Star Wars Saga: Doing my own prequels

[Blackhawk748]

If any of my regular players wander in here, bugger off.

With that out of the way, yes i plan on basically rewriting the entirety of the Prequel trilogy for my own campaign, so the PCs can do whatever they want, canon be damned. With that in mind, im gonna need some help. I generally run pure sandboxes with my PCs sort of forming a plot as they run about, so something this structured is a tad new to me. I will do as i usually do and just make a skeleton to work off off, so here it is.

Episode 1 The Phantom Menace:

The characters
Anakin: Pretty much the same, except hes gonna be 16 now (this isnt really gonna affect the Jedi thing cuz im dropping the raised from childhood thing.) Otherwise hes Anakin.

Obi Wan: Still Obi Wan

Qui Gon: Ditto

Padme: Heres where the changes start, shes still a princess of Naboo, but Naboo is aligned with the Trade Federation and they are helping them store Droids. Oh and shes like 18.

Nute Gunray: Paranoid as hell, mostly cuz Sidious has been feeding him BS about the Republic planning on seizing Trade federation assets and coming to destroy their Droid security force.

Darth Sidious: Is Jar Jar Binks, no, im not kidding. Darth Darth Binks is gonna be legit here, Palpatine is a red herring. And heres his character sheet (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1438494)

Darth Maul: Sidious' apprentice, will be treated as a legit and credible threat. Sidious is not looking to trade up right now, so he doesnt treat him as disposable.


Basic plan is to have them with Qui Gon and Obi Wan on the peace mission. The mission is because their has been signs of militarization by the Trade Federation (this is sort of true, but its because they are mostly in the Outer Rim and they need to protect themselves) and the Jedi are brought in to investigate. Gunray freaks the hell out, and misinterprets this as an act of aggression and releases the Battle Droids. Padme tries to get him to see reason, but it doesnt work, so she goes with the Jedi to try and explain to the Senate what is going on. Of course they run in to Jar Jar at some point.

They escape in her ship and, thinking shes been kidnapped, Gunray orders Droid ships to disable it. This goes as well as you'd expect.

Cue Tatooine sequence.

After that my PCs will most likely have hurled a massive wrench into this so planning beyond that seems a bit silly. So, thoughts?

[Tinkerer]

#1 Are you sure that they won't just attempt to destroy Jar Jar on sight. I know that's what my players would do, might push your reveal a little early.

[Blackhawk748]

#1 Are you sure that they won't just attempt to destroy Jar Jar on sight. I know that's what my players would do, might push your reveal a little early.

Considering im going t make him miles less annoying, i certainly hope not.

[Tinkerer]

Considering im going t make him miles less annoying, i certainly hope not.

*chuckle* Might want to start with him communicating over a radio or through a locked door or something of that nature. Something where they can't quite touch him yet.

[Sparx MacGyver]

#1 Are you sure that they won't just attempt to destroy Jar Jar on sight. I know that's what my players would do, might push your reveal a little early.

I dunno, I ran him as the theory of being Darth Jar Jar (or Darth Darth Binks), but of course he had a real sith-y name. I don't remember what I gave him. Anyway, used his comedic high-jinks to cover for that, but also had my Jedi's roll UtF to sense things when he was using the Force. They never actually figured it out. Well, their character didn't, until the end, when everything came together. I also used Captain Tarpals ( the one who says "No again, Jar Jar. Yousa goin to da boss. Yousa in big doo-doo dis time." when they arrive at the Gungan city), yeah used him as a basis for a calm but cool and collected warrior type of people. Sort of Jedi, but minus the Force, and replace lightsabers with their own bio-blue tech stuff they have.

@Blackhawk:
I don't see anything that's a problem here. An not really planing anything beyond what you have is a good idea, since no campaign survives first contact with the players. The change is kinda interesting, though.

[Blackhawk748]

Ok, so im brainstorming ways to make the CIS left overtly the bad guys. Partly cuz id like this to be a bit greyer as a war but mostly because i want to emphasize the role of the Sith in this mess. To that end im thinking of having Count Dooku not be a Sith. Hes definitely fallen and is most certainly on the Darker end of the spectrum, but he hasnt abandoned his honor. The Separatist Council will still be the less that conscientious people we know, but they will be opposed by the Separatist Senate.

