For almost a year, something strange has been brewing in the force. While sifting though Golden and Silver Age comics and all sorts of other swag at last year’s awesome (might I add) comic showcase the San Diego ComicCon, a small but steady flow of beards and Stormtroopers gawked over a corner of the LucusArts booth. While most strolled by admiring the life-size replica Jabba the Hutt or newly displayed costumes for all six of the Tri-trilogy films, only a few noticed and fewer still questioned the beautiful painting of three floating rocks accompanied by Luke Skywalker’s lightsabor. As much as I tried to dig it out, the guy manning the booth only had two things that he knew: “2010” and “Visions”
Well, that was a year ago and little more has been answered. Starwars.com has released a new painting from the book almost like clockwork every two months since ComicCon ‘09 but with no real solid info. The paintings are just wonderful; mixing geeky with fine art is always a plus. But, still, I can’t imagine a book, let alone a 142 page book, filled with full color art from Lucus. It could be done no problem but seems unlikely.
First off my suspicions only popped up a few weeks ago when Wizards of the Coast decided to not renew its contract with Star Wars and LucusArts. Which had people asking “why did a very well known hobby game creator end a long and very lucrative relationship with the biggest name to roll with in RPG!?” Wizards of the Coast is huge, too; we’re talking Magic the Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, Axis and Allies; really big names they make and arguably the best name brand they worked with was Star Wars. But seemly out of the blue, Wizards ends the 10 year relationship with Lucus! Makes me think someone didn’t like something someone else did.
On a side note, the very last Wizards book for the Star Wars RPG is to be released in April (no later than May when the contract officially ends).
So maybe LucusArts is getting into the writing and creating of RPG games. That seems to be the answer to Vision so many online sites give. It’s not official and really I think it’s a “New Hope” more than a fact. Fans have wanted a new system for Star Wars for awhile; the 2007 “Saga Edition” dropped some of the very known d-20 rules and added some (not as loved) d-20 modern rules. Also, they slashed races and classes like a Death Star superlaser directed at Alderaan. Fans didn’t buy the “updated system” and continued the ways of the old. So by cutting the Star Wars brand, Wizards dropped a very high-end price tag that wasn’t giving them a return expected. Seems logical.
Basically the Star Wars brand is very high priced, but not out of reach. Lucus has always been very giving to fans. I could honestly say if a fan wrote a RPG worth bearing the Star Wars name, he would allow it, assuming he got a cut of course. Problem is the whole RPG community is split down a very drastic line(s). The d-10 system is very simple to learn, the d-20 system is the classic, the miniatures system is the “combat” system, the card system is inexpensive and of course the so loveable, “Custom” systems arrive from versus books like Evil Hat Productions. I know the guys over there very well and one of them owes me a beer. (PS Lenny, where’s Dresden? And I better get a copy of the damn book(s)!)
Visions is a mystery, still. If it’s a new RPG, I’ll be stoked. If it’s a book of art…I’ll be okay with that in the universe. If it’s a true to life manual on The Force…well then I can use my newly acquired Jedi powers to Force Pull some ice cream across my table while I watch Episode IV for the 1,000th time.
0 comments:
Post a Comment