Note: This is not a playtest review.
Price: $27.95
Pages: 176
Price Per Page: About 16 cents per page, above average for this size of product.
Format: Hardcover
Front Cover: A futuristic orange and black cover with a draconic logo in the centre. Indicative of its rules-based focus, this is a design rather than art per se, much like the Core Rulebooks.
Additional Page Use: The back cover provides an introduction and overview of the sourcebook. Inside covers are blank. The first two pages contain contents and credits, the last four pages contain an ad, the OGL and an index.
Internal Art: The first chapter, which is all colour, contains several pieces of good art. The rest of the book has monotone sketches and drawings which range from average to superb, with most being good - I found the character sketches in the 'Classes' section particularly evocative.
Page Layout: Margins, text density and white space are all fairly standard, nothing outstanding. Sidebars are used appropriately, and OGC is defined at the beginning of each chapter.
Style: Most of the book is fairly rules-focused and as such, takes a similar tone to the core rulebooks. The first chapter, which is a first-person view on the campaign setting, I found a little irritating, though perhaps the character is irritating and the writing evoked the personality well!
Whats Inside:
Chapter One: Welcome To Dragonstar, gives an overview of the campaign setting from the point of view of an Imperial Legion veteran explaining the setting to a new conscript from an outlying planet. The veteran was originally a citizen of a planet that was a standard D&D fantasy setting, when 'aliens' arrived that proved to be part of a galactic empire run by dragons and drow. The chapter covers some history and explains neatly the existence of similar races (humans, dwarves, elves, etc.) on planets throughout the universe, thus introducing us to the religious views that pervade the empire - the Unification Church (which reduces all gods to twelve archetypes) and Dualism (which reduces these still further to the Creator and the Adversary). We are also introduced to the concept of the law and the drow secret police who tend to enforce it, and the high status and importance of half-dragons as a kind of minor nobility under the dragons. Starships and space travel are briefly discussed, and the chapter concludes with some notes on the planets on the edge of the expanding galactic empire (known as the Outlands) and the Imperial Legions that are sent to make 'first contact'.
Chapter Two: Races, re-introduces the basic D&D races with a new slant related to the setting and space travel, including some discussion of the races abilies related to the setting such as gracvity sense for dwarves and +2 racial bonus on Demolitions checks for half-orcs. Four new races are also presented - Drow, Half-Dragons, Orcs and Soulmechs (robots that have been animated with a sentient soul). Drow are given a Level Equivalent of 2 and Half-Dragons of 3 to balance these races' abilities in relation to the other races (as per the DMG). Its hard to say without playing one, but I was concerned about the Half-Dragon's +8 Str, +2 Con, +2 Int, +2 Cha, increased hit dice, +4 natural AC, ability to fly, darkvision and low-light vision, natural bite and claw attacks, breath weapon, and immunities, being balanced by a Level Equivalent of 3. They seem comparatively much highre-powered than say Drow (whose major differences to elves are +2 Int, +2 Cha, Darkvision (and light blindness), spell resistance and some basic spell abilities), who get a Level Equivalent of 2. I realise this is a WotC issue rather than a Dragonstar one, but the situation looks unbalanced.
Chapter Three: Classes, again looks at the standard D&D classes in the light of the new space-age setting such as introducing new firearms-related bonus feats for fighters, divine spellware for paladins, and favored terrain for rangers. Two new classes, Pilot and Mechanist, are also presented. There is also a discussion of changes to the Prestige Classes from the DMG, and 3 new Prestige Classes - Gundancer (monk with firearms), Negotiator (mind-reamer), and Technomancer (manipulates machines with magic). Finally, NPC Classes are discussed and a new one, Thug (to rogue as warrior is to fighter), presented.
Chapter Four: Skills, reviews the D&D skills in light of the Dragonstar setting - e.g. Balance is affected by Gravity, Bluff is harder when being monitored by a behavior analyzer, and there are rules for opening electronic locks. Some new skills are introduced - cryptography (codebreaking), demolitions (explosives), freefall (maneuvring in zero- or low-gravity environments), pilot, navigate (including space navigation), repair (and sabotage), research (mainly via the Infonet), urban lore (like wilderness lore but surviving in cities), and use device (for complex technological devices, including hacking).
Chapter Five: Feats, looks at standard D&D feats in the context of Dragonstar - this deals mainly with the consequences of availability of firearms but does, significantly, change the Skill Focus feat to a +3 bonus. Lots of new feats are introduced - aircraft piloting, armor proficiency (powered), autofire, born spacer, combat ace, crack shot, dragonblood (sorcerer an additional favored class), hacker, implant spellware, etiquette, evasive piloting, gearhead, gunner, gunner's eye, high g-tolerance, improved far shot, improved shot on the run, information junkie, lead foot (fast driver), low g-tolerance, mobile shot, pressing attack, ram, raptor's instinct (good at targeting runs in vehicles/ships), remote operation, space jockey, speed load, starship piloting, technical proficiency (an important feat that gives you access to several other skills and feats), temperature tolerance, two-gun shooting, vehicle dodge, and zero-g tolerance.
