Star Wars - Some setting exploration

[arkham618]

I'm currently running a Star Wars True20 play-by-post campaign based on a very similar premise to the one in this thread. Here is an excerpt from a discussion I had with a few of the players while the campaign was still under construction. It describes the background assumptions and some of the historical and political details:

"The campaign takes place a thousand years after the events of the original Star Wars trilogy. It proceeds from a counterfactual scenario: What if the Jedi Vergere repulsed the Yuuzhan Vong at Zonama Sekot, prompting Supreme Overlord Quoreal to abort the invasion of the Galaxy? I propose that, absent Vong meddling in galactic politics, the Imperial Remnant remains a credible threat to the New Republic long after the Battle of Endor, and the Galactic Civil War continues sporadically for another 100 years. At one point during the conflict, Brakiss discovers Korriban while researching Dark Side lore for his Shadow Academy. The Jedi learn of this and send a task force under Anakin Solo to uproot the Dark Jedi before they can use the hidden knowledge of Korriban to resurrect the Sith Brotherhood. During the battle, Anakin is captured and sealed within a Sith tomb, where he is driven mad by Dark Side spirits. When his siblings, Jaina and Jacen Solo, mount a rescue attempt, Anakin attacks them. Jacen is forced to kill his crazed brother, an act that sends his sister into a rage. The twins proceed to duel on the side of a Sith pyramid. Jacen throws Jaina from the side of the structure, whereupon his psychic link with her is severed. Jacen assumes that his sister has died and departs to mourn with his family. Jaina survives the fall, however, and draws on the Dark Side to heal her broken body. When she recovers, she kills Brakiss, seizes control of the Shadow Academy, commandeers the Imperial armed forces, and proclaims herself Darth Cruxia, Dark Lady of the Sith. Armed with Sith sorceries wrested from the ruins of Korriban, Cruxia leads an invasion of the New Republic, with the aim of destroying the Jedi and avenging her brother. The war claims the lives of most of the Skywalker clan and its hangers on -- Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, Mara Jade. Deprived of this core of leadership, the Republic fragments, even as the Imperial Remnant overextends itself and collapses. Centuries later, the Galaxy is divided among dozens of rump interstellar states, the greatest of which are the Stellar Dominion (ruled by the Organa dynasty), the Celestial Imperium (ruled by the Solo dynasty), and the Mercantile League (an alliance of hyperurbanized Core worlds dominated by the wealthy Calrissian clan). Much of the Galaxy is barbarian wilderness, given over to Mandalorians, Echani, Ubese, and other warrior races.

The tone of the campaign is decidedly medieval. Civilization has reverted to a quasi-feudal order, and much of the population of the Galaxy lives in ignorance and squalor. Heroes are fierce and uncompromising. There is nothing metaphorical about the term Jedi Knight in this era. Force users are numerous and (with the proliferation of loosely structured traditions) unpredictably powerful. The strict Dark/Light dichotomy of previous epochs is not widely apparent. The disruption of hyperspace routes and loss of much astrometric data has rendered the Galaxy a larger and wilder place. Technology hasn't retrogressed per se, but it is superficially cruder in design and operation. In short, this is the Star Wars universe as it might have been envisioned by Frank Herbert."

 

[Desdichado]

I was just revisiting this thread (after having watched the new animated Clone Wars movie) and here's a few more thoughts. For various reasons, I still haven't run this after all, and I've got these ideas still percolating in my head.

1) Star Wars Legacy (the Dark Horse comic book series) has done a lot of what I wanted to do very well, so there's no reason not to borrow liberally from them, even though my timeline is sufficiently advanced from theirs that strictly speaking, I don't have to. I especially like the idea of the Fel Dynasty as an Empire Mk. II, less evil and possibly even good, albeit autocratic. The Imperial Knights are a nifty idea too.

2) Legacy did exactly what I wanted to do with the Sith Order; abolished the Rule of Two since retrospectively it proved to be disastrous when Darth Vader killed the Emperor and didn't ascend to the position of Sith Master himself and take a new apprentice.

Here's a handful of my Force using groups of note:

1) Imperial Knights: a militaristic organization that reports directly to the heir of the Empire. As in the Legacy comic books, the Empire is not necessarily evil, although chances are few of us would enjoy living there. Jedi are mistrusted and rare in Imperial space.

