I am curious how other people managed a transition to using a Star Wars setting. Did you draw on the established SW lore at all? Any changes to mechanics? As an example, for me, I spread out planets into different systems but grouped them into subsectors as concerns heat and the like. Did you integrate anything from Procyon in S&V? Did you do a lot from scratch? Do you just fly by the seat of your pants (or alien equivalent thereof)? What time period did you set your game in relative the films?
For myself, I used a number of elements from the default setting and integrated them into SW Anoat Sector. I have some of the same factions and a number are different from Procyon but fill a similar niche and I reuse names and the like. Some of the planets are really interesting and I kept those, I altered the Mim a bit and changed some of the default lore at the same time because I like that tension. In some ways it might be a bit much, but on the other hand, I feel like there’s a lot going on that we can draw on.
This is a really interesting topic, because the Star Wars universe is so expansive that you very much need to drill-down and pick a chunk of space to make your Blades-y pressure cooker. For my Star Wars game of S&V, I chose Hutt Space just prior to A New Hope as the sandbox, and then went digging through a combination of Wookieepedia and some of the Fantasy Flight books to pull location descriptions and factions.
For heat and wanted level, I just made it apply to the sector as a whole - I’ll maybe change this up for our second season if/when we return to the game, because as you can imagine it lead to a really precipitous ramp-up in danger (although tbh it kind of fit for the style of pulpy Star Wars crime game we were playing).
For factions, I maybe made too many starting out, and ended up creating a bunch on the fly (but I do on the fly factions all the time in regular Blades anyway, so whatevs). The faction game ended up feeling really strong, because I had a nice spread of criminal factions, Imperials, the rebels, and all that to pull from when needed. Lots of good crossed-purposes and conflicts baked-in. Here’s the current run-down at the end of season one:
Beyond all that, it was a very seat-of-the-pants type situation, adapting the S&V playbooks and setting-specific stuff as needed when it became relevant. This was relatively painless, as it turned out, but it definitely helped that everyone at the table was really keyed-in to this specific flavour of Star Wars.
BTW, if and when we return for season two, you best believe it’s going to be set in the direct aftermath of a very big boom happening halfway across the galaxy.
@Calum_Grace
I really appreciate your post. It’s always good to learn about what other GMs do that is the same and what is different. Interesting take on Wanted level especially. Also good to hear that you make up a number of factions on the fly and that sometimes things feel a little overfull–I feel the same, but I also don’t mind it. Sometimes showcasing things like that in a game can be like a “look but don’t touch” or “look but I don’t care if you don’t care” and these are Bad Things™. But I don’t feel like that’s the case here so much as giving context.
How did you make that snappy looking factions list? I like the maps–I have an atlas on the table–but did you make the map or snag it from somewhere.
That screenshot of the factions list is just of the default S&V roll20 sheet, since we were playing that game online. Oh, and I believe the map came from the Lords of Nal Hutta sourcebook for Fantasy Flight Games’ Edge of the Empire.
But yeah, as you say, a lot of the factions are there at the table to basically say to the players (and to me): “these people exist, so they could be involved depending on what you’re doing/the flow of events/whatever”
I ran S&V in Star Wars for about a year - not quite fortnightly, but enough to hit Tier/Quality 2. I honestly didn’t think the game would stick at first, and I didn’t put enough thought into the factions, and that continued to be my greatest regret as we played. I had Crimson Dawn and Black Sun as two competing criminal organizations, a few Hutts, the Rebels, and the Empire. More factions of varying tier would have made my in-play GMing job easier, and it’s my easiest recommendation if you’re making a FitD game or adapting something: make sure you have a nice mishmash of factions that want to interact with each other.
What I ended up doing was kind of taking the piss out of all the silly EU stuff I half remembered from the 90s. Shadows of the Empire got it the worst. The thing is, without a solid foundation for jobs and inter-faction conflict that wasn’t just all-out rebellion, the game felt much more traditional and adventure-focused than when I ran vanilla Blades. It was fine! We had fun raiding Sith temples on Korriban and stealing Darth Maul’s lightsaber from an obsessive collector and selling wroshyr trees to Wookiees on Life Day and so on.
Hi. Billy here. Let me begin by saying I really appreciate a question like this cuz I’ve been really excited to share my direction for the Star Wars Universe and how I’ve utilized the system to accomplish that.
First off, as far as the system goes - I’m just using it straight out of the book. Right now, I’m sorta exploring the system, learning it as I go along. So, I’m not modifying it… Yet.
Setting wise - a year after Jedi, as the Galactic Senate and The Empire are both slowly rebuilding, after a bloody war in the few months after the freeing of Endor. So, crime has gone up. Syndicates are placed almost everywhere and almost have essentially became law, sort of. The Galactic Senate have weak law enforcement in place, but it’s building itself slowly. So, most of the Galaxy is employed in one way or another by a Syndicate.
My inspiration? “Heavy Metal”. The magazine, the movies AND the music. Quentin Tarantino movies. A lot of Frank Miller. I’m shooting for a “dirty Star Wars Universe”.
Hey, I’m going to be running a campaign set in the Old Republic and wanted to share what I have so far. We haven’t started yet. Definitely interested to hear if people have any suggestions. I’m setting it during the Great Galactic War, where the Sith Empire and Republic+Jedis are in open war for 28years. This is the same period as SWTOR, the MMO, but I won’t be heavily lifting from there – in fact I’m using the Old Republic largely because it’s unexplored and easier to play fast-and-loose with the lore.
Did you try adding factions after the campaign started? I assumed they’d be easy enough to add midway through a campaign, and you get to tailor them to the types of conflicts/stories you want.
Do your players really like altruistic smuggling (like supplies to refugees?) – create factions for a UN, as well as a terrible despot who’s brutalizing his own people.
Due to a 1-image-per-post for new users, here’s a second post of my ship map (apologies if I’m breaking any rules, just trying to contribute quality content).
This ship map is from the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire official rpg from FFG. It’s a YT-1300, the same model as the famous Millenium Falcon. Even though it’s a grid, we won’t be busting out minis and calculating move distance or anything like that. But we will use it to enrich the fiction. If there’s a hull breach between you and a downed ally you’ll have to think fast.
I’m not going to force the players to use a YT-1300 either. It has the best assets, but there are good-enough assets for other ships (like Slave I, Boba Fett’s ship)
