Star Wars RPG Rulebook

[IronWolf]

updated on 22-NOV-02

When I first saw this book, I was excited. I was never a big fan of the old d6 system, and so (seeing as how Star Wars is actually Legendary High Fantasy in Space) this seemed like it could be a lot of fun.

As I have begun playing it, I find the whole thing to be a bit Luke Warm. I was unable to put my finger on why until just a while ago... The Psionics Handbook. This game should have waited until the Psionics Handbook was finished. When it was, then the Force should have been modeled after that system -- or should have been closer to the Skills-and-Feats system Ken Hood produced.

As it is, the whole Force section seems like an after-thought in Star Wars. Don't get me wrong, it is all there -- it just does not feel integrated into the rules. In fact, the system is not really a system, in and of itself. Each power seems to have been designed without thinking about how any other power operates.

Additionally, although it would have cost more, I would rather have seen the rules divided into separate books. I would have liked to have had a Players Handbook, a Starmaster's Guide and a book of the various races. I would have also liked to have seen a better mode of thinking for handling the various eras of the setting.

But most of all, even more than the Force problems, I would have liked to have seen the Starship Combat section get pulled and put into another book -- if only so they could have taken more time developing it. This system, (even the one from the second edition of the rule book) for lack of a better term, blows chunks.

In the end, although I still feel that the Psionics Handbook has its problems, the Force Powers should have been modeled after them. Not a duplication of the spell-like effects, but created from the same cloth. Just me, I am sure, but Force Powers (and Starship Combat) are just horrible in Star Wars.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

I had to have this book when I first heard about it. A passionate enemy of systems that require you to have an adding machine just to calculate one hit or miss- the d6 system comes to mind- I knew this would be an improvement.

The system for force powers is both very different from the spell system, and an organic part of the d20 system. A person becomes force sensitive, and learns to use that sensitivity in various ways. He learns up to three force categories- control, sense, and alter- by force class or by spending a feat. Then he gains competency in various force skills by spending skill points.

The result is intuitive, and fairly clean. Some of the individual Power skills require referencing the book to determine their exact effect- I am in the market for a DM(SM?) screen or master table- but at least no new core mechanics are required (cheers to himself).

Contrast this with the Psionics handbook, which correctly uses a very different system- but in my opinion suffers from spell-list imitation.

I love the fact that these classes can easily be dropped into D&D with a little tweaking, the higher starting HP, the better explanation of hit points that come from level rather than being big and tough, etc. Could I be happier with the choice of races, the starship battles section, the choice of enemies? Certainly. Every book has its limits- and most of these come from the need for more. That's normal- and I hope that more will be forthcoming.

 

[Psion]

Star Wars is probably one of the definitive heroic fantasies of our generation. It is only natural they make an RPG of it.

Of course they tried that once. We played SW when it came out, in the hopes to capture the excitement of the movie series. It was fun for a while, but alas, it truly paled in comparison to other SF games that existed at the time. The character generation was simple, but feeled kiddy. The combat system seemed cracked. And the bucketloads of dice you had to roll to resolve actions got a little much at times.

I was very excited when I first heard that TSR/WotC received the rights to make a SW RPG. I thought it would be a natural way to bolster the fortunes of the underrated Alternity game, which I was growing fond of.

Alas, when I heard it was going to be a D&D derivative, my heart sank. Not only did I think the system couldn't do the job, it relegated the bastard child of a game that was Alternity to the scrap heap.

While I am still disappointed by the fate of Alternity, I was pleasantly surprised by SW. When it arrived, it seemed to capture the feel of SW characters well. Not only that, one of the constant sticking points of Jedi's in WEG SW -- Jedi powers -- seem to be well done here. Unlike WEG SW, Jedi are well balanced with other characters here.

There are seven core PC classes in SW -- soldier, noble, scoundrel, fringer, scout and three force classes: jedi counselor, jedi guardian, and force adept. The classes are less distinctive from one another than in D&D 3e, but seem to reflect their roles well, as you can easily spot the archetypes -- or combinations of them -- by analyzing various SW characters with book in hand.

In addition to the classes, a number of common races from the SW setting are available, such as wookies, rodians, and mon calamari. Sadly, there are also ewoks and gungans... but one must remind oneself that not all gungans are Jar Jar.

Characters are provided with templates that are basically pregen 1st level characters to get into the action quickly.

The jedi powers do not use the D&D magic or psionics convention, but use the skill and feat systems instead. This works well for the most part; the one drawback is that you are reliant upon the book for DCs for various force skills.

The combat system is, for the most part, similar to D&D 3e, but somewhat simplified in that it doesn't use attacks of opportunity. The starship combat system is one disappointment, as it seems a little ancilliary in its treatment here.

The GM section is very good. Like the 3e D&D DMG provides you with a variety of NPC classes, prestige classes, and stock NPCs. The stock NPCs here actually come in a much wider variety than the DMG. Combined with the intuitive D20 system, this should make the SW system easy to run on the fly.

