[Star Wars] Eras of Play: Which is your preferred, and why?

[Kiero]

Simple as that, do you have any preferences as to when your games take place? Do you have any you won't play?

For clarity, I'm using the following definitions of eras:
Old Republic (25,000-1,000BBY). Major sub-eras within this include Knights of the Old Republic (loosely 4,000-3,000BBY) and Jedi v Sith/Darth Bane (roughly 2,000BBY).
Rise of Empire (1,000-0BBY). Major sub-eras include the Clone Wars (22-19BBY) and the Dark Times (19-0BBY).
The Rebellion (0BBY-5ABY), which is also called the Classic era.
The New Republic (5-25ABY).
New Jedi Order (25-40ABY).
Legacy (40ABY onwards).
Infinites (anything that doesn't fit into the canonical timeline because of major setting changes).

So which do you like, and why?

[Kiero]

I love the freedom of KotOR, it's my preferred era by a long way. It's my first choice for anything I'm GMing, and would be as a player, too. The KotOR games and comics have redeemed Star Wars for me in a big way, it had become a thoroughly stale franchise far too tied up with people called Skywalker before that.

I won't by choice play a Rebellion, New Republic or New Jedi Order game for two reasons: the aforementioned Skywalkers, and the Vong. Legacy I can tolerate (I have to for a pre-existing game that I joined), but I prefer Old Republic by a long way.

I also like the Dark Times, even though it's slowly filling up with canon, for a different tone of game. However, it would be secondary to KotOR, I've played more than enough "you can't be Jedi/Jedi are hunted" games in my lifetime.

I'm just about to run a short game set on Taris during the Mandalorian occupation, in the early days of the Mandalorian Wars.

[Attilargh]

I really like the Old Republic era around Knights of the Old Republic. It's really open, as it hasn't yet been crushed under a plethora of novels and stuff. I personally don't like deviating from canon if I can help it, so not having much of it is actually pretty fun. The era also has all the elements I like about Star Wars, such as Jedi, Sith, lightsaber duels, blaster-slinging scoundrels, dramatic villains, and lots of mooks in face-concealing helmets. Plus, the coolest disposable fighter ever. I love the Sith Interceptor.

I also like the period from the Dark Times to the end of the Rebellion era, with all its Imperial oppression, grit, blocky starships, grit and the desperate yet optimistic resistance movement.

Thinking about it, those two eras really distill what I think of as Star Wars. KotOR has that "To the stars! We must defend the weak! *lightsaber sounds*" thing, while the other is all about doggedly fighting the evil, oppressive Empire, never losing hope.

[Jerthanis]

Throw my hat in with the Old Republic, particularly around Knights of the Old Republic setting. It's got a great mix of every classic story element, without scraping your elbows on canon on both sides. So far as I'm concerned, Star Wars is mediocre space fantasy with one REALLY good idea, which is the Force/Jedi, so I don't see the point in running or playing a game where the plot isn't heavily based around the Force and conflicts between the Jedi. Because you can't be Jedi between the years -19 BBY and like, 10 ABY without feeling like you're flying in the face of 95% of established canon that you may as well be receiving the Millenium Falcon as a gift from Han Solo in the first session, I have little interest there.

The Clone Wars might have been fun if you didn't know how they ended... and starting the campaign with the promise of, "Your character WILL be ganked by nameless, faceless troops at the end, and you'll die an ignominious death having failed to stop the big bad's plan." sounds... like I'd have to be in the mood to play a tragic game.

NJO would be my next choice after Knights of the Old Republic, because you can be a Jedi, and the advantage is that you can be a Jedi with a wildly radical idea of what the role of Jedi should be... You could say, "Jedi should be acrobat-entertainers, using the force to amuse and delight! It'd spread joy to the universe!" and spend the game trying to convince Luke to change his mind about the Order and not be QUITE the most insane Jedi of the age. The problem is that once again, you're going to be sucked into a war with an implacable foe. I'd probably want to play pre-NJO New Republic, like, around the time of the Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast/Academy games, where there's still skirmishes with the Remnant, but it's mostly peaceful.

[Satyr]

When we played Star Wars, we took the original movies as an in-universe propaganda movie of the New Republic which had as much to do with the true events of the war as Eisenstein's October with the Russian Revolution; the Jedis are little more than a sect of religious fanatics who recruit psionicists and force them into their doctrin; the Rebel Alliance had a fable for nerve gas and little to no constraints to use weapons of mass destruction against civil targets; the Empire was the Empire and acted with all the tolerance and respect for human rights of a military dictatorship. The player characters where right in the middle of it and tried to dodge the attention of either side, or were forced into service of one party or the other.

