What's your Star Wars MULTIverse?

[Whill]

I posted this thread in January, and very uncharacteristically of me, I never posted my own answer to the OP. It was quite an undertaking, but here it is, so far. My RPG multiverse is a sub-multiverse of a larger multiverse.


THE STAR WARS MULTIVERSE

Universe of The Star Wars (TU) - The universe that the comic book adaptation of the The Star Wars rough draft screenplay takes place in. This universe is internally consistent and stable.

A New Hope Universe (AU) - The universe where the only completely canon work is the original Star Wars film before Episode IV was added to the opening crawl. Aspects of the novelization plus other 70s adaptations and film information sources that do not contradict the film may also exist in this universe. Darth Vader is not Luke's father and Vader really killed Luke's unnamed father. (And yes, Greedo never fired in this universe.) Still to this day, when I watch this movie it is very easy for me to disregard the entire rest of the franchise and my own multiverse, and just return to my inner-1977 self when this magical movie was the only Star Wars we had and needed. I do enjoy the challenge of resolving apparent discontinuities between films and works of other media, but there is also something to be said about the simplistic joy of not needing to do that. This universe is delightfully consistent and stable!

George Lucas' Universe or The Lucasverse (GU) - Lucas' own Star Wars universe based on the first six films (with Lucas' revisions), and Lucas' commentary about his personal SWU (which does contradict the EU and the CU). Although Lucas later devised the premise of TCW TV series and oversaw the production of the series, I do not include it in this universe because TCW was an afterthought that contradicts his film saga and effectively became the basis of Disney's Canon Universe (see below). Prequel detractors may disagree, but this universe is consistent and stable.

The Expanded Universe or The Legendsverse (EU) - The first six films plus most published material since the '70s that Disney now puts a 'Legends' label on, plus most of the FFG RPG (so the universe is still expanding, albeit much more slowly now). TCW does not have the Legends label and was never a part of the EU. The EU was internally inconsistent since its very conception by trying to shoehorn Dark Empire into the same universe as The Thrawn Trilogy. Now after over 20 years, the EU is extremely unstable, on the verge of exploding.

The Canon Universe or The Disneyverse (CU) - All the films plus TCW, Rebels, and all the new canon works published by Disney without the Legends label. Like the EU, this universe was born internally inconsistent and Disney is repeating many of the same mistakes of the EU. It's unstable, and quickly growing.

The Whills Multiverse (WM) - My sub-multiverse of RPG "campaign universes"
S0
S1
S2
S0a
S1a
S3
S4
S5
S6 or WU - My current campaign universe. When I say "my Star Wars universe" (or "my SWU"), this is usually what I am referring to.

In the Fall of 1988, I was running two Star Wars campaigns ("S1" and "S2") simultaneously, but my original intention was that both campaigns existed in that same reality, which would allow for adventures with player characters of both groups. This didn't happen as planned partially due to game balance concerns: The S1 PCs were always more advanced than the S2 PCs because the second group started adventuring months after the first one. I also realized that it would be much easier to run some of the same original and published adventures for both player groups, so the concept of the Star Wars Multiverse was introduced in early 1989 with the declaration that the S2 campaign took place in an alternate reality of the S1 campaign. The game worlds were given out-of-universe designations based on the name of the campaigns that took place there. The Star Wars Multiverse concept, admittedly inspired by the Pre-Crisis DC Multiverse, also allowed for alternate versions of PCs of each universe to appear in others as NPCs (and in a couple rare cases as PCs). Heroes of one world could sometimes even be bad guys in others. The adventures of my homebrewed Star Wars RPG I had created back in 1983 were eventually canonized into my Multiverse by being set in a universe named S0.

At the heart of all my Multiverse is A New Hope, the film canon which definitely took place in every universe but one (S5). The first Star Wars RPG full-length published adventure module, Tatooine Manhunt, was the only adventure to be played in S0, S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5 (of course with different PCs and some other plot changes from world to world). In tribute to the first Star Wars adventure I created in 1983, all of the campaign worlds have a location named "Star City", but that place has not always existed in the same star system. All of the campaign worlds portrayed adventures from about 3 BBY to 17 ABY, although some of them did diverge from sequel continuity.

In the S1 adventure "Satan's Supper" some of the PCs traveled to the Dragonia system and flew their ship into a wormhole that transported them to an unknown dimensional pocket universe with a place called Satanland, a flat medieval fantasy-like world ruled by a giant powerful dragon-like being called Satan (I suspect I had been influenced by The Hobbit). The S1 PCs eventually escaped the clutches of Satan and returned to their own reality. In a later S2 adventure ("Satan's Supper 2: The Odd Squad"), the PC Axel H entered the same reality from S2's Dragonia system and visited Satanland. Axel learned of the previous adventure of the S1 PCs, but he was not aware that they had come from a different universe than his. Axel also returned to his original reality. Although the dimensional pocket universe of Satanland seemed to exist as a link between S1 and S2, it is not considered to be part of the proper Multiverse.

