Star Wars is steadily gearing up on all fronts. Fantasy Flight Games announced the Rebellion Day store event for Age of Rebellion. JJ Abrams released a new Episode VII sneak peek. A new Rebels trailer arrived. Next week I'll likely be talking about whatever news comes out of San Diego Comic Con. New and old games keep rolling along as well. I played Star Wars Miniatures for the first time in roughly forever, followed up by a couple of Star Wars Age of Rebellion Beginner Game sessions at Kantcon this past weekend.
Fantasy Flight Games announced that September 13, 2014 will bring the Rebellion Day in-store event to stores who order it. I'm excited to see it announced, as I wrote the all-new adventure: Rescue at Glare Peak. It is quite a package of stuff - fast-play rules, the adventure, maps, dice, advertising poster, and four pregenerated characters designed specifically for the adventure. Stores should order as soon as possible, as they say there is only a limited number available.
Episode VII teasers are still rolling out. There is still time to enter the Force for Change contest.
The new X-wing is obviously heavily influenced by Ralph McQuarrie's original paintings and designs. Using McQuarrie's work in new Star Wars works has been a recurring theme since the original movie, and Star Wars Rebels is taking it to a new height, I think.
I've noted this before, but it looks more and more like Star Wars RPG: The TV Show all the time. It will be easy to describe what the game is like after a few episodes are released. Very much looking forward to the show.
Kantcon gaming con was this weekend in the Kansas City area. I took advantage of an opportunity to play in a Star Wars Miniatures game. It combined an RPG story with Miniatures gameplay, which worked well for the straightforward, combat intensive storyline. Most everyone at the table were experienced players, giving me some hope that I'll someday still be able to run my mega-battle that failed to make at at KCGF a few years ago.
"Get to the ship!!!" My characters were Luke Rebel Commando (defending the far side of the map) and the Rodian Trader (heroically hiding behind the Wookiee while also healing him). The guy running the game had a few special scenario rules around critical hits and failures. Fortunately, one of them befell the AT-ST, and its weapon exploded before doing too much damage to the team (scattered across the map). Good thing, too, since the objective was to get everyone off the map just to the right of the AT-ST.
No photos of the Age of Rebellion Beginner Game. Players in both sessions had fun. The adventure tended to turn into more of a sandbox a couple of encounters in, but the general storyline held. As I posted on twitter:
speed+jungle+walker+cliff+river+despair = kaplunk+gurgle+boom
And finally, FiveThirtyEight posted interesting survey results about the Star Wars movies. To me, some of it shows that there is a great variety in what Star Wars means to people over the years.