What If? Star Wars Campaign.

[Jerrod Owex]

Forget what you thought happened in the original trilogy, there is a new story in town.

I got to thinking today how could i do a Star Wars campaign that has never been done, well at the same time i started thinking: What if Anakin didn't turn to the darkside and become Darth Vader? What would that mean to the future of the Star Wars universe. Then i started thinking about how i could make a campaign out of that.

So i will be posting some of my thoughts about what would change and need fixing due to this new development, needless to say it has kind of snowballed. If you were to look at the entire EU you would never be able to stop and enjoy your recreation. Anyway, i was hoping to get some input/help with this, it will be hard to do and i was hoping i could get some others involved that won't be playing in my game if i ever get to fleshing this out and actually get a group together.

[Jerrod Owex]

So the first order of business, and mind you this is all just off the top of my head, i am going to have to go back and watch Episode III to see some other things that might need adapting:

1) Anakin does NOT fall to the darkside and become Darth Vader.
A) Does Windu fall to the darkside if/when he kills Palpatine
a) Does he resist the Darkside and exile himself
b) Does he get removed from the Order
c) Does he become the next Sith Lord
B) Can Anakin convince Windu not to kill Palpatine
a) What do they decide to do with Palpatine

So any thoughts about this that you guys may have would be cool, they will help me get my mind working at the very least.

And not to be a jerk but for now if we could just keep the ideas to this first question for now that would be cool, i will be posting many more things i have thought of that need work if we change this one, which i guess should really just say: What the heck happens to Anakin, Mace, and Palpatine.

[garhkal]

Well if anakin didn't turn, then palpaltine most likely died at the hand of windu. whether that causes windu to turn or not, i don't know.

But then we have no order 66 going out, no purge, no sacking of the jedi temple.
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[DougRed4]

I don't know that Windu would turn. With Anakin we saw all sorts of seeds leading up to his turning. The slaughtering of the Tusken Raiders, the secret marriage, his nightmares, his feeling of wanting to do/be more and acquire more power, etc.

I really don't know enough about Windu, though I do really like the character. IIRC one of the novels had him on the cover (was it all about him?); also not sure what/how they expanded upon him in other EU sources (like comics).

Certainly the slaying of Palpatine could lead to some Dark side points, but Palpatine was far from an innocent, so it still might have been the wisest course of action...
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[garhkal]

Well part of his LS style, Vappad, is the treading the line between light and dark. So what's to say his killing palps would not push him over the edge?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[atgxtg]

Yeah. I think Anakin was probably right to question Windu and that technically it was right to bring Palpatine to trial. I think it was when Anakin just bowed down and accepted Palpatine as his master that he turned.

What if Anakin tried to stop Windu, but instead of bowing down to Palpatine he kills him? Windui is dead. Anakin explains his actions to the Jedi Council and things go oin from there.

Does Anakin get punished for disobeying Windu? Or does he keep that part a secret?

What happens to the Seppie Leadership now that Palpatine doesn;t get the chance to frinish them off? Does the War continue? Does everybofy figure out that they've been duped from the beginning?

[Raven Redstar]

I for one think it's a fun idea.

There are many outcomes which could occur from it. Ok, so the end bit is that Anakin stays Anakin and doesn't fall.

I would think that for Anakin to not fall, he would have had to stay at the temple. Who knows how Palpatine would have fought if he wasn't trying to sway Anakin the whole time. Maybe he would have beat Windu, maybe not. He could have been putting on an act that whole time and would have schooled Windu, order 66 would have occurred anyway, and they just wouldn't have had Vader as the poster child for Imperial Fear.

The other option for Anakin to not fall, is if he manages to convince Windu to not kill Palpatine. Now what do they do with him? Public trial would have been a disaster, and if they black bag him, how does anyone ever trust the Jedi order? That takes things in a very dark direction. Now, I would count on Yoda to govern with wisdom for a short while until a new government is able to be implemented and then relinquish power. I mean, it's Yoda.

But, what does that mean for the galaxy? What if instead of the Jedi Purge, there is a republic purge, where those who have been abusing their positions in government positions are hunted down and arrested for crimes against the republic. This could make for an interesting story to play in. Clones, Jedi, Bounty Hunters, Local Law Enforcement are all viable options. Then you need to create some bad senators and governors who have resources and goons that go into hiding. Maybe the corrupt band together to create a new crime syndicate. I dunno, I'm just brain storming here.

I mean, Star Wars wouldn't be much of a Star Wars if Anakin stays good and the Jedi usher in a new golden age of reason which has never been seen before in the galaxy. See what I mean?
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RR
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[DougRed4]

Cool thread.

You know, one thing I haven't seen discussed much (but that my son points out all the time) is how wimpy those other two Jedi are that went with Mace to arrest Palpatine. What if they hadn't had PER of 1D and had been actually fairly competent Jedi (and thus able to actually do something rather than being struck down easier than Jawas)? Then you'd suddenly have had three Jedi there to arrest Palpatine (and possibly a much closer fight).

Would this have insured Mace would have won? What would Anakin have done if Palpatine had been swiftly struck down by Mace, but then the other Jedi weren't okay with that?
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[Raven Redstar]

The Jedi that Master Windu took with him were all competent, and named.