~~~

The nine universes are detailed below in the order of their first real-world appearance. There were two S1 adventures involving PCs traversing universes. (See S1, S0a and S1a).

S0 = Star Wars Campaign Universe 0
AKA: setting of Stars & Wars / setting of Star Wars: The RPG non-campaign-continuity adventures / "The S0 Universe"
Years Played: 1983, 1988-1989
Game system/edition: S&W (proto-d20 homebrew), WEG 1e
Metaplot (Film Canon) ~ ANH: Yes / TESB: Yes / RotJ: Yes
Notable Campaign: The Adventures of Squad: Zero (the 'S0' campaign)
GMs: Whill, Jason, Jim C, Chris B
Players: Sean, Kevin F, Hassan, Dave, Thad, Jim C, Chris B, Jenny, Whill, Mike S, Jason, Ryan, Jeff P, and a few others

"Star Wars Campaign Universe 0" is a retronym for the setting of the homebrew Star Wars RPG entitled Stars & Wars ("S&W"), which I created and played with my D&D group in the Summer of 1983 after seeing Return of the Jedi, although these adventures were not canonized as part of my Star Wars Multiverse until 1989. S&W's game system was mainly based on the Basic D&D game that my friends Jason and Mike S had played with my brother Ryan and myself. Our interest in Star Wars subsided by the end of the summer and we went back to playing D&D and other RPGs for the next few years. After starting to play the official Star Wars RPG published by West End Coast 1987, some "non-campaign continuity" adventures were eventually canonized as part of my Star Wars Multiverse by declaring them to take place in "Campaign Universe 0" as prequels to the 1983 homebrew Star Wars RPG adventures. Alternate versions of the PCs from the first WEG campaign existed there (see S1 below). Described below are the Star Wars adventures set in this universe, in the chronological order they took place in (not the order played):

* The same weekend we had started the S1 campaign in 1988, I also ran the first of a few adventures (taking place after A New Hope) for one of my S1 players. Over that summer, Jeff P played a couple of Rebel characters who flew from one mission to the next in a two-seat Y-Wing Fighter. Before he became a player in the S2 campaign (see S2 below), Chris B played a pair of bumbling smugglers trying to get into the Alliance in the Fall of '88.
* For three adventures played in 1989 which were also set in the time of the classic era, I was a player and not the gamemaster. Chris B was GM for one, and Jim C ran two. I played a human Brash Pilot in Chris B's adventure, but I'm not sure who else played with me (probably Jim). For Jim's game I played a human shipjacker-turned-Rebel, leading two different groups of PCs played by Chris B, Jenny and others (I can't remember who, but they were likely some of the S1 and/or other S2 players). Jim's game revealed that the Tatooine of this universe had a secret Imperial military installation far out in the desert, purpose unknown.
* The Adventures of Squad: Zero was my third WEG Star Wars campaign, ran concurrently with the first two Winter/Spring 1989. In this series of classic era adventures, Sean usually played a Force-sensitive human Test Pilot leading a group of various Rebels played by Kevin F, Hassan, Dave, Thad, Jim C and others I can no longer recall. This episodic campaign formed the bulk of the stories taking place in this universe. One of the players christened the Rebel team 'Squad: Zero' to give the campaign universe's designation (S0) an in-universe meaning.
* The S&W adventures from 1983 were set immediately after RotJ and thus took place in the future of the above adventures (making all of the above adventures prequels to this mini-campaign). The first S&W adventure had involved a journey of Mike S, Jason, Ryan's PCs across the deserts of Tatooine to the Star City Spaceport. The main antagonist only glimpsed and never named was a mysterious green-skinned D&D-half-elf-looking man in black cloak. We only played a handful of adventures for this homebrew game, some ran by myself and others by Jason.


S1 = Star Wars Campaign Universe 1
AKA: "The S1 Universe"
Years Played: 1988-1989
Game system/edition: WEG 1e
Metaplot (Film Canon) ~ ANH: Yes / TESB: Undetermined / RotJ: No
Campaign: The Adventures of Black Squad (every adventure of the "S1" campaign except for parts of the last two adventures)
GM: Whill
Players: Michael, Brian, Dan, Jeff P

"Star Wars Campaign Universe 1" was the setting for S1 (Star Wars Campaign 1), my first WEG Star Wars campaign. By Spring 1988 I had recruited three players: Brian, Dan, and Jeff P. I didn't feel that only three starting PCs would have the necessary skills set for the various aspects of our adventures, so I asked my players to create two characters each from the templates I allowed them to choose from (two templates were augmented). After the four of us created six PCs in May of '88, we decided we would begin the first adventure of our campaign on the last day of school. Brian unexpectedly showed up with his little brother Michael and asked if he could also play, so I picked a template for him and we quickly created his character right before the first game session.

