I'm curious just how much it will truly explore the "Heroes on Both Sides" idea, as everythig I've seen for Clone Wars is pretty much a clear Jedi & Republic Good/Separatists Bad divide. It's also somewhat telling that while Clones get a species and specialized careers, nothing is mentioned of either of those for Separatist droids. Jedi also get a Career, but I don't expect a Sith Career in this time period as there are already three of them active. Oh well, at least the Seps get Geonosians.?

For some reason I hate the title of the book... Sounds so cheesy.
Secondly, I really hope they can give some love to the opposite side of the conflict. As much as I love the clone troopers and the Jedi, I am so tired of the Separatists being labeled as the default villains just because the main characters fight for the Republic. If they can add love to the CIS as much as the Republic this would really sell it for me.
But I honestly doubt it.
Star systems prohibited to leave so they unite and force themselves out with battle droids = Evil.
Spiritual peace keepers leading a slave army and are ok with that = Good.
As seen in Rebels and some comics, the Battle Droids too have the ability to become individual. But we're not gonna see any career for playing Battle Droids or Tactical Battle Droids or Separatist Commandos, are we? 
Maybe we'll lucky and they will do a "Attack of the Clones" era book as a counterpart.

For some reason I hate the title of the book... Sounds so cheesy.
Secondly, I really hope they can give some love to the opposite side of the conflict. As much as I love the clone troopers and the Jedi, I am so tired of the Separatists being labeled as the default villains just because the main characters fight for the Republic. If they can add love to the CIS as much as the Republic this would really sell it for me.
But I honestly doubt it.
Star systems prohibited to leave so they unite and force themselves out with battle droids = Evil.
Spiritual peace keepers leading a slave army and are ok with that = Good.
As seen in Rebels and some comics, the Battle Droids too have the ability to become individual. But we're not gonna see any career for playing Battle Droids or Tactical Battle Droids or Separatist Commandos, are we? 
Maybe we'll lucky and they will do a "Attack of the Clones" era book as a counterpart.

