Just a quick disclaimer before I begin: THIS IS ONLY MY OPINION AND THEREFORE SHOULD BE TAKEN WITH A GRAIN (or heap depending on how skeptical you are) OF SALT.

This guide will focus on the positives and (mostly) negatives of the gamemode called "Star Wars RP", pretty self-explanatory. This is a cumulative guide of all my 2+ years of playing this game mode and why, in my opinion, I think is a horribly boring one which is barely even worth trolling on (more on that later).

And without any further ado, on to the review.

To first understand what Star Wars RP is, you need to know what RP itself is. Most (if not all) players have seen these types of servers labeled "RP", the most famous (or infamous) being DarkRP. RP simply stands for "Role play". Role playing is when you take up a job, character, or persona that you act out "in character" on the server and generally just play as a role like the name implies. Star Wars RP is literally this but set in the atmosphere and (usually) timeline of the Star Wars universe. There are six distinct Star Wars subsections that fall under the main Star Wars RP umbrella that I have seen the most. They include but are not limited to:

1. KOTOR RP (Knights of the Old Republic)
2. Jedi vs Sith RP (JvS) (Can also be classified under KOTOR depending on the era it's set in but 90% of the time it'll be set in KOTOR)
3. Clone Wars RP
4. Imperial RP
5. First Order RP
6. Galactic or Galaxy RP

There are other servers based off of these main six, but the differences are so minor and/or the servers are so few in numbers that they don't need to be included here.

1. KOTOR RP (Knights of the Old Republic)

This gamemode is based off of the Bioware Star Wars game series "Knights of the Old Republic". It used to be relatively popular, having a decent amount of players. It heavily features Sith and other Force-based characters due to being in that time period. Roleplay is mainly based off of the Dark side of the Force and can involve Oppression RP from being under the rule of an evil Empire (not "THE" Empire that everyone knows, but one of many in the Star Wars universe). Not much to say, as not many of these servers exist and any that do don't really last that long, sadly.


2. Jedi vs Sith (Jvs)


A popular gamemode that two servers have mainly a monopoly on players, namely Reborn and Hammerfall Gaming. As the title implies, the gamemode focuses on Jedi and Sith roleplay. In theory, this would have aspects of training, mastering the Force, and becoming a more skilled Force user. In reality, this isn't at all the case. It is basically a TDM (Team Deathmatch) reskin in the form of Star Wars. There is minimal (if any) roleplay at all. The tiny amount of RP there is is disguised as "trials" and "training". When you join the server you get a choice of joining Sith or Jedi in the form of a large and annoyingly colored textscreen in front of your face. Most of the time you have to advert /advert joining *name here* so the incompetent staff can see. After you get whitelisted, you get hounded by the members of that faction to get "trained", which is basically a stooge picked by a staff member of that faction who's forced to "train" you because nobody wants to waste their time doing it. When you finish, you get whitelisted to Padawan or Acolyte depending on your faction and you have a choice of 3 paths to choose. Any attempts at RP are usually cringe-worthy attempts of trying to RP basically magical Force abilities in a game poorly engineered for such things. Most high ranks are extremely power abusive, and generally make up ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ abilities they can use and claim to be more powerful than everyone else, leading to a festering server of edge-lords who think they're more powerful than the next guy who also thinks the same thing. Rank is based on playtime and completing "trials" which are basically tests of skill and ability with your chosen "path" you "trained" in. It is nothing more than "Go here and kill this many people", "Go kill this one specific important person" or "List off all the ranks/jobs in order" for each of the 3 paths. Ranks are based on Jedi and Sith ranks from lore, ranging from Padawan to Grand Master for Jedi and Acolyte to Emperor for Sith. The ONLY purpose of JvS is to raid and kill each other. Jedi will ALWAYS hate Sith, and vice versa. The only entertainment this gamemode offers is in the form of "raids". Basically a high ranking member of either of the factions "plans a raid" on the other, and all the members of the attacking faction warp to the defending faction's planet and they all literally kill each other. From a spectator's point of view, it looks like a bunch of spastic children trying to hit each other with glowing sticks while running in circles at superspeed. Combat is mindnumbingly easy, as all you have to do is point your glowing stick in the direction of the person you want dead and when your blade hits their playermodel it will do damage. Lag will ruin this gamemode probably more than any other simply because there are ZERO guns. Your lightsaber HAS to register a hit otherwise it will "spark" and do zero damage. The person you are fighting also can teleport around and it'll just be an impossible and infuriating fight. Most (not all) are almost if not entirely based on the lightsaber combat addon by Robotboy655. Some have pretty cool custom lightsaber addons with animations and such, but it costs a lot of money ($140 I was told) to have it on their server, so many don't want to or can't afford it.

