The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Wizards of the Coast’s Star Wars Roleplaying Game updates Star Wars gaming through Episode 1 and ably demonstrates that the d20 System can work in other genres. WotC has taken West End Games’ Star Wars, updated it, and converted it to d20. The result is a playable game and the promise of additional gaming material for the evolving Star Wars Universe. Although this is a capsule review, the review balances my reading of Star Wars d20 against my experience playing and running WEG Star Wars and playing D&D 3d ed.

Character Generation

The first six chapters of Star Wars d20 deal with character creation, and they closely follow the model presented in D&D 3d ed.. Characters are defined by six attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma), species, skills, feats, and reputation. A two-page fast-track character creation summary is provided that clearly lays out the steps and much of the key information needed for character creation. Attributes can be generated by either rolling dice, allocating 25 build points, or allocating a standard score package (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8).

Eleven species are presented in Chapter 2 (10 p.) for use as player characters (Humans, Cereans, Ewoks, Gungans, Ithorians, Mon Calamari, Rodians, Sullustans, Trandoshans, Twi’leks, and, of course, Wookies). An additional five species are presented as part of Chapter 14 (34 p.) with sufficient information for use as player characters (Bothans, Dugs, Gamorreans, Hutts, and Noghri). The duplication of species information between these chapters is a surprising waste of space. As in D&D3d, Humans receive a bonus Feat and four extra skill points at 1st Level.

Chapter 3 (24 p.) offers eight classes for player characters (Fringer, Noble, Scoundrel, Scout, Soldier, Force Adept, Jedi Consular, and Jedi Guardian. The Soldier and Scoundrel correspond closely with D&D’s Fighter and Rogue. The Scout is akin to a Ranger. The Fringer is designed to represent characters from the Outer Rim Territories and other fringes of galactic society. The Noble class includes a wide range of characters that rely on Intelligence and Charisma, such as elected officials, traders, merchants, ambassadors, holovid stars, corporate magnates, even crime lords. Most of these classes are consistent with the Star Wars universe and allow players to generate a wide range of characters. Some obvious character types, such as pilots and technicians, are not directly represented, but can be generated by using the Fringer, Scoundrel, or Scout classes (Or, enterprising GMs can create new classes). Unlike D&D, there are no restrictions on multiclassing. One annoying aspect of this chapter is that the class descriptions are laid out on separate pages so that you have to turn the page back and forth when generating a character. I’ll discuss the force-using classes later.

The Feats (Chapter 5, 12 p.) include many from D&D (i.e. Armor Proficiency, Point Blank Shot, Alertness, etc.) as well as new Feats designed for the Star Wars setting such as Gearhead, Martial Artist, and Zero-G Combat. Weapon Group Proficiencies include blaster pistols, blaster rifles, heavy weapons, primitive weapons, simple weapons, slugthrowers, vehicle weapons, and vibro weapons. All character classes begin play with Weapon Group Proficiencies for simple weapons and blaster pistols. One of the interesting choices WotC made is to describe starship operation as a Feat. There is a pilot skill that applies to land, sea, air, and space vehicles. However, unless a character has the Feat for a particular class of starships, those starships are piloted at a -4. The starship classes are starfighter, space transport, and capital ship. There is also a Feat for starship dodge. At first blush, this seems like an odd decision, but the starship operation Feats represent a character’s investment over three levels in gaining aptitude in a new class of ships.

WotC does need to get a handle on the fact that Feats that simply provide skill bonuses are not effective choices. Out of the 60 Feats included, 13 do nothing more than provide a +2 bonus in two skills. That’s the equivalent of four to eight skill points. Most characters will receive a base eighteen skill points over the three levels represented by one Feat selection. The benefits provided by such Feats do not compare with distinctive Feats such as Dodge, Exotic Weapon Proficiency, or Heroic Surge. I’ll discuss the Force feats later.

The Skills (Chapter 4, 30 p.) follow the format from D&D 3d ed.. Star Wars specific skills include Astrogate, Computer Use, Demolitions, Pilot, and Repair. This is a much simpler skill list than that used in WEG Star Wars which included skills such as Brawling Parry, Grenade, Willpower, Communications, Swoop Operation, and Capital Starship Weapon Repair. If a character has five or more ranks in a skill, skill synergy is possible providing a +2 bonus for its synergistic skills. For example, Craft (Electronics) can be synergistic with Repair. A very handy chart is also provided that shows the class skills and cross skills for each of the classes.