After the first adventure in which the seven characters joined the Rebel Alliance (about 7 months after ANH), the new special operations group became known as Black Squad. The alien was the last known survivor of a homebrew near-human species who has the appearance of green-skinned D&D elves, and the PC was actually half-human (his father had been a Jedi) - This PC was a good version of the main villain of my first Star Wars adventure in the '83 homebrew. Over the course of the campaign, we added another character for Michael to play. S1's Black Squad:

Brian......Lars Colton............... Retired Imperial Captain (Human)
Brian......Collen Brander.......... Brash Pilot (Human)
Dan........Kazan Starkiller.........Alien Student of the Force (Half-Moryatui)
Dan........V "Vendetta" X-7.......Outlaw Cyborg Engineer (Human Cyborg)
Jeff P......Khon "Rip" Khengas...Bounty Hunter (Human)
Jeff P......Biggs Moviola............Pirate (Human)
Michael...Rexas Dead...............Gambler (Human)
Michael...Jon Tarkinson............Rebel Officer (Force-Sensitive Human)

For the first twelve adventures, the leader of the 7-man squad was Captain Colton, while Kazan, Rip, and Rexas all served as impromptu seconds-in-command depending on the mission. The adventure after Jon was introduced was the only one that started with an 8-man Black Squad because at its climax, Rip was killed as a result of the group's involvement with underworld entanglements. Kazan had been tutoring Jon in the ways of the Force, and at the beginning of the next mission (for which Lars, Kazan and Rexas were all absent), Jon was made the official co-foreman of the squad. Two adventures after that, Kazan was killed. Both Lars and Rexas were then transferred to other branches of the Alliance (in reality so all four players only had to play one character). Jon inherited Kazan's lightsaber and was promoted to lead the remnants of the team, while Biggs was Jon's second-in-command. This more experienced 4-man incarnation of Black Squad continued to serve the Alliance for many missions.

S1's Black Squad are the only PCs in my Multiverse to have multiversal adventures. In the campaign's penultimate adventure, Jon, Collen and Vendetta were inadvertently transported to the S0 universe and unknowingly created a divergent universe, S0a (see below). The PCs eventually returned to their own universe. In the final adventure of the campaign starting out over a year before TESB would have taken place, those three PCs were reunited with their teammate Biggs before advancing the S1 timeline 15 years forward when they were instantaneously blasted into a dark future they believed they could prevent by going back to their own time. The Alliance had lost the Battle of Endor, the movie heroes were all dead, Palpatine still ruled the galaxy with Vader and three Death Star II-class Death Stars, and the Alliance's only remaining Force-user was a teenaged son of the deceased Black Squad teammate Kazan. Jon chose to stay with the future Alliance in case the others just destroyed themselves trying to go back, and the last documented events of the S1 universe were Black Squad severely crippling one of the Death Stars right before the other three PCs entered a time warp. Biggs, Collen and Vendetta did make it back, but reappearing in a past they had originally been absent from unknowingly created a divergent reality, S1a (although the PCs believed that they had just altered the timeline so that the S1 future they had visited would be overwritten). See S1a below for the continuing adventures of the three S1 heroes.


S2 = Star Wars Campaign Universe 2
AKA: "The S2 Universe"
Years Played: 1988-1990
Game system/edition: WEG 1e
Metaplot (Film Canon) ~ ANH: Yes / TESB: No / RotJ: No
Notable Campaigns: The Adventures of Green Squad (the "S2" campaign), The Adventures of Styles Silverman and the New Green Squad, The Adventures of Red Squad
GM: Whill
Players: Chris B, Jim C, Paul, Jim L, Kevin B, Dan

"Star Wars Campaign Universe 2" was the setting for three sequential campaigns, the first of which was called S2 ("Star Wars Campaign 2"). In the Fall of 1988, we would play S1 on some weekends. On the following Mondays at school, the players would talk about their weekend adventures to some of our other friends at lunch. This generated enough interest in the RPG that I soon had enough players for second player group (five). In late Fall I began running the second campaign starting out about a year after ANH, alternating game sessions with the first campaign (and eventually a third) into the later part of that school year (Spring 1989). Dan from S1 took over Kevin's PC for the last few adventure that the character appeared in. The S2 PCs:

Paul.................Axel Hitler............Alien Outlaw (Near-Human)
Chris B.............Styles Silverman...Brash Pilot (Human)
Kevin B / Dan...Mortimer Traxx.....Cyborg Soldier (Human)
Jim C ..............Orion Alexander....Quixotic Jedi (Human)
Jim L...............Max Trudair..........Smuggler (Human)
Jim C...............Zach Flannagen....Bounty Hunter (Human)
Jim L...............Tojan Kamitsu......Thief (Human)

This world's Alliance had no Black Squad, but S2-counterparts of some of the S1 PCs were known to exist as NPCs who had never joined the Alliance. S2 instead featured the adventures of the rebel Green Squad (as in the Star Wars Campaign Pack). The first five PCs above became the second incarnation of Green Squad after the deaths of all but one of the first team's members (NPCs), inheriting the use of their ship, the Long Shot, and two droids. Axel was appointed the leader of this new group with Max as his second in command. After the new team's second adventure, this campaign universe diverged from sequel film continuity when Axel and Max went on a mission in which they traced top secret Imperial military supply shipments to the Forest Moon of Endor, befriending some Ewoks and discovering the construction site for a major top secret project about a year after the Battle of Yavin. The second Green Squad served together for many more missions until their final adventure as a team in which Max valiantly sacrificed his life to save the rest of the squad.

