Star Wars '78

(Yikes! I wrote this back in August, but held it back as I had plans for some follow-up posts. Those plans have changed for... reasons that I'll go into in a few weeks.)

In the sort of weird coincidence that makes humans believe in something that surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together, Star Wars gaming popped into my head from two different directions over the past couple of weeks. First, Stuart started running a short Star Wars D6 game; I haven't played it since around 1995 and it's been great fun getting back into it. A couple of days later, Jez Gordon asked, on the medias social:

"If you were gonna play in a Star Wars D6 campaign what would be your favorite era and why?"

To which I replied:

"Rebellion(ish), after SW but before ESB, in that fertile space where there was no more Star Wars, and anything goes.

(Basically, Marvel Star Wars.)"

This coincidence has got me thinking about an idea I've had for a while, which is the sort of Star Wars game I would run, and that game is Star Wars '78.

The three basic principles are this:

• Only Star Wars itself -- the first film, and maybe its adaptations -- is canon.
• Anything that came after can be used for inspiration, but isn't to be considered a "fact".
• Anything I invent/borrow/steal cannot contradict Star Wars, but I can happily negate anything else.

It's more or less the Star Wars universe as of 1978, with the first film -- not even "Episode IV" at this point -- the only thing out there. This is the environment in which the original Marvel comics were released, and in which Splinter of the Mind's Eye was written. Wild, vague, and in flux.

Let's see what happens...

Live long and prosper!