Fantasy Flight Games acquired the liscence to Star Wars and will be making RPGs, miniatures, card, and board games! Two games already announced.

Ooooo...more shiny FF board games.

So the prices will double in exchange for confusing and overly complicated mechanics, pretty but inconsistent artwork, and better-quality materials? Glad I'm not a Star Wars fan.

FFG's board game mechanics aren't that hard, they're just horribly presented and worded. They're also pretty hit and miss. Cautious but optimistic.

I'm Aaron Stack, and I approve this post in its entirety.

I never had a problem with the mechanics, or the artwork... inconsistent across the line of games or in individual games? As for the price, I think it is fair. About on par with other quality games. I would much rather pay a bit more for a game with high production values than some pile of punched out chits.

Mechanics depends on the system. Dark Heresy was really easy once I figured out what I was doing. Their board games, however, are extremely complicated. Which is okay, because I've enjoyed their board games.

Their prices for RPGs appear to be about on par with the rest of the market, given all that we got in DH.

I'm actually specifically thinking of Arkham Horror, Rogue Trader, and Anima: Beyond Fantasy. The last is my prime example of horribly confusing mechanics. A 1 is really a -3 and a 10 is really a 13, unless a 1 is really a -15? No thanks. Arkham Horror is almost as messy. Thankfully they cleaned a lot of that up in Mansions of Madness -- that's a good game, by the way. Rogue Trader is a good system, and it's internally consistent, but dear Lord that book is badly organized. Important information about basic, common tasks is scattered everywhere throughout the book, including lots of little modifiers that add up to significant numbers.

As far as artwork: Take a look at Rogue Trader's chapter on Navigators. A lot of the artwork in the book is good, and then all of a sudden there's a chapter filled with bad watercolors of stick people in garish colors. Hideous and unnecessary. They have some really good artists on tap -- most of Anima is absolutely gorgeous -- but when they go outside their comfort zone it looks awful.

And pricing? Rogue Trader is a core rulebook for a RPG, and as such I'd expect it to retail in the $30-40 range. Actual retail price? $60. I bought my copy for $52 and called it a bargain. Do I like it? Yes. But I'm pretty much paying a 2x premium for shiny covers and pages.

So no, none of that was hyperbole.

I'm interested to see where they go with their rules and how they plan on supporting the galaxy.