The End of Star Wars (for now)

As you may or may not have heard, WOTC announced today that it is not renewing the Star Wars license. Announced products will be produced through May and the company will suppot the game though August, shutting it off soon after GENCON. Rumor has it that Hasbro is not happy about this decision from WOTC so we'll see if anything happens as a result of it.

I'll be sorry to see it go, especially the role playing version. Star WArs has always been a magnet for RPG players, both the WOTC Saga and d20 versions and the earlier West End Games version. The boxed sets that both companies offered were especially good for new players. hey were low prices, about $20 or so and designed to introduce a new player to the Star Wars universe AND role playing with minimal confusion. When they were available, I lost track of the number of new players I introduced to roleplaying through the Star Wars intro sets. Say Dungeons and Dragons to someone unfamiliar with the game would just look at you confusedly. Say "Star Wars"and it was immediate recognition.

The store still sells WEG's d6 books on occasion as well as WOTC's d20 version in the used section and people still buy the Saga version as well. If WOTC doesn't change its mind and re-up the license, I can see another company, such as Mongoose Publishing, Margaret Weis Publishing or Crucible 7, making a bid for it, though I fear the license would be fairly expensive.

Review--Dwarven Dig

Dwarven Dig! 2nd Edition BGL-0044 pub. by Bucephalus Games www.bucephalus.com MSRP $49.99

Gameplay--Dwarven Dig! is a very quick moving (30-45 minutes) for 2 to 6 players, aged 8 and up. Each player controls a team of 4 dwarves, each with its own special ability. The object is for your team to "dig" across the board to the treasure tile, retrieve a treasure and exit before the other players. Of course, the mountain you dig through is inhabited by monsters which may attack you and other dwarves, which probably will.

Presentation--Much like other Bucephalus Games' products, Dwarven Dig!'s components are very heavy and high quality, there's quite a bit of heft when you pick the box up. There's also a handy storage tray to store the components. The rules are pretty compact as well, taking up only eight pages. The box is much smaller than the Kenzerco version, taking up only about half the space of the first edition.

OSM Games

In case you were wondering, the following games are currently out of stock at the manufacturer. I'm hoping to see reprints within the next few months, but if you're looking for a copy and can't find it, that's why:

Last Night on Earth--Flying Frog Productions
Zombies!--Twilight Creations
Hex Hex--Smirk and Dagger

Top Events of 2009

ICV2 just published their list of the top 10 game events of 2009. Makes interesting reading.

Magic Reprint Policy

If you're intersted in what Magic cards might be reprinted from older sets, here's a link to WOTC's official policy as of 2002. As far as the people I have asked know, this is the most recent revision of the policy.