter that Duty through their crime lord quest-giver as bonuses or extra equipment.