Time skip.

[Mars]

There's a general air of dissatisfaction with the current state of the timeline as the GA continues to spiral into defeat while the Sith grow bored, the Mandalorians lose activity and the Chiss are stuck focusing on internal reform to fix glaring errors in ideology. Anyone else think it's high time we had a time skip to where the GA is a rebellion and the Jedi are underground?

Just curious, this isn't official or anything, but it was a thread like this that brought the end of the fourth and got us here. What do you guys think?

 

[Kiro]

I, for one, would honestly like to see it. Even if it's just five years into the future. Anything to get over this stupid "War for the sake of war" theme we seem to be stuck in.

 

[Toska]

Underground Jedi cells? Would be interesting, especially if you work an angle that encompasses the (almost) total eradication of the Imperial Knights.

 

[Dmitri]

The down side is that it would disrupt a lot of plots people have going on right now. It seems like a a gamble to try to reset interest at the cost of current plots. If there was a time skip, though, how long would it be? However long could either allow people to salvage some of their plots or not.

 

[Kreeps]

Of course right when my criminal cell takes off :CIsee

 

[Toska]

Of course right when my criminal cell takes off :CIsee

On the bright side, this would mean your criminal cell would have five years to embed itself.

 

[Kreeps]

On the bright side, this would mean your criminal cell would have five years to embed itself.

The rise is the best part doe :CCry1

 

[Gaja]

Hmmm interesting suggestion... I wouldn't mind seeing it as far as the GA is concerned, though my Indies don't really have such problems.

 

[Kreeps]

If the war sucks, then why don't you guys RP the ending of the war? Final battles, soldiers feeling like the lives of their comrades were wasted, vets going into the mercenary field, tense peace summits, a shaky peace with a cold war/arms race? Why would you want to skip that? Don't sit around and whine about it take it and use it! C'mon guys! :CStern

 

[Brandon Rhea]

We have discussed this possibility at great length in the past and, if people want it, then we’re ready to go from a basic conceptual standpoint. The idea is that if the Core Worlds fall in the current Mandalorian and Sith campaign against the Alliance, then we’d do a time skip of approximately 10 years that would see the Sith take over most of the galaxy while the Jedi and Alliance become more of a Rebellion-like group.

A Jedi/Alliance rebellion storyline would allow us to RP in a setting that is more quintessentially Star Wars rather than the military vs. military type of setting we’ve had throughout most of this timeline, as well as our previous few timelines. You’d have the rag tag rebel group, made up of Jedi and Alliance loyalists, fighting against the might of the evil empire. That right there is the original trilogy, and it allows us to have that familiar framework while setting ourselves up to make some great stories that allow our timeline to be unique.

It also keeps the same war going on, but changes the status quo of it.

That also gives all of the factions something unique story-telling wise:

• The Jedi and Alliance are now a Rebellion. They no longer have military might. How do they adapt? What kinds of stories will they be able to turn into epic plots as a Rebel group? Given that they would have to make insurgent moves, they could have a crisis of morality and identity too.
• The Sith are now faced with a new kind of enemy. They’re no longer fighting fleets, they’re fighting an enemy that they actually have to track down. That gives room for espionage and other kinds of covert tactics, rather than just military might. Sith PvPers also have more opportunities to be evil badasses.
• The Chiss can reform themselves into what they always should have been: a covert intelligence faction using serious amounts of cunning and skill to go after their enemies. In this rebellion setting, they could have a big emphasis on tracking down Jedi and rebels and hunting them.
• The Mandalorians are the most interesting group in this because they’re faced with some questions. Is there glory in hunting down rebels? Are the Alliance and Jedi really there enemies, or would the Sith make a more honorable challenge?

This would be a different kind of skip than what we’ve normally done. Anytime we’ve had a timeline change or a time skip within a timeline, we’ve gone to a new war but it’s still just that—a conventional war. A public Jedi Order vs. a dark side group. A military might vs. a military might. We’ve done a rebellion kind of plot before, after the Jedi went into hiding in our first timeline (and that was a fun time), but most of you weren’t there during this time so this would be a new kind of plot for virtually everyone on the site.

So that’s the basic idea. If you guys like it, we can do it once the current battles are over and if/when the Core Worlds fall.

