Ok, I know the topic looks misleading. But I am curious as to what other people look for in a Star Wars based RPG forum? It's more of a specific but I am honestly curious as to what the fan community would look for in such a board. The reason for that, of course, is that I am helping construct such an RPG and any input would be absolutely delightful.

The over-all goal of the RPG is to create a place that is friendly, and is pretty much tolerant to people of all RP abilities. But I am not going to reveal too much about the RPG for I fear that's close to advertising, so, onto the point.

What do you look for?

I kind of prefer something without a super rigid rank structure. I'd like to be able to choose whether I play a wise old Jedi master, or an inexperienced youth. I've seen a lot of places that force Jedi to start off as beginners, which is kinda lame if you want to play an older character. Also, it pretty often feels like non force users get stuck playing second fiddle to the Jedi and Sith.

Setting-wise, I prefer around the time of the original trilogy to a few years later (although I think I've never seen one set during the trilogy, which I think is kind of a shame.). Not keen on getting too detached way far in the future, or going back to the clone wars- mostly because I hated the prequels, probably.

I'm not a fan of AU's.

On a petty note, it bugs me when people use Star Wars characters as AV's for their OC's. Yes, occasionally, in movies and such, folks will play more than one character in the same setting, but we're not supposed to notice. It's kinda hard not to notice when you're* using Portman-as-Amidala to portray your super sparkly l337 Sue Jedi master. An abundance of Skywalkers who aren't actually related to the main Skywalker family is kind of annoying and at the opposite end of the spectrum when you have a bunch of characters with regular earth names. Yes, names like Luke do exist on Earth, but Earth-y names are a rarity in Star Wars and you don't tend to get an Earth forename and surname.

Big, galaxy-wide plots are good, but not if you're forced into them. Let folks pick and choose.

Anyway, that's just me.

* that's a hypothetical you, not you-you. >.<

I thank you for your input. I think the reason people avoid making RPG's in the original trilogy is because of a couple of reasons.

1) No one I think really wants people running around as Luke Skywalker.

and

2) A level of insane fandom that prohibits them from touching upon the awesomeness that was the original trilogy.

Those are the reasons at least that I've seen for people not creating original trilogy RPG's, though I have seen a few. I my self personally prefer RPG's which do not have canon characters, I dont know, I just find it sort of...uncreative..to use a character someone else created, that's just me of course! Theres nothing wrong with people who like playing canon and can do it well, I just prefer creativity.

Now, you say you dislike the AU? That's a shame. From what I can gather the RPG i am currently working on is going to be set during the Knights of the Old Republic time-frame, which I thought was a pretty cool thing actually.

I understand what you are saying about rigid ranks, but I have a question in response. Do you have a suggestion as to prevent people from all attempting to join as really strong characters? Your suggestion could help create an alternative to a rigid ranking system (which I personally dislike my self, but at the moment it is a necessary evil...)

Ooh, sorry, I wasn't clear.

When I said during original trilogy, I still meant original characters, rather than canons. Star Wars RP is just one setting where I don't do canon characters. But yeah, while Luke and Co. did a lot of important stuff, I figure there were a lot of other rebels out there doing important stuff, too. I dunno, I just kind of like the idea of playing a rebel against Palpatine's Empire. Of course, this limits Jedi characters and everyone loves their Jedi.

And no, sorry, I don't have a problem with KoTOR. I mean AU liiiike alternate universe, like I was briefly at this board which was set during the original trilogy era, but it was someone other than Palpatine that was head of the Empire. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that kinda thing, wouldn't want to be so judgemental, just that it's not my cup of tea.

As for the ranks thing, I think it's just a matter of trust, really. If you feel you can trust your members to create a character of whatever level of power they choose and handle them responsibly, theeeen you don't need ranks. Some players can't be trusted though and if you have those, I don't suppose there's a whole lot you can do to avoid ranks. Hrm. I fear that that wasn't really a whole lot of help. Sorry about that.

It was plenty of help. See, while the site I am working on does have ranks, the admin also judges people as they join. Basically if they prove them selves capable and competent enough from the application to not abuse the characters power and roleplay properly, then he has no issue with giving them a character of a higher rank or different stature.

