Star Wars Roleplaying Game (Wizards of the Coast)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Star Wars Roleplaying Game from Wizards of the Coast asked a deceptively simple question: what if the galaxy far, far away ran on the same engine as Dungeons and Dragons? When the game appeared in November 2000, written by Bill Slavicsek, Andy Collins, and J. D. Wiker, it brought the d20 System into a universe most players already knew by heart. The core rulebook launched at 288 pages. Within two years, a revised edition had followed, and by 2007 a third version called the Saga Edition had arrived with sweeping changes to nearly every corner of the rules. This documentary traces what those changes were, why they mattered to the people sitting around the table, and how a game born from one publisher's bankruptcy ended up winning gold at the ENnie Awards.

• 2. From West End to Wizards

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  Before Wizards of the Coast ever entered the picture, Star Wars had a long tabletop life under a different roof. West End Games published the original Star Wars roleplaying game starting in 1987, running the line for over a decade until the company went bankrupt. That earlier game used a d6 system rather than a twenty-sided die. Bill Slavicsek, one of the three authors who would later write the Wizards version, had worked on that West End product as well, making him one of the few designers to bridge both eras of official Star Wars roleplaying. The Wizards version published in November 2000 was built on the d20 System, the same foundation shared by Dungeons and Dragons, meaning players who knew that game already understood how to roll for most actions. The revised edition followed in May 2002 and stretched the core rulebook from 288 pages to 384 pages, adding material from Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and revising various feats and classes.

• 3. How Characters Were Built

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  Sixteen playable species filled the Revised Core Rulebook, running from familiar faces like Humans and Wookiees to less obvious choices such as Cereans, Quarren, and Kel Dor. Droids occupied an unusual position in the list: playing one effectively meant building your own race, and your character was technically mastered by another player. On top of species, players chose from nine character classes in the revised edition: Fringer, Noble, Scoundrel, Soldier, Force Adept, Jedi Guardian, Jedi Consular, Scout, and Tech Specialist, the last of which was added with the revision. Advanced characters could push further by entering prestige classes. A Jedi with a talent for healing could specialize as a Jedi Healer; a hired gun with enough notoriety might become a Bounty Hunter. The core rulebook shipped with eight prestige classes including the Jedi Master, Jedi Ace, Crime Lord, Elite Trooper, and the Darkside Marauder. Supplements introduced many more beyond that initial set.

• 4. Wounds, Vitality, and Damage

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  One of the sharpest departures from standard d20 design in the original and revised editions was the Vitality and Wound point system. Rather than a single pool of hit points, characters tracked two separate damage meters. Vitality points worked much like hit points in other d20 games: players rolled for them each level and added their Constitution bonus. Wounds worked differently. A character's total Wound points equaled their Constitution score directly. Vitality represented glancing harm, the kind a hero shrugs off. Wounds represented genuine injury. A character who exhausted their Vitality was suddenly vulnerable to real damage. The system distinguished between the scrapes of a running gunfight and the moment a blaster bolt actually lands. That distinction would not survive the Saga Edition.

• 5. The Saga Edition Overhaul

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  On the 5th of June 2007, Wizards released the Saga Edition Core Rulebook at 288 pages, matching the length of the very first edition. The Wounds and Vitality system was gone, replaced by standard hit points. Jedi and Soldiers started first level with 30 hit points plus their Constitution bonus, based on a hit die of d10. Classes were cut from nine to five: Jedi, Noble, Scoundrel, Scout, and Soldier. What looked like a reduction in options was actually a broadening of them, because each class now grew along talent trees. A Jedi could branch toward Jedi Guardian, Jedi Consular, Jedi Sentinel, or the Lightsaber Combat talent tree, all within the single Jedi class. Saving Throws were replaced by three Defenses called Reflex Defense, Fortitude Defense, and Will Defense. Skill points as a resource disappeared entirely. Instead, characters had a number of trained skills based on class and Intelligence bonus, and any trained skill check received a flat bonus of plus five to the d20 roll. Force users gained a single unified skill called Use the Force, which governed everything from moving small objects to searching their feelings. Force Powers worked like a hand of cards: a suite of abilities that were used up and recharged between encounters, with a stronger Use the Force check producing a stronger effect.

• 6. Destiny and the Force

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  The Saga Edition introduced an optional Destiny system that gave characters something more powerful than the standard Force Points already in the game. Destiny Points could let a character score an automatic critical hit without rolling, gain three Force Points at once, or automatically succeed at a virtually impossible task. They were tied to a character's predetermined fate, usually established during character creation. A character with a destiny was working toward a specific overarching goal, and Destiny Points existed to help them get there. Force users in the Saga Edition also gained access to Force Techniques and Force Secrets through prestige classes, further expanding what they could do with the Use the Force skill. The Destiny system was not required, but it offered a mechanical layer for the kind of grand-arc storytelling that Star Wars stories are built on.

• 7. A Catalogue and a Curtain

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  Between 2000 and 2010, Wizards of the Coast produced dozens of books for all three versions of the game. Saga Edition alone generated fifteen releases after the core rulebook, covering settings as varied as the Clone Wars era, the Knights of the Old Republic period, and a Legacy Era Campaign Guide published in March 2009. On the 28th of January 2010, Wizards announced on their website that they would not be renewing their Star Wars license. The license ended in May 2010, and the game went out of print. The Saga Edition had already earned the Gold ENnie Award for Best Game, Best d20/OGL Product, and Best Rules, plus the Silver award for Product of the Year, before the line closed. The official Star Wars roleplaying game license passed to Fantasy Flight Games, which published its own game under the same title.