Other than that im not entirely sure how to keep them from devolving into mustache twirling.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Ok, so im brainstorming ways to make the CIS left overtly the bad guys. Partly cuz id like this to be a bit greyer as a war but mostly because i want to emphasize the role of the Sith in this mess. To that end im thinking of having Count Dooku not be a Sith. Hes definitely fallen and is most certainly on the Darker end of the spectrum, but he hasnt abandoned his honor. The Separatist Council will still be the less that conscientious people we know, but they will be opposed by the Separatist Senate.

Other than that im not entirely sure how to keep them from devolving into mustache twirling.

Emphasise their legitimate grievances with the Republic, such as the anti-alien prejudices of the Core, corruption within the Republican government, overbearing taxation and regulation, etc. Remember, this is the government that will willingly become the Empire - the rot must already be there.

Additionally, emphasise the independence and variety within the separatist constituent governments, which could easily run the gamut from flourishing and functional democracies to totalitarian states, united simply by the desire to be free from Coruscant. Have the players encounter people who as far as they are concerned, are more fighting for Onderon (or wherever) than the CIS.

The obvious comparisons would be to anti-colonialist groups in the 20th Century - some of them were very nasty indeed, and even the best of them were no angels, but it's not as if they didn't have good reasons for their struggle.

[Blackhawk748]

Thank you. I just watched the episode of The Clone Wars that had the CIS Senate and I can definitely work with that and with Dooku not being a Sith that should work even better.

Now on to a more immediate problem: what do I have them do on Tatooine?

I mean, Naboo will go more or less the way it does in can on, but I need something for the PCs to do once they get to Tatooine.

[Blackhawk748]

Ok, so i've just cobbled together the shiny new Darth Sidious, and hes a bloody Dark Side Wizard with all the Mind Trick and Lightning, fairly solid social skills, and Force Illusion schenanigans. His sheet is in the OP.

[jindra34]

Now on to a more immediate problem: what do I have them do on Tatooine?

I mean, Naboo will go more or less the way it does in can on, but I need something for the PCs to do once they get to Tatooine.

Wrong problem: It's how do you get your players to go to Tatooine in a natural and smooth manner? The answer to that will almost certainly answer the question of what the players will be doing on Tatooine.

[Blackhawk748]

Wrong problem: It's how do you get your players to go to Tatooine in a natural and smooth manner? The answer to that will almost certainly answer the question of what the players will be doing on Tatooine.

Same reason they do in canon, damaged Hyperdrive, caused by Gunray trying to "save" Amidala.

[jojo]

I'd suggest separating the Gungans out from the herd. Just because they're from Naboo in the Canon doesn't mean they need to be in the campaign.
Darth Darth Binks also doesn't need to be from Naboo to still be Gungan. Sounds like there's quite enough going on, particularly with the Nute Gunray/Padme stockpiling a droid army and initially being allied angle.

[Pleh]

EDIT: The top half is a few of my criticisms/concerns. Scroll down below the dash for my suggestions on PC activities.

So the party is playing as..... Qui Gon's Republic Escort? I dunno how I feel about that. Jedi don't usually come with an armed guard, especially on peace missions.

I do like the idea that the Party is playing the people on Qui Gon's ship who got blown up in the first few seconds of TPM, but now they've got Heroic Levels, so let them loose and see what happens.

Definitely anticipate that some players will want to destroy Jar Jar on principle, just out of character for sheer personal spite. It might be best to make sure the party never has to travel with him (this will also reduce the chances that the players accidentally discover his true identity). Just have Qui Gon send him on some errand under the guise of sparing the party from his antics and you should be good for a while until you get this campaign running.

Then there's a bit of a problem for me about making Jar Jar into Darth Sidious while Palpatine is just a pawn politician. Being a politician is kind of essential to Palpatine's plan. He was in a position where he could actually be nominated to replace the chancellor and from there to conduct a war from both sides that would drive the Republic to devote supreme powers to their Chancellor.

Jar Jar has none of this. He has no particular endgame unless Palpatine is his apprentice through whom he can rule the galaxy by proxy. As nice as the Darth Jar Jar theory is, this is some of the problems I've always had with the concept. Only Palpatine was really fit to be Darth Sidious to begin with.

Now my real problem is that you've started with the premise of throwing out the canon, but then planned the campaign around the modified canon.

I really think you should be following the party, not the world so much. Not until you have a better idea what they intend to do with the freedom to mess with the canon as much as they want.

I mean, what if they choose diplomacy and manage to figure out the great misunderstanding with Nute Gunray and resolve the matter before they even get stuck on Tatooine?

