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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2010865" data-attributes="member: 9860">This is not a playtest review.Galactic Campaign Guide is a Star Wars accessory from Wizards of the Coast that aims to help GMs better run their Star Wars campaigns.Galactic Campaign Guide is a 160-page colour hardcover costing $29.95. Font is average, space well used, margins slightly large. Though stills are used at each chapter title page, the majority of the illustrations are standard artwork, and are both appropriate to the text and of high quality. Though there are a handful of sub-standard pictures, the majority are good and a few are truly outstanding, particularly Marc Sasso's work.  Writing style and editing are both good.Chapter 1: The Campaign FoundationThis chapter begins with information on how to involve players in the creation of a campaign, offering 20 questions to establish the interests of players and their hopes for their characters. This is followed by various advice on how to set goals for the campaign. There are then a number of mini-campaign ideas such as 'jedi investigators' and 'search and retrieval' as well as some advice on running classic campaigns such as fighting tyranny and rescuing the princess.The next section zooms in to the next level of campaigns - adventures. After some advice on planning the adventures that will make up the campaign, the book offers 100 adventure ideas - from the quandary of a black market offer, to running supplies to the besieged.A further section looks at interactive character creation, which goes into more depth about handling players' character concepts. The book then heads back into GM territory with advice on how to create that Star Wars 'feel' in campaigns and adventures - saga, depth, and emotion. These aspects are dealt with in more detail with advice on using Star Wars movie conventions - the words of the 'movie' intro disappearing into space using a laptop, cut scenes, pace and tempo, cliffhangers, and heroic scale.The next section deals with encouraging the disparate players/characters to work as a cohesive group. Next up, there's advice on running side encounters for different character classes, running combat encounters (with an optional critical hit system and advice for running epic battles), running non-combat encounters (rules for games such as holochess and sabacc, and sports such as races and endurance events), and finally rewards (material, favours, and XP). There is also a useful sidebar giving advice on rewarding good roleplaying.Chapter 2: SettingsThis chapter takes a wide variety of standard encounter settings such as the apartment, cantina, docking bay, guard tower, holding cells, lab, parts shop, restaurant, sewer system, warehouse, etc. It applies a template to each one - an overview, a basic map, a description, any special game rules that apply (such as the DC to deactivate security in a lab, for example), and an adventure hook. The adventure hooks are given 'in character' as an order from HQ, a report from an underworld ally, or news bulletin. These templates allow a GM to grab a generic setting description for quick application to an adventure to save time.Chapter 3: The EnvironmentThis chapter takes a look at world-building aspects, beginning with an overview of governments and organisations within the Star Wars universe - such as Imperial, Corporate, Hutt, and Yuuzhan Vong hierarchies. The chapter then goes on to discuss environmental aspects such as gravity and underwater effects. Next comes a quick-and-dirty planet generator for arid, temperate, and humid planets, as well as a random planet name generator. A series of short sub-sections look at various environmental aspects that can be used by the PCs and the GM during adventures, such as airlocks, blast doors, fuel tanks, raised walkways, and turbolifts. Some new hazards are also described, such as pitfalls, gas traps, 21 new drugs and poisons (e.g. glitterstim spice, pantol spine venom), and 7 new diseases.Chapter 4: The PeopleThe chapter begins with a discussion of ten essential supporting characters, such as the freighter pilot, the law enforcement officer, the shopkeeper, and the scientist, particularly in relation to their use as contacts. Tables for generating random PCs are given - appearance, mannerisms, personality traits, and a series of random racial name generation tables, as well as some discussion of naming formats used by the different races.Chapter 5: The Heroic JourneyThis chapter begins with advice for the GM to help her set up a heroic Star Wars campaign and to help players devise heroic characters suitable for use in this campaign. An optional rule termed 'Heroic Qualities' allows the GM and the player to collaborate to create a possible destiny for a character, which bring with it both advantages and disadvantages. A template for designing these heroic qualities is given, listing the advantages the player knows about, secret advantages the GM might wish to add, and the drawbacks that come with the character's possible destiny. Sample heroic qualities based on some of the main heroes from the films and books are given, to get the creative juices flowing.As most Star Wars fans are aware, George Lucas was heavily influenced by the author Joseph Campbell, who wrote some great books on mythology, and in particular the role of the hero in myth and legend. The next section of the book reproduces a web article by JD Wiker, with advice to allow the GM to create a campaign/adventure using Campbell's step-by-step guide to the hero's journey (physical, emotional, and spiritual). This takes the hero (or heroes) from a call to adventure, through tests of courage and willpower, onto a climactic ordeal, and finally back to his/their roots. Further adventure design tips are then given, covering archetypal themes such as betrayal, honour, and sacrifice, and archetypal plots such as exploration, sabotage, and survival. The chapter and book end with some final advice on adventure structure, as well as some discussion on how to manage the final adventure of a campaign.High Points:There is a wealth of great advice for both beginning and experienced GMs in the book on how to design and run Star Wars campaigns and adventures. I particularly liked the hints and tips right through the book to give a campaign or adventure that Star Wars feel, instead of just another generic sci-fi tone. Despite having been used before and available as a web download, I found the use of Campbell's 'hero's journey' template to be appropriate and useful to the Star Wars GM.Low Points:I would have liked to have seen the ten essential supporting characters statted out in a similar vein to the core Star Wars rulebook, as several of them were significantly different to the allies and opponents in the core rulebook to warrant stat blocks of their own, in my opinion. The layout of the book makes sense in many ways, but one slightly annoying factor is that information on a certain topic (e.g. adventure design) can be found in multiple locations throughout the book.Conclusion:Highly recommended to new GMs, there is still a lot here for more experienced GMs, particularly in a number of time saving devices such as the quick locations in Chapter Two. This is the kind of book I love as a GM and, as such, I'm probably slightly biased in my scoring of this product. There are just so many great ideas for designing Star Wars-style adventures and campaigns that it will be sitting next to my Star Wars core rulebook when I gather my thoughts to formulate my new Star Wars campaign.</blockquote>

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