Unlike D&D, Star Wars characters have Vitality Points and Wound Points instead of Hit Points. A character has Wound Points equal to their Constitution and either 1d6, 1d8, or 1d10 Vitality Points per level as determined by their class. Vitality Points represent fatigue and a character’s ability to avoid or minimize the dangers of combat. Wound Points represent a character’s ability to withstand damage. Most NPCs will have no Vitality Points. Damage is taken first from Vitality Points, then from Wound Points. Critical hits are taken directly from Wound Points. A character recovers one Vitality Point per level per hour of rest and one Wound Point per level per day of rest. Vitality Points/Wound Points are an improvement over Hit Points and provide for cinematic, heroic play in the best Star Wars style.

Templates are provided for 25 sample starting characters. When I first picked-up the book, I said cool, but what do these templates have to do with character generation? After reading the rules, I realized that the templates have nothing to do with character generation. While the templates may be helpful to some players and GMs, unfortunately, they are included in the front of the book where they are annoying distraction.

The Force

One of the weaker elements of WEG Star Wars was its presentation of The Force. WEG Star Wars did a poor job presenting The Force as it was shown in the movies. Star Wars d20 takes the best of WEG’s rules, reworks them for the d20 System, and does a much better job of presenting a rules system that replicates The Force as shown in the movies. The Force is discussed in Chapter 9 (10 p.) with a discussion of Force using traditions, the Jedi Code, Force points, and the Dark Side. A Force point may be spent to add one or more bonus dice to all of a character’s task resolution rolls for a round. Each time they spend a Force point, Force Sensitive characters declare whether they are calling on the Light Side or the Dark Side of the Force. Below 10th Level, the Dark Side provides more bonus dice. However, beginning at 13th Level, the Light Side provides more of bonus dice, and at 19th Level, the Light Side provides 7d6 bonus dice compared with the Dark Side’s 5d6 and a non-Force Sensitive character’s 4d6. Force points are earned each time a character gains a level and each time a character performs an act of dramatic heroism. Dark Side points are gained by calling on the Dark Side when spending Force points, by using a Dark Side Force Skill or Feat, and by performing an evil act. When a character’s Dark Side points equal half the character’s Wisdom, begins to be swayed by the Dark Side and could go over to the Dark Side each time an additional Dark Side point is earned.

Force abilities are divided between Feats and Skills. In order to be a Force user, a character must select the Force Sensitive Feat (the Feat is granted to each of the Force-using classes). Most of the Force Skills cannot be used without training. Three skills are available to a character with only the Force Sensitive Feat: Empathy, Enhance Ability, and Friendship. Most of the Force Skills and Feats are grouped under the familiar Feats of Control, Sense, and Alter. The Force Skills include Affect Mind, Enhance Senses, Farseeing, Force Push, Force Stealth, Heal Self, Move Object, See Force, and Telepathy. Most Force Skills have a Vitality Point cost to activate. There are two Dark Side Skills (Fear and Force Grip) that earn a character a Dark Side point when they are used. It is a nice touch that the Dark Side Skills can be used untrained. There is one Light Side Skill (Heal Another), but there is no apparent game effect linked to the Light Side Skill. The Force Feats include abilities such as Force Lightning, Force Whirlwind (Vader’s telekinetic storm from ESB), Burst of Speed, Dissipate Energy, and Deflect Blasters. The only problematic Force Feat is Throw Lightsaber. It is not clear why anyone would ever want to take it.

