I've heard FFG has license issues with web-content, or I'd say just release Rebels content that way...

Well, so long as the web-content doesn't require the customer to pay for it, FFG can generally release what they want, so long as the content in question is vetted by Lucasfilm. I've heard stories in the past regarding WotC that errata changes had to be vetted by Lucasfilm, but I'm guessing the various Betas have some clause or workflow that allows FFG to publish updates in a timely manner.

Problem is developing said web-content carries a development cost (writers like to be paid for their work, after all), making it so that the web articles are essentially advertising that FFG has to hope will entice the person downloading it to go pick up other books in the line.

I've heard stories in the past regarding WotC that errata changes had to be vetted by Lucasfilm, but I'm guessing the various Betas have some clause or workflow that allows FFG to publish updates in a timely manner.

I think it's as simple as the reason the fluff chapters aren't in the beta. Lucasfilm probably doesn't care about rules changes very much, it just wants to vett them because it can. You know, bureaucracy tends to focus on questionably necessary approvals because the alternative is just too horrible to imagine.

Anyway, as we know what changes between the beta and final is almost all rules based, so the fluff is probably already being vetted right now. When the completed rules chapters arrive the reviewer can probably blast through that in a day since there's very little that's likely to offend.

I'm more worried that FFG will be forced to tie into Rebels and other Disney projects. When there's enough material and demand FFG will decide if they want to put out a Rebels book. For now it would be a waste of a development slot and probably micro-managed to the point that the FFG writers would want to cry.

I'm more worried that FFG will be forced to tie into Rebels and other Disney projects. When there's enough material and demand FFG will decide if they want to put out a Rebels book. For now it would be a waste of a development slot and probably micro-managed to the point that the FFG writers would want to cry.

Typically the only time Lucasfilm tried this was with big multimedia crossover events such as Shadows of the Empire and Force Unleashed, the later of which didn't go as planned due to severe delays on the video game.

There was the instance of them requesting WotC do a reprint of their initial Star Wars d20 core rulebook using image stills from AotC, but WotC took that as an opportunity to give the system a much needed overhaul and publish it as the Revised Core Rulebook to bring it in line with various design aspects of the 3.5 version of D&D. No such thing was done for when RotS came out as the RCR product line was pretty much defunct (official word was "on hiatus" which most folks took as "dead system").

If Disney was going to do something of that nature with Rebels, it would have been when Rebels was launched as a series, not long after the initial buzz had died down.

Could also be that Disney/Lucasfilm and FFG have a solid enough working relationship that the former is willing to trust the latter's judgement in how to handle the product line and let FFG do as it will, so long as they pay the licensing fees. Lucasfilm had a similar "hands off" policy back during the WEG days, and things only soured when WEG was unable to pay those licensing fees.

I think you're right, Donovan. I hope so, anyway. Even if I liked the new show, I wouldn't want to see it in the game, it feels much too different thematically to their AoR output.

That said, I wouldn't mind bits of the new stuff turning up as species, ships, planets etc, the way they have disseminated various things throughout the splatbooks thus far. As long as it's not gimmicky nonsense like 'lightsaber pistols'.

Well as the Order 66 podcasts involving the devs of SW have revealed FFG is technically a year ahead of us as far as what is published so they might have all the info for the first season of Rebels already. That said I doubt it as FFG seems more focused on getting done fulfilling their original mission goals they set up when they got the license from Lucas. The other thing is we are basing this on the assumption that FFG will have the license for that much longer. Remember their deadline is right there at the middle of the year. I think we will get our Smuggler and Bounty Hunter books before then and one more of the Age books (possibly Spy or Soldier) and then the F&D Core before the license expires. I am hoping we will get a hint at the SotU they are about to make about the card games coming up that hints at FFG holding the license just another year or 5.

As long as it's not gimmicky nonsense like 'lightsaber pistols'.

.....lightsabers that are also blaster pistols... lightsabers shaped like blaster pistols... or pistols that shoot out little lightsaber projectiles?