I understand now what you are saying about Alternate Universe..I keep forgetting the terms EU and AU are different, so that's my fault T_T. As for the Original Trilogy I better understand what you are saying now, but alas, people do love their Jedi too much.

While Luke and Co were pretty important, there definitely were other things going on behind the scenes, but I think another reason people avoid the Original Trilogy is because so much of it is already explained and such, things defined.

Part of the allure of a KOTOR era RPG for me was the fact that alot of stuff that happened during the KOTOR era has still yet to be touched upon, and there is alot unknown, so it leaves open room for the RPG to grow and evolve story-wise.

I agree with what was said above about the ranks thing. As someone who's started their own Star Wars games (sadly to have them fail due to inactivity), I'd much rather allow my members to choose which Jedi rank they wish to play (apprentice, master, knight, etc) than force them to start at the beginning where they could, technically (depending on the era), be playing them as a child and have to wait until they're older before they can really do much more than train and wander around the temple or...whatever.

For me, I don't mind alternative universe games so much, but it really depends on how alternative it is. For example, I cannot stand the Yuuzhan Vong, which are aliens that are brought into the books during the New Jedi Order series. I stopped reading the books mainly because I lost interest in general, but also because of the Vong. So if I were going to look at a game set in the NJO era, I would want to -not- have to deal with the Vong. In an alternative universe for that case, I would just ignore the existence of them and not bring them into the game.

I have never tried playing in an original trilogy game. My best era, because I'm most familiar with it due to the books that I read, would be anything after Return of the Jedi, up to the NJO order, really. I could play in the Old Republic/prequel era, but I'm not as knowledgable about it. Unfortunately, I have never played the KOTOR games, so I'm not familiar with anything about that era and would not feel comfortable playing in a game taking place during that era. I would be fine in an Old Republic/prequel era game because of my prequel movie knowledge, and being able to look anything up that I'm not entirely certain of.

I agree that seeing people use pictures of canon characters can be annoying. But for those of us playing female characters, we really get the shaft (if, like me, you can't draw worth crap). There aren't many unrecognizable female human characters that those playing female characters can use pictures of. I would love to use, say, Mara Jade or Leia for character pictures for original characters, but they're easily recognizable. I always have such a frustrating time trying to find pictures for them. And I don't use actress/model pictures, so I guess that's what makes it even more frustrating.

Personally I would love to see more games taking place during the era after Return of the Jedi, hopefully ignoring the Vong. I would gladly join a game like that, without the ranks being enforced as I described above, or an Old Republic/prequel era game where I would be free to create my own original character and not be forced into using a canon character.

The main thing I would be looking for in a Star Wars game, outside of those things above, would be an -active- game. I know people have real lives and those come first, but not posting out of laziness or whatever else is just crappy.

I've joined two boards (I'm not including the Star Wars game I started back in January in this) that I ended up pretty much leaving. One was already dying from inactivity, and the one person I got to play with decided that he was going to keep posting with me because the game was pretty much dead, and he was busy in real life as well. I believe this was after he took a few days or so to reply to my PM asking where he was.

The other game...well, it's still active as far as I know, but the admin's brother was playing my character's Jedi master and completely disappeared on me without a word. We had a plot planned out that was going to involve another player and we never got that far. Apparently he disappeared because of his job or something, but he never even contacted me to tell me what was up or anything.

I think I pretty much agree with the other things that were said as well. I'd like to see a game where the players are free, to an extent, to have certain plots and sub-plots that work for the main plot happen and not be restricted by having to do certain things or something. I think there was something else I wanted to list, but I can't remember now, so I'll just stick with that.

If anyone knows of any active games that fall into either of the two eras I mentioned above, they are free to send me a PM with a link. >.> I'd love to find an active Star Wars game that isn't really confusing as far as the ranks and whatnot go (there's at least one or two games I've seen advertised on RPG-D where I've looked at them and have just been really confused by the way they have things set up) and takes place in either of those eras.

Alternate Universes aren't my thing either... universes where Anakin made the right choice - or the Jedi managed to see through Order 66... thats alright and everything.

