I've been running a weekly role playing campaign using the Fantasy Flight Star Wars rules: Edge of the Empire. When it started I wasn't much up for planning and running a whole campaign, so I got hold of one of the FFG campaign books, Mask of the Pirate Queen.
This could have been a review of Mask of the Pirate Queen, which is the campaign I had fully intended on running, but we left the path pretty quickly, and to be honest, we never looked back.
This is no criticism of the campaign itself, I'm sure it's well written and well plotted, but is a by-product of my mind-set when coming to run it. In short my mind-set was that the campaign setting at the start of the campaign was exactly as is laid out in the book: the characters accepted a job to pursue the mysterious pirate queen, at the beginning of the book seemingly in hiding on the planet of Saleucami. But that the characters actions, choices, and behaviour would change what followed, and the various players, powers, organisations, and people around them would react in ways that suited their own interests.
The characters followed the first few breadcrumbs pretty much as laid out in the book, but things took an unexpected turn when they decided to infiltrate the organisation (the Veiled Sorority in the campaign) by working for them (this option was not in the book). Now, Edge of the Empire has an Obligation system that the GM rolls every session to see if any of the characters might have something pop up as a result of a choice they made in the past. This is a system I have a love/hate relationship with, but is meant to reflect things like Han Solo being chased by random bounty hunters at various points over unpaid debts, and so on. For the first 5-6 sessions every single time we rolled Obligation something related to the Empire came up. Every single time. I started with just flavouring: that the Imperial presence here has stepped up patrols of the space port. But as the players kept rolling the same result again and again, I decided to escalate.
As the characters worked through a few sessions infiltrating a criminal group connected to the Veiled Sorority, the Imperial focus tightened, what started as background details (patrols are increasing) became more and more focused on the areas the characters were interacting with, and the characters themselves. At this point in the campaign I was wondering how I might massage things more in line with the campaign as written, but in the end I decided to abandon the path altogether. A decision, I might add, that was strongly influenced by me rewatching Andor, and watching what was/is taking place in the US, which seems to be mirroring the same playbook: how to do a fascism.
I came back to my original mind-set: what is it these groups are doing, what are their goals? For the Veiled Sorority and the people who had hired the characters I already had a good idea, but I hadn't really considered the growing Imperial presence. All of this came to head when the party was split, the Imperials had locked down the spaceport, and half the group outside the spaceport used a mix of stealth and violence to reunite the group. This was exactly what the Imperials had been after, I decided. Much like Andor's depiction of the Ghorman Plaza, the goal of the ISB here, tightening restrictions around the space port, was to push for a confrontation they could use as an excuse to assert a more dominant role in the planet's politics. Allowing them to strengthen their military presence, and exploit the local industry (which I decided, based on some research, was pharmaceuticals they needed to support the ongoing war effort against the Rebel Alliance).
The characters escaped the spaceport, and used the contacts they had made infiltrating the Veiled Sorority to meet up with the shadowy pirate queen. But by this stage they were in the news, they were on the holoscreens: they had been declared terrorists who had attempted to stage a violent attack on the busy spaceport, only to be foiled by the valiant efforts of some doughty Imperial troopers.
The Empire's goals here became clear: they would hunt the characters, sure, but a majority of their focus would be on the exploitation of the pharmaceutical industry on Saleucami, and sweeping away any political resistance. The stage was set for the characters too: stay on Saleucami understanding that the oppression they were watching unfold would get worse, or flee. They elected to stay, and a nascent rebellion was born.
We played this campaign for about a year and a half, with the characters going into hiding, finding a place to lay low, connecting with sympathisers, dealing with gunrunners and gangs, seeing the propaganda machine of the Empire smear their names and deeds. In that time they built an off-the-grid comms network, made contacts and friends, built up an armoury to equip them, and work out what the Imperials really wanted with the planet. There was a major battle when their safe-place, a small farming community that had sheltered them, came under attack. It was an attack that resulted in the deaths of many of their closest friends and allies, but it also showed the rest of the planet what the true face of the Imperial presence on Saleucami looked like. After this they went into hiding again, dissent grew in the population, and they connected with a group of real Rebels. The campaign culminated in an instrumental attack that helped destroy the orbiting fleet, and end any tangible presence of the Empire on Saleucami, which (in the game world), is now in territory held by the Rebel Alliance.
It was a hell of a campaign. It was exciting, emotional, explosive, and a whole lot of fun. The characters got the chance to see their names dragged through the mud, and the chance to shine as heroes. I think it really felt like Star Wars, and has probably been some of the best GMing I've done. All of it, really, down to staying true to the idea that the NPCs and powers of the world around the characters all want different things, and that their actions and choices are generally in pursuit of those things. Oh, and Andor, Andor especially, for showing that side of setting: what fascism looks like in action. That, and the accompanying hope that it can be defeated.
Leaving the path led to a longer journey than expected, but the trip was more varied, unexpected, exciting, and memorable as a result...
