Why Doesn't Star Wars Hold More Mind Share in the RPG Market?

[jasper]

Well. The lore changes with each movie, book, cartoon, and meme. Light sabers use to be vibrating blades with a light as safety feature. Now the light saber can cut thru blast doors. Wait a minute I forgot the comic books. Good example. the Second movie where Lefty is nearly blown out the window, is having trouble blocking the debris. LORE CHANGE FORCE PUSH. Second movie where Lefty is nearly blown out the window is having trouble blocking the force pushed items.
So, One you have to have a group which agree to a base lore. Two you can't come near the real heroes of the story. Three if you break two, you can't change the real heroes of the story. Four, the system kept changing or was unbalanced depending on the system.

 

[macd21]

Well. The lore changes with each movie, book, cartoon, and meme. Light sabers use to be vibrating blades with a light as safety feature. Now the light saber can cut thru blast doors. Wait a minute I forgot the comic books. Good example. the Second movie where Lefty is nearly blown out the window, is having trouble blocking the debris. LORE CHANGE FORCE PUSH. Second movie where Lefty is nearly blown out the window is having trouble blocking the force pushed items.
So, One you have to have a group which agree to a base lore. Two you can't come near the real heroes of the story. Three if you break two, you can't change the real heroes of the story. Four, the system kept changing or was unbalanced depending on the system.

Eh. I don’t think any of that matters. DnD lore has changed over time, and it never hurt it. And while yes, SW lore has changed, I think most people have a fairly good grasp of the most important stuff (and a few people disagreeing over it wouldn’t stop them from playing).

The whole ‘real heroes of the story’ thing doesn’t seem to have hurt sales, and the setting is so huge that I don’t think it bothers people.

And yes, the system has changed with each edition, but so did DnD’s, and they’re doing fine.

 

[Bravesteel25]

What is mind share? never mind a marketing term.

Definition of MINDSHARE

a controlling or predominant hold of one's attention that is gained especially by marketing ploys… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

Sorry, I went to school for marketing even though I work in IT now.

In this sense, I just mean, for all that Star Wars tends to be right behind D&D most of the time, it doesn't seem to be talked about much (except in RPG communities specific to it), have much shelf presence at FLGSs, or even played much.

 

[macd21]

Sorry, I went to school for marketing even though I work in IT now.

In this sense, I just mean, for all that Star Wars tends to be right behind D&D most of the time, it doesn't seem to be talked about much (except in RPG communities specific to it), have much shelf presence at FLGSs, or even played much.

Well part of that’s just edition fatigue. The current game came out 8 years ago, it’s best years are behind it. All the most important supplements have long been released. The initial fan enthusiasm has waned, as people finished their initial (and possibly second or third!) campaigns and then moved on.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Because WEG lost the license (and went bankrupt due to their parent company...a shoe import company, believe it or not!...).

I'm 100% serious.

WEG's "Star Wars" was sooo dang good that even Lucasfilm used it's RPG books/supplements as OFFICIAL CANNON! In fact, Lucasfilm sent Timothy Zhan a box of WEG SW stuff and was told "use the background and other stuff in these for your new novel series".

The WEG SW setting and system was perfect for what it was portraying; fast action space fantasy opera. INSHO, it is, to this day, THE best Star Wars setting/system, hands down.

Then WotC got the license, and...well... yeah.

If WEG was resurrected and all their old SW stuff brought back into play, and new stuff written....I could see SW making a HUGE comeback in the RPG community. But that will never happen.

I'll second this. WEG were lucky with being in the right place at the right time with the right stuff. They had the right system mechanics for the game they actually produced, they had the advantage of making up stuff (most of which was good/great) for the setting BEFORE the fans all got stupid obsessive about the Holy Canon (I firmly assert that fans choke creativity for any IP with excessive canon worship), and as more SW films and other media came out it was generally just adding to whatever canon existed and not contradicting it.

Never played any of the interim SW RPG editions, but gave FFG's a try and was very happy and satisfied.
...but I think the FFG mechanics are actually probably better suited for a Star Trek RPG than Star Wars, canon fanaticism among fans (outside of the rpg) doesn't help anyone needing to create NEW content for an RPG, and at the moment (unless I'm forgetting something) there is no SW RPG actively in print and doesn't seem likely to me that there will be any time soon.

 

[aramis erak]

... the SETTING has interested me for some time, especially elements like the Grey Jedi.

Which said grey jedi have been declared impossible in setting by the last several canon-keepers, and by Lucas, and by Disney. They're simple fanwankery.

I suspect that is part of why they're mechanically impossible in F&D. (and in WEG, too.)

 

[aramis erak]

...but I think the FFG mechanics are actually probably better suited for a Star Trek RPG than Star Wars, canon fanaticism among fans (outside of the rpg) doesn't help anyone needing to create NEW content for an RPG, and at the moment (unless I'm forgetting something) there is no SW RPG actively in print and doesn't seem likely to me that there will be any time soon.

FFG Star Wars is still in distribution, and technically still in print. The license still has a few years to go, and the only question is if the Asmodee re-organization results in termination of the license.
Further, the Genesys game is the same mechanics, save for the trait tables. (Traits work the same, just not the method of access.)
As for a Genesys Trek? I'd prefer FFG to Modiphius, but STA isn't bad as long as one stays aware of the issues that unrestricted threat generation can cause.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Different editions changing the game system. This is bad if you want to sell sourcebooks about crunch. And in the internet age if you want lore you haven't to pay but only to read the fandom wiki. If you want crunch is better to use from sci-fi RPGs what aren't licenced franchises but their own IPs.

SW suffers the "skywalker effect" in the eyes of lots, nothing changes until the main characters appear. It's as playing historical game where you know the PCs can't alter the History. Something like this happens in Dragonlance where it's harder to create epic stories without the heroes of the Dragonlance, possible but not so easy as other lines.

 

[Weiley31]

I'm not gonna lie: I grew up with the Legends and Dark Horse comics' Star Wars lore. To the point that it's hard for me to accept the Disney reboot.

Now some of the Disney reboot EU, like the Marvel's Vader Quest, were interesting. Especially since Vader's "Bioware RPG party" was basically the Dark side version of Luke and his posse. Stuff like that, I got no probs "mixing" in with the Legends EU.

But if I ever ran FFG's Star Wars RPG, then yeah it's Legends all the way. It gave us too many awesome things, like the Tie Defender, Thrawn, telling the actual Clone Wars saga, Knights of The Old Republic, etc, etc.

 

[Zardnaar]

I'm not gonna lie: I grew up with the Legends and Dark Horse comics' Star Wars lore. To the point that it's hard for me to accept the Disney reboot.

Now some of the Disney reboot EU, like the Marvel's Vader Quest, were interesting. Especially since Vader's "Bioware RPG party" was basically the Dark side version of Luke and his posse. Stuff like that, I got no probs "mixing" in with the Legends EU.

But if I ever ran FFG's Star Wars RPG, then yeah it's Legends all the way. It gave us too many awesome things, like the Tie Defender, Thrawn, telling the actual Clone Wars saga, Knights of The Old Republic, etc, etc.

Same I based my last campaign on the TIE fighter campaigns and they got to play Imperial.

My next game if I use Empire or some form of imperial Remnant is a sane imperial officer maybe not an outright genius like Thrawn but he wants to rally the Imperials around using things like strike Cruisers and smaller ships with things like shield equipped TIE interceptirs and X1s that can be built en masse for a decent cost vs something like the TIE Defender.

Younger players I need to recruit from seen to prefer legends as well due to the KoToR games.

But basically if you want Jedi vs Sith you do KoToR, if you want space combat do classic/new republic.