First off, I wouldn't be too worried about having an overarching  story idea just yet. You don't know who your PCs are, and they will by definition impact the direction of your story. Once you have a better sense of why they are, it's likely going to help your direction.
Additionally, secondary objectives (which I'll get to in a moment) will help with both story and with keeping the players "hungry."
As for limiting character options, the approach that I took when I started my EotE campaign (okay, it's really a Firefly campaign using the EotE engine) was to suggest sticking to EotE but to keep an open mind. Rather than sit down with all the books, I had the players think about what kind of character they might want to play and they we discussed options. I would up with 4 players using EotE careers (2 Smugglers, 2 Techies), but would have been open to it if we felt that a different career was more accurate. In fact, I presented the Ace as an alternative for our pilot and he said that nah, he wanted to stick with smuggler. We're now in "Season Two" of the campaign and some of the players are looking to branch out so we may dip into other areas - our Slicer is educated and smart so we may add the Analyst talent tree for him, and our ship's captain (a Smuggler/Scoundrel) seems well-suited to a few of the trees from the Dawn of Rebellion sourcebook.
With respect to shopping, I'm lucky that my players don't want to do it all that often. Unless they're looking for something unique and interesting, I try to keep it "off-screen," typically when they hit a major port. It's like, okay, you're conducting business at the system capitol - once you have your money, you can probably buy anything legal you want here. We also have a few major "shadow ports," and that's where they can get almost anything that's NOT legal.
Now, how do you keep them hungry and moving? That's the real trick, right?
I ran a Star Wars campaign (using Saga rules) that ran for 100+ sessions over the course of a decade, and I'm now prepping for session 15 ("Season Two, Episode Two") of a Firefly campaign using EotE rules. Both campaigns were heaving influenced by Firefly and fell into the model of "squabbling folks on a ship." In both cases, they were actually FORCED together by events (in Star Wars, they were strangers travelling on a mass transit vessel that was attacked by pirates and in Firefly, they were all criminals from various crews on the same space station during a crackdown by the authorities), so keeping them moving and keeping them together was, at times, a bit of a challenge.
If you'll indulge me, I'll prattle on a bit about some of our stories, and perhaps they'll give you some ideas.
In the Star Wars game, we had four players - a Jedi Padawan looking to become a Knight, a Gunslinger seeking vengeance against his old partner, a former slave turned Pitfighter on a crusade to bring down slavers, and a Scoundrel planning to grow into a crime lord. For the first "season," there was an NPC captain to the ship and they were all crew. The captain passed away at in the season finale and left them (and a few NPC crew members) equal shares.
Early on, the competing agendas of the players was really interesting to watch and drove many of our early stories. A lot of it turned out to be the Jedi trying to do heroic stuff, the Pitfighter trying to do brutal things, and the Gunslinger (who had both tendencies) sort of caught in the middle. The Scoundrel was sort of along as comic relief a lot of the time, but also sided with whoever was likely to produced the most money.
As the game evolved, they went from helping each other with their personal agendas on a "you scratch my back" basis to doing it because they actually cared about each other. And it created some interesting dynamics. For example, the Jedi found out that the Scoundrel was secretly smuggling addictive spice and she kind of lost it and spaced the spice. The Scoundrel, who was now in debt to a ruthless crime lord for quite a bit of money, was beside himself with anger - until the Jedi promised that, because they were crew mates, she would help him earn enough coin to pay off the debt.
There was also a prolonged story arc (I believe in Season Two) where the ship got stolen by a rival crew and the players had to pull together to get sufficient resources to hire a temporary replacement, catch up with the bad guys, and get their ship back. They were very frustrated, but it was a great team building experience.
Once model that I've gotten a lot of mileage out of (again, in both campaigns) is the idea of breaking up space into several regions, where you can travel fairly easily within a region, but getting between regions is tougher/longer. Then, give the players a long-term goal (ie, completing a job at the far end of space) and let them have adventures along the way. Progress is not a straight line, so much as a series of misadventures. The different regions and travel times also give you time to force a little character downtime and development from time to time.
In Firefly, for example, the known 'Verse consists of five star systems, each with a dozen or so planets and even more moons. Travel within a system takes hours or a day or so, but travel between systems can take weeks. The systems are in a somewhat straight line (it's actually more like the points on a "W," but who's counting?), so in our campaign, the players spent Season One traveling from one end of the 'Verse to the other.
And there were a number of distractions.
