Parting Memories - WEG's Star Wars RPG

I'm in the process of selling off some of my collection of games via eBay. Some carry a little more weight than others. Here's one batch in the "more weight" category.

Thirteen pounds of fun and memories. West End Games' Star Wars RPG.

Before Special Editions.

Before Pod Racers.

Before New Jedi Orders.

Before Vader was an angsty teenager.

Before the Force was a bacterial infection.

When there was only one Princess.

When there was only one Jedi and he was the angsty teenager.

When we thought the rogue was the cool one.

When Vader was the dragon, not a child killer.

When Star Wars interest was a childhood memory of teenagers and twenty somethings, a small game publisher in Honesdale, PA managed to get a license to create a role playing game based on an almost forgotten phenomenon.

In the process, West End Games became a curator and a librarian of Star Wars lore. They expanded the Empire and Rebel Alliance into entire organizations complete with bureaucracies and secret services. They took first drafts and concept art of starships and vehicles then reworked them into the background lore. Those sketches and paintings were no longer discarded trash, they were part of a rich and dynamic universe.

WEG didn't just make a game, they made an outlet for starved fans like this one.

I've always thought it was the glimpses cantinas and bounty hunters and criminal lairs gave us that excited me more than the story. The game channeled those glimpses into a galaxy that lived and breathed despite the ongoing family squabble between Vader and his kids.

Then the late 90s happened and ruined it all. The universe stopped being a place I wanted to set my own tales in. It became something to be watched, not engaged, not imagined.

And it's partly this game's fault. This was a surprise success and almost certainly contributed to Lucasfilm having a relook at the property.

Those game books stayed on the shelf, then in a box. Then the box moved. And moved. And moved. And moved. And moved. And moved more. Now, as I'm dramatically reducing 40+ years worth of RPG and wargame collection, these books are going on eBay to find a new home.

100 lbs and more of other stuff left without much emotion. That's including D&D 3rd and 4th edition which certainly have more actual game memories put into them than this set of books. These? I guess I'm not sad they're going, but the memories of good times gaming and when the universe was one that still felt like clay I could shape instead of cold stone linger.

As far as other goodies a 40+ year gaming hobby accumulated? The white box books and 1st Edition books stay.