No, this week's title has nothing to do with Wookiees or Ewoks, unless you want it to. It ties to something Clone Wars Supervising Director Dave Filoni said in the commentary of the Clone Wars episode, Altar of Mortis. For those who haven't seen it, and no spoilers here, the Mortis trilogy delves in to the supernatural side of the Force way more than usual. It's something we've really only seen in the extended universe, and reminds me more of the Knights of the Old Republic era or some of the scenes in the more recent Fate of the Jedi novel series. Anyway, Filoni said to his writer to treat the episodes like they are all within the tree* from Empire Strikes Back, and that they're full of metaphor and, I presume, illusion.
Read MoreSo, I'm a few hours early, but here we go. Today was a snowday for most anyone here in the midwest, thanks to the snowmageddon/snowpocolypse/etc/etc/etc dumping massive amounts of snow, closing interstates, and shutting down anywhere people would want to go today. I could go on about how the latest Clone Wars episode is very interesting and I'm looking forward to the how this develops and oh by the way Sam Witwer was in on the epsiode and so forth...but instead, I give you this, from my backyard:
Read MoreFirst, a few comments on recent events, then back to the examples for running an epic length published campaign.
Read MoreAdventuring in the Star Wars universe takes many forms: the one-shot adventure, the homebrew campaign, the convention “classic” adventure, the living-style campaign, and the long term published campaign. Campaign length ranges from a few adventures, to epic length storylines played across dozens of sessions and multiple months or years. Campaigns are plotted well in advance, grow organically out of the choices made by players and gamemaster characters, or more likely, a combination thereof.
While these are all great blog subjects, today I’m focusing on the long-term, epic length published campaign.
Read MoreThis past weekend marked the mid point of Clone Wars season three, and with it the Savage Opress episode trilogy. After seeing the season three trailer and other material at last summer’s Star Wars Celebration, I’ve been looking forward to the new shows. The series has improved steadily through season two and I hope it continues to do so. I have a few comments on the new episode, but I’ll save them until the end of this post as they’ll contain some minor spoilers.
Read MoreBack in November, a member of the WotC Community forums asked if I would take a look at a couple of species that were never updated to Star Wars Saga Edition. I’m always on the lookout for good Star Wars Wednesday material, so keep the suggestions coming. I’ll go a step further here, and talk about the species creation process I typically used while working on the game.
Read MoreTaking a break from the gaming talk this week, with a look at one of my few collection items, Star Wars posters.
Read MoreSorry again for the late post, but I think many of you will find it worth the wait. First, an update on the Star Wars RPG rumor extravaganza, then a new adventure ready for your holiday gaming sessions - or any other time.
Read MoreI got the news Monday evening. Fellow Star Wars RPG freelancer Robert Wieland sent a message that Mongoose Publishing had posted on thier company blog that they did not win the Star Wars RPG license, but that someone else had. A company known to do RPGs and card games, but not minis, and the license included all three types of games.
Read MoreWhile looking over Saga Edition and earlier d20 Star Wars products, it occurs to me that one of the more tactile and immersive elements of the game went largely unused: player handouts. In the d6 Star Wars RPG, handouts were a regular feature throughout the game’s run.
Read MoreThis week marks the passing of The Empire Strikes Back director, Irvin Kershner, so I, like so many others, will talk a bit about the movie. I can't speak directly of Kershner, having never met him and only know him like most fans do - as the director of the excellent and successful squeal to Star Wars. But I can relay some thoughts about the movie, as I remember them from long past, and now.
Read MoreAdventures are obviously central to any role-playing game. Creating rules, and characters from those rules, can and should be entertaining and fun, but up until game time, they are simply creating the role for you to play. While many Gamemasters and game designers enjoy the adventure creation process, but it is not for everyone. Some have the desire, but not the time while others may have the desire but feel they lack the skills to create a story appropriate for their campaigns. Note, I don't say they lack the creativity (although they might think so). They might not feel comfortable writing a particular story type, or feel they don't have the rules knowledge to create a level-appropriate encounter.
Read MoreFor years...say almost 20 now...I've run Star Wars RPGs at local gaming conventions and at GenCon. It is how I started writing RPG material in the first place. More on that in a future post. Since I started working on Saga Edition, I've used the convention adventures to highlight the latest books and my most recent publications. Once the end of the Saga Edition line was announced, I intended to make a few of these adventures available for free for others to use.
Read MoreThis week's Star Wars Wednesday takes a look at a few online tools that can add some nice elements to your RPG or minis game.
Read MoreI'm preparing for the KC Game Fair this week, so in the interest of time, I'm going to answer a couple of starships related questions generated by some earlier posts. Also, if you're following up on the Assault on Intran skirmishes, I have received some reports (that time is now closed) and will follow up on the convention game next week. On with the questions:
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KC Game Fair was this weekend and we had a fantastic turnout and a big boost in attendence, with hundreds of players over 4 days. There were as many people playing Saturday afternoon as there were the entire convention last year. We had RPGs, minis and wargames, boardgaems, LARPs, dealers and guests. Thanks to everyone who came out to play and help out. It was a great weekend of gaming.