[Star Wars d20] Let's see some published campaigns!

[Duo Maxwell]

[Reposted from rpg.net] After reading about all the speculation of a new rulebook being released next year, what I'd really like to see for Star Wars d20 is a published campaign. West End Games had the Darkstryder Campaign boxed set (which I thought was well done), so how about we see the writers at WotC come up with an awesome campaign to go with the new rulebook, kind of like Dungeon Magazine's well-praised Adventure Path series?

To makes things interesting, they could simulataneously release era-specific campaigns to appeal to fans who loved the KOTOR/Tales of the Jedi, Rise of the Empire, Rebellion, and post-Empire eras.

I'm sure many people would love to see something like this, since it would save GMs a lot of time from having to create statblocks for the main villains and NPCs. They could also come out with poster-sized maps of starships (just like in the Darkstryder boxed set). The message boards could be filled with stories of how each GMs group handled each adventure module, just like how Paizo's boards are piled with stories about a DM's run through each chapter in the Shackled City and Age of Worms Adventure Paths. Plus, Wotc would have another incentive to make miniatures specific to this campaign

So, what do you guys think? Anyone at WotC reading this, by any chance?

 

[Crothian]

Well, the guys that did the new Star Wars Saga hang out here and I'd love to see them come up with a campaign for it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think the chance of four simultaneous Star Wars Adventure Paths being released is essentially zero. Now, I could see them putting out a single megamodule that could be set in any era (with modifications).

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

As much as the fanbase might like to see campaign modules, the big problem for WotC is that historically such things have been poor sellers. And with Star Wars products requiring a payment to LucasFilm, that makes such things even less profitable for WotC.

Reason WEG was able to churn them out was at the time, LucasFilm wasn't asking for as much money since Star Wars wasn't as hot of a property as it is now, and from what I recall, WEG didn't have to go through quite as stringent an approval process as WotC does these days.

Long story short: They'd be great to see, but don't hold your breath. Especially for a licensed product that is already on the rocks (due to no new product in over two years).

 

[DethStryke]

Has anyone heard about the possibility of the reason that they are now releasing something in 2007 is that the current contract is/has expired and they were able to negotiate a more realistic one that is more feisable from a RPG product standpoint?

Major slip-ups like no support for RPG-specific computer programs (character generators, etc.) and not double-siding the SW Mini cards with RPG stats like the D&D minis were startling. I don't understand how Lucas' camp expects to have the brand make the money it could for them through RPG-related products when they keep smothering the new-born with a pillow every time it tries to take a breath.

It's sad. At the very least, they should try to write up an additional contract to allow the guy who did the Okina-rdae Technology generators to continue making it and simply put a few dollars behind him, then sell the generator for $20 bucks or something. I would totally buy an updated version of those generators for twenty dollars! Heck, I'd even spend thirty for the whole suite (character, NPC, Starship, Planet, Droid, etc.).

 

[kenobi65]

As Donovan notes, adventure modules just don't sell as well as regular game books:
- In most cases, only one person in a game group (i.e., the GM) would buy it
- For every DM who loves prewritten adventures, there seems to be at least one who loathes them, and will never buy them.

So, when the game itself seems to suffer from less-than-desired sales, published adventures likely wind up very low on the list of "things to publish".

Has anyone heard about the possibility of the reason that they are now releasing something in 2007 is that the current contract is/has expired and they were able to negotiate a more realistic one that is more feisable from a RPG product standpoint?

I don't remember the exact details, but my understanding was the contract was pretty lengthy...far longer than the 6 or so years that have passed so far.

 

[Pinotage]

One can imagine that given the speculation regarding the TV series is between Episodes III and IV, that a 'campaign' in that era might not go down too badly.

Pinotage

 

[wingsandsword]

Why bother with pre-published Star Wars campaigns?

It's not D&D where every encounter is balanced out precisely by EL and every orc in every dungeon room has to have detailed treaure statted out with a full write up of every trap. I've found that Star Wars can be much more improvised than D&D with adventures, I could never just "wing it" with D&D, but typically when I run Star Wars I have a few sentences worth of story outline for the adventure, my stack of stock NPC's, a few recurring NPC's, and my knowledge of the setting, and run just fine.

With a D&D adventure, the typical dungeon crawl can be ported to most campaign settings with little effort. Star Wars adventures tend to have a lot of era-specific elements to them, so it is far harder to create one that a large number of the player base will want.

As for the length of the contract, I remember reading it was at least until 2010, so I doubt this was a renegotiation of the contract, as much as WotC realizing they can't continuously turn out Star Wars minis releases, since there are only so many characters in Star Wars (unlike D&D, where they can make up new characters pretty much at will), and splitting their efforts between a minis game and the RPG, and trying to build synergy between the two.

 

[DethStryke]

If the terms or hurdles to the contract with Lucasfilm are still present, I fail to see how releasing another edition of the system will make anything work or sell better than it did/has.

The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results. I hope that this is not applicable to the (revised revision edition?) new book.

Of course, if LucasArt's track record in video games is any indication, they will gladly throw common sense and good design straight out of the window in order to make a few dollars with anything they can stamp out with the "Star Wars" name.

 

[Duo Maxwell]

Why bother with pre-published Star Wars campaigns?

It's not D&D where every encounter is balanced out precisely by EL and every orc in every dungeon room has to have detailed treaure statted out with a full write up of every trap. I've found that Star Wars can be much more improvised than D&D with adventures, I could never just "wing it" with D&D, but typically when I run Star Wars I have a few sentences worth of story outline for the adventure, my stack of stock NPC's, a few recurring NPC's, and my knowledge of the setting, and run just fine.

With a D&D adventure, the typical dungeon crawl can be ported to most campaign settings with little effort. Star Wars adventures tend to have a lot of era-specific elements to them, so it is far harder to create one that a large number of the player base will want.

One of the things I loved about the Darkstryder campaign boxed set from West End Games was that the campaign was outlined so that the GM could tailor it for his/her style of play . As a matter of fact, the adventures written for Darkstryder allowed a lot of freedom on the GMs part, with stats for the crew and main villains.

What I'd like to see from WotC is not a D&D-style (i.e. dungeon-crawl) Star Wars adventure, but support for an epic story-arc that GMs on these forums can end up sharing about how each of their groups handled a particular adventure (much like how we discuss our successes and failures in the Shackled City and Age of Worms Adventure Paths).

While I've butchered a lot of ideas from WEGs old sourcebooks, I'm kind of hoping to see adventures that would take place in the prequel trilogy, or even the upcoming TV series, if it is still to be set between Episodes III and IV.