They started in, well, let's call it System 1, where they were forced together, then almost immediately got involved in an adventure that involved then rescuing dozens of kidnapped children. Although they were dedicated to trying to get the kids back home, the kids were also a huge resource strain, so the players had to work hard just to keep everyone fed. The kids were all from Systems 1, 2, and 3, so the players spent some time working to return those in System 1. At their last stop, it turned out that one of the kids belonged to a local crime family, who offered the players a job delivering some goods to Persephone (a major starport) in System 3.
They jumper over System 2 (but hired some trusty folks to deliver the kids from there - at this point, the players, despite working a number of illegal jobs, could barely scrape together two coins) to head to Persephone. When they delivered their goods, the guy they delivered to had a job offer for them to steal a McGuffin. That involved them in a three-way war between varying criminal factions who all wanted the item. They ultimately threw in their lot with Lady Hu, the least morally objectionable, not because she could pay the most, but because she offered to take the remaining kids of their hands and start a small school for them.
While helping Lady Hu consolidate power with a few "side quests" (again - the players are not actually making money, they're just helping make enough coin to get the orphans a good home) they accidentally caused some massive property damage. Lady Hu offered to cover the immediate expenses, but drove a hard deal where she leveraged the players into making a dozen deliveries for her in Systems 4 and 5... The were not paid for the individual jobs, but only when all items in a system were delivered.
At this point, I think we were 6 sessions in, and the players had not turned a significant profit, although they had made a number of allies and helped a bunch of kids in need.
Travelling on to System 4 to deliver Lady Hu's gifts, they arrived at the Space Bazaar (a major space station) where they got a few side-gigs but also encountered the son of our ship's pilot (playing off one of his Obligations) - who happened to be in debt to a local crime lord. Now, the players embarked on two jobs for that guy, not for themselves, but to get the son out of debt. Along the way, they turned a small profit and took on an additional side-job delivering prisoners. Unfortunately, at the prison, they ran into a corrupt lawman (Womack, for those who've watched the series), who was an old enemy going back to the first episode and who shook them down for most of their money (the alternative was to allow him to search the ship, which would have unearthed the smuggled goods they still needed to deliver to get the pilot's son square with the crime lord).
While in System 4, they also visited the home planet of the mechanic for some downtime, where they found that his sick sister was in need of some very expensive drugs (again, this was tied directly to an Obligation). The players launched a daring heist to steal the drugs - and also steal enough to turn a profit. But not too much of a profit. The had to make a decision: they could sell the stolen goods quickly and for a moderate amount of money or keep them and sell them for more later. They took the safe bet.
By the time they left System 4, the players had some money in their pockets, and good relations with both Lady Hu and Benny Bronte (the guy the pilot's son was in debt to), both of whom had modest jobs for them in System 5.
They arrived at System 5, visited a major shadowport to conclude much of their business (and do a little shopping), but had two small jobs that delivered to a nearby planet where one of the captain's old friends was planning a major job. The old friend offered the players in, and said that potential profits were huge. The job was so big, in fact, that it would involve four different crews working together (including the players' nemesis crew). The players had to invest a lot of their remaining coin into optional resources for the big score. Needless to say, the big score didn't go as planned, with betrayals galore, and the bad guys making off with the majority of the money.
Still, by the end of the season (and thirteen sessions), the crew had made some money, made a number of allies, and traveled from one end of space to the other.
If you managed to make it through all this, you may noticed a few patterns:
1) The players often had multiple gigs going on at once.
2) At least one gig always moved them "forward," delivering something to someplace new and further down the lone.
3) The players were often faced with choices. Do you want a little money now, or a lot of money later? Do you want to do the right thing, or the profitable one?
4) More than once, the players were in a situation where they were working to gain, or pay off, a favor rather than to actually profit. For this to work, though, it needs to produce meaningful results or mean something to the characters.
5) Although a majority of jobs were just jobs, a significant minority were tied directly to the players' agendas, backgrounds, and obligations.
Although it's not probably not clear from this play-by-play, the overarching story for the season was basically having the players travel from one end of space to the other, and have three crews (the players, their nemesis crew, and Womack the corrupt lawman) interact repeatedly. All three crews were present in the first session, and also, in some capacity, in the finale, which saw a realignment of those crews, with some characters swapping ships or being killed. Notably, the players lost half of their crew complement, with one NPC arrested, their PC mechanic being kidnapped by the bad guy crew (the player has to step away from the game for a while), and the other NPC  betraying them. In return, they picked up the former captain of their nemesis crew, who was betrayed by his own people.
I hope some of this has been interesting or informative. If not, I apologize if you managed to slog through it all.

