I'm inclined to agree with you guys very strongly about the GM issue. Personally I can not stand placing iconic characters in a Star Wars game, mostly because they've already technically won, they beat the boss, and there is pretty much nothing you can do to stop that aside from wreck canon (which we've done once or twice for fun ).

I usually place the game in a time line where the iconic characters do not, or no longer exist. Like about 30 years after the Legacy time line or in an Old Republic setting. I like the 'after the Legacy' setting better because the Imperial Remnant are so much fun to deal with and 'Die you Jedi scum!' never gets old.

I'd go so far as to say that that is often the case in any RPG based on a licensed property (i.e. Star Trek, Marvel or DCU, etc.) It can work and when it does either the cannon gets wrecked (as you suggest) or the character's end up as the "next gen" being mentored by the icons.

Given a choice between pre- or post- legacy, I'll almost always choose post, its just easier to have the freedom to do what you want when you don't need to worry about stepping on the toes of "the guys who won/will win". Sufficiently far enough pre-legacy can work but I know that I'm a little confused about the apparent technology decline from the Old Republic to the legacy era to the post-legacy.

Yeah, that's something about Star Wars that has always bothered me. In a space faring culture how does technology stand still for thousands of years or even decline? Sure there are dark ages and such, but this is an interconnected culture of tens of thousands of space faring worlds with hundreds of thousands to billions of people each.

Actually the main reason for that was because the last three movies were made between 77' and 84', and while the effects were awesome, even for the time. When the first three movies came out much later with all the digital and CG effects it pretty much made it look like the technology level took an incredibly rapid decline.

I've always found it best, regardless of the era, to simply treat the tech level as a very fantastic thing and simply ignore the movies when it comes to those things, it'll only make your head hurt.

The hyperdrive has been around for at least 25,000 years, I treat the galaxy as a collective culture that has simply reached the pinnacle of what it can achieve, or wants to achieve, in terms of technology. The tech itself sees upgrades and new models, and a variety of improvements, but it never really advances anything beyond what they can already do.

That's one of the appeals of Star Wars for me, the blend of high and low tech into something believable. Take Tatooine for example, here we see a planet that is on the technological ass end of everything. No one comes here often and it relies mainly on what few traders stop by for any updates on what is recent news and state of the art. Most people on the planet are using blasters that are several models behind the curve, or that they've had to put together themselves. Same goes for speeders, tools, medical equipment, etc. I've always thought it awesome though that the people live in low tech Adobe style homes that appear primitive but are equipped with computers built into the doors and walls, etc. A perfect blend of low meets high tech.

It's best to just treat the galaxy as being filled with fantastic technology no matter which era you're in.