SWAJ 14

Just finished reading Star Wars Adventure Journal, Vol 1, No. 14 (WEG, August 1997). Available at your local B. Dalton booksellers, or via mail order (for four issues send $35, check or money order, to West End Games, Ltd., RR 3 Box 2345, Honesdale, PA 18431-9560).

A pretty good issue, I'll say. Barbara Hambly (Children of the Jedi and Planet of Twilight, neither of which I've read) wrote a piece about Gamorr called "Murder in Slushtime". In it, she does for Gamorrean culture what A. C. Crispin did for Hutts in The Han Solo Trilogy. Interesting. John Beyer and Kathy Burdette write a nice piece that ties into the SpecForce Handbook called "Special Ops: Drop Points". I liked the story by Charlene Newcombe and Rich Handley called "Crimson Bounty" (related to the cover image). The "Galaxywide NewsNets" feature by Peter Schweighhofer was also nice.

They don't yet know that this is almost the end. At least the don't let on anywhere in the issue. There is a note up front that Mr. Schweighofer is stepping aside as editor as of this issue. Steve Miller (formerly of TSR) will be taking over for "...issue 15 and beyond." Yeeeeah. About that...

I'll be sad to see it go, the good ol' SWAJ. Not even sure if they'll know it's going away in the last issue itself. As I have seen online, Vol.1, No. 15 was the last one printed. They did have a Vol. 1, No. 16 fully ready to go (and just didn't print it, as I understand) and they had something like a galley copy of Vol. 1, No. 17 in some stage of the process. You can find them all here:

http://d6holocron.com/downloads/wegadventurejournal.html

By the way, as I was looking for that link, I noticed a brand new pair of entries, both entitled "Star Wars Adventurers Journal". Looks like an unofficial continuation, not affiliated with Star Wars or Disney. One released on May 4, 2018. The next released on August 3, 2018. I will definitely be checking these out.

***

As a side note, as of the writing of this SWAJ issue, WEG as we know it is less than a year away from Shoe Company Bankruptcy (July 1998). The Star Wars RPG license will leave that same year, as WotC releases the first d20 version in November of 2000.

Punch it, Chewie

Just finished reading this delightful, fast paced book, Solo: Expanded Edition (Mur Lafferty, 2018). This is the long awaited (by me, at least) novelization of the Solo movie. It purports to be an "Expanded Edition", as I guess there are some extra scenes tucked inside that aren't from the film.

I was very pleased with the book. The characterizations seem spot on, from the wonderful droid libertarian L3-37 to the beautiful and dangerous Qi'ra, the cape-clad Lando, the lopsided grinning Han, Chewie and the rest. This is a great Star Wars story and a very entertaining read.

Makes me want to purchase this movie on Blu-Ray, and to watch Rogue One again. They are truly the only recent breaths of fresh Star Wars air, in my opinion.

With the Disney imposed slow-down in Star Wars movie releases, as Nate mentioned, I wonder when we will get to learn more about Qi'ra and her mysterious new Crimson Dawn benefactor and Teräs Käsi master.

The Return of Cassian Andor

Well, now, this is interesting.

I believe that both Brent and I have been pretty critical of The Last Jedi, and that has thrown my interest in the Sequel Era into a tailspin. I was also disappointed that Solo: A Star Wars Story underperformed at the box office, and thus seemed to jeopardize other potential projects set in the time of the Original Trilogy. For those reasons, I was pleasantly surprised to read the following article on Starwars.com.

Cassian Andor Live Action Series Announced

I'm glad to see there's still interest in exploring this time period, and that this project will focus on a character that I really liked. The more I watch Rogue One, the more I love it. This seems like it'll include stories filled with inspiration for potential future Star Wars RPG adventures and campaigns.

-Nate

Cyphers and Masks (P)review

I know it's more than a little bit late, but here's a preview of what people can expect from Cyphers and Masks. 

-Nate 

Cyphers and Masks (P)review

Page 1: Crawl

Page 2: Credits

Page 3: Table of Contents

Page 4: Fiction

Pages 5-9: Secrets in the Age of Rebellion/Tradecraft in Star Wars/Spies of the Rebellion

This section provides an overview of how espionage can be used in Star Wars adventures and campaigns, including suggestions for including other types of characters in spy missions.

Pages 10-35: Chapter 1—Operating from the Shadows

Detailed herein are four pages of backgrounds for spy characters, two pages of duties, just more than five pages detailing new species (the balosar, kubas and melittos), three new specializations (courier, interrogator and sleeper agent), two pages of talents, one of motivations, and two new signature abilities (counterespionage and unmatched tradecraft).

Pages 36-63: Chapter 2—Tools of Tradecraft

The book's strongest section is this one, which introduces six ranges weapons, three melee weapons, three suits of armor, four different chemicals and poisons, seven electronic devices, eight other tools, eight droids, four attachments for weapons, six for amor and eight for other equipment. There's also a new landspeeder and starfighter, along with six attachments for vehicles. All in all, this is the strongest equipment section in an Age of Rebellion book for some time.

