Star Wars d20 is dead

[mhacdebhandia]

Many d6 gamers didn't welcome the new game under the new rules system, though a few have crossed over.

Your fascination with the settings and systems you encountered when you first started playing betrays you. First Kara-Tur, and now d6 Star Wars.

Do you honestly believe that the d6 Star Wars fanbase is even remotely large enough to make or break the d20 version of the game?

 

[Ranger REG]

Believe me, WotC knows. The brand managers are actually very much in touch with what is going on in the community, and they do their best to make the fans happy in whatever ways that they are able.

Hmm. It's that "whatever ways" that concerns me. WotC can throw little quick-fixes all they like, the "only way" WE want is new books, no minis attached or mentioned. PERIOD.

Do they actually know that and sitting on their ass or "whatever ways" they do with this information from the community?

 

[Ranger REG]

Your fascination with the settings and systems you encountered when you first started playing betrays you. First Kara-Tur, and now d6 Star Wars.

Do you honestly believe that the d6 Star Wars fanbase is even remotely large enough to make or break the d20 version of the game?

Well, I would be arrogant so say that the d6 community is wasting their time now that a true Star Wars have finally arrived.

But honestly, I don't know. If the d20 version isn't what WotC projected to be raking in sales and profit to continue to make 4 RPG products a year, minimally, then what? I mean, have they attracted enough RPG-only customers?

What I truly want to know is, will there be a new RPG-only SW-branded product in six months? Nine months? A year from August 18?

Am I too uncommon a player from this gaming commmunity to like Kara-Tur or dislike d6? Meh. I've always been on the outside, but I always expect this from the mainstream "in" crowd, not from gaming geeks.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Am I too uncommon a player from this gaming commmunity to like Kara-Tur or dislike d6? Meh. I've always been on the outside, but I always expect this from the mainstream "in" crowd, not from gaming geeks.

I like Kara-Tur AND d6 Star Wars...though I think d20 Star Wars is lightyears ahead of the d6 version. But really, the more time that passes, the more I firmly believe this has less to do with money and more to do with some kind of licensing issue.

 

[Kanegrundar]

At this point, I wouldn't mind seeing books related to both the RPG and minis lines. I use both, but even for those that don't they still get a little something.

Kane

 

[Staffan]

Do you honestly believe that the d6 Star Wars fanbase is even remotely large enough to make or break the d20 version of the game?

Well, that WOTC survey they did in 1999 showed that 21% of RPG gamers in the US (which means half a million gamers) played Star Wars at least monthly. That made it the third largest of the games included on the list (after AD&D and Vampire, and before Palladium and Shadowrun). Sure, they aren't D&D numbers, but they're nothing to sneeze at.

And I wonder if Star Wars d20 has a third of D&D's players, the way Star Wars d6 had a third of AD&D's players (well, almost - 21% vs 66%).

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I would suggest that the WEG Star Wars RPG player fanbase has been seriously eroded over the last six years by both D&D itself and the d20 market in general, including d20 Star Wars. I would further suggest that WEG Star Wars players do not now constitute a significant percentage of either gamers or even Star Wars gamers.

 

[Captain Tagon]

What's funny is that of the 10-12 people I know that play or played RPGS, all of them have played the WEG Star Wars game. Only two have played any form of DnD. Just my little anecdotal evidence.

And I still vastly prefer d6 Star Wars to d20 Star Wars.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Am I too uncommon a player from this gaming commmunity to like Kara-Tur or dislike d6? Meh. I've always been on the outside, but I always expect this from the mainstream "in" crowd, not from gaming geeks.

I'm just tired of seeing gaming geeks pursuing the same old self-interested fallacies. There is no huge market for Kara-Tur/Al-Qadim/Planescape/Maztica/Spelljammer/Mystara material out there, WEG Star Wars isn't a significantly popular game even if it's better than d20 Star Wars, Wizards doesn't spend too much time on Magic: the Gathering and too little time on D&D, Tolkien isn't the first and last stop for D&D inspiration and never has been, low-magic supplements won't sell D&D better, rules-light doesn't mean a better game, Rokugan didn't kill your puppy just by being involved in a business decision revolving around the content of Oriental Adventures, Greyhawk fans aren't justified in clamouring for a rerelease of their favourite setting and it's not being destroyed by the printing of un-Greyhawk materials for core D&D, and fifty pages of combat rules illustrated with photos of miniatures doesn't mean you have to use miniatures to play and enjoy D&D.

It's not just you, REG (since I doubt you agree with everything I wrote above, anyway). It's every gamer who won't stop to consider the context in which their hopes exist. It's every gamer who says that the company "owes" them something even if that means taking a hit to their revenue. It's every gamer who refuses to believe that they could be in a massive minority in liking something and seems to believe the company who owns the material they like is "keeping them down" by not catering to that minority. It's every gamer who refuses to accept that RPG companies need to make products that will sell and that sometimes - maybe even most of the time - the people who can design those products will be designing products they don't like.

It goes for anything. d20 Star Wars' recent lack of support is a shame, not a freaking crime against its fans. There are too many gamers who need to learn to make that distinction, and to quit being so damn bitter.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

What's funny is that of the 10-12 people I know that play or played RPGS, all of them have played the WEG Star Wars game. Only two have played any form of DnD. Just my little anecdotal evidence.

I think it varies with age and experience in the hobby. I base my suggestions mostly on the observable fact that the number of people playing an out-of-print and unsupported game declines sharply over time. I'm also prepared to suggest that WEG Star Wars and d20 Star Wars are different enough that the number of people who switched from WEG to d20 will be that small minority of gamers who want to play an official Star Wars RPG who could tolerate the change for the sake of remaining current.

From my own equally-useless anecdotal evidence, people who like WEG Star Wars really liked it, and many more of them either kept playing WEG, or quit playing Star Wars when d20 Star Wars became the only official game, with very few people making the switch. Then there are the people who might have bought WEG supplements for the same reason they buy d20 supplements - because they're mining them for setting information and using a different system for the game itself.