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 Post subject: A reboot (of sorts)
PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 8:24 am 
Death Star Designers
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I'm a story teller of 12 years, and have run Star Wars campaigns for a good chunk of my life. I started my first one when I was 16 and ran a continual story on an off for 10 years, converting from wizards of the coast's revised core rules to saga a few years in. The game started in the old republic and ended with the players, now leveled in the teens, accompanying Bastilla Shan as her strike team to defeat Darth Vader (very epic).

I love star wars, and love running star wars, but have become a bit disenchanted with it over the years. It becomes tedious really. When I first started running, the Era of the Old Republic I chose had only one piece of canonical resource, Knights of the Old Republic, the video game. That era has been expanded upon a good deal with additional video games, comic books, and novels. I find this to become overwhelming. On one hand, if I want to stay as true as I can to source material without breaking canon, then i really have to stay on top of all the information that's release. Second, as Lucas releases more and more information, doors close all over the place for the players. I find it becomes hard to let the players really shine when all the real threats (the canonical events, villains, and locations) are all aready handled by canonical NPCs. Its one of the reasons I won't touch the rebelion era. It takes some of the fun out of the game when you know as players that even if you fail, the real heroes will get it all taken care of in the end.

Now I could just break canon. But I don't really like that, and I find the consequences to be even more mind boggling. The butterfly effect of altering the historical events could be astronomical.

So, what I've decided to do is a reboot of sorts. At first it felt fundamentally wrong, as star wars is a sacred thing, and I'm typically against the never ending cluster **** of reboots the media throws at us every day, but I felt like in doing this, I was able to actually enjoy running a story again. So, here is my idea:

Approximately 1,000 years ABY, a hyperspace anomaly occurs. Hyperspace begins to collapse on itself, contracting. At first it makes jumping more dangerous, but over the years, it becomes exponentially worse. Anarchy breaks out in the galaxy, as only the most skilled pilots and pirates are able to navigate the hyperspace lanes. Crime lords run rampant profiteering. Eventually, even they lose their power as the lanes become impassible to anyone.

The galaxy experiences a dark age. With Hyperspace in such a state, communication, trade, and transportation cease. Planetary civilization rise and fall, in seclusion not seen since the rise of the Rakata.

20,000 ABY, a scientist discovered what is titled "Negaspace". It is a time/space that mirrors opposite hyperspace. Apparently, it experienced it's big bang in unison with the initial contraction of normal hyperspace. At this point, it is still a fairly primordial state, but is stable enough that it can be used. The first "negadrive" is developed, and so starts our adventure.

My goal with this campaign is that it allows me to essentially use my own homebrew setting: near completely creative control. I can recreate worlds to make them intriguing to players who have the entire star wars wikipedia memorized. It removes a lot of the meta-game and will hopefully shame more excitement and intrigue for players who know that they cannot rely on out of character knowledge to help them as much anymore . It gives me access to a rich history, without needing to worry about adhering to the "recent events" that you have to be mindful of if you want to play in an established era. It also means that my PC's are in complete control. Their actions matter. There is no Luke Skywalker who will save the day regardless of their actions. Plays will be the ones who get to destroy death stars, defeat sith lords, and ultimately, make and shape the universe.

I've actually been tossing around the idea of allowing players to play decedents of canonical characters... fett's, skywalkers, fels, etc. Not sure how I feel about this yet, but I know that their are good rules for being decedents of family lineage in the Legacy core book.

So thats about all I have so far. I have not sat down and thought about much more... but the galaxy would no doubt be a different place. I was curious if anyone has experience with this? Or any suggestions. Also, it seemed like a good place to get my thoughts out without fear of players reading (i think they may still check the wotc forums from time to time.).


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 Post subject: Re: A reboot (of sorts)
PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 9:58 am 
Imperial Dignitaries
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What you're touching on here is one of the main differences between roleplaying in the D&D and Star Wars universes: D&D has lots of background/backstory, but nothing is cast in stone because there's no main story...but Star Wars, on the other hand, has a very specific storyline, which can really limit the horizon for roleplaying and campaign horizons.

