Simplified clone war explanation.

[Froogleyboy]

Ok, I'm starting a clone wars campaign and one player knows only of the clone wars from the line "You fought in the clone wars?" from a new hope. what is a very simple way for me to explain the clone wars.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Due to trade taxes, part of the Republic rebels, and uses vast Droid armies. To counter the Separatists, clone armies are created using the genetic template of Jango Fett, Boba's father.

This is all a plan by the Sith Dark Sidious who is playing both sides so that he may come out on top in full power no matter who wins.

The Republic wins, but it becomes the Empire in order to consolidate strength and make sure a rebellion never happens again. Clone troopers become stormtroopers.

[Ichneumon]

I'm not sure if I'm entirely correct, I don't live in Star Wars anymore.

Let's see, some race made clones of a human money to work as an army for the senate, for money. The dark Jedi took control of the republic and wanted to turn in into an empire. Some resistent and the resistance had these clones fighting for them.

[Tallis]

I'm not sure if I'm entirely correct, I don't live in Star Wars anymore.

Let's see, some race made clones of a human money to work as an army for the senate, for money. The dark Jedi took control of the republic and wanted to turn in into an empire. Some resistent and the resistance had these clones fighting for them.

The clones fought for the Republic (later the Empire) not the resistance.

[Ichneumon]

The clones fought for the Republic (later the Empire) not the resistance.

Really? I'm confused.

[Dixieboy]

Really? I'm confused.

The clones were 100% loyal to the senate, to such an extend that they were willing to kill jedis whom they had befriended during the execution of order 66.

[Thrawn183]

Basically, the not-yet emperor engineered the revolution by the separatists so that he could consolidate power. His power mostly took the form of his clone army which was extremely loyal to him and, surprise surprise, the predecessors of storm troopers.

I mean, that's basically the entire prequal trilogy
Movie 1: Actions of the trade federation allows him to assume the highest position of power.
Movie 2: He has ordered the formation of an army loyal to him.
Movie 3: He simultaneously eliminates all those who are a threat to his power leaving no major power bases left except for his own.

[Dark Herald]

The simplest way would be to show him the movies...

Palpatine was a senator from naboo. He got voted as the Supreme Chancelor. He secretly made an army of clones. He also secretly started up the rebellion. The rebellion used battle droids, and had some Sith working in it's ranks. The clone army was "discovered" at the same time the separatists were considering open war. Palpetine was granted emergency powers that he then used to legalize the purchase and use of the clone army to fight the separatists. Fear ruled the senate, and the vote passed, and Palpetine was left essentially controlling both sides in the conflict. The Jedi and the good guys were initially acting on the side of the Republic, but they were horified by what palpetine did/what was discovered about him, that he was a sith lord. Then he killed them all. At the and of the third movie the clone wars effectively ended, with the separatists' leaders beiong killed by Anakin and their armies defeated after the battle of Utapau/Kasshyk/the rest of the fights on other planets. The rebellion of the Original Trilogy was different, because Palpetine wasn't controlling it.

That paragraph should work, assuming they know about the old republic. If not, then Just read the Wikipedia Entries for those movies, cause there aren't really any spoilers.

Simple from the in universe viewpoint would be:
Jedi plus clones versus Droids and Sith, Clones win kill Jedi, Clones rule with iron fist.

[kamikasei]

Were the Separatists connected to the Rebel Alliance? I hadn't thought so. (For example, the Mon Calamari were aided by the Republic in the Clone Wars against the Separatist Quarren.)

Basically: Palpatine, the Dark Lord of the Sith, infiltrated the Senate. He engineered a secession movement within the Republic who used vast droid armies. This allowed him (through proxies) to push through an expansion of the Republic's military using cloned troopers. The clones fought for the "good guys" in the Clone Wars, but it was all a feint: Palpatine used the threat he created to gather more and more power to himself to resolve it, eventually ending up with permanent emergency powers and a massive army he had secret control over, which he used to eliminate the Jedi, and declared himself Emperor.

