Introductions thread

[finarvyn]

Hey, every board needs to have one! I'll start with my personal Star Wars story....

I wasn't the first guy on my block to have heard of Star Wars, but I was pretty early in my home town. I remember being in middle school and hanging out after lunch and this guy was reading this scifi book and said that this new movie was coming out called "Star Wars." This would have to be the spring of 1977. I didn't attach a lot of significance to it at the time, but I like scifi and when the movie came to our town's theater in the summer I had to go see it. Totally blown away. The special effects were better than anything I'd seen before, even Star Trek. The music was amazing. (I also heard it played on a local radio station and kept calling in to request it; when I found the soundtrack as a two-record set I bought it immediately. Still have it, even though I haven't used it in years since my record player died.) I was addicted to this movie and kept going back. My memory tells me that I saw it 22 times in the theater that summer. (I didn't pay 22 times; at our theater in town you could go to the rest room after a show and hang out for a few minutes, then re-enter with the new crowd.)

I already played D&D and my D&D buddy and I immediately threw together some form of D&D with Star Wars. (His dad also bought us some light sabers with red flashlight bases and white tubes which looked like the ones you used for golf clubs; his had a red filter in it and mine was blue so he was Darth Vader and I was Obi-wan Kenobi and at night we would battle on his front lawn. I still have my original light saber.) I bought the novelization and a year or so later Splinter of the Mind's Eye and those books formed much of the nucleus of our campaigns. When the Brian Daley Han Solo books came out, that got added in as well. So Star Wars was a big part of my gaming world even before WEG's game system came out, but when the WEG game came out we switched our Star Wars campaigns to that product line.

I remember being confused when "Episode V" came out and invalidated much of my Star Wars world because ESB didn't at all follow the plot lines of Splinter, but enjoyed ESB and later RotJ (even with the ewoks).

I drifted away from Star Wars somewhat from there. Not any new movies. Not as much enthusiasm in RP'ing in the SW universe.

1991 was another turning point for me because of the publication of Heir to the Empire, the first Zahn Star Wars novel. I liked the way Zahn wrote and he re-kindled my love of Star Wars. I picked up the WEG sourcebooks for Zahn's stuff and we played the RPG again.

I took my kids to the "Special edition" re-releases of the trilogy when they hit theaters and they became Star Wars fans as well, but I have to admit that they like the prequels more than the originals. To this day, when a new Star Wars movie comes out it's a family event. I know that this is beyond the scope of these boards, but my family continues to enjoy the new movies and it helps to bring us all together.

And that's my story. What's yours?

[rafael]

'Tis me. I like: Ewoks. I dislike: Porgs. ...If I was a SW character, I'd be a TIE-Fighter pilot.

[rafael]

...Also, quite happy that the kids of the Antilles, Fel, and Solo families eventually come to rule the galaxy in the old EU. My avatar indicates a certain preference.

[Vile]

I didn't get money to see Star Wars when it came out (parents, don't be skinflints when it comes to kids and Star Wars, or you'll regret it when you're old and they don't call!), so my first look was when I saw it as a double feature with The Empire Strikes Back. In my psyche the two are forever joined as one, with only an intermission for icecream between (no money for icecream, though). By extension, Return of the Jedi always seemed like a sequel and a bit of an outsider. I missed the Donny & Marie Star Wars show, but I did watch the Christmas Special - no internet, no straight-to-video, years before the films appeared on TV, we were desperate. I read the Marvel comics, I based my cereal preference on the packaging so I could cut out the backs of boxes featuring Star Wars characters, I mutilated TV guides and magazines with related pictures or articles. I couldn't afford the model kits, but I spent hours ogling them at the local hobby shop before contenting myself with a 1/72 Airfix model or some Prince August fantasy moulds. I did eventually score a 1/72 Millennium Falcon for my birthday.

When I first got Traveller* (on my second try, the first time I went to the FLGS with the intention of buying it they didn't have it so I bought RuneQuest* - also good!), we shoehorned the Spinward Marches from the introductory adventure into the Star Wars Universe by using Tippex to add a desert planet called "Tatooine" to the map from the deluxe box. We had an evil empire imperium, our first adventure was breaking Scout Galadden's Millennium Falcon (1/72 scale, of course) out of Mos Eisley starport, and we became rebels by default.

