It’s May 4th, Star Wars Day! “May 4th be with you” and all that. Today, I wanted to reminisce about Star Wars TTRPG gaming as part of my 40 Years a Gamer retrospective.
Star Wars was immensely influential for me. I watched Star Wars—before it was called A New Hope—in theaters when I was just 4 years old. I had the toys and played with them endlessly. I learned what the Hero’s Journey was before even being introduced to the concept.
The franchise was instrumental in teaching me about the oppressed fighting the oppressor, a hero breaking the cycle of violence and choosing to forgive, and evil ultimately consuming itself.
Incredibly, for something so influential, I did not immediately think about roleplaying in a Galaxy Far, Far Away.
My first idea to use elements from Star Wars came from reading The Dungeoneer Compendium, issues 1-6, which I picked up at the same garage sale where I got my original Monster Manual and Deities & Demigods. Page 28 of the compendium had this entry in a random table: “Have C-3PO and R2-D2 of Star Wars come and join the group. However, have a group of Imperial stormtroopers hot on their tails.”
During an adventure in the summer of 1988, the players were in a magical library. They opened a tome, and R2-D2 and C-3PO came running across the room, hotly pursued by Stormtroopers and Darth Vader himself! One of the players tried to face Vader, who promptly sliced his magical sword in two and left the room to pursue the droids. That was it, a quick gag, sadly leaving a player with a broken magic sword, but not much more than that.
Around that time, I learned about the official Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game from West End Games, and I picked up the core book and the sourcebook. It was either late 1989 or early 1990 when I read it. I had an accident in my 11th-grade chemistry lab, and I vividly remember reading the Star Wars Sourcebook while waiting at the doctor’s office!
I didn’t run Star Wars as a GM back then. I did, however, play a Han Solo clone based on the character Dagg Dibrimi from Starchaser: The Legend of Orin (an animated Star Wars rip-off). I was a little disappointed when, halfway through the adventure, I realized we were playing a campaign based on the Space Quest video games!
I love the Star Wars D6 system. It developed so many ideas that became foundational to the Star Wars Expanded Universe (now Legends), keeping the franchise alive and vibrant between the end of the original trilogy and the launch of Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire trilogy. However, I had no luck running a satisfactory game in that universe. I tried launching an ambitious post-Return of the Jedi game in college, but my players complained that it “felt too much like a fantasy game.”
I would have to wait for ANOTHER system to run my definitive Star Wars campaign. When Wizards of the Coast got the license, I purchased their original edition but never played it. I did, however, play their second attempt at the rules: the Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition, published in 2007.
I own all the books in that series, and I used them to run an Infinities campaign (i.e., “What if?” or alternate timeline). I won’t go into too much detail here, as I previously posted a long series of articles on the blog about the campaign, Star Wars: The Gathering Storm. You can read the first post in the series here and read the rest of the series if it interests you.
I loved the system, planned on using it for other sci-fi franchises, and really hoped D&D 4th Edition would be just like it! It was not, but that’s a story for another day. In the process, I also acquired WAY too many Star Wars miniatures and ships from WotC.
Looking back, it isn’t a perfect system. It still has a bit too much “d20” in its DNA, which isn’t always a good fit for the genre. Jedi were generally better than other classes, and they quickly became the superhero-like versions that later Star Wars media made them out to be. I really prefer the WEG d6 version, which captured the grounded feel of the Jedi from the original trilogy.
I’ve never played the Star Wars Roleplaying from FFG/Edge Studio. Friends have told me it is great, and I have read very interesting reviews. I must admit to being a little averse to “funky dice” (proprietary dice with strange symbols), which kept me from giving it a try. From what I’ve seen, that is probably my loss. I own the original starter set for the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game, 1st edition, and enjoyed playing it, but I never bought anything beyond that core box.
I hope to play some more Star Wars TTRPGs in the future, probably in the same vein as my The Gathering Storm campaign—an alternate version of the Galaxy Far, Far Away. But what system to use?
I don’t think I’ll use the official TTRPG from Edge Studio. I am curious about Star Borg by JP Coovert; it looks like a very fun adaptation of Star Wars ideas to the Mörk Borg rules.
I also believe White Star: Galaxy Edition could handle Star Wars with little problem, especially if you add the Between Star & Void supplement.
Stars Without Number would also work beautifully, particularly with the Codex of the Black Sun sourcebook.
There is always the Star Wars 5e fan project, but if I were going to use a more modern iteration of the d20 rules, I would likely go back to playing the Saga Edition with some house rules.
Of course, you can always try Star Wars d6 REUP (Revised, Expanded, and Updated), a fan-made update of the WEG rules!
But let’s be sincere: if you know me, or follow me on social media at all, you know exactly where I was getting to with this.
If I were to run a Star Wars game today, I’d probably use Savage Worlds to do it! There is an incredible fan-made Star Wars: Savage Worlds Compendium. I’ve downloaded all their supplements and even printed the book via Lulu. I am completely ready to play Savage Star Wars… I just need to find the time.
Did you play Star Wars D6? What system did you use to play Star Wars? Do you have any recommendations? I’d love to read your feedback in the comments.
Happy Star Wars Day to all. May 4th, and the Force, be with you, always!
