In 1987, West End Games published a licensed tabletop adventure game based on George's space opera as part of the 10 year annivesary of the original film's release.
There was a second edition in the 1990s, which had a Revised edition after that, and today this version of the game endures as a PDF file.
Why investigate a game whose very origins in cinema, with all that entails, means that West End's products embraced all the bad Conventional Play practices?
Why? Because, believe it or not, there is more than enough information and mechanics to run a campaign properly.
Are there legacy issues? You better believe it. West End's version of the game invented the Expanded Universe that the Devil Mouse (and Kulty Kathy) discarded when they bought it from George. For some, this is a benefit; for others, a detriment.
The biggest issue is the Canon Event Problem. Fortunately, using the old EU means that you can safely discard everything the Devil Mouse originated. Unfortunately, this also means that you're having to work around George's own not-so-great ideas that he put into film or television. Furthermore, the big draw for this game depends upon adhering to Canon Events- however stupid they can be. If you're not already good at working with or around these things, you're going to have a bad time.
That said, I think those bold enough to give this a proper investigation will find that you can proper play out of it.
Again, the questions:
- Does the game work when played Rules As-Written?
- Does the game work best when using 1:1 Timekeeping?
- Does having players assume the roles of Faction Leaders improve campaign play?
- Does having periodic Braunstein sessions keep the campaign fresh without resorting to publisher diktat via supplements?
- Does an affirmative response to the above questions still maintain the promised Star Wars experience?
I think you may need more than just the file provided (or a used rulebook) to get the full experience--this is a game that needs a few key supplements to achieve full power, so to speak--but you'll be surprised at how well it can play. You might even be able to do this with WOTC's editions of the game, believe it or not.
As for working around Canon Events, that's a topic for The Clubhouse. Subscribe now to ensure it's in your Inbox this weekend.
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1e Star Wars is readily available used. There was also a 30th anniversary reprint of the 1e core and sourcebook that are still relatively available.
ReplyDeleteThere was also the Star Warriors space combat game that WEG put out for 1e. Which allows you to plug your PC straight into the more complex wargame starfighter combat.
They only did the space combat wargame, but I'd imagine that savvy people could extrapolate the Star Warriors rules to land based combat with AT-AT's, Troops, etc...