Choosing Planets for Star Wars RPG

[Great cthulhu]

A late Happy may 4th everybody!

I am starting a campaign for the star wars RPG and I am somewhat conflicted on what planet to set the campaign on. Im running it using my own weird old republic-y canon of my own creation so that players basically cannot metagame in any way and I have more liberty to do what I want. However, many things stay the same in this canon. Jedi/Sith, mandalorians, the republic, and of course, planets.

A few weeks before the campaign starts I am going to have a table of ten planets. One will be chosen by a d10 as the starting planet. The basic parameters for choosing which world on this list is the following:
1: The planet cannot be exclusively home to a single species (eg. Toydaria, Ryloth, I would go as far as to say mandalore as well)
2: The planets on this list cannot fundamentally change the way the game is played (must be earthlike) (coruscant is completely city, mustafar is a molten volcano world)
3: the planets must be for the most part settled (Alderaan is completely settled, dantooine is mostly settled, endor is NOT)
4: the planet cannot be some weird, obscure planet with a single paragraph on wookiepedia. It should be a planet I could immediately recognize as a star wars fan.

With these parameters in place, what planets would you recommend on this list? I need five planets. To give some perspective on some of the planets I am already putting in:

1: Corellia: This in my opinion fits the bill the most. It is completely settled, home to a number of species, and has a long galactic history.
2: Onderon: While not completely settled, onderon is a jungle world that can be home to a number of fun adventures.
3: Tatooine: Yes I know this is a stretch of the "earth like" quality, but its a memorable planet with a diverse number of creatures, settlements and places, so Im putting it in there with them
4: Dantooine: While only partially settled, dantooine fits the bill for a lot of these constaints. I might have to work out how to make it more interesting.
5: Naboo: Home to both humans and gungans, the ancient statues and ruins seen in the phantom menace echo a greater past that could certainly be explored in my campaign, so there is potential there.

Sorry that was a long read, but I look forward to seeing what kinds of planets people might suggest.
Thanks, and may the force be with you!

[False God]

Ord Mantell is a good one, long Republic history, fairly settled, earth-like.

Taris, heavily settled, Coruscant-like cities on part of the planet.

Dromund Kass, if you decide to head into the heart of the Empire. (there are a number of lore-developed planets that fit your bill in the Empire that few people get to see in games).

Unfortunately, Star Wars tends to lean heavily into the "one sentient race per planet" trope as well as the "water level, fire level, grass level..." planet trope. If you're avoiding stuff like the city-worlds and the non-human-primary worlds (like Toydaria or Ryloth or even Mustafar), you'll unfortunately find that humans absolutely dominate the landscape, even on Corellia (which is actually verging on a city-planet even in the old Republic days). I'd personally suggest reconsidering the city-planets, in part because they tend to have a lot of lore and also because they're detailed to have multiple "biomes" as you travel up and down them. They can pose other difficulties for games though (in theory, you can get everything on Coruscant).

[Great cthulhu]

Ord Mantell is perfect suggestion. I will certainly put it on the list.
Dromund Kaas belongs to the sith empire. This complicates things. Its one of the sith capitals. In this campaign, corellia, while one of the available planets, is under the control of the sith. Its a police state under an occupying toltalitarian dictatorship. People are kidnapped as human sacrifices to the sith. Depraved sorcerers lurk in the streets to feed on victims force energy. If corellia is that way one could only imagine what the CAPITAL of the sith empire could be like. Its so brutal, I almost dont want my players to have to deal with that.

As for the "humans comprise the majority population thing" I considered that as well, but from my observation it would seem that in many of the human settled planets there are considerable alien populations. However, it doesnt seem to work vice versa for planets with majority alien population (eg. there are basically zero humans on ryloth)

otherwise very good suggestions. Thanks

[LibraryOgre]

Mataou, from Uprising, might be a good place. Former Hutt world, abandoned by them, but still with farmers and criminals.

Mon Cala. Manaan. Like Tattooine, they stretch "Earth-like". Manaan is mostly selkath, but Mon Cala has bother the Mon Calamari and the Quarren.

You might also take a look at the planet list for The Old Republic. They might not be instant recognition, but they can give you some ideas.

[Mechalich]

You might also take a look at the planet list for The Old Republic. They might not be instant recognition, but they can give you some ideas.

Indeed. Several of those planets are well known. Ord Mantell, Balmorra, and Nal Hutta have long Legends histories. Rishi is at least mentioned in AotC. All four planets are Earth-like, mostly settled, and have multi-species populations. Belsavis and Quesh, also from SWTOR, fit the bill as well, but are less well known.

You might also consider Brentaal IV - extremely important strategically and commercially, mixed-species population; Chandrila - home of Mon Mothma, similar to Alderaan but more agriculture focused; or Serenno - Count Dooku's forested homeworld, an important outpost on the Hydian Way.

[Scots Dragon]

You can always invent new worlds, and there are random generators online to help with that. Star Wars is really effin' big, with the Empire at its height having 1,500,000 primary star systems under their control, and a nice 69,000,000 lesser colonies.

You'd be lucky if even a single percentage of the number of possible planets and worlds have been discovered. Just make some new ones up that fit your needs, and you can add your own plot hooks and ideas there.

[JusticeZero]

Another vote for inventing places. Make a small constellation of interconnected unique worlds, nothing too exotic, and present them in brief at your Session Zero as places they can start. Flesh them out as you go.
I feel the places that have had things done on them have had their stories told to a certain extent. You're still working with recognizable history, the events affecting the world are immediately recognizable.

[The_Snark]

While inventing your own worlds can be a lot of fun, I don't think it's what the original poster wants here, since according to criterion #4 they want planets that a fairly casual Star Wars fan can look at and go "hey, I know that place!"