Force users are represented by three specific classes: the Force Adept, the Jedi Consular, and the Jedi Guardian. However, by selecting the Force Sensitive Feat, any character can be a Force user. Jedi Guardians, such as Luke and Qui-Gon, begin with the Control Force Feat and achieve an Attack Bonus of +20 at 20th Level, but receive only a base four skill points per level, points which must be used to buy Force Skills as well as other Skills. Jedi Counsulars, such as Yoda and Palpatine, begin with the Sense Feat, can achieve an Attack Bonus of +15 at 20th Level, and receive a base six skill points per level. Force Adepts begin with the Alter Feat, can achieve an Attack Bonus of +15 at 20th Level, and receive a base six skill points per level. By 4th Level, all three Force classes receive all three of base Force Feats: Control, Sense, and Alter. So what, you may ask, is the difference between a Jedi Guardian and a Jedi Consular. A base two skill points per level and that extra +5 attack bonus at 20th Level. While this might make sense from a perspective of game balance, it bears little resemblance to the movies. As a Jedi Guardian, Luke should have begun with the Control Feat which is used for Force Stealth, Heal Self, and other Force Skills. However, Luke displays none of those skills in A New Hope. If anything, Luke displays Sense skills. What was Obi-Wan teaching Luke if not Sense when they used the training remote on-board the Millennium Falcon? Also, as in WEG Star Wars, the Force rules do not explain how Luke used the Force to hit the Death Star’s exhaust port.

Vehicle Chases and Dogfights

Vehicle chases are one of Star Wars’ classic elements. One of the things that the WEG Star Wars did very well was to provide a single set of mechanics for all types of vehicle chases and dogfights, regardless of whether the combatants were on Tauntons, speeder bikes, starfighters, or Star Destroyers. One of the things that WotC has done very wrong with Star Wars d20 is to provide separate sets of complex mechanics for vehicle and starfighter combats.

The vehicle rules are provided in Chapter 10(8 p.) and for starships in Chapter 11 (20 p.). The page disparity is telling. Vehicle combat is intended to function like character combat. A pilot expends a move action to maneuver a vehicle and all piloting and attack rolls are modified by the vehicle’s speed. Each maneuver has a Difficulty Class (i.e. Climb/Dive DC 5, Loop DC 25, etc.). If a pilot fails a maneuver attempt, he may lose control of the vehicle and be unable to take any other action until he regains control of the vehicle. Unfortunately, none of these maneuvers directly effect Attack and Defense. Stats are provided for walkers, landspeeders, airspeeders, cloud cars, and skiffs. No stats are provided for any of the Trade Federation’s combat vehicles.

Starship combat is similar to vehicle combat only different. Starships have similar maneuvers to vehicles, only starships have some additional maneuvers that effect combat such as Establish/Break Pursuit (Don’t ask why other bikes, like say speeder bikes, cannot pursue each other). A ship’s speed is rates as stopped, docking, cruising, attack, or ramming. Only ships of large or lesser size can move at attack speed, and only ships of small or lesser size can move at ramming speed. Ships accelerate and decelerate by executing maneuvers. This systems, however, limits all ships of a single size-class to the same speed. At sublight speeds, the Millennium Falcon is no faster than any other YT-1300.

In addition to speed (there are similar, but different, charts for vehicle and starship speed) starship combat is modified by a ship’s size. The base size is for a medium transport, and the sizes increase to Colossal -8 (i.e. Star Destroyer) and decrease to Fine +8 (i.e. escape pod). A ship’s size affects defense, attack rolls, initiative, and Pilot skill checks. The size table is easier to work with than the scales used in WEG Star Wars (all vehicle weapon damage functions on the same scale), but it doesn’t work as well. For instance, those -8 modifiers apply when two capital ships are engaged in combat with each other . Similarly, both starfighters receive a +2 modifier for size when engaged in a dogfight. A ship’s size is factored in again when accounting for range.

Several new rules are provided for starship combat: (1) Combat is initiated when ships come within sensor “range.” However, sensors function in three range bands. (2) At point blank range, the number of weapons that a capital ship can bring to bear is limited to 25 percent for any single medium or small starship (i.e. light freighters) and 10 percent for any single tiny, diminutive, or fine starship (i.e. starfighters). To counter this, most capital ships are now said to have point-defense weapons that fire as if they were a medium starship. However, none of the starship descriptions include stats for point-defense weapons. (3) Capital ship weapons can be grouped in batteries which should speed play. (4) Fighters can be grouped in wings which maneuver together as if they were a single ship. This should also aid play. (Again, don’t ask why airspeeders can’t do this.) (5) Rules are provided for establishing and breaking missile locks. (6) The tractor beam rules are clear and easy to use. (7) Larger ships can also catch starfighters in their engine wash.