All the boards set after ROTJ... set it like 'the Empire is fighting amongst each other' and many EU bases and theories that have never been TOUCHED are open to 'expanding' by the fans imagination... badly... with Suncrushers and third, forth and fifth Deathstars popping up all over the place! Suddenly characters like Luke, Leia and Han can be easily 'explained away' as being 'somewhere else' when events that - in cannon - that THEY did are done by someone else.

As for the KOTOR timeline? The Jedi are ALWAYS brought back by the admins character or the admins best friend... when their supposed to be nearly extinct. And while there is SUPPOSED to be only one planet full of Mando's there is suddenly a GALAXY full of them while the Sith are running all over the galaxy -there's suddenly MILLIONS of them popping out of the woodwork... and the Republic is either almost completely inactive or its full of newbs trying to turn the Republic into the Empire because the RP'ers that play senators think that senators are rulers rather than the voice of the people in the senate :p

I know this seems a LOT like a rant - but I am getting to a point ;)

Everything I've listed here is the 'typical' direction that MOST KOTOR and Original trilogy rp's go... I won't even get STARTED on the clone war RP's where Sidious is discovered, Dooku kills him and suddenly the CIS is fighting like its actually being LED rather than setting itself up for a fall. Or the 'three-hundred-years in the future' RP's where the Republic is popping out clones and the New Empire is pouring hordes of Battle Droids out to begin ANOTHER war...

My point, in all this ranting, is that if you can find a way to AVOID all those mistakes... then your on the right track. If I were making a Star Wars board I would set it during the beginning of the New Sith wars... the fifty-year-long ordeal that brought about the creation of the Order of Two. Where the Jedi are warriors ruling the Republic. The Sith are organized towards the defeat of the Jedi rather than the exaltation of the darkside and the Mandalorians are a scraggily bunch of mercenaries fighting for whoever has the largest amount of money.

Almost no boards or books have touched upon this time that led up to the battle of Ruusan... and maybe its time that someone or something did ;)

My biggest pet peeves of Star Wars RPGs are some of the following:

-Using canon avatars for OCs. This has been mentioned before. I don't mind if people use un-Star Wars-ish avatars for their characters, since there aren't many pictures that accurately portray characters. The only exception would be for non-humans, since they are very limited in their avatar pictures.

-Using canon characters in an AU story. Like, Anakin actually killed Palpatine instead of Windu. Or Luke turns to the dark side. Those kinds of things.

-Complicated stories. I'm perfectly fine with AU RPGs, but when people start making it more and more out of the Star Wars norm, then it becomes less Star Wars and more of somebody's original science fiction RPG with a slightly-less-than-original basis.

-Battle sims. I know the name is Star Wars, but there's way more to it than the battles. The movies only ever featured about two or three battles per episode, the rest was actual dialogue and character development. There is a story to Star Wars, if you lose that, you lose the point.

-Stats are EVERYTHING. I don't mind stats in Star Wars, in fact it's a good way to keep RPers in check sometimes. And with SW being such a violence-heavy story, there are times when duels and battles are going to happen. But when stats take over the RP, and begin to dictate whose moves have actually been successful, then it's boring. If I wanted to do that, I'd play the tabletop game. I join an online RPG for the writing, not the rolling.

-Back to the future? Again? I know that people have a hard time finding creativity in the busyness of the trilogies, but there's far more depth in those years than there is in 3000 ABY. What's the point of RPing any more than 100 years in the future? At that point, we've lost all the basis of technology, factions, ideologies, etc. To me, anything past 40 ABY is getting out there, even though the books and comics still cover that. I'd rather stay closer to home, inside or right around the trilogies, that's the most fun.

-Everybody and their dog....is human! While humans are the most populous species, it irks me that 99% of characters in a Star Wars RPG are human. It just not accurate. And the typical alien choices are either something very near human (like Miraluka (and how many of those escaped their planet's death?) or Hapan or Chiss). Some species, like Wookiees, are popular, but there are rarely any very good alien characters in RPGs.