It's Old Republic so I would say don't feel too beholden to canon or other story sources because over time the fact might have shifted significantly. 
#1. My suggestion for the resources thing is that if you want some detail just arrange resources by "units" and give them a bas price per unit for the area. Fuel and Maintenance should be primarily plot dependent I would say, but if you want something more concrete then figure out some acceptable percentage of the overall income and subtract it. Everything just about can be valuable in the right circumstances. You could haul Ice to a Desert World, or any other scarce material. The old standby of Machine Parts is a good one as there is often a need for replacement parts. 
#2. If they start with a ship the gang idea is harder to make work unless they have a tracker on it or something and a fleet of ships to make the PCs life a pain. I would say give them a ship if you are good at being dynamic as a GM. It will also make being a smuggler more fun. You could start small and have them work up to a ship which I think would be even better. 
#3. You are gonna need to be clear about getting characters to fit the theme, but I wouldn't rule out military or Force Sensitive characters unless they are made in such a way that their motivations and goals will remove them from the Smuggler Life hastily. The characters need to be made with the spacer life in mind. 

The Far Horizons book has rules for a homestead, which is a business that covers basic costs and keeps the PCs alive, clothed, and in reasonable health.  If they want extra credits, they have to do extra/nefarious work.  I only count credits when it comes to that extra work, and it really only applies to big-ticket items they want.  So if they go to the bar or out for dinner I don't charge them.  (Sometimes "out for dinner" means a big social event which is part of a mission...in which case they might have to buy new clothes, etc, but that's a different issue.)  Any job they do they can save the proceeds for that quad-laser turret upgrade they've been eyeing.
Basically, I don't sweat the day-to-day.  That means you can scale your rewards to the items they really want, and that can give you a handle on how much is a good reward.
As for shopping...this is just me, so take with a grain of salt, but:  there is nothing more boring than going shopping in a game.  Shopping should be done between games, so the session is about story and action.  I never saw Luke or Han in a weapons shop, haggling over blasters or oohing and aahing over equipment stats.  Now if the item is required for the plot, that might be a different matter, but then the "shopping" event should have the potential for action.
No problem starting them with a ship.  I wouldn't necessarily encourage them to upgrade/repair it, that should be a decision that arises from the conflicts they face.  If they are consistently out-gunned, they'll either want more guns or faster engines, etc.  You can always push them gently just by the types of encounters they have to face, but you don't have to say anything.
You don't need a big galactic plot if you don't want one.  My longest campaign started very local.  The star system was in a nebula, difficult to reach (populated by a crash-landing 300 years earlier), and only reconnected to the Republic 50 years ago.  Then the Empire showed up as "friends", and I only mentioned this casually at first.  Over time its presence became more sinister, affecting the PCs friends/family, etc and the goal became to drive the Empire out.  But that only evolved after about a year of playing.
I wouldn't limit anything, unless you don't want to deal with Force users.  The flavour of the character is how it is played, not the career and specs.  My earlier campaign was technically EotE (all about smuggling, crime, etc), but two of the three PCs were AoR characters.  The only real difference in the game line is the use of Obligation vs Duty, but you can use one, both, or neither.  I stuck with Obligation, but only for chargen, then I ignored it.  Never looked at Duty at all.  Duty does show up in a couple of Talents in the AoR line, but those aren't common and we just made them do something else when the Diplomat ran into them.
 

Easy solution is to focus on predicted net profit. Essentially assume the players have two accounts. One that covers food, docking fees, fuel, ect. And then a second account that is thier personal spending money.
When you offer a job say something like "he gives you a number. After typical expenses you should have 1,000 credits each left over."
You can then modify this as story elements require.
"Hey guys, bad news. When I ran the numbers to get here I didn't know the mandos would blow the tanker that keeps this place fueled and drive prices into orbit. So we need another 10,000 unless you want to sell the ship and buy a farm here... I dunno about you but I don't know anything about growing Varplian Soybeans...."
 
Likewise maintenance is the same thing. Basic oil changes and such should be covered and just assumed to happen as needed... Until there's a story need for the poodleplap regulator to blow. Heck, that's the sort of thing Darksiders d-points are made for.
In the middle of a galactic war, where opposing side are torpedoing freighters left and right trying to deny each other resources needed to win the war? What resources won't be valuable? Fuel, food, whiskey, grain, medical supplies, butter, sugar, coffee, fresh meats, droid parts, durasteel, chocolate, copper, power cells. The list is nearly infinite.
I run 3 kinds of shops:
1) Story shop. This is Watto's. It's got anything it would reasonably have, but only 1 thing that matters: the quest item.
2) Environmental shop. This is the stall at the mining camp. It has a menu limited to what it would be likely to have. Food, stimpacks, tools, coveralls. But not much else. It's not there to provide a shopping experience, it's there to add color to the location and maybe give the opportunity to the players to pickup a mundane item they might need in the near future.
3) Everything else. In town and want a new blaster? Roll Negotiation vs. Rarity of the blaster you want + modifiers. This counts as you checking all the local shops in the area and finding the best deal. One and done, no rerolls. Success means you found it, advantage means you talked the price down a bit. Don't expect a description of the shop or shopkeeper, it doesn't matter.
 
More later.

Whafrog's advice is all very solid and I endorse his take on pretty much everything.
I do have a couple of techniques that I use for ship maintenance, fuel, food, supplies etc that works VERY well for me.
First the cost for the day to day operations cost 10% of the cost of the ship per year.  If you want a Per-dium cost divide that by 360.  If you want a weekly cost, divide that by 52.  So to figure out what they need to spend to keep the ship running, that's the math that I use.  So every time they hit a port, you know what they need to spend to get their "Consumables" replenished.
Port costs are different and I use that as flavor and the costs vary from port to port, but I'm charging about $200 - $600 per week for a berthing fee.  (I'm keeping things simple so we normally don't break down berthing fees on a per dium basis.  If your PC's want to go that granular, try cutting the weekly fees to a quarter of the weekly fees).
Here's the most important bit.  Once you have those two costs figured out you know that most jobs will pay MORE than the included costs.  Otherwise, people WONT ship products through space.
 
