Lit [Fantasy Flight Games] Because it just keeps getting better

I consider Mars Guo to still be a Phuii, which is an offshoot of the taller Bardottans.

 

Apparently the Clone Wars books clarify what exactly happened to Anaxes as well, though I don't actually own them so I can't be sure.

 

They indeed do, not home to check the exact quote but I recall they did explain and expand it. Maybe based on unreleased TCW episodes!

 

I also like that the descriptions of alien species in this RPG are finally rid of the previous versions' big "planet-of-hats" problem. "All Xians are Y." Annoying. This is particularly noticeable in the write-ups for the races that were antagonists in the films, like the Hutts and the Separatist leaders' species, which give them a kriffing truckload of nuance, even sympathy, that they never had before.

 

It's in the Dawn of Rebellion book. They are still unsure, but the leading theory is that the shipyards suffered a main factor failure that detonated a stockpile of hypermattter. Other theories are Jedi-engineered planetary collisions and separatist super weapons.

 

No mention of the false flag conspiracy that Chancellor Palpatine engineered it to blame on the Jedi to help turn people against them?

 

I would love to see an ST era sourcebook, mostly to complete the set.

 

Do like when that happens. Remember how the Wolfman aliens were always characterized as being isolationist and very mistrustful of outsiders, and then the Kenobi novel had one who was depicted as being easy going and getting along well with other species.

 

I think with some species/cultures, the planet of hats issue makes sense in terms of the ones that are in the greater galaxy. The only Rodians the Grand Protector let leave Rodia were the bounty hunters and mercenaries, for instance. The Umbarans are another great example. They have a complicated caste system but one can rise to a higher caste if they are cunning or treacherous enough - and only the higher castes are allowed to leave the planet.

 

I really wonder where the RPG will go from here. I feel like it's kind of constrained by the fact that the new canon hasn't had much of any material from eras outside the movies - in the WOTC version you could play in the Ancient Republic, New Jedi Order, or Legacy eras in addition to the OT and PT. Though ST era sourcebooks seem a likely next step, obviously.

I also noticed that the WOTC version let you play as a Sith (though still discouraged gamemasters from using them as protagonists TOO often) while this one doesn't yet - in fact it took until the recent Clone Wars books to introduce any "villainous" classes at all, in the form of Nightsister, Death Watch Member, and Separatist Commander.

 

Yes, bring on the sequel trilogy stuff!

Well, the Mystic source book did have guidelines for playing dark side Force users. (Also, the Separatist Commander and Death Watch could work for playing an antihero.)

 

FIFY

 

Right, forgot that it was for villain characters (although I do think those could work for antiheroes, too). Course, all you ever needed to do to play a non-Force user villain was just roll up a character and play them as bad guys. I mean, there's nothing that says your Smuggler has to be a hero and can't be a murderous scumbag if you chose to make him kick the Jawas and all that.

 

Doesn't bode well...

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news...active_to_close_after_companywide_layoffs.php

 

Losing just ten people would result in two whole departments getting the axe?

 

People often have an inflated view of how large (in terms of personnel) these companies are. Especially with RPGs it is often just a handful of people and the bulk of the work is done by freelancers. Also not surprised to see them getting axed, as RPGs are notoriously low margin and niche market oriented. RPGs not called "Dungeons and Dragons" even more so.

So when is FFG's license up? Looks like Starships and Speeders is the last we'll get for their Star Wars RPG (assuming it makes it out at all).

 

One major problem with rpg book sales is not everyone buy them, groups usually share them or copy pages if not use scanned illegal copies online due to high price / low demand rpg book market. While interest in them is high, not enough follow that interest through to buy them and rely on libraries and copies legal or illegal.
It only gets worse with the ascent of 3d printing becoming affordeable for everybody and the figure market will face the same problems with lots of fans already doing their own figures and toys custom printed and painted.

I wish Europe would be as far with affordable home 3D printing and scanning as the US is where such crafting skills are far better integrated into society and school than here.

 

If the FFG tabletop RPG division does indeed close I will say my only regret is that we never got a proper "Aliens of the Galaxy"-type sourcebook before the game went under. FFG definitely had a good run and produced a good system, but with the ST wrapping up I can't think of a better time for a fresh start. Hopefully the license will end up with someone good. Fully canon-compliant RPG for 2021 perhaps?

 

Between this and the One Ring RPG abruptly cancelled, not good news.

Time to finally move FFG Star Wars RPG books to storage and free up bookshelf space.

Also, I doubt the RPG license is separate; FFG isn't dropping the Star Wars gaming license. Most likely, you're not going to see any new Star Wars RPG for quite some time.

 

i wonder will they still finish and release the announced books? I recall 3 not released yet

 

My gut says Starships and Speeders makes it out as I get the impression it's all but done. Anything else? Unless they confirm they're moving forward on a freelance only basis I'll say "signs point to no."

What were the other ones they were supposedly working on?

 

I feel so guilty about using sites like The Trove and D6 Holocron now. No idea in the slightest that they were THAT harmful to the industry.

 

The thing is, there's always talk about how "the industry is dying" every time that a RPG company fails or an RPG line is pulled, but in virtually every case it's something specific with that company. It's my understanding that the investors in FFG were looking for profit margins, and the RPG was the least of it. (Destiny and one other Star Wars licensed product is also going). The One Ring RPG, for example, was doing just fine, but the holders of the LOTR IP (or the IP for the pen-and-paper RPG, at least) decided to yank the license, presumably to get a better price elsewhere.

Ah, well. Call of Cthulhu and Shadowrun are still keepin' on, at least.

 

Destiny is going too? FFG was a prime source for extraordinary art... pity. Think of the amounts of artworks never released in any form that are now in storage at LFL... just like with decipher, galaxies tcg and others that at least got reused later by FFG no less.