Wizards didn’t just bring Magic the Gathering to NY Comic Con but also brought some exciting Star Wars news with them as well. After revealing the existence of a new Star Wars product at GenCon we now know much more than we did before about the Season of Rebellion.
The main reveal is two products that were announced:
- D&D | Star Wars Core Rules
- D&D | Star Wars, Tyro Squadron: Adventures
From the press release, “In D&D | Star Wars, Tyro Squadron: Adventures, take the fight to the Empire as part of a secret Rebel crew. Set during the Original Trilogy, these new stories unfold as Luke and Leia fight their own battles across the galaxy. Fly daring missions, explore new corners of the galaxy, and help shape the Rebellion’s story—your way. ”
And lastly, “Additional details about D&D | Star Wars, Core Rules will be revealed later, and fans can also look forward to a star fighter encounter at Star Wars Celebration in April 2027.”
In addition to a few pieces of art it isn’t a lot to go on, but we can and we will be doing plenty of baseless speculation and calling our shots.
Prediction #1: The rules will NOT be compatible with Dungeons & Dragons and will have their own OGL
The fact that there’s going to be a core rulebook seems like the obvious tell here. This book will likely include all of the new rules, classes, species, and so on for a variant of D&D that is not compatible with 5.5e because a lot of aspects of it just aren’t going to work together. Smugglers aren’t rogues. Stormtroopers aren’t fighters. There’s no clerics, paladins, or druids outside of some real fringe Clone Wars stuff.
There shouldn’t even really be hit points in a setting where a single blaster shot can end your life.
So if you’re expecting a supplement with new subclasses stop now. This will be a standalone game system built on roughly the same engine but with some serious tweaks.
Also, this system will not share the same Open Gaming License that D&D has. It will be the vastly more restrictive version which was universally panned by fans and creators. But given the nature of the IP involved, I would be shocked if Wizards was going to allow for the kind of flexible OGL usage we currently have.
Prediction #2: The flying missions will be AWESOME
No matter how you feel about the publishing company, Dungeons & Dragons is fun in a very over-the-top heroic way. Your characters feel like superheroes in a fantasy setting, wielding incredible power and weaponry. That’s the thing I expect to translate the most to the Star Wars products.
The press release and artwork heavily imply we’ll be getting space missions and I expect the spaceship rules to be amazing. Will it be ships as bastions? Most likely yes, but also bastions you can bring into combat against other ships, space stations, small moons… wait… that’s no moon…
Prediction #3: There will be no rules for playing Jedi… yet…
There’s no way there will be Jedi in either of these books. It’s very clearly set in the rebellion era which means that there’s simply no Jedi order anymore. There are some fringe Jedi alive like Ahsoka Tano and Yoda but the focus on Luke, Leia, and the rebellion makes me believe that there will be a distinctly non-Jedi feel to this game.
But, if the product is successful and Wizards can keep it going for a few years and Lucasfilm ever figures out how to make a real post-Return of the Jedi era that has a reborn Jedi Order as part of it, then I could see an opportunity for an expansion product at that point. But not before. For now you’ll have to settle for the potential Inquisitor or dark force user as an adversary.
Rich Stein (He/Him) has been playing Dungeons & Dragons since 3rd edition and has tried every variation of a Star Wars tabletop RPG that has been published. He’s tentatively hopefully that this one will stick around, but knows that no one can resist the allure of trying to make playable Jedi characters, the bane of all gameplay.