Assume that you are invited to join a Star Wars campaign (RPG system doesn’t matter for this exercise). As you sit down, the GM mentions that the first movie (Star Wars IV: A New Hope) is the only canonical source.
The GM then informs you that the campaign starts a few months after the destruction of the Death Star. The galaxy is plunged into chaos as the Rebel Alliance discovered that Grand Moff Tarkin had been head of a military coup that had been manipulating Emperor Regis. With Tarkin dead and his superweapon destroyed, the Emperor laid the blame at his feet and tried to make peace with the rebels. From the shadows, Darth Vader and several Moffs couldn’t let that happen, and they assassinated Regis. With the galaxy in turmoil, Princess Leia tasks the PCs with finding and protecting the former Emperor’s daughter, Regina, who is now the rightful Empress. Only through her can they hope to stabilize the galaxy.
Meanwhile, Darth Vader is actively searching for new recruits for a renewed Jedi Order. They, like him, wear the Jedi armor of old, which looks exactly like Vader’s save for color and mask stylings. Luke Skywalker, meanwhile, attempts to learn the ways of the force on his own, with some help from the voice of Obi-Wan and others knowledgeable in the ways of the Force. He’s distracted though, because while he and Leia have professed love for each other, she’s royalty and, as a Queen of refugees, she needs to marry a King in order to keep her line royal.
Oh, and did I mention that Darth Vader is not a cyborg nor a Skywalker (he really did kill Luke’s dad), and that the citizens of the Galactic Empire are entirely human? Tatooine is on the fringe and a human Jabba the Hutt continues his smuggling operation, having forgiven Han after he repaid the debt. If the PCs play their cards right, Jabba could be a powerful ally in securing and transporting the new Empress.
Would this be cool to you? Or are you ready to toss scale models of A-Wings, Cloud City, and AT-ATs at me?
The reason I bring this up is because I’m currently running a Dungeons & Dragons campaign using the most recent rules (commonly called ‘5e,’ but I’m not sure if that’s official). Given what to me feels like an old-school vibe, I wanted to reach back and use an older campaign world. As it turns out, I have the original box sets of some of them, and I wanted to be able to use them as-is, without worrying about the (in some cases) decades of development since. Can I run a World of Greyhawk campaign using only the folio or a Forgotten Realms campaign using only the grey box, or would it ruffle the feathers of players around the table who are used to the canon that’s been added since and will second-guess my every move?
In the end, I dodged the bullet by choosing a setting that my current players know nothing about (Harn, if anyone’s interested). Still, the question intrigues me; would my group accept a game world that’s been stripped to its origins and rebuilt from scratch, or would they fight me every step of the way whenever I stray from what’s known?
Since I’ve thus far dodged the bullet, how about you? Have you ever taken a setting that was familiar to your players and turned it into something different? How well did they react to it? How would you feel if you were playing in a game where canon as you know it was scrapped in large swathes? Would you be game or would you decline to play in it?
I wouldn’t spring it on them at the table, but as long as they’re onboard in advance an alternate history sounds great. I’d even make it a selling point and read up a bit on the canon timeline for inspiration. Darths and Droids and Sherlock are loaded with references, twists, and in-jokes that celebrate their deviation from canon rather than apologize for it.
David, I agree. Your approach sounds like absolutely the best way to approach it. There will definitely be some people out there who will never appreciate any deviations from canon, and it would be better for them to opt not to join the game in the first place rather than come expecting one thing and leave in a huff when it’s something completely different. (Honestly, I’d like to play a campaign based on Lucas’s first draft of Star Wars, back when it had a definite article at the front of the title.)
Also, I feel like one would have slightly more success with running an alternate version of a D&D campaign setting than something like Star Wars because D&D settings have more or less always been about letting the players create their own adventures. While TSR and then WotC did develop their own particular line of canon through adventure modules, novels, video games, etc., I feel like there was always a bit of an understanding that the players could pick and choose what to leave in their own campaigns.
I recently finished a six session Fate Accelerated campaign that was based on a mash up of Disney movies. The players started in Arendelle during the events of Frozen, then took a tour of Disney-fied Europe on a MacGuffin hunt which ultimately furthered the villian’s goal.
While it wasn’t necessarily breaking canon, we certainly built up our own extracanonical links between the films used.