-"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Whatever happened to the non-Force Users? The scheming politicians? The powerhungry crime bosses? The rotten smugglers and scoundrels? Or what about the typical person? Not everybody is a hero, not everybody is going to save the day, and somebody has to do the dirty work.

And while they're not pet peeves, I do have some other reasons why I don't join Star Wars RPGs:

-Timeline. When the timeline is too far in the future/past (I dislike the KOTOR era), then I run. I hate it when people say that they prefer it for the creativity. I have never, never seen a good RPG that is set before TPM. Why not? There were some pretty tense times then, and there were still wars then.

-Too many Jedi/Sith. When nearly every character is a Jedi, I won't join. Same for Sith/Dark Jedi. I like playing Jedi, but there's so many more characters than that in Star Wars.

-Star Wars, with a hint of BSG, and a dash of Marvel Comics. When people try to throw in elements of other genres into Star Wars, or try to cross over (I can think of a pretty big Star Wars/Stargate crossover RPG site), it's not my day. Universes are set pretty strictly, and they aren't written to be compatible. Han Solo would probably have shot Captain Kirk for making advances on Leia, and Colonel O'Neil probably couldn't handle a lightsaber very well. Mixing up the genres doesn't work for me.

-Site appearance. When sites look like utter crap, I won't join, no matter how good the plot is. If someone is that creative, they should get with someone equally creative in design and make a good site together.

Anyways, that's what I don't look for. I'll spare you the rest of my breath, you're probably tired of it anyways.

Oh, yeah, to add my support to a previous poster. I know it won't affect you, being KotOR era, but the Vong- can't stand them. They just don't feel very Star Wars-y to me. They kinda remind me of the movement in comics for a while where everything had to be uber dark and everything was about drugs and hookers.

Oh! And one other thing, ridiculous character choices. Like one time, I saw a Sith Ewok. It's just no. That just doesn't work. If someone tells me that they can see a Sith Lord taking on an Ewok as an apprentice, then they need a new setting. Or likewise if they're imagining a Sith travelling to Corriban or wherever, finding Sith ruins, studying and training themselves? They're primitive fuzzballs! Just no. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any other character types that scream wrongness, but I'm sure they're out there. Oh, and I suppose wise old Jedi masters who think balancing the force is a good thing when there are many many Jedi who have few perceived major threats is a bit dubious, too.

... damn you, Lucas.

Totally agree. Once I saw an ad for a panfandom Bleach Star Wars RPG. I was baffled.

I've never joined a Star Wars RP and stayed around, and I'll tell you why:

Too much information.

Every time I go on one, they overload me with information. True, I've never read a single Star Wars book and though I've seen the movies, I've only seen Episodes I-III once each. (And I slept through the second.) However, when I go on a Star Wars RPG, as soon as they find out I haven't read any books, they give me the links to a million different websites and want me to do a heckuva lot of reading. No thank you.

I'm cool w/ reading information within posts, but as soon as I'm given an outside link to a website that contains enough information that it ought to be published in a book (let alone multiple of said websites), I'm out.

Actually, you can find 90% of all your information on the Wookieepedia. It's as addicting as Wikipedia, but for Star Wars! :p

And yeah, there's a lot of information. The issue with publishing books is that the Star Wars universe is built not only on the movies, but on the books, comics, video games (KOTOR), and other media. Since books are continually being published and information is changing, publishing all of it as a book would be difficult.

That being said, there is a Star Wars reference book series, "The NEW Esseential..." usually followed by "Guide to _______", whether it be Weapons, Vehicles (ships), species, worlds, etc, or Chronology. Those give you a pretty good overview without twisting you too deep in details or the technical aspects of things. They aren't stat books, or RPG books, just reference books. I find the Chronology is the best book for me to have, so I have a solid idea of the history of the SW universe, and then the others I can look up on Wookieepedia.

With ranks, I personally have people start at Point A and work their way up. When making a new character, and they had one they have already developed, they are welcome to have their new character be at a higher rank. And occasionally, if a new member asks about starting at a higher rank, I allow it. Provided they come up with a good character for it. We do it that way for two reasons. One, to prevent headaches that some people cause. As not everyone is able to handle a higher powered character. And also because most of the active members (at my own site) prefer developing their characters. Rather than starting higher up.

