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63-430: Aysle is a supplement published by West End Games in 1990 for the near-future alternate reality role-playing game Torg . Torg is a multi-dimensional role-playing game in which trans-dimensional aliens have invaded Earth, and have divided it up into various alternate realities called "cosms". In essence, this means that the referee can set adventures in almost any genre and time by switching from cosm to cosm. Aysle

126-596: A television series of the same name (2008–2020). These reveal that Anakin had a Padawan learner, Ahsoka Tano , during this period. Various characters seen only briefly in the films or in other spin-off material are featured in more depth. At this time, Lucas denied any plans to ever make a Star Wars sequel trilogy . As of 2004, over 1,100 Star Wars titles had been published, including novels, comics, non-fiction, and magazines. Then-president of Lucas Licensing, Howard Roffman, estimated that there were more than 65 million Star Wars books in print. He said, "The books are

189-416: A crossover storyline. The Star Tours ride was opened at Disney Parks in 1987 to commemorate the saga's 10th anniversary. Following the series' 10th anniversary, the release of Star Wars spin-off media was largely halted. In 1987, the fan newsletter Bantha Tracks was absorbed by the official Lucasfilm magazine, which focused on the company's projects outside of Star Wars . Some fans feared that

252-569: A handful of Legends media has still been released after said date. The first Star Wars spinoff material was Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker (1976), the novelization of the 1977 film. Lucas later commissioned Alan Dean Foster , who ghostwrote the novelization, to write a sequel, which resulted in Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978). Lucas originally intended to use this as

315-545: A heroic fantasy setting." West End Games Scott Palter received a JD from Stanford in 1972 and joined the New York State Bar before he began work at the family firm, Bucci Imports. Drawing on this financial connection, Palter was able to found West End Games, named after the bar in which the meeting that finalized its founding occurred: the West End Bar near Columbia University. Initially

378-491: A lot of weight". He further stated that this led him to print more books than he could sell, books which he eventually had to destroy in order to save on storage costs. Gibson planned to release the d6 System under the terms of the Open Gaming License (OGL) to increase sales but also "to protect it from myself", meaning that if the company had to be sold or go out of business, the system would still be available to

441-611: A new West End Games (D6 Legends, Inc.) was formed in partnership with Yeti, a French design house and publisher and subsidiary of Humanoids Publishing, in March 1999. Under court supervision, WEG/Creative Design Group sold off product and assets to pay off debt. WEG/Creative Design Group sold to the new company intellectual property, the Paranoia licensing contracts, and the trademarks. Licensing contracts for Indiana Jones , Star Wars and Xena remained with Creative Design Group, though

504-458: A new science-fiction RPG by Bill Coffin called Septimus , offering preorders, but following delays it was publicly cancelled by Gibson in March 2008. Gibson stated in July 2008 that West End Games could not afford to provide refunds to customers who preordered the cancelled Septimus product, and indeed could not even afford to pay the postage to ship books to individuals who were willing to accept

567-446: A producer of board wargames , In 1983, Palter hired Ken Rolston , Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan as game designers, and WEG's focus turned away from traditional wargames. Costikyan's 1983 game Bug-Eyed Monsters brought WEG into the science-fiction and fantasy genres. Then Costikyan and Goldberg brought Palter a manuscript for a role-playing game that originally had been conceived by their friend Dan Gelber . Palter agreed to buy

630-533: A refund in the form of products instead of money. Following the Septimus cancellation and fan backlash, Gibson said that he was planning on selling all of WEG's properties, although this did not occur at that time. WEG eventually released Septimus via PDF and print on demand . Gibson stated in a 2010 podcast interview that he was "perhaps foolishly optimistic" in assuming sales would be higher than they turned out to be because "the name West End Games would carry

693-564: A way of extending the fantasy of Star Wars . The movies have had a really profound effect on a couple of generations. Star Wars has become a cultural touchpoint, and our fans are avidly interested in exploring more stories." Originally, Lucasfilm tracked the narrative content of the Expanded Universe in story bibles , alongside official reference books such as A Guide to the Star Wars Universe (1984/1994) and

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756-652: A year after Return of the Jedi . The Truce at Bakura (1993) depicts the immediate aftermath of the aforementioned film. In 1993, Dark Horse published Tales of the Jedi , expanding the fictional universe to the time of the Old Republic , approximately 4,000 years before the films. Later, the series spawned the Knights of the Old Republic computer roleplaying games, which led to many new productions set during