*This was 1983 so no need to name editions!

[Falconer]

I was 3 then RotJ came out, so, I don’t remember a time before The Star Wars Trilogy existed. We were never big movie buffs, but these movies stood out. The 1997 theatrical re-release happened when I was in high school, and really cemented my fandom. In those days, watching home releases just wasn’t the same.

I read some Han Solo at Stars’ End in those days, which I liked, but it didn’t get me into the EU. Heir to the Empire did, though (albeit I didn't read it till many years later)! Both are natural outgrowths of my OT fandom, though. I love books, and these really bring the universe alive for me whereas the movies only scratch the surface.

I’ve been playing D&D since 1997, and I long wanted to do a Star Wars RPG. I thought about doing something homebrew, but I found the first edition did all the work for me, and was very lite and nailed the feel of the OT, so, I’ve run a couple of sessions and love it!

So, here I am!

[rafael]

Sorry for the rather weak posts above; I was pretty distracted as I typed them.

I was born in '82, so I am the kind of kid Ewoks were made for. First touched the movies through the Ewok cartoons that were aired as a double feature over here in Germany, together with "Robin of Sherwood". The OT novelizations were the first books I bought from my own pocket money, around 1991; had no idea what they were about, liked the Vader mask on the cover. (Next after that was notably "The Sword of Shannara". ) Watched the movies for the first time probably when I was 13 or 14, to give you an idea.

I've stuck with the series ever since, in some form. My car, big, silver, and always somehow in need of repair, is known to my friends as the "Falcon", and one of my very best friends in university is still "Chewie" to us. Wrote "jedi knight" in our yearbook when I was asked what my future job would be.  That kind of stuff.

I am pretty sad the brand gets such bad press lately; then again, it's well deserved: The Disney-verse is often almost intentionally terrible. ...I guess I'll have to wait for the inevitable reboot.

[Yora]

I first HEARD of Star Wars in 1995 when I was visiting a friend from my old school in a different city and I was picked up by him and his mom at the train station and we first went to a store across the street to get a toy for him before we drove to his home. I asked what it was and his reaction was basically "Dude, you've never heard about Star Wars?!"
The rest of the day was playing with Star Wars toys and that night we got permission to watch Star Wars on VHS on a tiny crappy TV. It was the most awesome thing ever and then we immediately watched The Empire Strikes Back. Return of the Jedi came the next morning. Then it was all saturday and sunday morning playing with Star Wars toys until I returned home. Around the same time I had made new friends in my new school and he had X-Wing on PC. We played this after school for hours for probably months! When we got our own computer soon after, X-Wing and Tie Fighter were my first games I bought.

And then came 1997 and I told my parents and my brother we absolutely HAD TO see these movies. And we just got our own VHS player and then we HAD TO get the newly released tapes.


I confess to have seen Episode 1 twice when it came out, but it was summer break and I was 15 and didn't know any better.

[Falconer]

Welcome! Thanks for coming, and thanks for introducing yourselves!

[jcboney]

Hello!

SW came out when I was in the 4th grade and I instantly fell in love with the whole thing. I collected the Kenner toys and the Marvel comics (none of which I have now, sadly).

[Falconer]

Hey, man!

[Zenopus]

Great idea for a board. I saw the original trilogy in the theatres, and the Kenner toys were perhaps my favorite toys as a kid --- at least until I discovered D&D.

In the '90s I read the Zahn trilogy & a number of the following books, but lost interest as the number increased.

In recent years I've been reading the original Marvel Comics and some of the Dark Horse series. I just finished the entire Knights of the Old Republic series, which I really enjoyed.

I grew interested in the original West End RPG in the last few years, and have the Introductory Adventure Game boxed set. Have only played it a little, but would like to try more. I plan on getting the new reprint.

Z

[Deleted]

Was 8 when the original Star Wars came out. Obviously, I loved it. I can pretty much stop after Empire. Big fan of the NPR radio dramas.

[Falconer]

Welcome, Zenopus and @francisca!

Yeah, the Radio Dramas are excellent. I just finished another listen-through and am on to Heir to the Empire (narr. Marc Thompson) for the umpteenth time.

