Alrik's Different Angle: Is KotOR A Star Wars Game Or Not?
by Alrik Fassbauer - 2003-12-11

With „Star Wars : Knights of the Old Republic" kind of a dream came true.

It's the very first real Star Wars role-playing game made for the PC.

But this particular implementation doesn't make me too happy. Here's why.

Role-playing game systems are the rule sets used for a role-playing game. You know, it's just like that.

These Systems can be quite different from one another, and they can be diverse.

But there is one rule I have seen almost everywhere : A certain role-playing game uses a certain role playing system, like an engine beneath everything.

I haven't ever seen a role-playing game using a rule set from a different system.

The world or universe in which the elements of an RPG take place is quite defined. We have Midgard, The Dark Eye (DSA) , (A)D&D, GURPS, Tunnels &Trolls and so on. What they all have in common, is that they all use one engine for each system and for each universe. In (A)D&D we have the Forgotten Realms, the most prominent universe for that system, but also the Greyhawk world and a few others.

The thing is, in the minds of the players, both are inseparably connected : Both the system and the world. If I'd say "look, there is a new D&D adventure !" few people would ask me : "what ? Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms ?" They assume more or less, that it is a Forgotten Realms adventure. Because it's better known.

If I'd say "look, there is a new DSA adventure !", few people would ask "what ? Myranor or Aventuria ?" In this case, Aventuria is the better known part. (Armalion is not directly DSA, but rather the table-top variant of it.)

And no-one would even imagine an adventure in Aventuria would use the D&D system. Because both are so much connected to one another : The world and the system.

In the realm of programming, things might work similar - but don't. There is a game named "Quake", and it's "system" - the underlying engine - is often sold to other game-making companies. There, things are not so closely connected to one another.

Well, now what has this to do with KOTOR ? Well, Knights of the Old Republic is a Star Wars game that uses the D&D system. Now, what kind of game is it, then ?

To me, it's an D&D game, because it uses this system as the underlying engine (set) of rules. I have never heard of games using  the D&D rule set that were not D&D games. (Except AD&D, of course. :-D )

The only exception I know of is the D&D implementation for P&P of Blizzards action-RPGs.

What's a real mystery to me, is, why they hadn't used the Official Star Wars Roleplaying Game rules. They could have used those of West End Games or the new ones by Wizards of the Coast. But why D&D ?

Maybe the programmers were just used to implement D&D, they knew it from earlier products. It might have something to do with experience. It might have been some kind of re-use.

Or maybe they didn't want to license a new RPG system, because they already had one, thus simply saving money.

Or a new decade of programming has arrived : Like companies licensing an engine (like the Quake engine, or the Krass engine, for example) to use in their new games, companies might do the same with RPG rule sets.

If they had used the official Star Wars rules - no matter whether those from WEG or from Wizards - it would have truly been a Star Wars game, because it had used everything that was licensed for it.

But using the D&D system with a Star Wars game makes a Chimera out of this game to me. Or, to say it with Genesis : "not fish, not flesh, not bone" („Squonk").

Of course, there is the factor of popularity. Using the already very widespread D&D rule set in a different RPG, in this case a Star Wars C-RPG, makes the original set even more popular. It's like "look ! it uses the D&D rule set !" "what's this ? let's buy some core rule books to take a look at it !" . I don't know whether brains go like this, but you cannot deny that the use of a popular rule set in a popular Science Fiction universe might ... well strenghten one another. Increase sales of both.

I'm still not sure whether I might buy KOTOR at all. Although I'd love this game, it's the system underlying it that makes me feel uneasy. Because normally system (rule set) and world are so closely connected to one another. As an result, to me is  KOTOR not a Star Wars game, but an (A)D&D game. To me, it's like Star Wars was just a part of the (A)D&D world.

Alrik.