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.

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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.