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Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
The Rebellion Era Sourcebook is an accessory covering, strangely enough, the Rebellion Era (i.e. the original Star Wars films A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) for the Star Wars roleplaying game. It costs $29.95.
Production & Presentation: This is a 160-page hardcover accessory. The front cover is an attractive but simplistic piece of colour artwork showing the silhouetted forms of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader fighting with light sabres. The back cover gives a very brief overview of the accessory. The inside covers are both black plus two black pages after these, but these are excluded from the page count. The first three pages contain credits and contents; the last page is an ad. The layout is standard two columns of clear text bordered by a bland strip on the outer edge of each page. There is some reasonable-to-good colour internal artwork, along with many stills from the movies, and a few very basic maps (e.g. an Imperial supply depot, an Imperial prison centre).
What's Inside:
The sourcebook is split into five chapters that deal with a number of issues on a chronological basis. After giving some basic information on Rebellion Era campaigns, including species and force-users in the Rebellion Era (2 pages), the book gets into the meat of the subject:
Chapter 1 - A New Hope: The layout of this chapter sets the tone for the rest of the book. It's a smorgasbord of information with a series of 1-page summaries on varying topics - the fall of the republic, the rise and maturation of the empire, the birth of the rebellion, planetary security services, aliens, the core worlds and the outer rim, the doctrine of fear, the Death Star, Tatooine, spaceports, the last voyage of Tantive IV, droids, stormtroopers, Darth Vader, Jedi teachers and students, the end of the senate, the death of Alderaan, the military-industrial complex, the imperial star destroyer, corporate servants and rebels, Kilian rangers, TIE fighter and X-Wing pilots and the battle of Yavin (including stats for the heroes of the films). There's more information here regarding the timeframe of A New Hope than you could shake a stick at. In addition, there is a thread running through this information that throws out adventure ideas for introducing PCs to the conflict between the Empire and the Rebels, tied in to the main text. The adventure ideas are continued throughout the remainder of the book.
Chapter 2 - A Dark Time: This covers the interim between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. The chapter looks at such diverse topics as Rebel bases, technology and personnel, bounty hunters, the HoloNet, Imperial propaganda and intelligence, the Emperor's Hand, Blackhole, the corporate sector, agents of the Emperor, Dark Side prophets, and mining (including the Circapous Major system, and the alien Charons).
Chapter 3 - The Empire Strikes Back: This chapter includes information on Hoth (geography, the battle, NPCs, personnel, and technology - e.g. Probe Droids and AT-ATs), further information on bounty hunters (including stats for Boba Fett and Bossk), imperial trash, Dark Troopers, Dagobah, Bespin, Cloud City, and updated stats for the NPC heroes.
Chapter 4 - Shadows of the Empire: This chapter deals with the interim between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. There is information on Rogue Squadron, Bothans, Coruscant, and the leader and personnel of the Black Sun Crime Syndicate.
Chapter 5 - Return of the Jedi deals with Jabba the Hutt and his organisation, Rebel leaders and personnel, the second Death Star, The Emperor, Endor, Imperial Scouts, Ewoks, and the battle of Endor (including updated stats for the heroes). The last few pages deal with the truce of Bakura, the alien Ssi-Ruu, the beginnings of the New Republic and the remnants of the Empire (including stats for the major NPCs).
The Good: This sourcebook covers most of the topics necessary to give an overview of the era. As you can see above, there is a shedload of information about a wide variety of topics. Threaded through this are numerous adventure ideas, both formalised and informal (as you read through the main text itself). This enables a Rebellion Era campaign to be plotted out using the ideas from the book, though the detail needs to be added.
The Bad: Although this covers a huge variety of topics, each of these topics only has a limited amount of space, necessarily skimming over the depth of information that can often be useful when devising your own adventures from the source material. Think of this sourcebook as a spark for ideas or an overview of the material, rather than in-depth coverage.
Conclusion: Despite the drawbacks of having to cover so much information, this sourcebook still does a pretty good job. If you want to run a campaign set in the Rebellion Era or even just want some decent adventure ideas for Star Wars, this is worth while. As long as you're happy to pay the extra that the Star Wars licence adds to all Star Wars products.