Just about every historical AU game is just that, isn’t it? We’re in the world, but Germany won WWII. We’re in the world, but dragons exist. We’re in the world, but there are superheroes. We’re in the world, but there’s been a zombie apocalypse. All the same kind of thing – we have to “rewrite” what we know of the world to allow for the new elements. I think it’s a standard part of gaming.
You’re mostly going to get pushback from players if you’re messing with elements they really love from an already-established world. If someone really loves the brother/sister dynamic of the Luke/Leia characters, they’re going to be upset when you change their parentage and make them a star-crossed romantic couple struggling with the political obstacles to their love. Likewise, someone who loves the Harry Potter universe because they know they’d have loved to have recieved a Hogwarts admission owl when they were eleven isn’t going to be happy with a Harry Potter universe in which no muggle-borns know about or can cast magic. If only purebloods can cast magic, that means no Harry, no Voldemort, no Hermione, and no hope for regular muggle folk like us.
Most people are going to be okay with most changes, until you start messing with the things that make us love that universe in the first place.
Personally, I don’t mind playing inspired by Star Wars or inspired by the Wild Wild West, I don’t really care to play in someone elses invented world and canon. So I tend to avoid published settings based on movies, books, etc. I’d rather play Traveler and perhaps borrow some Star Wars game mechanics if I thought such would offer something useful in my games. I know that back in the day, I ran Ravenloft as is from the original publications, but once canon changed to include the Grand Conjunction, I lost all interest in the setting, as I didn’t need the setting changed, I liked it the way it was before the conjunction.
I think one of the major reasons I avoid games based on books and movies, is that as GM, I’d rather be the source of all setting knowledge, and not be surprised by a players greater knowledge of the same setting, and putting me on the defensive as to why I chose to do this or that. Besides, I’m a creative guy and would rather play in worlds completely from my imagination, than anyone elses.
So I tend to avoid canon issues altogether doing it the way I do things.
For me, the big advantage to a prefab setting, like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, is setting the details in advance.
The biggest issue is that your change shouldn’t undo that common ground, since the main advantage to taking a setting off the shelf is getting session one up and running with clear pictures in everyone’s mind without describing every rodent of unusual size and wookie without a reference. “Like Chewie, but wider” is a great visual shorthand; much harder if you start with “shaped like a man, covered with thick fur…”
Please go right ahead and break whatever canon you choose – let’s face it, folks: it’s all made up anyway. I agree with David, however, that springing it on your group while at the table wouldn’t be the best way to do it. I’d establish the foundation of what is canon and its limits, then proceed from there. I think doing that to a property like Star Wars would be really interesting and fun, as it would allow the party and GM to really create their own story and history, albeit with ready feel, tone, and background already intact from the accepted canon.
I did have success with a surprise twist once in a Vampire: the Masquerade game years ago, when I didn’t tell the players that the game took place during WW2. I asked them to make pretty generic characters, and we started off on a ship on the way to England – you know, errand for some prince, don’t ask any questions, bla bla bla. We ended the first session with them arriving in England, by ship, to the sight of barrage balloons over the coastline and a radio announcement over the ship’s PA that Pearl Harbor had just been bombed. Jaws dropped around the table, and between that and the next session I allowed people to shift points out of skills (like computers) that were anachronistic, and to tweak background info that didn’t make sense.
So yes, I broke the assumed setting canon of WOD, but it worked in that case – but not because I reworked “the truth” – rather, I just pushed the clock back a few decades for effect.
For me it depends on whether or not the ‘alternate’ canon the GM is presenting still jives with the spirit of the original. You had me on the Star Wars alternate reality until it got to the point where Luke and Leia weren’t Darth Vader’s children. That, to me, is an essential part of the whole series. Well, that and no aliens. That’s just dumb. Star Wars is what it is BECAUSE of the aliens. 🙂
I don’t mind a little playing with canon, but don’t kill the spirit of it.
While I was making the example up off the top of my head just to draw parallels, I never said there were no aliens.
My perception while watching the original movie is that the Galactic Empire is human, with the aliens outside of it or nipping at the edges. Even the Rebel forces are all human.
