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Foreword A lot’s been made of the fact the Star Wars Mini’s are mentioned so much in the foreword… No kidding. The SW Mini’s are selling well. It’s only natural to try to connect the two, as complementing markets, to increase revenues. Even as a strictly RPG player, I own a fair selection of the Mini’s, and welcome any endeavor that increases the visibility of the Star Wars RPG.
Introduction One of my gripes with the new book is how bare this section is. It seems very much written in mind with an already established “gamer” in mind, rather than someone picking up an RPG for the first time. One of the best parts of the old “d6 game”, was how easy it was to give someone the book, and have them come back wanting to play. This section read more as a laundry list, than an exposition on “why” you should want to play.
Chapter 1: Abilities The established 6 attribute scores of the d20 system. If you’re playing a d20 product, this is one of the given mechanics you need to pretty much accept, and get good at utilizing.
Chapter 2: Species An excellent selection of Player Species, a good little blurb on languages, and our first introduction to some of the changes that are going to take place in Saga Edition. While I dislike the change of speed into “squares” rather than feet or meters, I’m realistic to acknowledge it does simplify the game to new players. Overall, I was actually rather impressed with this section; it certainly whets the appetite.
Chapter 3: Heroic Classes First off, I dislike the reduction to 5 Heroic Classes. It just seems to narrow the possibilities a bit much to me (though Talents mitigate this somewhat).
I actually think the level-based damage bonus is a poor idea; it cheapens Feats meant to add to damage (Power Attack, Deadeye, Weapon Specialization, etc).
I’m still leery as well, of the static Defenses (Fort, Reflex, Will), but can’t argue with the mechanics involved in the decision, removing a die roll (or several) that complicates the action and pace of the game.
I can tell I’m a grognard, but the “triple starting Hit Points” seems like such a cop out to me; those first few, extremely deadly levels, help to remind players that the world is a deadly place, and they should avoid trouble, rather than jump in the middle of it. Even Han ran, after rounding the corner…
Overall, the Classes are well-built however, and the new Talents really make them shine. I’m a bit unsure if a Feat every other level, as well as every 3rd Character level, won’t lend to imbalance. I do, however, insanely dislike that your Skills are all practically bought at 1st level, though. While you can spend a Feat to get a new Skill, it still seems a heavy cost. More to the point, I dislike you can only buy a Skill of the Class’s given list. If I want a Soldier who can do Acrobatics, I literally have to take a Class that has that on it’s given list (Jedi or Scoundrel), to get the new Skill, even with a Feat.
Chapter 4: Skills The simplification of Skills is a godsend. It also cushions the blow of less Skill training for most characters, giving them more bang for their proverbial buck. I think some of the choices are a bit odd, but overall it’s a good list to base the game around.
The Jump skill is a bit quirky though. I’m having a lot of difficulty reproducing Luke’s jump out of the carbon freezing chamber in ESB, even with the Surge Force Power being used…
There is also, ABSOLUTELY NO skills that relate to building things however. Mechanics allows you to repair items, but as it stands, there are no Skills or Feats that allow you to modify equipment or vehicles. I’m truly hoping this is rectified in the upcoming Starships supplement book, since this is a huge oversight IMO.
Chapter 5: Feats I was actually surprised to see so many Feats survived, though I suppose with how quickly Feats are gained, I should have foreseen it (hey, even Jedi Masters roll a “1” on their Farseeing rolls!). My main gripe with this section, is that most of the Feats give mechanical advantages in combat, a section we haven’t even read yet! For the most part, you need to do quite a bit of advance reading, to get the best use of this section.
Another gripe is nearly every Feat is combat-based; very few Feats allow you to do something faster/better that don’t directly involve combat.
Chapter 6: The Force Love the change to Force Points, though I was a little disappointed there was no mechanical advantage to being Force Sensitive…
The Dark Side. Oh, how you’ve been gimped. It’s probably the old d6 grognard in me coming out, but the Dark Side no longer seems tempting in the least, and your fall to it a very unlikely scenario indeed, unless your GM is handing out DSP’s like candy. I think the Dark Side should be far more tempting, even if it sometimes leads to ridiculous uses (Dark Side Force Point usage on “Friendship”!).