Exactly what adventure are you pitching to these players? What expectation do they have about the game? Are you saying, "Do your own Star Wars Prequels"? If so, I'd advise against Darth Jar Jar, because killing Jar Jar would be in the top ten on most players' "Things I would do in MY prequels" lists. If you're pitching it as total freedom, the players will have a good likelihood of giving themselves a quest to hunt down and destroy Jar Jar.

But if you pitch it as, "You'll be accompanying Qui Gon and Obi Wan on a Peace Mission to the Trade Federation base at Naboo on a totally new take on the Star Wars Prequels" then they'll have slightly less expectation of making their own goals in the game.

---

All that said, what to do on Tatooine? Well, the movies had the problem of making Tatooine all about meeting Anakin and OOOOO HOW AWESOME IS ANAKIN! In an RPG, the game is always about the players. You have a very valid scenario: the ship is broken, needs parts, the parts are available, but are too expensive. You find yourself trapped in the most wretched hive of scum and villainy with insufficient funds to repair your ship and escape to resume your mission. What do you do?

All you really have to do is make sure the players know that Anakin will not be saving them and that getting off of Tatooine will have to be conducted by the Party. They want to use the Boonta Eve podrace to earn some cash? Use gambling rules OR just have their Ace Pilot enter to compete (might need to make friends with someone who owns a pod). Maybe they need to pick up some Outlaw Sidejobs with Jabba to earn enough money to buy the parts they need.

I mean, it makes about as much sense as the opening scene:

Your ship arrives on the Trade Federation station. Qui Gon instructs the party to remain behind while he and his apprentice go to speak with the Viceroy. It's understandable if players disagree with Qui Gon, "We're your bodyguards, we can't guard you if we stay behind." But Qui Gon will insist the armed guard will undermine his negotiating position and order the guard to remain behind. This gives the party downtime to get their characters formally introduced in the story (even if they are supposed to already know each other) and to get a chance to survey their surroundings before the fighting breaks out.

When the Trade Federation attacks, the goal is now to fight their way through the ship and help Qui Gon and his apprentice escape to safety.

From here, all you have to do is make sure they have no means to escape to hyperspace and that pretty much means the only place they can go to find safety is Naboo.

I'm not sure what you're doing with Padme, because, like with the Viceroy, it seems like a simple conversation could resolve all the conflict and tension pretty quickly. I'm not even sure why she'd have trouble explaining to Qui Gon, "Oh, we're just storing their droids for them." Not sure how that could be misinterpreted.

Maybe a better twist would be that the Trade Federation turns on the Naboo when the Jedi show up, because they believe the Naboo have set them up and betrayed them. They activate all their droids that they were planning to store safely and take Naboo (who wasn't expecting hostility) hostage. When the Jedi and their escort go missing, they can't be sure the Republic won't find out what was going on, and even if the storing of the droids was legitimate and no concern to the republic, now that they've panicked and taken the planet hostage, they are past the point of no return and have to take out the heroes before the Republic finds out what's happening.

And this is the reason Padme escapes with the heroes. Her leaving prevents the Trade Federation from holding the entire royal family at once, so they can't coerce total compliance from the Naboo in a legally formal manner, because she's still free to fight back.

In fact, that would make for a wonderful second scene in the game: you arrive safely on Naboo to find that the Viceroy has panicked and is taking the planet hostage, placing its residents under house arrest (I picture "I, Robot" with Will Smith where the personal service droids trap people in their own homes to keep them safe). Qui Gon would alert the PCs that it is critical that he Viceroy not get the Royal Family, through whom he could quickly coerce a merging with the Trade Federation that would make all of his illicit actions legitimate.

The plan being that the Party achieves partial success, saving only a part of the Royal Family: Padme, who would have the power to veto the merger (or whatever political hooboo you want to insert here). Maybe her being safe keeps the King from giving in to the Viceroy: "Do what you want to me. My daughter is safe. If you kill me, she takes the throne and you still won't have what you want. All I have to do is wait and you will lose. Dying only makes the waiting easier."

And upon escaping, the party's ship is damaged, insert Tatooine scene here.

Upon resolving Tatooine (by whatever means they choose), it's off to Coruscant (since Darth Maul is not disposable, maybe throw some elite Bounty Hunters at the heroes for that fight scene, hired by either Jar Jar or Gunray). This will count as some Downtime for the players while Qui Gon and Padme do social encounter stuff. They should be encouraged to do some shopping and maybe do a couple side quests while they're in the big city waiting for things to happen.