Also, with Star Wars. Godmodding is to easy to fall into. I've noticed quite a number of people who are all "The force, I'm a god!" *shakes head*

So, with ranks. It would depend on the type of people you have in the community I suppose. Although you would need the higher up characters, when first starting.

With images for their characters, well, I suppose I never really thought about it. I don't restrict images, and most of my members use non-Star Wars characters for theirs. Except a couple people. Either way, it wouldn't bother me.

VONG ARE BAD! And that is all I have to say about them. lol

I personally dislike canon characters. On the few sites I have been to where they had them, people either totally changed the character so all that was left was the name and image, or abused it and figured that they were gods because they were canon.

KOTOR is a good era. And with the Old Republic MMO, that era should attract people. But I agree with what someone else said already. About all the Jedi and Sith that seem to be around in those RP's, when they weren't. For an AU, fine. But if you are going canon, then no.

Letting members come up with their own sub-plots is a great idea. It's one of the things that I love to see. I like seeing the ideas that people come up with. So long as they are not way out there, then they are enjoyable to read. Even if you are not a part of the particular sub-plot.

Stats, ugh. Someone tried talking me into doing that on my own site, deciding which hits hit and how bad the damage was. All because one member went nutty and all in a battle. I was a big no to that. Takes out the fun.

I also do not care for far into the future, way beyond EU time already being done in canon. There are so many good years to choose from, that it seems pointless. Not to mention, it seems kind of dumb to have ISD's still being used in say 400+ ABY. lol

Everyone being human. Yeah, I've seen a lot of that too. While most people (at my own site) do have humans. We also have a lot of people who have other species as well. Which is nice to see. Except when they are Vongs. I hate Vongs. lol

All Force Users is blah. In all honesty, my favorite SW characters I have made are the non-force users. I love my merc and other criminals. I've made one force sensitive character, that was a Jedi. Decided that playing your average non-force sensitive was more fun.

I hate when things mix. Like Halo, Final Fantasy, and so forth. With the amount of creative freedom I try to give, it can sometimes be hard to prevent completely. People watch movies and suddenly you got one member who wants to have Ironman Armor, or play a character based off one from The Dark Knight. Apparently the words 'Star Wars' is not showing that it is a Star Wars RPG.

That's another thing that confuses me, is stats. I'll look at a game that looks like it might be my sort of game and then it turns out at it has all these stats and points for Force pushes and all this other crap that just makes me go -headdesk.-

What I want is a simple, active game where I can play an original character in a decent storyline, within the Star Wars universe, without any huge complications and just...yeah. Everything else I listed.

In response to the person who talked about the non-human characters, I admit to being one of the people who usually only play humans. But, this is mainly because I don't have enough knowledge about other species (I wouldn't mind playing a Twi'lek or Wookiee) to justify applying to a game to play one. x.x

There's more I'd like to add to this in response to the other replies but I need to go to bed. >.>

SWRP is extremely difficult to make a success of. At least nowadays. So many just die off due to lack of interest (among other issues). I agree, Star Wars RP has to be kept simple. Discriminating against someone because they haven't read the books or aren't as knowledgeable as other members is ridiculous. Someone who has only seen the movies is more than capable of RPing in the SW 'Verse. If you need to do a little research about ships or weaponry, etc, Wookieepedia is there for anyone to use.

I think the best advice I can give anyone looking to set up a Star Wars RP is involve your members as much as you possibly can. Have them develop the storylines with you. It seems to keep them interested. Well it has kept mine interested, my place recently passed the 6 month mark, which I'm delighted and surprised about. As far as settings and timelines go be careful what you chose. Have it KOTOR based and you're attracting the "I wanna be a JEDI1!11!!1" young gamer crowd. I'm ABY all the way baby. But not so far into the future that I find myself in Vong territory, I'll have to echo the sentiments of others and add I'm not a big fan. Allowing members the freedom to create their own unique characters, without the inhibition of a ranking system seems to work well enough. Just make sure they're aware that they will have to change anything you're not happy with, within good reason.

