WEG Memoirs: Galaxywide NewsNets

 “The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.”

— Edward R. Murrow

West End Games Star Wars Adventure Journal offered many opportunities to publish new material exploring and expanding the wider Star Wars galaxy. New short fiction featured new characters and beloved standards. Source material provided fresh setting elements to enhance games. And adventures offered ready-made action to drop into a game night or mine for inspiration. I’ll be the first to admit that — as a quarterly periodical with deadlines and a limited pool of approved authors — not every article provided stellar-quality material. All passed Lucasfilm standards at the time, but a few really stood out. “Galaxywide NewsNets” was an early example, one that established a previously unexplored aspect of the setting that continued providing inspiration in subsequent Journal issues...and even well into the new era of continuity.

Our lives revolve around news to varying degrees. Some of us barely pay much attention beyond momentous events. Others follow stories that affect them or their interests. And a few remain constantly tuned in to breaking developments, especially in turbulent times when it seems significant news stories emerge every day, even several times a day. Lately we’re quite fixated on breaking news, especially in these troubling times. Sorting out an event’s reality from limited points of view, even various witnesses, seems confusing and contradictory in the moment. We remain glued to our media as events unfold: initial reports, clarifications, eye-witness accounts, newsroom analysis, reactions from various perspectives, and official pronouncements. It doesn’t take long, looking at different sources, to realize most formal news reporting remains biased by particular perspectives. Bias becomes painfully apparent when “official” sources that wish to control the narrative spin events to their advantage (invariably absolving them of any responsibility), often contradicting the reality readily available to most news consumers.

Paul Sudlow’s initial “Galaxywide NewsNets” article in Star Wars Adventure Journal #3 (August 1994) capitalized on this by offering an overview how news might transmit in the Star War galaxy (at least in textual form) and demonstrating it with several in-setting newsfeeds. The piece covered the origins of the newsnet infrastructure, officially sanctioned and “pirate” channels (including smuggler and Rebel nets), and ways to incorporate these sources in games.

HoloNet News logo.

“Galaxywide NewsNets” became a regular feature presenting brief articles showing how different news organizations might present known and new events in the setting with their particular spin. Each newsnet source came with its own perspectives and agenda from across galactic society, from the official Imperial HoloVision, Coruscant Daily NewsFeed, and Imperial Defense Daily to ones catering to certain regions or niche demographics like Colonial News Nets, Cynabar’s InfoNet, and Alderaan Expatriate Network. Major galactic events offered opportunities to provide biased reports, many bolstering the Imperial point of view incorporating propaganda against the Rebel Alliance. For instance, among the initial reports one finds Coruscant Daily NewsFeed’s “Imperial Senate Suspended,” Imperial HoloVisions report that “Alderaan Destroyed by Own Super Weapon,” and the New Order Progressive’s “Tarkin, Staff Die in Tragic Shuttle Crash.”

Every Journal issue after that offered several pages of in-universe news from various sources, slowly working its way through classic-era Star Wars events and providing inspiration for scenarios taking place “just off screen.” Follow-up headlines like “Alderaan Destroyed by Imperial Terror Weapon” (Alderaan Expatriate Network) and “Navy Reports Super-Weapon Destroyed Alderaan” (Imperial HoloVision) provided timeline context for other articles about trade, smuggler activity, and the galactic struggle bewtween the Rebellion and Empire.

Many entries also provided some oblique inspiration for further adventures. Not quite a formally labeled scenario hook, but a teaser about some issue gamemasters might incorporate into their campaigns or even use for an entire adventure. Using in-setting news sources for inspiration wasn’t terribly new at the time. To my knowledge GDW’s Traveller roleplaying game first pioneered it as the regular “Traveller News Service” in its Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society periodical. R. Talsorian’s Cyberpunk game offered in-universe “screamsheets” — fax newspapers — with Night City news bits on one side and a related scenario outline on ther other; I used the format for a short Cyberpunk campaign I ran, using the screamsheets as a pre-game player handout and basing my adventures on information hinted at in the news stories.

NewsNet reporter on Ghorman.

One might have thought Galaxywide NewsNets would have died off after West End Games filed for bankruptcy and lost the Star Wars license in 1998. And for a while they did, though the concept of news reporting in the setting no doubt persisted in different forms. But the second season of the Andor streaming series highlighted the role newsnets — and news broadcasts in general — take in spinning a story and shaping public opinion, even when distorting the facts. As unrest boils over on Ghorman (yet another welcome reference to past West End Star Wars continuity) newsnet reporters descend on the planet to support the Imperial propaganda with biased reporting. While events unfold, newsnet reporters fan the flames of unrest by repeating the narrative of the Ghorman population being unreasonable, reactionary, and unstable in the face of sensible government action.

Art and media reflect our own reality. With the recent events in Minneapolis, MN, we saw emerging reports from official news sources, eye-witness video, official re-framing of facts we saw with our own eyes, and political spin to try controlling the narrative. People will believe the reality they want to believe, sometimes despite incontrovertible evidence. Galaxywide NewsNets used the diversity of perspective and bias to offer a wider picture of the Star Wars universe and a richer setting for the roleplaying game. Players could make up their own minds which reports were accurate or distorted; or better yet, discover on their own through adventures. In the real world we must judiciously scrutinize information from various sources, learning to spot bias and ulterior agendas. While newsnets provided depth — true or false — to the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, we must evaluate news sources in the real world to better navigate emerging issues affecting our lives.

“Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices — just recognize them.”

— Edward R. Murrow