3. Clone Wars RP


The infamous CW RP. The most popular and most played Star Wars RP on Gmod. As the name describes, it is entirely based off of the Clone Wars period of the Star Wars universe from the prequels that everyone loves to hate. This is probably the worst gamemode in Star Wars. It disguises itself as Star Wars, but in reality it's a poor recreation of Military RP but in Star Wars and led by even more incompetent players. When you first join, you usually have a screen of Star Wars music playing and making you go deaf from being FAR too loud, accompanied by images found on the first page of Google images after searching "Clone wars" (95% of the time that music will be the Jedi Temple March). While you're loading in, you'll probably notice that it's taking ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ FOREVER to get into the server. Want to know why? Every CW server has a mind-numbling ridiculous amount of addons that you MUST download to play the server or else you'll see errors everywhere and lag horribly. Once you download around 6.8 GB of files you didn't want, you finally load in, accompanied by the sounds of a bunch of 12 year old kids yelling at you to get on the wall. If you've ever played CW RP, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. You ask why, and you get told you must do it or you'll get arrested, shot, or banned. When you don't obey their stupid orders, they get triggered that their power isn't as strong as they thought and they complain to staff, leading you to get inevitably banned within 30 seconds of joining. That's the typical player's CW experience. If you manage to ignore their voice, welcome to "basic training" new "recruit"! This is where that pseudo "Military RP" aspect comes into play. "Training" is in this general order (but can vary from server to server):

1. Changing your name to some sort of "recruit" format that the "trainer" has been brainwashed into having you do. It usually goes like "/name Recruit #### Name". This varies by server.
2. Learning your "faces" (basically how to turn your mouse lol) There are four faces. Left face (turning 90 degrees to your left), right face (turning 90 degrees to your right), about face (turning 180 degrees to the right), and front face (turning between 90 and 270 degrees depending on which way you were facing to your right to face whoever is telling you to do faces).
3. Learning "formations" (learning how to line up lol). There are 6 formations. Single column (straight line), double column (two straight lines equidistant from each other), Wedge (a V shape), Box (an X shape), Diamond (a + shape), and Firing Line (literally a horizontal line). Within wedge there is a "tight" and "loose" wedge. Tight is lining up closer to the person in front, and loose is spacing apart. Same thing with Box and Diamond. Box and Diamond also have "VIP" and "Prisoner" formations. VIP is literally facing away from the person who's inside of it, usually with guns out, and "Prisoner" is facing towards them with guns out and doing this retarded powergaming bind (/me strips weapons and comms).
4. Learning rules of the server (same as every other server)
5. Learning ranks of the server (usually the same but can vary.) Most of the time has made-up ranks that didn't exist in Star Wars and far too many for you to ever care about memorizing.
6. Finally, changing your name to /name CT PVT #### Name (again, can vary). People get really triggered if you name yourself someone famous like Rex, Fives, or a commander from lore like Cody or Bacara etc. or put your numbers like 0911, 4200, 6666, etc. Doing so usually leads to an instant ban. (notice a trend?) More on this later.

Congrats! You are now a fully fledged clone trooper! Now you may be asking yourself, "What now?" That's a very good question, as with 95% of the rest of the people on the server, you will usually be sitting around doing absolutely nothing but twiddling your thumbs on a ship map. This is a major issue with CWRP, as it has plenty of "CW", but very very little "RP". Almost (if not every) CW server follows the same boring, cookie-cutter cancerous formula for ways to fill players' time while they're on the server. There is always a big, open area with lines on it and some kind of podium usually labeled "Jedi, Commanders, Fleet" on it for someone to stand a speak on and an extremely annoying "PTS IS ACTIVE" sign as if everyone is brain-dead. They all look sort of like this (aka the SAME THING) (Notice another trend?)

