SWRPG - Revised vs. Original d20 version

[thud13x]

Hi.

My regular gaming group is taking a break from D&D and starting a SWd20 campaign. I am quite excited about it. However, I only have the original SW d20 Book (the one with only the information from Phantom). So, my question to all of you is: does the Revised Book vary from the original in a way that buying the Revised Book would be a good investment? Also, could I play with a character created using the book I have in a game with revised book characters?

Thanks for you (upcoming) input!

Nik

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Buy the Revised Core Book. The classes all changed in multiple ways, and there's even a whole new class in the RCB. Some feats became skills(mostly Force stuff). It really would be very, very tough to play an older character with the RCB, as so much was changed, especially armor, Reputation, and class abilities.

 

[Plane Sailing]

You could have a fine game with just the original book - some of the changes they made for the RCR were a little nonsensical IMO. The noble was hamstrung for starters, even though the rest of the classes where probably boosted a little bit.

The rest of my gaming group have the RCR and unfortunately there are so many changes your OCR isn't really any use at all (I speak from experience). I've not bought a new copy myself, you might want to but if you can get by with borrowing other friends copies I'd do that.

Cheers

 

[maddman75]

Main difference to me is that the starship combat rules no longer suck - they work like character combat rules.

 

[wingsandsword]

Buy the Revised Book. It's definitely worth it, almost all the big changes were made by player demand. Some of the changes right off hand:

Revised Force Users: Force users can select what order they get their main Force feats in (instead of prescribed order by their class), and they added a lot of prestige classes and skills from some of the suppliments to the core.

Revised Noble: As someone who played a Noble in OCR, I definitely welcome the RCR noble. One big change is that they don't get times-ever favors once every other level, they get an increasing bonus to favor checks they can make more often, so using a favor isn't an "once ever" thing (akin to the Favor talent in d20 Modern).

New core class: Tech Specialist. A technician/slicer/engineer/medic core class, they can make masterwork equipment up to +3, and get lots of skill bonuses. Think Ghent, Raith Sienar or Lobot.

The starshp combat system: They ditched the confusing abstract system and made a more concrete one, they also added plenty of things for PC's do to in a starship fight that gives many PC's ways to affect a starship fight other than: Pilot flies, gunner shots. It also makes it possible to have a group of PC starfighter pilots, each one in a different ship (practically impossible under the old system).

Revised Wound/Vitality: Instead of just dropping to 0 wound after a direct turbolaser hit or falling from several kilometers up, making your DC 15 fort save to live and bleed out, WP now go negative. Much like HP you're dead at -10 WP and bleeding out at -1 WP.

As for compatibility between the two, it's really difficult. A force-user would miss out on a lot, you'd be missing out on one new core class, the Noble was changed a lot, and there were a lot of feats added to the core book, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you had no other choice. A straight-up soldier might be able to get away with it. (Kinda like D&D 3.0 rulebook at a 3.5 game). The only stuff not reprinted in the RCR are a few characters Episode I stats.

 

[kenobi65]

Two other significant combat-related changes:
- Original didn't contain Attacks of Opportunity. Revised does.
- Armor in Original gave you a Defense bonus; if you wore armor, you got the Armor bonus to Defense rather than your class bonus. Armor in Revised gives DR, but only against Wound damage.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The original also had a 'knockback' combat option which was removed in the RCR.

The changes to the noble were mostly good but they changed the inspiring speech from the excellent original version to a flavourless clone of the bardic ability. So you can't have Leia giving the inspiring speech before they fly off to the death star, she has to natter to them over the airwaves during the attack...

The other changes are better though (although I could happily live without the AoO, the original worked fine without them).

Cheers

 

[Mokona]

I liked the first version better but it isn't compatible with the Revised version. I like the lower character class power levels and I dislike AoO.

 

[LeapingShark]

Seems like we have another one of these threads every week. I always say the same thing.

The Revised was a major improvement, lots of expanded material, fixed many problems. I highly recommend it. I love that book!

 

[HellHound]

I'll throw my hat into the "prefers revised edition" side of the ring.

In my games, we still use the noble's Inspiring Speech ability from the original instead of the revised. Otherwise, I prefer the revised rules overall.