I just got the new, Revised Star Wars D20, even though I already had the original D20 version (as well as the WEG version). After spending about 40 minutes in the FLGS reading about exactly what was changed, I felt that there was enough new stuff to make the purchase worthwhile. I know many people are holding off reading or even looking at the new version until they have seen the movie, as the book contains many spoilers. Well, I have sacrificed myself for your benefit, read the book, and will now present all the significant revisions and changes SPOILER FREE so that you may decide whether to get the book or not. Note that this is primarily a comparison between the two D20 versions.
First, the new Revised Version (hereafter called RV) is 384 pages, compared to the Original Version (hereafter called OV) which weighed in at 320 pages. There are over 30 pages of information that have been removed for the RV, as well as fewer pictures, so there is quite a lot of new information contained in these pages.
Missing from the RV are the intro adventure Shadows of Coruscant, the WEG Star Wars conversion notes, the quick-start character templates in the beginning of the book, and all character stats/ writeups for Phantom Menace characters and a few others. Missing are Qui-Gon Jinn, Palpatine, Jar Jar Binks, Watto, Darth Maul, Darth Sidious, and Sebulba, as well as Jacen, Jaina and Anakin Solo and Nom Anor from the New Jedi Order era. Of course, the free-form vehicle and starship rules are also missing, and replaced with a new table-top map-squares system.
The additions and changes to the book are numerous and extensive, so I'll cover them 1 chapter at a time. A nice feature of the book is a small paragraph at the beginning of each chapter that tells you what has been changed in the RV.
Chapter 1: Abilities - Nothing new here, really.
Chapter 2: Species - 6 new species have been added: Bothans, Duros, Gamorreans, Kel Dor, Quarren, and Zabrak. All of the species portraits are now in color instead of b&w. Several race's abilities have changed. For example, Ewoks previously got a 2 to Search checks only if smell was involved. In the RV, they get the more useful Alertness feat for free. Their Primitive drawback now means they get the Weapon Proficiecies (Primitive weapons) and (Simple Weapons) at 1st level instead of any other, more advanced Weapon profs. That works fine for weapons, but it does not hinder an Ewok at all in building or repairing high-tech devices... while their previous version of Primitive did. I think this alteration is simpler, but less realistic.
Chapter 3: Classes - A new class, the Tech Specialist, has been added and all of the existing classes have been modified, in some cases drastically. The reputation score has now become a bonus to other skills/ abilities. I will not list the huge number of changes, but I will say the classes are MUCH more balanced and useful now. For example, the Noble previously got single Favors every other level. Once one was called in, it was gone. They now get to make a roll to call in a favor, with a bonus based upon their level. They may call in half their level in favors each week! The Noble also gets 4 bonus feats at various levels up to 20th, the abilities Resource Access, Inspire Greatness, Inspire Confidence, and Coordinate, making them far more useful than ever before. Every class has received similar treatment, and most gain at least 1 special ability at nearly every level now. Jedis are also now able to choose their starting Force Feat (Control, Alter, or Sense) instead of it being assigned. I find nearly all the changes to be improvements. While I would personally add a Bonus Feat at 6th, 9th, 12th, and 18th level for the Tech Specialist (who is now the weakest class, being closer to the OV power levels of the other classes), this is not hard to do.
Note: there is some debate over the wording on 1 of the Tech Specialist's abilities, Instant Mastery. It says, quote:"At 3rd and 16th level, the tech specialist gains 4 ranks in any Intelligence skill (including cross-class skills, but not Force skills) that he currently has no ranks in." Now, this can be read as "any" = "any and all" or "any 1". I read it as "any 1" for 2 reasons: You get the ability twice, and there would be no reason to do so if it meant "any and all". Second, it is waaaay too powerful if it were interpreted as "any and all". Just thought I'd warn you, in case there is some confusion.
Chapter 4: Skills - Most skills are explained in greater detail, with example difficulties and so on. Skill synergies have been changed to me useful in only particular situations instead of a permanent bonus. Balance and Gambling have been added to the regular list, and Drain Energy, Force Lightening, Force Strike, and Illusion have been added to the Force skills list. Force skills are now integrated with the regular skill descriptions, but the name is written in red so you can easily tell them apart.
Chapter 5: Feats - The descriptions of the feats has been clarified, and some were adjusted. There are new Feats, such as Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Combat Reflexes, Headstrong, Rugged, Steady, Surgery, and more. There are additional Force Feats too, such as Compassion, Focus, Force Flight, Mind Trick, and Attuned. Like the skills, all regular and Force feats are listed together, with red ink on the names to allow easy recognition.
Chapter 6: Heroic Characteristics - All the new species are included in the tables. The Reputation score has been replaced, as noted before. Instead of the flat (generally) 5/ -5 for being famous/ Infamous, your Reputation Bonus is added to or subtracted from (depends upon circumstances) your Bluff, Diplomacy, Entertain, Gather Info, and Intimidate checks. It also affects the number of followers you get. This revision is a big improvement, and it allows a growing reputation as characters increase in level, instead of the flat modifiers the OV had. (which I used to generally ignore...)
