Gaming | Movies
Risus is the Best RPG System for Star Wars
Also, goodbye Chewie
Before we get started, you need to understand something. This isn’t the same as my relationship with past Marvel games. The Marvel RPGs accurately emulated comic book logic. But of the three Star Wars RPGs, only the D6 version grokked space dogfights and shooting bounty hunters first. And even that system could be a little slow. It wasn’t crunchy, but the large dice pools could get way out of hand.
When the prequels came out, WotC got the license and made a D20 version. Not as crunchy as then-contemporary D&D, but still too complex for Star Wars.
I had hopes for Fantasy Flight’s version. The specialized dice and the Specialization and Critical cards abstracted some of the crunch. Still, there were WAY too many rules. The detail kept it from conveying the essence of Star Wars.
Risus’ creator once wrote that “Risus is a comedy RPG. It’s good for serious games only if you insist it is”. I insist, but that’s missing the point. Star Wars is NOT a serious setting. Yes, it has more than a little tragedy and angst. But that’s balanced out by banter between princesses and smugglers, failing to con security, and feeding bounty hunters to sarlaccs. So, as with Marvel, Risus has become my new go-to system for playing Star…
