This is the latest in a series of posts looking at roleplaying games I really think you owe it to yourself to play.

Last time out, looking at Ghostbusters, I talked about the wonderful simplicity of the game’s system, and how it could only be betterered by one thing: taking that system and combining it with the greatest science fiction movie trilogy of all time. Well, at least, it was in 1987….

9) Star Wars

Remember how Traveller, well, just didn’t do it for me? Remember how I was essentially seduced by that image of a Luke Skywalker-lookalike on the box? (Damn you, GDW….) Well, it took five years or so, but finally my sci-fi roleplaying prayers were answered in 1987 with the release, on the (gulp) tenth anniversary of the movie, of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game from West End Games.

If Marvel Super Heroes had opened my eyes to how a game system could work with you in creating a setting, Star Wars blew out of the back of my skull. Designed by Greg Costikyan, Curtis Smith and Bill Slavicsek, the simple D6 system in Star Wars expanded on the initial principles of Ghostbusters, and was an absolute joy to read. The original rulebook filled my head with the potential excitement of adventures across the galaxy, where the players would fight for the Rebellion against the evil forces of the Empire. Blasters would be fired! Quips would be uttered! Lightsabers would be drawn! Heroes would be made!

So naturally, in the first session of my campaign, the players stole a starship and then – I remember this quite specifically – spot-welded the ship merchant to the inside of his own safe.

Yeah, they weren’t really looking to be heroes.

Despite what you may think, that incident kicked off one of the best campaigns I’ve ever run, although it was a classic example of the lunatics taking over the asylum. The ring leader of this band of lunatics – the McMurphy character, if you will – had asked to play a rogue Imperial agent, a man who was only interested in looking out for himself, and wasn’t anxious to work for the Rebellion or the Empire. Thinking this would make for a kind of Han Solo-like rogue, I said yes; not knowing that what he was actually going to play was the classic Traveller or D&D anti-hero. Chaotic Neutral, in other words; everyone else can go hang, as long as I come out of it with cash.

Now, there’s a place for that kind of character, but not necessarily in a classic Star Wars campaign. The original rulebook suggested you set your game between the end of Star Wars and the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back, when the Rebellion has won a major victory by destroying the Death Star, but the stakes are high and there’s plenty of danger. I liked the sound of that, and I particularly liked the high drama inherent in the setting. But, we didn’t really get to that; instead we created some high drama of our own.

That was mostly because a latecomer to the game asked to create a Jedi – a very rare thing at this point in the Star Wars timeline, as you might realise – and I said yes, thinking that perhaps that with him in the group, we’d get some of that good-vs-evil stuff that I was craving. Well if you thought of him as good and the rest of the party as evil….

What happened was what always happens when you drop a Lawful Good Paladin into the middle of a Chaotic Neutral party: lots of arguing, scheming, backstabbing and ultimately, bloodshed.

The thing is, it was immensely entertaining to watch every week, simply because both of the players were very good at sticking within their roles. The rogue agent lied, schemed, double-crossed (the rest of the party) and generally acted in accordance with his personal code. The lone Jedi proselytised, argued, defended innocents (from the rest of the party) and generally acted in accordance with the Jedi code. I just sat back and occasionally prodded them towards something, and somehow that eventually led to them turning up to the battle of Hoth to help Darth Vader.

Mmm. Well, it was certainly a memorable campaign.

Long rambling personal reminiscences aside, Star Wars was (and really, is) a classic in roleplaying design, and to date is one of the few RPGs which I liked enough to actually buy supplements for. Unfortunately not long after my campaign started, it ended, as I moved away from the area and my roleplaying group. As a result my dreams of a classic Rebels vs Imperials campaign never came to light.

By 1992 I had an entirely new roleplaying group at my disposal – and West End Games released Star Wars in a Second Edition. However, on reading reviews at the time, I found out the Second Edition expanded the rules quite a bit, which frankly I never thought they needed. I understand now that Second Editions are a natural part of any large RPG line’s progression, but at the time, I didn’t see the point in buying into it. Besides, I hated the cover art.

Since then the Star Wars licence has proved perennial in RPGs, although I stopped paying attention long ago. Today Wizards of the Coast publish the official RPG, although the original D6 System Star Wars came from is still knocking around in various forms. For a good overview of Star Wars’ RPG history, I recommend this article on – where else – Star Wars.com.