I do like the solution you propose. It seems like it will serve to give players and gamemasters the flexibility they need to have a more immersive Star Wars roleplaying experience. It sounds like you're giving an alternate-reality-but-within-the-same-universe kind of feel to it.

It sounds a bit like the concept behind the Terra Nova TV show. Basically, earth's atmosphere is decaying quickly, when someone discovers a rift in time, which doesn't just send people back in time, but actually sends them to another place as well...so it avoids the "butterfly effect" that you mention, while at the same time being completely contiguous with the reality that people already know. If you want more detail on this, just watch the first episode (streaming on Netflix) and you'll get it all.

I hope you have fun with it! I know that if I was in the area I'd be very interested in playing in that campaign.

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 Post subject: Re: A reboot (of sorts)
PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 12:16 pm 
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I'm not a big RPG'er but I too like your idea. If I ever get my group into an RPG, I may be hitting you up for more details. Well done.

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 Post subject: Re: A reboot (of sorts)
PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 1:58 pm 
Death Star Designers
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Thanks :).

One of the things i'm trying to do is pick some of the more popular races and planets and then figure out what their planets look like after such a long time. I'm struggling a bit, because I assume some planets are in the same system, and there could still have been trade within that solar system if the planets were close enough. For example, I know Dosh and kashyyyk are close enough to traverse without a hyper drive. I assume without interference from the republic, things could have gotten very "interesting" between the two planets and their people. I'm not certain what other planets are in close proximity like that though. I've been reading up on wookieepedia, but i'm not having a whole lot of luck. If any of you know worlds that could be traveled without a hyperdrive, let me know, as it will help me a lot in my planning. I see there are a lot of "sectors", but im not sure the sector refers to planets that orbit the same star. It could easily spread multiple stars, which wouldnt be possible to travel without faster-than-light methods.

A few things i've been considering is the possibility that some one else has already learned of this negadrive, and could have already started a small scale conquest... I was thinking that its possible a sith lord conquered his own planet and eventually made his own little empire there... then through discovery of negaspace via PC interaction, or his own means, finds out that intersteller travel is once again available... that could lead to a good big boss or enemy for the campaign. Like wise, any war like culture could do, be it mandolorians, or any other war species ( a now-tech-savvy gamorr could be scary).

I also was thinking that I may have one of the more common species be a slave race to a planet of droids... basically, there was a droid uprising and now the roles are reversed. By the time the player discover this world, it's been functioning that way for hundreds, if not thousands of years.


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 Post subject: Re: A reboot (of sorts)
PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 6:12 pm 
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Yes, what I like about this is that the GM can create just about any kind of situation he wants to. This appeals to me personally because if I ever did run a game in my area, several of the participants would likely have a great deal more knowledge of EU than I do. I don't have a problem with that except it would inhibit creativeness on my part. The problem wouldn't necessarily be with them hijacking the game, but me not wanting to go anywhere with the story that they might question. A creative reboot like this really frees up the GM, in my opinion.

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 Post subject: Re: A reboot (of sorts)
PostPosted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 1:06 pm 
One of The Ones
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That's not a reboot. It doesn't seem like you're changing canon at all. It's just going out into the future timeline where Lucas hasn't touched it yet.

You don't even need to mess with hyperspace like that. Star Wars history has plenty of cycles between Sith rule and Jedi rule and pockets of 'other' rule. Just move out 1000 or even 5000 rules and say it's a time of X. Pick your plot. Rename your evil. History repeats itself.

Hidden Sith arrive with a new threat. (Either hiding in plain sight like Palpatine, or from a lost planet like Fate of the Jedi, or a nearby Empire like the Old Republic.) Or maybe the bad guy is just a good guy turned bad (Caedus). Or maybe it's a dark time where the Sith are already in power. Or an external threat like the Vong. Whatever it is, you can just take an existing plot and change the names, or be as creative as you like with new twists.

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