[Kiero]

When we played Star Wars, we took the original movies as an in-universe propaganda movie of the New Republic which had as much to do with the true events of the war as Eisenstein's October with the Russian Revolution; the Jedis are little more than a sect of religious fanatics who recruit psionicists and force them into their doctrin; the Rebel Alliance had a fable for nerve gas and little to no constraints to use weapons of mass destruction against civil targets; the Empire was the Empire and acted with all the tolerance and respect for human rights of a military dictatorship. The player characters where right in the middle of it and tried to dodge the attention of either side, or were forced into service of one party or the other.

You didn't answer the question. It wasn't about what you considered canon, but when you set your games.

Sounds like an Infinities variant of the New Republic era, though.

[Tyrmatt]

I tend to favour the KotOR era for actual adventuring. It's easier to set up supposed cadre's of Sith and other enemies in a time where no one is particularly sure of who should and should not be alive.
I do have a fondness for the New Jedi Order - Kyle Katarn era though.

[chiasaur11]

Tag and Bink era.

...Okay, I just wanted to mention Tag and Bink. Is that so wrong?

[warman40k]

KOTOR-era, for me by far. It has just enough canon, without being too restrictive, like the others.
I'm warming up to the NJO and Legacy era, mainly because it feels a lot more gritty, which is how I like my games.

[Swordguy]

KOTOR-era, definitely. There's pretty much nothing on the Old-Old Republic Era, the Movie era just has too much detail, and the post-ROTJ-era doesn't exist for me after the Zahn novels. Kevin J Anderson started the job of killing the EU for me, and the entirety of the Vong story arc finished the job.

[Draz74]

and the post-ROTJ-era doesn't exist for me after the Zahn novels. Kevin J Anderson started the job of killing the EU for me, and the entirety of the Vong story arc finished the job.

Sadly, this is true for me too.

Though the Zahn novels have a lot of potential for RPGing all to themselves, IMHO. Just pretend the Vong don't exist, and set the plot far away from the main characters (the galaxy is big!) during the Zahn years, and I think you've got something pretty feasible.

I can see why KotOR is a lot more open to creative DM ideas, though.

[LucyHarris]

I really like the Old Republic era around Knights of the Old Republic. It's really open, as it hasn't yet been crushed under a plethora of novels and stuff. I personally don't like deviating from canon if I can help it, so not having much of it is actually pretty fun. The era also has all the elements I like about Star Wars, such as Jedi, Sith, lightsaber duels, blaster-slinging scoundrels, dramatic villains, and lots of mooks in face-concealing helmets. Plus, the coolest disposable fighter ever. I love the Sith Interceptor.

This, a thousand times this, for the reason that I bolded. While I do like stuff from the eras that come later, they have the disadvantage of being bogged down by tons of canon material. And there is nothing that annoys me more than having my players canon-lawyering me (a problem I really can't avoid, since they all have read all of EU stuff when I haven't). Old Republic helps solve that little problem for me.

[loopy]

I must say I prefer the rebellion era, myself. Mainly because I don't actually like Jedi. I'm one of the kids who wanted to grow up to be Han Solo, not Luke Skywalker.

I generally find that Jedi (as the warrior-monks they are), don't really make for people with similar goals to the party. This is, however, tainted by the fact that all of my characters are charming rogues who tend to want to con everyone they meet out of their life savings.

I don't like the NJO era at all, I don't really like the Vong, or the character derailment, but all this is just my opinion, of course.

[Dervag]

KOTOR-era, definitely. There's pretty much nothing on the Old-Old Republic Era, the Movie era just has too much detail, and the post-ROTJ-era doesn't exist for me after the Zahn novels. Kevin J Anderson started the job of killing the EU for me, and the entirety of the Vong story arc finished the job.

Hey, you could still set a campaign after the Zahn novels. All you have to do is say "Yuuzhan Vong? What Vong?" and do whatever you feel is plausible with the character development.

It's noncanonical, but any roleplayer who can't get past that has the wrong hobby.

[Ascension]

I personally don't like deviating from canon if I can help it, so not having much of it is actually pretty fun.

On the one hand I agree with you (and I'm feeling the pain since The Old Republic is filling in some gaps in canon I had been exploiting for a game I'm running), but on the other hand, I really don't mind screwing with canon all that much. I'm running one alternate universe game and playing in another, and I think it's great fun to theorize about what might have happened had things turned out a bit differently.

Interestingly both AU games I'm in have the point where they break from canon hinging on someone not falling to the Dark Side... Revan not falling in one game and Anakin not falling in the other.