There is one other thing that I do for flavor and it's a trope that my players calls "The Window Washers of Philadelphia."
When they land on a port, the group will usually be approached by an NPC who offers to wash their ship's windows.
These encounters offer a rather quick and concise glimpse into the character of the planet.
On depressed or backwater worlds, these washers are generally eager kids who are looking for an opportunity to leave home and travel the galaxy.  Often; They ask pointed questions about ships operations and are trying to learn enough to become a crewman on a ship.  They may even ask for a job.  They don't charge much and may even be eager to point PC's in the right direction, if asked politely.
Worlds with better economies with lots of trade may have washers who are dedicated and well paid professionals.  They know the starport well and can help facilitate ship operations.  Some may expect to be tipped for additional information ancillary services.
A couple of worlds dominated by unions and guilds will have washers who receive a cut of the very high port fees and do a horrible job washing the ship's windows.  The portals may even require cleaning AFTER they get done.
Some ports with minimal services or in VERY high traffic areas may not have any washers approach the PC's.
I do try to put together a unique NPC for each world and try to understand the motivation of each washer.  They can help establish color for each world, provide subplots (rarely) and can be a good resource for helpful information.
Just a couple of things I do with my campaign that may work for you.

I have a few questions that are about the rules.
#1: Advantages.
In my play we have found that spending 1 or 2 advantages becomes a bother. It's such a small advantage that takes so much time for each player to figure out what they want to do with them. I share the same problem as a GM with all of my NPCs.
An idea was to simply put a default. So if a player gets 1 advantage it's always a Boost die to grant someone. If a player gets 2 advantages, they always grant themselves a boost. If a player really want to use it for something else they should say so and have it ready once its their turn to speed things up. 
Alternatively just ignore them.
#2: Defenses
In all honesty I find the Boost and Setback dice next to pointless. Most of the time they roll a blank so people don't bother aiming or taking cover. Have you found another way to use Defenses? Maybe grant a single Soak or a single Pierce depending if you are attacking or defending? I don't like the sound of granting free Pierce but I am not sure what to do. Cover just seem lackluster compared to Saga edition which raised the characters defenses while aiming negated cover.
This question also applies to starships. Maybe even more so. The shields feel so insignificant when they should have a bigger role.
(I am looking around for a house rule to starship combat in general but I am curios what people do).

Hello. I am trying to start a campaign set in the Old Republic era but I am having a problem with lack of ideas.
What I have planned so far is that the time is set right after the Mandalorian Wars have begun. There are many unexplored planet and undiscovered hyperspace routes still. The common people in the outer rim have grown used to constant warfare and are simply trying to cope with it. This leads to famine, sickness and revolts on local planets, etc. Lots of worrisome times
The party are a group of smugglers who operates from a single ship. They are trying to survive in this hostile, lawless rim while helping those in need by providing them with supplies. They would be going against Mandalorian blockades, Republic restrictions and disputes with other criminals. It would be nice if they had a hub to rest up and receive missions from, sorta like the Phoneix crew in Rebels have their base of operations on Lothal in season 1.
Note: I haven't read the Tales of the Jedi or Old Republic comics with the whole Zayne Carrick plot. I know the overall story but not the details. I have almost every Star Wars FFG books as well as Old Republic campaign guide from Saga edition (Wizards of the Coast). I've played Kotor 1 and 2 but it was a while ago.
So my questions are as follows;
#1: Handling resources
Something I've had trouble with in the past is handling the party economy. The team are supposed to "go hungry" and have to keep themselves working in order to pay for fuel, food and basic needs. What exactly is a good amount of credits to award for a simple errand job to a dangerous job? How much does it cost to fuel a ship and how often would that be needed to be done? When does it have to receive maintenance except for battle damage?
I have read page 151 on EotE and it talks about rewarding supplies instead of money but what kind of "supplies" are valuable except for weapons and armors?
Lastly, how do you handle shops? If a player says she wants to go to the local weapon store, how do you decide whats in there at the moment?
This is a bit of an open question but I am eager to hear your ideas about it.
#2: Main quest
I feel stumped in this area. Being in the Kotor era I feel I can do whatever I want but I feel its TOO big.
Should the Mandalorian be a constant threat to their way of life? A criminal organization such as Czerka or Black Sun could be a thorn in their sides. The Republic, being not so in control at this time, could be trying to enforce themselves in nearby planets.
My current idea I have is that Taris is having a few gangs that are harassing the people as well as the party. The party motivation would be to free themselves and win that big score to become independent. At the same time I want to have room for the iconic morality dilemmas that are common in Kotor games.
(Also, should they start with a group ship? Is it okay if its in a bad quality to encourage them to repair and modify it?)
#3: Limiting character options
I haven't talked to the other players yet what kind of characters they want to play but so far I want this to be primarily Edge of the Empire theme; lots of underworld dealing, smuggling, and all that come with living in the fringe.
Should I allow players to make characters from Careers in the other books? I can see how maybe an Ex-Republic Solider or an Ex-Jedi could join this motley crew but having a fully fledged Soldier or Jedi seem not to fit the theme. What do you think I should do with Age of Rebellion and Force & Destiny accessibility? 
Thanks in advance!