819-484: Is a 144-page sourcebook that defines a heroic fantasy world setting for Torg , a cosm that has been laid over the United Kingdom and Scandinavia by the alien House Daleron. The world of Aysle has the shape of a torus (a doughnut). The sun rises up and down through the central hole of the torus, meaning that the seas closest to the hole are boiling, while those at the edge of the torus are frozen. Both sides of

882-676: Is always room for variation. In August 2005, Lucas said of the Expanded Universe: I haven't read any of the novels. I don't know anything about that world ... But I do try to keep it consistent ... if I come up with a name or something else, I look it up and see if it has already been used. When I said [other people] could make their own Star Wars stories, we decided that ... we would have two universes: My universe and then this other one. They try to make their universe as consistent with mine as possible, but obviously they get enthusiastic and want to go off in other directions. Regarding

945-494: Is to present a continuous and unified history of the Star Wars galaxy, insofar as that history does not conflict with, or undermine the meaning of Mr. Lucas's Star Wars saga of films and screenplays." Lucasfilm's director of fan relations Steve Sansweet clarified: When it comes to absolute canon, the real story of Star Wars , you must turn to the films themselves—and only the films. Even novelizations are interpretations of

1008-670: The Republic comic book series, appears in Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002). The 2003 animated series Clone Wars and various spin-off books, comics, and video games explore the titular conflict in more detail leading up to Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Ahead of the film's release, Lucas announced a 3D "continuation" of Clone Wars , which was released as the animated film The Clone Wars (2008) and

1071-795: The Star Wars Encyclopedia (1998). In 2000, LucasArts lead tester Leland Chee was hired as Continuity Database Administrator for Lucas Licensing, and developed a database of franchise continuity based in part on 1998's encyclopedic Star Wars: Behind the Magic CD-ROM . The database came to be known as the Holocron , a term used within the Star Wars universe for "ancient repositories of knowledge and wisdom". The Holocron consists of over 55,000 entries for franchise characters, locations, species, and vehicles. Lucas Licensing's managing editor Sue Rostoni said in 2001, "Our goal

1134-514: The Star Wars franchise. In The Secret History of Star Wars , Michael Kaminski suggests this renewed interest was a factor in Lucas's decision to create the prequel trilogy . Around this same time, the comics license was transferred to Dark Horse Comics , who launched a number of series set after the original film trilogy, including the popular Dark Empire sequence (1991–1995) by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy . The comic launched months after

1197-466: The Star Wars license was soon lost to Wizards of the Coast , who released their own Star Wars game in 2000. At the 1999 GAMA Trade Show, the new West End Games announced a third edition of Paranoia for late June or early July of that year, followed by a Bug Sector supplement, but these were never released. The DC Universe license was acquired and a new RPG was also announced at that time, which

1260-551: The Thrawn trilogy, made its film debut in the Special Edition of Return of the Jedi , before being featured more heavily in the prequel trilogy. An eponymous comic book series , later subtitled Republic , launched in 1998 and introduced Ki-Adi-Mundi ahead of his appearance in the films. In 1999, Star Wars book publishing moved from Bantam Spectra to Del Rey Books . A new series set between 25 and 30 years after

1323-518: The Crypt , Tank Girl , and The World of Aden . Another licensed game, the Hercules & Xena Roleplaying Game , was the last title released by the initial version of the company: in July 1998, West End Games went into bankruptcy, following mismanagement between West End Games and its then-parent company, shoe importer Bucci Retail Group. When the parent company filed for bankruptcy, West End Games

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1386-692: The D6 System—was purchased in April 2016 by Nocturnal Media, White Wolf Publishing founder Stewart Wieck 's gaming company. Nocturnal intended to keep the West End Games brand alive, and their first project using this branding was a revised edition of Greg Costikyan's 1984 WEG boardgame, Web and Starship . A Kickstarter was launched in April 2016 and was successfully funded, but the death of Nocturnal owner Stewart Wieck in June 2017 ultimately resulted in

1449-455: The D6 products produced since he acquired West End had turned a profit, and West End's other RPG lines were not performing as well as he had expected, leading to losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars. West End also expanded back into board games, beginning with a new edition of Junta , which according to Gibson was one of the few products that did turn a profit. In 2007, the company announced

1512-737: The Disney streaming service Disney+ . In early 2020, a final season of The Clone Wars animated series debuted on the streaming service. In February 2020, it was announced that a new line of books and comics, labeled The High Republic , would begin publishing starting in August. The line takes place 200 years prior to the events of The Phantom Menace and will not overlap any films or series currently planned for production. In December 2020, multiple live-action series were announced for Disney+, including Obi-Wan Kenobi , Andor , Lando , three Mandalorian spin-offs, and The Acolyte (set during