[Mechalich]

As for the "humans comprise the majority population thing" I considered that as well, but from my observation it would seem that in many of the human settled planets there are considerable alien populations. However, it doesnt seem to work vice versa for planets with majority alien population (eg. there are basically zero humans on ryloth)

This has a lot to do with demographics. Humans represent ~50% of the galaxy's population of sapient beings. The next most populous species is Twi'leks, who account for less than 5%. This combines with Humans early spread to make the overwhelming majority of the important worlds on major hyperlanes human dominated - Coruscant itself is the premier example, since it sits at one of the most important hyperlane nexuses in the galaxy. Consequently there's a massive impetus for those species who are interested in participating in the galactic culture and economy to move to human dominated planets. Note that this is a rather short list. There are potentially several million sapient species in the Star Wars galaxy, but less than 100 have any regular interaction with affairs beyond their homeworlds. The same alien species - a list that matches quite closely to the list of species appearing in SWTOR - show up over and over again.

While inventing your own worlds can be a lot of fun, I don't think it's what the original poster wants here, since according to criterion #4 they want planets that a fairly casual Star Wars fan can look at and go "hey, I know that place!"

This is, unfortunately, a fairly short list. The various films use the same planets repeatedly. Mando has visited some other places, but for the most part they've been pretty underdeveloped or unmemorable. TCW uses a bunch of places, but its more memorable locations were mostly pre-existing. Rebels happens primarily on Lothal, which, actually, is a good choice, during the Old Republic Era it has a Jedi Temple and everything.

[Jackaccount]

Telos or Taris might be fun for a frontier planet. Both planets were destroyed by sith bombardment and were actively being resettled/terraformed by the Old Republic era. Players could go treasure hunting, investigate stolen resettlement funds, contain a gizka outbreak in a fragile ecosystem, etc.

[False God]

Also I HIGHLY recommend this website: http://www.swgalaxymap.com/

Lets you search the entire Star Wars galaxy google-maps style, and can uncover some interesting worlds (with or without detailed lore) in areas that are either close to notable planets you're already using, or in areas of the galaxy you'd like to send your players to. Maybe the BBEG is hiding out on a planet in a nearby system, or the group needs to head into a certain sector but needs to set down someone isolated for repairs.

They might not be as recognizable to the average Star-Wars-er but "recognition by association", ie: it's close to somewhere they recognize, can be a good way to introduce new lore to folks.

[Scots Dragon]

I am starting a campaign for the star wars RPG and I am somewhat conflicted on what planet to set the campaign on. Im running it using my own weird old republic-y canon of my own creation so that players basically cannot metagame in any way and I have more liberty to do what I want. However, many things stay the same in this canon. Jedi/Sith, mandalorians, the republic, and of course, planets.

A few weeks before the campaign starts I am going to have a table of ten planets. One will be chosen by a d10 as the starting planet. The basic parameters for choosing which world on this list is the following:
1: The planet cannot be exclusively home to a single species (eg. Toydaria, Ryloth, I would go as far as to say mandalore as well)
2: The planets on this list cannot fundamentally change the way the game is played (must be earthlike) (coruscant is completely city, mustafar is a molten volcano world)
3: the planets must be for the most part settled (Alderaan is completely settled, dantooine is mostly settled, endor is NOT)
4: the planet cannot be some weird, obscure planet with a single paragraph on wookiepedia. It should be a planet I could immediately recognize as a star wars fan.

With these parameters in place, what planets would you recommend on this list? I need five planets. To give some perspective on some of the planets I am already putting in:

1: Corellia: This in my opinion fits the bill the most. It is completely settled, home to a number of species, and has a long galactic history.
2: Onderon: While not completely settled, onderon is a jungle world that can be home to a number of fun adventures.
3: Tatooine: Yes I know this is a stretch of the "earth like" quality, but its a memorable planet with a diverse number of creatures, settlements and places, so Im putting it in there with them
4: Dantooine: While only partially settled, dantooine fits the bill for a lot of these constaints. I might have to work out how to make it more interesting.
5: Naboo: Home to both humans and gungans, the ancient statues and ruins seen in the phantom menace echo a greater past that could certainly be explored in my campaign, so there is potential there.

Lothal. It's basically on the same level as Tatooine and Dantooine in terms of settlement and versatility of local species, plus a huge notable capital city.

Spoiler

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It's also got a Jedi Temple, and there's a metric buttload of information on it thanks to it being a major focus of the animated series Star Wars: Rebels.

[Beelzebub1111]

A lot of alien homworlds are currently cosmopolitan and still recognizable.

I mean Nal Hutta could be an option. It's the Hutt Homeworld but is still fairly cosmopolitan as a center of organized crime.

Bothawui is a comercial hub, a settled earthlike planet for all manner of trade and espionage. Bothan politics can keep the place really interesting.

[Mechalich]

A lot of alien homworlds are currently cosmopolitan and still recognizable.

They really aren't. Chagrian, Duros, Devaronians, Kel Dor, Mirialans, Mon Calamari, Rodians, Togruta, Twi'leks, Wookiees, Zabraks, none of them have cosmopolitan homeworlds. Also the various Hutt slave species: Klatoonians, Niktos, Weequays, etc. aren't allowed to welcomed visitors from outside.

Nal Hutta and Bothawui are exceptions, both for the same reason. The Bothans and the Hutts choose to play politics in a Human-dominated galaxy while most other species either play by the democratic rules that the Humans have established or bow out from galactic affairs. This has gone extremely well for the Hutts and not quite as well for the Bothans.

[Beelzebub1111]

I suppose that's true. Those were the first that sprung to mind for me and didn't consider the rest.