Suffering from the loss of their comrade, Styles and Orion then went on a mission in which Orion crossed over to the Dark Side and disappeared. When Styles returned to his Rebel base alone, an even deeper depression set in when he discovered that Axel and Mortimer had been transferred away. Then Styles was promoted, given command of the Long Shot (and its droids), and asked to form a third Green Squad which he would lead. Styles enlisted the aid of Siene Symm (NPC), the only survivor of the first Green Squad, to be his co-pilot. On the new Green Squad's first mission, Styles recruited his high-school-physical-education-teacher-turned-bounty-hunter, Zach Flannagen (Jim C), into the Rebellion. After two missions with Styles, "Flann" left Green Squad and became a solo agent, starring in at least two adventures on his own. Styles continued to lead the third Green Squad, having many adventures with a few additions to his motley crew (all low-level GCs). A good chunk of the metaplot of this second S2 campaign mirrored the S1a campaign (below). In this Green Squad's final adventure, Siene Symm and the rest of the crew of the Long Shot sacrificed their lives to save Commander Silverman and the ship.

Styles was then reassigned to starfighter squadron. The Long Shot was given to Axel and Mortimer and renamed The Hot Shot. In their next mission they recruited the starship thief Tojan Kamitsu for the Rebellion. The trio formed the basis of "Red Squad". In the final epic adventure of this third S2 campaign, Red Squad was joined by Styles and they ended up killing Jabba the Hutt and Boba Fett, and stealing Slave-1. Afterwards, the chronicled adventures of this campaign world came to a close when Flan, Styles and Axel were summoned to the Rebel Fleet to be a part of an Alliance strike team that would attempt to knock out the Imperial shield generator that Axel had discovered in the Endor system a year prior, now protecting a new Death Star under construction.


S0a = Star Wars Campaign Universe 0-alternate
AKA: "The Mirror Universe" / The S0 altered timeline / setting of Hunters
Years Played: 1989, 1995
Game system/edition: WEG 1e (and 2e)
Metaplot (Film Canon) ~ ANH: Yes / TESB: No / RotJ: No
Notable Campaign: Hunters
GM: Whill
Players: Sean, Kevin F, Hassan, Thad, Dave, Matt C, Chris B, Jim C, Paul, Jim L, Dan, Brian, Jeff P, Michael, Mike S, and maybe a few others

In S1's 1989 penultimate adventure inspired by the Star Trek TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror", the Rebel Fleet had been executing repairs near a space-time anomaly that hid their presence from an Imperial fleet that had been hunting them a little over a year and a half after ANH. Black Squad (minus Biggs) was returning to the fleet from reconnaissance missions in nearby systems when the anomaly suddenly changed in size and shape without warning. The S1 heroes flew into the anomaly at the same exact time as counterparts of theirs from an alternate universe were flying into their corresponding anomaly, which triggered a temporary connection between the two universes that caused the minds of the three heroes to transfer to the bodies of their cross-universal counterparts. The universe they found themselves in was very different: The counterparts of two Black Squad members who had died in the S1 universe were still alive in this alternate universe, and all eight of the Black Squad counterparts had never even joined the Alliance. Three of the eight counterparts were Imperials, one was a ruthless bloodthirsty pirate captain, and the other four were independents just trying to make their way. The PCs ended up killing the evil counterpart of their fallen comrade Kazan and returning to their own bodies in their own universe, where they discovered that their counterparts' minds had inhabited their bodies in their absence (but presumably also returned to their own bodies/universe).

This adventure had developed out of an actual S1/S2 multiversal crossover adventure that would involve players from both campaigns, but that never exactly materialized. When reworking it as the second-to-last S1 adventure, I didn't like S2 being the other universe because some of the S2-counterparts of the S1 PCs were already dead by that point (killed by the S2 PCs). So in the final adventure as designed, the Mirror Universe was instead intended on being the S0 universe. In play, the adventure went a lot differently than planned after one player had cancelled at the last minute so his S1 PC had to be written out of the adventure (and thus replaced by his evil NPC counterpart). The S0 universe had a timeline of events that went in the future of this adventure, and the adventure irrevocably altered the course of those events, so the S1 PCs traversing to S0 ended up created a divergent timeline/reality I call S0a. The narrative of this new timeline continued as a setting for an entire campaign which tell the bulk of the stories set in this universe, the base player group being the players of the S0 campaign, with players from S1 an S2 as well.