[Raltar]

Honestly? Tell him to take a weekend afternoon to watch Episodes 1, 2 and 3. They aren't horrible movies people make them out to be(though, I will admit they aren't nearly as good as the original trilogy). And if he can, watch the already released Clone Wars animated series(a bunch of 3-10 minute episodes) or even the current Clone Wars animated series.

[SilverSheriff]

I can sum it up in a 7 words and 1 initial.:

Samuel L. Jackson is the worst Jedi EVER.

[bosssmiley]

Ok, I'm starting a clone wars campaign and one player knows only of the clone wars from the line "You fought in the clone wars?" from a new hope. what is a very simple way for me to explain the clone wars.

Show; don't tell, and let the player learn by doing. Have the player learn about what the Clone Wars are through play. Don't spoonfeed him a load of late Lucasian guff. Instead let him retain the sense of wonder and mystery that was evoked in the auditor by the original throwaway line in Star Wars.

The prequel trilogy (and all the accompanying cartoons, books, and other merchandise) failed to live up to the promise of a single line delivered by Alec Guinness. You must do better.

[SilverSheriff]

Show; don't tell, and let the player learn by doing. Have the player learn about what the Clone Wars are through play. Don't spoon-feed him a load of late Lucasian guff. Instead let him retain the sense of wonder and mystery that was evoked in the auditor by the original throwaway line in Star Wars.

The prequel trilogy (and all the accompanying cartoons, books, and other merchandise) failed to live up to the promise of a single line delivered by Alec Guinness. You must do better.

I agree here, it might give him some sense of Immersion in the story. If he is playing a Jedi though you might want to spoon-feed him what being a Jedi is all about.

[Cyclocone]

Show; don't tell, and let the player learn by doing. Have the player learn about what the Clone Wars are through play. Don't spoonfeed him a load of late Lucasian guff. Instead let him retain the sense of wonder and mystery that was evoked in the auditor by the original throwaway line in Star Wars.

The prequel trilogy (and all the accompanying cartoons, books, and other merchandise) failed to live up to the promise of a single line delivered by Alec Guinness. You must do better.

+1.

The New Trilogy was a really nasty shock for some of the more dedicated fans. Many of them just bottled the whole thing up inside and refuse to talk about it.
So if your prospective players enjoyed the old trilogy, they might not appreciate the new emo-Vader, and making them watch the movies could potentially be a major turn-off.

Slowly revealing the story through role-playing is vastly preferable to 6 hours in the company of GL's hapless dialogue.

Anyway, short movie summary:
There's this guy called Sid who's really evil, so he becomes a politician. Then, using robots and clones, Sid starts a war to increase his own political power, and eventually takes over the universe galaxy. Along the way he ruins the Jedi by either getting them killed or turning them into whiny emos.
Cue: The Old Trilogy.

[Obrysii]

The prequel trilogy (and all the accompanying cartoons, books, and other merchandise) failed to live up to the promise of a single line delivered by Alec Guinness. You must do better.

Completely agree 100%. To me, when he mentions "the clone wars" ... it just evokes an awe and mystery. It makes me wonder just what it was - though I do not actually want to know what it was.

[shadow_archmagi]

Palpatine, the evil emperor from the Original Trilogy, isn't emperor yet. But he likes giant armies, so he buys a droid army and a clone army. Then he gives one army to each side and has them fight.

Since he won the war, the people elect him Super President. He thinks this is pretty cool, so he decides to ratchet it up to Emperor. Some jedi are like "LOL NO" but he has a clone army shoot them.


EDIT: I agree, just leave it as is. There's enough silliness involved in the RPG genre as it is without making people watch SIX HOURS of backstory.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Were the Separatists connected to the Rebel Alliance? I hadn't thought so. (For example, the Mon Calamari were aided by the Republic in the Clone Wars against the Separatist Quarren.)

Nope. The Petition of Two Thousand (2000 senators who didn't like what Palpatine was up to) asked him to cede power and return things to the ante bellum status quo and so forth; after he politely refused via late-night assassinations, the three remaining senators (Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Garm Bel Iblis) started the Alliance to Restore the Republic, using Mothma's oratory, Bail's resistance cells and training, and Bel Iblis's military background and forces.

(And yes, this was all well established in the EU before the movies-that-shall-not-be-named puked all over continuity. )

[kamikasei]

Interesting.