I mean, technically their mission is over. Theoretically, they've successfully escorted Qui Gon and his apprentice to their peace mission and then back again. There's not an absolute need for them to go back to Naboo again unless whomever they work for assigns them to that mission again.

[Blackhawk748]

EDIT: The top half is a few of my criticisms/concerns. Scroll down below the dash for my suggestions on PC activities.

So the party is playing as..... Qui Gon's Republic Escort? I dunno how I feel about that. Jedi don't usually come with an armed guard, especially on peace missions.

I do like the idea that the Party is playing the people on Qui Gon's ship who got blown up in the first few seconds of TPM, but now they've got Heroic Levels, so let them loose and see what happens.


They all wound up making Jedi, so they are all Qui Gon's prospective next Padawan, as Obi Wan is going to be taking the trials soon.



Definitely anticipate that some players will want to destroy Jar Jar on principle, just out of character for sheer personal spite. It might be best to make sure the party never has to travel with him (this will also reduce the chances that the players accidentally discover his true identity). Just have Qui Gon send him on some errand under the guise of sparing the party from his antics and you should be good for a while until you get this campaign running.

Then there's a bit of a problem for me about making Jar Jar into Darth Sidious while Palpatine is just a pawn politician. Being a politician is kind of essential to Palpatine's plan. He was in a position where he could actually be nominated to replace the chancellor and from there to conduct a war from both sides that would drive the Republic to devote supreme powers to their Chancellor.

Jar Jar has none of this. He has no particular endgame unless Palpatine is his apprentice through whom he can rule the galaxy by proxy. As nice as the Darth Jar Jar theory is, this is some of the problems I've always had with the concept. Only Palpatine was really fit to be Darth Sidious to begin with.

Ya, jokes have been made, but they'll act on in universe info.

Palpatine is a near literal puppet as a matter of fact. Binks did some Sith Alchemy stuff and has Palpatine as a sort of "sleeper agent".

As far as endgame, he plans on getting all of the power into Palpatine and then swap bodies with him, cuz Sith can do that, its also why he becomes a Senator, easier to stay close to the target.



Exactly what adventure are you pitching to these players? What expectation do they have about the game? Are you saying, "Do your own Star Wars Prequels"? If so, I'd advise against Darth Jar Jar, because killing Jar Jar would be in the top ten on most players' "Things I would do in MY prequels" lists. If you're pitching it as total freedom, the players will have a good likelihood of giving themselves a quest to hunt down and destroy Jar Jar.

But if you pitch it as, "You'll be accompanying Qui Gon and Obi Wan on a Peace Mission to the Trade Federation base at Naboo on a totally new take on the Star Wars Prequels" then they'll have slightly less expectation of making their own goals in the game.

Its largely the second one.



All that said, what to do on Tatooine? Well, the movies had the problem of making Tatooine all about meeting Anakin and OOOOO HOW AWESOME IS ANAKIN! In an RPG, the game is always about the players. You have a very valid scenario: the ship is broken, needs parts, the parts are available, but are too expensive. You find yourself trapped in the most wretched hive of scum and villainy with insufficient funds to repair your ship and escape to resume your mission. What do you do?

All you really have to do is make sure the players know that Anakin will not be saving them and that getting off of Tatooine will have to be conducted by the Party. They want to use the Boonta Eve podrace to earn some cash? Use gambling rules OR just have their Ace Pilot enter to compete (might need to make friends with someone who owns a pod). Maybe they need to pick up some Outlaw Sidejobs with Jabba to earn enough money to buy the parts they need.

Ya, figured id have to go with SideQuests, though one of them may be a pilot, im not sure.



I mean, it makes about as much sense as the opening scene:

Your ship arrives on the Trade Federation station. Qui Gon instructs the party to remain behind while he and his apprentice go to speak with the Viceroy. It's understandable if players disagree with Qui Gon, "We're your bodyguards, we can't guard you if we stay behind." But Qui Gon will insist the armed guard will undermine his negotiating position and order the guard to remain behind. This gives the party downtime to get their characters formally introduced in the story (even if they are supposed to already know each other) and to get a chance to survey their surroundings before the fighting breaks out.

When the Trade Federation attacks, the goal is now to fight their way through the ship and help Qui Gon and his apprentice escape to safety.

From here, all you have to do is make sure they have no means to escape to hyperspace and that pretty much means the only place they can go to find safety is Naboo.