Chapter 7: Equipment - There are a few new pieces of equipment, and Stunning and Explosives rules have changed. Stun setting now does no damage, but stuns you for 1 round even if you make the Fort save. Explosives do full damage to everything in the blast radius, with a Ref save for 1/2. In the OV, it do full damage to 1 target, and 1/2 or 1/4 to those in the blast radius. The most controversial change is to armor, though. Instead of a defense bonus, it now provides Damage Reduction, but ONLY vs Wound damage! IMHO, I don't think 2-7 points of DR that only takes effect on a Crit or after you have lost all of your Vitality is worth the (possible) Dex penalty to AC, the Armor check penalty to skills, and the reduced movement speed. Perhaps a combination of some Defense bonus and the DR will be more worthwhile... ?
Chapter 8: Combat - Attacks of Opportunity have been added. That will make a lightsaber-swingin' Jedi in your face really scary, if they weren't already! The explanation for AoO is a good one, with several pictures to illustrate how the rules work.
Chapter9: The Force - Force points are now spent after you roll the d20, not before, making them far more useful. This chapter also includes a better description of the Dark Side, and what happens when characters have Dark Side points, as well as how a fallen Jedi might rejoin the Light.
Chapter 10: Vehicles - Instead of the abstract system that the OV had, the RV has a set of rules using map squares. Although the old rules never bothered me when using vehicles, I hated the abstract starship combat system. Since those were changed as well, I'm glad that the vehicle rules were changed to match them, instead of having 2 seperate systems. The new rules are fairly basic and easy to understand, with diagrams of movement, turning, maneuvers, etc. There are descriptions and stats for the new vehicles in Attack of the Clones. Finally, crew quality gives less (about half) the Attack bonus it used to, meaning there is less difference between an Expert crew and an Untrained crew when it comes to firing weapons at each other. Piloting checks still use the old modifiers.
Chapter 11: Starships - As mentioned above, there are new tactical rules for starships, and I feel they are a big improvement. They work just like personal and vehicle rules, on map squares. Once again, there are diagrams to explain everything, and it all fits together well with the rest of the rules. There are also new rules for Ramming/ collisions, rules for heroes acting as crew on board a larger ship, new ships from the new movie, and a GREAT new map of the galaxy! The OV map was patheticm but this one is a full color, 2-page spread with Trade routes, highlighted worlds that appeared in the movies, and dozens of worlds from the books. It clearly shows where the Core, Colonies, Rim worlds, etc are.
Chapter 12: Gamemastering - There are a lot of new things here... There are 5 new Prestige classes (Dark Side Devotee, Dark Side Marauder, Jedi Ace, Jedi Investigator, and Jedi Master) and pictures for every PrC. (Note: Most of the new PrCs are from the sourcebooks, but have been slightly altered to fit the new rules) There are also additional guidelines on awarding XP, rules for environmental hazards (like acid, falling rocks, and radiation), rules for creating cities and towns, and a discussion on bonuses and what is allowed to stack with what.
Chapter 13: Eras of Play - This chapter was totally reorganized. In the OV, the characters were listed multiple times if they appeared in more than 1 era. So Yoda and Ben Kenobi had seperate listings in the Rise of the Empire and the Rebellion eras, while Luke, Leia, and Han had listings in the Rebellion and New Jedi Order eras. In the RV, each character is listed once, and below his or her history are multiple sets of stats for each era they appear in. This makes things much easier, IMHO. There are stats for 4 new characters (2 from Clones, 2 from the New Jedi era), and updated Clones era stats for Obi-wan, Anakin, Padme, Mace, etc. Their Phantom Menace era stats are gone, though.
Chapter 14: Allies and Opponents - There are now rules for creating creatures, and there are new sample creatures from Clones. There are new alien species, some of which only appeared in sourcebooks before, such as Jawas and Sand People. There are also several new races from Clones. Each race has enough stats to make a character with. The character archetypes are now listed in statblock form instead of columns. This saves space, but is a little harder to read. The space is used to add quite a few new archetypes, though.
Chapter 15: Droids - Besides adding new equipment and updating some rules, there are new droids from Clones and rules for memory wipes. The highlight is rules for Droid characters, though. They seem well balanced in theory, though they have both significant advantages and disadvantages. One big danger is a complete memory wipe, which removes all of their XP and class levels!
The RV does not have a chapter 16 or appendix, as noted above.
Well, there you have it. Quite a lot of changes, many of which may have been seen previously in the SW Gamer magazine, many others that are new. I never bought SW Gamer, and I was quite unhappy with the starship rules, the unbalanced character classes, etc, so I feel this was certainly a worthwhile purchase for me. I hope the above information is useful for helping you to decide whether the Revised edition has enough new information to be worth your money.
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