Canon problems in a Star Wars campaign, Part One

Oooooh.. Sexy

*editing after it was brought to my attention that 1st level GM is a she, not a he.. Sorry^_^

The other day I had the pleasure of stumbling across a blog dealing with one of my favorite subjects… STAR WARS! Reading through her three blog posts (1st, 2nd, 3rd) about this subject made me want to throw in my thoughts on the subject.

As 1st Level GM states, when choosing a Star Wars game, the absolute first thing that defines the game that you are going to play is “When” in the Star Wars continuity. Where really is a 2nd detail since, given the time, that planet may or may not exist, or the dynamic of it my change drastically.

Oh God.. They’ve got their briefcase in hand…

Yep.. Canon or continuity lawyers are a pain in the ass. That is a major problem when running a game in a beloved setting such as Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. People who play in this type of game generally know their shit and for some of them, it really does turn into, sadly, a dick waving contest.

I’ve played in Star Wars games in the past where the GM made a slight error about something or another, and honestly, most of us didn’t care, but there was the player who had to do the, “Umm.. No.. Actually it was this way instead of that..” Basically think of the comic book dealer in the Simpsons..

What to do, what to do?

So when it comes down to it, you may want to avoid having that kind of person in your game. It can also be avoided in the first place (hopefully). The last Star Wars game I ran was set in the New Republic, right before the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.

I like this time period, it has the Jedi coming back, yet they are constantly facing adversity, there is a galaxy shaking event coming right around the corner.

When I decided to run a Star Wars game, I knew I didn’t want to run it during the Original Trilogy time period because I didn’t want to base my players around those events. I knew my players wouldn’t mind, but several of them wanted to be/try Jedi and I knew in the Rebellion Era that wouldn’t fly.

Another reason was because I loathe the prequel trilogy. I cry myself to sleep every night because of what those movies have done to erode the very foundation of my soul. Just kidding. Maybe.

Anyways, when I decided when I wanted the game to take place, I got my players together and had a “talk” with them about it. I told them the setting, that they would be on a freelance pirate ship, that one of the players father owned, and as a gift he was given his own Corellian Corvette. Each of the other players were given a X-Wing. I did this because I wanted them to have fun on the ground and in space.

The talk also consisted of the “canon” lecture. I said canon was there, and I would go by it, but to avoid the whole canon argument (although with these players, if that happened it would be ALL my fault- more on this in a moment) that they really wouldn’t be around events that could damage continuity.

I usually choose this option, and most players are happy with it. My main reason is because there is usually some player who wants to be a wild card either just to annoy the GM or because they are that much of a douche bag… whatever the case I tend to steer clear from actually movie/canon events.

I’ve been in a game where we were on Geonosis fighting along side the other Jedi when one of the players, playing a Bounty Hunter asks where Mace Windu was, and suddenly tried to gun him down to win favor with Jango and keep him from dying. The GM said that he shouldn’t do that, and the players said not to because it had no point on the game and would ruin things, but he adamantly wanted to do it, so he tried, and guess what.. he died. What a shock.

I don’t want to make this post huge, so I’ll continue it tomorrow!

I seriously love this picture!

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