I'm not sure what you're doing with Padme, because, like with the Viceroy, it seems like a simple conversation could resolve all the conflict and tension pretty quickly. I'm not even sure why she'd have trouble explaining to Qui Gon, "Oh, we're just storing their droids for them." Not sure how that could be misinterpreted.

Thats almost exactly what Padme is going to say. The thing is, is that Gunray has been so wound up by Sideious that he wont see reason. He'll assume Padme is being Mind Tricked by the Jedi and that they are going to take her to Couruscant and have her say whatever they want (he is very, very paranoid at this point)




Maybe a better twist would be that the Trade Federation turns on the Naboo when the Jedi show up, because they believe the Naboo have set them up and betrayed them. They activate all their droids that they were planning to store safely and take Naboo (who wasn't expecting hostility) hostage. When the Jedi and their escort go missing, they can't be sure the Republic won't find out what was going on, and even if the storing of the droids was legitimate and no concern to the republic, now that they've panicked and taken the planet hostage, they are past the point of no return and have to take out the heroes before the Republic finds out what's happening.

And this is the reason Padme escapes with the heroes. Her leaving prevents the Trade Federation from holding the entire royal family at once, so they can't coerce total compliance from the Naboo in a legally formal manner, because she's still free to fight back.

In fact, that would make for a wonderful second scene in the game: you arrive safely on Naboo to find that the Viceroy has panicked and is taking the planet hostage, placing its residents under house arrest (I picture "I, Robot" with Will Smith where the personal service droids trap people in their own homes to keep them safe). Qui Gon would alert the PCs that it is critical that he Viceroy not get the Royal Family, through whom he could quickly coerce a merging with the Trade Federation that would make all of his illicit actions legitimate.

The plan being that the Party achieves partial success, saving only a part of the Royal Family: Padme, who would have the power to veto the merger (or whatever political hooboo you want to insert here). Maybe her being safe keeps the King from giving in to the Viceroy: "Do what you want to me. My daughter is safe. If you kill me, she takes the throne and you still won't have what you want. All I have to do is wait and you will lose. Dying only makes the waiting easier."

And upon escaping, the party's ship is damaged, insert Tatooine scene here.

Upon resolving Tatooine (by whatever means they choose), it's off to Coruscant (since Darth Maul is not disposable, maybe throw some elite Bounty Hunters at the heroes for that fight scene, hired by either Jar Jar or Gunray). This will count as some Downtime for the players while Qui Gon and Padme do social encounter stuff. They should be encouraged to do some shopping and maybe do a couple side quests while they're in the big city waiting for things to happen.

I mean, technically their mission is over. Theoretically, they've successfully escorted Qui Gon and his apprentice to their peace mission and then back again. There's not an absolute need for them to go back to Naboo again unless whomever they work for assigns them to that mission again.

Huh, thats a neat plan. I may use this.

[jojo]

For what it's worth OP we've all played out our "own version" of the Prequels at some point and Star Wars is known for provoking... "impassioned" responses from its fans. So I suggest you take any criticisms your "own version" prompts with a grain of salt.

I dug out the notes from my "own version" of the prequels a few years back, obviously I played fast and loose with Canon. Feel free to take away anything you like from them:

Ultimately my players were given the option of working to support Darth Sidious, Yoda or Count Dooku's Agendas. This led them to interact with a variety of characters from the Saga before realizing that all three options were kind of "Wrong about almost everything on almost every possible level and probably shouldn't be in charge of planning their own meals let alone the fate of even a single other sentient being."

The Galactic Republic - Far from the "only game in town" not even really the best option. The Republic formed in its current state, supported by the Jedi Order, after the events of SWOTOR. Meant to be basically the "Space UN."

Key Players - The Corellian Diktat, The Hapes Consortium, The Bothan Allied Worlds, The Corporate Sector Authority, The Tion Hegemony, The Huttese Cartels. The Trade Federation. There are others but these are the "traditional governments" that maintain standing armies in one form or another.

Status Quo - Most people consider the Republic to be a ridiculously transparent puppet state up until around 110 years BBY. The Key Players (Traditional Governments) get a disproportionately loud voice in the Senate and they use it to keep anyone else from accumulating any real power. This tends to make independent worlds and systems incredibly angry.

The Colonial Territories - Opened up around 400 years ago the Republic, and other more traditional governments have been bleeding citizens steadily ever since. Despite there being hundreds (perhaps thousands, no one keeps a very accurate census) of self-sufficient Colonies they're all represented collectively in the Senate leading to intolerable lack of political power. The Key Players absolutely love this, see Status Quo, since they get to exploit the vast untapped resources of Colonial Space in a predatory fashion. The Colonial Territories for their part pretty much hate this arrangement, but it's about the only thing that allows them even the barest semblance of autonomy.