The S0a campaign played the Summer of '89 was simply called "Hunters' and featured the adventures of a bounty hunter guild (Hunters, Inc.) that evolved into an elite mercenary company. Their field commander was Hairblat the Wookiee Bounty Hunter (played by Sean), and his brother was Habaccabacca the Galactic Wrestling Federation Champion (played by Matt C). Jeff P played Rip Khengas, a human bounty hunter in black stealth armor based on his deceased S1 PC. (This universe's version had been an NPC in the S1 "Mirror, Mirror" adventure.) Brian played a human hunter in Mandalorian armor. Kevin F played a con man (the faceman of the group), and Dave played a former shock-ball athlete. Someone played a Gamorrean, maybe Chris B. In one epic all-nighter session with 13 players, the Hunters captured a Victory-class star destroyer (with minor damage and missing all lifepods, and at least 1 PC had died). A more entertaining adventure was the attempt to auction the VSD off to the highest bidder. Over the course of the campaign, the PCs destroyed the Millennium Falcon, killing Chewbacca and making an enemy out of Han Solo who left the Rebellion to seek vengeance (S0a clearly diverged from film canon before TESB would take place). The Hunters acquired so many enemies that they became the hunted, and about half of the large pool of PCs died in the campaign (Solo was an ongoing protagonist who had himself killed a couple of the PCs). The Hunters killed Jabba the Hutt and Boba Fett, then gave Slave-1 to Solo. They negotiated a conditional peace with Solo so they could make a contract with the Alliance for the ultimate bounty: Emperor Palpatine on Imperial Center. At the end of the campaign, Luke Skywalker had completed his uninterrupted Jedi training on Dagobah before turning to the Dark Side, killing Vader and going into hiding. Palpatine's spirit was trapped in the body of the non-Force-sensitive Gamorrean PC in the hands of the Alliance. Solo ended his vendetta on the Hunters, joined the Alliance and left with Threepio to track Luke down. Princess Leia and Artoo left to find Yoda. Hairblat and one other Hunter were extremely rich galactic heroes.

In 1995, S0a was the setting of its final chronicled adventure in which Mike S reprised his 1983 S&W character in WEG Star Wars 2nd Edition form, playing in an adventure similar to the first adventure of the S&W game we had played 12 years prior, which had been set in the universe this reality diverged from. Also set on Tatooine, this adventure portrayed Gremeckoran the Wookiee smuggler getting involved in the power struggle in the vacuum left by the death of Jabba the Hutt and the rebellion against Imperial authority.


S1a = Star Wars Campaign Universe 1-alternate
AKA: The S1 altered timeline
Years Played: 1989-1990
Game system/edition: WEG 1e
Metaplot (Film Canon) ~ ANH: Yes / TESB: Yes / RotJ: Undetermined
Campaigns: The second half of the last adventure of the "S1" campaign and The S1a Campaign
GM: Whill
Players: Jeff P, Brian, Dan, Chris B, Jim C, Kevin B, Paul, Jim L

This world is based on the S1 universe, diverging about a year before TESB. After creating the S1a reality through time travel in the final S1 campaign adventure, three S1 Black Squad PCs continued having Rebel adventures taking place there, Biggs being the central character of the metaplot. Collen and Vendetta each had a solo adventure that resolved their S1 character arcs. Biggs became a solo agent assisted on many adventures by a Sullustan pilot/engineer NPC named Snotty. Collen had one more solo adventure and another adventure with Vendetta that both supported Biggs's ongoing narrative. Biggs eventually realized a latent Force sensitivity, proceeding down the shadowy alternate Force path "Ninja" and adopting a new identity, "Zun Tzu". The S1a PCs:

Jeff P (Jim C).....Biggs Moviola/Zun Tzu...Pirate/Ninja (Human)
Brian (Chris B)...Collen Brander..............Brash Pilot (Human)
Dan (Kevin B)....V "Vendetta" X-7...........Outlaw Cyborg Engineer (Human Cyborg)
Paul..................Axel Hitler....................Outlaw (Near-Human)
Jim L.................Tojan Kamitsu..............Thief (Human)
Chris B..............Styles Silverman...........Brash Pilot (Human)

In a S1-S2 cross-over adventure of sorts, Zun Tzu was joined by S1a-counterparts of two S2 PCs played by their S2 players: Axel H and Tojan Kamitsu assisted Zun in a mission for the Alliance on a jungle planet. Sometime after that, I ran a couple battle scenarios between two players, originally intended to be 'just for fun' but I canonized the results. Zun (Jeff) had come into conflict with the S1a-counterpart of the S2 PC Styles Silverman (Chris B), who turned out to be a villain in this reality. Zun flying a B-Wing fighter engaged Styles flying a stolen X-Wing fighter. Styles won that round by destroying the B-Wing, but Zun had ejected and survived. Later, Zun hunted Styles down and they engaged in one-on-one personal combat. Armed with his lightsaber, Zun brutally killed Styles out of revenge, beginning his descent towards the Dark Side.

