WotC Star Wars Announcement

[atgxtg]

[Rerun941]

In its present incarnation, with its present leadership (or lack thereof) WEG isn't the publisher you're looking for *waves hand*
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Han - "How're we doin'?"
Luke - "Same as always."
Han - "That bad, huh?"

[cheshire]

Currently things are OGL, but without an STL (system trademark license) there really isn't a lot of legal room for anyone to produce anything. Currently the ball is in Eric Gibson's court to get things done quickly, though that does not seem to his strong suit recently. He's got some great ideas, apparently, but due to one thing or another things just seem to get snagged. IIRC he said that he's getting burnt out, and the guy who is helping him work on the STL isn't sure about when he's going to be hearing back from him on that account. When he gets stressed, he kind of buries himself and you don't really hear much from him about what's going on with the company.

Now, there is an initiative to get a community STL worked on. If that goes through it will take time and it will be more difficult since the fans really aren't as experienced as the owner of WEG, however inexperienced he may have been before he bought the company. I'm not sure how many gaming companies will be willing to pick up a community STL.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[atgxtg]

[cheshire]

WEG = not for sale. It was for a while, but then Eric Gibson changed his mind. Of course, that was about a year ago, I think.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[ZzaphodD]

[masque]

[masque]

[cheshire]

Yeah, you have to remember that between 1985 and 1991 Star Wars was just about as cool as toilet paper on your shoe.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[atgxtg]

I think the fact that Lucas really didn't want anything more to do with Star Wars by the time he got to ROTJ , other than merchandise it to finance other projects, may have something to do with it.

That, the fact that nothing else he has done has taken off (ither than Indiana Jones), and that by the time of the Zhan books, Lucas was surprised to see how popular Star Wars still was, and that the break from it helped to rekindle his own interest.

Lucas probably could have upped the licensing fee to WEG in the 90s but didn't as WEG were at least partially responsible for Star Wars resurgence.

[Whill]

Wow, a lot of discussion at this thread! I feel several responses to the posts I have read here...

We are fans of the original WEG D6 Star Wars game. Some of us buy, read and convert the WotC d20 version of the game. I'm not sure why there is even a discussion here of not liking the game mechanics of a specific company who is speculated to get the Star Wars RPG license. This board is devoted to the D6 version of Star Wars. If a new Star Wars RPG is made in a different system, then it will be converted like d20, and also maybe evaluated for the fluff text and artwork. If not D6, who cares about the game mechanics? This is the way it's been since 2000. I can understand criticizing a company known for bad fluff. I would think that for most people here, the only concern of which system might be used is D6, or not-D6.

Yeah, "WEG" is currently a one-man company, and WEG is not even his day job. He is totally burned out on RPGs and takes months off at a time from doing anything WEG-related. He hates publishing. He didn't get the shipment of the last book he wanted to publish from the Chinese printer in time, so he refused to pay the second half to get the books (late). The shipment is sitting in a shipping container in California collecting dust. He's rather lose the first half of the money he spent just to exact revenge on them for not delivering in time, instead of just cutting his losses and paying the other half, which would allow him to get the product he paid for and sell it for profit, better late than never. "WEG" get the license? Yeah right!

Yeah, if the WEG owner ever gets the final legal requirement done for companies to be able to publish under the "Open D6" banner, then another (real RPG) company could possible buy the license from Lucasfilm and make a new D6 version. We can only dream.

Lucasfilm will not make a game themselves to maintain a tighter control, or for any other reason. "LucasBooks" is not actually a company. It is small department within Lucas Licensing that merely serves a the publishing imprint of Lucasfilm. Lucasfilm produces movies. All publishing is done through licensing with other companies who pay Lucasfilm to use their properties. Why would you do something yourself when someone else will do it and pay you for them to be allowed to do it!

Lucasfilm doesn't really give a d@mn about whether there is an RPG or not. It's merely yet another possible business market, one of a thousand. If WotC didn't want to renew, that means they didn't feel they could make enough additional material to profit after the cost of license. They are probably right. They seemed to be running about of steam for their line. I'm also happy for the break!

This license is not cheap, and Lucasfilm is not going to lower the price on their license if demand is low, just to sell it. That would cheapen the perceived value of the property. They do not have nor need to have an "everything must go" mentality. They are not going broke by not having a licensed RPG for the time being. They can afford to have a "take it or leave it" mentality. I think WotC was wise not to renew, and if they can't further profit from it (the company that cranks out new D&D hardbacks every month), then probably no one else can afford it now either. If there is no RPG for a while, I think that Lucasfilm is shrewed enough to just let that little corner of the Star Wars market rest for a while. That way, when there is no game for a while and demand eventually builds up, someone might buy the license at their original price and the property still has the same percieved value.

My point is, Lucasfilm has their price (value) for the license now or later. Sometimes in business, it is best in the long run to not have a product in the short run. They don't care and may even be better off if there is no RPG for a while. In the time there is no RPG, their money machine will keep on going. This license is a lot of money to WotC or anyone else, but it's mere chump change for Lucasfilm. Thet certainly don't need it and will hardly notice not having an RPG on the market at any given time. They sneeze more money than the little ol' RPG license costs.
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[Rerun941]

[cheshire]

It's funny that you say that. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that WotC stuff is the greatest. But the thing I find interesting is that I've heard a lot of negative stuff about what's being produced, and often times in reference to the conversion guides. I don't take offense, I completely understand where you're coming from. But the odd thing is, I've heard more negative than positive, but yet there are HUNDREDS of downloads for these things. Apparently they're useful to someone. The question is who is downloading them, and why are the people that are less enthused more vocal?
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[atgxtg]

Probably because the people who are using d20 stuff might not be particularity enthusiastic about the content.

I for one, use d20 and SAGA stuff in/with my d6 campaign. Since I'm running a Clone Wars era campaign, the SAGA Clone Wars guide is somewhat necessary. Mostly for order of battle stuff, and for the fluff text that explains what some things are that I'm not familiar with, but see stats for in the conversion guide. It is also useful for helping to work out stats for things that haven't been converted yet (like Clone Commandos vs. standard Clone Troopers).

I'm not jumping for joy over the SAGA book, there is a lot of d20 related stuff about it that I don't like, but I do find it useful. I'm even less entued about products from the two previous d20 attempts.

I find the d6 Conversion and the prequel era Galaxy Guides a lot more useful. They not only saved me from doing a lot of work writing up stats, but the stats they do have are quite good. Thanks, guys.

[ZzaphodD]