1575-604: The Essential Legends Collection for the franchise's 50th anniversary, starting with Heir to the Empire , Darth Bane: Path of Destruction and Shatterpoint . In its 2014 announcement, Lucasfilm explained that the only preexisting works to be considered canonical within the franchise would be the primary episodic films and the 2008 The Clone Wars film and TV series. The announcement called these works "the immovable objects of Star Wars history,

1638-458: The Holocron database in 2012, Chee said: "What sets Star Wars apart from other franchises is that we develop a singular continuity across all forms of media, whether it be the films, TV series, video games, novels and comics, and the Holocron is a key component to Lucasfilm being able to do this." The Holocron was divided into five levels of canon (in order of precedence): In October 30, 2012,

1701-604: The Jedi or long before A New Hope ( e.g. the Tales of the Jedi series). The time period shortly before the original trilogy (including the rise of the Galactic Empire and the personal histories of Anakin Skywalker and Emperor Palpatine ) was left open for Lucas to develop in the form of a prequel trilogy, which began with Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999). The character Aayla Secura , introduced in 2000 in

1764-558: The Jedi , was part of a multimedia campaign that also included a comic book series and video game . The multimedia project was largely meant to reinvigorate the franchise ahead of the prequel trilogy, along with Lucas's 1997 Special Editions of the original trilogy. Lucas incorporated elements of the Expanded Universe into the Special Editions; for example, Coruscant , the New Republic capital planet created by Zahn in

1827-535: The Old Republic era, such as the Bane Trilogy and the Knights of the Old Republic comic line. In 1994, Lucas Licensing's Allan Kausch and Sue Rostoni discussed the relationship between Lucas' creations and the derivative works by other authors: Gospel, or canon as we refer to it, includes the screenplays, the films, the radio dramas and the novelizations. These works spin out of George Lucas' original stories,

1890-473: The Special Editions, prequels, and The Clone Wars ) in incorporating multiple spin-off elements into his series. Some cancelled The Clone Wars episodes were adapted into books and comics in The Clone Wars Legacy multimedia project. After The Force Awakens , multiple films were released, including the anthology films Rogue One (2016) and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), as well as

1953-504: The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for US$ 4.06 billion (equivalent to about US$ 5.39B in 2023 due to inflation). Subsequently, Lucasfilm formed the "Lucasfilm Story Group", which was established to keep track of and define the canon and unify the films, comics, and other media. Among its members are Chee, Kiri Hart, and Pablo Hidalgo . To prevent the planned sequel trilogy from being beholden to and restrained by

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2016-578: The animated television series Star Wars Rebels , which was released a month later. Marvel began publishing new Star Wars comic book series in January 2015, and the Journey to Star Wars publishing initiative included books and comics tying in to the sequel trilogy films. The first sequel trilogy film, The Force Awakens , was released in December 2015. There was some minor fan backlash against

2079-540: The background material presented within. Zahn's trilogy, in turn, renewed interest in the franchise and provided further sales for West End Games, which released sourcebooks for Zahn's three novels from 1992 to 1994. 1990 saw the release of the Torg roleplaying game, followed in 1994 by the Masterbook system, which was mostly used in licensed RPG adaptations: Indiana Jones , Necroscope , Species , Tales from

2142-739: The basis for a potential low-budget sequel to Star Wars , but when it became one of the most successful films of all time, Lucas decided to write his own story for the film sequel, The Empire Strikes Back (1980). While this was in production, Lucas approved the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), with which he had limited involvement. Running from April 1977 to May 1986, the Star Wars comic book series from Marvel Comics met with such strong sales that former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter credited it with saving Marvel financially in 1977 and 1978. The series became one of

2205-547: The cancellation of that project. A licensing deal to publish a Second Edition of the D6 System was made with Gallant Knight Games in October 2017. Company founder Scott Palter fell ill and died on February 17, 2020. Game designers previously affiliated with West End Games over its long history include: Historical boardgames. Star Wars expanded universe Star Wars has been expanded to media other than

2268-456: The characters and events to which all other tales must align." It was also made clear that a planned Star Wars sequel trilogy, and subsequent works developed within the restructured canon, would not be based on Legends material but could possibly draw from it. The first new canonical novel was A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller , published in September 2014, acting as a prologue to

2331-510: The exception of the animated The Clone Wars TV series , non-film material produced prior to April 2014 was collectively known as the Star Wars Expanded Universe ( EU ). Lucasfilm, now under Disney, later rebranded the Expanded Universe as Star Wars Legends and declared it non-canonical to the franchise. Most works produced after April 25, 2014 are part of the official canon as defined by Lucasfilm, although