My problem is I have too many Independent characters. Not enough of anything else.

I look for the following in a star wars board.

-Good storyline (whether canon or not).
-Nice, friendly staff, not ones who are mean, or can find any reason to get rid of you because they don't like you as a person.
-Good structure of the board.
-Good board appearance.
-Doesn't have to have a large memberbase, but must have posts coming in daily.

I would love, love, love something set in the KOTOR era! Even better would be something pre-KOTOR with the Mandalorian Wars and all, but I don't think enough other people know about/care about any of that to make it a viable idea.

:/

Aside from that, one of my biggest make or break factors is how important the non-Jedi, non-Sith characters are. It's very unlikely that I will join, let alone enjoy, a board where I feel like I won't get any plot interaction unless I make a Jedi.

I love Jedi characters... but ONLY if their original. The constant Anakin clones piss me off...

Give me a Jedi with a damaged force connection that has been making a living a smuggler for the past few years... give me a Mandalorian that cares more about HONOR than bloodshed... give me an astro-droid with a naughty-attitude ;) rather than the CONSTANT focus on killer blood-sucker droids... give me originality :D

Above all else... don't give me ANOTHER Clone Wars/Vong War/Dark Times board :p Their BORING! The 'no love' deal for the clone wars is boring... the vong wars are full of god-modders... and the no 'Jedi' or 'Sith' during the dark times thing is even MORE annoying/boring than the rest of the stuff I've listed :p

KOTOR is full of Jedi... Clone Wars are full of celibate Jedi god-modders and Dark Jedi Sith wanabees... and the Dark Times are full of Super Storm Troopers and Rebel victories all over the place. Originality people ;) Very important.

I would gladly try either restarting the game I started a while back or just starting a new one if I had any ideas for a storyline, and had people to help me...although right now I'm not so certain that I should be starting another game, so it might be a good thing for me to wait. I would love to join a good Star Wars game that doesn't have confusing stats and levels and is in a setting where you don't have to be knowledgable about that era to be able to play.

While I would be interested in playing in an Old Republic/prequel era game, I think I would lean more towards a game taking place after Return of the Jedi, because there's a bit more freedom as far as the Jedi are concerned. I do have a character that I'd like to try using in an Old Republic/prequel era game for more than a few posts before the game dies. >.>

Umm...yeah. /ramble

I'm depressed because my friends RPG died =_=' it didnt seem to get off the ground, which is a bummer.

Since my friends site has indeed died, I am going to attempt creating one of my own simply because I love the Old Republic that much. It's such a more interesting time to me, because everything New Republic and Clone Wars is just...well...old to me, I've done it too many times.


See Here for Employment offerz


Edit: I've gotten another person into it, and so far we have concluded that the RPG will take place during the Mando Wars.

I love the idea of the Clone Wars, but if you take a creative light to it. Persay what would happen if it's six months into the clone wars and it's before the outer rim battles. What if thiers a powerful superweapon, but not nearly as powerful as the death star and what if you were thrown into the conflict. And yes theres Jedi but in this rpg they are feared and hated because of all their power and because they are only bent on destorying this enemy of the republic to care about anything else. What if Jedi were allowed to love even if it was against the order, trust me Anakin wasn't the only Jedi whom loved. What if the very though of fighting a war was enough to sawy your heart to love. I am hoping that by taking a new look into the clone wars I can make it fun again. I believe its one of the few time periods that still make me scream, sometimes I hate Jedi.

I would like to see:
-emphasis on roleplay over stats
-no canons
-no stolen images (nothing can turn me off to a site faster than a site full of images stolen from artists off DA)


I am less concerned about time period than most in the thread, although I would like to say that Old Republic era doesn't have romance and often the Jedi are scattered, elements which most people completely ignore in RPs.

I don't mind canons, and I perfer the clone war era , and post Revenge of the Sith you know the Jedi Purge for a plot.

-Stats in a Wars Rpg is pointless.
-Jedi Characters being all powerful, again pointless.
-I like a realism to my Star Wars Rpg. Clone Wars is a war. Wars are ugly.
-I perfer to not to have limits to creative control.
-I like to see people getting involved.