[Starbeard]

Hey all! I've had dreams about a board like this for some time now, I'm really glad Falconer's taken the leap to make it happen.

Intro to Star Wars generally:
I was born '84, almost exactly in the middle between Jedi's theatrical release and the TV broadcast of Caravan of Courage, so my formative years were squarely in the 'interim' period between Star Wars Mania and the 90s revival.

My first exposure to Star Wars was very young, age 2-3, and by 4 I was hooked. First it was taped TV broadcasts of the Ewok movies, which I'd also occasionally catch airing on TV throughout the next 4 or so years. I'm told I also watched a few shows of the Droids & Ewoks cartoons, but I don't remember ever watching them or even knowing they existed until much later, with the help of DVDs and the internet.

I was raised basically next door to Disneyland, and as a newly minted 3-year-old I was just at the height requirement to go on the brand new Star Tours ride. Disneyland, and Tomorrowland in particular, formed a HUGE part of my childhood, and it was most likely Star Tours that really got me hooked on everything Lucasfilm.

In 1989 my parents recorded the Jedi TV network premiere, right around my birthday, and for a while that was the only actual Star Wars movie I ever saw (probably a few months, which as a 5-year-old feels like a lifetime). It had to have been later that summer when I discovered a taped VHS of Empire in the back of the TV cupboard, and the thought of watching another Star Wars movie completely blew me away. For the longest time I was obsessed with snow and snowspeeders.

So my earliest impressions were a mixture of Star Tours, Ewok movies, Empire & Jedi, and another Disneyland attraction: Captain EO. I was probably 5 or 6 before I realized that Captain EO wasn't set in the Star Wars universe, and even then I would still get mixed up over which scene or character was in which movie.

At age 7 or 8 I finally had the chance to watch the original Star Wars when my parents rented it for us to watch. By then I knew that there was an 'original Star Wars movie', and it felt really old school to finally get a chance to see it. It looked different, felt different, the characters were all younger and meeting each other for the first time and had different personalities, Obi-Wan Kenobi was alive, Yoda wasn't in the picture yet, and there was this whole story that was completely new to me—plus there was another Death Star, and I was completely thrown back by its weird ball shape! I had NO IDEA that the Death Star in Jedi wasn't actually supposed to look like a grinning skull, and I had an uncomfortable paradigm shift when I realized that the grinning skull wasn't its actual shape, it was only half constructed.

The rest of the 90s was spent diving headlong into everything I could get my hands on related to Star Wars. I had a subscription to the Insider, stickers all over my room, toys everywhere, models scattered about that I never seemed to finish (in those days you could get them about as cheap as action figures, back when all drug stores still had a modelling aisle next to the toy aisle). My prize possession was a 1987 Star Tours promo poster framed and hanging over my bed, which I had picked out before I had ever even been on the ride.

======
Intro to WEG's Star Wars RPG:
My first RPG book purchase was Star Wars 2nd edition revised & expanded, apparently right when it hit the shelves in August '96. My friend bought a copy the day it came in and brought it to church that Sunday, and 2 weeks later I had my own. We had already spent several years playing RPGs in one form or another without realizing it—I was a big fan of text adventures and would draw 'Zork maps' on graph paper, then have my friends explore them—and the Star Wars RPG put all of that into perspective for me. It was that golden thread that tied together all of my video games, board games, movies, books, free-form Star Wars RP community boards on AOL, and my silly graph paper maps; and the dice was the key that unlocked it all. The realization that I could use that one book to play anything I wanted, with nothing but dice to replicate the rules, hit me like a ton of bricks.

Aside from playing actual Star Wars, I methodically went through every game, movie and book I could think of and created house rules for playing them as an RPG: of the top of my head, I remember to conversions for Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Mega Man, Star Flight, Shadowrun (the video game, I had no idea there was already an RPG), Middle-earth, WarCraft, Pokemon, Indiana Jones, westerns, and WW2. Most I never played, but I did play a few, particularly a WarCraft game I ran on AOL for a little while.

[Zenopus]

Star Tours is awesome! I never went on the original, but last year I finally rode (twice!) on the newer version --- which is randomized.