Imperial Supply is the 3rd release in the Dragonstar line. It's a 128 (though the last 4 pages are ads) page softcover book priced at $20, (I paid $17 total for it on ebay), all about equipment. There's only 4 chapters, and the book pretty much starts abruptly - 1 page of intro, then boom, you're into a catalog listing of stuff.
The first chapter, about 40 pages, is called "Hardware". It's essentially gizmos of various sorts. Goggles, boots, drugs, medical stuff, computers, survival gear, a few spy devices. Some is intersting, but most is less cool than a Sharper Image or Scientific catalog.
The second chapter is on weapons. I think they used up all their good ideas in the first two books, because the new weapons here are pretty much scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Rail guns (gauss weapons in Traveller and many other SF games), Gyrojets (guns that fire little rockets - we have them in real life, but they aren't too practical because it takes a while for the rocket to get to speed. This isn't mentioned here), and a really big revolver are the highlights of the personal weapons. Almost all the equipment illustrations of these are quite ugly - look big and blockly. Really really ugly and somewhat impractical looking - all the protrusions will catch on clothing and such. Also there is a clone of the light saber, called a "Sunsword". There's also a section on missiles, which is more useful perhaps, and some new armor, all of which is pretty lame. Lots of different ammo types for projectile weapons, which is fairly useful.
The third chapter is on new robots. 11 of them, nothing particularly exciting, but including a C3P0 clone (a 'social' robot). A few new upgrades. But not much in addition to what's in the starfarer's guide. It's a short chapter (14 pages).
The last chapter is on vehicles, and is around 30 pages. Rather than having specific models, there's mostly just general entries. For instance, one on a tank, one on a half-track. There's a lot of ocean ships, surprisingly. 21 of them, a lot of them subs. There's several new spaceships, though it's a bit unclear which ones are spaceships (just for local travel within a system) and starships, except for the entry under "Fuel". Most ships don't have illustrations, and there are no deckplans or anything. One ship is a complete ripoff of the ship from Aliens. Except it has an odd name "Kelenbaum", which seems out of place for a fantasy setting.
Lastly, there's some vehicle contruction rules. Not bad, but not great, either. Serviceable. Basically, you just pick a vehicle size, and modify it. They give a lot of examples which is nice.
All in all, this book is probably only for hard-core Dragonstar fans. Much of the equipment just isn't very useful, and doesn't add much to what's in the previous two books, and the vehicle design rules are uninspired. The artwork isn't very good, except for the cover (which is great), and one inside piece which seems to show a piece of equipment that isn't in the book (a sort of portable x-ray machine/weapon scanner).
So, definitely not worth the cover price, nor the wait, nor what I paid for it. Not a ripoff, since there is a lot of text, it's just not very interesting or useful text. Very dissappointing.
