Fantasy Flight Games Discontinuing RPGs?

Back in January, it emerged that FFG was laying off a lot of staff, including RPG staff. Now, GM Chris over at d20 Radio is reporting that the company is discontinuing all RPG development, including Star Wars, Legend of the Five Rings, and its relatively newer Genesys universal system.

He says that all currently announced products will be produced, but in the long-term the RPG production is ending. There's some speculation regarding sales of companies to each other (FFG's owner is Asmodee, which is owned by PAI Partners who bought it from Eurazeo), but it's only conjecture. More info at the link below!

Fantasy Flight Games Long Term Plan will Discontinue RPG Development - d20 Radio

This article is a follow-up to a prior article published on January 8, 2020. We at d20Radio are sad to announce that we have independently confirmed [...]

www.d20radio.com

FFG's Katrina Ostrander appears to have confirmed the news:


Back in January, FFG laid off over 14 staff, and shut down Fantasy Flight Interactive. Reports were that the tabletop RPG department had been "shuttered" -- reduced to a couple of full timers. It sounds now like the cut is more severe even than that.

 

[billd91]

So... Spelljammers??

No, it definitely felt Star Warsish in a way that SpellJammer never did. It made use of the d20 chassis but had a number of variations from the D&D standards. For one, it made use of the Vitality point/Wound point differential and Jedi spent vitality to power many of their Force powers (which were handled like skills). But in general, it was class-based so Jedi Guardian, Jedi Counselor, Scoundrel, Soldier, Noble, etc...

 

[ddaley]

Star Wars 5e

sw5e.com

I am definitely bookmarking that... that looks great. Are there any modules available for it? I am not a big Star Wars fan, but my kids are. Wasn't crazy about the FFG Star Wars system.

 

[Sunsword]

I am definitely bookmarking that... that looks great. Are there any modules available for it? I am not a big Star Wars fan, but my kids are. Wasn't crazy about the FFG Star Wars system.

I don't think so.

 

[Sunsword]

So... Spelljammers??

I wish. There just wasn't a lot of innovation, unlike say Star Wars Saga Edition. It wasn't a very ambitious adaptation and maybe that was what the client wanted.

In fact, I wonder if having had a past experience with Star Wars, would that make Paizo more or less likely to pursue the license?

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

Good. Release your anger.

Let the anger flow through us and always stop using force lightning when it's reflected back at you.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Also -- wow do people around here HATE Star Wars.

I don't hate Star Wars. I really like SW. I have been rather disappointed by the main series, though. The stories Lucas (via the prequel trilogy) and Disney (via the sequel trilogy) have chosen to tell aren't very interesting or aren't told particularly well, in my opinion. I really like the Star Wars universe, but the movies have problems with writing and direction. But, I mean, I feel the same way about a lot of franchises. I only like the first two Predator movies. Same with Alien. I only like the first two Rocky movies, and find the rest are too derivative. I liked LotR but thought that The Hobbit movies were pretty bad in spite of good casting. Very, very few movie series hold up. It's a bit like the Peter Principle: a new movie is produced until one loses too much money.

The problem I have with SW as an RPG is that the thing that makes SW really compelling -- Jedi -- is both difficult to work into a credible narrative because of the in-universe political situations, and difficult to balance between characters due to the utility of the Force (Sense, Alter, and Control are universal and highly potent). So you feel like you have to make Jedi rare and powerful... but then not everyone can be a Jedi or you spoil the tone of the game.

In the end, I'd rather play something like Savage Worlds The Last Parsec for my SW fix. Then I don't feel so bad when the magical space wizard-knights with laser swords aren't significantly more useful in every situation than the droid or the smuggler pilot, and you don't have to nerf the wizard-knight or their sword at all from the fiction's continuity.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

WotC has plans for its own sci-fi franchise, d20 Future, Gamma World and maybe some Hasbro toys. This "d20 Future" will arrive after Spelljammer because this is being planned as an intermediate step.

WotC is the best bidder for the licence, but it is too soon for its plans for a d20 sci-fi. And SW is a franchise too expensive for the rest of publishing houses. Maybe Disney could allow licences for TTRPG of other "useless" and forgotten franchises (and expendables, then easier to test some changes).

If Paizo had got the licence then the projects for Starfinder would be slower or even stopped. No, they would rather to have got total creative freedom.

* I have tought about WotC buying L5R to create a mash-up and adding more things, but I think WotC would rather to start from zero creating a new world as Kara-Tur.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

Okay WotC, get it back and do a Saga Second Edition.

 

[Bacon Bits]

WotC has plans for its own sci-fi franchise, d20 Future, Gamma World and maybe some Hasbro toys. This "d20 Future" will arrive after Spelljammer because this is being planned as an intermediate step.

WotC is the best bidder for the licence, but it is too soon for its plans for a d20 sci-fi.

Nah, I think a d20 or D&D style system with leveling and linear increasing hit points is exactly the wrong kind of game system for something set in a sci-fi or even modern setting. The last thing I want is a setting with guns or higher tech is a system where you gain levels that grant you extra health reserve (no matter what you call it) and that health reserve makes you so hard to kill that you're not afraid of taking a shotgun to the face or a heavy blaster to the chest.

I can suspend disbelief that it works with melee weapons or simple ranged weapons and even magical blasts, especially when it's become an established trope. However, there's just no believable narrative to a system where protagonists are basically bulletproof even when they're stark naked.

I don't want a Star Wars RPG to ever feel like D&D in Space, even if it's D&D in Space with Space Wizards. I also don't want a Call of Cthulu RPG to feel like D&D in Arkham, MA. I don't think D&D's class system, skill system, or advancement system is a useful fit for either of those two types of games. I think it's a disservice to the tone of both games.

 

[Weiley31]

So... Spelljammers??

With Ewoks.