2) Orthodox Jedi (Gray Marshals): a group of Jedi knights that is obsessed with reconstructing the order as it existed prior to the Jedi purges, and under the same tenets. Much of the data about how things were organized was lost, so this group also crusades throughout the galaxy for any information on how the Jedi were organized and operated during this time. They adamantly (an in fact, often violently) refuse to accept any criticism that the Jedi's organization and operation may indeed have facilitied Anakin's fall and therefore it's own destruction. They see their mandate as imposing peace and order upon the galaxy as much as possible. As with the original Jedi order, often their methods are somewhat questionable and they don't always leave a happy taste in the mouth of those with whom they've dealt.

3) Skywalker Jedi : Luke did not start the Jedi order up to be like the Order his father joined. Luke was not dispassionate, he was compassionate, and his order was much more egalitarian, more open-ended in terms of who it accepted as recruits (it had no choice in the early days of recruiting) and refused to accept the dispassionate and exclusive attitudes that Jedi such as Yoda and Obiwan tried to convince Luke to follow, even as late as Return of the Jedi. Luke himself believed those principles were failed and did not inculcate them in his students. Skywalker's Jedi, as they are informally known, and the Gray Marshalls have a rather tense relationship; both believing they are more deserving of the title of Jedi, while the other should consider itself some other tradition entirely. This order is the one most closely associated with the Galactic Alliance/New Republic.

4) The Cyborg Order: a group that saw General Grevious and Anakin Skywalker (he who brought balance to the Force, after all) as the ultimate prototype. Eschewing mortal flesh as a weakness, they replace their body parts with cyborg implants and surround themselves with droids. Although many cyborg designs are in vogue, a very popular one closely resembles General Grevious himself, with four arms (to better wield more lightsabers in battle). The detail of Darth Vader's own cybernetic body is lost to time, so many of the Cyborg Order have tried to reconstruct it from the little that is known about it, but interpretations of what Vader looked like vary wildly from individual to individual.

5) And, of course, the Sith. Reborn from the ashes of Darth Sidious and Darth Vader's ignominous defeat, the Rule of Two was quickly abandoned. Likely, the first of the new Sith Order was founded by up and coming pupils of Sidious or Dooku, or perhaps by early students of Luke's or subsequent Jedi Masters who found their way to Yavin, Korriban, or other worlds were Sith influence was still strong. Be that as it may, this organization closely matches that of the Legacy comic books (curse them for developing the Sith in almost exactly the same way I was thinking!) including the new Rule of One and a fondness for red and black ritualistic tattooing and scarring a la Darth Maul.

6) Others: I really like the ideas of the Reformed Havartians, the Holy Dabobahns or the Jedi Anarchs mentioned earlier in this thread, but I don't have any ideas immediately on how to use them, so they'll sit on the backburner for now.

 

[Desdichado]

In the very first Star Wars movie, the Force using traditions was significant, but not the only thing going on, obviously. From there on out it became more and more overtly about the Jedi and the Sith and has been ever since. Every once in a while, I wonder what it would have been like if it had remained a two-fisted, pulpish swashbuckling romance instead of taking on all these mystical undertones, but not for now (I've bought into the whole Jedi/Sith thing; I think it's great.)

But anyway, the Force users don't literally make the Galaxy go 'round, they're just one aspect of it. Here's some other organizations of importance.

1) The Empire: structured not unlike Palpatine's empire in administrative detail, at least, with similar ranks (Moffs, Grand Moffs, etc.) although lacking a Sith Lord at the head, of course. In recent decades, the Empire has been resurgent; from a low point of ruling just a few systems, it has swelled to encompass almost half the Galaxy.

2) The Galactic Alliance: what's left of Leia's New Republic, as the Empire has waxed, the Alliance has waned. While still powerful, and controlling much of the Core systems (and still based in Coruscant) its a shadow of its former strength and size.

3) The Mandalorean Arm: The Mandaloreans were a race who's culture and identity were in decline and in danger of disappearing completely before the Clone Wars. Individuals like Jango Fett were exceptional: nationalists who purposefully kept alive old traditions. Following the defeat of Palpatine and the second Death Star, many cloned stormtroopers had confusing or conflicting loyalties, as they were loyal expressly to Palpatine and to his government only by default. Many of them, now deprived of their identity as Imperial stormtroopers loyal to Palpatine searched for their identity by rejoining the Mandaloreans, since their programming and training retained many Mandaloreanisms learned from their prototype Jango. Flush with this new blood of combat experienced and highly motivated and actually rather traditionalist Mandalorean soldiers, the remaining Mandaloreans underwent a nationalistic revival in the decades following the Galactic Civil War. Now, a few hundred years later, they still are a powerful, autonomous force in the galaxy; they don't command a lot of territory, but their armadas and troops are feared and respected throughout the galaxy. They serve in the armies of both the Alliance and the Republic at times, in a situation not unlike the Varangian Guard of the Byzantines, but only as mercenaries. Their true loyalty is to their own nation. Although no longer sporting the white uniforms of the stormtroopers, those uniforms were originally based on Mandalorean prototypes, and Mandalorean battle armor is now seen in nearly every major metropolitan area throughout the galaxy.

