Star Wars is an undeniably popular franchise, and I was asked to put together a story based within the world for a private commission. For this design the client wanted a game that would work with the existing mechanics in the Star Wars roleplay manuals, so the design needed to utilise this system. On the one hand it did save a lot of time not having to design a mechanical system which reflected the feel of the existing media, on the other the existing mechanics did not greatly reflect this either. I believe that working around a system (or mechanics) to be counter intuitive, as this destroys immersion. I decided to fully investigate the system and added a few ‘house rule’ suggestions to slightly modify the players experience through gameplay. The main existing issue was balancing the Jedi classes with the non-force based ones and ensuring that each class was a viable player choice that brought unique things to the table.
After the mechanics issue was addressed, the world and story became remarkably simple as the client wanted the game to be set after order 66 had been issued. This is the time between the prequel and original trilogy where the few remaining Jedi are in hiding, so there was a rich narrative world which could be explored, combining new people and places with familiar ones. It was a very good thing I was already a fan of the series however, because the lore of Star Wars is a vast well of knowledge; very easy to fall into and drown under the immense waters of information.