[Agrippa]

Either New Jedi Order or Old Jedi Order. New Jedi Order because it allows Jedi to be truly heroic figures, battling corruption, slavery, cruelty and abuse. Capable of being both lovers as well monks and fighters without shame, dishonesty or fear of expulsion. Old Jedi Order because it sounds really interesting to see how far one can go and still be a Jedi. As a whole they were less concerned with compassion and defending the weak and more concerned with maintaining political stability and moral purity. Perfect for Opperative and Ras al-Ghul types.

[lordhack]

I prefer a sort of psuedo-cannon Dark Times i came up with prior to episode three, with various rebel factions popping up, plenty of Jedi to lead them, and Darth Vader, along with various Dark Jedi aspiring to be Sith hunting them down. Also, Y-Wings and X-wings, even though they probably weren't allowed yet.

[Kurgan]

I must say that my preferred era of play would have to be the Old Republic era, preferably somewhere near the Jedi Civil War/Mandalorian Wars periods.

However, I do have a soft spot for the Dark Times and Rebellion era. Whenever I run in these eras I tend to avoid cannon by simply having the characters elsewhere, the galaxy is a big place, and the heroes of the Rebellion are few, so it is easy to avoid direct interactions with them. Albeit, this is relatively easy when most of the people you play with prefer to wait for plot to hit them rather than create a story of their own.

As to the mention of running a game during the Zahn books, that sounds like an excellent idea, and I might just steal it sometime down the line.

[Satyr]

You didn't answer the question. It wasn't about what you considered canon, but when you set your games.

Sounds like an Infinities variant of the New Republic era, though.

I thought that was obvious by the description. Really, the way we palyed Star Wars was more like Firefly (even though the campaign was much older), but with more Aliens and audible explosions in Space.

[Kiero]

I must say I prefer the rebellion era, myself. Mainly because I don't actually like Jedi. I'm one of the kids who wanted to grow up to be Han Solo, not Luke Skywalker.

I didn't want to be either, or any for that matter. Star Wars wasn't that influential in my childhood. Besides which, Luke is a pretty lame Jedi, and I don't really have much time for the original trilogy.

I thought that was obvious by the description. Really, the way we palyed Star Wars was more like Firefly (even though the campaign was much older), but with more Aliens and audible explosions in Space.

You've still not answered the question. What era?

[Liliedhe]

I will throw my 5 cents in for the Rise of the Empire era, either the waning years of the Republic or the Dark Times. That's pretty much where my interest in Star Wars is centered. What can I say, I'm just fascinated by the huge, huge Downer Ending of Revenge of the Sith and how it clouds everything before it... And in the Dark Times it's the aspect of the world being turned upside down and many characters losing everything they had and they were in just a few moments.

I'm playing Dawn of Defiance which is great, and DMing an Infinities version of the Dark Times, where Anakin did not fall, but Palpatine still became Emperor.

KOTOR is cool and fun, and has the advantage of a large galaxy without too much canon to get into conflict with, so I like that, too.

Rebellion era and everything after that doesn't interest me at all.

[Uin]

I've used Legacy to run the Ossus Massacre and the setting up of the Fel Empire in Exile. In a couple of weeks I'm running a few sessions which start in the last year of the Mandalorian Wars. I intend it to be a dark-side "Sith Academy" style game, training in Korriban*, some battles against the Mandalorians, culminating in taking part in Malachor V. I want to see if the party, groomed to be Hand's of Revan, save him from Bastila's Jedi strike team and Malak's cowardly betrayal.

*assumes Revan has set up Sith Training before leaving then returning to the Republic. He's a very practical guy.

[Kaihaku]

With a group that wants to play Jedi, the Old Republic is the era I prefer and there's enough open-endedness that it can fit most anything.

That said, personally, I prefer the Rebellion era. I prefer the mystical superpowers being a subtle little known thing rather than something everyone and their brother can pull off, it allows the focus to be on other interesting aspects of the Star Wars universe than just the Jedi.

The New Republic is alright for many of the same reasons as the Rebellion.

That's about all I'm interested in. The later New Republic and the New Jedi Order are...not even remotely my cup of tea.

[SmartAlec]

Rebellion era, hands down! I have a fair few of the old West End Games sourcebooks, and the amount of detail in them is excellent. Plus there's just something about the desperate nature of the Rebellion, and the unambiguous evil of the Empire under the Emperor. The idea of freedom-fighting, and asymmetrical warfare, lends itself well to a small party, like a cell of operatives or a Rebellion team of agents. I also like my Force subtle, preferring to focus on the philosophy rather than the power, and I do prefer it when, if a character wants to pursue a life as a Force-user, they have to work for it and have their character slowly learn about the Force - rather than start off as a fully-formed Jedi/Sith devotee.

