"Taking Back My Star Wars" Topic

Star Wars. The first movie was released in 1977 and it changed my life. The prequels were released, and they weren't as good, but at least they were special.

And for the last four or five years, with the lead up to The Force Awakens, I see friggin' Star Wars every single day. There is at least one licensed product commercial on every episode of every tv show. Every store has Star Wars products literally everywhere. I am so burnt out on all the commercialization of Star Wars that there are now THREE friggin' Star Wars movies I haven't even seen, including Carrie Fisher's last movie EVER, because of all of the over-exposure. I won't even wear my Star Wars tee-shirts any more. Disney has RUINED my favorite franchise ever. They stole a piece of my heart.

How does this tie into gaming? Because I found my long-lost big box o' WOTC Star Wars pre-paints a friend gave that I have been looking for FOREVER while I was cleaning the garage last week. I instantly made a whole bunch of skirmish game ideas. And then I put the box back on the shelf. Because friggin' Star Wars.

And then I decided that was a giant load of BS. I'm taking back MY Star Wars. On MY terms. And thus, Gangs Of Tatooine was born.

I am using my favorite multi-genre skirmish rules, FiveCore, with the science fiction suppository Five Parsecs From Home (the first edition.) I dutifully rolled up a five-member gang, two characters and three goons.

Kruha Lachu is the leader of the Gamos Krayt Dragons, a yarkorian armed with a pistol and sword and wearing combat armor. Naarm is a wookie armed with a shock rifle and some surprising stealth skills. There are also a dug and an ithorian armed with pistols, and a rodian with an rifle.

For their first outing, I rolled the "Heated Words" scenario as an enemy encounter. The enemy gang was four members with a variety of armaments. I just grabbed a couple handfuls of rocks from outside the front door and put them on my gaming table for scenery. Kruha Lachu and the enemy gang leader faced off 6" apart and so began the showdown…

The game was quick and brutal. Despite some random guy with a rifle showing up and joining the enemy, the Gamos Krayt Crew swept them off the table. Kruha killed both the enemy leader and another gang member in melee, the others were driven off table in the final turn.

^ that's Kruha Lachu in the middle, watching the other gang run for it.

After the game, campaign events resulted in Naarm leaving for the next three campsign turns(!) and the acquisition of a concealed blade and a patron. Because Naarm's departure brought the gang down to four people, two goons with pistols were added to the roster.

Now I need to generate the details for the next scenario. But I have a Manchukuo game to play first, just FULL of papercrafted scenery…

"Disney has RUINED my favorite franchise ever. They stole a piece of my heart."

LOL. I don't know if to laugh or to cry. I hear you. I was a big Star Wars fan years ago too. It really made a big impression, and it wasn't always about the toys either.

Well, maybe that right there is your next therapeutic scenario … Get a Darth Vader figure, put a Mickey Mouse head on it (or imagine a Disney exec* is under the mask), and replay scenes from your old SW favorites. :)

Dan
* The CEO perhaps?

Latter-day Lucas' wrenched prequels, and monkeying with the OT, ruined it for me. I had hoped to pass my love of SW along to my kid, but I just feel scorn for the whole thing now.

And then I decided that was a giant load of BS. I'm taking back MY Star Wars

Carry the torch!

Gangs Of Tatooine sounds cool -good luck with it!

And have fun!

So all the action figures, books, T-shirts, lunch boxes, wall paper etc that has been around since the 1st film were not commercialisation? Disney did not invent the commercialisation of Star Wars, George Lucas did. That was how he made so much money because he kept and rigorously enforced the commercial rights to the films. Rogue One was a great film. Solo was pretty good too (saw it yesterday) and nothing like the disaster that some of the more hysterical posts on this site suggested. Chill out guys, its only a bunch of movies.

@Vigilant, of course there was always Star Wars commercialization. The difference between then and now is significant, however :)

I'm sure you've triggered some poor Social Justice Twit with this. Good luck with your rules and enjoy your games.

You chaps seen the Netflix series "The Toys That Made Us"?

imdb.com/title/tt7053920

The episode in series one on Star Wars was very instructive; especially compared to the Series 2 episode on Star Trek.

The marketing of the movies and the merchandise of the former was a smooth, focussed money making machine, of the latter an afterthought….and sometimes not even that.

there was always Star Wars commercialization. The difference between then and now is significant, however :)

I don't think so, based on the information given in the show I've cited.

I'm afraid that although I sympathise with the OP, Star Wars is a commercial exercise & thus, inevitably, destined to destroy dreams if they got in the way of making dollars.

As always, enjoy your gaming.

I play Star Wars Armada,and I don't give a fig past the first three movies,so I'm with you.

Nostalgia is killing geek-culture.

The Ewoks killed Star Wars for me. I'll still watch it/play it, but when the Ewoks killed stormtroopers so easily it was kinda like learning that Santa Claus wasn't real.

The Ewoks killed Star Wars for me.

Maybe they were Elite Ewoks vs Militia Stormtroopers? :)

I found the Ewoks completely plausible. They had a long history as a warrior culture before contact with the Republic, and the fact that most other species see them as cute and cuddly just enrages them.