(This is Imperial RP but the same rule applies, they're all the same)

Events are honestly the biggest joke on the servers besides the staff running them. They all go like this:

1: Some admin tries really badly to properly RP (but fails) and calls EVERYONE to the obligatory "briefing room"
2: Everyone lines up like sardines, and the staff get really triggered if anyone is out of place or interrupts their poorly written script.
3: It usually goes, "Oh uhhh we got some uhh intel that the CIS are planning an attack onnn uhhh (insert random gmod planet map here) and we're gunna go stop them!" (Can vary depending on how lazy the story is, sometimes the events never even leave the ship).
4: Whoever is speaking asks "Any PTSs?", usually accompanied by a lot of kiss-assery and some valid questions by people who have no idea what the ♥♥♥♥ the speaker just said because it made very little if any sense.
5. Most of those PTSs get ignored because staff are impatient and they "dismiss brief".
6. Everyone runs to the hangar and YET AGAIN lines up while staff spawn LAATs for everyone to ride in.
7. Everyone boards a LAAT, usually accompanied by a lot of general autism and people jumping off in space or mid-flight and die while the pilot flies mindlessly around the ship until admins switch the map.
8. Once everyone loads in, you LINE UP AGAIN in a part of the spawn where another controlling admin spawns a very annoying "LINE UP PTS IS ACTIVE" sign.
9: The same ♥♥♥♥♥♥ speech is recited, and while everyone lines up staff spawn a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of NPCs for you to shoot and usually have one member of the staff team change their job and model to something important like Grevious or a Sith or some cancerous ♥♥♥♥ that makes zero RP sense.
10: People get their jobs assigned (they're all basically the same so it really doesn't matter since nobody rps properly anyways) and then they go out and shoot NPC spam.
11: Once event is over, (clones will ALWAYS win), you board LAATs yet again, flying mindlessly again, then the map switches back to the ship.
11: The same annoying admin yells in all caps in advert chat, "EVERYONE TO DEBRIEF", which is the same room everyone lined up in AGAIN. A terrible, lazy summary of the event is recited and then people who don't deserve to get promoted get promoted. (literally changing your name to have a "higher" rank, if you were smart you could do this when nobody is watching and self-promote since nobody would even know the difference).

What do you do when the event is over you ask? Well the answer is nothing! That's all CW is. A massive waste of time in an exercise of masochism for kids who like being bossed around and yelled at by strangers online for no reason. Onto the next gamemode, Imperial RP.

Imagine CWRP, but this time with Stormtroopers and Darth Vader plus 10x the abuse. Yeah. That's all it is. The same rules and event information applies, as the same idiots who run CWRP run ImperialRP. There is little/no difference between the two besides server lore, player models, and the guns you use. So why play this gamemode you ask? Well, ever since the movie Rogue One released, interest in Imperial RP has peaked (most likely due to the introduction of the Death troopers, Krennic, and new rebels like Jyn and Cassian, etc). Just like CWRP, this gamemode has lots of potential for great storylines, events, and RP due to the characters and lore already in this era (in my opinion, the Galactic Civil War Era is the most fleshed out timeline), but sadly this is almost never the case.



Common Regiments/Batallions you will see:

1: Stormtroopers (default, every server has them and every player will at one point become one. They're the guys in white who always go, "REBELS, BLAST 'EM!")
2: Shock (Same as CW, just millitary police)
3: 501st (Same as CW, just lead by Vader this time)
4: 442nd (Same as CW)
5: Death Troopers (Brand new, introduced in Rogue One. Everyone wants to be them because they look the coolest and usually always get the best gear. They also guard Krennic and high ranking navy)
6: Magma (Stormtroopers but with either a flamethrower or a DLT-19)
7: Pilots (Same as CW, but they fly TIEs now)
8: Navy/Fleet (Same as CW)
9: Nova (Unique to Imperial, depending on the server I've seen them guard, be an "elite" unit, or a demo unit)
10: Royal Guard (Not really a batallion, but due to the way DarkRP works it's in the F4 job menu as one. They're the guys in red who guard Emperor Palpatine and look badass while doing it. Usually also everyone wants to join them as well.)
11: Scouts (Same as 41st Green Company from CW, they get snipers and speeder bikes)
12: Jumptroopers (Depends on the server. not on all of them. Same as stormtroopers but with jetpacks)