Keeps things more or less balanced, too, to have a character with only a few levels of Jedi ("If you work really hard, who knows; by the end of the campaign, you might even be as powerful and skilled as Luke Skywalker was at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back"). It means I can limit the Force to only one player, too - so if there are characters who don't want to be Jedi, they don't feel out of place. One of the reasons I liked the original movies was that there were characters like Han Solo who could rock the few remaining Jedi back on their occasionally-pompous heels with a few snarky comments, something which is difficult to do in the eras when Jedi are prevalent.

[bosssmiley]

Droids & Classic Era only. The Prequel trilogy never happened.

[GAThraawn]

Mostly the Rebellion era. I have always been much more interested in the villians than the good guys, so the Jedi and the Rebellion have never held much sway with me. For me, Star Wars has always been a delightfuly exotic setting for stories about fringers, con men and smugglers; the parts of the films I've always enjoyed the most have been the backgrounds, the cantina and Jabba's palace. The enourmous amounts of cannon have actually been one of the things I like about Star Wars: with so much of it detailed already, it makes imagining playing in the sandbox so much easier, and the focus shifts from trying to comprehend the vast sci-fi world around you that just sprang half-concieved from your GM's mind, and into being able to spend all of your attentions on what you want to do in the world, because you already know so well how it works and what it contains.

Also in contrast to many people, I like the Empire exactly because I don't see it as an unoquivecably evil organization. When I saw the films for the first time, I was upset and dissapointed when Palpatine died, and I remember crying over Vader's funeral pyre. (Now, sure, Vader and Palpatine were ruthless and tyranical, I'm not disputing that even if I don like their characters.) But as far as most of the Empire goes, especially as it is painted in much of the EU, it's a much more complex and interesting government. A galaxy is far too big a scale for a democracy to ever work, and although the Empire does do some terrible things, for the most part they do a good job of running the Galaxy as effectively as is reasonably possible. I like showing my players the dillema: are the atrocities commited by a cold and efficient Empire worse than the atrocities commited by the bloated and inadequite Republics? Showing the best of the Empire and the worst of the Republics makes, to my mind, a much more interesting and layered game, especially for players with no particular alignment.

[Kiero]

A galaxy is far too big a scale for a democracy to ever work, and although the Empire does do some terrible things, for the most part they do a good job of running the Galaxy as effectively as is reasonably possible.

Aside from the twenty-odd thousand years in which it did work.

[SmartAlec]

Aside from the twenty-odd thousand years in which it did work.

I think the thing about the Republic is that there were times when it worked, but there were never times when it worked well. So many races, so many different viewpoints and mindsets; only at the times when the Republic as a whole was under threat do they really try to get along, and sometimes they don't even manage that, happy to quietly fight their small wars against their hated neighbours while Coruscant has its' hands full repelling some galactic menace.

Whereas the Republic way was to mediate, appease, and try to give everyone a chance to be heard, the Imperial way is to enforce and strong-arm races into obedience using the might of their Army and Navy, and that does actually succeed in creating stability in the galaxy. There are many ordinary people in the Rebellion era who see the Empire as the best thing ever, and the Rebellion as the second generation of the Seperatists. For those who don't, the Empire has a whole range of propaganda, including a youth club (complete with a welcome letter signed by the Emperor himself, and a free issue of the Imperial youth magazine, Iron Will). But the thing about the Empire - and the reason that, for all its' good points, it has to be stopped - is that under the rule of the Emperor, it will get steadily worse and worse.

[KillianHawkeye]

My favorite eras are the Dark Times, the Rebellion Era, and early New Republic. Mainly because I think the Empire makes the best bad guys. I like games that include such iconic things as Storm Troopers, TIE Fighters, Imperial-Class Star Destroyers, X-Wings, and Nebulon-B frigates. I like having Darth Vader be a looming threat. I like the ever-present opression and tyranny.

[Thane of Fife]

I would say Rebellion or New Republic eras. The Old Republic has never really appealed to me in any form, possibly because I like Jedi as rare, and because I find most of the Old Republic Jedi not at all to my tastes.

Contrary to what other people have said, I like the Rebellion Era because I feel it is fairly open, and leaves lots of opportunities for adventure - I'd favor it over the New Republic Era for this reason.

I would not play in a New Jedi Order or Legacy Era game - I've not read of those, but I've disliked everything I've heard.

The hardest part would be selecting what I'd count as canon - all the Zahn stuff, certainly, and the Original Trilogy, and probably almost all of the Prequel Trilogy, but a number of books wouldn't make the cut. Children of the Jedi would certainly be out, for example