Rambling Preamble
The allure of Star Wars continues to bring me back into its grasp, and I cannot stay away. Between Episode 7, new KoToR II update, and the five Zahn books I've read over the last month, I am as excited as ever to do something related to Star Wars. I think I've learned from my failures in A Galaxy Afire, and I'm ready to try again, this time with added influences from games like Agorath by adding in light stats and a very open world.
Premise
Thus my idea is as follows: our setting is in between Episodes III and IV, during the height of the Empire and before the Rebellion united under one coherent banner. Those players who choose to pursue the path of the Rebels will thus be tasked with creating their own Rebellion, shaped however they wanted, organized however they wanted. Meanwhile, we cannot neglect the
Starting Stats and Character Stuff
Due to light stats, I will be regulating the assets of players who start with forces under their command for sake of sanity and balance. Thus, no will be begin as Grand Admirals, or possess massive legions of loyal followers, or an entire trade empire at game start. Otherwise, we wouldn't really have progression and players who start small would be neglected.
Thus: Rebels will begin with a personal ship, and one asset. When I say asset, it is intentionally vague because I want you, the player, to come up with an asset and justify it to me. For instance, perhaps your character doesn't have soldiers at his beck and call. But perhaps he is a well-known speaker in his homeworld and thus can stir them up easily. Or perhaps your character has shady ties with some old buddies who run a pirating operation. It's possible that not assets will be in stats, but so will instead simply be IC things that I will keep in mind.
Imperials, being much more organized, will have more restrictive starts. In you are in the Navy, you must begin at Captain or below. You will have a flagship and a small taskforce at your command, which may change depending on your service, for better or worse. If you choose to be a Moff, then you will need to tell me what exactly you govern in the Emperor's name. A good rule of thumb is that you can oversee a few non-noteworthy systems, or one system with an important world, like Alderaan. Again, this will be for the player to suggest and justify for me when they make a character.
Those who don't want to start with forces under them are much more freeform. Perhaps you want to be an information broker who pits the players again one another. Maybe you want to be a Hutt who deals with commerce and not war. Perhaps you are a smuggler who works hard for his money. Who knows, you tell me.
Now after that spiel about creativity, now for the restrictions! Again, I will operate under a NO FORCE SENSITIVES rule. I don't want a game focuses around the Force, nor to create OP characters who are inferior to normal characters. I will also add NO ESTABLISHED CHARACTERS, so no Jabba the Hutt, no Luke, no Vader, etc. I will explain what will become of them later on. But this game should be about YOUR stories, not the ones we've heard before.
Mechanics
And with the bringing of stats and the more long-term nature of this game, we will have turns. These will probably be year-long turns until conflict ramps up, and then I will slow time for flashpoints and warring and what not. I'll play it by ear.
With turns, I will be adding orders. I will probably be keeping it super simple with a "One order only" rule.
Now for a feature I'm personally excited about - NPCs! While you guys are off doing your thing, there still exists the heroes of the movies - Luke, Leia, Han, and all those other guys. But instead of copy-pasting their fates and actions, I will implement a degree of randomness, and also player actions will have consequences too. So say Kenobi gets a super lucky roll, perhaps he finds young Skywalker earlier on, and by the Civil War, Luke is a full-blown knight with the skills to be a one-man army. Or maybe Kenobi gets sidetracked and Vader finds Luke first. Ooooh the possibilities.
Conclusion
So how does this sound to people? Good? Bad? Ugly? Give me your suggestions, admirations, hate letters, or worship!