There are a number of good ideas and good mechanics included in the vehicle and starship rules. However, creating separate mechanics for vehicles and starships was a really bad idea. Also, there are enough gaps and inconsistencies in the rules, that it would be worth a GM’s time to develop a single set of integrated mechanics for vehicles and starships. More than any other part of the book, the vehicle and starfighter section reads as if it were rushed into production.

Stats are provided for the X-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE, Z-95 Headhunter, Trade Federation Droid Starfighter, Naboo N-11, Yuuzhan Vong Coralskipper, YT-1300, Millennium Falcon, Imperial Customs Cruiser, Imperial Star Destroyer, Mon Calamari Star Cruiser, Nebulon B Escort Frigate, Corellian Corvette, and Trade Federation Battleship. Unfortunately, the ship stats are laid out in paragraph blocks so that it is difficult to quickly locate relevant stats. In addition to the lack of stats for point-defense weapons, the Trade Federation Starfighter is described as not having shields, but stats are provided for shields.

The Star Wars Universe

Chapter 12 (32 p.)includes advice for gamemasters on how to run games, design adventures, and build campaigns. It also includes prestige classes for bounty hunters, crimelords, elite troopers, starfighter aces, and officers and stats for gamemaster characters such as diplomats, experts, and thugs. The chapter is rounded out with rules for environmental effects, diseases, and poisons.

Chapter 13 (26 p.) deals with the three eras of play: Rise of the Empire (Episodes I-III), Rebellion (Ep. IV-VI), and New Jedi Order. A brief overview is provided for each era; most of the chapter, though, is taken up by character backgrounds and stats for the major personalities of each era.

Chapter 14 (34 p.) provides stats for creatures and sample stats for generic characters at 4th, 8th, and 12th Level, in addition to the aliens discussed earlier. The sample stats serve as more of a guide for generating individual characters than ready-made NPCs.

Droids are discussed in Chapter 15 (16 p.) with a description of their skills, vitality and wound points, accessory equipment, and sample droids. Although there are no explicit rules for generating droid player characters, there is also no prohibition, and the rules do point out (p. 282) that a few droids can be scouts and soldiers.

Chapter 16 (12 p.) is an adventure “Shadows of Coruscant.” The less said about this adventure the better. It is weak, contrived, and beyond all hope of revision into a playable adventure. The adventure does outline how to establish the PCs as agents for Chancellor Valorum and includes the obligatory walk-through by major personalities from the movies. Having the PCs work for Chancellor Valorum is a really bad idea and directly conflicts with events in The Phantom Menace.

The book concludes with conversion guidelines for WEG Star Wars. The conversion guidelines are serviceable, if a bit cumbersome. Basically, you convert the character’s attributes and skills from WEG Star Wars to Star Wars d20, determine the character’s level from the number of skill points, and assign Feats. For higher level characters, you may wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to create the character from scratch using the d20 rules rather than go through the laborious conversion procedures.

Design

Star Wars d20 is presented as an impressive hardback with glossy pages, two columns of text, and pictures from the movies on most pages. Each chapter begins with a two page photo and one column of text along the right edge (They get extra points for including the Mos Eisley cantina scene were Han shoots first). Most of the new art is of high quality and has that appropriate Star Wars look. Sidebar playing tips and alternative rules are presented as if delivered by C3PO and are less annoying than you might think. Most pages include a quote from the movies that cuts across both columns. At first, I found these quotes to be trite and annoying. But, the quotes grew on me, and I realized that they kept bringing me back to the movies and the source material for the game. A serviceable three-page index, and a two-page character sheet are included. Errata is available at www.wizards.com/starwars.

