This is not a playtest review.
Hero's Guide is a Star Wars accessory from Wizards of the Coast, designed to expand the options for players of Star Wars characters.
Hero's Guide is a 160-page colour hardcover product costing $29.95. Space usage is average, with small chunks of unused space scattered here and there throughout the product, fairly wide margins, and a standard-sized font. Illustrations are a mixture of stills and art - the art is generally top-notch quality and mainly correlates with the text. Writing style is intelligent and engaging and editing is good.
Chapter 1: Character Creation
This chapter essentially discusses the concept of Dramatic Hooks - basic concepts that define a character that also lend saga, depth, and emotion to the overall roleplaying experience of a Star Wars campaign. These three aspects are discussed in detail and various ideas given to help a player define his character in these terms.
Chapter 2: Character Archetypes
Character archetypes take an idea first introduced in Star Wars Gamer magazine, and expand on it. Take a mix of appropriate classes/PrCs, multiclass to your best advantage across the 20 levels available, offer some variant paths in terms of class feature progression, add some roleplaying notes, and you have your character archetype. The eleven character archetypes presented are the Demagogue (Noble/Scout), Imperial Officer (Noble/Soldier/Officer), Information Broker (Noble/Scoundrel), Jedi Wanderer (Jedi Consular/Scoundrel), Outlaw Tech (Scoundrel/Tech Specialist), Prowler (Scoundrel/Soldier/Infiltrator), Rebel Officer (Soldier/Noble/Officer/Elite Trooper), Scrounger (Fringer/Tech Specialist), Shipjacker (Soldier/Scout), Spirit Adept (Force Adept/Fringer), and Urban Adept (Force Adept/Noble). The variant class features mainly involve swapping out one class's features for another at certain levels, but there are a few new class features to add spice to the mix. The variant class features seem fairly balanced from a brief assessment.
Chapter 3: Skills And Feats
The chapter begins with some new uses for existing skills, such as using Bluff for seduction, Computer Use for scrambling comms, Hide for tailing, Move Object to add Force to a leap, and Treat Injury to diagnose an injury or illness.
Sixty new feats are introduced - some borrowed from standard D&D (such as Weapon Specialisation and Ride-by Attack), a few new force feats (Up The Walls allows part of a movement to be along a wall, whilst others purely add the standard +2 bonuses to a couple of skill checks), some interesting combat options (Blasterslinger allows an additional blaster fire action only when the player rolls highest initiative), and some rather nefarious feats (Shady Merchant allows you to palm off stolen goods to a fence for a number of credits dependent on a Diplomacy check).
The next section is entitled Martial Arts Feats, which are defined by certain cultural martial arts fighting styles and allow a certain feat progression from basic through expertise to mastery. A player is limited to only one of these feat progressions at a time (unless a player takes the Martial Arts Master PrC). Examples include the Echani style practiced by Palpatine's Royal Guards (which increases the deadliness of attacks), and Stava (the Noghri fighting style, which combines bonuses to damage with additional actions when charging).
Lightsaber Form feats introduce seven styles of lightsaber combat that emphasise the concepts of Jedi philosophy. Again, they can only be used one at a time, and run from bonuses to disarm an opponent, through bonuses to deflect blaster fire, on to bonuses to critical hit rolls at the highest level.
Chapter 4: Prestige Classes
Nine new prestige classes:
* Chief Engineer - 10-level PrC, experts at designing and crafting helpful technology
* Infiltrator - 10-level PrC, spy with skill mastery, sneak attacks, and ambush abilities
* Loyal Protector - 10-level PrC, bodyguard with abilities to protect employee
* Martial Arts Master - 10-level PrC, has ability to mix cultural martial arts feat progressions
* Master Duelist - 10-level PrC, expert weapons master with flashy attacks and clever defences
* Outlaw Slicer - 10-level PrC, specialist in hacking and cracking security systems
* Priest - 5-level PrC, with ability to inspire and command followers
* Sharpshooter - 10-level PrC, specialist in ranged attacks
* Treasure Hunter - 5-level PrC, mixture of archaeologist and rogue
Chapter 5: Factions
This chapter looks at organisations and begins with a new mechanic, Sympathy, which provides a bonus or penalty when dealing with certain organisations, in a similar way to Reputation. The character must have had a positive experience with the organisation during an adventure to be able to apply the Sympathy bonus to that organisation. Sympathies with more than one organisation can create conflict, and a table outlines where this may occur, or where a Sympathy bonus with one organisation may have a knock-on effect with another organisation. Sympathy can also be lost through betrayal and neglect, and can only ever reach a maximum of +5.
Each organisation has information on the faction itself, joining and leaving the organisation, information on the effects of Sympathy with the organisation, and new feats and prestige classes specific to the faction:
* Antarian Rangers - a paramilitary organisation with strong links to the Jedi; includes the Field Guide and Jedi Petitioner feats, and the Antarian Ranger PrC.
* Black Sun Criminal Syndicate - a ruthless secret criminal organisation; includes the Underworld Connections feat, and the Black Sun Enforcer and Black Sun Vigo (kind of a lieutenant) PrCs.
* Bothan Spynet - anti-Imperial spy network; includes the False Identity and Information Debt feats, and the Master Spy PrC.
* Bounty Hunters' Guild - galaxy-wide organisation that sets code of conduct for bounty hunters and provides support for them; includes the Contract Hunter feat.