In the Clone Wars episode 3, season 1, General Grievous is speaking to Dooku through holonet (or CIS version of it) aboard the Malevolence when in hyperspace.

I'm surprised no one has answered this in three years.
I have a player with this signature ability and have used it two times in separate sessions.
The first time it was used the player (a Klatooinian heavy) tried to fight his way out from a group of slavers. Once he fought his way out and found his weapon, he activated this ability and succeeded. He described how he intimidatingly marched down the hallway, wasting everyone in his way, and liberating the other slaves. This was a pretty epic moment and awe-inspiring. He had to fight his way to get his gun first so he didnt proc this on round 1.
On the other session, however, we were inside a cantina. A bounty hunter and his goons attacked the party. On round 2 he activated this and killed all the minions. Since he rolled a despair I ruled that he accidentally killed the bartender that was being held hostage by the enemy. With only the bounty hunter standing, the party won and escaped (they didn't kill the bounty hunter because it had a sniper backup). This one wasn't as glorious as the first time.
In my opinion, it can be a cool ability but it can really turn into a go-to, no-brainer button to defeat an encounter swiftly. So I try now to keep enemy reinforcements once the first wave of weaklings are down as well as a few rival enemies. ALWAYS have two nemesis bosses to back each other up.
 
 

Hello, I have a short request. 
I have a friend who is converting his Felucian character from Saga edition to FFG. How would you go about deciding the species stats?
 
My initial idea is as follows:
Jungle Felucian 

 
Brawn: 3
Agility: 2
Intellect: 1
Cunning: 2
Willpower: 2
Presence: 2
Starting XP: 80-90(?)
Wound: 12 + Brawn
Strain: 11 + Willpower
Breathe underwater
Gain one free rank in Stealth or Survival
Natural flora camouflage: gain a boost when hiding in forest/swamp but a setback in urban/desert area.
 
And then we get the problematic Force... And I think the Miraluka thread has a similar problem.
Should the species start with Force Rating 1? Or 0? 
According to Saga edition stat, they start Force sensitive and even have a Force Blast (bubble attack!) to start with. This could perhaps be translated that the character have 5XP cheaper to buy into the first Force ability (or solely Heal/Harm).
 
Any suggestions?

. That thin line of not doing something dangerous not because it may be prudent but maybe instead because you're afraid of the situation or the out outcome.  So maybe he attempts to avoid a conflict with the pirates because they outnumber the group. But the battle may make it easier to to save their kidnapped friend. Fighting the pirates may be the most direct route, but due to their numbers would it be a good idea to fight them or avoid them> 

I actually kind of like this even better than my last decision. My group are unfortunately not so keen on space battles and they would perhaps appreciate this better. The group may split if someone really want to take it to the Death Star surface but the others could then have a super important and time-limited mission inside the battle station itself. Rescuing an important prisoner, sabotaging some turbolasers and doing everything in order to win a desperate battle.