2394-424: The film, and while they are largely true to George Lucas' vision (he works quite closely with the novel authors), the method in which they are written does allow for some minor differences ... The further one branches away from the movies, the more interpretation and speculation come into play. LucasBooks works diligently to keep the continuing Star Wars expanded universe cohesive and uniform, but stylistically, there

2457-438: The first Thrawn novel and was a sequel to those novels; it notably resurrected the film characters Emperor Palpatine and Boba Fett . Zahn was critical of the concept of resurrecting Emperor Palpatine through cloned bodies, feeling it undermined and contradicted the meaning of the ending of Return of the Jedi . The Jedi Prince series of young-reader novels, released between 1992 and 1993, depicts Luke, Leia, and Han about

2520-428: The franchise had come to an end, and the period between 1987 and 1991 has been called the "Dark Times." There were some bright spots in this era, however. In 1987, West End Games began publishing Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game , and the subsequent ancillary role-playing game material such as sourcebooks, gamebooks, and adventure modules. These have been called "the first publications to expand greatly beyond what

2583-539: The general public. In 2009, West End Games moved forward with these plans, with the resulting license known as OpenD6. Following the Septimus project, Purgatory Publishing sold off most of their properties. In June 2010, Torg was sold to German game company Ulisses Spiele, while in July 2010 the Masterbook system, Shatterzone , and Bloodshadows were sold to Precis Intermedia. West End Games itself and its remaining properties—which by then consisted primarily of

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2646-424: The industry's top selling titles in 1979 and 1980. An adaptation of the third theatrical film, Return of the Jedi , was released as a separate four-issue limited series (1983–1984). Two novel trilogies with original storylines were written, The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley (1979–1980), and 1983's The Adventures of Lando Calrissian by L. Neil Smith . Daley also wrote radio dramatizations of

2709-457: The license from Columbia Pictures to produce an RPG based on the film Ghostbusters . This game, Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game , formed the basis of the D6 System which was to be heavily used in many of their licensed products. In 1987, the company released their Star Wars role-playing game . Since the films had been released some years previously, and there

2772-498: The original films, The New Jedi Order (1999–2003), was written by multiple authors and introduced a new threat: the Yuuzhan Vong , a powerful alien race attempting to invade and conquer the entire galaxy. The first novel in the series, R. A. Salvatore 's Vector Prime , killed off popular character Chewbacca . Before 1999, the bulk of Expanded Universe storytelling explored the time periods either after Return of

2835-409: The original films. StarWars.com wrote in 2014 that the novel "jumpstarted a publishing program that endures to this day and formalized the Expanded Universe". It introduced, among others, the popular characters Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade , and was followed by the sequels Dark Force Rising (1992) and The Last Command (1993). The Thrawn trilogy is widely credited with revitalizing

2898-587: The original films. This spin-off material is licensed and moderated by Lucasfilm , though during his involvement with the franchise Star Wars creator George Lucas reserved the right to both draw from and contradict it in his own works. Such derivative works have been produced concurrently with, between, and after the original , prequel , and sequel trilogies , as well as the spin-off films and television series . Commonly explored Star Wars media include books , comic books , and video games , though other forms such as audio dramas have also been produced. With

2961-520: The original trilogy, which aired in 1981, 1983, and 1996. The first Star Wars electronic game was released in 1979 by Kenner , followed by a handful of Atari and Parker Brothers video games in the early 1980s, mainly adaptations of film scenes. Two spin-off television films focusing on the life of the Ewoks , introduced in Return of the Jedi , aired in 1984 and 1985. The furry creatures were also

3024-403: The plotlines of the Expanded Universe works, the choice was made to discard that continuity. On April 25, 2014, Lucasfilm rebranded the Expanded Universe material as Star Wars Legends and declared it non-canonical to the franchise. The company's focus would be shifted towards a restructured Star Wars canon based on new material. Chee said in a 2014 Twitter post that a "primary goal" of

3087-444: The rest are written by other writers. However, between us, we've read everything, and much of it is taken into account in the overall continuity. The entire catalog of published works comprises a vast history—with many off-shoots, variations and tangents—like any other well-developed mythology. The 1996 Steve Perry novel Shadows of the Empire , set in the as-yet-unexplored time period between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of

3150-525: The restructured canon, with one group successfully campaigning to buy a billboard pleading for Lucasfilm to continue the original non-canonical Expanded Universe separately from the canon. Rebels supervising director Dave Filoni reintroduced popular Legends character Thrawn into the canon in the 2016 third season of Rebels . Timothy Zahn was hired to write new canonical novels about the character. Since co-creating The Clone Wars , Filoni has followed Lucas (who incorporated Expanded Universe elements into

