What's your Star Wars Universe?

[jmanski]

You're assuming that midiclorines are transferable. What if they are only able to be tested? Conscience cannot be transplanted, maybe its like that but can be quantified.
_________________
Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[garhkal]

True.. What if midichlorias are some sort of particle (gamma, beta) that are attracted TO force sensitivity/power.. therefore are not ingrained part of someone's DNA
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Frandal]

Sorry friends, they say they are "symbiotic micro organism"
Therefore you can clone them even if they are sentient, and then inoculate them into your system for them to live and prosper and be happy like your intestinal bacteria but even smaller if you want.

Today, in real life, they clone virus, bacteria, and mother cells as a regular day basis for research. We are talking of a universe that they are capable of clone human beings, even altering their natural growing and implanting mental hypnotic patterns of thinking. Cloning something like a bacteria or a virus is just piece of cake.

Granted that they could have been something more elaborated but they didn't create them that way. Granted that they still left the gate open for the "energy field" that still exits but it is only thanks to the midiclorians who one can feel it... Then one could go to the market and buy some of the new yogurt with active midiclorians strawberry flavor, and after a week taking just one a day they could go to the nearest Jedi Temple and start their training.

[Dromdarr_Alark]

I once had an idea that midichlorians were simply bacteria that thrived within the bodies of force sensitives. Perhaps they were a sort of microscopic force-mynock, and concentrations of them could be used to measure force sensitivity, but not cause it.
_________________
"I still wouldn't have a roll for it - but that's just how I roll."

[jmanski]

[Frandal]

[Mikael Hasselstein]

I like to embrace pretty much everything (including Life Day!), though I have not been exposed to everything, so I have to rely on Wookieepedia a lot and trust that I'm not trouncing on what's been established too much.

But, at the same time, I don't want to tell my players that they can't do something, just because it would conflict with something established. I just try to finesse things when the space-time-continuum gets out of whack.

[Draven]

I include all published and produced material from Star Wars. I use the full EU as my source material. But I rarely if ever have the players come in contact with the main sotry elements. I often take my stories into the unknown parts of Space where I have considerable freedom from published information.

[Jerrod Owex]

So I've only read the first three pages of this thread and noticed that one thing has stayed true throughout, mostly, for the things that people use in their own campaigns: OT is canon and most everything else is ripe for the picking.

I have never understood the reasons behind the thrashing that the prequels has gotten, or the SE:OT, except for the fact that i believe i saw an interview where GL himself said he felt it more in character for Han to NOT shoot first, which i think i a load of bull. Being in the life he is Han would most definitely SHOT FIRST. Its a survival of the fittest/kill or be killed world for guys like that, and besides how the heck do you miss point blank?

As far as the EU goes most of the stuff i know is from games and comics, Legacy Series was AMAZING, imo.

Now the prequels, i liked, again not sure what the thrashing is about but people are entitled to their opinions, and fyi, the more i see people hating on Jar Jar and the gungans as a whole, the more i love them, lol.

Now to the point, sorry about all the rambling: When it gets right down to it if i'm running a game i will do whatever i think will be fun, to HFIL (see what I did there, lol) with EVERYTHING, including the OT. If it will make my game enjoyable for the players i am willing to/will throw out anything, or at best compromise.
This has never been a huge issue for my games for 2 reasons.
1) I try to make a grand story around the PCs and put the whole canon stuff in the background rarely, if ever, encountering anything from canon.
2) Most of my group are fans enough to not want to try to massively change the course of what is established.
3) So I guess I lied i have a third reason. As i said before i am unfamiliar with most of the EU so i can't, in my eyes, ruin/ignore something I don't know about. In this regard i am an ostrich, if i didn't see/don't know about it it didn't happen, lol.

Didn't mean to step on anyone's toes, not trying to sound like a jerk, just throwing in my 2 cents and opinions.

[Jerrod Owex]

[atgxtg]

Yeah, without any of the SWU stuff it's just some other SciFI setting. THat said, you don't need to bring along everything to keep it Star Wars.

In my Clone Wars campaign, I was planning on ending it with the PCs being sent by Yoda to make contact with a long lost Jedi splinter group that had left the Star Wars Galaxy.The PCs were going to end up being chased by some Imperials on a Jedi hunt.

THis ending would have opened up the campaign considerably, allowing me a lot more freedom when setting up adventures in the post-Republic era, while carrying over enough of the original setting to keep it Star Wars.

[garhkal]

[Jerrod Owex]

[Quetzacotl]

[DougRed4]

Finally got done reading all 14 pages (took chunks at a time, so it took me over a week!).

For myself and my/our universe, I do things pretty close to what Draven suggests above, though I reserve the right to ignore stuff I feel is ridiculous (Jedi ripping Star Destroyers from orbit) or silly or aimed at kids (Holiday Special, Ewok Adventures, etc.). So overall I try to stick to what is officially canon (the films, Shadow of the Empire, etc.) and work in the rest based on what I discover on Wookieepedia or other like sources. A big part of what I use for my supplementary materials is the WEG catalog (which influenced the Decipher CCG and other things, like Wookieepedia).

I do very much like the Prequels, though the OT is my favorite. Sure there's stuff that annoys me (like Jar Jar), but for the most part I still love the entire six films. At first I hated the midi-chlorians, but since realizing they're actually just miscroscopic organisms that measure the Force, rather than really being what causes it, it doesn't bother me as much. Like most SW fans, I prefer the original way the Han/Greedo scene was done, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

Overall I have to tell you that I (far and away) appreciate the Special Editions over the originals. Lucas took something great and made it even better (sharper visuals, more cool stuff in the background, better definition of things like the Wampa, etc.). I often don't understand the hate by fandom for the PT or the SEs. I get why people don't like certain things, but to me they don't rise to the level of "throwing the baby out with the bathwater".

Quetz makes an excellent point, and I try to keep that in mind when I portray an alien species. It's kind of silly to think that all of species X wears clothes like this, or behaves like that.

As far as playing a generic sci-fi or space opera, I don't think you have to pull everything from the SWU to make it 'Star Wars'. As long as the players are shooting at their enemies with blasters, flying around in beat-up frieghters, encounter Wookiees, and other bizarre species, interact with droids, and have to worry about Imperial Star Destroyers, they're living in and enjoying the world of SW. And that's just from one time frame. You don't really even need to have Jedi (and lightsabers), though that stuff greatly enhances the feel and allows for even more immersion in the environment. Personally, I think you could play within any timeline and it can still be Star Wars. As long as there's things like datapads, Twi'leks, ferocious creatures, chases, and a rousing John Williams score in the background, it will have the right feel, IMV.
_________________
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