THE CORE FIRST EDITION GAME

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

THE CORE FIRST EDITION GAME

In my opinion, you can get away with playing Star Wars just using the First Edition Core Rulebook, but you'll be making up the stats for 99% of the vehicles, starships, droids, and characters that you will want to use in your game. That's why I think the Star Wars sourcebook is a necessary Core component to the game.

The very least that you'll want to get (to play First Edition) is the Core Rulebook + SW Sourcebook combo.





Now, I'll go a step further than that. I would say that the complete, basic core rules and background material are provided in four books: You need the two books above, the Core Rulebook + the SW Sourcebook. And, you need the The Imperial Sourcebook and the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook.

Star Wars Roleplaying Game + Star Wars Sourcebook + The Imperial Sourcebook + The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook.

These four books complete the core rules of the First Edition game, which is set in the years just after the Death Star is destroyed at the Battle of Yavin and the events that occur in The Empire Strikes Back. Later, the official game focus was expanded to include the entire trilogy period, and in Second Edition, the game added a new time period in which to play: The New Republic (which is now considered Legacy--the game followed the continued adventures of Luke, Leia and Han during the post-Jedi comics, novels, and computer games.)

The game is easily adaptable to any Star Wars period, though.

A note on Second Edition: First Edition D6 SW is about 95% compatible with Second Edition. Second Edition stat blocks are much longer, so there's stuff that you will not use in a 1E game. And, there are a few things, like the concept of Speed Dice, that are replaced in 2E. You'll need to convert if using a 2E supplement with 1E. But, I will say the conversion is minimal, and I would not hesitate to use a 2E supplement in any 1E game. In most ways, the games are identical--you just get more specifics with 2E.











ADVENTURES AND SUPPLEMENTS

WEG published a ton of adventures, and I think they're all quite good. WEG also had a policy to put an adventure in every supplement they publish. So, most supplments do have a short adventure in them. The Core Rulebook has two adventures. One is a Solo adventure designed to help you learn to use the rules and play the game. The second one is a short adventure that you can use as a starting point for a campaign. It's an adventure where new rebel recruits are thrown together in the face of Imperial attack, so it throws a wide selection of characters together and right into the blaster-firing action.

Besides the four books above, the supplements that I would recommend are:

-- Any WEG SW adventure that interests you.

-- Cracken's Rebel Field Guide, which is great if playing with a group of Rebels that are under-funded and under-equipped. Lots of useful misc. rules, too.

-- Death Star Technical Companion, which is a good DM book that helps give that Star Wars feel to Imperial installations. Lots of useful modular maps and room descriptions that you can drop into a game anywhere.

-- Wanted by Cracken, full of bad-guy NPCs and criminal organizations. Good GM book as it as baddies that you can use to face the Rebel PCs. Also good for a bounty hunter based game.

-- Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races, full of alien races that a GM can use in his game, or a player can use as his PC.

-- Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim, is an excellent book full of miscellaneous stuff a GM can use in his game. Primarily meant for the GM.

-- Galaxy Guide 11: Criminal Organizations, another good GM book full of adversaries for the player characters.

-- Galaxy Guide 12: Aliens - Enemies and Allies, another book of aliens for use as NPCs or PC, because this is Star Wars, and you can never get enough strange aliens into your game.

-- Alien Encounters, this is a large book of aliens, and it includes an alien creation system. If you only get one book that focuses on aliens, this is the one to get. Use the aliens as NPCs or PCs in your game.

-- The Planets Collection, is a compendum of three previous supplements. It is a collection of worlds that a GM can use to populate his Star Wars universe. Complete world descriptions. World map. And, interesting notes, including new alien races.

-- Shadows of the Empire: Planets Guide, more planets for you to use in your game. These worlds were all mentioned in the Shadows of the Empire story.

-- Creatures of the Galaxy, is an excellent book that will help the GM add creatures to his game (so that he's not using the Rancor or Mynocks over and over).

-- Cracken's Rebel Operatives, meant for the GM, this is an NPC book that a GM can use to populate his game.

-- Galladium's Fantastic Technology: Guns and Gear, one of the two books solely devoted to gear.

-- Gundark's Fantastic Technology: Personal Gear, is the second book devoted entirely to gear.

-- Platt's Starport Guide, excellent book focusing on starports and starship operations and procedures & licenses. Includes an interesting look at some well-known ports, like Kuat.

-- Alliance Intelligence Reports, meant for the GM, this is another good book with droids and NPCs that a GM can use to populate his Rebel based game.

-- Rules of Engagement: The Rebel SpecForce Handbook, a great book to use if you want to move beyond the typical Rebel to a more specialized, better equipped force. For example, this book would be useful for a GM who wanted to play the Rogue One storyline in his game. There are some intriguing combat rules and encumbrance rules in this sourcebook.

-- Cynabar's Fantastic Technology: Droids, the First Edition Core Rulebook as a quick-n-easy system for creating droids in seconds. If you get into droids, and you want some crunchy, detailed rules for their creation, then this is the supplement to get. Also includes several examples of new droids to use in a game.

-- Cracken's Threat Dossier, full of game data for people, places, ships, and technology featured in some of the later Star Wars novels that were being published in the 1990's.

-- Stock Ships, is a collection of freighters for use in your game, each complete with deckplans.

-- Wretched Hives of Scum and Villainy, details eight establishments that a GM can drop into his game when needed. The write-up are long and detailed. Maps provided.

-- Hideouts and Strongholds, provides the GM with ready-made bases and safe houses for Rebel PCs.







OTHER STUFF

WEG published a ton of other stuff for the D6 Star Wars RPG. What I focus on above is what might interest a GM running a standard game with a group of Rebels scratching out an existence, fighting the Imperials tooth-n-nail in any way they can. If you want to run a different type of game, there's probably a supplement to support that endeavor.

For example, if you want to run a game that focuses on bounty hunters, then you'll want to get No Disintegrations. If you want to focus on smugglers, then you will want to get Galaxy Guide 6: Tramp Freighters. If you've just read Brian Daley's Han Solo trilogy, and you think the setting for those books would be an interesting area of the universe in which to set your campaign, then you'll want to get the Han Solo and the Corporate Sector Sourcebook. If you want to set your game on Tatooine, then you should look at the adventure, Tatooine Manhunt, plus Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope, and Galaxy Guide 7: Mos Eisley. There are tons more, but you get the idea.

The Gamemaster Screen sets are all good buys. They come lots of good extras--and some excellent advice for GMs, both seasoned and newbie, in running Star Wars adventures.

There are also plenty of setting supplements, from single worlds, like Goroth - Slave of the Empire or The Black Sands of Socorro, to novel based settings, like the Truce At Bakura Sourcebook, Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook, or the Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook. There are even sources for entire sectors of space, like Flashpoint! Brak Sector and The Player's Guide to Tapani.

And, there is much, much more.









THE STAR WARS COMICS

I want to mention these because they can be an excellent source for game session ideas even if you are not a comics reader. There are tons and tons of Star Wars comics out there, primarily published by Marvel (today and in the 70's & 80's, and by Dark Horse from the 90's to just a few years ago). Not only are a lot of them excellent Star Wars reads, but plenty of them are ripe for conversion into an adventure for your players.