* Confederacy Of Independent Systems - group of independent planets and organisations (including the Trade Federation) that have rejected The Republic; includes the Favoured Customer feat.
* Corellian Security Force - law enforcement organisation; includes the Criminal Investigation feat and the CorSec Officer PrC.
* Corporate Sector - huge corporation encompassing thousands of planets dedicated to financial profit; includes the Corporate Credit Line and Premier Credit Line feats, and the Corporate Troubleshooter PrC (kind of a freelance detective).
* Galactic Empire - The Empire. Nuff said. Includes the Flight Academy Training and Imperial Command Training feats, and the ISB Special Agent PrC.
* Hutt Criminal Syndicate - archetypal criminal organisation run by the Hutt crimelords; includes the Hutt Favour and Piece Of The Action feats, and the Crime Broker PrC.
* Mistryl Shadow Guards - human women trained as assassins and bodyguards; includes the Heart of Vengeance feat and the Mistryl Shadow Guard PrC.
* Noble Houses - various noble houses, particularly from the Core Worlds, Hapes Cluster, and Tapani Sector; includes the Untouchable feat and the Lord of the Expanse PrC for Tapani Sector nobles.
* Peace Brigade - organisation that co-operates with the Yuuzhan Vong invaders against the rest of the universe; includes the Biotech Familiarity and Jedi Hunter feats.
* Rebel Alliance - includes the Rebel Training feat and the Rebel Organiser PrC.
* Sienar Fleet Systems - corporate starship/technology faction aligned with The Empire; includes the Sienar Service Contract and Starship Power Override feats, and the Sienar Engineer PrC.
There are a few notes, as regards Sympathy and faction conflicts in particular, on the Jedi, the Republic, the Sith, and the Yuuzhan Vong, as these factions are covered in more detail in other products. There are also some further ideas on factions in different time periods, as well as some advice on creating new factions.
Chapter 6: Equipment
The chapter begins with a discussion of credits - how many starting credits a character gets if they start at higher level than 1st, and loans (including the consequences of defaulting on a loan). The following section discusses communications systems (such as comlinks, com codes, and the HoloNet). A few new pieces of equipment are offered such as the discblade, targeting scope, and shock whip. There is also a discussion of some computer systems, along with costs and weight. The chapter ends with a fairly lengthy section on cybernetics, with rules for lost limbs, cybernetic rejection, and ion shielding, as well as stats and details on prosthetic limbs, skeletal reinforcement, subcutaneous comlinks, and weapon mounts, amongst others.
Chapter 7: Combat
This chapter begins with some optional new combat actions - aiming, suppression fire, pulling a blow, using ion weapons, some clarifications on the Burst of Speed (and similar) feats, lightsaber deflection, and throwing lightsabers. The chapter ends with some detailed paragraphs to clarify flanking (such as flanking big creatures and flanking with reach) along with gridded illustrations of how these aspects work in action.
Chapter 8: The Force
This chapter gives the Force Adept class a little of the limelight for a change, with three new Force Traditions - each Force Tradition is discussed in terms of philosophy, its traditions, training, and focus on certain Force powers, as well as offering some further feats and prestige classes linked to the traditions:
* Baran Do Sages - this tradition focuses on meditative practices as a means to expand their Force-heightened senses and visions of the future. Includes the Enhanced Danger Sense and Weather Sense force feats, and the 5-level Baran Do Sage PrC.
* Matukai - the Matukai use their body as a focus for contacting the Force, using meditative martial arts. Includes the Body Adjustment force feat and the 5-level Matukai PrC.
* Zeison Sha - the Zeishon Sha sect specialise in telekinesis, particularly in regard to the control of the ranged discblade weapons they favour. Includes the Force Shield and Recover Weapon force feats, and the Zeison Sha Warrior PrC.
The chapter ends with some advice on creating new Force Traditions, and a template for a Force Spirit - essentially a ghost of one once strong in the Force (including a sample Force Spirit).
Chapter 9: Droids
This chapter begins with a discussion of the various uses of droids as henchmen. There is further discussion on (and stats for) training remotes. There are also a handful of new feats designed specifically for droids, particularly to take into account droids unarmed combat rules for martial arts. The chapter and the book end with two new PrCs for droids - the 5-level Espionage Droid and Berserker Droid - for players who choose droids for characters.
High Points:
The whole book brings a plethora of choices, extra depth, and added individuality for players. I liked the concept of the Character Archetype first introduced in Star Wars Gamer, and its good to see this concept expanded upon with the various variant class features. The Factions and Force Traditions chapters were, to my mind, the best chapters of the book, bringing real meaning to characters' interactions with various organisations of the Star Wars universe. Players that enjoy combat are also pandered to with a good range of feats (including the martial arts feats and the lightsaber forms) and have the luxury of knowing there is a chance they can replace a limb or two if things go wrong - if they can find a decent cybernetics expert (and have the credits).
Low Points:
There's little to complain about, except perhaps to wish there was more (though there were probably enough and more feats and prestige classes). The areas where I felt slightly short-changed (in the advice on bringing depth to characters) is amply dealt with in the Star Wars Galactic Campaign Guide, and if the two products are used as companion volumes, are as complete as I could wish for.
Conclusion:
Another excellent book in the Star Wars series following the Galactic Campaign Guide for GMs, the Hero's Guide achieves its goal to allow players to further individualise their characters, whilst also introducing new rules such as Sympathy, Factions, Force Traditions, and combat styles, that will allow the GM to bring depth to her Star Wars campaign.