Zun (Jeff P) was joined by Collen (Brian) for a mission. And the three S1 Black Squad PCs teamed-up one last time for an adventure in which S2 players played the S1 characters: Zun (Jim C), Collen (Chris B) and Vendetta (Kevin B) successfully infiltrated an Imperial star destroyer and took control of the bridge. This adventure was played just for fun, but since there was no negative outcome for Zun and nothing happened that contradicted the continuity of the S1a campaign universe, this adventure was canonized.

After many successful missions for the Alliance following the disbanding of Black Squad, Zun Tzu maimed a completely subdued Imperial engineer out of rage and revenge, which was the moment Zun completely crossed over to the Dark Side. This tragedy was the final chronicled event of S1a.


S3 = Star Wars Campaign Universe 3
Years Played: 1989-1990
Game system/edition: WEG 1e
Metaplot (Film Canon) ~ ANH: Yes / TESB: Undetermined / RotJ: Undetermined
Campaign: The Adventures of the New Black Squad (the "S3" campaign)
GM: Whill
Players: Sean, Kevin F, Chris B, Thad, Dave (and Dan for one adventure)

S3 was the setting for one classic Rebel campaign played by players from all my previous campaigns. Integrating ideas from S0a, S1, S2 and DC Comics' Infinity Inc., the PCs of S3 eventually formed the second incarnation of an older "Black Squad," the first team having operated back in the Clone Wars in this reality. The Rebel S3 PCs were the sons and proteges of the original Black Squad. Like the Green Squads of S2, the current S3 Black Squad also flew the Long Shot. Some of the Hunter PCs of the S0 universe had NPC counterparts in S3. Captain Hobbes was their team leader with Gunther Bronx (also known by the alias "Jordan Nightflyer") as his second-in-command. Dan played "Jordan" for only the first adventure, and Chris B played Sammy in addition to his own character for only the first two adventures while Dave was on vacation. The S3 PCs:

Sean S..............Thompson Hobbes...Retired Imperial Captain (Human)
(Dan) Kevin F....Gunther Bronx.........Outlaw Bounty Hunter (Human)
Thad.................Turin......................Alien Force Student (Moryatui)
Chris B..............Daven Lebbik..........Armor Tech (Human)
(Chris B) Dave...Sammy Malone........Test Pilot (Human)

This group played seven full-length published modules, plus many other adventures. Despite this Black Squad's many successful missions for the Alliance, S3 ended with an even greater tragedy then the S1a Biggs/Zun narrative. In the final adventure, the PCs and their commanding officer were killed one by one, until only Gunther remained, suddenly confronted by Darth Vader in a dark alley (fade to black). I think I was too influenced by the Cthulhu campaign all of the players and I were playing in concurrently.


S4 = Star Wars Campaign Universe 4
AKA: "The 2e Universe" / "The Teke Universe"
Years Played: 1992-1996
Game system/edition: WEG 2e
Metaplot (Film Canon) ~ ANH: Yes / TESB: Yes / RotJ: Yes
Campaign: The Adventures of Silver Squad
GM: Whill
Players: Kurt, Jeff F, Mike D, Aaron, Chris K, Matt M, Ted, Ed, Adam and a few others

S4 was the setting for loosely connected Rebel Alliance adventures played from 1992-96. At the end of the Summer of 1990, most of my high school friends and I all went our separate ways off to college. I didn't play Star Wars at all in '91, but I did enjoy reading Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire. In '92 West End Games released the second edition of the RPG and I began to GM at college. In less than 5 years I moved a total of 13 times, but the players for this world were all college fraternity brothers of mine. During this chaotic period my player group gained new players as often as it lost them. Some of these players played different PCs in different adventures, and most of the lesser-played and/or less-memorable characters are now lost to time. I'm sure there are several players who only played in a few adventures who I've forgotten, but most of my 2nd Edition adventurers and their primary characters were:

Kurt........Mon Cal Pilot
Jeff F......Gambler (Human)
Mike D....Outlaw (Dressellian)
Aaron.....Merc (Human)
Chris K...Wookiee First Mate
Matt M....Jedi Master Force Ghost*
Ted........Quixotic Jedi (Human)* / Bounty Hunter (Shistavanen)
Ed..........Treka Horansi Praetor (Alien Student of the Force)
Adam.....Brash Smuggler (Human)

* The background of Ted's first character stated that after he had realized his Force sensitivity, he started to hear a voice inside his head, but didn't know whose voice it was and just assumed that it was the will of the Force guiding him. Matt hadn't made a PC, but just showed up one game session to watch, and eventually started giving suggestions to Ted as if he were the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Since it was in the spirit of Star Wars and everyone found it entertaining at the time, I allowed this to continue.

