Star Wars - Back To Grass Roots
A regualr RPG blog read of mine is Grognardia, a blog with a focus on old-school roleplaying. I dont' always agree with the theories put forward by the writer and the bulk of the readership (to be honest, sometimes I think they're utter bollocks and the nurse should up their medication ;-) ) but it's often interesting and the reviews of older products & reprtins of old interviews can make for very interesting reading.
This post on Grognardia about Star Wars comics in the pre-Empire Strikes Back world, and threads on RPG.Net about only using the original trilogy as canon and only using the original film as canon put forward an interesting alternate hypothesis towards Star Wars, one which sheds itself of the baggage of the EU, prequels etc.
I am interested by the idea of what an alternate "Star Wars 2" looks like, a sort of alternate 1978, both as an intellectual exercise and also as an RPG campaign notion. I imagine many of you are like me in that Star Wars once held a special place in your heart but recent developments, especially the prequel films, have sapped the magic somewhat. (And even the EU has moved from earlier highlights like the Thrawn trilogy to Kevin J Anderson-fuelled "It's the Death Star again bwah hah hah hah hah!")
I'd not seriously considered running Star Trek for an age until the new film gave me a fresh way to get back into the product. Star Wars was in much the same boat but now this idea of stripping down to a Star Wars where Vader isn't necesarilly Luke's father, where the Empire isn't necesarilly a few decades old and where the Emperor isn't necesarilly a force adept has some interesting notions to it and one I wonder if other people would be interesting in developing and playing out.
Aside: The Grognardia post has a few people bring up the WEG Star Wars D6 game as a low point in Star Wars history, the "beginning of the end". I imagine this is because it's the first thing which really pulled the various spin-offs together into one cohesive whole and developed a hard and fast timeline (I know the writer of the Thrawn Trilogy was given the RPG books as research material, so that snake devoured itself) but it's interesting becuase in some nerd quarters D6 Star Wars is considered with such reverance that it seems bizarre to hear people speak ill of it unchallenged. ;-) Of course, these are the same people who consider Ravenloft and Unearthed Arcana the "beginning of the end" for D&D...
This post on Grognardia about Star Wars comics in the pre-Empire Strikes Back world, and threads on RPG.Net about only using the original trilogy as canon and only using the original film as canon put forward an interesting alternate hypothesis towards Star Wars, one which sheds itself of the baggage of the EU, prequels etc.
I am interested by the idea of what an alternate "Star Wars 2" looks like, a sort of alternate 1978, both as an intellectual exercise and also as an RPG campaign notion. I imagine many of you are like me in that Star Wars once held a special place in your heart but recent developments, especially the prequel films, have sapped the magic somewhat. (And even the EU has moved from earlier highlights like the Thrawn trilogy to Kevin J Anderson-fuelled "It's the Death Star again bwah hah hah hah hah!")
I'd not seriously considered running Star Trek for an age until the new film gave me a fresh way to get back into the product. Star Wars was in much the same boat but now this idea of stripping down to a Star Wars where Vader isn't necesarilly Luke's father, where the Empire isn't necesarilly a few decades old and where the Emperor isn't necesarilly a force adept has some interesting notions to it and one I wonder if other people would be interesting in developing and playing out.
Aside: The Grognardia post has a few people bring up the WEG Star Wars D6 game as a low point in Star Wars history, the "beginning of the end". I imagine this is because it's the first thing which really pulled the various spin-offs together into one cohesive whole and developed a hard and fast timeline (I know the writer of the Thrawn Trilogy was given the RPG books as research material, so that snake devoured itself) but it's interesting becuase in some nerd quarters D6 Star Wars is considered with such reverance that it seems bizarre to hear people speak ill of it unchallenged. ;-) Of course, these are the same people who consider Ravenloft and Unearthed Arcana the "beginning of the end" for D&D...