The bottom line is that Star Wars d20 is a playable game and a welcome update for roleplaying in the Star Wars Universe. However, there are enough omissions, inconsistencies, and unworkable rules that we can hope that WotC comes out with a second edition after the release of Episode II. Jeb Boyt

Star Wars Roleplaying Game
Item type: game Review by: Jeb Boyt Product Name: Star Wars Roleplaying Game Author: Bill Slavicsek, Andy Collins, J.D. Wiker Company/Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Line: Star Wars SKU: TSR11793 Cost: $35 Page count: 320 ISBN: 0-7869-1793-8 Ratings: Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Review type: Capsule Review Genre tags: Fantasy,Science Fiction,Space	Wizards of the Coast’s Star Wars Roleplaying Game updates Star Wars gaming through Episode 1 and ably demonstrates that the d20 System can work in other genres. WotC has taken West End Games’ Star Wars, updated it, and converted it to d20. The result is a playable game and the promise of additional gaming material for the evolving Star Wars Universe. Although this is a capsule review, the review balances my reading of Star Wars d20 against my experience playing and running WEG Star Wars and playing D&D 3d ed. Character Generation The first six chapters of Star Wars d20 deal with character creation, and they closely follow the model presented in D&D 3d ed.. Characters are defined by six attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma), species, skills, feats, and reputation. A two-page fast-track character creation summary is provided that clearly lays out the steps and much of the key information needed for character creation. Attributes can be generated by either rolling dice, allocating 25 build points, or allocating a standard score package (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8). Eleven species are presented in Chapter 2 (10 p.) for use as player characters (Humans, Cereans, Ewoks, Gungans, Ithorians, Mon Calamari, Rodians, Sullustans, Trandoshans, Twi’leks, and, of course, Wookies). An additional five species are presented as part of Chapter 14 (34 p.) with sufficient information for use as player characters (Bothans, Dugs, Gamorreans, Hutts, and Noghri). The duplication of species information between these chapters is a surprising waste of space. As in D&D3d, Humans receive a bonus Feat and four extra skill points at 1st Level. Chapter 3 (24 p.) offers eight classes for player characters (Fringer, Noble, Scoundrel, Scout, Soldier, Force Adept, Jedi Consular, and Jedi Guardian. The Soldier and Scoundrel correspond closely with D&D’s Fighter and Rogue. The Scout is akin to a Ranger. The Fringer is designed to represent characters from the Outer Rim Territories and other fringes of galactic society. The Noble class includes a wide range of characters that rely on Intelligence and Charisma, such as elected officials, traders, merchants, ambassadors, holovid stars, corporate magnates, even crime lords. Most of these classes are consistent with the Star Wars universe and allow players to generate a wide range of characters. Some obvious character types, such as pilots and technicians, are not directly represented, but can be generated by using the Fringer, Scoundrel, or Scout classes (Or, enterprising GMs can create new classes). Unlike D&D, there are no restrictions on multiclassing. One annoying aspect of this chapter is that the class descriptions are laid out on separate pages so that you have to turn the page back and forth when generating a character. I’ll discuss the force-using classes later. The Feats (Chapter 5, 12 p.) include many from D&D (i.e. Armor Proficiency, Point Blank Shot, Alertness, etc.) as well as new Feats designed for the Star Wars setting such as Gearhead, Martial Artist, and Zero-G Combat. Weapon Group Proficiencies include blaster pistols, blaster rifles, heavy weapons, primitive weapons, simple weapons, slugthrowers, vehicle weapons, and vibro weapons. All character classes begin play with Weapon Group Proficiencies for simple weapons and blaster pistols. One of the interesting choices WotC made is to describe starship operation as a Feat. There is a pilot skill that applies to land, sea, air, and space vehicles. However, unless a character has the Feat for a particular class of starships, those starships are piloted at a -4. The starship classes are starfighter, space transport, and capital ship. There is also a Feat for starship dodge. At first blush, this seems like an odd decision, but the starship operation Feats represent a character’s investment over three levels in gaining aptitude in a new class of ships. WotC does need to get a handle on the fact that Feats that simply provide skill bonuses are not effective choices. Out of the 60 Feats included, 13 do nothing more than provide a +2 bonus in two skills. That’s the equivalent of four to eight skill points. Most characters will receive a base eighteen