The issue has ups and downs, content-wise, as well. Kevin J. Anderson chips in an original story, wherein Luke meets a Jedi-singer/bard-wannabe for the first time. I guess I'd have to have read the Jedi Academy books to know who Tionne is. Still don't care. Patricia Jackson had me at Twi'lek dancing girl in her story "Laughter After Dark", about a smuggler and his ties to the Rebel Alliance. "The Great Herdship Heist" by Daniel Wallace was too long, but a fun enough romp in the end. Paul Danner contributed a capital ship heist story called "Two for One", and the Angela Phillips short tale "The Draw" was a good read.
Way too much, in my opinion, of this issue was taken up with the extra-long piece called "Tasariq: The Crystal Planet" by Tom Moldvay and Steve Miller. A decent initial idea, perhaps: develop an in-depth visit to a new world, new species, flora and fauna, etc. Certainly in keeping with the spirit of the SWAJ. This one did not interest me. I suspect Mr. Miller had some new ideas for how to lay out each issue, etc. Sadly, they won't amount to much, with the coming WEG collapse.
And with that, we bid adieu to the print version of the Star Wars Adventure Journal, as published by West End Games. Some great times were had, reading this magazine, over the 15 issues which made it to print. Some mediocre times, as well, struggling through subpar content. Not too many outright bad or boring times, thankfully, but they were present. I had to skip ahead only two or three times. Not a bad run, that.
SWAJ, you will be missed.
I'll throw up a salute. I definitely leaned more on the early issues, which featured more content from the Rebellion era, and less from the New Republic, for the campaigns that I ran, but you could always count on the Journal for a real variety of content.
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