Reflecting upon my time with The Dark Side Sourcebook (Bill Savicsek and JD Wiker), it occurs to me that I don't have a problem with Star Wars d20 . . . per se. The worst thing you can say about it is that it often falls into the same trap that plagues many other licensed rpgs - it presents itself under the assumption that players' games are going to take place in the same continuity as the source material. You want to play in the Rise of the Empire period, okay, but "no Sith prestige classes are available, since there can be only two Sith, and the two are already accounted for in the films."
The quotes are there because that's a direct quote from the book. The fact that it sounds exactly like the mean thing I'd say about the shortcomings of the book is just a rare case of expedient synchronicity.
Though I mustn't be too hard on The Dark Side Sourcebook. It had a lot to offer - new prestige classes, feats, equipment, creatures, and decent history and GMing chapters. Even the NPCs could be useful for establishing the sort of thing that might happen in a Star Wars story. It's just, it very rapidly hit the point of diminishing returns when it came to more information about Exar Kun, Ulric Qel-Droma, et al. It's all moderately engaging, but what exactly am I supposed to do with this material if I'm running a game for any character in the universe other than Jacen Solo?
Again, this is not a problem unique to Star Wars d20. The Princess Bride rpg came dangerously close to suggesting you play a worse version of the movie. The Flash Gordon boxed set took place in the nebulous time between the comic's last arc and its second-to-last arc. Even Pendragon had the canon characters be dramatically out of reach in terms of Glory (xp) totals. Star Wars at least has the advantage of a long tradition of supplemental material that suggests there is more going on in this universe than the movies can show. I mean, yeah, I'm wary of the expanded universe, because it can sometimes seem like it has whimsical quality control, but it's undeniably a permission structure. Luke Skywalker's girlfriend is an assassin sent after him by the Emperor and the fact that she takes his name when they get married is subtly hilarious (maybe it's just me, but "Mara Jade Skywalker" is very . . . linkedin coded, like she still wants to be discoverable by her old clients and contacts, but she wants to signal to them that she's a traditional woman and not one of those feminists that keeps her name after marriage). And there are times when I find that almost unbearably silly, but still, things are happening. There are more stories to tell. Four-to-six original characters can go a long way in the galaxy far, far away.
On the balance, I think The Darkside Sourcebook meets me at least halfway as a game book qua game book. There's still too much recapping for my taste, but it's not load-bearing, like the recapping in the Rebellion Era Sourcebook. I'm pretty confident that this material will add value to Sith antagonists and can potentially anchor an evil campaign.
Though there is one thing I would be remiss if I didn't talk about. It's not a major theme or anything, but I've become increasingly sensitive to it over the course of this blog - problematic colonialist subtext. And sometimes it's not even subtext. When pitching an Old Republic campaign, set 5000 years before the movies: "Pioneers try to establish homes on harsh new colony worlds, battling both nature and natives. . ." Oof. Although more troubling is the tendency of Sith to get themselves into Heart of Darkness- style situations.
That's how the Sith came to be, originally. Some dark Jedi fled the Republic and chanced upon a planet with "primitive" lizard-like aliens (the Sith) who "welcomed them as gods." And then, later, Exar Kun did the exact same thing to the Massassi on Yavin 4. It's especially uncomfortable because the game seems to play this old racist trope completely straight. At one point, the Massassi, after being used by Exar Kun to wage an interplanetary war, "died as they lived, in absolute and unquestioning service to evil."
You might think that this could just be villain texture for the baddies. They've got these terrible supernatural abilities and incredible technology, so they seek out societies that can't resist that kind of power and subjugate them under the bleakest sort of tyranny. But in order for that to work, you have to humanize the conquered populations, make it a tragedy that they were so ruthlessly oppressed. The book really doesn't seem interested in doing that sort of work. Nowhere in the book do we learn anything beautiful or noble about the Sith (species), prior to the arrival of the dark Jedi. It really seems like we're supposed to view them as willing collaborators with the Sith (ideology).
It's all keeping in line with Star Wars' genre ancestors - serialized pulp adventure stories - but it's not to the benefit of the modern series. I wouldn't be surprised if cleaning up stuff like this was part of the motive to decanonize Legends. Certainly, I feel the need to tinker with the backstory, just to ensure the tropes don't get out of hand. It's not enough to ruin my enjoyment of the book, but it's there.
Overall, I'd say The Dark Side Sourcebook is "roughly serviceable," making it a completely unremarkable Star Wars d20 book. It's got that characteristic Wizards of the Coast "highest part of the bell curve" appeal that means snobs like me will never love it, but correspondingly few people will find themselves hating it. If I ever ran Star Wars d20 again, or even Star Wars Saga Edition. I'd probably give it at least a look.
Ukss Contribution: Rokur Gepta was a sentient snail who used force illusions to impersonate a humanoid warlord. It tickles me to imagine the logistics involved in this deception.
No comments:
Post a Comment