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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