Sunday, September 24, 2017

Star Wars Adventure Review - Battle For The Golden Sun

Cover photo courtesy Wookieepedia 
This is an ongoing series of reviews of classic West End Games Star Wars RPG adventures. I've run a few, read a few more and not touched a few since I bought them over the past 30 years. I'll look at them for a few different angles, including what I would change to bring the adventure to my table.

Adventure title: Battle For The Golden Sun


Author(s): Doug Kaufman


Published: June 1988


The Pitch: The Rebels crash-land on a waterworld in search of a Rebel ambassador. Instead they find seatroopers, warring natives and a giant piece of Force-sensitive coral.

Summary: A decent adventure that throws the PCs in the battle between two factions of natives that, despite showing off an Imperial garrison poster and a seatrooper on the cover, puts the Galactic Civil War in the background for a session or two.




In-depth review with SPOILERS after the jump!


Sunday, September 17, 2017

Star Wars Adventure Review - Scavenger Hunt

This is an ongoing series of reviews of classic West End Games Star Wars RPG adventures. I've run a few, read a few more and not touched a few since I bought them over the past 30 years. I'll look at them for a few different angles, including what I would change to bring the adventure to my table.

Adventure title: Scavenger Hunt


Author(s): Brad Freeman


Published: January 1989


The Pitch: The Rebels have to deal with the annoying Squib to set-up an ambush on an Imperial transport containing sensitive information that could seriously damage Rebel operations. The Rebels needs to visit an iconic location from the films and do the Sqiubs dirty work to get their cooperation.

Summary: This adventure has a lot of harsh design decisions through out as well as weird encounters with Star Wars elements and new elements that don't quite gel. There's some stuff in here that might be useful, but much like the setting, you've got to sort through a lot of trash to get there.




In-depth review with SPOILERS after the jump!


Monday, September 11, 2017

Star Wars Adventure Review - Riders of the Maelstrom

Cover courtesy of Wookieepedia
This is an ongoing series of reviews of classic West End Games Star Wars RPG adventures. I've run a few, read a few more and not touched a few since I bought them over the past 30 years. I'll look at them for a few different angles, including what I would change to bring the adventure to my table.

Adventure title: Riders of the Maelstrom


Author(s): Ray Winninger


Published: July 1989


The Pitch: Another big ship based adventure, this one based on a Mon Calamari luxury cruiser. The Rebels stumble across a plot that involves pirates, other pirates that are also Rebels, and rival Moffs looking to put everyone out of business.


Summary: There's a lot going on in this adventure which depends a bit too much on coincidence  and has problems projecting a straight plotline. But there's a lot of neat NPCs, factions vying with each other and a big location that's dying to be explored.



In-depth review with SPOILERS after the jump!


Monday, September 4, 2017

Star Wars Adventure Review - Starfall

Cover courtesy of Wookieepedia
This is an ongoing series of reviews of classic West End Games Star Wars RPG adventures. I've run a few, read a few more and not touched a few since I bought them over the past 30 years. I'll look at them for a few different angles, including what I would change to bring the adventure to my table.

Adventure title: Starfall


Author(s): Rob Jenkins and Michael Stern


Published: May 1989


The Pitch: Depending on how old you are, this is either Die Hard on a Star Destroyer or The Poseidon Adventure on a Star Destroyer. The Rebels are trapped inside a Victory-class Star Destroyer that's been wrecked by a surprise Rebel ambush. While they make their way through collapsing corridors, they also find out the captain of the Star Destroyer plans to take the Rebel fleet with him when the ship explodes. Can the Rebels save themselves AND the Rebel fleet?


Summary: This is my favorite Star Wars RPG adventure of all time. It still holds up after all these years, even if, as written, it's pretty linear. I've run it with every official Star Wars system and it's been a ton of fun every time.




In-depth review with SPOILERS after the jump!