rant set off by elsewhere on the internet

No, we shouldn't bring back long-extinct species as per Jurassic Park.

If we did, we'd either be introducing invasive species to currently existing species and ecotypes, and that's ethically dubious; or we'd be introducing invasive species with no immunity to current conditions so they'd die off and not in a fun way, and so that they can be targeted by whatever folk-medicine beliefs spring up around them, and that's ethically dubious; or we'd be bringing back long-dead species just so they could be sacrificed and dissected, or never know a life outside of zoos, and that's incredibly ethically dubious.

Humanity needs to get a lot better at compassionate wildlife management before we start dicking over new (old?) and different wildlife.

game blather; nothin' but Star Wars

So one of my fave game systems ever is the old West End d6 Star Wars. Here are some games I've kinda wanted to run using the system, and doubt I will.

• PCs are nobles, guards and others in a Noble House of the Imperium, in the 20 years or so between the fall of the Old Republic and Palpatine's dissolution of the Senate. Their lives are a gala party of skullduggery, illicit betting rings, industrial espionage, arranged marriages, private yachts, and power bids, all with the constant threat of the forces of Law and Order showing up and executing everyone on the spot. Sort of a "just because the system is Lawful Evil doesn't mean the PCs are Good aligned." More like Neutral Greedy.
  
  
• PCs are Jedi, trained by a master who somehow escaped Order 66 by being on the outskirts of the Outer Rim or beyond - quite possibly for being unorthodox and ditching the Jedi before the purge (the prequels don't build up the Jedi as sympathetic and their computers can be hacked by a talented enough insider). With their master dead at the hands of Sith/Imperials/Night Sisters/very hungry Ewoks/whatever, they're free to pursue their destinies. "Pursue their destinies" includes things like "decide whether they can trust this New Jedi Order that's supposedly sprung up after Palpatine's death," "figure out whether Palpatine is actually dead," and "fight Sith seeded all around the Outer Rim, each of which is convinced that he or she is Darth Sidious' only apprentice and out to avenge/profit from his demise." On top of the usual threats.
  
  
• "Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Star Destroyer Managarm, on its five year mission to seek out new worlds and new civilizations. To crush all that resist. To bring them all within control of the Galactic Empire!" This is... a weird complex idea. The players may have multiple characters; the command core of a task force sent beyond the Outer Rim prior to Endor, as an Imperial equivalent to the Outbound Flight Project, and perhaps something much more immediate and action oriented, like a covert ops fireteam or fighter squadron, so that there can be stompy sessions to blow off steam. Players get a few sessions to do things like subdue recalcitrant governments, seek out ancient (Sith) artifacts wanted by the higher ups for no reason which they feel comfortable questioning, etc. This should provide plenty of opportunity for players to talk about crushing resistance in their best fake British accents, and so on.
  
  And then it all falls apart; they get an encoded message from Captain Pellaeon of the Chimaera alerting them that the Death Star has been destroyed along with the Emperor, and that they are to regroup at coordinates in the Galactic Core. The Galactic Core is a ways off.
  
  And between them and the Galactic Core is a bleak wasteland of New Republic, loyalist, and now independent territory, with questions like; do we defect and join the Rebels? Do we go rogue and try to carve out our own Empire? Is it worth the risk to engage New Republic ships to try reducing their materiel? How do we acquire resources to keep our ships running until we make the rendezvous?