Star Wars RPG--What Happened?

[Lizard]

Greetings!

Well, so far, so good. It seems to be a consensus that the Star Wars D20 was poorly designed, and this fact, combined with the poor performance of Episode I,

Uhm...Phantom Menace cost about 120 million to make and market. It made over 400 million in domestic sales. That is NOT poor performance. That is, in fact, killer performance. Astounding performance. George Lucas can light his cigars with thousand-dollar bills performance. (LOTR will barely break 200 million domestic, by comparison, and it's considered a very sucessful movie.)

Marketing spin-offs and tie-ins for TPM did considerably worse than expected, mostly, I think, because the expectations were ridiculous. But the movie itself was an unqualified, over-the-top financial success.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

(LOTR will barely break 200 million domestic, by comparison, and it's considered a very sucessful movie.)

As of March 3, 291 million domestic. So it will probably barely break 300 domestic, by the time it is done.

 

[CWD]

Uhm...Phantom Menace cost about 120 million to make and market. It made over 400 million in domestic sales. That is NOT poor performance. That is, in fact, killer performance. Astounding performance. George Lucas can light his cigars with thousand-dollar bills performance. (LOTR will barely break 200 million domestic, by comparison, and it's considered a very sucessful movie.)

Um... I hate to nit-pick, but LOTR has already made over 290 million dollars domestic - more than Empire Strikes Back.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

I don't want AoO in star wars I don't think they fit the feel. But I hated the you can't do things that in d&d would of porvoked an AoO rules they had in star wars more than I would of hated AoO in star wars. But, it isn't a one or the other situation. You could have a rule without AoO, and still let people shoot other people who are only 2 meters or less away. If I run star wars 2nd ed, I'll remove AoO just like I would of let people shoot each other at under 2 meters in 1st edition.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I really had no idea Star Wars d20 was doing poorly. Suspending the publication of Star Wars Gamer seems a pretty good indication of that.

I don't think the game was poorly designed - I just think it suffered from being rushed out. Had it gone through a few more months - or even a year - of development and playtesting, all the bugs would've been worked out of it. So, while it's not the design of the game, exactly, it still had plenty of problems.

As it is, the books are actually pretty good. The Dark Side sourcebook is a great read, and gives a lot of ideas for villains that would work in most science fiction games, especially those that are more comic-bookish in feel. And it looks great.

Star Wars Gamer is/was a great magazine. In some ways, I looked forward to reading it more than Dragon. It seems/seemed very much like Dragon back years ago, covering all manner of games. Had it covered stuff other than Star Wars (but hey, look at the title), it would've been the best science fiction game magazine I'd ever seen. I hope it doesn't disappear for good.

 

[Henry@home]

You know, that's the second time today I've seen that. Yet, I hold in my hands a copy of Star Wars Gamer #9, and the Editor (Dave Gross) seems to show no sign that SWG #10 will not come out. I thought #8 was supposed to be the last one.

Where was this info, and how old is it? I am curious.

P.S. For the record, I LOVE the NJO source book. It has given me so many devious things to scare the heck out of my players with!

A whole 5-member squad about peed it's pants while fighting a Voxyn, because it was the first Ability damaging creature they had ever seen.

 

[Lizard]

As of March 3, 291 million domestic. So it will probably barely break 300 domestic, by the time it is done.

Blink. Hm. I must have misread something somewhere. My apologies. (A quick check at Boxofficemojo.com confirms what you said)

I was wrong. Sorry about that.

 

[Lizard]

Um... I hate to nit-pick, but LOTR has already made over 290 million dollars domestic - more than Empire Strikes Back.

It's not nitpicking when you correct a serious error of fact, which is what I made. I was waaaay off. This makes LOTR a lot more succesful than I'd thought; the whole trilogy reputedly cost 170 million to make, meaning, the next two (and video/DVD sales, licensing tie-ins, etc) are pure profit.

And I'm on record as saying it was going to flop. Fantasy has never done well in American cinema, and I figured it was going to tank, big-time.

Open mouth, insert foot.

 

[Sauron]

And I'm on record as saying it was going to flop. Fantasy has never done well in American cinema, and I figured it was going to tank, big-time.

Open mouth, insert foot.

Heh. Yeah, but imagine how I feel?

Sheesh--I was such an idiot!

 

[Green Knight]

EDIT: Damn, no tables. Bleh.

Well, Lord of the Rings is currently #7 on the Top Ten. Can't wait til they start airing it with a preview for Twin Towers. When they do that, though, they gotta accompany it with an advertising blitz. With any luck, it'll move up a couple more spots before it's done. At least to #6 (bumping down Star Wars) if not #5 or #4.