Well as the Order 66 podcasts involving the devs of SW have revealed FFG is technically a year ahead of us as far as what is published so they might have all the info for the first season of Rebels already. That said I doubt it as FFG seems more focused on getting done fulfilling their original mission goals they set up when they got the license from Lucas. The other thing is we are basing this on the assumption that FFG will have the license for that much longer. Remember their deadline is right there at the middle of the year. I think we will get our Smuggler and Bounty Hunter books before then and one more of the Age books (possibly Spy or Soldier) and then the F&D Core before the license expires. I am hoping we will get a hint at the SotU they are about to make about the card games coming up that hints at FFG holding the license just another year or 5.

Wait their deadline is when? I figured they had it for at least two or three more years to make certain that all the career books get out before they lose it.

Well as the Order 66 podcasts involving the devs of SW have revealed FFG is technically a year ahead of us as far as what is published so they might have all the info for the first season of Rebels already. That said I doubt it as FFG seems more focused on getting done fulfilling their original mission goals they set up when they got the license from Lucas. The other thing is we are basing this on the assumption that FFG will have the license for that much longer. Remember their deadline is right there at the middle of the year. I think we will get our Smuggler and Bounty Hunter books before then and one more of the Age books (possibly Spy or Soldier) and then the F&D Core before the license expires. I am hoping we will get a hint at the SotU they are about to make about the card games coming up that hints at FFG holding the license just another year or 5.

Wait their deadline is when? I figured they had it for at least two or three more years to make certain that all the career books get out before they lose it.

The original terms of the license expire in 2015 (they've had it for 5 or so years). Doesn't mean they lose it, just means they have to renew/renegotiate the contract by then.

I figured they would have the contract set in stone until 2017 or 2018. Hopefully nothing screws up the renewal.

I figured they would have the contract set in stone until 2017 or 2018. Hopefully nothing screws up the renewal.

I believe they've got about 8 months to get a new one signed.

Unless lfl/dis gets greedy I expect ffg will keep going until they've at least finished the product line. They don't exactly seem to be losing money here...

As long as it's not gimmicky nonsense like 'lightsaber pistols'.

.....lightsabers that are also blaster pistols... lightsabers shaped like blaster pistols... or pistols that shoot out little lightsaber projectiles?

First one. Ezra's Lightsaber has a blaster pistol incorporated in the top of the handguard...

Ugh, this feels like something wacky out of 'Saint's Row'. Or Final Fantasy's 'Sharkzooka'.

So let's have a Missile Tube that fires Ewoks instead of missiles. And the Ewoks are all armed with lightsabers.

Ugh, this feels like something wacky out of 'Saint's Row'. Or Final Fantasy's 'Sharkzooka'. So let's have a Missile Tube that fires Ewoks instead of missiles. And the Ewoks are all armed with lightsabers.

http://www.wolfslair.org:8080/armoury/ewok.htm

:-)

(Sorry, replying from my phone, can't link-ify easily from here...)

Ugh, this feels like something wacky out of 'Saint's Row'. Or Final Fantasy's 'Sharkzooka'.

So let's have a Missile Tube that fires Ewoks instead of missiles. And the Ewoks are all armed with lightsabers.

Gimmicky or not, there are real world examples of pistols and swords being combined into a single weapon system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistol_sword

Ugh, this feels like something wacky out of 'Saint's Row'. Or Final Fantasy's 'Sharkzooka'. So let's have a Missile Tube that fires Ewoks instead of missiles. And the Ewoks are all armed with lightsabers.

*cough*

http://www.wolfslair.org:8080/armoury/ewok.htm

So, there are some good things in bloated, contradictory mess of the EU?

Now I want these statted.

And I want one personally.

In pink.

Ugh, this feels like something wacky out of 'Saint's Row'. Or Final Fantasy's 'Sharkzooka'. So let's have a Missile Tube that fires Ewoks instead of missiles. And the Ewoks are all armed with lightsabers.

*cough*

http://www.wolfslair.org:8080/armoury/ewok.htm

:-)

(Sorry, replying from my phone, can't link-ify easily from here...)

Many bottles of whiskey and kegs of beer sacrificed their contents to help us reach the state required to come up with this idea...