The Rebellion Era Sourcebook is an accessory covering, strangely enough, the Rebellion Era (i.e. the original Star Wars films A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) for the Star Wars roleplaying game. It costs $29.95.
Production & Presentation: This is a 160-page hardcover accessory. The front cover is an attractive but simplistic piece of colour artwork showing the silhouetted forms of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader fighting with light sabres. The back cover gives a very brief overview of the accessory. The inside covers are both black plus two black pages after these, but these are excluded from the page count. The first three pages contain credits and contents; the last page is an ad. The layout is standard two columns of clear text bordered by a bland strip on the outer edge of each page. There is some reasonable-to-good colour internal artwork, along with many stills from the movies, and a few very basic maps (e.g. an Imperial supply depot, an Imperial prison centre).
What's Inside:
The sourcebook is split into five chapters that deal with a number of issues on a chronological basis. After giving some basic information on Rebellion Era campaigns, including species and force-users in the Rebellion Era (2 pages), the book gets into the meat of the subject:
Chapter 1 - A New Hope: The layout of this chapter sets the tone for the rest of the book. It's a smorgasbord of information with a series of 1-page summaries on varying topics - the fall of the republic, the rise and maturation of the empire, the birth of the rebellion, planetary security services, aliens, the core worlds and the outer rim, the doctrine of fear, the Death Star, Tatooine, spaceports, the last voyage of Tantive IV, droids, stormtroopers, Darth Vader, Jedi teachers and students, the end of the senate, the death of Alderaan, the military-industrial complex, the imperial star destroyer, corporate servants and rebels, Kilian rangers, TIE fighter and X-Wing pilots and the battle of Yavin (including stats for the heroes of the films). There's more information here regarding the timeframe of A New Hope than you could shake a stick at. In addition, there is a thread running through this information that throws out adventure ideas for introducing PCs to the conflict between the Empire and the Rebels, tied in to the main text. The adventure ideas are continued throughout the remainder of the book.
Chapter 2 - A Dark Time: This covers the interim between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. The chapter looks at such diverse topics as Rebel bases, technology and personnel, bounty hunters, the HoloNet, Imperial propaganda and intelligence, the Emperor's Hand, Blackhole, the corporate sector, agents of the Emperor, Dark Side prophets, and mining (including the Circapous Major system, and the alien Charons).
Chapter 3 - The Empire Strikes Back: This chapter includes information on Hoth (geography, the battle, NPCs, personnel, and technology - e.g. Probe Droids and AT-ATs), further information on bounty hunters (including stats for Boba Fett and Bossk), imperial trash, Dark Troopers, Dagobah, Bespin, Cloud City, and updated stats for the NPC heroes.
Chapter 4 - Shadows of the Empire: This chapter deals with the interim between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. There is information on Rogue Squadron, Bothans, Coruscant, and the leader and personnel of the Black Sun Crime Syndicate.
Chapter 5 - Return of the Jedi deals with Jabba the Hutt and his organisation, Rebel leaders and personnel, the second Death Star, The Emperor, Endor, Imperial Scouts, Ewoks, and the battle of Endor (including updated stats for the heroes). The last few pages deal with the truce of Bakura, the alien Ssi-Ruu, the beginnings of the New Republic and the remnants of the Empire (including stats for the major NPCs).
The Good: This sourcebook covers most of the topics necessary to give an overview of the era. As you can see above, there is a shedload of information about a wide variety of topics. Threaded through this are numerous adventure ideas, both formalised and informal (as you read through the main text itself). This enables a Rebellion Era campaign to be plotted out using the ideas from the book, though the detail needs to be added.
The Bad: Although this covers a huge variety of topics, each of these topics only has a limited amount of space, necessarily skimming over the depth of information that can often be useful when devising your own adventures from the source material. Think of this sourcebook as a spark for ideas or an overview of the material, rather than in-depth coverage.
Conclusion: Despite the drawbacks of having to cover so much information, this sourcebook still does a pretty good job. If you want to run a campaign set in the Rebellion Era or even just want some decent adventure ideas for Star Wars, this is worth while. As long as you're happy to pay the extra that the Star Wars licence adds to all Star Wars products.
