- "The ultimate goal is to include everything needed to play – rules and source material – in one book.... The Indiana Jones Roleplaying Game, Second Edition would be as much a game rulebook as a sourcebook for running adventures during this era of history."
- ―Pete Schweighofer[src]
The Indiana Jones Roleplaying Game, Second Edition was a proposed role-playing game by West End Games (WEG), set to be written by Raiders of the Lost Ark Sourcebook author Pete Scheweighofer but with the alternate D6 System rules.[2]
Since the acquisition of the Indiana Jones license from Lucasfilm Ltd. by WEG, Schweighofer deemed the company's decision to use the d10-based game engine of Masterbook for the Indy titles and the D6 System for their Star Wars titles a poor choice, as he felt that the appeal and success of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game was its cinematic game system so intuitive that it could teach complete newcomers how to play itself in no more than fifteen minutes, not prioritizing to cater to gamers who preferred complicated rules but capitalizing on fan enthusiasm, which led the corporate winds to convince WEG to release The World of Indiana Jones in 1994 under the Masterbook rules. A slew of "World of" books of different settings both licensed and original followed up, but none approached the same level of success of the Star Wars game. Eventually, WEG realized that the D6 System could be applied for other games, dropping the Masterbook system and releasing Indiana Jones Adventures through this format in 1996 before an updated conversion of The World of Indiana Jones.[2]
Around in late 1997 or early 1998, Schweighofer proposed to the then-owner of WEG to make a complete D6 System re-release of The World of Indiana Jones similar to the company's revised and expanded Star Wars roleplaying game. with the same full-color and hardcover format. As a sourcebook for the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade movie was never published assuming there was ever a manuscript for it before the company went bankrupt, a relaunch of the line envisioned to rectify this by making a "movie trilogy" sourcebook updating/converting the information from the existing sourcebooks and adding material of the third Indiana Jones film.[1] WEG hoped to boost a D6 version of The World of Indiana Jones with a similar "super mondo" treatment due to the original core rulebook's now lack of relevancy and Adventures not being a rulebook at all, which led Schweighofer to draft his proposal based on the remastered Star Wars game, incorporating similar player sections, gamemasters, tutorial adventures (particularly a solitaire revised version of his Raiders of the Lost Ark Sourcebook feature "Silver Horus"), setting resources, plenty of color movie stills augmented with original pieces from artists like Indiana Jones Magic & Mysticism: The Dark Continent artist Stephen Daniele, resources with some material of previous sourcebooks and additional material to fill out the setting such as Last Crusade content and likely ideas/comments from the entire creative staff as the book would have required staff contributions so it could make it through the production schedule on time. Schweighofer even thought about including an accompanying logical setting sourcebook centered on Egypt called Indiana Jones Valley of the Pharaohs as a tie-in.[2]
Schweighofer finished his proposal in December 1997 and probably left it to cross WEG game designer Scott Palter's desk in January 1998, with whom Schweighofer vaguely recalls handing his proposal to him personally and briefly chatting with him about the project. Unfortunately, nothing came from it. During the next six months, WEG entered a death spiral in spite of the staff efforts to promote the games and management efforts to solve the company's financial problems, culminating with Palter calling everyone into his office at the end of that year's June and announce them to "consider themselves unemployed". As of 2021, Scheweighofer kept his proposal for the role-playing game in a hard drive and a three-page print out in a folder labeled "Indiana Jones D6", not doubting that it would have reinvigorated the game line and led to more supplements had it been made due to its potential to promote more cinematic pulp gaming in the spirit characterized by Lucasfilm's two flagship franchises even if it wouldn't have come close to the sales numbers of the Star Wars title nor save WEG from its dire financial strats.[2]
Notes and references[]
Indiana Jones role-playing games | |
---|---|
The Adventures of Indiana Jones | |
Crystal Death · Judge's Survival Pack · The Golden Goddess Nepal Nightmare · The Fourth Nail Tie-ins: The Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors | |
The World of Indiana Jones | |
Golden Vampires · Indiana Jones Artifacts · Temple of Doom Sourcebook Indiana Jones Adventures · Sky Pirates and Other Tales · Magic & Mysticism: The Dark Continent Tie-ins: Temple of Seth · Legend of the Long Knife · Wrath of Hecate Cancelled: The Indiana Jones Roleplaying Game, Second Edition (Valley of the Pharaohs) | |
Related | |
The Adventures of Indiana Jones Unpainted Metal Miniatures · Gamebooks |