skill points over the three levels represented by one Feat selection. The benefits provided by such Feats do not compare with distinctive Feats such as Dodge, Exotic Weapon Proficiency, or Heroic Surge. I’ll discuss the Force feats later. The Skills (Chapter 4, 30 p.) follow the format from D&D 3d ed.. Star Wars specific skills include Astrogate, Computer Use, Demolitions, Pilot, and Repair. This is a much simpler skill list than that used in WEG Star Wars which included skills such as Brawling Parry, Grenade, Willpower, Communications, Swoop Operation, and Capital Starship Weapon Repair. If a character has five or more ranks in a skill, skill synergy is possible providing a +2 bonus for its synergistic skills. For example, Craft (Electronics) can be synergistic with Repair. A very handy chart is also provided that shows the class skills and cross skills for each of the classes. Unlike D&D, Star Wars characters have Vitality Points and Wound Points instead of Hit Points. A character has Wound Points equal to their Constitution and either 1d6, 1d8, or 1d10 Vitality Points per level as determined by their class. Vitality Points represent fatigue and a character’s ability to avoid or minimize the dangers of combat. Wound Points represent a character’s ability to withstand damage. Most NPCs will have no Vitality Points. Damage is taken first from Vitality Points, then from Wound Points. Critical hits are taken directly from Wound Points. A character recovers one Vitality Point per level per hour of rest and one Wound Point per level per day of rest. Vitality Points/Wound Points are an improvement over Hit Points and provide for cinematic, heroic play in the best Star Wars style. Templates are provided for 25 sample starting characters. When I first picked-up the book, I said cool, but what do these templates have to do with character generation? After reading the rules, I realized that the templates have nothing to do with character generation. While the templates may be helpful to some players and GMs, unfortunately, they are included in the front of the book where they are annoying distraction. The Force One of the weaker elements of WEG Star Wars was its presentation of The Force. WEG Star Wars did a poor job presenting The Force as it was shown in the movies. Star Wars d20 takes the best of WEG’s rules, reworks them for the d20 System, and does a much better job of presenting a rules system that replicates The Force as shown in the movies. The Force is discussed in Chapter 9 (10 p.) with a discussion of Force using traditions, the Jedi Code, Force points, and the Dark Side. A Force point may be spent to add one or more bonus dice to all of a character’s task resolution rolls for a round. Each time they spend a Force point, Force Sensitive characters declare whether they are calling on the Light Side or the Dark Side of the Force. Below 10th Level, the Dark Side provides more bonus dice. However, beginning at 13th Level, the Light Side provides more of bonus dice, and at 19th Level, the Light Side provides 7d6 bonus dice compared with the Dark Side’s 5d6 and a non-Force Sensitive character’s 4d6. Force points are earned each time a character gains a level and each time a character performs an act of dramatic heroism. Dark Side points are gained by calling on the Dark Side when spending Force points, by using a Dark Side Force Skill or Feat, and by performing an evil act. When a character’s Dark Side points equal half the character’s Wisdom, begins to be swayed by the Dark Side and could go over to the Dark Side each time an additional Dark Side point is earned. Force abilities are divided between Feats and Skills. In order to be a Force user, a character must select the Force Sensitive Feat (the Feat is granted to each of the Force-using classes). Most of the Force Skills cannot be used without training. Three skills are available to a character with only the Force Sensitive Feat: Empathy, Enhance Ability, and Friendship. Most of the Force Skills and Feats are grouped under the familiar Feats of Control, Sense, and Alter. The Force Skills include Affect Mind, Enhance Senses, Farseeing, Force Push, Force Stealth, Heal Self, Move Object, See Force, and Telepathy. Most Force Skills have a Vitality Point cost to activate. There are two Dark Side Skills (Fear and Force Grip) that earn a character a Dark Side point when they are used. It is a nice touch that the Dark Side Skills can be used untrained. There is one Light Side Skill (Heal Another), but there is no apparent game effect linked to the Light Side Skill. The Force Feats include abilities such as Force Lightning, Force Whirlwind (Vader’s telekinetic storm from ESB), Burst of Speed, Dissipate Energy, and Deflect Blasters. The only problematic Force Feat is Throw Lightsaber. It is not clear why anyone would ever want to take it. Force users are represented by three specific classes: the Force Adept, the Jedi Consular, and