The book only strictly assumes the use of the movies. You can use or ignore novels, comics, and other additions at your leisure.

Overall, a few flaws (such as the less than fleshed out space combat system), but overall a very strong and charming effort that had me wanting to play right away.

 

[Ron]

Star Wars RPG is the first non D&D product from WotC with the d20 engine. This was a wise decision, as the SW universe is better described as fantasy (or science-fantasy), rather than science-fiction and, as such, one could expect that the transition should be not to painful.

Presentation, as expected, shines. The book has a nice hardcover and is filled by first class drawings and photographs. The design, overall, does capture the feeling of the movies.

Unfortunely, the d20 system shows its limitations in this game. The classes are not very representative of the archetypes. They lack something like a spacefarer and they might be very specific, such as the noble and the scout, or ill conceived, such as the soldier. A new stat, the defense modifier (DM), was created to induce players to not use armor. This is a very bad patch to the d20 engine. The improved ability to survive combat in higher levels are already covered by hitpoints (or vitality in this game), therefore, DM are redundant. Also, the soldier class has one of the worst DM, probably to force them to use armor, which are only used by villains in the movies. Feats are unimaginative, there are a bunch of great mediocrity like +2 in such and such skills, others, like starship operation, looked like a bad patch to prevent that every player could pilot a ship. Also, first level adventures does not have skills to perform most of the tasks. Curiously, everyone of them were able to fly a ship, showing the d20 engine poor handling of complex skills.

Combat rules were streamlined, specially regarding to melee combat, which is not so prevalent is SW as it is in D&D. New rules were developed for hit points and critical hits in order to increase the mortality of the game, although it was still to hard to put the bad guys down. Jedi powers are treated like feats and are, by far, the best feature of the game. Unlike the Psionics handbook, they do have a psionic feel and fit nicely in the SW mithology. Equipment and, specially starship rules are rather poor. They are somewhat reminiscent of the West End game, but they lack the WE scale rules, which could improve the starship combat.

The background section is quite short (go and watch the movies), but write-ups are available to major characters of all eras. Finally, a space wasting adventure is included.

Game play showed that the game failed to capture the feeling of the SW movies. I am convinced that the d20 engine needs much more tweaking than WotC is willing to work well in modern or science-fiction settings. I just hope that they will come with a better job in the upcoming Call of Cthulhu game.

 

[Psion]

Appalling?

Funny how you seem to mention how good the books presentation is and how well the force abilities and combat works. Are you sure you weren't just reacting to my "5" rating? Come now, be honest.

re: DM. While I agree that it could have been executed better, there are many people with the fair general retraction to D20 that experience should include the ability to avoid being hit as well as being hit. The basic concept of DM is sound.

 

[Archer]

I feel this book is about as good a d20 product on Star Wars one could hope for. It balances low and high level characters well, better than the d6 system. High level jedi are truely awe-inspiring but not so entirely out of hand that no one can stand against them.

The errata seems quite complete and well formatted. Most issues are minor but a few things are much improved even though they were fully functional previously.

A nice durable, full color hardcover book that covers pre through post rebellion time periods. I'm a strong believer that all core books should be hardcover. It even includes an adventure to get you started which is always a nice touch if you are unfamiliar with a system.

The mechanics are familiar and slightly simplified over D&D. Everything you like and hate about d20 products applies to this one as well. There are no dramatic departures from the standard mechanics.

I give this product a 4 (should buy)

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Poor layout; confusing multiclass rules; almost no information on droids, starships, or monsters.
If this was billed as the the Star Wars RPG _Player's_ Handbook, I'd give it 4 stars, for it does handle that fairly well.
But as an aide to gamemasters, this book rates as only a 2.
Since it tries to do both, I'll average it and give it a 3.

 

[Ron]

Thanks for your comments. Although I liked the presentation, my score is actually based in playtest. I do like good art, but I think it is of minor importance in a game. Notice that a game such as Star Wars also uses a lot of recycled art. That?s not bad, but not as exciting as original art.

I played Star Wars for three nights. It was really an awful experience. Everyone was hoping to enjoy this game and we were all disappointed. No one have tried force using characters so perhaps my review is inaccurate as it doesn?t take this in account. I really liked the force rules (much better than the psionics rules in the Psionics Guide), however, I fail to see how they could improve gameplay to an acceptable level.

It was so long ago that I don?t really know if I had read your review previously to writing mine. Even so, I think that my score is representative of the great disappointment that Star Wars was to me.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Nowhere is the Force as strong as in the illustrated Star Wars hardcover rulebook. Everything a player needs can be found in this comprehensive, hardbound book: character creation, the Force and its powers, spaceship combat, advice for creating new Star Wars adventures, and much more.

 

[ASEO]

I had to laugh when I read these comments.

Psion, you seem to be setting a trend attacking any review that significantly differs from yours.

Do you feel threatened? Tell me about your mother...