As long as it's not gimmicky nonsense like 'lightsaber pistols'.

.....lightsabers that are also blaster pistols... lightsabers shaped like blaster pistols... or pistols that shoot out little lightsaber projectiles?

First one. Ezra's Lightsaber has a blaster pistol incorporated in the top of the handguard...

Thats.... ok I don't know what that is.

Though with Zeb's Fartstaffrifle and now this, I am expecting to see an upcomong attachment set that allows you to mate one weapon with another to make a combi-weapon....

The... blastersaber (?)... is downright tame, almost logical even (Getting caught with a blaster is bad, but seems to go with the territory. Getting caught with a lightsaber? Well... Hiding it in another weapon seems like a fine idea) compared to this:

Edit:

When you don't have the Masters to train you and you have to take out Darth freakin' Vader or the Emperor to get to the good lessons from the Sith, perhaps the gimmicks make more sense.

In the case of the Inquisitor's spinning-blade hilt, it's been noted in official commentary that it's really more of a psychological weapon, primarily of use against half-trained apprentices (like Kanan) to distract them and set them up for a decisive strike. A properly trained Jedi Knight (or someone with prodigious innate talent for dueling like Luke Skywalker is alleged to have) would be able to exploit just how impractical the Inquisitor's saber-hilt is. Obi-Wan or Anakin might be surprised at first, but they'd get over it, while duelists of the caliber of Yoda, Windu, or Dooku likely wouldn't bat an eye at such a ludicrous weapon and have no problem exploiting the various flaws in the design.

As for Ezra's combination blaster-lightsaber, given the setting it actually makes a bit of sense to have a dual-purpose weapon. Unlike Luke, who was pretty much indoctrinated into the basic Jedi dogma by the time he got around to building his own lightsaber, Ezra's the type of person more likely to create such a multi-purpose weapon. I agree that the blaster portion would probably be equivalent to a hold-out blaster in terms of game stats, but it'd be a blaster and it'd be quite a surprise for an opponent expecting the guy wielding a lightsaber to have to get into close-quarters in order to attack.

Obi-Wan or Anakin might be surprised at first, but they'd get over it, while duelists of the caliber of Yoda, Windu, or Dooku likely wouldn't bat an eye at such a ludicrous weapon and have no problem exploiting the various flaws in the design.

In the case of the Inquisitor's spinning-blade hilt, it's been noted in official commentary that it's really more of a psychological weapon, primarily of use against half-trained apprentices (like Kanan) to distract them and set them up for a decisive strike.

Oh, absolutely. It just speaks volumes of the over-all style of this particular iteration of "Star Wars".

Yeah, it just seems so flashy and gimmicky and stupid to me. So obviously been run through a dozen 'focus groups' to see what fourteen year old boys think is 'cool'.

I know, I'm old and crotchety. But for me, lightsabers are cool anyway, they don't need to come in all these bizarre shapes and sizes.

I remember seeing the prequels and thinking how much the lightsaber fights reminded me of something like 'Power Rangers', all that twirling and posturing. The ones in the original films seemed to be telling a story - Ben/Vader, Luke/Vader I and II - rather than being needless circus acrobatics.

So to go back to the point of this thread - this crotchety old lady doesn't want to see Frisbee sith sabers or gunsabers or anything like that in the FFG game, thanks.

Not gonna 'hate' on this show (as you young whippersnappers say) - if it brings in a new generation of kids to Star Wars, then great. But keep it out of my grown-up RPG, thanks.

Not gonna 'hate' on this show (as you young whippersnappers say) - if it brings in a new generation of kids to Star Wars, then great. But keep it out of my grown-up RPG, thanks.

Not that I agree or disagree, but given how often (and brilliantly) you break from canon, I am surprised this is even a blip on your proverbial radar.

In general, I'd prefer to see this sort of thing made available for those who want it and easy to avoid for them that do not.

I think an online supplement would do. Heck, if you don't wanna pay writers hold a "fan contest" each month and publish the winner's version (online) of this or that character or gadget and reward them with a gift certificate or some such.