1E + IAG deep dive

[Falconer]

So you want to get into West End Games Star Wars, and you have sensibly obtained the two gateway products: the First Edition Rulebook and the Introductory Adventure Game Set. Step One, to demystify what they offer and unpack where they overlap and where they part ways (and where they complement one another). Step Two, play the s*** out of them!

I’m going to tackle that Step One here, bit by bit, and you can assume that anything that gets glossed over or generalized might be covered in more detail in a future post. I would like to try to avoid getting into the weeds about editions other than these two. Though if I inspire spin-off threads which are more open to that, great!

The First Edition Rulebook (formally Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game but hereafter simply 1E) is a 144-page hardcover by Greg Costikyan published in 1987. The IAG is a boxed set by Peter Schweighofer published in 1997. It contains dice and posters and cards and four saddle-stitched booklets:

1. Players Booklet - 32 digest pp.
   
2. Character Sheets - 16 letter pp.
   
3. Narrators Booklet - 64 digest pp.
   
4. Adventure Book - 64 letter pp. (by Stephen Luminati)

1E is fundamentally a toolbox (but includes a scenario), and the IAG is fundamentally built around a scenario (but includes some elements of a toolbox).


Time Setting — 1E

There are some suggestions of a pre-ANH timeframe:

• A dramatic opening crawl (taken from the ANH novelization’s Prologue) explaining the situation “In those first dark days” when “it seemed certain the bright flame of resistance would be extinguished,” to which 1E adds, “This is the galaxy into which you are born” (p. 1).
  
  
• Travel times to and from Alderaan (p. 140). Apparently Alderaan is still intact (p. 56). (However, read on.)
  
  
• Travel times to and from Yavin (p. 140). Players might be given missions which serve to help preserve the secrecy of the Yavin base (p. 89). Yavin 4 is also prominently pictured on the aforementioned page 1.
  
  
• Two of the templates are senators, and there is no mention of the Senate having been disbanded (pp. 131-2, 137-8)
  
  
• “All player characters are members of the Rebellion” (p. 15, see also pp. 24, 67, 99), yet per the templates, not one of them was inspired to join because of Luke Skywalker and/or the destruction of the Death Star. Rather, it’s often repeated that the Rebellion is hopeless (pp. 124, 126, 128).

So at least it can be said that the pre-ANH timeframe is supported. If not as the sole time setting of the game, perhaps as a natural starting point for a longrunning campaign that progresses parallel to the trilogy.

• Page 60 gives an example in which players are travelling a route and “they know the standard duration is 6 days” but “debris from the destruction of Alderaan” unexpectedly causes “them to spend 12 on the trip.” This incidental interaction with the destruction of Alderaan is described as “an event that affects the players in the future” and helps “promote the illusion that the universe has a life of its own and that things occur for logical reasons, but without regard for the player characters.”
  
  
• Another place simply states the game takes place “during the period of the Rebellion” (p. 68). I presume this point is made so emphatically because they had no license to stray outside of that timeframe.
  
  
• The chapter “Adventure Ideas” (pp. 115-21) by Ken Rolson also provides some scenarios that take place later during the trilogy.

Time Setting — IAG

This game takes place “Since the Alliance defeated the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin” (Players Booklet, p. 3). Added to the Young Senatorial template: “The Imperial Senate has been disbanded” (Character Sheets, p. 14).


Player Start — 1E

In the included starting scenario, Rebel Breakout (by Curtis Smith), “none of the PCs are currently active members of the Alliance,” but they “want to join.”

To begin, “players choose their character templates” but “remove weapons and other potentially powerful items” (p. 100).

At the end of the adventure, they will arrive at a “secret Rebel base” and “become full-fledged Rebels, especially honored for having delivered…valuable Y-wings” (p. 108).


Player Start — IAG

In the included starting scenario, Assault on Edan Base, “You are all members of the Rebel Alliance serving at a secret base on Edan II. Some of you might serve as soldiers, scouts and pilots. Any spacefaring characters like smugglers might be stopping over at Edan Base to deliver supplies” (Narrators Booklet, p. 5).

To begin, each player should “Look over the character sheets… and pick one” (Players Book, p. 11).

The scenario will play out like a small-scale version of Battle of Hoth. However, at the end of it, surviving PCs remain on the planet. A lot like the Adventure Idea, “Marooned on Hoth” (1E, pp. 119-20).

[Whill]

This is amazing, Falconer! I'm looking forward to your future posts! Just a few comments on the first post.

[garhkal]

I've only ever seen two players who EVER bothered taking the Senatorial templates.. BOTH went with the old senatorial..
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