Kit Fisto
Agen Kolar
and
Saesee Tiin

The fact that each was dispatched so quickly was supposed to be a testament to how skilled and powerful Palpatine was.

Someone statted them out for the Attack of the Clones fanbook:

[garhkal]

Plus maybe they didn't bother bringing up Ls combat as they didn't think they were going to fight a sith master..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Jerrod Owex]

I didnt think this would get quite so much attention, thanks for the input guys, i will have another set of related questions up later. Honestly i'm kind of hoping some of the work gets done here, i don't want to have to do ALL of it myself, lol.

So keep giving me your input please. Many of the other things some of you raised are already in my notes, since OP i have thought of more things that will be an issue due to this, depending of course on how other things play out.

And thank you for the stats for those three, they may come in handy.

One last thing: I also, at least mentally, figured that if Anakin doesn't fall then palpatine would not be able to get order 66 issued and the Purge would not occur, but more on all of this will come later.

So thank you guys for your input, it will definitely help me a lot, again keep posting your thoughts and opinions.

[Jerrod Owex]

Ok so the next really big thing to tackle, or i guess another big thing as there are A LOT of BIG things that change, lol.

Padme would not die, she died as a result of losing the will to live because Anakin had turned to the Darkside. So what happens to Anakin and Padme? The Twins, obviously Luke and Leia, would not be separated at birth. They would know each other among other obvious things, this is for the unobvious. Would the twins be raised as jedi, one or both?

While we are on about the Jedi let's tackle anakin too. What happens to him? Does he get expelled when the order learns about his secret marriage or do they allow his to remain in the order (this could kind of be tied to the previous issue, depending on how it is handled). How does this affect what happens with the twins. if it does at all?

I did this on differently because it didnt indent them like i wanted it to, but if you prefer the "list" thing better let me know, as well as our thoughts about how to tackle these issues, thank you ahead of time.

More about what could happen to/with Padme will come later with another issue i have found.

[Jerrod Owex]

The next issue i thought of was the Separatist Council, the leaders of all the organizations/planets who are part of the CIS for those who may not know.

More info can be found here: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mission_to_Mustafar

What happens to them since Darth Vader isn't sent to kill them all. Do they survive and try to continue their fight against the Republic. Does Someone else come after them and try to kill them, and if so do they get killed or can they, or at least some of them escape? Who is it that tried to kill them, was it the clone army, possibly the 501st, bounty hunters, or possibly to tie this in to other things that may have happened, does Windu come to kill them after somehow finding out they were all on Mustafar.

I posted two things this time because i noticed some people brought these things up in their posts so i figured we could try to tackle two at once. I appreciate your help and input, i think this is going to be a great campaign when i get it done and can start running it.

[Dromdarr_Alark]

This is quite a bit to think about and I'm sort of overwhelmed.

I think the only thing I can offer insight on is Mace Windu's internal personality. The book that was mentioned is a novel that takes place during the Clone Wars, called Shatterpoint. It is a third-person narrative that includes journal entries from Windu. His former apprentice, Depa Billaba, seemed to have turned to the darkside on Windu's home planet, and the plot of the book is Windu returning to his birthplace to bring Depa back to the council. He half-succeeds. In the end, Depa is stuck in a mysterious catatonic state (presumably disconnected from her soul) and is said to have remained that way until the Jedi Temple was sacked.

What was important was Windu's ongoing internal monologue (depicted through his journal entries). It showed that he had deep regrets about his encounter with Dooku and Jango Fett on Geonosis. He thought that if he had only stabbed Dooku in the back instead of talking to him, the entire war would not have begun. Moreover, he thought that it might have even been better for the galaxy if he had just bombarded Geonosis from orbit, destroying all of the Separatist leadership, as well as the droid factory without risking the lives of hundreds of Jedi.

This shows us that Windu had internal emotional turmoil, and that the utilitarian in him frequently conflicted with the Kantian deontology of the Jedi (I'm a philosophy major 8) ).

He also explains that he lies when he says the Jedi are keepers of peace. What he really means is that the Jedi exist to maintain civilization,
and that civilization cannot exist when a government declares war on its people through coercion or oppression (such a society is barbaric and unjust, like an uncivilized jungle).

Also, he really enjoyed fighting. He enjoyed it so much that he developed a lightsaber form that is so aggressive that it forces the user to tread dangerously close to the Dark Side.

He also had a style of thinking about the interconnectedness of the universe. He believed that all of the happenings in the galaxy were connected by threads in a pattern that created rigid indestructability (like a diamond), but there was always one point within the crystaline weave that could be broken, and if broken, would shatter the diamond (hence: shatterpoint).

In the instance of Episode III, Palpatine was that shatterpoint. His death would have uprooted the entire establishment of the galaxy (more on this later).

Therefore, I think that if Mace Windu killed Palpatine, he may not have necessarily turned to the darkside. He would have killed Palpatine to preserve civilization. However, I do believe that he would have left the Jedi Order due to his internal conflicts - and became sort of a "dark knight" which is not galaxy needs, but deserves.
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"I still wouldn't have a roll for it - but that's just how I roll."

[garhkal]