Chapter Six: Equipment, discusses availability, wealth and money, and weapon types, before launching into a description of a large variety of weapons including lasers, tasers, blaster carbines, shotgun, submachine gun, flamethrower, missile launcher, plasma rifle, laser/plasma/blaster/ion cannon, grenades of varying types, rockets, and torpedoes. There is a table similar to that in the PHB, with full stats for each weapon too. Some discussion of firearm accessories is also given (e.g. bayonet, scope, silencer) along with relevant stats. The same approach is taken with armour (and includes powered armor and camouflage bonuses). Various other equipment is also covered (communications (e.g. credit chip, datapad, language translator, personal communicator), sensors (e.g. behavior analyzer, holocam, surveillance laser), medical tech (e.g. diagnostic monitor, medkit), survival gear (e.g. artificial gill, filter mask, flare gun), subterfuge gear (e.g. lockbreaker, microbug, signal jammer), tools (e.g. laser torch, demolitions kit), space gear (e.g. magnetic boots, thruster pack), power cells, clothing, and some miscellaneous gear). The remainder of the section (8 pages) deals with robots, and covers design rules, programming, skill use, upgrades, and a few examples (recon drone, and technical, medical, security and military robots).
Chapter Seven: Combat, deals primarily with new rules for firearms and explosives. It looks at areas such as firing into a crowd, attacking through cover, shooting at objects and weapons, autofire, firing two weapons, and damage types for various weapons (i.e. fire damage from lasers, electricity from blasters, and sonic from screamers, etc.).
Chapter Eight: Magic, looks at the influence technology has had on magic - all spellbooks are now held on datapads, and scrolls are now one-shot self-destructing files. Some changes in the effects of magic in relation to the campaign setting are discussed such as fire in space, noxious clouds in relation to protective suits, and computer displays. Where necessary, spell clarifications for original D&D spells are given, mostly in relation to effects on soulmechs. 30 new spells are proffered including detect surveillance, endure radiation, and instant reboot.
Chapter Nine: Vehicles, begins by looking at vehicle movement (scale, speed, changing speed, maneuvers, turns, terrain, mishaps, and collisions). The section on vehicle combat looks at encounter distance, crew quality, intitiative, combat actions (acquire target, attack, evasive action, ramming, and targeting run), fire arcs, guided weapons, and vehicle damage (broken down into different sections of the vehicle). There are then a number of examples of vehicles such as utility hovercraft, scout walker, and strike aircraft. A discussion of starships follows dealing with booking passage, starcasters (spaceships with magical teleporting abilities) and starcasting, and artificial gravity. The sourcebook ends with a number of example spacecraft including freighter, destroyer, and battleship.
The High Points: Dragonstar is meant to be a rules sourcebook for D&D in space, and it succeeds admirably in achieving it. What I particularly liked, as a Star Wars fan and with little interest in the technical details of space combat, was that this is space opera rather than hard sci-fi. Rules are tailored towards playability rather than pseudo-reality, and kept the feel of D&D, whilst moving on a few thousand years. With the existence of the Outlands, it offers the possibility of introducing the setting directly into your current D&D campaign without seeming too inconsistent. It manages to keep the D&D rules pretty much 'in situ' whilst introducing new rules and ideas that round out the setting without steering too far away from the central theme. The mix of magic and technology is a little more intense than in your standard Star Wars/Star Trek setting, and I can see this theme being one of Dragonstar's most important concepts as further product is released.
The Low Points: I felt the first introductory chapter was a little simplistic and irritating, giving hints about the setting without any real answers - I'm sure this will be rectified in future product but the style was still annoying. My preference would have been to have foregone the colour in the first chapter and reduced the price somewhat - I found it a bit incongruous to suddenly find myself switching from colour to mono - I felt like maybe they'd run out of ink or something. Though I'm sure they will be very popular, but I was not keen on the encouragement to use drow, half-dragons and orcs as new character races (though soulmechs are an excellent choice) - I would have preferred them, as they did with most of the rest of the book, to stick more closely to the standard D&D races.
Conclusion: All in all, a stimulating and rewarding take on D&D in space. The negative issues discussed above meant it just failed to achieve top marks, but its not far off. If you're looking for a total change of style and pace in your D&D campaign, or looking for a more generic D20 sci-fi roleplaying setting than Star Wars, I highly recommend Dragonstar.