the Jedi Guardian. However, by selecting the Force Sensitive Feat, any character can be a Force user. Jedi Guardians, such as Luke and Qui-Gon, begin with the Control Force Feat and achieve an Attack Bonus of +20 at 20th Level, but receive only a base four skill points per level, points which must be used to buy Force Skills as well as other Skills. Jedi Counsulars, such as Yoda and Palpatine, begin with the Sense Feat, can achieve an Attack Bonus of +15 at 20th Level, and receive a base six skill points per level. Force Adepts begin with the Alter Feat, can achieve an Attack Bonus of +15 at 20th Level, and receive a base six skill points per level. By 4th Level, all three Force classes receive all three of base Force Feats: Control, Sense, and Alter. So what, you may ask, is the difference between a Jedi Guardian and a Jedi Consular. A base two skill points per level and that extra +5 attack bonus at 20th Level. While this might make sense from a perspective of game balance, it bears little resemblance to the movies. As a Jedi Guardian, Luke should have begun with the Control Feat which is used for Force Stealth, Heal Self, and other Force Skills. However, Luke displays none of those skills in A New Hope. If anything, Luke displays Sense skills. What was Obi-Wan teaching Luke if not Sense when they used the training remote on-board the Millennium Falcon? Also, as in WEG Star Wars, the Force rules do not explain how Luke used the Force to hit the Death Star’s exhaust port. Vehicle Chases and Dogfights Vehicle chases are one of Star Wars’ classic elements. One of the things that the WEG Star Wars did very well was to provide a single set of mechanics for all types of vehicle chases and dogfights, regardless of whether the combatants were on Tauntons, speeder bikes, starfighters, or Star Destroyers. One of the things that WotC has done very wrong with Star Wars d20 is to provide separate sets of complex mechanics for vehicle and starfighter combats. The vehicle rules are provided in Chapter 10(8 p.) and for starships in Chapter 11 (20 p.). The page disparity is telling. Vehicle combat is intended to function like character combat. A pilot expends a move action to maneuver a vehicle and all piloting and attack rolls are modified by the vehicle’s speed. Each maneuver has a Difficulty Class (i.e. Climb/Dive DC 5, Loop DC 25, etc.). If a pilot fails a maneuver attempt, he may lose control of the vehicle and be unable to take any other action until he regains control of the vehicle. Unfortunately, none of these maneuvers directly effect Attack and Defense. Stats are provided for walkers, landspeeders, airspeeders, cloud cars, and skiffs. No stats are provided for any of the Trade Federation’s combat vehicles. Starship combat is similar to vehicle combat only different. Starships have similar maneuvers to vehicles, only starships have some additional maneuvers that effect combat such as Establish/Break Pursuit (Don’t ask why other bikes, like say speeder bikes, cannot pursue each other). A ship’s speed is rates as stopped, docking, cruising, attack, or ramming. Only ships of large or lesser size can move at attack speed, and only ships of small or lesser size can move at ramming speed. Ships accelerate and decelerate by executing maneuvers. This systems, however, limits all ships of a single size-class to the same speed. At sublight speeds, the Millennium Falcon is no faster than any other YT-1300. In addition to speed (there are similar, but different, charts for vehicle and starship speed) starship combat is modified by a ship’s size. The base size is for a medium transport, and the sizes increase to Colossal -8 (i.e. Star Destroyer) and decrease to Fine +8 (i.e. escape pod). A ship’s size affects defense, attack rolls, initiative, and Pilot skill checks. The size table is easier to work with than the scales used in WEG Star Wars (all vehicle weapon damage functions on the same scale), but it doesn’t work as well. For instance, those -8 modifiers apply when two capital ships are engaged in combat with each other . Similarly, both starfighters receive a +2 modifier for size when engaged in a dogfight. A ship’s size is factored in again when accounting for range. Several new rules are provided for starship combat: (1) Combat is initiated when ships come within sensor “range.” However, sensors function in three range bands. (2) At point blank range, the number of weapons that a capital ship can bring to bear is limited to 25 percent for any single medium or small starship (i.e. light freighters) and 10 percent for any single tiny, diminutive, or fine starship (i.e. starfighters). To counter this, most capital ships are now said to have point-defense weapons that fire as if they were a medium starship. However, none of the starship descriptions include stats for point-defense weapons. (3) Capital ship weapons can be grouped in batteries which should speed play. (4) Fighters can