Star Wars Infinities – The Gathering Storm (Part 1 of 8)

The sale of Lucasfilms to Disney, the release of the Star Wars Edge of the Empire game by Fantasy Flight Games, the new Star Wars comic book series by Dark Horse, this all has me thinking about my favorite sci-fantasy movie saga!

Back in 2007 when the Star Wars Saga Edition RPG came out it rekindled my interest for Star Wars RPGs. I had attempted at running Star Wars RPG games using WEG’s D6 engine without success (more a matter of the group not the system!), but by 2007 I was determined to do it. Since I prefer running campaigns I create, actually running this game seemed anathema, BUT the more I looked at it the more I wanted to do it, and I figured out how…

Enamored by the Idea of Star Wars Infinities I decided to retell the story of the prequels, my VERY DIFFERENT version of the prequels. I used the original movies, select bits of the Expanded Universe, including a lot of the Marvel Stars Wars comics which I loved, and my own ideas to create role-playing adventures meant to tell the story of what happened before Episode IV. Sadly we never got around to tell the whole story. We only did Episode 1, titled The Gathering Storm, set about 70 to 60 years before the original Star Wars.

I had placed this campaign in the backburner and pretty much forgotten about it until recently.  A player mentioned he missed that game and that he had really enjoyed. Soon after, over lunch, I began discussing the campaign with a one of my newer players who wasn’t around for the game.  Suddenly all the memories and ideas came rushing back.

So I dusted off the files, looked them over once more, perhaps to return to my version of that galaxy far, far away. I also thought some of you might enjoy seeing my version of the Star Wars universe here in the blog. I have a LOT of materials written for the campaign so I’ve split them up into a mini-series of weekly post, this first one meant as an introduction to this whole crazy idea.

Remember, this is MY interpretation, with feedback from the players back in 07, and might be VASTLY different from your conception of the Star Wars milieu. This is just a glimpse of our home game. I basically wanted to bring together many ideas and what I thought the universe of Star Wars was like before after watching Episodes 4, 5 and 6. To create a galaxy that in my mind would lead to the Clone Wars, the destruction of the Jedi and the rise of the Empire.

Marvel Comics’ version of who the Mandalorians were…

One thing I did from the get go was tell everybody there are no Mandalorians! I remember the first hints about Boba Fett when the promos for the action figure first appeared. The mentions that they fought against the Jedi in the Clone Wars,, those names, what was unsaid fired up my imagination much more than they just being DNA donors for a clone batch. I wanted to give them the mystery, the mystique, back. In my mind they became pivotal to the future plot of the campaign.

I also wanted to incorporate speculation and ideas that were popular among the fandom way back when, such as the references to Owen Lars and Obi Wan being elated. Not all my players got this, since not all were as big Star Wars geeks as me, but of course some were bigger. Needless to say this was view of the Star Wars universe full of nostalgia for my childhood.

Introduction (This was the introduction I wrote for the campaign back in 2007)

I am a big fan of Star Wars. The original trilogy filled me with wonder and excitement (Ewoks excluded!), and made me dream about a galaxy far, far away. The prequel trilogy, while visually impressive was, to my estimation, bland and not terribly entertaining. My love for the original trilogy has fueled my desire to tell stories and set adventures in the Star Wars Universe.

Realizing that I am not alone in my dislike of the prequel trilogy, I’ve decided to try a campaign that will re-imagine Episodes 1, 2 and 3. Based on what we know, or can possibly infer from the original movies, Episodes 4, 5 and 6, and a few selected pieces of Expanded Universe material, we can retell the story of the decline of the Republic, the fall of the Jedi and the rise of the Galactic Empire.

Join me and together we can revisit and re-imagine a galaxy far, far away…

Next Week: A History of the Galaxy Part 1

One last note… Needless to say, Star Wars, all associated characters and images are copyright of Lucasfilm! I don’t need a visit from the Mouse’s Lawyers