Star Wars Roleplaying in Galaxy's Edge

            The setting for the new Galaxy’s Edge parks at Disneyland and Disney World is Black Spire Outpost. It’s a small settlement on the planet Batuu, at the edge of the Outer Rim and near where the known galaxy meets Unknown Space and Wild Space. Black Spire outpost is a creation of Timothy Zahn in his novel Thrawn Alliances, which is worth the read even if you don’t care about its connection to Galaxy’s Edge. The novel describes the basic layout of the settlement, its iconic black stone spires, ancient ruins, and major locations, like Oga Garra’s Cantina and the landing field west of the settlement, which has turned into the rebel encampment in the Disney parks.

            I have friends who are serious Star Wars fans, but aren’t big into roleplaying games. Over the years, I’ve managed to convince them to play Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars Roleplaying Game, and when I asked them where we should start the campaign, one of them immediately said Batuu. He had read Thrawn Alliances and knew Disney was planning to base the parks off of Black Spire Outpost.

            I began my own research, reading the book and using fan wikis to follow up on all of its briefly mentioned locations, races and characters. Now my friend's characters are getting pretty deep into an outer rim power struggle between the Black Sun and Crimson Dawn, and between the Empire and the fledgling rebel cells in the sector (we’re playing during the Star Wars Rebels time period – about 5 BBY). I’ve been able to incorporate characters and places from the theme parks as information is released, and now that the California park is open, I have lots of new material. Marvel even publishes Galaxy's Edge comics set in Black Spire Outpost. My friends have planned a trip to the Disney World park for October, and I’m interested whether they experience any sort of déjà vu from our roleplaying sessions.

            In case you’re interested in using this setting for Star Wars Roleplaying (and I highly recommend the Fantasy Flight system) I’ve included the map we use for Black Spire. The western half mimics the layout of the California park. The map mentions The Crevice to the northeast, which is our creation. For us it is the location of the cliff top mansion of the local Black Sun leader. If you’re interested, we modeled it after the Meteora in Greece. It looks like it sits atop one of Batuu’s black spires.