Do you allow players the opportunity to alter history?

[Volar the Healer]

I generally follow the story line because players like to participate in the movies, but I will allow the players to alter that story line as long as they do it without player knowledge.
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[Vanion]

I have a very strong opinion of this because it HAS come up several times in the past when I GM Star Wars.

I can't count the number of times I've had a player want to go to Dagobah to find Yoda, want to participate at the Battle of Yavin, want to try to kill Boba Fett, make a difference at the Battle of Hoth, and... the biggest one of all--- Kill Vader! I used to be very rigid when it came to this kind of thing... NO ALTERING THE STAR WARS UNIVERSE!

However... one time, I had the players run into Boba Fett. I just stuck him in there because I wanted to make the scene more exciting. The players thought it was the greatest thing ever and got really excited. Two of the characters in that group were bounty hunters and they were both trying to make a name for themselves. One of them recognized Fett. Out of character, he said that if they could kill Fett, then Han would never be captured. In character, he wanted to kill Fett to make a name for himself. Needless to say, Fett killed them without too much trouble. After the game, the players, even though their characters died, were SO excited. Not only were they wide-eyed at meeting Boba Fett ("WOOHOO, Boba Fett blasted me in the face!!!"), but they went on and on about how they could make a difference in their SW Universe. The moment was an eye-opener for me.

This is how I look at it... There are no two Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance campaign worlds exactly the same... Despite the fact that numerous novels and supliment material are produced. One of the things that I've seen players get excited about is making a difference... De-throning an evil King/Ruler, stopping a war, recovering a powerful artifact that could destroy the world. Star Wars is a fantastic setting for epic events and adventures. It's true that those things are possible without altering the Star Wars saga, but is there anything more epic (Than facing Vader in a lightsaber duel, even though you're pretty sure you don't have any chance)?

Now... despite my invitation to players to try to influence the course of major events in the Star Wars universe... I make it VERY hard and nobody has succeeded at changing anything. I don't let players act on information that their characters don't have. So... it would be an epic adventure just to TRY and discover that Yoda is on Dagobah... a quest that is most likely impossible, but I'd let the players try anyway and I'd give them a small chance.

Don't get me wrong... I LOVE the Star Wars movies and the course of events laid out in them... but allowing the players to re-write history is as good as watching a Star Wars "remake". Nobody knows what's going to happen next!
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"Life is not measured in years, but by deeds"

[Jedi Skyler]

Also, let's take the example of finding Yoda for a moment. Remember how Luke found out about him in the first place: his dead Master communicated with him through the Force. He didn't find any hidden notes, writings, or glyphs anywhere marking Yoda's whereabouts. There was a direct communication that no one else was around to witness. Now, Luke did rail on about it while dunked in the bacta tank, so conceiveably someone in the Rebel Alliance could have overheard this, put two and two together, and then begun an exhaustive search (anything less would of course fail) and then possibly found the location of the planet. But remember what happened when Luke got there. Don't bet for a second that Yoda couldn't be sitting down there outside his hut, chewing on his Gimer stick, interfering with someone's sensor readings and denying them the chance to ever find him. Even if they DID make planetfall, he'd lived there for what, eighteen years? He'd not be found unless he WANTED to be found. They might find his dwelling, but wouldn't find anything other than the dark side cave unless Yoda allowed it to happen.

I like Vanion's approach, and the reaction his players gave even after being offed by Boba Fett. Because hey- if you can get over the fact that you had a bounty on your head and just got nabbed, you just got nabbed by the BEST. I like that he's willing to go there, but that there's going to have to be some seriously blessed dice rolling to be able to alter events. If you can get it done, then you basically have a whole new universe to explore. Hope the GM is up to it! 8)

[Volar the Healer]

Encountering characters from the movies is always special for the players. In one of the games I played in, our Rebel strike team unexpectedly ran into Darth Vader. All the team turned to my (very minor) Jedi and asked "What do we do?" My character's response was "Run, you fools!" Most of us got away...