The Separatist Movement - This has been boiling ever since the Colonial Territories secured collective representation in the Senate 230 years BBY.

The Trade Federation - Includes Guilds. It's been around for a while and is intended to profit from interstellar trade while providing conventional security forces for anti-piracy purposes, since the Republic can't/won't be bothered.

The Mandalorian Insurgency - This is what screwed everything up for everyone. Mandalorians were the chief foot soldiers of the Sith Empire and no one has let them live it down for the last 2,900 years. To the point where they're not allowed to constitute more than a 25% minority of any planet's population.
125 years BBY "The Mandalore" comes onto the scene in the Colonial Territories and a few billion Mandalorians suddenly get "Racial Pride." They migrate to New Mandalore in the Colonial Territories and set up a Mandalorian Homeworld. Things go south when it turns out that the Mandalore is actually a full-fledged Jedi.
Long story short, everyone proceeds to crap their collective pants and 111 years BBY the Key Players get together and glass New Mandalore without consulting the Republic. All of the sudden a few hundred billion Mandalorians find their Racial Identity and a few trillion others sentient beings find their empathy. The Jedi Order freaks out, suffers an identity crisis and tries to spin the genocide as being justified due to the Mandalore being a Jedi. They revive the "Sith" in the popular consciousness. The law of unintended consequences leaves the Republic holding the bag for this and as a result they, along with the Jedi, spend the next 50 years cleaning up their mess. The Mandalorian Insurgency ends with the "Withdrawal" 61 years BBY when the Hapan Consortium grants the survivors a sovereign home world.

Militarization of the Jedi Order Prior to the Mandalorian Insurgency the Jedi are pretty chill. Jedi Knights and other full-fledged force users often train to master their powers from birth but this isn't strictly necessary. Plenty of people however do their own thing instead and while the "Light and Dark Side" are "things" people are aware of the religion as a whole (which plenty of normal people worship) treats them more like Good and Evil in Zoroastrianism than mutually exclusive platonic ideals like in Christianity. This quickly goes out the window as the Jedi become increasingly militarized during the Mandalorian Insurgency. Hundreds of Jedi don't like this and abandon the order, leading those who buy into their own nonsense to conclude that they've "gone over to the dark side" and "become Sith."
By 61 years BBY about the only Jedi Master that remembers a time when tolerance was the norm is Yoda. Pretty much everyone else has been raised as and risen through the order as ultra-right-wing zealots. People like Mace Windu aren't necessarily "bad" but they definitely see Sith everywhere and are intellectually comfortable conflating violence and diplomacy.

The Kolto Crisis Early on in the course of the Mandalorian Insurgency the planet Kolto (Bacta from the KOTOR series) was native to gets glassed. This precipitates a dramatic fall off in the average life-expectancy galaxy wide. As a result a lot of the more reasonable Jedi who might have allowed the Order to Course Correct died off before the Insurgency ended, ditto for the Senate and the Republic. On the flip side this contributed immensely to the successful resolution of the Insurgency since their hard-line leadership died off quickly as well.
By 45 years BBY Bacta, a synthetic form of Kolto, has been created, the problem being that about 40% of sentient species are allergic to first generation Bacta, with Humans and species with high genetic similarity to them spiking up to 70% of all members being allergic.

The Sith The Sith exist insofar as certain individuals identify themselves as much. As a corollary Sith use the Dark Side insomuch as individual "Sith" are willing to act like depraved madmen. In-game/universe there's no reason for anyone to believe that the Jedi Order's version of "Dark Side" and of "Sith" has any inherent truth to it.

There are No Gungans It was just easier this way.