4) The Hutt clans have managed to hold on to much of the Outer Rim still, and maintain a presence not unlike that they had during the movies. Powerful enough to play differing factions against each other, but not powerful enough to move against any of them, they retain a seemingly endless dynasty over their region. Oddly enough, the one place that they have not managed to retain a hold is Tatooine itself. Since the Civil War 500 years ago, Tatooine has been swamped by pilgrims and crusaders bent on liberating the "holy ground" where both Anakin and Luke spent their childhood.

5) The Sith Empire: since the disaster of the Rule of Two, the Sith have adopted differing strategies; strategies that in the past led to some of their greatest successes. One of these strategies is openly ruling an aggressive theocracy, where reverence of past heroes and traditions is encouraged, and past Sith Lords are literally worshipped as gods. Although hemmed in by Jedi (of various fracteous orders) and Imperial Knights, which keep their powerful force users from swamping the galaxy in a deluge of blood, the Sith Empire is still larger and stronger than the Alliance today, and its true rival is the Empire. Non-Force using Sith citizens undergo a draft and almost all able-bodied citizens are required to undergo military service. They, in accordance with ancient tradition, are outfitted in faceless mirrored silver body armor, and the sight of shining Sith soldiers brings fear across the Galaxy. The Empire is attempting a relatively non-aggressive "cold war" approach to dealing with the Sith, since it doesn't relish the thought of open warfare, where the outcome is certainly in doubt. With a little luck, the Sith have the strength to overthrow the Empire, and from there complete total domination of the entire galaxy.

6) Certain large sectors of the galaxy are not ruled by governments, but by corporations. As with the Separatists during the Clone Wars, for defense the Corporate Sectors tend to rely on droid troops. Few Corporate workers are willing to put their life on the line for the Corporations. They are (somewhat uneasily) allied with the Cyborg Order, and provide many of the droids and cyborg enhancements that that group desires in return for protection from the more rapacious or expansionist Force using threats such as the Sith or the Empire, but the Cyborg Order does not answer to the Corporations, nor consider itself under their sovereignty by any means.

 

[Ranger REG]

A lot of people don't have them...

I bought a copy for one of the GM's in my group and he refuses to run it...

Run it yourself. There is as much joy in being a GM as a player, despite the added responsibility.

 

[Desdichado]

You do realize that the post you're responding to is two years old, right?

In any case, I also just realized that this is in General Rules Discussion. I have no idea why, because that's not where I stuck the thread when I started it; I stuck it either in General Discussion or in the d20 games forum. Maybe if an admin or mod wanders along you could move it for me pwetty pwease?

 

[Remus Lupin]

Boy, this is some serious thread necromancy.

These are all good ideas. If I ever run a far future SW campaign, I'm planning to steal some. For now, though, Legacy and KotR are satisfying my Star Wars setting needs.

 

[Remus Lupin]

Double Post. Please ignore.

 

[Remus Lupin]

They reorganized the forums. This is where they keep Star Wars these days.

 

[Desdichado]

Actually, under the new divisions it still doesn't make any sense. This isn't a thread about rules or system, it's a thread about fluff.

 

[Desdichado]

The little stuff matters; what colors do these different groups use for their lightsabers? Sith always use red, green and blue are Jedi colors. Mace Windu was unique with his purple lightsaber until video games started replicating it. The Knights of the Old Republic games introduce several more colors: yellow, orange, silver, viridian, cyan and bronze.

I don't want to enforce this, but I'm going to say that green and blue are Jedi colors, yellow, orange and bronze (which looks a lot like orange anyway) are Gray Marshal colors, and silver, viridian and cyan are most used by the Cyborg order.

Purple is for dueling masters of any order (except Sith---they always use red no matter what). Of course, this isn't to say that colors have to belong to those orders, just that they predominantly do.

I like Kajamba's idea of making the little details different (T4 vs the R2s) but since I'm not a graphic designer and won't be literally illustrating my droids and ships, I can't do too much of that.