Super-Powered Killer Jedi

Recently, I ran a Star Wars game (West End edition) by request for a friend of mine and some friends of his. It was not a rousing success. The friends of the friend were unknown to me and fairly new to tabletop RPGs. I sensed the first disturbance in the Force when they were choosing pre-generated characters and one of the players wanted to play a Jedi because he wanted “super powers”. He also wanted to kill people. I persuaded him to play a bounty hunter instead, as a better fit for his bloodlust.

The game (an extended search for R2D2 on Tatooine) muddled along, the bounty hunter picking fights and killing people, the other PCs doing their best to complete the mission despite him. Finally, the PCs found themselves trapped in a mine, outgunned in a crossfire with Gamorrean guards. As their situation became increasingly hopeless, the bounty hunter suddenly announced that he was shooting the other player characters. He killed his fellow PCs, the guards killed him; it was a TPK in which I take no pride.

Being new to the gaming table, the players were happy simply to be rolling dice and went away satisfied. I, however, consider the game to be failure, not on account of the bounty hunter, but due entirely to my own failings. When the bellicose player said he wanted to play a Jedi with super powers who kills people, my reaction was “no, that’s not how to play Star Wars.” But what I really meant was “that’s not how I play Star Wars and I’m the GM so you’ll do it my way.” That wasn’t fair of me, nor was it hospitable. These were new players. I had agreed to run a game for them. That weren’t my regular group. I wasn’t there to teach them the Right Way to Play or to educate them on the One True Interpretation of Star Wars; I was there to show them a good time.

And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to play a character with super powers who kills people, even a Jedi. I could have — I should have — whipped up a scenario where a super-powered Jedi and his friends could justifiably kill bad guys. It won’t have been hard, after all, that’s pretty much all the Prequels were.

Of course, the GM is at the table to enjoy herself as much as the players are, but those of us who sit behind the Screen have a greater responsibility. Yeah, sometimes we teach, sometimes we lead the players in creating a shared story, but always and most importantly, we entertain. Sometimes that means setting aside our grand notions giving the players exactly what they want.

(But killing the other PCs? That is the wrong way to play Star Wars.)