 

[Toska]

If the war sucks, then why don't you guys RP the ending of the war? Final battles, soldiers feeling like the lives of their comrades were wasted, vets going into the mercenary field, tense peace summits, a shaky peace with a cold war/arms race? Why would you want to skip that? Don't sit around and whine about it take it and use it! C'mon guys! :CStern

There are multiple problems there. For instance, ending the war that way means both sides need to agree who is at the disadvantage in this final battle. It'd either have to be the battle for Coruscant or the battle for Korriban. Also, battles are historically slow and tedious on SWRP. This has picked up recently, but it is still part of the growing dissatisfaction with the war.

 

[StormWolf]

Relive Ep. IV-VI? Nope. It's been done. A lot. If we get a possible plotline that isn't another Star Wars cookie cutter, then possibly. I honestly think jacking the timeline would dissatisfy more people because their character story arcs got glazed over.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Relive Ep. IV-VI? Nope. It's been done. A lot. If we get a possible plotline that isn't another Star Wars cookie cutter, then possibly. I honestly think jacking the timeline would dissatisfy more people because their character story arcs got glazed over.

It wouldn’t be reliving it. It would create a new setting for the timeline using basic, archetypal themes used by Star Wars, and then all RPers would have the opportunity to make the story into our own—not a rehash of the original trilogy.

 

[Black Noise]

Only opposition I can see is disruption of storylines. Other than that reason, I don't think anyone on this site has a huge reason to oppose a time skip.

 

[BLADE]

The rise is the best part doe :CCry1

Miracle of narrative time. You can set your rise to be whenever. It hardly matters.

BN: See above.

Stormwolf: Same. You can participate in the timeline to the degree you wish. Again. Hardly matters.

OP: No preference either way. Whatever people feel works best for them. Your deity or non-deity of choice give his or her or its benedictions.

 

[Mars]

I can dig the idea of Bac's first post. I'd probably roll Jedi, a Matukai, and have Varek be the evil badass that sometimes kills things for Andraste. Apollo and Ciryc I have other ideas for.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Another thing we’ve discussed too, since crime syndicates and the like have come up in this conversation, is having an area of the galaxy that is no longer part of the Alliance but hasn’t been taken over by any of the other factions. It’d be a significant amount of unaffiliated space in the Outer Rim, and it’d be a great place for independent factions and independent characters. Crime syndicates could begin to rise. Current indie factions could expand. Indies could go to war with one another for territory and resources. Even really successful indie factions could become main factions if they become powerful enough in that area.

A dedicated area for those kinds of factions isn’t something we’ve ever had before, and I think it’s high time we see what indie factions can do if given room to grow.

 

[Kreeps]

As cool as that idea is for faction players, I feel like it leaves indie players out in the cold. A lot of indie players, myself included, already have elaborate plots planned out and are thriving right now. Not to mention the fact that the current situation seems fixable. I personally feel like skipping ahead now would kill the opportunity for some great RP'ing. Where is the Alliance general that manages to turn the tides? Where are the heroic battles? Where is the passion that would be seen if this were a real war? The Core Worlds are the center of the Galaxy politically, economically and militarily. Any sort of campaign to conquer them would be long and hard fought with billions dead on both sides. Would planets like Corellia really lie down and get conquered just because the Alliance can't defend them? No way! That planet alone has the potential for a mega thread. A brutal insurgency all in this one war. I feel like if a faction conquers a world, everything moves on right as rain. That's not how it works in real life or Star Wars. Any planet that once lived under a democracy would not simply lie down and say "welp, guess we're Imperial/Chiss/Mandalorian now". If you want to RP rebellions, do it on those planets! The Alliance has to funnel arms and train the rebels, seriously bogging down the imperial military on worlds they had previously considered conquered and subjugated. Why is this not happening? Maybe I need to make an Alliance character lol.

 

[StormWolf]

It hardly matters

As most opinions do, obviously.

I just think with some diligent time and effort a better, original macro plot could be devised rather than deciding on an archetype we have already seen, and therefore know the outcome of.

 

[Sleven]

Only opposition I can see is disruption of storylines. Other than that reason, I don't think anyone on this site has a huge reason to oppose a time skip.

I have a non storyline reason: most of my characters aren't intended to make it or age past 30.

Like all good heroes...