Willow Stuff

[TauntaunScout]

Anyone played the Willow game? I got a cheap copy on eBay. Thoughts?

I hear there is a new tv series in talks but I don't believe in such things until I see photos of actors in costumes.

[Pel]

Are you talking about the board game, the Nintendo game, or something else?

Always liked that film, even though it was a D&D Star Wars remake.
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Aha!

[TauntaunScout]

[Pel]

Missed that one. Looks like a good game and we know the designer makes good stuff .

Always enjoyed the film.

Had a friend years ago who was 6' 8". He was waiting to enter our workplace and a 5' 2" coworker was blocking the door with an animated conversation. My pal waited a bit, towering over the chatty obstacle, then leaned over him and said "Out of the way, Peck!"

I just about fell over from laughter.
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Aha!

[MrNexx]

[CRMcNeill]

Any way you can minimize that link?
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Whill]

[Dredwulf60]

I read a novel by George Lucas and Chris Claremont that was a sequel to Willow.

Shadow Moon.

It was so bad that I couldn't finish it.
Captured none of the feel of the movie. I got the impression it was trying to be too grim and dark and brooding and serious.

Straight up changing Willow's name to 'Thorn Drumheller' for instance.

But it's been a long time since I tried to read it.

[Whill]

[TauntaunScout]

[TauntaunScout]

[TauntaunScout]

My board game arrived. It was delayed for some reason in Florida. I blame Florida Man. Anyways. I'll report back if/when I play it.

[Desert Kris]

I love this topic, but I feel bad that I missed out on in while it was going on.

I also am a big fan of Willow. Have and love the movie. We used to have the magazine that went with it. I have the novelization, the soundtrack, and my pride and joy the amazing Willow Sourcebook!

I also have the Shadow War novel trilogy, by Chris Claremont. Other folks on here are right to say that they certainly have their problems. From what I gather, the story structure/outline was provided by George Lucas, but Claremont actually fleshed them out into novel format. The story structure of the trilogy actually does feel like they were planned out by George Lucas, in both good and bad ways. There are good aspects that are reminiscent of the original SW trilogy, but they also foreshadowed for me the problems and potential for failure of the prequel trilogies (I read them as they were coming out, a few years before the prequels started).

The major flaw of all the books is overdoing description, and characters seem to talk in a similar style (Chris Claremont's verbose style).

The first book, Shadow Moon, also has a major problem with pacing. Too deliberate during the first half, then a jarring sense of really starting to take off in the narrative much later than it should. I experienced it very differently the two times I read it. The first time, an action sequence on a boat during a storm took me several interminable days, yet oddly I plowed through it the second time in a single day, taking in the lead-in and lead-out. The deaths of a number of characters is also a major risk, but it's one I respected as quite gutsy. I have always gotten the sense that George Lucas is a storyteller who is willing to play rough with his characters. Look at the Ewok movies for an example of that. SW fans freaked out about a novel called Vector Prime for a major shake-up, but I felt like Shadow Moon had prepared me for that sort of thing well in advance.

The second book, Shadow Dawn, is well paced. Elora Danan gets to set out on her own, and figure out for herself what she is going to do with herself. It's her story of setting out and leaving a home behind to brave the dangers of the world, like Luke in the original SW movie, or like Willow in his own movie. Elora is very likeable in Shadow Dawn. Another major positive is that Rool is separated from Franjean, and away from the requisite bickering, is able to shine as a more thoughtful and heartfelt character. More of the larger world is explored, and there are some interesting locations. There's also a major reveal about the nature of the villain that I personally found mindblowing and genuinely compelling.

The third book, Shadow Star, ties things back to the original movie, Willow. I expect that everything that fans of the movie were hoping to find in the first book, Shadow Moon, is in the last book, Shadow Star. Yes, that's a problem because Shadow Moon is hard for many readers to get past. By the time I got to the third book I wasn't expecting pay off that ties back in to the movie, so that stuff was a very pleasant surprise. The distant history of the world is revealed, and Elora's own personal origins are explored. The story also hints at how, after the end of the movie Willow, subsequent events have unfolded in two major different ways.

I'm holding back from spoiling some details, but I honestly think there is good material in the story of the trilogy, even if the writing is hard to get through. I've read some of Claremont's comics, one of the old Marvel SW comics, an annual. I don't understand why he leans in to melodrama and overstatement and hyperbole. His style unfortunately buries a trilogy that I feel still has value, as a collection of stories that feel like they were planned out by George Lucas.