What If? Star Wars Style...

As you can see from some of the links to the left, I'm a gamer. Unabashedly so.

I've run role-playing games for 30 years now, starting with the old 3 Little Black Book boxed version of Traveller and the original boxed sets of D&D & First Edition AD&D.

At this point, I run two RPG systems. Star Wars Saga Edition and d20 Modern and many of its variant flavors.

I'll talk about d20 Modern another time, but now's the time to geek out over my reimagining of the Star Wars saga. The setting is the same, the background cast of characters are the same, but everything is just slightly off. It begins one hot summer day on Tatooine, in the dusty town of Mos Espa. The Old Republic still exists. Palpatine is still just a Senator from Naboo, and Qui-Gon Jinn, along with Padme Amidala are gambling their future, indeed their lives, on a 9 year old blond slave boy who has the ability to race pods.

The race unfolds through the first lap and a half much as it does in Episode I: The Phantom Menace. On the second lap, in the film, you may recall, Anakin takes a near miss from a slugthrower rifle fired by a Tusken Raider.

In this campaign, however, the Tusken Raider doesn't miss. His bullet easily pierces Anakin's skull, disabling him, and causing the podracer to spin out of control in a disastrous crash. The combination of the bullet wound and the blunt force trauma from the crash kills Anakin Skywalker instantly.

And suddenly, the main protagonists of the six films are gone. No Luke, no Leia, no Anakin, no Darth Vader.

Superficially, the galaxy is the same. There is still a crisis on Naboo. Darth Maul is on Tatooine, hunting down the Naboo fugitives. Darth Sidious/Senator Palpatine is engaged in political maneuvering behind the scenes to arrange the fall of the Chancellor, Finis Valorum. Two Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn, the Naboo Queen (Padme Amidala), her retinue, R2D2, and a certain bumbling Gungan, having lost their bet, and their disabled ship, are now stuck on Tatooine...

And so begins the story of our heroes.

I'll post more of this as the story unfolds. Don't want to spoil it for my players, after all.

It's June, Guess it's time for an Update

I've been spending a lot of time with the following this month:

Running games of D20 Modern, or more specifically, Thrilling Tales, the 1920's and 1930's era pulp add-on for D20 Modern.

Running Star Wars Saga Edition, specifically the Dawn of Defiance Campaign. Easily the best RPG system I've ever played or run.

Playing Battlestar Galactica, the Board Game. Highly recommended.

Playing Pandemic. Also highly recommended.

I've also gone to a couple of movies, but nothing that sticks in my mind.

I miss BSG. Fortunately, True Blood is back, and looks better than ever.

What have you been doing?