No more WotC Star Wars - announcement

[Donovan Morningfire]

Well, this certainly sucks

But, at least I can say I got the chance to officially contribute to perhaps the finest Star Wars RPG going, to say nothing of getting to work with some really brilliant guys, such as Rodney, Patrick, and Sterling Hershey. So thanks to Rodney for giving me a chance.

On the flip/upside, for those that were concerned about too much in the way of talents, feats, prestige classes, etc, at least after Unknown Regions we now have a finite number of such, so there's less of a concern about "what is coming in a future release that would be really awesome for my character?" since in a few more months we'll pretty much have all the options available for SWSE. And since the system really doesn't need much tweaking (beyond that which any GM does), I'd say we're in good shape to keep playing SWSE for the foreseeable future.

As far as SWSE fan support, I don't see the devoted folks over at the d20radio forums packing up shop anytime soon, and the Order 66 podcast will likely keep going so long as GM Chris is drawing breath.

 

[Votan]

Well, that's pretty much the end of me giving money to WoTC. I'll be picking up these last few books for a truly awesome system, and that'll be that. Shame really. Saga rocked.

True, but there is a lot of source material and you do reach a point where additional books add more friction to the system than help. Plus, Star Wars is likely to have many fluff resources in the future (to go with the broad range of WotC crunch).

 

[Random Axe]

I'm actually relieved to hear this. I was never happy with Wizards' treatment of it, and in fact my group has been gaming exclusively in WEG's d6 system when we do SW. If the SW-rpg is to continue, who's to say it shouldn't take a new life in an entirely new rules system?

 

[Steel_Wind]

How bloody ironic.

I actually, just this week began working on my brand new Star Wars: Saga Edition campaign. I actually bought a few SW:SE books two days ago -- for the first time.

Now, I find out that the game system I am about to invest in is going the way of the dodo.

But is it that big a deal? Not really. The Saga books are well done and aren't going away anytime soon. WotC never backed up SW:SE with adventures (exception: DoD, released online). The loss of new miniatures, however, is a bummer. I am now going to have to buy up what's out there at a faster rate than I imagined was required.

There is more than enough rules and fluff in the books released to date to support my campaign. And kudos to the D20 radio crowd and Order 66. They've provided better hype and support than WotC has, to be honest. Quality podcast too. Highly recommended.

As for the future: there will be a new license at some point. If I was Lucasarts, I'd wait until after the MMO is out and build up a following - and then play off of that. That is, assuming of course, that the live action TV series doesn't change all of that interest in Star Wars FAST.

Lucasarts supposedly has the live action Star Wars TV series coming out sometime in the next two years. Problem is, this has been delayed already. They announced a long time that the TV series is to be set during the Dark Times and early Rebellion era. No KotoR/Tales of the Jedi for George Lucas.

But that isn't necessarily so. It may prove to be what the series does - and then again, it may not. Hell, the TV series may not happen at all. We simply don't know until it's actually out there. Lucas has been talking about this tv series for so long, I'm beginning to doubt it will happen in the manner he has been saying it will, or at all. Let's face it - if he was DAMNED serious about it - it would have happened by now.

Anyways, I hope this causes a bunch of books that I need to become available used -- for cheap

I also would like to see a Star Wars RPG game licensed, eventually, by a company that will make it their #1 game and their #1 priority. Let's face it - WotC has never treated Star Wars in that fashion -- and never would have.

Above all - the new game needs published adventures. I dont really understand why they were not created and sold for Star Wars, other than the fact the damn game didn't seem to sell that well at all. It's not as if there was something ELSE for GMs to use or re-purpose. Apart from the one adventure WotC did create (and some older D6 based adventures from West End), there simple was not much print material out there to use. At all.

 

[Rechan]

Poor Rodney.

 

[pukunui]

To be honest, Saga is pretty universal as is. One of my friends has been adapting it into a Mass Effect style game - remove the Jedi class, change Force to Biotics, remove a couple force powers like the mind control ones. He's having a blast so far, and says the actual number of changes he needs to make is relatively small.

Yeah, there are a number of other conversions out there. I was working on converting it to fantasy for a while, but I've had to put that aside.

As for Force powers, the big issue was Skill Focus and Move Object. If you restrict Skill Focus: UTF until level 6-ish and use the optional rules for Move Object that were in Jedi Academy Training Manual, it patches things up rather nicely.

Move Object's not that big of an issue really. And there are plenty of ways to deal with Skill Focus. My favorite is to simply restrict it to character level only (like Force Training). Yes, someone can still get it at low level, but it'll come at the cost of a few Force powers.

Don't get me wrong - SWSE had it's flaws. But overall, I loved it.

Saga rocked.

Word.

How about taking the great things about Saga Edition but taking it to the next step in a universal, generic rules set so you can play it with pretty much any genre you want?

Gary Sarli, one of the original Saga developers, is working on doing just that with his e20: system evolved system.

 

[Treebore]

I seriously doubt anyone but WOTC could afford the licensing fees. So I seriously doubt there will be another RPG for Star Wars, that is licensed anyways.

Still, those of us lucky enough to have all of the books can definitely play using SAGA for the rest of our lives, or use the old D6 system, or use Traveller, and with the attraction SW has we shouldn't have a very hard time talking people into playing it, despite being out of print.

 

[Treebore]

BTW, how does one go about getting all of these awesome fan created items being mentioned? Links?

I haven't been to the WOTC boards in at least a year, so...

 

[Corinth]

Pay attention to Gamma World. If that does well, there will be more non-traditional genre adaptations to D&D4e. Once demand reaches a critical mass, there will be a new license for doing the same for Star Wars that's been done for Gamma World. Savvy treatment of the matter, as I see it, by WOTC's leadership.

 

[pukunui]

BTW, how does one go about getting all of these awesome fan created items being mentioned? Links?

I haven't been to the WOTC boards in at least a year, so...

Reference tools
Saga Index & Summaries
OmegaDex

Character sheets
SagaSheet
SagaForge sheet