As has been said, it's your game. But know in advance you may be creating some extra work for yourself as you start to keep track of all of the indirect results of the changes to canon via a "butterfly effect". Having X die and Y not happen can indirectly cause many changes to what your players know of the Star Wars timeline. It could get confusing. Not saying don't do it just be prepared.
 
Having the PCs help with the evacuation works for me. You could use the Legends version for ideas or go your own way since it wasn't covered in movie canon. There may have been a large battle as the Rebels evacuated and an Imperial fleet showed up to stop them. Nearly endless possibilities there from small scale to large scale action.
 
If you want them directly involved in the Battle of Yavin, you can still do things that wouldn't contradict canon. Perhaps Leia, upon being rescued, reveals she heard a conversation about a VIP valuable to the Alliance that was also a prisoner on the Death Star. It could be your pick of someone from Legends. When the DS arrives, the players are tasked with a near suicide mission to rescue this VIP during cover of the battle. Perhaps a stolen TIE Bomber shuttle with the PCs aboard will use the Alliance fighter attack as a distraction to get aboard the DS during the battle, hack into the network to find the VIP, sneak to the proper cell block, and get the heck out before the DS goes boom. It could be very tense as comms reveal what is going on outside the DS with the Alliance fighter squadrons as the players race to complete their mission and get away in time.
 
Didn't someone else on these boards pose something similar?

So, did Conan return the wayward daughter of King Osric to her home. And having no further concern, he and his companions sought adventure in the West. Many wars and feuds did Conan fight. Honor and fear were heaped upon his name and, in time, he became a king by his own hand... And this story shall also be told.
 
*cue Basil Poledouris*
 
Sounds like an awesome ending! Well done!

In our campaign, for various reasons, the Luke character never joined the Alliance,  heading off on a very different journey of self-discovery. So the Alliance pilots are all shot down and the Death Star was sabotaged shortly afterwards by its creator. For twenty years, the Empire have tried to get it operational again, as they slowly start losing the conflict and subsequently implode in a messy civil war.   But there's always that fear that the big daddy of all superweapons might come back online at any time, and the PCs will have to infiltrate it and destroy it from within... (taking them with it, obviously No convenient exhaust ports here!)
 
So yeah, do whatever you think is cool and suits your game.  Just talk it over with the players first so they know what they're getting.
 
Personally I think that blowing up Death Stars and rescuing Princesses is PC work.  

When I ran into this as a player in the WEG version we were running interference for the main fighter squadrons attacking the Death Star.
 
We had to prevent reinforcements reaching the Death Star to help counter the fighter assault.
 
I have been wondering about explaining why Tarkin never deployed whatever support he had on the Death Star by revealing it had been deployed at Alderaan since Tarkin was pretty much insane to order the destruction I figured they left behind enough of their support fleet which once out of Tarkin's purview began emergency rescue operations trying to recover what little reputation the Empire had left.
 
I'm not that up to date on the latest canon but I figured this was done to counter the rebel claims to the contrary placing the blame on the deceased Tarkin rather than the Emperor.
 
The Darth Vader comic deals with this somewhat differently but I'd like to find out how this would have been handled or has been handled in other games?

Thank you for all your inputs. Things didn't become quite as planned but it worked out in the end. They didn't manage to liberate Dorin but they did overthrow the local tyrant and one of the PC's took his place; convincing the imperials that it would be to their best interest to let a person who the people love rule. He agreed to be their "puppet" in order to maintain order.
 
The rest of the group understood why he did that. The Empire's retribution would have been gruesome so the PC knew this was the only was since the could not win a war against the empire with the few resources they got. He and the senator of Dorin would keep things orderly (for now). This will be interesting in the future once the senate is dissolved and the regional governors must take power.
 
The group moved on (and the PC's player made a new character ). They left the system in good hands and are now working with Ackbar in a secret mission.

Also, read Lost Stars to see how Imperials can think of themselves as the Good Guys™.

It's possible to be morally ambiguous without reducing the evil of the Empire. It's a very fine line between rebellion, insurgency, and terrorism. The PCs could easily cross a line or two (even inadvertently) and suddenly realize that they're the bad guys. That kind of existential crisis should make for some fantastic role-playing.
 