Yoda, Count Dooku and Darth Sidious Are all playing a long game against each other in a three-way proxy war. Darth Sidious is all about Humanity F**K YEAH and views the Republic's reliance on the Jedi Order as a PROBLEM. He wants a stable, unified, authoritarian Galactic Government led by humans and modeled after the Corellian Diktat and the elimination of the Jedi Order. I made him more aloof and mysterious, it's ultimately unclear if he is a Sith or just using the threat of the Sith to wind up the Jedi. Yoda is all about hubris, he wants to restore the Jedi Order to what it was prior to the Mandalorian Insurgency and as a result is just trying to outlast the Zealots and effect change from within. His plan is stupid and his enabling makes everything worse. He's aware of Count Dooku but not of Darth Sidious. Count Dooku is a conscientious objector from the "Old Guard" of the Jedi Order. He's able to vaguely recall a time when he was a child and the Jedi weren't a bunch of murderous reactionary fundamentalists. He's taken up the cause of the Colonial Territories and the burgeoning separatist movement as a result of the militarization of the Jedi Order and the increasing inefficacy of the Republic. Overall not a bad guy. Used to respect the H**l out of Yoda but doesn't anymore since Yoda has decided to try and right the ship through manipulation and refuses to take a moral stand against it. Despises Mace Windu who is his antithesis in almost every way. Despite always trying to avoid violence Dooku is sufficiently good at it that when Mace Windu tried to stop him from abandoning the Order he kicked his a** without even bothering to draw his lightsaber since "reactionaries threaten themselves more than anyone else." Dooku is old as dirt so his actions have a particular urgency, by the time the Party enters the scene Dooku is fully aware of Darth Sidious and is actively opposing him by the time the campaign started.

The Clone Wars Prior to the end of the Mandalorian Insurgency Jedi Master Syfo-Dyas hired hard-line Mandalorian supremecist Jango Fett to be cloned a few hundred thousand times to protect the Mandalorian Species against any further genocides. He meant well. Jango did not and got the Kaminoans to condition the Clones as soldiers. Darth Sidious found out and meddled eventually resulting in the implementation of Order 66. Sidious then killed Jango and Syfo-Dyas before eventually letting Boba Fett know about the existence of the Clone Army 38 years BBY, setting off the Clone Wars.

Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi Overall pretty Bro-Tier. Qui-Gon instinctively rejects a lot of the reactionary nonsense of the Jedi Order, although he believes that the Sith are out there. He believes in a lot of crazy stuff as a result, chiefly the prophesy about a Chosen One that's going to bring balance to the Force. Obi-Wan doesn't buy any of this, like at all making him possibly the only entirely Sane member of the Jedi Order at the start of the Campaign. Obi-Wan is 21 at the start of the campaign. The pair have been looking for Padme since 42 years BBY.

Padme and Anakin Both are 19 at the start of the Campaign and both are stuck on Tatooine at the edge of Hutt Space. Padme is the former Princess Elect of the planet Naboo. She's idealistic and genuinely believes in the value of the Republic and that Naboo should bring change through participation even though she sympathizes with the plight of both the Colonial Territories and the Independent Systems such as Naboo. Unfortunately the People of Naboo didn't agree and deposed her mother the Queen Elect with the assistance of the Trade Federation 2 years previously kicking off the Separatist Crisis. She nearly got away but instead got captured and sold as a slave to Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine to keep her from becoming a figurehead for resistance.
Anakin is an orphan who cares deeply about his adoptive mother Shmi Skywalker, he's also Force Sensitive, relatively strongly in fact. Raised as a slave in Jabba's Palace on Tatooine Anakin earned enough to buy his freedom by pit-fighting and swoop racing. Following this he elected to stay on with Jabba and has become one of his top guards/enforcers on Tatooine from the time he was 16. A year prior to the campaign he bought his adoptive mother's freedom. Despite having accomplished his initial goals Anakin continues to work for Jabba to protect Padme. The two are already in love at the start of the campaign and Anakin is actively looking for a way off of Tatooine. Both were born 59 years BBY.

The party elected to work for Dooku beginning 40 years BBY until 23 years BBY when it became apparent that Anakin was serious about ending the Jedi Order altogether and accidentally broke the minds of most Force Sensitives in the process.

They started the campaign on Tatooine trying to prevent Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon from finding and rescuing Padme, flipping them over to Dooku's cause if they could and bringing Padme back to Dooku to become a separatist figurehead via propaganda. They managed to flip Qui-Gon although in doing so they enabled Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme to escape.
Darth Maul got involved on Sidious' behalf when it became apparent that "everyone needed to die so no one succeeds."

[Mutazoia]

Personally, I think you've passed up a HUGE opportunity here. You could have completely divorced yourself and your game from the cinematic prequels, and started with a totally fresh story, new NPCs, locales, and situations, rather than doing an RPG version of "The Phantom Edit."

Done correctly, your players wouldn't have even known they were in the prequels, until they ran into a very young Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi....and then they would have been surprised and excited.