3213-402: The rights to the game, and after some editing and polishing by Rolston, it was released at Gencon in 1984 as WEG's first role-playing game, Paranoia . In 1985, Paranoia won WEG an Origins Award for "Best Roleplaying Rules of 1984". The high production values demanded by the wargames industry made them one of the few companies who could compete with TSR , and they were able to acquire

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3276-470: The second and third sequel trilogy films, The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Dozens of novels, comics published by Marvel and IDW , and games like Battlefront II (2017) were released. Additionally, the animated series Resistance , set in the sequel trilogy era, premiered in late 2018 and ran until early 2020. The Mandalorian , a post- Return of the Jedi live-action series written by Jon Favreau premiered in late 2019 on

3339-478: The standard "coin" being a 1-hour conjuration spell. Several short adventures or missions are outlined for the referee to use. In the May 1991 edition of Dragon (Issue 169), Ken Rolston questioned whether the magic system would work well, saying, "The presentation is so abstract and wordy that I have a hard time figuring out what part is rules and what part is just gas... The only folks who’ll ever find out whether

3402-519: The story group would be to replace the previous hierarchical canon (of the Holocron) with one cohesive one. However, the final season of The Clone Wars , which was released in 2020, contradicted aspects of the 2016 canon novel Ahsoka . The next year, The Clone Wars spin-off series The Bad Batch contradicted canon elements of the 2015 Kanan comic book series. The Bad Batch executive producer Jennifer Corbett explained that "Everything we did

3465-417: The subject of an American/Canadian animated television series produced by Nelvana , which ran for two seasons between 1985 and 1986. A sister series, Droids , features the further adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO . In 1985, Marvel Comics' Star Comics imprint published a bi-monthly Ewoks tie-in comic, which ran for two years, and in 1986, published an eight-issue Droids series. The two series featured

3528-470: The system works will have put a lot more work into the process than most of us are willing to expend." Rolston also found the adventures published for the Aysle setting to be "dull and uninspiring... These anthologies of two- or three-page adventure outlines don't bring much drama or tone to a setting." Overall, despite its problems, Rolston concluded that "This campaign is satisfactory, perhaps even superior, as

3591-460: The torus have continents and populations. Below the surface is where dwarves dwell. The basic magic system of the game was described in Torg. This book delves into the magic system in much more detail and also lists a large number of spells for advanced characters. In Aylse, all people have magical abilities, which are determined by the stars at their birth. Magic is at the heart of the economy, with

3654-406: Was (at the time) no new media forthcoming, the success of these books came as a surprise. The game established much of the groundwork of what later became the Star Wars expanded universe . Lucasfilm considered their sourcebooks so authoritative that when Timothy Zahn was hired to write what became the Thrawn trilogy , he was sent a box of West End Games Star Wars books and directed to utilize

3717-449: Was bought by Eric J. Gibson 's Purgatory Publishing. He moved the company to Downingtown, Pennsylvania, in 2004. Under his tenure, Torg received a revised edition and a generic version of the D6 System was produced, which led to a line of irregularly produced supplements and met with general approval from fans. However, this did not translate into high sales; in a post on the official West End forums in 2008 Gibson announced that none of

3780-507: Was for a reason and it might not match 100% but it's sort of just wanting to honor what existed but also give another take on it in this story." In 2019, Marvel published a one-issue continuation of its 1977 Star Wars comic series for the company's 80th anniversary, making it the first new story to be published in the Legends continuity. In 2021, Del Rey Books announced it would be republishing several popular Legends novels as part of

3843-401: Was forced to go under as well, despite an attempt by Palter to perform a Chapter 11 reorganization of the company's finances. As a result, former WEG designers Costikyan and Goldberg took Palter to court over ownership of Paranoia , and in 2000, the courts ruled that the license should revert to Costikyan and Goldberg. The bankrupt West End Games became WEG / Creative Design Group while

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3906-410: Was known from the vintage era of the movies," and would serve as a resource for a number of franchise novelists. The lack of new Star Wars material ended with the 1991 release of Timothy Zahn 's novel Heir to the Empire . Heir to the Empire , which reached #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list , began what would become a large collection of works set before, between, and especially after

3969-567: Was published in 1999. As Humanoids Publishing was the publisher of the Metabarons graphic novels, they utilized the D6 System to release an RPG based upon that setting. The project was a commercial failure, and Humanoids Publications decided to exit from the role-playing game market and sell off West End Games at the end of 2002. On July 1, 2002, the company made its systems—D6 Classic, D6 Legend, MasterBook, and Torg—available via license to any publisher. In November 2003 West End Games

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