So. Anybody read the 1974 script? Or the ongoing comic book version of said script?

So, if you have, what would be your thoughts on running a game in a setting like that? It's Star Wars, yet its not... Stormtroopers have lightsabers, stardestroyers are two-man starfighters and Alderaan is the capitol of the Empire - and Darth Vader isn't a Sith, or as they are known in this iteration of the galaxy: Knight of Sith. He still got the helmet, but no mask.

The Force is referred to, mostly, as The Force of Others - and Artoo is a mouthy bastard of a droid. C3PO looks like he's taken straight out of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, and it's all fun and games.

I'm not seriously considering it, but it could be fun to have a go at figuring out how to expand upon what little the series/script shows of the larger galaxy.

I've read several versions of the old scripts and the free introduction to the new comic. It's cool, but not something I will be considering for a gaming universe.

You would need a very specific group of people to enjoy such a thing in my opinion. Most will want classic Star Wars or some other scifi setting completely, for example. I can only imagine this specific alternate Star Wars universe being enjoyed by a group of complete Star Wars diehards who have played through 100's of Star Wars RPG sessions and are looking for something new and refreshing....but still Star Wars.

All due respect to Lucas and his vision, but I think his editors and producers made the right call with the changes to the original script. While I think it'd be interesting to see a module based on "The Star Wars," I probably wouldn't play it.

I'm interested but will probably wait for the graphic compilation.

I'm a fan of the series and originally was having the same thoughts, what kind of a game could this version make?

But not long into reading it did I realize that for most players next to nothing would be significantly different.

Reading the script or the comic feels very bizzarro because the characters are different, things are named differently, or the events play differently or in a different order. That's where the feeling of newness comes from. But if one were to run an RPG, Edge of the Empire for example, I feel like it would be almost exactly the same as using the classic setting. You would still be playing the same types of characters, with the same species, and same obligations.

The biggest benefit I can see would be the liberty to tweak the galaxy as you see fit. But even that I can see losing the appeal of the Star Wars setting to begin with. Changing Tattooine into a lush jungle may seem interesting and fresh to your players for awhile, but the novelty will quickly wear off, and it'll turn into a game about totally new things that just happen to have classic names.

The Star Wars contains a lot of the political plots that we all know and love from the prequel movies. if you love George Lucas style politics in space (as we all do, duh!) then this is perfect.

As someone who tore everything down and rebuilt it from scratch, I can confirm that the wider details make surprisingly little difference to an EoE campaign.... where mostly you won't be running into the Emperor or the Sith every week.

AoR does play differently, but not as differently as you might think.

I've glanced at the comics once or twice on the shelves of my local comic store. It's an interesting alternative to buck rogers-esque science fiction of the pre-atomic age, but it takes a special crowd to want to do that I think.

The comic actually looks very interesting, perhaps something that could be explored with a different system or game - but I wouldn't ever consider it STAR WARS: that title belongs solely in the province of the films, which made it the phenomenon that it is today.

I bought the first three issues of The Star Wars. I thought it was terrible.

Good for you, or... perhaps not good, since you think it was terrible. Sure the end result that has become a pop cultural phenomenon that in many ways constitute modern film making is slightly better. Although not so much better if you de-construct the parts and see the narrative and story for what it is. The elegance of the film making and effects are astounding sure - and defines how we measure special effects today - but the content. It's not great literature.

Anyway, thanks for your constructive, insightful and informative participation.

Back on topic:

I've always run Star Wars according to the films, and with a lot of EU influence - EU has always been a resource more than a joyful waste of time. I've wanted to follow the development and get some scenery and background to set my campaigns up against, even if I ignore plots, events and stuff like that. So I created my own canon of stories, events and NPCs, organisations and so on within the existing levels of canon that I have used to some degree or another. I've never really used the main characters from the films - although in one campaign one of the Jedi characters tried to locate a missing Luke Skywalker, but got side tracked, luckily.

Now, after Maelora's (and others) thread(s) and presentations on alternate set-ups for their gaming galaxy, I've been considering leaving my own canon of NPCs and events that have been built up over a few campaigns, and start from scratch. Yes I have my own canon, more or less. Sue me. Laugh at me. Whatever. And starting from scratch, I was also considering maybe making some changes to the galaxy and history, to make it slightly more my own, more my players' galaxy, and less about the existing canon(s).

That is why I asked this question about The Star Wars. It is significantly different, but still very similar. It has a different feel, more Flash Gordon-esque (granted I've only seen the film, not the series). As such, I am considering using that, to some degree or another, in the recreation of my own Star Wars galaxy, at some point post-thesis-deadline, May next year. So, to refine the question, its not about basing it on the comic/1974 script alone, but what in it you would like to, or could consider, to draw upon if you were considering such a remake of your own gaming galaxy. So a theoretical, if not hypothetical, question.

Shouldn't be difficult to have your party sucked into an alternate dimension where things play out like in The Star Wars. Just be prepared to make it last no more than a couple of sessions. In my experience, players want to play Star Wars, not a parody, no matter the source.

I'd hardly call it a parody, but each to his own I guess.

Good for you, or... perhaps not good, since you think it was terrible. Sure the end result that has become a pop cultural phenomenon that in many ways constitute modern film making is slightly better. Although not so much better if you de-construct the parts and see the narrative and story for what it is. The elegance of the film making and effects are astounding sure - and defines how we measure special effects today - but the content. It's not great literature.

Anyway, thanks for your constructive, insightful and informative participation.