As far as the campaign direction, it really sounds like you need a nemesis to focus everyone's attention.

Excellent!  *thumbs up*
 
 
1#  Make the people they help/liberate personable.  Don't just have it be "a group of Felucian slaves they rescued"  Have those slaves now reach out to them, or have one of the more memorable slaves, suddenly become a Holo-net Hacktivist, putting her face out on the net to incite rebellion.  Have the players see the ripple effects of their actions, and put a relatable face to the people they are inciting to revolt.   Make a group of support characters, that the players actually care about.....and then put them into peril.   It's hard to get your players to invest themselves if it's just "Faceless Victims 27-53" this session.  But if it's Dren Odahli, the plucky and helpful little slave girl they saved, but who provided them with helpful information, who is now trying to replicate what they did for her, on other victims, well now you've got more player buy-in.    Or have family members be involved.  Maybe the Empire learns who the group is, and tracks down some of their family, holding them captive, and broadcasting it on the Holo-net.  Assuming all your players aren't "Grizzled Loner With a Trouble Past, and No Personal Ties", then it should be easy to put their personal loved ones at risk.  "You see your little brother, not 16, in restraints, being led by a pair of Stormtroopers, into the local Imperial outpost, soon to be interrogated.   It's obviously a trap to lure you out, but it's your brother....what do you do?"    In short, make the events they are doing, have personal connection to the characters, and let them see the results of those actions.
 
#2  "Nobody is the villain in their own story".  That is how you make the Empire look "less evil".   Don't use terms like "freedom fighters" or "resistance" when they are describing the players actions.  Use terms like "Terrorist actions on the good people of the Empire"  or "Insurgent attacks".   To use a real world example, and not to try and actually make any comparisons AT ALL here, but the Empire would be the United States, and the Rebellion would be Al Qaeda, or ISIS.  Just look at some news clips of politicians and leaders, discussing those types of real incidents, and just re-skin their verbage to Star Wars.   Boom, instant conflict about "are we doing the right thing?"    Perhaps have some of their targets be in civilian centers, so that there is no way for them to 100% avoid civilian casualties.  Then have those victims shown on Holo-net feeds.  "12 citizens killed today in another terrorist attack!  Local authorities vow to find the criminals and bring them to justice for the fallen!"   Stuff like that.  Or, have them meet a few Imperials who are actually decent people.  Who do their job as it's intended, and don't act with spite and hate to those around them.  If they see the target they came to kill, talking with a group of locals, and handing out food or something, per regulations, and he's not skimming or anything, then they might reconsider.  "Hey, he's not torturing babies, he's giving babies food!"
 
Personally, I agree with others that the Empire is meant to be pretty "Pure Evil" by design, but that's just me.   You can always have it be where some parts actually ARE relatively non-evil, but as a whole, it's a horrible organization.   Like you could probably say "some Nazi's were good people, who tried to help the Jews and other victims when they could"  but you couldn't say that about the Nazi party in general.  And again, not trying to stir up any controversy, but let's face it,  the Empire is pretty obviously Space Nazi's, so the analogy is apt.

Discover a secret Imperial Installation neither side knows about, introduce a nemesis for you Kel'Dor player for example a Kel'Dor Inquisitor who was turned over to the Empire and holds the people of Dorin responsible for what the Empire did to him and is using his command at the installation to forward some dubious experiments both sides want nothing to do with (well maybe Palpatine's Cultists are willing to turn a blind eye...).
So what would be considered too horrifying for an Imperial to be willingly involved in?
A terraforming process rendering the world suitable for oxygen breathers but unless the Kel'Dor know what's about to happen that's potentially billions dead and the nemesis has a ready fall guy in your Kel'Dor player!
Could throw in experimental Dark Troopers or modified humans & other species to be able to live in Kel'Dor environments doomed to toil unseen and die where they won't be found... oh until your players stumble across them!
Does that help?

Have you watched Star Wars Rebels?
When they introduced Tarkin in the series they had Kanan, Hera & co take over a communications tower only for Tarkin to blow up said communications tower doing pretty much what you described!