be grouped in wings which maneuver together as if they were a single ship. This should also aid play. (Again, don’t ask why airspeeders can’t do this.) (5) Rules are provided for establishing and breaking missile locks. (6) The tractor beam rules are clear and easy to use. (7) Larger ships can also catch starfighters in their engine wash. There are a number of good ideas and good mechanics included in the vehicle and starship rules. However, creating separate mechanics for vehicles and starships was a really bad idea. Also, there are enough gaps and inconsistencies in the rules, that it would be worth a GM’s time to develop a single set of integrated mechanics for vehicles and starships. More than any other part of the book, the vehicle and starfighter section reads as if it were rushed into production. Stats are provided for the X-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE, Z-95 Headhunter, Trade Federation Droid Starfighter, Naboo N-11, Yuuzhan Vong Coralskipper, YT-1300, Millennium Falcon, Imperial Customs Cruiser, Imperial Star Destroyer, Mon Calamari Star Cruiser, Nebulon B Escort Frigate, Corellian Corvette, and Trade Federation Battleship. Unfortunately, the ship stats are laid out in paragraph blocks so that it is difficult to quickly locate relevant stats. In addition to the lack of stats for point-defense weapons, the Trade Federation Starfighter is described as not having shields, but stats are provided for shields. The Star Wars Universe Chapter 12 (32 p.)includes advice for gamemasters on how to run games, design adventures, and build campaigns. It also includes prestige classes for bounty hunters, crimelords, elite troopers, starfighter aces, and officers and stats for gamemaster characters such as diplomats, experts, and thugs. The chapter is rounded out with rules for environmental effects, diseases, and poisons. Chapter 13 (26 p.) deals with the three eras of play: Rise of the Empire (Episodes I-III), Rebellion (Ep. IV-VI), and New Jedi Order. A brief overview is provided for each era; most of the chapter, though, is taken up by character backgrounds and stats for the major personalities of each era. Chapter 14 (34 p.) provides stats for creatures and sample stats for generic characters at 4th, 8th, and 12th Level, in addition to the aliens discussed earlier. The sample stats serve as more of a guide for generating individual characters than ready-made NPCs. Droids are discussed in Chapter 15 (16 p.) with a description of their skills, vitality and wound points, accessory equipment, and sample droids. Although there are no explicit rules for generating droid player characters, there is also no prohibition, and the rules do point out (p. 282) that a few droids can be scouts and soldiers. Chapter 16 (12 p.) is an adventure “Shadows of Coruscant.” The less said about this adventure the better. It is weak, contrived, and beyond all hope of revision into a playable adventure. The adventure does outline how to establish the PCs as agents for Chancellor Valorum and includes the obligatory walk-through by major personalities from the movies. Having the PCs work for Chancellor Valorum is a really bad idea and directly conflicts with events in The Phantom Menace. The book concludes with conversion guidelines for WEG Star Wars. The conversion guidelines are serviceable, if a bit cumbersome. Basically, you convert the character’s attributes and skills from WEG Star Wars to Star Wars d20, determine the character’s level from the number of skill points, and assign Feats. For higher level characters, you may wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to create the character from scratch using the d20 rules rather than go through the laborious conversion procedures. Design Star Wars d20 is presented as an impressive hardback with glossy pages, two columns of text, and pictures from the movies on most pages. Each chapter begins with a two page photo and one column of text along the right edge (They get extra points for including the Mos Eisley cantina scene were Han shoots first). Most of the new art is of high quality and has that appropriate Star Wars look. Sidebar playing tips and alternative rules are presented as if delivered by C3PO and are less annoying than you might think. Most pages include a quote from the movies that cuts across both columns. At first, I found these quotes to be trite and annoying. But, the quotes grew on me, and I realized that they kept bringing me back to the movies and the source material for the game. A serviceable three-page index, and a two-page character sheet are included. Errata is available at www.wizards.com/starwars. The bottom line is that Star Wars d20 is a playable game and a welcome update for roleplaying in the Star Wars Universe. However, there are enough omissions, inconsistencies, and unworkable rules that we can hope that WotC comes out with a second edition after the release of Episode II. Jeb Boyt