Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game
West End Games released Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game in 1987. This product drew heavily from the company's earlier Ghostbusters role-playing game system. Lucasfilm viewed these sourcebooks as so authoritative that they sent a box of books to Timothy Zahn when he was hired to write the Thrawn trilogy. He was directed to base his novels on the background material presented within those pages. Many first uses of Star Wars alien names appeared for the first time in West End Games' Star Wars books. Names like Twi'lek, Rodian, and Quarren originated here. Even after Disney rebooted the Expanded Universe in 2014, much of this nomenclature still exists in new canon works. West End Games published the second edition of the game in 1992 with an unchanged title. A revision of the second edition appeared in 1996 under the name The Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Second Edition - Revised and Expanded. By the end of the game's run around 1999, approximately 140 sourcebook and adventure supplements had been published during its three editions. West End Games declared bankruptcy in 1998, causing them to lose their license to produce Star Wars material. Wizards of the Coast later acquired the license and held it until 2010.
The game system used dice called D6, originally developed for the Ghostbusters role-playing game. Richard Thomas reviewed the original game in White Wolf #10 in 1988 and rated it a perfect 10 out of 10. He stated that you have a truly superior product presented with style and humor as well as a great sense of fun. Chris Hind reviewed the second edition in White Wolf #34 in January and February 1993, rating it 5 out of 5. He said that Star Wars Second Edition is a great improvement over the original and now one of the strongest SF roleplaying games on the market. Andy Butcher reviewed the revised and expanded version for Arcane magazine, giving it 9 out of 10 overall. He noted that the designers at West End Games made every effort to improve the game as much as they possibly could. The first piece of advice given to referees was Your goal is to make sure everyone has fun. If you and the players are having a good time, nothing else matters. RPG historian Stu Horvath wrote in his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground that everything about the system is arranged around building momentum to a climactic finish. The rules join Toon in actively encouraging gamemasters to throw rules out if they endanger the flow of the action and the story.
Lucasfilm considered the West End Games sourcebooks so authoritative that Timothy Zahn received a box of them when hired to write the Thrawn trilogy. He was directed to base his novel on the background material presented within those books. Many of the first uses of Star Wars alien names appeared for the first time in West End Games' Star Wars books. Names like Twi'lek, Rodian, and Quarren originated here. Even after Disney rebooted the Expanded Universe in 2014, much of this nomenclature still exists in new canon works. The game established much of the groundwork of what later became the Star Wars expanded universe. Sourcebooks remain frequently cited by Star Wars fans as reference material today. The rich and varied background already created by the movies helps a great deal, but there have been many games based on great fiction, and few of them work nearly as well as Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. Everything about the system has been designed to complement the setting's unique blend of fantasy, science fiction and myth. It recreates the same feel and atmosphere as the movies.
At the 1988 Origins Awards, Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game won in the category Best Roleplaying Rules of 1987. Richard Thomas reviewed the original game in White Wolf #10 in 1988 and rated it 10 out of 10. He stated that you have a truly superior product presented with style and humor as well as a great sense of fun. Chris Hind reviewed the second edition in White Wolf #34 in January and February 1993, rating it 5 out of 5. He said that Star Wars Second Edition is a great improvement over the original and now one of the strongest SF roleplaying games on the market. Andy Butcher reviewed the revised and expanded version for Arcane magazine, giving it 9 out of 10 overall. In a 1996 reader poll conducted by the UK magazine Arcane, Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game was ranked 9th among the fifty most popular roleplaying games of all time. The magazine editor Paul Pettengale commented that everything about the system has been designed to complement the setting's unique blend of fantasy, science fiction and myth. Pyramid magazine reviewed The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition and stated that though the Emperor has foreseen it, the Force is with it.
By the end of the game's run around 1999, approximately 140 sourcebook and adventure supplements had been published during its three editions. Fifteen issues of a magazine series called the Star Wars Adventure Journal were published between 1994 and 1998. The Adventure Journal was published in novel format with around 280 pages per issue. It consisted of adventures and articles for the game plus short stories intended to provide inspiration for gamemasters and news relating to Star Wars. Four board games were published to coincide with the role-playing game, all of them by West End Games. These included Star Warriors from 1987, Escape from the Death Star from 1990, Assault on Hoth from 1988, and Battle for Endor from 1989. A miniature wargame was also written in 1989 under the name Star Wars Miniatures Battles. Five gamebooks were published by West End Games in the 1990s including Scoundrel's Luck and Jedi's Honor both published in 1990. The Imperial Doublecross was published in 1997 and used the Star Wars D6 rules and characters' die codes.
In 2018, Fantasy Flight Games released a re-print of the original core book in a deluxe slipcase format along with the Sourcebook supplement. Fantasy Flight Games is the current holder of the Star Wars RPG licence. The game system was slightly modified and rereleased in 2004 as D6 Space which used a generic space opera setting. An unrelated Star Wars RPG was published by Wizards of the Coast from 2000 to 2010. Since 2012 the official Star Wars role-playing game is another unrelated game called Star Wars Roleplaying Game published by Fantasy Flight Games. RPG historian Stu Horvath noted in his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground that everything about the system is arranged around building momentum to a climactic finish. The rules join Toon in actively encouraging gamemasters to throw rules out if they endanger the flow of the action and the story. West End Games declared bankruptcy in 1998 causing them to lose their license to produce Star Wars material. Wizards of the Coast later acquired the license and held it until 2010.
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Common questions
When did West End Games release Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game?
West End Games released Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game in 1987. This product drew heavily from the company's earlier Ghostbusters role-playing game system.
Which alien names originated in West End Games' Star Wars books?
Many first uses of Star Wars alien names appeared for the first time in West End Games' Star Wars books. Names like Twi'lek, Rodian, and Quarren originated here.
How many sourcebook and adventure supplements were published during the three editions of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game?
By the end of the game's run around 1999, approximately 140 sourcebook and adventure supplements had been published during its three editions. Fifteen issues of a magazine series called the Star Wars Adventure Journal were also published between 1994 and 1998.
Who won the Best Roleplaying Rules award at the 1988 Origins Awards for Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game?
At the 1988 Origins Awards, Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game won in the category Best Roleplaying Rules of 1987. Richard Thomas reviewed the original game in White Wolf #10 in 1988 and rated it a perfect 10 out of 10.
When did Wizards of the Coast acquire the license to produce Star Wars material after West End Games declared bankruptcy?
West End Games declared bankruptcy in 1998 causing them to lose their license to produce Star Wars material. Wizards of the Coast later acquired the license and held it until 2010.