Today, even after the wildly uneven Prequel Trilogy and the relentless exploitation of Star Wars by the Lucas Empire (Hey, it’s either that or Howard the Duck spin-offs), I still have a hankering to run a Star Wars campaign that evokes the classic era, the original trilogy.

Being realistic and boringly adult about it, I know there’s an element of wanting to recapture those glory days, when I felt like I was running a campaign by the skin of my teeth, barely keeping up with an older, smarter and wilier group of players. That’s unlikely to happen, but I still have my rulebooks – you never know.

It took Lucas 16 years to get back to the movies, after all….

This is the latest in a series of posts looking at roleplaying games I really think you owe it to yourself to play.

Last time out, looking at Ghostbusters, I talked about the wonderful simplicity of the game’s system, and how it could only be betterered by one thing: taking that system and combining it with the greatest science fiction movie trilogy of all time. Well, at least, it was in 1987….

9) Star Wars

Remember how Traveller, well, just didn’t do it for me? Remember how I was essentially seduced by that image of a Luke Skywalker-lookalike on the box? (Damn you, GDW….) Well, it took five years or so, but finally my sci-fi roleplaying prayers were answered in 1987 with the release, on the (gulp) tenth anniversary of the movie, of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game from West End Games.

If Marvel Super Heroes had opened my eyes to how a game system could work with you in creating a setting, Star Wars blew out of the back of my skull. Designed by Greg Costikyan, Curtis Smith and Bill Slavicsek, the simple D6 system in Star Wars expanded on the initial principles of Ghostbusters, and was an absolute joy to read. The original rulebook filled my head with the potential excitement of adventures across the galaxy, where the players would fight for the Rebellion against the evil forces of the Empire. Blasters would be fired! Quips would be uttered! Lightsabers would be drawn! Heroes would be made!

So naturally, in the first session of my campaign, the players stole a starship and then – I remember this quite specifically – spot-welded the ship merchant to the inside of his own safe.

Yeah, they weren’t really looking to be heroes.

Despite what you may think, that incident kicked off one of the best campaigns I’ve ever run, although it was a classic example of the lunatics taking over the asylum. The ring leader of this band of lunatics – the McMurphy character, if you will – had asked to play a rogue Imperial agent, a man who was only interested in looking out for himself, and wasn’t anxious to work for the Rebellion or the Empire. Thinking this would make for a kind of Han Solo-like rogue, I said yes; not knowing that what he was actually going to play was the classic Traveller or D&D anti-hero. Chaotic Neutral, in other words; everyone else can go hang, as long as I come out of it with cash.

Now, there’s a place for that kind of character, but not necessarily in a classic Star Wars campaign. The original rulebook suggested you set your game between the end of Star Wars and the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back, when the Rebellion has won a major victory by destroying the Death Star, but the stakes are high and there’s plenty of danger. I liked the sound of that, and I particularly liked the high drama inherent in the setting. But, we didn’t really get to that; instead we created some high drama of our own.

That was mostly because a latecomer to the game asked to create a Jedi – a very rare thing at this point in the Star Wars timeline, as you might realise – and I said yes, thinking that perhaps that with him in the group, we’d get some of that good-vs-evil stuff that I was craving. Well if you thought of him as good and the rest of the party as evil….

What happened was what always happens when you drop a Lawful Good Paladin into the middle of a Chaotic Neutral party: lots of arguing, scheming, backstabbing and ultimately, bloodshed.

The thing is, it was immensely entertaining to watch every week, simply because both of the players were very good at sticking within their roles. The rogue agent lied, schemed, double-crossed (the rest of the party) and generally acted in accordance with his personal code. The lone Jedi proselytised, argued, defended innocents (from the rest of the party) and generally acted in accordance with the Jedi code. I just sat back and occasionally prodded them towards something, and somehow that eventually led to them turning up to the battle of Hoth to help Darth Vader.

Mmm. Well, it was certainly a memorable campaign.