The episodic campaign name, The Adventures of Silver Squad, had multiple meanings. Silver is part of the color scheme of the 2e core book cover, and it is one of my fraternity's colors. (I think there was also a PC or NPC counterpart to S2's Styles Silverman). This world was known to have NPC counterparts to PCs from S0a, S1, S2 snd S3. Over the course of the campaign, the PC who starred in the greatest number of adventures was Kar, Kurt's Mon Cal Pilot. The first half of the campaign took place during the classic trilogy, but the later adventures played after I graduated from college took place after RotJ.


S5 = Star Wars Campaign Universe 5
AKA: "The R&E Universe" / "The TFA Reboot Universe" (formally known as "My Star Wars Universe")
Years Played: 1997-2006, 2008-2012, 2015-2017
Game system/edition: WEG R&E+ (also WotC Saga, FFG EotE, and FFG AoR for one adventure each)
Metaplot (Film Canon) ~ Prequels: Undetermined / Classic Trilogy: Undetermined / TFA: Yes
Campaigns: The Minos Cluster Campaign and numerous others
GMs: Whill, Ian, and a few others
Players: numerous

While S4 was the setting for only one campaign over the course of several years, S5 was the setting of many various campaigns and adventures played over the course of a 20 year period. NPC counterparts of PCs from all my previous campaign worlds exist in this world. Unfortunately I can't find most of my notes and materials for this time period.

It is noteworthy that this is the only campaign world which includes an entire campaign where I was a player and not the GM. I was invited to join a friend's gaming group when they decided to run a WEG Star Wars campaign. The GM was very experienced in many games but had only run WEG Star Wars for one prior campaign in the mid to late 90s. His game system was very close to R&E RAW. He never ran published adventures, and he never used film or WEG planets or characters. The plots of the films were never more than very vaguely referenced in his campaign. He liked to create everything himself to prevent players from being spoiled and to minimize metagaming, but he occasionally took inspiration from published adventures or NPCs in them for his campaign. Because everything was so original (this guy created multiple entire sectors), nothing contradicted anything in my campaigns. And nothing offended my sense of SW verisimilitude, so it was very easy to canonize the campaign. He was a decent GM and the campaign was entertaining, but I realized more than ever that I simply have more fun as a GM. After that campaign, I was willing to take over as GM for a new campaign with this group and the GM was willing to be a player, but the rest of the players all wanted to move on to another game so they did.


WU (S6) The Whills Universe (Star Wars Campaign Universe 6)
AKA: "My Star Wars Universe"
Years Played: 2018-
Game system/edition: Whill's Star Wars D6 (beta)
Metaplot (Film Canon) ~ All five prequels: Yes / Classic Trilogy: Yes / "Sequel Trilogy": No
Campaigns: The Adventures of the Ewok Prince
GMs: Whill
Players: WJ
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[Dredwulf60]

Holey Moley Whill!

You are channelling the spirit of Tolkein here.

My hat's off to your meticulous archive.

My notes of previous campaigns are fairly spotty. Hand-written from the early days, some of which I still have.

None of my campaigns have had much of an opportunity to overlap, so I've never had to cross the bridge of deciding definitively.

In as much as I can recall, this is a rundown of the Star Wars I've run:

Campaign 1: "Star Wars, the Game" Early 1990s
I had a mix of players without any overall goal; typical 'D&D style adventuring group.' Basically murder hobos...IN SPACE!!!

Campaign 2: "Space Pirates" Mid 1990s
This game centered around a friend who I had run a solo D&D campaign for, where he had 'accidentally' stolen a sailing ship and was on the run and forced to turn to piracy. It was pretty fun, until he got posted to the other side of the country for a few years. When was finally back in my area of the world we decided to strike up a Star Wars game. I basically took the premise of the D&D campaign and Star-warsified it. His character was now in charge of an 'accidentally stolen' corvette. We had a few other players fill out other members of the crew.

Campaign 3: "Hyperlane Cantina" Early 2000s
This was a Star Wars game I ran for two friends. The premise was a Star Wars version of the movie Road House. They were a pair of bouncers that drifted from cantina to cantina hiring themselves out as security and cleaning the place up of the nastier elements...and getting into local adventures along the way. They eventually bought their own ship...but the campaign ended when they went to work for Jabba...and Jabba ended up selling them into slavery as gladiators. They lasted a fair while, but eventually died fighting.

Campaign 4: "Tramps" Circa 2002
This was a campaign for a group, centered around a tramp freighter and his group of passengers that was the other players. They got caught up in the young jedi wannabe's hunt for lost jedi secrets. The adventures were fairly typical as they went planet to planet in their search, running afoul of the agents of the Empire looking for the young force-seeker.

