stonebro: Just started playing the original Starcraft (again). To, you know, refresh the story before the big day.
*Spoilers, obviously*
It's been ages since I played, and I doubt I'll do it again since the final mission of each campaign is almost impossible, but I'm still pretty sure that the story can be summarised as "everyone died, except for Arcturus Mengsk, Jim Raynor, Artanis, Zeratul, that backstabbing dude (Duran?) and Kerrigan".
I honestly don't recall if it was a well-told story, though. At any rate, the decimated cast means we'll probably have something akin to a blank slate for SC2, especially considering half the characters were seemingly rendered impotent in one way or another by the end of Brood War, allowing Kerrigan and new characters to set the stage.