NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2008682" data-attributes="member: 18387"> Introduction The Starfarer's Handbook more or less had to be my first product review done for EnWorld. I can't remember being as excited about a product since Manual of the Planes. The Starfarer's Handbook is the first book in Fantasy Flight Games' promising Dragonstar series - basically a setting that finally takes DnD into the vast reaches of space. It has been attempted before - Spelljammer springs to mind - but the previews convinced me that this time it would be done exactly right. So was it? What did FFG attempt to do and did they do it right? The answer is yes.... The Concept of Dragonstar Dragonstar attempts to take DnD into space with a minimum of fuzz. It attemps to recreate the special feeling of all the elements that makes DnD what it is -  the familiar races, classes, monsters and magic system. This is were the concept really shines and the Starfarer's Handbook is a good start to this exciting line. It's basically a Player's Guide - you won't find any details on the setting itself - except for a general introduction in chapter 1 (the only full-colour sadly) and the tidbits you can collect from the various descriptions (especially the chapter on races). The basic premise is that technology has evolved normally - parallel with magic - but whenever the natural science cannot cope (such as faster-than-light-travel), magic steps in and solves the problem. Dragonstar is very is a classical space opera setting - it includes most of the cliches that we love so much: Energy weapons, sentient robots (called Soulmechs), faster-than-light travelling starships, fantastic creatures and a Galactic Empire (ruled by Dragons no less!). Personally I always found that the DnD elements are perfectly suited for this kind of campaign - let's take a look at how it turned out. The Meat of the Book After the introduction in chapter 1 the book moves on to a discussion of the races in the Dragonstar setting. You'll find concise descriptions - with a few mechanical changes - of all the standard DnD races in this chapter as well as a few new ones. Drow, Half-Dragons and Orcs have been added as standard races and are very well presented - they should see a lot of play in DS campaigns. In addition a new race - the Soulmech is presented. Soulmechs fill the human-like android (think Data) niche and are very well done. Some might be inclined to give them an ECL+1 rating instead of their ECL+0 - but Soulmechs have many disadvantages and I would let playtesting decide the issue before making any changes. Chapter 3 deals with classes and contains pretty basic stuff: Discussion on the role of the class in the DS setting, new abilities and skills were appropriate etc. The cleric entry - for instance -  includes details on the deities of the Unification Church and the Dualist Heresy (the two major religious philosophies of the Dragon Empire). Two new classes are included as well -the Mechanist (a master of mechanics) and the pilot (the ace of the air). The two new classes are fairly interesting and generally well done - I'm not sure how popular they'll be player-wise but they are solidly build. The chapter concludes with a walkthrough of the NPC classes (adding the Thug from Traps and Treachery) as well as the PrC in the DMG to which it adds three new: The Gundancer (an instant favourite), the Negotiator (useful, and fitting - but mostly NPC based) and the Technomancer (good). Chapter 4 deals concisely with all the skills in the PHB and shows new ways to apply them in a hi-tech environment. Several new sub-skills are add to the Craft, Profession and Knowledge skills and the following new skills have been added: Cryptography, Demolitions, Freefall, Pilot, Navigate, Repair, Research, the great Urban Lore and Use Device. These new skills are nice and generic and a must-have in any d20 Sci-fi campaign. All in all a very, very useful chapter.Chapter 5 deals with feats the same way it dealt with skills - a description of how to apply the PHB feats in the new setting and then adds new ones fitting to the setting. The new feats are mechanically very sound - Greg Benage really did his homework before doing this book - and mostly deal with piloting, ranged weapons and the environment of space. Good examples are: Crack Shot (you are adept at shooting targets behind cover), Evasive Piloting, High-G Tolerance and Two-Gun Shooting (yes - now you can be Bruce Willis too). The next chapter was the one I flipped straight to myself - the Equipment chapter! I've got to say that I generally love this (especially with the upcoming Equipment guide Imperial Supply in mind), my only gripe being the lack of better weapon illustrations. You'll find a ton of ranged energy and slug-throwing weapons here, keenblades, modern armor (including powered armor), and all the basic equipment a modern adventurer needs. Players should love the Plasma Rifle, Multi-Shoot Missile Launcher (do I here a cheer from the UT and Quake players out there?), anti-air missiles, carbon fiber bows and automatic crossbows (the two latter for the romantics among you). The chapter offers much more than weapons and armor, however, you'll find useful gear ranging from the simple datapad and language translator to Behaviour Analyzers, Autodocs and Hostile Environment Suits. The chapter rounds-up with detailed rules for Robots - these are very generic and will allow you to create many, many different robots - more information would be nice though. Let's hope Imperial Supply adds to this interesting theme.Chapter 7 deals magnificently with combat in a hi-tech environment. Lots of new details are added to ranged combat - the best being the new rules for Autofire and Suppressive Fire - they are easy, balanced and well-thought out. Looking forward to having my orcs spraying supressive fire down a hallway with their Blaster Rifles. Apart from ranged combat this chapter delves into Explosives, Grenades and Rockets.Chapter 8 deals with magic - no more cumbersome spellbooks for your wizards - no - now wizards use spellbook software on their datapads! The system is pretty similar to the standard system in most respects though. The chapter includes the usual discussion of spells in a hi-tech setting and adds 30 new spells mostly focused towards affecting technological installations and constructs.The final chapter of the book provides us with a nice and easy Vehicle combat system that blends seemlessly with the existing rules. Greg Benage was right to simplify the system as much as he has - this will keep combat fast and furious. A basic array of vehicles of all sorts (cars, hovercraft, walkers and starships) is provided. This is again very nice and generic but will hopefully be expanded on in Imperial Supply. Conclusion Dragonstar has been met with much hype and judging from this initial product of this - hopefully long line - of products, a strong generic and probably succesful setting has been born. There are a few minor mechanical issues in the book (which have been addressed elsewhere) but otherwise this book is close to flawless. It's a nice hardcover with fine artwork and plenty of meaty parts. If you are expecting a full campaign setting in this book - you'll be disappointed. You'll need the Galaxy Guide (coming in February) to start a Dragonstar campaign - it'll detail radiation, spellware (magical cybernetics), planet-building and other setting specific information. I won't hold this against the Starfarer's Handbook, though, and won't knock it down to 4 (it's close to 4,5 really) because of this. FFG didn't make us believe that you got a whole setting with the Starfarer's Handbook and the book succeeds superbly at what it sets out to do!-Zarrock</blockquote>

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