Welcome to a new/old take on the Star Wars galaxy. The general idea of
this new galaxy is a return to the series' roots. Before Star Wars was
about epic battles between good and evil, it was the story of a ragtag
team flying around in a scrappy little ship. Some of them are Rebels,
some are sympathizers, and some are only out for themselves. During
their journey, they encounter the Empire and the Rebellion, and in the
end, they battle and defeat evil.
In the decades since 1977, the series has gradually upscaled, and
we've almost entirely lost the idea of the scrappy band of good guys.
The Star Wars galaxy has become more orderly, with the series' focus
gradually shifting away from the galactic rim and increasingly towards
Coruscant. This RP strives to focus more on the original Star Wars -
something we really don't see much around these boards. We'll also be
drawing upon may of Lucas's influences, including Western concepts and
Japanese concepts such as the yamabushi.
For this RP, only the first film is 100% canon (and even then,
there are minor changes). The other two films in the trilogy are
partial canon: I'm willing to include elements such as Hoth and Yoda,
but I'm not keen on adding any elements that take away from the Star
Wars feel I'm going for. The Force, for instance, is going to be mostly
constrained to its interpersonal and perception-altering qualities. I'd
like to downplay its telekinetic aspects, and lightning is more or less
off limits. But we'll see.
Our story centers upon the exploits of another scrappy little ship
and its ragtag crew. Our narrative will follow an episodic format, one
which consists of a (mostly) continuous series of our heroes exploits.
I'd like to keep the ship's crew to a manageable size, by which I mean
probably something like an eight-person maximum to start off, though
maybe less. If I can get five or six dedicated crew members, I might
consider keeping the crew that small for the first episode, and
depending on how well that goes, expanding in future episodes.
So if you don't make it aboard the ship right off the bat, don't
fret. If this succeeds, I'm definitely looking to expand this in the
future. And even if growth stabilizes, I still expect people to come
and go, which will leave us with open slots from time to time. The
episodic format allows us to add players fairly easily.
Another opportunity for non-crew players comes in the form of side
characters. I'd like to include characters in this who aren't part of
the crew, but are still significant - they just don't show up every
episode. Some of these would be one-time guest appearances, but I see
lots of room for recurring characters - especially in terms of
villains, crime lords, and Imperial forces. There's plenty of important
figures who wouldn't fit in on the ship, but who warrant a place in our
story.
That said, welcome aboard the Ronin. It's a light
freighter, fast enough to escape most trouble that comes its way. For
everything else, the ship is equipped with a set of frontal blasters
and a couple side turrets. I'll be playing the captain, using him as a
means to assert my GM influence. But for the most part, I'd like to
keep my focus on the players. I'd even go so far as to consider the
possibility of episodes that 'feature' a certain character, if you PM
me a request along with some ideas for the episode. In fact, (if you so
desired) I'd be open to the possibility of the player co-GMing for a
single episode. I imagine it's tough to get into GMing, so I'd like to
present the possibility of getting into GMing in a fairly limited
situation, as a sort of introduction. Or even for experienced GMs, if
they wanna run an episode.
I'm also may be interested in eventually adding a permanent co-GM.
Anybody interested should inform me; in any case, I probably wouldn't
be selecting one until a few episodes in, and I'll probably wait until
I've seen you co-GM an episode before making a final decision. If
anyone's interested in developing this galaxy from an idea standpoint,
go on and check out the planning thread, where we've been working out ideas for about a month now. And feel free to drop me a PM anytime.