I do agree it’d be tough presenting Luke and Leia as lovers without the entire table wincing at every show of affection between them! 🙂
I agree, deviating from canon should be done carefully. Change what you need to make room for an interactive story and to mix things up just enough to keep players on their toes. But change too many important elements and you lose what players find enjoyable and exciting about the environment. Make Vader a robot (Darth 3PO?), Luke and Leia unrelated, and all alien NPCs human? Too much.
As long as the GM is upfront about it and the players know what they are getting into… Why not? It is a great way to re-enjoy an old story. If you are familiar with your players you know what will and will not fly with them. It could be a great exercise in writing as well. Star Wars is great but so is Game of Thrones, Star Trek, X-Men, Avengers, any movie or tv show that is well know. Change one little factor and BAM! Whole new game. DC comics Elseworlds and Marvel’s What Ifs are great examples of having one little change spiral the whole universe/story.
“These are the graphic novels you are looking for…”
Star Wars: Infinities
I’ve seen some of those, but I was under the impression that Star Wars Infinities is about divergences within canon rather than an alternate interpretation.
Geez, did that even make sense? lol.
I break canon in every game I run, whether it’s diverging from the book/TV show/movie franchise that inspires the game or simply breaking a few of the assumptions rolled in to the standard milieu of a game like D&D. Here are three reasons why:
1. You have to change something so that the game is not simply a reenactment of the book, movie, or TV show it’s based on. It’s no fun if you’re just rehashing a well known plot. Often this means setting the game in the future relative to the source material, or changing one or two key elements like, “The assault on the Death Star only damaged it, and the rebels on the mission were captured.” (As an aside, I would absolutely love to rescue a captured Luke Skywalker and help him destroy the crippled Death Star before the Empire repairs it.)
2. Player agency means parts of the story will change. The PCs will succeed at some task the original hero didn’t, fail where s/he didn’t, or do something else entirely. What alternative do you, as the GM, have? Are you going to railroad them through the canonical story? Talk about the last train to Dullsville.
3. Changing a few key elements is important to maintaining an appropriate level of surprise. In fiction, dramatic tension comes from things the protagonists do not know. In a game that sticks too close to canon players know things their characters wouldn’t, and all but the best roleplayers will let this player knowledge taint their characters’ actions. Breaking canon to add a few surprises keeps everyone honest and makes the game more fun, too.
I’ve changed canon with Star Wars. For quite a long time, they didn’t have an official canon repository and some of the print books were contradicting each other. So it was kind of like, pick what you want.
I think going against canon isn’t a big deal if you’re players don’t know a ton about the setting. If they’re really into it though, you may want to stick to it.
This is a conversation that’s been going on over at my site for a while. I like using established properties for gaming, if only because some of the scene setting and universe building is already done for you. Here are some of the issues with gaming in established properties:
http://blackcampbell.com/2009/12/27/one-trouble-with-licensed-property-games/
Most recently, our BG campaign has diverged from the “new” series, but in many ways has kept closer to the original flavor and conception of the series:
http://blackcampbell.com/2013/11/15/battlestar-galactica-rpg-after-action-report-2/
http://blackcampbell.com/2014/09/28/breaking-canon-battlestar-galactica-rpg/
Half of the fun of using a property is the chance to “do it my way” (or the “right way”, if you’re one of those guys whose fan-fic is waaaaaaaay better than the stuff those hacks did after X jumped the shark in Season Y.)
I’m all for changing anything you wish. I certainly agree with others that letting your players know as much as reasonable so they have a choice of turning up in the first place.
At the moment, I have a Forgotten Realms campaign (sadly afflicted with serious scheduling problems). It uses the Pathfinder rules, a severely truncated list of gods, and its basis is the old grey box set. Moreover, I’ve warned the players that Elminster and Drizzt never existed.
Another campaign which almost started was Dragonlance. I came up with an alternative explanation for the draconians and whatnot. I also told my players that the canonical characters would not be available as options. For example, Flint died of a heart attack much earlier; Raistlin was killed in the Test; Laurana stayed in Qualinost because Tanis went north with Kitiara after Flint’s death. And so on.
Both were easy. In the case of the Realms, the players were newbies with only a little familiarity with the setting. In the case of DL, while two had played through the campaign as teenagers, they were interested in seeing what I might do with it and the opportunities for their own stories.
The Star Wars re-write sounds marvellous, by the way.