Back in 1987, when deciding on a RPG to DM, I went to a hobby shop in Cardiff with the intention of buying the game RINGWORD by Chaosium (it looked quite funky and used a RUNEQUEST style combat system). Fate, decided however that the shop didn't have RINGWORLD so I bought ICE's SPACEMASTER instead.

I only really wanted a system to play STAR WARS in, and, at the time TRAVELLER was the mainstream SciFi RPG. Unfortunately it just didn't seem suitable for Star Wars (it was the backpack energy weapons thing that decided it).

SPACEMASTER turned out to be a very flexible system indeed and converting it to play Star Wars didn't take long at all.

When "STAR WARS: The Roleplaying Game" came out, I stuck with SPACEMASTER because

• I'd gotton used to it, and,
• You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

My Spacemaster/Star Wars conversion was originally written using the First Edition of the Spacemaster rules and was based around the material available at the time for Star Wars Episodes IV to VI (A New Hope to Return of the Jedi).

So if you look at my Star Wars Universe map & race section the planets & races listed are taken from those found in the three films and also within the Han Solo book trilogy. I had intended to scour the Lando Calrisson books for more planet and race info too...but never got around to it (bar a handful of planets..e.g. Fornax)

With the release of the new Star Wars films, i.e. Episode I to III (which I hate incidently ), the 2nd Edition of the Spacemaster Rules and an idea I had for a campaign set in the New Republic (the fabled episodes VII to IX) a few changes have crept into the original conversion. My Star Wars map contains some star systems entirely of my own imagination (not canon at all) for planets settled during the time of the New Republic (these are clearly marked in the Quick Reference Planet Guide)...unfortunately, the New Republic campaign never really got anywhere (see the Carlos Castillo recap 'Operation Paraquat' for the painful details) and the Spacemaster/Star Wars section remained dormant for a very long time after that.

Recently however, my interest has picked up again (mainly due to the awesome 'The Clone Wars' cartoon on Cartoon network....it's amazing how a 3 minute cartoon can be so much better than two 3 hour long films full of tedium) and I'm in the process of expanding the conversion to allow campaigns to be set in all three Star Wars eras, i.e. The Old Republic, The Galactic Empire and The Time of the New Republic (for which I have kicked off my dormant campaign once again..huzzah!).

So if you do find inconsistencies in these rules and modifications, bare with me as I will get around to looking at it eventually. Better still, please write in and let me know elras.geo@yahoo.com

And lastly, ENJOY!...because at the end of the day dudes, thats what role-playing is all about!