Bill Slavicsek was one of the honchos at WEG when the Star Wars RPG was created. He has written a book about his experience there and the creation of what I think is a contender for the best roleplaying game of all time.

I thought I'd provide a few notes on the book as I read it. If you are interested in the topic, I do recommend that you buy a copy as it has loads of detail about the creation of this amazing RPG. (I also recommend Timothy Zahn's behind-the-scenes commentary on his writing of the original Heir To The Empire trilogy of books, it is fantastic, too.)

So, my first notes?

-- Negotiations for the license were long and drawn out. WEG honchos kept the talks extremely secret so that even people at the company didn't know about the negotiations. Only those who needed to know were let on the possibility that WEG would get the license.

-- WEG found it important to publish games that were fun, had easy to read material, where the designers took a cinematic approach to roleplaying and the writers kept a deep and abiding respect for the source material.

-- The first release was Star Wars The Roleplaying Game hardback in October, 1987.

-- The second release was: Star Warriors, a boxed board game for starfighter battles in the Star Wars universe, also in October, 1987.

-- The third release was: Star Wars Sourcebook, November, 1987.

-- The fourth release was: Star Wars Campaign Pack, December, 1987.

The fifth release was the first adventure published by itself (not included in the any of the above products), and interestingly, this was designed out-of-house by a freelancer named Daniel Greenberg. I'm talking about Tatooine Manhunt, released January, 1988.

Continuing commentary on Bill Slavicsek's Defining A Galaxy.

It's an extremely interesting read, if you like Star Wars, are enthralled, as I am, with WEG's D6 game, and are interested in game design.

FASA was a leading competitor of WEG for the license. If FASA had won, their plan was to design Star Wars board games and sub-license the RPG out to ICE - Iron Crown Enterprises.

Man, what a different game the first Star Wars RPG would have been, eh?

If you've ever played FASA's Renegade Legion: Interceptor game, then you will know what FASA had in mind for their first Star Wars release. Interceptor is a re-skinned version of what FASA had designed for Star Wars.

I love the way Bill speaks to the design of that first Star Wars rpg--the D6 System. It's so elegant. And, it fits the thrill of the original trilogy of movies so well. Roll dice and go! Don't stop! Don't wait for the translation! Just go, baby! GO!

And, never tell me the odds!

EDIT: The Star Wars character templates were inspired by pre-generated characters the designers had seen in TSR AD&D adventure modules. The idea was a pregenerated character that was customizable!

I've always liked the introductory adventure provided in the 1E core rulebook, but I didn't realize how perfect it was for an introductory adventure until I read about its creation in Bill's book.

Rebel Breakout starts off in the action. The PC's have made a contact with a Rebel cell. Tiree is supposed to be the same Tiree that gets killed by Darth Vader during the Battle of Yavin. In fact, Tiree is the first to be killed by Vader during that battle.

The adventure is location based, and the location is very simple. It's basically a one-way tube, with the Imperials on one side and the PC Rebels making a dash for the Y-Wing hangar. There's a big chasm to get across, and Bill says that this was inspired by Luke's swing across the chasm with the Princess on his hip. They just made the chasm bigger, so it would be different.

The location is just enough for a new GM to digest. And, it's perfect for new players--they really have no choice but to go down the pipe to the Y-Wings.

The new PCs are presented with a character from the movies, Tiree (although the GM may need to refresh some memories as to who Tiree is), and they are given a droid that is a basic model of R2-D2. All stuff they know. All stuff from the movies. Plus, they are given a few extra pieces of equipment.

The Imperials set up on one end of the giant hallway with a heavy repeating blaster on a tripod. This introduces the PCs to the danger that the Imperials can and should be if the PCs decide to rush the stormtroopers rather than flee to the Y-Wings.

Tiree, as an NPC, can't do much, because he gets wounded badly just as the adventure opens.

For enterprising GM's, the adventure hints at deeper levels, so like The Lost City, a GM could easily get creative and make Rebel Breakout into a much bigger adventure.

The end is an excellent climax with the PCs in TIEs against two AT-ATs. The PC's succeed by escaping the mine, taking the Y-Wings, getting past the AT-AT's, and flying off into the sunset (offworld to hyperspace and presumably the Rebel Base on Yavin--or wherever the GM needs them to go).

Bill said that he used this adventure all the time. He often used it to start his own, private games. He used it for a game with his TSR colleagues--a campaign that spanned 5 years.

Funny Note: In Bill's personal game, a player chose the Ewok template. I'm guessing that that R2-D0 must have gotten hit and destroyed during this particular game as the PCs hollowed out the droid's case so that the Ewok could fit inside. The Ewok would push pedals to move the shell, and he'd poke his spear out of the droid's doors when in combat.

