It is official, as of May this year, D20 is dead. WotC’s Star Wars was the last big d20 title still in production. Unfortunately, WotC has announced that they won’t be renewing their Star Wars license with Lucasfilm.
I loved the old West End Games: Star Wars and could never get into the new D20 version of Star Wars. Still D20 Star Wars was a bench mark game; it was the test bed for many of the D&D 4th Edition Rules, which love it or hate it was big change for the RPG industry. As the last big D20 product it was only a matter of time before they either remade it to line up with 4th edition rules or cancelled it.
On the heels of their Star Wars announcement WotC has announced that they will be putting out a new version of TSR’s Gamma World and their redesign of the D&D Dungeon Delve as D&D Encounters. WotC’s world goes on without the force, but I would bet that this won’t be the end of Star Wars RPGs. Until then I hope you have another Sci-fi roleplaying game, I do.
I’m sure the guys at Paizo and the fans of their Pathfinder game would argue with you about d20 being dead….
@Rev. Lazaro: Sssshhh… they’ll hear you!
Seriously though, I’m sad cause I think Star Wars is the best incarnation of the d20 mechanics. Not as dependent on system mastery as 3rd Ed, without the reduced skill list and problems of “powers” management of 4th Ed.
(The first incarnation of d20 Star Wars was shite though)
@ Matthew Arcilla- I agree with you on the Saga Edition of Star Wars. However, I played several games of D20 Star Wars, and while enjoyable I felt that the crunch always seemed to kill some of that fast paced feel of Star Wars. As such I have recently started doing Savage Worlds Star Wars.
You can find several great rules conversions to meet your needs here:
http://www.savageheroes.com/conversions.htm
I won’t gush about my love for Savage Worlds, but it does fit the Star Wars feel nicely.
I think Star Wars is a pretty strong IP and I bet we’ll be seeing more of it in no time. I’m not sure who would have the money to pick it up. Mongoose… they’ve worked with a few licences. Star Wars using the traveller ruleset… crazy.