Campaign 5: "Swoop Gangs of Tatooine" Circa 2004
The first game where I had specific restrictions for the players upon character creation owing to the theme I had. Basically I wanted to run a game loosely based on the first Fast and the Furious movie, but with swoop bikers.
I had a custom list of about 15 character archetypes I'd like to see and my 6 players chose from them.
It was a long running campaign that eventually saw them acting as local resistance to the Empire, like The Wolverines of Red Dawn and ended with them getting recruited a fast scout unit for the Rebel Alliance.

Note: This one had it established that the Death Star was NOT destroyed by the rebels and instead blew up Yavin IV including, presumably Princess Leia, though details about Luke and Han were not known. The players just heard about it as an aside...it didn't concern them directly at the time...but it was what started their guerilla war against authority on Tatooine.


Campaign 6: "Jedi: Children of War" Circa 2007-2008
This one I set during the Clone Wars, and I started it when only the animated shorts existed, not the CGI TV show.

I had each of the 6 players generate a youngling and I had a pre-system to track their development at the jedi temple from the time they were toddlers, with the players making choices along the way, right up until they get selected to be padawan learners. They started grouped together because all of their masters were killed at the battle of Geonosis, which began the campaign.

As player characters were killed, they were allowed to create senior clone trooper characters, or other supporting characters. The last 2 remaining padawans made it to the Jedi Trials and became Jedi Generals.

I used a mass-land combat system to game through ground and space battles.

The goal was to play right up to Order 66 where all of a sudden I'd decree that the players with Clone characters would have the initiative and attempt to assassinate the jedis...and see where the chips fall.

But we never made it that far due to my having to relocate for my job.


Campaign 7: "Way of the Mando" Started late 2014
This is my current game, with all of the players having mandalorian characters working as a clan for personal wealth and glory. Heavily influenced by Sons of Anarchy.

[Dredwulf60]

[Dredwulf60]

Photo from a Clone Wars battlefield. Notice the Jedi character standing on the white bottle cap near the center -left. He's one of the PCs. The bottle cap represents a shield generator he is guarding.

Click here to see image

[MrNexx]

I don't have enough continuity of play to make a multiverse. The closest I get is having running Pirates of Prexiar multiple times for different groups, with different goals.
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[Bren]

[Whill]

Wow, Dredwulf60 and Bren!

[Bren]

[Bren]

I forgot to include my active campaign. For that I'm using the Long Shot campaign outline from the Classic Adventures supplement.

Green Squad the Fakir Sector Campaign My current active campaign. Bentlix Risk a human male Gambler and Squad Leader, Cassanna Hewelac a human female Young Jedi, Graffa of Wōd a Shaull female Curious Explorer. None of these characters have armor. And they all have STR below 3D (2D+2, 2D, 2D respectively). Which I have to admit is kind of unusual.

Since this is a completely new sector in an entirely different region of the galaxy and, so far at least, the time line is undeclared as to whether it is a bit before or just after A New Hope. There aren't any character driven continuity challenges. However the map is another thing.

Nowadays there are some very nice galactic maps identifying sectors and the locations of individual star systems. This even appears to be canonical information. Back in the day, that level of detail and consistency were lacking. We created new planets and I positioned the sectors and planets from the WEG materials where I wanted (subject to my ability to discern any logical relationships). So locations would be an issue. If that is, anyone knew what the old locations were or cared if they differed from the new locations. My co-GM isn't part of this group so only I would know. And for the most part, only I would care anyway. So I'm leaving the issue of is this new campaign a different universe in a multiverse undecided for now.

[Naaman]

In response to the original post, our group has always played in a UNIverse, that maintains continuity from one campaign to the next. When the first set of heroes has saved the galaxy enough times, they pass the torch to the next group of PCs (so to speak).

We have had prior PCs return for cameos in newer campaigns wherein the original player assumed both the current character and the old PC. Was fun to bring out some of the "old tricks" from time to time.

After moving away from my last gaming group, I carried on with my last PC in leisurely writings picking up where the campaign left off, and have brought in characters from other campaigns and a different gaming group into the new story without regard for continuity (they are essentially being recycled into a new continuity, with back story being modified if necessary to fit). That is the closest I have ever come to a multiverse.

[Whill]

[Whill]

See this thread's OP and below.

[CRMcNeill]

There was a guy who suggested an interesting, darker post-RotJ timeline, where the Emperor was killed at Endor, but the Alliance wasn't strong enough to reform the Republic, and the whole galaxy effectively Balkanized into warring factions of Imperials, the Alliance, the Hutts and any of the other races / entities with enough leverage to carve out their own little chunk. I may have to look that up; I think it was Barrataria...

EDIT: Damn, I'm good.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[StarPadre]

[Whill]