Long rambling personal reminiscences aside, Star Wars was (and really, is) a classic in roleplaying design, and to date is one of the few RPGs which I liked enough to actually buy supplements for. Unfortunately not long after my campaign started, it ended, as I moved away from the area and my roleplaying group. As a result my dreams of a classic Rebels vs Imperials campaign never came to light.

By 1992 I had an entirely new roleplaying group at my disposal – and West End Games released Star Wars in a Second Edition. However, on reading reviews at the time, I found out the Second Edition expanded the rules quite a bit, which frankly I never thought they needed. I understand now that Second Editions are a natural part of any large RPG line’s progression, but at the time, I didn’t see the point in buying into it. Besides, I hated the cover art.

Since then the Star Wars licence has proved perennial in RPGs, although I stopped paying attention long ago. Today Wizards of the Coast publish the official RPG, although the original D6 System Star Wars came from is still knocking around in various forms. For a good overview of Star Wars’ RPG history, I recommend this article on – where else – Star Wars.com.

Today, even after the wildly uneven Prequel Trilogy and the relentless exploitation of Star Wars by the Lucas Empire (Hey, it’s either that or Howard the Duck spin-offs), I still have a hankering to run a Star Wars campaign that evokes the classic era, the original trilogy.

Being realistic and boringly adult about it, I know there’s an element of wanting to recapture those glory days, when I felt like I was running a campaign by the skin of my teeth, barely keeping up with an older, smarter and wilier group of players. That’s unlikely to happen, but I still have my rulebooks – you never know.

It took Lucas 16 years to get back to the movies, after all….

This is the latest in a series of posts talking about tabletop roleplaying games that I highly recommend you play. Last time out, I talked about the dark delights of Call of Cthulhu, the first roleplaying game which needed a statistic to measure your sanity. As I mentioned, regardless of how fun it might be, the subject matter can be a bit of a downer…

… which is why if you are in the market for a supernatural RPG that won’t have you glancing nervously into dark corners, then don’t wait another minute. Pick up the phone and call the professionals!

8 ) Ghostbusters

I’ll forgive you for thinking – like so many other high-minded roleplayers before you – that Ghostbusters is just some stupid movie tie-in game. Because on some levels, it’s exactly that. It’s got the hallmarks – very few rules; lots of pretty cards and handouts to play with; an almost cavalier attitude to the oh-so-serious activity of roleplaying.

When you take a closer look though, not only has Ghostbusters got a design that is being emulated by today’s ‘story-driven’ roleplayers, but it’s also got a campaign background that could spawn a million adventures. Not bad for some movie tie-in.

Created by the multi-talented guys who also brought you Call of Cthulhu – who were probably glad for the break – Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game was released by West End Games in 1986. These days, a two-year gap between ‘product’ and ‘tie-in’ would seem suicidal, but we forget what a global phenomenon Ghostbusters was – not to mention how long it would have taken to materialise on ‘home video systems’. Those two years were well spent however, as Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis and Greg Stafford had created a game that perfectly emulated the original movie, while also expanding its potential.

With four statistics and four skills per character, all of them simply given a number to represent how many six-sided dice you threw to beat a difficulty number, Ghostbusters’ system was so simple… that I just described all of it. Except one thing I suppose; the infamous Ghost Dice, which was just a D6 with the Ghostbusters’ logo (AKA Casper, the Friendly Ghost) replacing the ’6′. Used whenever a roll was made in the game, if you ‘rolled a Ghost’ that meant Something Bad Happened. Beat your difficulty number and we’re talking minor setback; fail your roll and get a Ghost, and it’s major disaster time.

This mechanic, coupled with the liberal use of Brownie Points to let players fudge things, gives an appropriately freewheeling and cinematic feel to gameplay. The average game of Ghostbusters basically rattles along as fast as you can take it, which, in my view, makes it absolutely brilliant. Want to do something? Pick a number, roll it, bam – done. Next!

Apart from the smart but simple system, Ghostbusters has one other massive trick up its sleeve. Not content with just describing the science-meets-spooks setting of the original film, the designers realised that in the Ghostbusters universe, anything goes. And I mean anything. Aliens? Check. Dimensional travel? Check. Time travel? Check. Science experiments gone awry? Check. Essentially, if it’s been seen in science fiction or comics, it’s fair game to appear in a Ghostbusters adventure.

