Stars Campaign Fork - Do you use canon characters in your RPGs?

[Celebrim]

Something said in the May the 4th thread about celebrating Star Wars RPGs triggered my curiosity and that's how much do you allow canon characters to interact with (and potentially overshadow) PCs and how much do you rely on your own characters?

Which canon characters have you used in your campaign?

For my part there are a lot of canon characters in my games but they are mostly obscure figures - often so obscure we have no real description or depictions of them and usually so obscure that even the nerds playing the game don't realize it is a canon character. Characters central to the story are almost always invented by me. Major characters from the movies pretty much never appear (though they can be mentioned) because it's Eliminster syndrome (an NPC that's always more important than any PC).

Canon characters I remember appearing in my current game:
General Azarin, Moff Gozric, Saras Krerin, Janus Greejatus, Klaus Vandangante, Jessa Vandangante, Kar Yang

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I've run a fair bit of Star Wars and only ever used one canon character as an "interactive" character rather than a background one (i.e. you might know Moff Tarkin or w/e is in charge of this system, but you aren't going to go mess with him personally). That was Mara Jade, albeit under a pseudonym of hers (which of course one of the players knew, dammit!). We were running the actually surprisingly-excellent PtbA Star Wars World, and resulted in a rather good if anime-esque lightsaber duel (Jade was an antagonist given the era), which forced both sides to retreat in the end.

 

[Kannik]

I said yes, but in all the SW games we've run across the years I think it's only been once in my current campaign (Dawn of Defiance) where the characters are directly working for Senator Organa.

(For which he's not a really obscure figure, but he's also not one of the prime characters, so it's really a level between Yes and Yes, but only for really obscure figures.)

 

[payn]

Oh this is a good one! I tend to use the canon characters if the PCs are not the canon characters themselves. For me, the heart of SW is the space opera saga. Thats what Im after when playing it. I dont care what species Greedo is, or what planet Wookies come from, or even that space ships need fuel. The expanded SW universe is not interesting to me. I want to experience the saga stories!

I get that for a lot of folks the expanded universe is interesting, and they care about planet names and goings on of different eras. That a generic do anything RPG system is what they need for a SW experience. That aint me though.

 

[sevenbastard]

Every charachter I play packs a blaster canon. But my GM doesn't really track encumbrance and I said I mounted my battery on a Droid.

 

[aramis erak]

I've had players play canon characters in a non-canon one-shot once; it's a default mode for Marvel games.
The "Yes" really is a couple more levels...
Star characters as PCs
PCs as equals to Star Characters
PCs as Rivals to Star Characters
PCs as subordinates of the Star Characters.

I wonder how the Trek, Marvel, and DC numbers would vary.

The 4 IPs have different expectations even amongst multi-source fans.

 

[bloodtide]

Often.

For a lot of players this is a big highlight for a game based on some IP with big cannon characters.

I have run Star Wars games in lots of eras, but my go to time is generally a couple years before Star Wars.

A lot of the time they pop in to give advice or slight amounts of help. A lot of the time they link up....where the PCs have a part to do in a larger plan.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Something said in the May the 4th thread about celebrating Star Wars RPGs triggered my curiosity and that's how much do you allow canon characters to interact with (and potentially overshadow) PCs and how much do you rely on your own characters?

Which canon characters have you used in your campaign?

For my part there are a lot of canon characters in my games but they are mostly obscure figures - often so obscure we have no real description or depictions of them and usually so obscure that even the nerds playing the game don't realize it is a canon character. Characters central to the story are almost always invented by me. Major characters from the movies pretty much never appear (though they can be mentioned) because it's Eliminster syndrome (an NPC that's always more important than any PC).

Canon characters I remember appearing in my current game:
General Azarin, Moff Gozric, Saras Krerin, Janus Greejatus, Klaus Vandangante, Jessa Vandangante, Kar Yang

I ran L5R for years (the AEG versions, not the ones after they sold the property), and I used the Canon characters regularly as appropriate. I would likely do the same for any RPG set in an existing universe with a lot of lore.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Every charachter I play packs a blaster canon. But my GM doesn't really track encumbrance and I said I mounted my battery on a Droid.

View attachment 404934

That is such a smart idea!

 

[billd91]

Yes, not the main stars of the movies, but not particularly obscure ones either. Bail Organa, Crix Madine, a few others. They're generally mission givers or other background for the adventures in play.