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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5303725" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 199: November 1993part 4/8Role-playing reviews: Star Wars time again. The long-term success of this franchise really is quite impressive, when you look at it. A big part of this has to do with creator ownership. By controlling the licencing directly, instead of having to go through layers of studio interference, George managed to get a greater quantity and quality of spin-off stuff than most similar properties. (LotR has always been hampered by the licensing split between the sillmarilion stuff and the main 4 books, Titanic, Terminator, Indiana Jones, Aliens, and the like try gamely but resist being expanded into an entire universe because they're a bit too focussed on one thing. Harry Potter and Twilight could be worldified, but their creators seem to want to avoid being pigeonholed. Avatar has potential, but It's still too soon to see if it capitalises on it and becomes a decade-spanning franchise. ) Part of this is the RPG, which has managed a steady flow of supplements for years now. Last given a big feature in the magazine in issue 155, it's time to take a good look at what it's come up with again. Star wars second edition is one of those cases where there are lots of incremental improvements over the first one. And a bit of bloat too, but not so much as to spoil the fun. A little knowledge of the EU may come in handy as the RPG has fed that in recent years, and in turn draws upon it. But it's still a fun setting, and a fun system that doesn't do too badly emulating it. The association between gaming and Star Wars can continue profitably for quite some time longer. Heir to the empire, Dark force rising & Dark empire sourcebooks show just what a huge impact Timothy Zahn had turning Star Wars from a trio of riproaring movies into a remotely credible setting. There's a vast amount of information that can be converted, statistics of people, new worlds, expansion on the nature of the force. This does include some stuff that isn't very useful for gaming, and a certain degree of padding, but what do you expect. At least we have a decent idea now what happened after return of the jedi. The politics of contraband is a collection of smuggling based adventures. Unfocussed and full of typos, Rick doesn't enjoy this at all. Develop your ideas better. Twin stars of kira does rather better. Essentially a series of adventures bound together by an interstellar road trip, it's still a mixed bag, but there's more hits than misses. Supernova sets things in a solar system about to go nova. This presents many problems that can't be solved by combat, including some tough ethical questions. Let's face it, there's no way you're saving everyone this time around. One for somewhat more experienced and mature players. On top of that, there's microreviews for all the other 2e products released so far. Villains, locations, and a GM's screen. As before, it's a mixed bag really, but you should be able to get a pretty decent campaign out of this lot. West end games are coming out of this deal quite profitably.</blockquote>

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