Star Wars Wed.

Star Wars Wednesday - Tom Veitch, RIP

It has been far too long since I’ve posted a Star Wars Wednesday. I doubt I’ll get back to a weekly schedule any time soon, but hopefully I can become a bit more active.

Star Wars Dark Empire Triliogy Cover

Unfortunately, my reason for posting now is the passing of Tom Veitch. I never met Tom in person, and the last time we communicated was almost 30 years ago. Looking back, I think he was the first Star Wars Extended Universe creator I met or had a discussion with outside of West End Games staff and freelancers. It was definitely a unique time for Star Wars discussion via computer networks.

In the summer of 1992, I was active on the FidoNet Star Wars Echo. The internet wasn’t mainstream and browsers weren’t a thing yet. It was DOS, dial up, and the realm of the BBS. An echo was basically a BBS message board (an early forum) that had its posts copied and periodically transmitted by dial up to another BBS that participated in the network. The discussions were wildly out of order at times as multiple people might respond to a post on their local BBS and then those would get combined as the echo was updated at a later time or date.

Ad-hoc networks like FidoNet were early (semi-)centralized online discussion systems, carrying a wide variety of topics. The Star Wars Echo was the first time that I know of where you could discuss Star Wars with people across the country. What was particularly cool was that early EU creators became involved and discussed aspects of Star Wars that pertained to their current and sometimes future work. Tom Veitch was one of those creators. The Dark Empire comic series was a huge deal when it released, and everyone was still getting used to the EU.

I wasn’t a published freelancer yet. My first Star Wars RPG adventure Milk Run would be the official Star Wars adventure for the RPGA at Gen Con a few months later. I had some contact with WEG, often via GEnie, which was a completely different computer system.

So, getting a chance to see comments from Tom and others was great. It was exciting to become part of the discussion and field questions directly. Keeping text files of the conversation was challenging in the DOS days, but I managed to keep ASCII text files of some of them. What I have is very incomplete, but looking back at them confirmed a couple of things, and reminded me of others.

The first one I found, and had quite forgotten about, was a brief discussion about the concept of the issue of droid rights, which I somehow remembered at the time was mentioned in the original Star Wars novel. Tom was interested in coming up with a future droid liberation story, though not right at that moment. I wonder what he thought of Solo, so many years later.

There was an interesting discussion about cyborgs and the Force. Specifically, can a cyborg use the Force to directly control a computer it was hooked up to. I was providing info from the RPG and several people were part of the discussion.

Finally, the one I remembered, was a detailed discussion about how long distance communication works in Star Wars, and how much of that might be through hyperspace to get around the speed of light issues. Again, I was referencing the RPG and in particular the Imperial Sourcebook. Tom didn’t always agree with approach taken by the RPG, but the merits were discussed.

Just how early was this discussion for the EU? In 1992, we were using the first edition of the d6 system. Second edition had been announced, because it was noted in the messages, but not close to release.

The last messages I found were in July ‘92. After that would have been a trip to Gen Con. From there, I flew directly to Denmark to start my study abroad year, and didn’t have much computer access (or at least that kind of access) overseas. I think by the time I got back, Tom likely had moved on, and keeping up with the Echo was much harder due to its popularity. I also had my own freelance work to worry about by then.

Tom’s daughter has set up a GoFundMe to help with expenses, for anyone who might bet interested in contributing.

Star Wars Wednesday - End of 2020

The end of 2020 is finally upon us. Here’s hoping for a better year in 2021, though it looks like it will be a slow start and slow progress. Hopefully there will be more progress. It has been difficult here as well, though we could be much worse off. As for Star Wars Wednesday, you would think with more time and a great supply of new Star Wars content that I would have been posted more often. This might be the least I’ve done in a number of years, but I’m not going to check. So, here are are a few notes to end the year, and we’ll see how things go next year.

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Star Wars Wednesday - Catching Up, Sort of.

I have been long remiss in updating this blog. The days really run together. Like many, I’ve been working from home for an extended period of time, not that that seems to help in this instance. I didn’t even note the various Genesys RPG and related Gen Con news, of which there was some. I’ll blame part of it on often running an online game session on Wednesday nights, but that’s not really an excuse either. So, on with it.

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Star Wars Wednesday - FFG and RPG Update

It is no news to anyone by now that life has taken a drastic turn with covid 19 wreaking havoc with health and and everything else. Like many, I’m working from home for my day job. My part of the world is just beginning to see cases appear and increase. However, my company works and travels worldwide, though I have not needed to do so, and won’t be anytime soon.

In a bit of good news, Asmodee and FFG have revealed more about their recent moves and future plans, including their various Star Wars games and the RPG.

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Star Wars Wednesday - A New Hope...for the RPG

At my rate of posting this year, I ought to change the name of this series to Star Wars Monthly….but I won’t. It has gone on too long and maybe I’ll get back to a more regular schedule. At least there is some positive news on the Star Wars RPG / Genesys RPG front. The games will continue to be printed and produced, by a division of Asmodee, but not by Fantasy Flight Games.

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Star Wars Wednesday - This is 2020

It has been an embarrassing amount of time since I last wrote a Star Wars Wednesday post. this is especially true given the huge amount of new Star Wars movies, TV shows, and other stories released in the last few months. I’ve kept up reasonably well, though there is still a stack of comics I need to work through. Marvel has been hugely prolific with the number of titles and short series lately. More on many of those things in the upcoming months, hopefully. it shouldn’t be too hard for me to pick up the pace this year, compared to the dismal number late last year.

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Star Wars Wednesday - New Shows, New Movie, New Theme Park, New...

While we have certainly had periods of high Star Wars activity and announcements over the years, this past couple of weeks seems like a new high water mark. New TV and streaming shows, a new preview for the new movie, and a brand new theme park is already expanded with an even more immersive experience.

It all looks like fun.

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Star Wars Wednesday - Planet Comicon 2019 - 20th Anniversary

Planet Comicon in Kansas City celebrated its 20th year. I’ve been to quite a few over the years, including their previous location in Overland Park, Kansas before they moved into the more central and much larger Bartle Hall in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The new location coincided with a great increase in scale and attendance, and this year continued that trend. There was the typical collection of artists, writers, media guests, and cosplayers. They also brought in several Star Wars related guests, as they often do.

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Star Wars Wednesday - GamerNation Con 2019

GamerNation Con is next up on my look at the past few weeks of conventions in reverse order. Hosted by d20Radio and the creators of the Order 66 podcast, GN Con is up to its 6th year, which is pretty amazing and continues to draw people from around the world - Australia, Norway, Canada, the US, and probably others I’m overlooking at the moment. At least one or more of the regulars skipped it due to Star Wars Celebration the following week, which from a health standpoint probably would have been a good idea for me as well…

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Star Wars Wednesday - Star Wars Celebration Chicago 2019

It has been a very busy couple of months, with a job change and a trio of consecutive conventions consuming my time. I hope to catch up here over the next few weeks. I’ll be working in reverse order, with this week covering the just completed Star Wars Celebration Chicago, next week discussing Gamer Nation Con 6, and finally Planet Comicon 2019. So, on with Celebration…

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