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The Tom Veitch and Kevin J. Anderson Tales of the Jedi miniseries might not have been the best Star Wars comics ever published. But that's only because they had such stiff competition. Released throughout the 90s by Dark Horse Comics, they depicted the Galaxy Far Far Away four thousand years before the events of A New Hope. The writing and art might have been questionable in places but it was bursting with great ideas. It fleshed out the setting in a way few other licensed works did and laid the groundwork for some strong Expanded Universe stories, most notably Knights of the Old Republic.
Tales of the Jedi's writing had a mythological air surrounding it, featuring characters closer to half-remembered heroes than more traditional protagonists. That created a sense of atmosphere (and some characterization issues) but it also means there's plenty of room for a Game Master and his party to find their niche in the era. Even the central plot points, like Exar Kun and Ulic Qel Droma's armies razing the Republic or the exiled Dark Jedi corrupting the Sith Empire into a vessel for the Dark Side happen in fairly broad strokes, leaving enterprising roleplayers to fill in the gaps.
Tales of the Jedi era stories have a lot of narrative freedom without abandoning the iconic themes and symbols of Star Wars. It also offers a genuinely fresh take on the series, totally divorced from the characters and events of the films. Give your players a chance to forge a name for themselves, whether it be in the name of justice or oppression, without having to worry about a Skywalker stealing their thunder.
Power beyond Imagination
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By Tales of the Jedi, the Jedi and Sith have solidified into something more or less recognizable. The Jedi uphold peace and justice in the galaxy, while the Sith plot from the shadows and launch ruthless attacks when the time comes. However, their understanding of the Force is still steeped in a superstition and ritual that will fade over the centuries. There's no midichlorians in a Tales of the Jedi story, just mysticism and mystery.
Unlike the arrogant Jedi and Sith of later eras, characters in Tales of the Jedi stories accept the Force is beyond their comprehension. They wield it unpredictably, through spells and prayers, with dramatic, fantastical results. In a Tales of the Jedi story, the Force is almost indistinguishable from magic and the characters will react as such. Force users are less concerned with understanding the power they wield, instead hoping to use it as a means of self-reflection or a path to power. Of course, Exar Kun falls to the dark side in his quest for knowledge, so trying to grasp the impossible isn't totally off the table...
In line with the more mystical depiction of the force, Tales of the Jedi stories are filled with powerful artifacts. Sith amulets and lost holocrons shape the characters' stories, if not the flow of history itself. Regardless of whether someone is seeking enlightenment or domination, they'll have to do some antiquing to get there. Of course, few of these artifacts are just repositories for force power. They will have a lasting effect on the wielder. Especially if the souls of their creators cling to these trinkets. Especially since death has done little to distract them from their personal agendas. Regardless of how it takes shape in Tales of the Jedi, the Force is a barely understood source of power that carries heavy consequences no matter how it's used.
Epic Scale to Personal Struggle
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Star Wars does struggle with obsessing over huge, galaxy spanning conflicts. While those are nice and all, it's easy to overshadow the characters' personal journeys or generally get too lost in huge battles. Additionally, it's hard for even experience game masters to handle those sorts of narratives in a coherent or satisfying way. This fixation is also a shame because Star Wars often works best at a smaller scale. The Rebel fleet's attack on the Death Star II is impressive but the naval clash doesn't carry the same weight as Darth Vader becoming Anakin Skywalker again.
Thankfully, the Tales of the Jedi era covers all scales of narrative and gives the opportunity to tell big or small stories. Exar Kun and Ulic Qel Droma wage war across the galaxy but that's the culmination of numerous minor events. In Tales of the Jedi stories, protagonists often fight to save a single world, city, or even soul. The absolute peak of this time period is Redemption, an introspective story in which an exiled Ulic Qel Droma copes with the loss of his connection to the Force as well as his monstrous actions as a Sith. The central conflict is nothing larger than his own allies coming to terms with the actions of their former friend and accepting their own failures in the process.
At its worst, Star Wars tries to combine internal and external conflicts with disastrous results. The small narratives will feel disconnected from the rest of the story and the large narratives will feel soulless without clear character development. Tales of the Jedi constructs a setting where the two are clearly delineated and in which relatively minor events can properly escalate into major disasters and vice versa. When telling Tales of the Jedi stories, a game master taps into a mythology in which narratives of all scales are given equal consideration. That's rare for any series, especially Star Wars.
The Shape of Things to Come
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As previously mentioned, Tales of the Jedi stories take place millennia before the events of the movies. The few entities that do make an appearance are a far cry from what they become but it's easy to tell where they're heading. For example at this point, the Mandalorians are a united warrior-culture with a single ruler, mostly made up of the alien Taung, waging crusades against the galaxy. That's a far cry from the individualistic mercenaries and tight-knit, multi species clans they become but it's evident what brought them to that point.
Tales of the Jedi stories are in the distant past and they commit to that. Veitch and Anderson show remarkable self-restraint by avoiding any film characters' distant ancestors. Instead, they revealed the ancient history of the organizations prominent in the films and offer insights in how the cards fell the way they did. Admittedly, much of Exar Kun's story was written to flesh out his post-mortem appearance in the Jedi Academy trilogy. But by and large, a Tales of the Jedi story's main connection to "contemporary" Star Wars is how it presents the historic state of a galaxy we know well.
Of course, the main elements of Star Wars are still there. Blasters, lightsabers, droids, and hyperspace are all still prominent features. They're just more recent developments (or rediscoveries) as opposed to being ancient, accepted parts of everyday life. That also means they might not work quite the same way as their modern counterparts. Most of the Tales of the Jedi stories played around with the depiction of these well known objects. Even the overall visual style was much more fantastic and primordial, especially compared to the adjacent Knights of the Old Republic era which played it comparatively safe.
Aside from the more material components of Star Wars, Tales of the Jedi stories also incorporate the fundamental themes of the series. Corruption, redemption, betrayal, selflessness, and holding on to hope all feature prominently. The characters archetypes we've come to associate with Star Wars are also still there. However, they're now isolated from the more immediately recognizable characters and events. By stripping Star Wars down to its fundamental aspects, Tales of the Jedi stories pose a unique challenge to game masters and players alike. By the same merit, it also gives them a chance to create their own take on Star Wars and cut right to what makes us bother with Jedi knights and dark lords in the first place.