Pages 64-95: Chapter 3—The Hidden War

Keeping up with tradition, the third chapter of this book provides suggestions for integrating spy characters into adventures and campaigns; it includes two pages each of rules for using Computers, Deception, Skulduggery and Stealth checks; guidelines for concealing weapons and slicing, three detailed scenarios for spies, and ideas for rewarding spy characters.

96: Advertisement

I was disappointed by the choice of species to include, since the one Balosar character in the movies is little more than a sight gag, and the Melitto is a background character in Episode VII; the Kubaz is the only familiar species. I think the Defel could have been a solid addition, along with the Clawdite. Even so, the rest of the book seems solid, especially the equipment section—which, I think, could provide entertaining scenes in which the PCs are issued special items much like when James Bond pays a visit to Q.

X-Wing Second Edition

Well, the Second Edition of the X-Wing Miniatures Game from FFG has been out for awhile now, and I have still not played a game under the new system.

I have, however, purchased a bunch of stuff and converted my collection over, more or less. I bought one copy of the new Core Set, one each of the Conversion Kits (Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, and Scum and Villainy), and a copy of the Lando's Millenium Falcon expansion.

The Good
I like the comprehensive approach they took to re-balancing the game. Over the course of 14 waves of expansions, many new mechanics and rules subsets came into being. Much of this additional material had the seeming effect of crowding out the earlier ships. Starting over with the whole lot of them at once can't help but be an improvement, to my mind.

I do mostly like the Conversion Kit concept. They attempted to help a person like me, with 100+ ships, convert as painlessly as possible. I was able to use most of the kit contents, and sell the rest on eBay. I came out very well, in the end.

The Force. I like that they built a new mechanic to allow the Force, a key element of Star Wars, to play a role in this game.

The variable points costs and upgrade bars. The new game does not have points values printed on the cards directly, nor do the ship cards have the upgrade icons printed on them. These are controlled in an app (or a series of downloads), which theoretically allows for the game designers to tweak the game, as needed, to achieve a sustainable balance moving forward. The game has a smartphone app; but you don't need to use it, as their are PDF versions of the points lists.

The Scum and Rebel astromechs now live in harmony, together. No more silly "Salvaged Astromech" distinction. Bad guy astromechs now say "Scum only", like they should (like Crew upgrades do to define their affiliation, if needed).

I think I might like the new movable firing arc idea added to some ships.


The Bad
The game has an app, but that app is bad. I need something that I can enter my entire collection into; including one-off eBay purchases of single upgrade cards, etc. I also want to configure a custom universe of just the ships and upgrades I own and not have to fuss about with the ships I do not. This isn't too terrible, as the app can be completely ignored.

Here they were, with a golden opportunity to do whatever they wanted, pilot-wise. The Conversion kits were a blank slate. They could fix the error of their ways, correct the mistakes of their youth. But NO! They still didn't create K-2SO as either a U-wing pilot or a crew card. Drop ball, much, FFG? (don't answer that; we know you do).

Speaking of that, they took one step forward in an area I've been advocating for, then two steps back, stylistically. That area? The Y-wing. I have long said that the Y-wing cried out for a way to make a two-seater version (the BTL-S3). Well, they did it, mostly. Instead of giving the Y-wing a Crew upgrade slot, they made a new upgrade type, called Gunner, and granted the Y-wing the ability to take it. Yahoo! Then they stepped on the touchdown call by labeling all Y-wing pilot cards "BTL-A4 Y-wing" (the one seater version). Boo! They still need to make the Y-wing pilot Wes Janson and the Gunner upgrade Hobbie Klivian. Or I'll quit.


The Ugly
The Conversion Kits were a good idea, mostly. But they skimped in silly areas. Not enough generic pilots. Not enough base tokens to run all the ships the kit said it would convert. I realize it would be difficult no matter what they did, but the kits are not ideally situated to actually convert large collections efficiently.


In Conclusion
As I have said before, FFG loves to sell "stuff". Plastic pieces, cardboard up the wazoo, custom dice, etc etc etc. I have been daydreaming about a way to jail break this game wide open. I don't want to be limited by their "stuff". The main issues are, of course, the maneuver dials (need 1 per ship) and the base tokens. I would like generic base tokens with just arcs printed on them. Not sure how to replicate a bunch of maneuver dials easily. I guess I can verify whether the 1st Edition dials are, in fact, different. I would guess so, because FFG wants to sell me new stuff while seeming like it wants to help me convert old stuff (inefficiently and expensively). I do suspect that, barring some few ships here and there, I am done purchasing for this game.

Now to actually play a few games sometime soon.


Oh, Nate!