Oh, and OP, if the issue is to bring a player in a CW-era game up to speed then all he really needs to know is "this is the Republic, that the Jedi served, which eventually becomes the Empire; there is a civil war, the separatist movement uses droid armies, the Republic has created a clone army in response, the Jedi are leading these clones to defend the Republic".

[Artanis]

The simplest way would be to show him the movies...

Show; don't tell

These.

But if you absolutely, positively, MUST use words...

A bunch of ultra-super-megarich guys decided they didn't want to be part of the Republic, so they (literally) built an army of droids and started a war. The Republic didn't like this, so they cloned Boba Fett's dad - who was even more badass than Boba Fett, by the way - a couple gajillion times and had the clones follow Jedi around pretending to look useful as the Jedi chopped up droids with their lightsabers. Then Palpatine used the war as an excuse to get the Senate to name him Emperor, and promptly had Darth Vader and the clones kill off all the Jedi (they missed Yoda and Obi-Wan though).

A little while later, Darth Vader's wife had twins, and the rest is history.

The New Trilogy was a really nasty shock for some of the more dedicated fans. Many of them just bottled the whole thing up inside and refuse to talk about it.

Genndy Tatarkovski's series was pretty good though.

[ColdSepp]

Nope. The Petition of Two Thousand (2000 senators who didn't like what Palpatine was up to) asked him to cede power and return things to the ante bellum status quo and so forth; after he politely refused via late-night assassinations, the three remaining senators (Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Garm Bel Iblis) started the Alliance to Restore the Republic, using Mothma's oratory, Bail's resistance cells and training, and Bel Iblis's military background and forces.

(And yes, this was all well established in the EU before the movies-that-shall-not-be-named puked all over continuity. )

Or, if you want to go for the UE version, it was all a plan by Palpatine to prepare the galaxy for the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. In fact, this was the only reason Mitth'raw'nuruodo joined up with the Empire.

*See Outbound Flight, Survivors Quest and Hand of Thrawn Duology

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Or, if you want to go for the UE version, it was all a plan by Palpatine to prepare the galaxy for the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. In fact, this was the only reason Mitth'raw'nuruodo joined up with the Empire.

*See Outbound Flight, Survivors Quest and Hand of Thrawn Duology

Well, the Petition of Two Thousand was why the Alliance formed itself; why Palpatine maneuvered events such that the Alliance was formed is a different story.

[ColdSepp]

Well, the Petition of Two Thousand was why the Alliance formed itself; why Palpatine maneuvered events such that the Alliance was formed is a different story.

Agreed.

[shadow_archmagi]

I refuse to count Force Unleashed as canon.

[Froogleyboy]

I've always had conflicted views about the clone wars. Who should i say is the good guys and the bad guys

[Knaight]

Wait, there was a prequel trilogy? And what is force unleashed? I can't say I'm aware of the existence of either of these things.

[hamishspence]

The Force Unleashed is a computer game, and novel, outlining the early years of the Rebellion- the point when it stopped being lots of insurgent groups, and started being one big movement.

Its so-so at best, though some readers like it more than others.

[AstralFire]

I've always had conflicted views about the clone wars. Who should i say is the good guys and the bad guys

Neither. Separatists weren't as noble as the Jedi, obviously, but they had some legitimate complaints.

Also, the prequel trilogy's underrated. The OT was not exactly amazing and consistently high quality with regards to writing, except for ESB, which still has its weaker moments. I've always enjoyed Star Wars for the concept of the setting, and the visceral enjoyment of the visuals. Not to mention, Lucas came up with some pretty good ideas in both, even if the writing isn't always consistent.

The Force Unleashed is a computer game, and novel, outlining the early years of the Rebellion- the point when it stopped being lots of insurgent groups, and started being one big movement.

Its so-so at best, though some readers like it more than others.

Knaight was being silly.

[Ichneumon]

So why are that green sage little man who's name I really should remember and Anakin helped by the clones fighting droids in the arena during Attack of the clones?

[AstralFire]

The Jedi were on the Republic/Empire's side up until it became the Empire.

[Froogleyboy]

So. . . which side should the PC's be on?