It's ok. I was having a moody morning moment

@Jegergryte. Cool - let us know how it turns out!

Will your canon be 'better' than the originals? Who can tell?

Will it be more appropriate for your group? Absolutely. There's always something more satisfying, I think, in establishing your own events and characters in any RPG. That's part of why I play, really. And it's something videogames and MMOs will never be able to fully replicate, no matter how good they are.

PS. Thanks for your work on the Species Menagerie too. High praise indeed from Donovan.

I see the films as how Lucas would have GMed things, with his own PCs.

But his PCs are not our PCs, so we're free to use, or not, as our tastes take us.

Likewise, when we play Forgotten Realms or something, we're playing our own game, not Ed Greenwood's. Or Keith Baker's in Eberron.

There's plenty of ways to tell a SW story, even in 'canon'.

Could take a page out of Star Trek and have the PC cast go through a swirly thing in space and end up in The Star Wars. Or Characters making cameo appearances, or something.

I bought the first three issues of The Star Wars. I thought it was terrible.

I wouldn't go so far as to say terrible, but I do praise Odin for second drafts (or in the case of Star Wars, 4th drafts). Also, I have the same problem that I do with the Dawn of the Jedi stuff - it's not quite well enough defined or different enough from the mainstream universe for me not to bring my baggage and expectations.

I'm always a fan of adaptations, I see The Star Wars (as it is a rehash or an original draft) more of an adaptation. Also, knowing that the original version pulled a lot of tropes for Sci-Fi/Sci-Fantasy (aliens, laser swords, superhuman abilities, etc), I see it as an entertaining alternative to the originals, but not as a replacement.

That said, with the right group that likes some of those tropes, The Star Wars would be a fun universe to play around in, but I don't think it would be easy to do without some die-hard sci-fi fans at the table.

I've always run Star Wars according to the films, and with a lot of EU influence - EU has always been a resource more than a joyful waste of time.

Yes I have my own canon, more or less. Sue me. Laugh at me. Whatever.

Same here for the first point. I take what I like, and discard what I don't; to me, the only thing I take as genuine canon (not unchangable or modifiable, but canon to at least be acknowledged or explained away) is the events of the movies.

To the second, I also agree. I've mentioned before that I was once a player in a campaign that lasted seven years: my PC, the Padawan Learner of the Jedi Revan, was the first to join him and Malak in their war against the Mandalorians; he became a famed General during those conflicts, leading his elite unit "the 407th" into many battles and earning Revan many victories.

In the stories that followed, my Jedi became a Sith Apprentice (not to Revan, but to a Sith Spirit that was apprenticed himself to our campaign's "Sith Empire founder", a secret Empress called Kronatus); redeemed himself and defeated his Master (who tried to possess the Knight's unconscious and wounded form after his last "vessel" was beaten); sired the Starfire children who would become instrumental parts of the Republic fight against the True Sith Empire; and helped to kill Revan. Yes, our Revan died - he wasn't redeemed, and thus was never around to metally influence the Sith Emperor from within captivity (meaning that the invasion of the galaxy happened earlier than canon says it does).

The above is used as "canon" in my games, almost without exception. On Coruscant, for example, there's a memorial dedicated to my Jedi - one of the "Heroes of the Republic" - who gave his life to destroy an ancient weapon that might have given Revan and Malak the edge they needed in their conquest of the galaxy; and my table-top PC, a young woman with remarkably potent Force Sensitivity, is the direct (and last) descendant of the Starfire line (her name is Shaeyl Starfire).

Having played in a SW game based on the idea that the movies we have seen are actually propaganda films created by a holovid maker named George Lucas to make the Rebellion look like justified underdogs instead of terrorists lead by royal Jedi bloodlines (all of this is called the Skywalker Paradigm, which you can google), I have some experience with SW adaptations. And I'm keeping up with the comic, which is okay.

I would say that getting your players up to speed is a sensitive issue. When you're ready to run this game, give them an elevator pitch, not a sermon. Reveal more and more in digestable morsels, as opposed to breaking down all of the details, issues, alterations, repercussions etc. Your players are smart, I'm sure, they can put it together. But we have certain thresholds of attention.

At least I do, and these were some issues I had with our Skywalker Paradigm game. I had fun a lot of the time, but there were huge discussions that I had heard before, or didn't need to hear the whole thing.

Either way, good luck with that game, I hope you guys get all inspired and come up with some awesome times.

Same here for the first point. I take what I like, and discard what I don't; to me, the only thing I take as genuine canon (not unchangable or modifiable, but canon to at least be acknowledged or explained away) is the events of the movies.

I will third this for every campaign I've run using whichever system back to WEG. I at first completely was against using any EU, but now I just pick and choose what I personally think are the good parts. The film canon can't be touched. EU canon is a cherry picked bastard I can morph to my own liking.

As for movie canon, I've been very strict that I have to only follow what is seen on the screen itself, and not the countless interpretations by others of what that was. Thus, I can interpret what is seen for myself, I'm not forced to follow what another person said I saw. That Stormtrooper big barreled weapon does not need to be a T-21 Light Repeater since that is what WEG started calling it. So, that opens it up to be whatever I wish it to be, such as a T-21 portable Ion Cannon. Those Stormtroopers on Hoth aren't a specialized "blizzard" force, just your standard, elite Stormtrooper donning a cold weather uniform.

I've never had a player that was a big EU fan and thus have never had an issue with this approach.

Is there a link to a place where these scripts can be read? I really can't do comic books but if some plain old text version of them is somewhere, I'd love to read them... or try to.