ack in 1987, for the 10th anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars film, Lucas Films licensed, Greg Costikyan, Greg Gorden, and Bill Slavicsek designed, and West End Games published the first Star Wars roleplaying game. By that point millions of people had already been playing out their own SW adventures for years, but now they didn't need the action figures.
Rules are what transform play into a game, and for 12 years, West End's Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game was the second largest portal (after Dungeons & Dragons) for introducing people to the roleplaying hobby. When West End went bankrupt in 1999, Wizards of the Coast purchased the SW license and handed the task of creating the new Star Wars Roleplaying Game to one of their most experienced designers, Bill Slavicsek.
Everything that players and game masters need to play is contained
in the one Star Wars Roleplaying Game book: races, classes, skills,
feats, vehicles, starships, droids, creatures, characters from the movies
and an introductory adventure. There is a table of contents and an index.
There are notes for playing in each of the three SW eras: The Rise of
the Empire, The Rebellion and The New Jedi Order. The characters from the movies and books are given stats for all the eras they appear in.
Wizards has decided that all their games will now be based on the D20 game
engine which was introduced with the Third Edition of Dungeons & Dragons,
so that is the system that drives SWRG as well. Everything that happened in
the movies can be modeled under these rules, from the simple things like shooting
blasters to the complex things like starship combat. There are rules for using
the Force, both as a Jedi and as someone tuned into the Force's power but lacking
the Jedi tradition. The classes embrace all the characters in the films: fringers
(the young Anakin), nobles (Leia and Amidala), scoundrel (Han), scout (Chewie and
Jar Jar), soldier, Force adept, Jedi consular (Yoda) and Jedi Guardian (Obi-Wan).
Players choose a race and a class and some characteristics and they are set to
create their own adventures in the SW universe.
What's a Storm Trooper worth?
From the moment it was announced that Wizards would be using the D20 system
in their SW rules, gamers who were used to the West End rules feared that
SWRG would be D&D in space. They feared SWRG would have
levels and hit points. In the West End rules, characters earned experience points,
which they traded for better skills and characteristics. Luke in Return of the
Jedi might be lots more skilled at using the Force than he was in A
New Hope, but one good, on-target blaster shot would take him out just
as easily in both movies. In the D20 system, characters earn experience points
which they trade in for new levels. The levels give them better skills, better
saving throws and more hit points. So while a first-level character might go
down under one blaster hit, a 20th-level character can shower in blaster fire
before feeling any ill effects.
In all other ways, the Wizards SWRG is very much like the West
End version, which makes sense since they had the same designer. Force
points are still around and still do the same thing, giving characters
extra dice to roll in emergencies. The skill list is nearly identical, and so are
the Force powers. The artwork is better, and the expansion of the game into all
three eras (West End's version was set only during the Rebellion) is a great bonus.
The writing is clear and interesting, and the index is complete and points
to the right pages. There are also four pages of directions and charts at the
end of the book for converting information from the West End game to the Wizards
one. Or vice versa. Thus, all the existing West End source books can be used with
SWRG, or all the upcoming Wizards source books can be used in an ongoing
West End campaign. Those four pages are a priceless addition to the book.
