Star war RPG D20

[kenobi65]

My next RPG question is what erra should i run??

I'm thinking New Jedi order... i like the yuuzong vong (sp) and most of my player have never heard of them... there is also what was left of the empire and much more but i wanted some imput on he different erras of play....

If your players are only familiar with the movies, I'd suggest putting your campaign in one of those two eras, so that they feel like it's something they know.

The Rise of the Empire era (or before) has the advantage of having an established Jedi Order; in my experience, an awful lot of players want to play Jedi.

To me, the Rebellion Era is "true" Star Wars, but those are the movies that I grew up on. Depending on how closely you want to hew to the events of the movies, that era makes playing Force-users, especially Jedi, difficult, if not impossible.

The New Republic / New Jedi Order eras, as well as the Tales of the Jedi / Knights of the Old Republic eras, have pretty rich detail through the Expanded Universe (i.e., everything but the movies, like the books and comics). However, while ever SW fan knows the movies, many fans haven't read the books, played the video games, etc., and so those eras may be less appealing to them.

Also how many referenced to the movies should i touch on... for example i plan on opeing the game up with the evacuating from a planet (they will not know why untill later) as it expolodes they are asked by the captain to main the guns and take out a few tie fighters the captian will later thank them and introduce himself as captain antillies (sp)... i thought this would be cool... the planet will ither be aleran (if in rebelion erra) or a different planet destroyed by the proto star destorer that is in the later SW books... (have not thought much about it if it is in the Rise of the empire era)

is this good??? what about other feferences??? and sugestions??? i think half the reason of playing this is having fun tieing your PC's into the story lies of the books and movies... what dose everyone else thing??

It's fun, for both players and GMs, to have the game touch on events, places, and people from the movies. However, I'd advise you to be judicious in how you do this, especially with events and people. It'd be cool for the PCs to be involved in smuggling the Death Star plans to Princess Leia; it'd be far less cool if the PCs wind up as bystanders watching the movie characters do their thing.

In the SW games I've run, I've used most of the main characters from the Original Trilogy, but almost always as cameos. Yes, you want to make sure it feels like Star Wars, but always make sure that the PCs are the heroes of the story.

 

[DnDChick]

I set my game in the unexplored era between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It's set about a year after the execution of Order 66. (Or at least it I thought it would be unexplored until I heard about the Star Wars tv show to be set in the same era ... lol)

About the only movie characters the players might meet are Darth Vader and the Emperor ...

I chose this era for many reasons:

1. You can play a Jedi, but you do so at your own risk, knowing that Vader and the remaining clone troopers are still after you.

2. It's (thus far) not very well detailed, so you can do pretty much whatever you want and not have to worry about the "meta plots" that are going on in the other eras.

3. Its an era that lasts at least 18-20 years, as opposed to the Rebellion Era of the original movies, which only lasts about 5 years.

4. It's not too "alien" ... that is, as someone else pointed out, all the elements are present that make Star Wars really feel like Star Wars (at least to us old timers! lol) ... the Empire, Vader, Jedis on the run or wiped out, Hutt crime syndicates, etc. ... no Yuuzhan Vong or 'all-powerful' Jedi Council.

 

[Iron_Chef]

If you play the Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) video game (the first one), you'll see why I chose this era for my SW campaign. It's got thousands of jedi and sith warring, mandalorians (like Jango Fett), a jedi council that is hardly all-powerful, etc.

Ghenghis Ska has written an INCREDIBLE 118 page sourcebook for running SW d20 in the KOTOR era (8 MB download):
http://members.cox.net/ghenghis_ska/KnightsoftheOldRepublic.pdf

Stats for additional KOTOR-era Sith starships:
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=506401

Again, here are links to my Star Wars campaign:

My Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Part 1
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=479218

My Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Part 2
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=501426

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

If you play the Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) video game (the first one), you'll see why I chose this era for my SW campaign. It's got thousands of jedi and sith warring, mandalorians (like Jango Fett), a jedi council that is hardly all-powerful, etc.

And if you've read the classic Tales of the Jedi comics that created the Era, you'd know why I use that era and try to ignore how much the KotOR game took away the best parts about it. i.e. adding a Jedi Council and forcing a centralization instead of making Jedi Masters much, much more important to the training than the Council, and making the Mandalorians human instead of the race we were shown in the comics but never got to know much about.

Good game, yes, but I'm still bitter.

 

[Venport]

I think that my players would do well in the years after the death of the emperer. This would take the game out of the movies and open things up to Lukes jedi training. but i think i'm going to keep the vong back until i konw the players can handle a good fight with the vong

 

[Morgenstern]

We are having fun with some new Star Wars rules for SC2.0 over in the fan material section.

http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26005

Check it out !

 

[Breakdaddy]

If you guys havent already seen the thread over in General posted by MerricB, surf on over and check it out. It seems it's now official: SWD20 RPG is dead as a product line.

Morgenstern, I started the conversion process about two weeks ago, thanks for the link!

 

[possum]

I think that my players would do well in the years after the death of the emperer. This would take the game out of the movies and open things up to Lukes jedi training. but i think i'm going to keep the vong back until i konw the players can handle a good fight with the vong

You said "Death of the Emperor, I'm assuming you mean his first death and not the whole "Emperor Reborn" bit.

Yeah, the years after RotJ are some of the best years of the entire SW Saga to me, a real treat to GM in.

As for the Vong, well the PCs do have about twenty years before the invasion begins. They'll be ready.