Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game

Star Wars
The Roleplaying Game

Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game.
First edition book cover, 1987.
Illustration based on the original movie
poster from Tom Cantrell, 1977.
Designer(s) Greg Costikyan
Publisher(s) West End Games
Publication date 1987 (1st Edition)
1992 (2nd Edition)
1996 (2nd Edition Revised and Expanded)
Genre(s) Science fiction
System(s) D6 System

Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game is a role-playing game set in the Star Wars universe, written and published by West End Games (WEG) between 1987 and 1999. The game system was slightly modified and rereleased in 2004 as D6 Space, which used a generic space opera setting. An unrelated Star Wars RPG was published by Wizards of the Coast from 2000 to 2010. Since 2012 the official Star Wars role-playing game is another unrelated game, published by Fantasy Flight Games.

Development

The game, based on WEG's earlier Ghostbusters RPG, established much of the groundwork of what later became the Star Wars expanded universe, and its sourcebooks are still frequently cited by Star Wars fans as reference material. Lucasfilm considered the West End Games' Star Wars sourcebooks so authoritative that when Timothy Zahn was hired to write what became the Thrawn trilogy, he was sent a box of West End Games Star Wars books and directed to base his novel on the background material presented within. Many of the first uses of Star Wars alien names (such as the Twi'lek, Rodian, and Quarren) appeared for the first time in WEG's Star Wars books. Even after Disney's reboot of the Star Wars Expanded Universe in 2014, much of this nomenclature still exists in new canon works.[1]

In 1992 West End Games published the second edition of the game, in which the title remained unchanged. In 1996 a revision of the second edition saw the light of day, but its title was slightly changed from Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game - Second Edition to The Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Second Edition - Revised and Expanded.[2]

By the end of the game's run around 140 sourcebook and adventure supplements were published for the game during its run through three editions.[3]

In addition fifteen issues of a magazine series, the Star Wars Adventure Journal, were published between 1994 and 1998. The Adventure Journal was published in novel format of around 280 pages, and consisted of adventures and articles for the game, plus short stories intended to provide inspiration for gamemasters and news relating to Star Wars.

WEG's license to produce Star Wars material was lost after the company declared bankruptcy in 1998, and the license was later picked up by Wizards of the Coast, who held the license until 2010.

Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1987.[4]

Game system

Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game uses the D6 System, originally developed for the Ghostbusters roleplaying game.

List of core rulebooks

1st Edition Rules
2nd Edition Rules

All covers from all core rulebooks published during the game's run:

                 
First Edition (1987)          Second Edition (1992)          Second Edition, Revised
and Expanded (1996)

List of supplements

Star Wars Adventure Journal (1994 - 1997)

Spinoffs

Star Warriors board game cover (1987, art by Ralph McQuarrie).

Four board games were published and coincided along with the role-playing game, all of them by West End Games:

A miniature wargame was also written in 1989:

Five gamebooks were published by West End Games in the 1990s:

In the early 1990s, before the advent of the modern Internet, the FidoNet Star Wars Echo ran a message forum for playing the West End Games Star Wars Roleplaying Game on-line on computer bulletin board systems. The game also gathered a large internet following via such mailing lists such as the SW-RPG Mailing List.

References

  1. ↑ Veekhoven, Tim (October 30, 2015). "West End Games: Expanding That Galaxy Far, Far Away". Starwars.com. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  2. ↑ All role-playing games' covers from West End Games can be seen in RPG.net, a role-playing games specialized website.
  3. ↑ http://www.sandcrawler.com/SWB/westend.html Star Wars Collectors Bible - West End Games List
  4. ↑ "Origins Award Winners (1987)". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on May 5, 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2007.
  5. ↑ COSTIKYAN Greg, Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, West End Games, New York, October 1987, Editors: Eric Goldberg, Paul Murphy and Bill Slavicsek, Hardcover, p. 142, ISBN 0-87431-065-2
  6. ↑ SMITH Bill, Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game - Second Edition, West End Games, New York, October 1992, Editor: Ed Stark, Hardcover, p. 176, ISBN 0-87431-181-0
  7. ↑ SMITH Bill, SCHWEIGHOFER Peter, STRAYTON George, SUDLOW Paul, TRAUTMANN Eric S. and FARSHTEY Greg, The Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Second Edition - Revised and Expanded, West End Games, New York, August 1996, Hardcover, p. 288, ISBN 0-87431-268-X
  8. ↑ Star Wars: Star Warriors on Boardgamegeek, a boardgames specialized website
  9. ↑ Star Wars: Escape from the Death Star (1990) on Boardgamegeek, a boardgames specialized website
  10. ↑ Star Wars: Escape from the Death Star Game (1977) on Boardgamegeek, a boardgames specialized website
  11. ↑ Star Wars: Assault on Hoth on Boardgamegeek, a boardgames specialized website
  12. ↑ Star Wars: Battle for Endor on Boardgamegeek, a boardgames specialized website
  13. ↑ Star Wars Miniatures Battles on Boardgamegeek, a boardgames specialized website
  14. ↑ Scoundrel's Luck as described in Demian's Gamebook Web Page, a gamebook-specialized website.
  15. ↑ Jedi's Honor as described in Demian's Gamebook Web Page, a gamebook-specialized website.
  16. ↑ Lightsaber Dueling Pack as described in Demian's Gamebook Web Page, a gamebook-specialized website.
  17. ↑ Starfighter Battle Book as described in Demian's Gamebook Web Page, a gamebook-specialized website.
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