[Beleriphon]

I hand alternate universe Star Wars kind of like this once. Prequels go as storied, until the very end. Anakin defeats Obi-wan and stabs Sidious straight through the face, and takes declares himself Emperor, claiming that the rogue Jedi Obi-wan Kenobi killed Palpatine and that Anakin is the rightful heir. Anakin becomes Emperor, I envisioned him the as the Kyle Ren kind of Supreme Leader years before TFA and TLJ were even envisioned. Luke and Leia are his Sith heirs and he pits them against each another in a Machiavellian game, they hate each other. Han is Admiral Solo of the Imperial Fleet, he treats Chewbacca as a bodyguard and pet. Lando is still Lando but he owns the Falcon.

I even had plans for Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. Anakin, now being a powerful dark side user and Emperor, decides its time to put Tattooine to the torch since he hates sand so much.

[DanTDM]

Hi

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[Blackhawk748]

@jojo I like some of your ideas and im going to shamelessly steal them. So, new plan:

In 125 BBY Wild Space saw a massive influx of various peoples. Many left the rigid and calcified Core worlds to improve their lives, some, like the Mandalorians, left to spread their culture. The Mandalorians where the most successful, with the doctrine of the Protectors and the Super-Commandos being quite popular in the various regions of Wild Space. So much so that Mandalorians could be seen on nearly every planet that allowed off worlders in Wild Space.

In 115 BBY the Mandalorians of Wild Space wanted to create a second home for themselves, New Mandalore. They were led there by Mandalore the Sojourner, a former Jedi who found their way among the Mandalorians. This terrified the powers inside the Republic and so the Mandalorian Exsurgency occurred.

The Exsurgency was the glassing of New Mandalore by many of the old powers of the Republic. The planet and over 95% of its inhabitants, which numbered in the billions, where swept away in a matter of hours. The Jedi and the Chancellor at the time where horrified and demanded and explanation. They were given information that the Mandalorians where going to begin a crusade and that this was a preemptive strike. Neither realized that the information was false.

And so the Exsurgency faded from peoples minds, but not the Mandalorians. They remembered, and they wanted justice, and thus the Deathwatch was born.

In 33 BBY the Republic is investigating the Trade Federation for its increased Militarization. The Federation contends that it must have more arms because of the dangers of the Outer Rim, dangers that the Republic could curb if it chose to. The Republic, in response, chose to remove the Free Trade Zones that the Federation operated in. Small planets in the Federation, like Naboo, where hit hardest by this and protested. The Federation, in an attempt to leverage more power in the Senate, gain more allies, increase its public goodwill, and increase profits, puts forward the motion to officially recognize many of the planets in Wild Space as sovereign, thus they could be taxed and the money used to increase protection.

This was immediately shot down by the Core worlds, who did not wish to lose their hegemony.

After this the Deathwatch came to the Trade Federation with a plan. The Trade Federation would accept the current state of affairs, but continue to militarize. Both groups knew that the Republic would object and most likely launch an investigation or open negotiations. When this happened the Deathwatch would "attack" and take control of a Droid Command Ship, taking Gunray "hostage". Eventually they would be "defeated" by the combined efforts of the Techno Union (who was also very unhappy with the Core Worlds hegemony) and the Federation, thus showing that the current Republic efforts where insufficient and that more planets must be brought in to increase revenue.

So this will all happen on Naboo, and the PCs will enter the stage with Qui Gon and Obi Wan onto the Lucrehulk as expected. Pre Vizsla will have his Deathwatch commandos attack and take over the ship, driving the party out and onto the planet with his invasion army. Now the plot to escape Naboo follows as normal, except with Mandalorians controlling the droids trying to capture Queen Amidala.

This changes things long game. Regardless of how this goes the Deathwatch knows that this is just the opening gambit. The Trade Federation and the Techno Union both plan on seceding from the Republic in the near future, taking many of the worlds that they influence with them, as the Outer Rim is not happy with the Core and Colony worlds. Deathwatch has actually been planning for this for years, stockpiling weapons, and making clones. But not just any clones, no, these clones are of Mandalore the First, an army of Taung clones.

So yes, the clone wars will actually have clone vs clone fighting, though the Republic is gonna have way more, so the droids will come into play as well.

The Mandalorians are split, however. Duchess Satine is on Mandalore proper and is for working within the system to keep the Mandalorians intact and alive, while Pre is all for remaking the Mandalorian Empire. Satine is backed by the Protectors while Pre obviously has the Deathwatch. The Super-Commandos are off doing SC things, though most of them seem to favor Satine over Pre.