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As Dain Simpkins opines in his excellent article covering the lore of the Old Republic, it is amazing that one of the most popular eras for play in Star Wars is one not shown in any movie or television show. First off, if you haven’t read his piece you should do so now. Seriously, check it out. This article serves to continue the discussion and talk more specifically about campaigns set in the time of The Old Republic massively multiple online roleplaying game. I will outline why this era is so ripe for roleplaying awesomeness as well as offer a few campaign seeds for you to build on.
The first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about The Old Republic is just how troperiffic it is. By building on the success of both Knights of the Old Republic games, but advancing the timeline long enough to break new ground and include familiar themes, tropes, and imagery from the Star Wars films, this setting becomes a well-equipped playground for gamemasters keen to create their ideal Star Wars campaign.
With Jedi and Sith numbering in the thousands, gamemasters may be concerned with how best to meaningfully integrate non-Force Sensitive characters. Lucky for us, BioWare has already done some of the heavy lifting both in giving numerous examples through the four non-Force sensitive class stories – namely the Trooper, Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, and Imperial Agent – and in designing the setting of the Cold War itself. The Cold War was fought heavily through espionage, diplomacy, and proxy war. The primary combatants on those fronts are not the Jedi or Sith, but instead intelligence agents, diplomats, and special operations forces, all much more capable of discreet operations which would otherwise be compromised by the presence of lightsabers. The setting has ample background on organizations perfect for non-Force Sensitive player characters who still make a significant impact on the war effort. The Republic Strategic Intelligence Service and Imperial Intelligence are obvious options for spy versus spy action. On the side of the Republic, I would be gravely negligent in not mentioning the highly effective, dubiously legal, and overall sketchy General Garza and her Republic Special Forces. Players could comprise one of her teams charged with black ops sabotage against the Sith Empire, risking an end to the peace treaty but ensuring the Republic is not caught off guard again. For the Sith Empire, a versatile organization is the Imperial Reclamation Service. Essentially the Sith Empire’s version of the baddies from Indiana Jones, these soldiers and archaeologists hunt down relics capable of giving the Empire an edge.
To borrow from TV Tropes parlance, The Old Republic as a piece of fiction deconstructs and subverts many concepts familiar to Star Wars fans. This is most visible with the nuance in which the Republic and Empire are explored in the Trooper and Imperial Agent storylines respectively. For the Republic, there is conflict between its presentation as prone to corruption, similar to the Republic of the prequel trilogy and exemplified by the literal rotting of its heart – Coruscant, but also the legitimate bastion of democracy against the Sith Empire’s tyranny. For those gamers looking to explore similar themes to those raised about the Republic in The Phantom Menace and certain episodes of The Clone Wars, but who don’t want to compete with the heavy amount of canon and legends material featuring existing characters, setting your game in this era may be the solution.
The Sith Empire has a similar twofold appearance. On the one hand all the evil empire tropes are in full force: slaves, violent and brooding Sith Lords, British accents, et cetera. But on the other hand, there are many characters who support the Empire out of noble goals and even Sith Lords who are more reasonable authority figures instead of Darth Malak expys. Vector and Keeper from the Imperial Agent story come to mind, as do Lana Beniko and Darth Marr from Shadow of Revan content onwards. Groups looking for a similar game to what I described in my piece “Are We the Baddies?” would be well served to consider this era.
Whether motivated by interesting narrative objectives, or more simply by limited ability to produce content, The Old Republic as of late has trended towards both Republic and Sith Empire player characters taking on the same content. In Shadow of Revan and Knights of the Fallen Empire, characters are joined by fan-favourite NPCs from both sides to create a sort of “all-star” team. How better than to compare and contrast ideology and explore interesting themes than through these joint operations? Your players may question their prejudices and preconceived notions after amicably working with their opposite numbers, especially if those non player characters prove competent in areas concerning the player’s frustrations or complaints about their usual allies. Further, a campaign starting in this period could integrate Sith and Republic player characters, providing excellent opportunities for roleplaying and healthy interparty conflict.
The bottom line is that The Old Republic is a deep, but flexible setting suitable for a wide variety of games. It may be sacrilege to say so, but I would argue this era may be even better than the Galactic Civil War of the original trilogy. Instead of being adapted from other media to the roleplaying game genre, this setting was built from the ground up for computer roleplaying games. Want to have lots of Jedi, but also focus on the Empire as an adversary? Use this era and emphasize the non-Force sensitive elements of the Sith, such as the military or Imperial Intelligence. Always want to adapt ideas from James Bond or Indiana Jones into a campaign? This era has the setting you need. Anecdotally, my own group has been having a blast for all of these reasons and more in my home game.
Let me know what you think of this era in the comments below. If this is an era that appeals to the readership, I may post some campaign concepts in future article.
Christopher Hunt
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