But the players talked about it for weeks.
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Know Jesus, Know Peace.
No Jesus, No Peace

[Jedi Skyler]

[garhkal]

I think the best i had, was when the players (during a post hoth game) had come out of hyperspace in a system that was having a MAJOR imperial crackdown (allships were being boarded and checked with BOSS)... The looks on their faces when they med General Veers, and when they saw the Executor come out of hyperspace was great.
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[Jedi Skyler]

That's cool! The dimensions of the game are always expanded when a GM has knowledge of both the key players AND the cameos. A good GM can bring these characters to life and really spice the game up for his players. That's the kind of game I like to be in; it always gives me a little thrill to meet up with major players from the films... you never know quite how they're going to react to you, even though it feels like you know them so well through sharing parts of their lives already.

[cheshire]

Should players change the timeline? I think it really depends on the campaign. I'm running one right now where I have a party full of Jedi on the run after Episode III.

I'm looking at the story arc, and it seems to have a natural course towards the Jedi encountering Vader. In the end, it may turn out that Vader kills them and Epidosdes IV-VI happen normally. It could be that the whole universe is changed. I guess it will depend on how the die rolls go.

I don't see anything terribly wrong with making minor changes here and there. However, major changes to the universe should be reserved for campaign finales. Otherwise you're going to wind up with a much different setting than the one that made the story lines popular. But, of course, in the end it's just a game. It's all for fun. However people have the most fun, do it.

[Darius]

Unfortunately the Hoth scene might be a bad example. There were so many Star Destroyers in orbit that they could have constantly sent down more troops until they overwhelmed the Rebels. And the Rebels didnt have any significant capital ships there for a confrontation with the Star Destroyers.

I feel that the characters should be able to affect scenes from the movie but not change overall events.

But mind you I have a group of players who will be at Hoth in about two weeks.

[Jedi Skyler]

Well, then, you'd better be ready to have an altered timeline... No matter how the die rolls go, there's always the possibility someone will do SOMETHING that slips through your plans...

[Argamoth]

Such as, the Milennium Falcon getting fixed in time, or Luke not making it off the planet...

[Jedi Skyler]

It doesn't have to be anything like those. It could involve subplots that happen behind the scenes... like your character's a Bothan involved with the team that snagged the second Death Star plans. He decides, as a Bothan might, that he holds great political clout in his hands, and decided to off the whole team and sell the plans to the highest bidder, or to return them to the Emperor himself so he can be recognized and given glory and power because of his "patriotic" actions. Anything that would affect the behind-the-scenes happenings which then produce the on-screen events would fall into this category.

[Tahlorn]

How my group does it:

We avoid the whole situation by NEVER running into Vader, Luke, Han, Lando, etcetra. Why? Because then it feels like we are going on a tour, not an adventure. If we run a scene from a movie, then there are no surprises. No creativity. It is already set. We never deal with being a key part of the rebellion during times in the movies, because we will know fgrom the beginning what happens. "You are supposed to gain the plans for the second Death Star the Imps are building." "Great, so what, almost all of us are gonig to die, right?" "And now you are on the battle of Hoth!" "Goody! Watch me run away from my post and find a seat on the evacuation ship, becasue we are not going to win this!" The galaxy is a big place, there is more to it than just the movies. We will be given a time period in regards to the movies so we know what has gone on already, but we never do anything that alters history. And for that I am glad. Otherwise, I would wait for when we go down to Tatooien aroudn Episode 1, where I put a blaster to the right temple of "little anny". Solve a whole lot of problems by just moving my finger half an inch back against a trigger.

~Tahlorn

[Jedi Skyler]

[Boomer]

Anakin is dead...

No replacement for Maul at Palpatines side nor is there any uber-powered whiny jedi for the queen to get involved with or for Obi-Wan to train.

Without Anakin to bring Luke, the balance of the force, the Empire and Sith dominate the galaxy anyway...

Though there is also no super-cyborg warrior at palpatines side either, which is less interesting.
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