Soooo, after the prequels...What do your players know?

[Bobmalooga]

Just a general question, but since the prequels have been added to the mix now, what exactly do your players know? How public a figure is Darth Vader? How much do any of them know about the Jedi extermination? how much did it effect your version of the clone wars or did it change things at all?

Not that I've allowed my players to use off game knowledge, but I had a player, who wrote into his history (with my blessing...) that he was the nephew of Padme and grew up in the shadow of her death with the family never getting the full story of what exactly happened or how she died. There were a couple of funny moments where he met (after joining the Rebellion...) Luke and Leia and when asked by him if the events in the movie accurately portrayed events in the game I replied that the clone wars didn't happen quite like that in my universe...I've never really gotten into what happened (since we've always played Rebellion Era or post Rebellion era games...) but my thought was that Episode 1 happened a couple of years earlier, with anakin being a couple of years older...And that the breakdown in the relationship between him and Padme happened when Palpatine insinuated a relationship between her and Obi-Wan (It didn't happen...but when she turned up pregnant...) this added to the 'we want you to spy on your friend Palpatine' bit causes him to turn against the order and eventually become Darth Vader.

The other big thing that I had done (and this was in the years before the prequels...) was that Palpatine and Vader were part of a group of Sith (totaling 13 masters and apprentices) carving up sectors of the galaxy for themselves with Palpatine at the head of the table leading everything...This came from the many rumors that surfaced in the between time of the original series of movies and the prequels. Since the Sith were so ill-defined it made a certain amount of sense to me...When the prequels came out I had a player turn to me and ask, "How does the rule of two effect our game since we've run into other sith?"

I replied that George Lucas's Star Wars was his and mine was mine...LOL
_________________
No matter where you go, there you are...

[DougRed4]

I love the prequels and consider them part of the backstory of my campaign. But my players's characters don't really know any of that (we're about 1 BBY right now).
_________________
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

[Barrataria]

My general approach with all six films is that they are basically "victors' history", Alliance (i.e. the "New Republic" in the EU) propaganda/institutional myth. So Vader's treachery/redemption is part of the founding myth of the Alliance, like George Washington stories. I've sketched out some "real truth" changes for the prequels but never fully compiled them.
_________________
"A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing"- George Lucas

[garhkal]

I usually try to limit what in game knowledge players have from reading the books/watching the films. Some of it may be common knowledge, while other stuff will definitely not be known by the regular man.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Whill]

My players know everything from the films they have watched. 8)

In my SWU, the events of the prequels happened pretty much as portrayed in the films, except that the personal interactions of Padme, Anakin and Mace Windu with each other and other characters were more realistic and less like the bad acting they were sometimes portrayed with in films.

I see Anakin crossing over to the Dark Side was more like a demonic possession came over him when he choose to cut off Windu's hand. I still see the 'I need him' but at the moment of slicing him being more angry at Mace for almost taking Palpatine away from him. And there was no remorseful sobbing 'what have I done?' before a robotic 'Yes, I agree the Jedi's next move will be against the Senate'. If there was any kind of 'what have I done?' moment, it would have been more of a painful personal inner struggle where the good Anakin persona is trying to regain control but the Dark Side of course maintains control. Then when Palpatine tells him he must go kill all the Jedi in the Temple, Vader is more determined to take revenge against the Jedi for their perceived treatment of him, with maybe even a crazy glint in his eye and the beginning of an evil grin.

So basically, Anakin still had to choose the Dark Side, but once he did it immediately started to take over and form the evil Vader persona. Later after Vader kills all the Separatist leaders, maybe the Anakin persona did react and cause him to cry like in the film, but Vader regained control and returned to anger when Padme's ship is landing. More of a 'What is she doing here? I told her to stay on Coruscant!' sort of thing. I don't know if Hayden Christiansen could have pulled any of this off, but I am sure that Lucas couldn't have directed it. Lucas is a cinematic genius but just not very good at directing human performances. "Let's do it again and this time faster, with more intensity" just doesn't always cut it.

Of course many other things happened in the prequel time period beyond what is shown in the films, some from deleted scenes and EU and other things of my own device, as background, explanations, perceived contradiction solutions, etc. The AOTC deleted scene with Padme's parents and sister helps support the unconvincing love story. And in my SWU, the medical droid that said Padme had lost her will to live was simply incorrect (what does a droid know about the human will to live?). Padme was actually killed by Dark Side energy from Anakin, which the droid wouldn't be able to determine. Some of these things are known to my players, and some aren't.

The official Imperial version of events are that when Darth Vader lead the assault on the Jedi Temple, Vader battled and killed Anakin Skywalker who was also part of the Jedi Rebellion to take over the Republic. However Vader's background is left intentionally mysterious to enhance the public mystique and fear of Vader. Palpatine is not known to be a Sith Lord, but Vader is. Some say Vader was Count Dooku's Sith apprentice who switched sides and became loyal to Palpatine at the end of the war. Some say Vader was a former Jedi who remained loyal to Palpatine, perhaps even warning Palpatine of the plot, saving him from Mace Windu's assassination attempt and somehow becoming a Sith Lord after that.

The Sith Order itself is a vague and mysterious thing, and all that is commonly known among Imperial citizens is that it was another order similar to the Jedi who had taken over the Republic 1000 years ago but were eventually defeated. 1000 years ago the Sith were viewed as the villains, but now the message is that the Jedi were bad. However I think that after years of Imperial atrocities a lot of galactic citizens realized the Empire is evil and maybe they lied about the Jedi. But most of them knew to keep their mouths shut.
_________________
*
Site Map
Forum Guidelines
Registration/Log-In Help
The Rancor Pit Library
Star Wars D6 Damage

[Barrataria]

Your thoughts on this sort of thing are always interesting Whill.

[Lane Arroway]

What my players know about Star Wars hasn't been an issue in my games. Half of my players don't care enough about Star Wars to use the knowledge for their character's personal gain or anything for that matter. Meanwhile, the other half are veteran roleplayers who know the difference between player knowledge and character knowledge.
_________________
"This job is 90% talking to people and 10% shooting at them."