The world of Star Wars RPGs is certainly having a tough time this year. It looks like FFG has pulled the plug on all future RPG production. Going back much further, Scott Palter, the former owner of West End Games passed away this week.
I never met West End Games’ owner, Scott Palter, not even on the one trip I made to visit the company. I heard stories, of course, because there were many and because of the events surrounding the company’s bankruptcy and short lived revival. I think the closest thing to direct interaction was probably when I sent in a legal document/letter about lack of payment of several thousand dollars, having been advised to have something in WEG’s records shortly before the bankruptcy hit. It was a long shot and while it didn’t help in the bankruptcy, it did give me some extra legal backing when some of my unpaid work was reused later on (another story for another time, but it worked out). It seems everyone that worked with him or with WEG has a lot of mixed feelings about it. A common one I share is that WEG gave me my first major opportunity to become a full fledged freelancer, which was great until right near the end.
Former WEG Star Wars line editor Eric Trautmann posted a few tweets about his thoughts and experience at the company. It’s worth reading the thread, if you’re interested in those days.
Steve Jackson Games tweeted out an old Pyramid interview from 1999 they did with Scott, which I wasn’t aware of and found very interesting. It talks about some of the moves the company made immediately after the bankruptcy. I had heard some of this, but not in detail. Actually, I’m fairly certain I had never seen a picture of him before today.
So, it’s been pretty weird to have that happen the same time that FFG has essentially shut down their future RPG production. The remaining announced Star Wars and Genesys products are still due to be released. FFG has made no official announcement, so the future of Genesys Foundry is still unknown. d20radio apparently got some information from a knowledgeable source and posted this article on their site. Katrina Ostrander, a former RPG producer who is back at FFG as Creative Director of Story and Setting, essentially confirmed it on twitter:
So, there are a lot of unknowns for the future of any Star Wars RPG. Obviously, some other RPG company might be interested to do yet another version, but it depends on the specifics of the license. For instance, if X-Wing and other games are under the same one, it seems unlikely FFG would release it to anyone else as long as those games are profitable. Then again, it also seemed unlikely that the FFG RPG department would be eliminated. All I can really say is if you want any of the Star Wars or Genesys hardcopy books, now is the time to get them. The same is especially true for the custom dice for both games, which will be increasingly hard to find. Hopefully, Genesys PDF products and the Foundry will live on, but it is entirely dependent on FFG’s willingness to still manage it.
More when more is available.