That's a good question. The problem is, First Order has very little Gmod content such as weapons, player models, maps, and other things like that to be as popular as CW or Imperial. It's also extremely new, introduced just two years ago with the release of The Force Awakens movie, so it has very little story or lore at this point. I hope Battlefront 2 releasing will change this. Galaxy RP doesn't necessarily suffer from this problem, but it just isn't as popular a game mode as CW and Imperial.

Servers, just like stores, are businesses. They generally don't care if you're happy and are only looking to make a quick buck. One huge problem with SWRP is this exact thing. Important jobs like Darth Vader or commanders on CW servers are almost always put behind an expensive paywall ($20 or more, I've seen it go up to $250 for jobs like Palpatine or Vader!!) in order to "buy" that job, which is INCREDIBLY greedy. Anyone who pays for these and gives these greedy server owners their money deserves to be scammed for those extortionist prices. My advice is to not play on any of these servers at all, as they only care about money and you will be artificially stuck at the same rank forever unless you pay for a higher one. SWRP = DarkRP. Never forget this fact. It's the same exact server base and the same F4 menu, and you can easily buy your way to power just like DarkRP. If a server sells ranks, jobs, or even staff positions, I HIGHLY recommend you stay FAR away from that server since it will die very fast and the owner will take your money and run, screwing you over quickly.

(Some servers make LOADSAMONEY from gullible players)

Not all servers are bad and some do genuinely care about their players and have to sell certain perks in the game in order for their server to stay online. The best way to determine if a donation is worth it is usually by these seven categories (can vary depending on person, but this is what I go by):

1: Care level (How much do you care for this server? Do you really think it's worth it to give this stranger your hard earned money for something that doesn't exist and can disappear instantly?)

2: Time investment (How much time have you invested in this server? Is it really worth buying
that commander position or a special custom job when you've only played a few hours?)

3: Event quality (Are the events worth your time? Will your job impact the status/result of events? Are you going to be important or yet another cog in the machine?)

4: Staff quality (Is the owner a jerk? Are the staff members mature, serious, and do they abuse their powers? Do you think they care about you or the players?)

5: Power level (Can you easily buy your way to power? If so, what if you don't buy this job but instead some other abusive donator buys it before you and they abuse the job's power, thus negatively affecting you or your friends? Is it really worth playing on a server in which anyone can buy power instantly instead of earning it?)

6: Price (Is it really worth paying $60 for Anakin Skywalker? Is it worth paying the price of a AAA game for a model and a job name on a Garry's Mod server? Do you think that's a fair deal?)

7: Fairness (If you decide to not donate, are you putting yourself at a serious, severe, or otherwise experience hampering disadvantage? Are donators substantially more powerful than non-donators? Can a non-donator reach/earn a donator's position with enough RP, effort, and time/dedication?)

A good server with mature staff and quality events worthy of your money is always a good investment for donations. I don't hate donations or donators at all. In fact, they provide a valuable service which keep quality servers in business and up for everyone to play on. Just beware who you give your money to and don't be so quick to make an important decision such as giving money to them.

If you're looking for some actual RP, the answer is you probably shouldn't! Most current Star Wars servers are painfully generic and are pretty much all the same, lacking any attempts at originality. However, just like with all rules there are exceptions. I am currently looking for some great servers to include in this guide, so please send me your suggestions!

If you're looking for some quick fun though, you might find a few good people to hang out with in Stormtrooper or Clone Trooper regiments frequently since they're usually new players like you. Otherwise, anything you do that isn't EXACTLY like the rules will result in you being banned very fast, usually permanently. It just takes a lot of searching and time to find the perfect server, and hope it doesn't die or get ruined by bad staff, just like every other server.

In conclusion, this gamemode just sucks right now and really isn't worth playing. Thanks for everyone who took the time to read all this, and if you have any questions, I'll answer any in the comments section. If you agree, please share this guide with anyone who plays SWRP to help spread awareness.