As a result, they have the biggest chips on their shoulders in the galaxy. Just smiling at one is likely to get your face slashed by a claw. Don't call them cute or nice or anything like that. Just treat them like you treat anyone as tough as or tougher than you.

The Ewoks, by the way, reserve a special hatred for the Wookies, whom they see as having gotten a reputation as great fighters only because they are tall. Ewoks say that Wookies are actually lazy and soft, preferring music, art, and cooking to doing real work or, may the Force help them, fighting. Chewbacca is one of the rare Wookies whom the Ewoks have come to respect for his actions during the battle of Endor.

Ewok females who go with Wookie males are typically ostracized by Ewok society, but usually do well among the Wookies, where their willingness to work hard and make tough decisions makes them leaders in many business, government, and military positions.

Good for you! If you go back to the 1977 movie, (age alert – I saw that the month it came out at the Coronet theatre in San Francisco), do you recall all the "not star wars" game figures that came out afterwards? I bought a bunch when I was a kid, of course -- wish I'd kept them.

But I only bring them up because the main company doing them, Heritage Pewter, tried to dodge Star Wars IP by adding bits you needed to cut off to make them Star Wars. For example, the Stormtroopers came with bunny ears you needed to cut off of their helmets.

And in a flash of prescience….the "RP2P" Artoo knockoff came with MICKEY MOUSE EARS!! LOL!

Here's a page talking about them, too bad the pictures are all the "finished" figures without the ears on them:

link

Without wanting to sound like another of those hysterical, shrill "they've ruined it!" fellows (Star Wars was never THAT big a part of my life), I must admit to only really liking the first three episodes (IV,V and VI). Episodes I-III were simply awful, while the more recent films just feel lacking somehow. Too much of a good thing, I suppose. Also, endless CGI does something to films I don't like; I much prefer the old tricks, puppets, costumes or even Claymation. But then I'm old. And I'm very happy for those who like the newer installments.

Coyotepunc, the game sounds great. Good for you! I've not heard of the FiveCore rules before. Must check them out. Do they cover all genres or are they only for Moderns/SF? Thanks very much for the post and inspiration!

"science fiction suppository". ???

I don't want to see how you look up rules.

Han shot FIRST!

Coyote,
I agree with your topic "..taking back MY.." premise.
But what almost pushed me off my chair (literally), when in the opening of "The Force Awakens" we learn:
A young Jedi turns to the Dark Side and betrays the Jedi. AGAIN!!
That's it, that's the best these over paid writers could come up with?
So every 25-30 yrs one traitor + Jedi massacre = start over.

For me, it was Star Trek. Im in my 50's now, so I grew up on what were already reruns of ST TOS in the 70's.
With such confusion of what is/is not cannon, I finally said "enough". I have MY ST game & ship list. MY CA's are all named for battles of old earth, Saratoga, Yorktown but also Berlin, Islandlwana, etc. No fighters. Its ship to ship battles when they meet. i.e. TOS.

But the lesson is clear. Its a world of make believe but they all are. SW, ST, LotR even some classic horror characters have been manipulated. Vampires in daylight? The Un-Dead that can run, even use weapons?

As for SW I have seen none of the films now beyond The Force Awakens, but Im not going to let it change my love of the memories I have of either franchise.

Make the most of it, take what 'works for you', find friends who agree and just HAVE FUN.
That's the real point of our hobby, time with Friends.

Dracula was a "daywalker" in the original novel, btw.

So vampires have "always" been able to do the daylight schtick.

I knew nothing about Star Wars when I went into the cinema. But the moment that Star Destroyer flew over us going phew phew at Princess Leias Ship I knew I'd just gone to a new place and time. Loved the original three.
Would have liked to watch the whole Skywalker saga in order over one weekend. But Disney are just jerks and spoilt the ending.
Han shot first!

"Taking back" what exactly?

Star Wars was never 'yours' to begin with. You can't take back something you've never had ownership of. Fans have been mistaking their passions for ownership for decades but it still doesn't make it so.
If anything, they can take the fandom back, if they can please kick all the dicks out of it first. Or set fire to it and burn it all down so it can start again. Fire is a great cleanser.
Fandom has been full of dicks for decades. The ones who can't tell "actor" from "role". The ones who can't tell movie from "reality" is just a step away from that.
Curse the roles all you want. Curse the characters all you want. Hell, curse the company and directors and producers all you want. They aren't going to care while the property makes money. And it is STILL MAKING money despite the whiners.
You do not get to make threats to the actors just because you don't like the characters. And threats WERE made. Death threats, urging the actors to kill themselves. Belittling the actors and otherwise just being dicks.

It's ALWAYS been a commercial and merchandising entity. Da Maus just added their nous for milking that dead horse to the equation – In essence SW+LFL marketing + da maus nous = mega$$ squared.

Lucas' "holy" trinity is barely watchable. His do-overs were little more than rolling them in glitter.
SW was only saved by its editor who was also the last person able to say "NO, George" AND get him to listen (Marsha Lucas edited it). George installed his best "yes man" for the prequels. Rick McCallum.

and despite all the crap spoken about the prequels, it still dragged in more money than the Avengers. SW fans may have hated it, but they STILL SAW IT MULTIPLE TIMES EACH.