It is amazing how creative roleplayers can get, ain't it?

The adventure was used to introduce the game at various GameCons. Bill ran it numerous times at 1987's GenCon.

The ISB, the Imperial Security Bureau, was introduced to the Star Wars universe in this adventure, and like so many things created by WEG, the ISB is still canon!

ISB agent Mar Barezz was meant to be a typical Star Wars villain, emphasized by his taunts of the Rebels over the mine's PA system. How "Star Wars" is that, with Barezz in the hands of an excellent GM, consistently talking about the glory of the Empire and the futility of Rebel efforts, echoing off the walls, as the run-at-blaster-point takes place during the PC's run for the Y-Wings!

In the hands of a crafty GM, Barezz could be a recurring BIG BAD GUY for the PCs as the game continues to other adventures.

The Star Wars RPG was one of the first "pretty" game books, which is the standard today. WEG had access to all that amazing art and stills from the trilogy.

The 1E Core Rulebook wasn't 100% full color, but it did have enough color sections to really set the book off. Jim Ward, who was at the time head of design and editing at TSR, complained to that, because of WEG's Star Wars core rule, he had to make the Players Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide for AD&D Second Edition both hardback and full color.

It is interesting to note that WEG thought a long time about when to set the game. I think that they picked the perfect time period--the three years between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Lucas, at the time, would not OK exploring the Star Wars universe after Return of the Jedi (and he must have changed his mind on this, as Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire came out four years later).

More Notes From Bill...

Evidently, it was a bit of a fight with Lucas & Co. to be able to make up new stuff for the RPG. We can't fathom this now, since we know that WEG is the source of a ton of stuff still used in the Star Wars universe. But, at first, LFL said that WEG could only use stuff from the three movies and the nine approved books that were out at the time (3 novelizations, 3 Han Solo books, and the 3 Lando Calrissian books).

Oddly enough, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, which was the tenth and last book, was set off-limits by LFL. Bill doesn't explain why in the book, and maybe LFL didn't explain it either. He speculates that maybe there was a rights issue, but who knows?

WEG had to go to bat with LFL saying that it would be impossible to create an RPG without making up new stuff. And, Bill is credited with finally convincing LFL to allow WEG the power to expand the universe.

WEG was the first company, outside of LFL, that was given that right.

And, the Star Wars Sourcebook was the first of its kind. It sold extremely well as people who were Star Wars fans but not roleplayers or gamers bought the book just to read it.

I've read the book cover to cover, fairly recently, and I will agree that it's a **** fine read for any Star Wars fan.

Bill says that the Sourcebook became the by which all other encyclopedic books like this were measured--like the Visual Dictionaries and such--all books that came after WEG's Sourcebook.

LFL opened their archives to Bill & Co. He describes Skywalker Ranch, as it existed in the 80's. Pretty cool!

Most of the stuff in the Sourcebook was created from original designs for the movie--stuff the WEG people got through the license from LFL. The map of the interior of the Falcon was the first of its kind anywhere, and I know that people have since complained about--I'm not sure what they complained about, something to do with those plans--but they were created using the original set drawings for the films. Now, the drawings were not complete. Movie people only build for what will be used on screen. So, some of the deck was extrapolated, but they were extrapolated from THE SOURCE!

The Z-95 Headhunter ws introduced in one of the nine novels that WEG could source. These ships came from Brian Daley's Han Solo novel, Han Solo at Star's End.

WEG made up the name Hoersch-Kessel, which you see on some of the engines and spacecraft system. Also refereered to as HK.

WEG was the first to tag the X-Wing as a T-65. Specifically, it's a T-65C-A2 X-Wing Space Superiority Fighter. WEG also made up the name of the company which built these machines, Incom.

WEG made up all the details you read about all the Capital ships that you see in the films. For example, the description of the Mon Cal cruisers being individual works of art came from WEG.

The Victory class Star Destroyer was created from scratch for the book. Bill says that they wanted the Imperial class SDs to feel like they were the latest in a long line of vessels, and the Victory was created as a predecessor to do just that.

Kuat Drive Yards was created by those great dedicated guys at WEG.

There's a ton of stuff--too numerous to list--that first saw the light of day in the Sourcebook.

During my excursion to the book stores today, I saw a copy of the 30th Anniversary Edition. I never pulled the plug on this because I still have my originals. Plus, the set was $60 bucks. It was sealed, too. I wish it was opened so that I could have gotten a look inside.

More from Bill...

I forgot to mention...the maps of the Mos Eisley cantina and the lay out map of Mos Eisely were all taken from the source--the maps and diagrams used when filming the movies. So, they are about as accurate as you can get.