So... Continuity changes? Do we need a forum group hug or support group?

So yeah, since the old continuity is gone and thanks to JJ Abrams, I now have access to the entire official Canon of Star Wars... what does that mean for SW games here?

More specifically (hi-larious thread title notwithstanding) HOW is it affecting YOU?


I have to admit, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it. Clone Wars exists, and both trilogies (Ep 1-6), but zero novels and NO GAMES, including SWSE lore. I like my little collection of SWSE books, and I enjoyed Thrawn.

That said, there was a lot on wookiepedia that I didn't like, bits of "lore" that really turned me off, even excluding the prequels (some of which were fine movies).


Is the EU just an Infinities setting that's really big? Or will you just keep going with the EU continuity?

Should I start or play in a Star Wars game in the near future, I expect it'll be in the EU. If only because all the info for all games I could currently get hands on is in the EU.

They aren't coming to repossess my books, so the canon change is a non-issue for my games.

Me and star wars are through. I'm not even going to see the new movies. I dislike JJ Abrams and his movies that much. As for the new continuity? The first thing they add to it is some stupid energy sling in the rebels cgi cartoon trailer. They make a big promise about the new lore not going to silly places, and then the first new lore I see is... that. *sigh* I'm just so done. Not letting them get any more of my cash.

Hope is the first step on the path to disappointment. I've decided to embrace a more... enlightened view of how I consume media. I'll admit this has been coming a long time after being screwed over so much in every way imaginable form the internet, to games, to movies, and so much more. This Star Wars was the last little bastion of hope I had with all its good stuff and its warts. Now though? Well now that it's been gone and destroyed it's like the last of the suns iron is consumed and it coalesces into a powerful black hole that destroys everything in its path by sucking in into a zone of nothing.

fireinthedust said:

So yeah, since the old continuity is gone and thanks to JJ Abrams, I now have access to the entire official Canon of Star Wars... what does that mean for SW games here?

More specifically (hi-larious thread title notwithstanding) HOW is it affecting YOU?

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Non-issue. Whenever I run a game in a setting with built-in lore (SW, Forgotten Realms, etc), the first thing I note to the players is that I reserve the right to use, ignore, or alter existing canon to suit my game. The same applies here.

(Having said that, I did recently find myself having a debate with one of my players about whether you could clone Jedi. He was adamant that you could not; I pointed to the several examples where it was actually done. Unfortunately, that little diversion was one of the things that soured me on running that campaign. So my approach no longer has a 100% success rate! )

I think it's taken the conundrum of SW fandom and just made it mainstream: what is canon for the story we're telling RIGHT NOW, as well as "what would I do if I were in charge (iiwic)".

That's what JJ Abrams is doing now, just like Lucas did for the prequels that the mainstream fanbase was... well, let's just say they didn't get the warm welcome we were hoping for. That was fairly universal, and Lucasfilm hasn't had popular support. Whether warts & all, we've seen Lucas' vision panned over the years. His version of canon, beyond the original films, has been criticised by mainstream fandom. Accepted because he's, y'know, George Lucas, but still criticised.

BUT: is the last Indiana Jones film really part of the "legend" of the originals? Or a modern take on the franchise, little more than a reboot, that wouldn't make it into canon without the Lucas thumbs up?

delericho said:

Non-issue. Whenever I run a game in a setting with built-in lore (SW, Forgotten Realms, etc), the first thing I note to the players is that I reserve the right to use, ignore, or alter existing canon to suit my game. The same applies here.

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This.

When I was prepping a one-shot game (Tour of Duty: Endor - basically you play storm troopers on Endor's moon when the base was getting set up in a more Vietnam-esque setting (lets face it - our first real encounter with the Ewoks are them trying to EAT the heroes)) I did a bit of research on the units there and other possible critters. I know Endor would be all over the place - from dangerous to "sunshine and unicorns". But I did poke around some other stuff that caught my eye.

When I saw that someone wrote a book (I presume) wherein the first Luke/Vader lightsaber fight was NOT what we saw on the films I immediately said out loud "not in MY Star Wars." Sure, Thrawn is cool, but there is a ton of crap out there. I have no problem flushing it all. If there is something good, I'll keep it (and hopefully the new movies will too).

delericho said:

(Having said that, I did recently find myself having a debate with one of my players about whether you could clone Jedi. He was adamant that you could not; I pointed to the several examples where it was actually done).

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Well, give the guy some credit - the EU canon examples are rife with them going very, very badly.

I've always cherry-picked canon when I've developed Star Wars campaigns. There's just too much in the EU I thought was either eye-rollingly stupid (Irek Ismaren, aka Lord Nyax and his lightsaber joints) or just bereft of true creativity (the many lives of Emperor Palpatine -- in MY games, he dies at Endor and does NOT come back). Some stuff, I hated (I'm looking at you Yuuzhan Vong). I could tolerate the superweapon of the month club, and generally liked what I read in the X-Wing series by Stackpole and Allston and most of the Timothy Zahn stuff. I thought Jedi got to be a little too superhero-y, so I usually concentrated on the scum & villainy parts of the Star Wars universe.

No one's official canon is ever going to match my own. As long as I don't have a player start arguing with me over what's canon and isn't in MY game, I won't have a problem.

In an ideal world, I would have the OT with the upgraded effects (though I'd removed the Praxis effect rings from the Alderaan explosion), but the original musical numbers in Jedi, no shots fired by Greedo, and the Jabba scene excised from ANH and all the original dialog I remember from the theater intact (none of these extra NOOOOOOOOOOOOOs added to Vader). But, unless I learn video editing, that ain't gonna happen.

I've actually been considering the possibility of a d6 SW game again. I've never given a hoot for "canon" beyond the films. Just never interested me. The canon covered by the films has enough problems anyway. I went back and made a sort of "Cliff's Notes" version of the important plot elements of the films and I came to two conclusions. First is that it actually makes rather poor fodder for events in an RPG campaign because the setting-shaping events all revolve around one or two individuals in one family with a really bad case of Destiny-itis. Second is the astonishing repeated and consistent parallels to events of the American Revolution.

So, I decided that the continuity and canon can quietly go play in a corner anyway because I intend to conveniently ignore vast quantities of it. A proper RPG hinges upon the actions of PC's and a proper DM isn't interested in railroading events in order to keep the unfolding canon immune from PC interference. My plan then is to have a general outline of events that will unfold with greater similarity to the American Revolution than to SW canon, but otherwise to expect that the PC's and their actions will be determining what kind of campaign actually ends up being played. It might be galaxy-spanning or very localized. It might wind up being more like Firefly than Star Wars. The entire Rebellion might have nothing whatever to do with Jedi Knights, or it might have even MORE to do with a struggle not between Empire and Rebels but Jedi and Sith. Will the Jedi even be wiped out? Maybe not because the overarching plot for the campaign doesn't rely on it.

Most important of all I've never even HEARD of the word, "midichlorians." In fact, I can't even read what's between the quotes in that previous sentence.

Group hug: