Post by Gilvan Blight on Aug 3, 2006 20:27:34 GMT -5
Okay as with my last review of a Star Wars RPG, I haven't used everything in the book, our game has only gone 3 sessions with the revised rules and of course we couldn't fit everything in those sessions.
Summay: This is a revised version of the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars D20 roleplaying game. Revised is definately the right word as not a single section of the book didn't have some major form of change. The rules have been adapted to be more like D&D's D20 rules (more similar feats, attacks of oportunities, etc). A ton more stuff is in this edition as well as the rule updates. There are a ton of new races, one new class, many new prestiege classes, tons of stuff from Attack of the Clones, and more. Other then the comparison to the old book, really it's a stand alone book that lets you roleplay in the Star Wars universe.
The Good: man did they fix alot. Many of the rules I found dumb or annoying in the original edition are fixed. The main one being the fact that you can now shoot when someone is standing next to you. As mentioned above there isn't a section of the book that hasn't changed drastically. The addition of the rules for playing droids is great, even though we haven't used them yet. The new vehicle rules are much tighter then the original, though without the eratta (see the Ugly) they are still a bit wonky. The Starship rules now use the same system as the rest of the combat rules, which standardizes combat to one system, which is a great benifit. I couldn't tell you if I prefer it over the old abstract system though, as I haven't had a starship battle in either. Jedi are now a lot more powerful at first level and get many more options while leveling up, actually all classes get a lot more options while leveling up. The new class is great, the Tech Specialist. Overally it's a great revision, that outshines the old. Stand alone this would still be a great book, it's a better intro to the game system, as it's more logical, and it's still a ton of fun. The xp system is 100* better, and is now based on encounter difficulty instead of adventure length.
The Bad: The equipment section is much better then the old edition, but it still sucks. You can tell there is a Arms and Equip guide in existance. This is pretty much the same for most areas of the book. They give you alot more then the old edition, but it's still a pretty small sample. Having the re-learn a system pretty much sucks. There are still some odd omissions in the rules, like Aiming. Sourcebooks etc are still hard to find as many are out of print and go for a ton of money, luckily they have re-released a couple of them in 06. I love the changes, but having to "Unlearn what you have learned" is a bit annoying. Luckilly we only played one game with the original rules.
The Ugly: We only played one game with the original rules. This means that a $50 book got me about 4 hours of gametime before it went back on the shelf (as it's not worth selling). Now this wouldn't have been a big deal if I started playing it soon as I got it and had run a couple campaigns, but for me and my pocketbook it sucked. It's still not fixed. Okay so they put out a revised rulebook that blows away the old one, but then you download the 17 pages of eratta and find out just how messed up even this edition is. That is pretty annoying, though the eratta does fix many issues (especially with vehicle combat). There's another one coming: I made a post about it a while back, but I will repeat it here, coming next year is another edition of this rulebook. Now it's been 4 years, so it's not like the 3rd/3.5 thing but that is rather quick.
Overall: if you want to play star wars roleplaying and don't want to wait until sometime next year for another revised edition pick this up. If you are playing with the non-revised edition, buck up and pick this up, you will thank me for it. It's a great improvment over the original. There are still some issues though, so make sure you grab the ever annoying eratta, it does fix alot.
Summay: This is a revised version of the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars D20 roleplaying game. Revised is definately the right word as not a single section of the book didn't have some major form of change. The rules have been adapted to be more like D&D's D20 rules (more similar feats, attacks of oportunities, etc). A ton more stuff is in this edition as well as the rule updates. There are a ton of new races, one new class, many new prestiege classes, tons of stuff from Attack of the Clones, and more. Other then the comparison to the old book, really it's a stand alone book that lets you roleplay in the Star Wars universe.
The Good: man did they fix alot. Many of the rules I found dumb or annoying in the original edition are fixed. The main one being the fact that you can now shoot when someone is standing next to you. As mentioned above there isn't a section of the book that hasn't changed drastically. The addition of the rules for playing droids is great, even though we haven't used them yet. The new vehicle rules are much tighter then the original, though without the eratta (see the Ugly) they are still a bit wonky. The Starship rules now use the same system as the rest of the combat rules, which standardizes combat to one system, which is a great benifit. I couldn't tell you if I prefer it over the old abstract system though, as I haven't had a starship battle in either. Jedi are now a lot more powerful at first level and get many more options while leveling up, actually all classes get a lot more options while leveling up. The new class is great, the Tech Specialist. Overally it's a great revision, that outshines the old. Stand alone this would still be a great book, it's a better intro to the game system, as it's more logical, and it's still a ton of fun. The xp system is 100* better, and is now based on encounter difficulty instead of adventure length.
The Bad: The equipment section is much better then the old edition, but it still sucks. You can tell there is a Arms and Equip guide in existance. This is pretty much the same for most areas of the book. They give you alot more then the old edition, but it's still a pretty small sample. Having the re-learn a system pretty much sucks. There are still some odd omissions in the rules, like Aiming. Sourcebooks etc are still hard to find as many are out of print and go for a ton of money, luckily they have re-released a couple of them in 06. I love the changes, but having to "Unlearn what you have learned" is a bit annoying. Luckilly we only played one game with the original rules.
The Ugly: We only played one game with the original rules. This means that a $50 book got me about 4 hours of gametime before it went back on the shelf (as it's not worth selling). Now this wouldn't have been a big deal if I started playing it soon as I got it and had run a couple campaigns, but for me and my pocketbook it sucked. It's still not fixed. Okay so they put out a revised rulebook that blows away the old one, but then you download the 17 pages of eratta and find out just how messed up even this edition is. That is pretty annoying, though the eratta does fix many issues (especially with vehicle combat). There's another one coming: I made a post about it a while back, but I will repeat it here, coming next year is another edition of this rulebook. Now it's been 4 years, so it's not like the 3rd/3.5 thing but that is rather quick.
Overall: if you want to play star wars roleplaying and don't want to wait until sometime next year for another revised edition pick this up. If you are playing with the non-revised edition, buck up and pick this up, you will thank me for it. It's a great improvment over the original. There are still some issues though, so make sure you grab the ever annoying eratta, it does fix alot.