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A review by odin45mp
Defining a Galaxy by Bill Slavicsek
4.0
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....
I was 8 or 9, having been introduced to Star Wars by my father. He and his friend loved to paint miniature models. One of them gifted me with a set of Star Wars minis. I never painted them, and lost interest in trying to build playsets for them as they weren't to scale with Legos, and not bendable like GI Joes or Turtles. But I remember that the paper that they came with mentioned the West End Games Star Wars RPG.
Fast forward a decade, I buy the W0tC d20 Star Wars core rulebook, try to run a game, and we quickly discovered that one of the party was a Jedi Knight, and another was a way-way-way overpowered assassin droid because brand new role players don't know how to balance homebrew, and the CRB rules for droids made it fairly cheap to build a droid that can outfight most PCs at low levels... the campaign ended poorly, except for the assassin droid who made off with a ship, a lightsaber, and some credits.
This is to say I have almost no experience with WEG or Slavicsek's two iterations of Star Wars role playing. But I know he is a somewhat hidden contributor to my childhood. I read the EU novels. I played the Decipher CCG. I read some of the comics, when I could get my hands on them. I knew what an Ithorian was. I knew about Muftak and Kabe. I knew that Gamorrean guards came from a savage warlike society where women ruled and men fought endlessly. I memorized facts about that galaxy like it was studying for the SATs. What I didn't know, until reading this book, is that I have Bill to thank for all that, and more. That the D6 game sourcebooks he helped write and edit had a direct impact of everything I knew about the Star Wars universe.
This is a short but fascinating look at what Bill helped breath into life, and his thoughts on how it has taken on a life of its own. There are some areas I wanted more information about, other parts were a little dry, but I'm glad I know more. And now I am interested in tracking down some of these sourcebooks and adventure modules... I know I have friends who would play with me.
May the Force be with you.
I was 8 or 9, having been introduced to Star Wars by my father. He and his friend loved to paint miniature models. One of them gifted me with a set of Star Wars minis. I never painted them, and lost interest in trying to build playsets for them as they weren't to scale with Legos, and not bendable like GI Joes or Turtles. But I remember that the paper that they came with mentioned the West End Games Star Wars RPG.
Fast forward a decade, I buy the W0tC d20 Star Wars core rulebook, try to run a game, and we quickly discovered that one of the party was a Jedi Knight, and another was a way-way-way overpowered assassin droid because brand new role players don't know how to balance homebrew, and the CRB rules for droids made it fairly cheap to build a droid that can outfight most PCs at low levels... the campaign ended poorly, except for the assassin droid who made off with a ship, a lightsaber, and some credits.
This is to say I have almost no experience with WEG or Slavicsek's two iterations of Star Wars role playing. But I know he is a somewhat hidden contributor to my childhood. I read the EU novels. I played the Decipher CCG. I read some of the comics, when I could get my hands on them. I knew what an Ithorian was. I knew about Muftak and Kabe. I knew that Gamorrean guards came from a savage warlike society where women ruled and men fought endlessly. I memorized facts about that galaxy like it was studying for the SATs. What I didn't know, until reading this book, is that I have Bill to thank for all that, and more. That the D6 game sourcebooks he helped write and edit had a direct impact of everything I knew about the Star Wars universe.
This is a short but fascinating look at what Bill helped breath into life, and his thoughts on how it has taken on a life of its own. There are some areas I wanted more information about, other parts were a little dry, but I'm glad I know more. And now I am interested in tracking down some of these sourcebooks and adventure modules... I know I have friends who would play with me.
May the Force be with you.