With that one background tweak, Ghostbusters suddenly becomes a multi-genre game with a system that can handle everything… because it doesn’t try to handle anything. The rules are almost Zen-like in their simplicity; the inherent comedy in the setting is a free pass for the GM and players to do anything they like, because the aim of the game is just to kick back and have fun.

While I didn’t pick up Ghostbusters until a few years after its debut, and didn’t run it until many years later, I’m almost in awe of how good this game is today, and how it’s still so relevant to my style of gaming. So many games since have borrowed or stolen elements – not least the one I’m going to talk about next – that it’s no surprise I still feel it’s a gold standard by which others should be measured.

And what could be better than Ghostbusters? Why, the Ghostbusters system, but with another famous sci-fi movie as background….

This is the latest in a series of posts talking about tabletop roleplaying games that I highly recommend you play. Last time out, I talked about the dark delights of Call of Cthulhu, the first roleplaying game which needed a statistic to measure your sanity. As I mentioned, regardless of how fun it might be, the subject matter can be a bit of a downer…

… which is why if you are in the market for a supernatural RPG that won’t have you glancing nervously into dark corners, then don’t wait another minute. Pick up the phone and call the professionals!

8 ) Ghostbusters

I’ll forgive you for thinking – like so many other high-minded roleplayers before you – that Ghostbusters is just some stupid movie tie-in game. Because on some levels, it’s exactly that. It’s got the hallmarks – very few rules; lots of pretty cards and handouts to play with; an almost cavalier attitude to the oh-so-serious activity of roleplaying.

When you take a closer look though, not only has Ghostbusters got a design that is being emulated by today’s ‘story-driven’ roleplayers, but it’s also got a campaign background that could spawn a million adventures. Not bad for some movie tie-in.

Created by the multi-talented guys who also brought you Call of Cthulhu – who were probably glad for the break – Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game was released by West End Games in 1986. These days, a two-year gap between ‘product’ and ‘tie-in’ would seem suicidal, but we forget what a global phenomenon Ghostbusters was – not to mention how long it would have taken to materialise on ‘home video systems’. Those two years were well spent however, as Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis and Greg Stafford had created a game that perfectly emulated the original movie, while also expanding its potential.

With four statistics and four skills per character, all of them simply given a number to represent how many six-sided dice you threw to beat a difficulty number, Ghostbusters’ system was so simple… that I just described all of it. Except one thing I suppose; the infamous Ghost Dice, which was just a D6 with the Ghostbusters’ logo (AKA Casper, the Friendly Ghost) replacing the ’6′. Used whenever a roll was made in the game, if you ‘rolled a Ghost’ that meant Something Bad Happened. Beat your difficulty number and we’re talking minor setback; fail your roll and get a Ghost, and it’s major disaster time.

This mechanic, coupled with the liberal use of Brownie Points to let players fudge things, gives an appropriately freewheeling and cinematic feel to gameplay. The average game of Ghostbusters basically rattles along as fast as you can take it, which, in my view, makes it absolutely brilliant. Want to do something? Pick a number, roll it, bam – done. Next!

Apart from the smart but simple system, Ghostbusters has one other massive trick up its sleeve. Not content with just describing the science-meets-spooks setting of the original film, the designers realised that in the Ghostbusters universe, anything goes. And I mean anything. Aliens? Check. Dimensional travel? Check. Time travel? Check. Science experiments gone awry? Check. Essentially, if it’s been seen in science fiction or comics, it’s fair game to appear in a Ghostbusters adventure.

With that one background tweak, Ghostbusters suddenly becomes a multi-genre game with a system that can handle everything… because it doesn’t try to handle anything. The rules are almost Zen-like in their simplicity; the inherent comedy in the setting is a free pass for the GM and players to do anything they like, because the aim of the game is just to kick back and have fun.

While I didn’t pick up Ghostbusters until a few years after its debut, and didn’t run it until many years later, I’m almost in awe of how good this game is today, and how it’s still so relevant to my style of gaming. So many games since have borrowed or stolen elements – not least the one I’m going to talk about next – that it’s no surprise I still feel it’s a gold standard by which others should be measured.

And what could be better than Ghostbusters? Why, the Ghostbusters system, but with another famous sci-fi movie as background….