The mechanics & powers now available to those that utilize the Force are interesting, and I look forward to giving the new mechanic a try. With Force powers no longer burning Hit Points/Vitality, it’s an interesting way of limiting Force usage, while still keeping Force powers relevant.
The Force Talents are a nice addition, though they may be overlooked by a lot of players, since I don’t think their mentioned anywhere before this chapter. Force Techniques & Force Secrets also add some nice dimensions to Force-users, though I see some of them will get a lot more play than others.
The info on Force-using traditions is a welcome addition, especially the Jensaarai & Dathomir Witches. I would have liked to have seen the traditions from the Hero’s Guide as well; I assume those are forthcoming in a future supplement…
Chapter 7: Heroic Traits It starts fairly standard: height, weight, appearance, etc. Then it cuts to the optional Destiny rules. Destiny Points make Force Points look like chump change, so I can see why it’s an “optional” rule. But it adds a whole new series of options to a character, especially Force-users, so I can see this mechanic becoming hotly debated amongst fans! I see it opening up the debates of “GM favoritism” amongst my group, so I won’t likely be using them…
Chapter 8: Equipment Thank god they kept credits, rather than a Wealth check. Sorry, but the Wealth rules have always frustrated me.
For the most part, weapons were kept the same, with a few improvements (the Blaster Cannon, notably).
Armor has been made to provide a Defense bonus, and intentionally becomes obsolete as a character advances in Levels (though there are Talents to off-set this). I think “light” armor got a bit too much in this redesign, but it is a workable mechanic, and emulates the genre well.
Most of the rest of the equipment is fairly generic, but nevertheless, useful. I do find the weights on the Medical Kit & Surgery Kit a little onerous (together, they weigh as much as a Jet Pack!), but to each their own.
Perhaps fittingly, encumbrance rules are found in the back of this chapter.
Chapter 9: Combat The combat round has three types of actions now: Action, Move, & Swift. The inclusion of the Swift action adds a new level of complexity to any given round, but the game seems to make good use of it.
Taking multiple attacks in the new edition, quite frankly, sucks. Not only do you generally find yourself at a massive penalty to your attack rolls (Feats & Talents can offset this, but none do all that quickly!), but you have to stand stock still to do so! Gone is the 2-meter step; if you take a Full-round Action, you’re rooted to your square the entire round. I think they went a little overboard making multiple attacks per round undesirable…
I’m not a huge fan of “Second Wind”, but as healing has been pretty dramatically reduced, so it does serve a function.
I’m honestly not a fan of Damage Threshold/Conditions either. It works best at lower levels, and by the time you hit 5th-level, it’s not going to come up very often, except in exceptionally good damage rolls, or critical hits. It does however address the “1hp as healthy as 200hp!” syndrome. I would have preferred something more static, myself.
Critical Hits occur on a natural 20, and gone are Feats & Special Abilities that expand your Crit range (the Jedi Knight has a Talent that allows Crits on a natural 19). With the removal of Vitality/Wound Points in favor of Hit Points, this works out fairly well. I doubt anyone will truly miss Crit ranges of 12-20…
Oddly, death is actually rather hard to achieve in the game. Even when you reach zero HP, ignoring modifiers, you have a 50% chance of healing back to consciousness (and action!) after a minute, while only a 25% chance of pushing up daisies! Unless the enemy invests in performing a Coup de Grace, or gets a critical hit, you’re unlikely to be killed by intentional harm (and you can spend a Force Point to avoid such a fate!).
Natural Healing has taken a marked downturn, likely taking several days for a PC to return to full health. Fortunately, the Treat Injury skill has been seriously improved, so it helps to offset this.
Most of the rest of combat is very similar to existing d20 fare, albeit with different numbers attached. Sunder has been removed, in favor of an easier “attacking held object” mechanic.
Characters wanting to make multiple attacks or spray an area with gunfire, face hard modifiers to their attack rolls, but this does speed up gameplay immensely, and the mechanic is overall far simpler.
Concealment now only offers a penalty to attack rolls, rather than a statistical probability of an attack missing. Cover continues to add to a characters Defense.
This section makes heavy use of terms and ideas more popularly seen in Mini’s or Wargames. While this does push buying Mini’s for use with the RPG, it also makes the explanations a lot simpler, and more concrete/cogent in the explanation of their mechanics/effects.
Chapter 10: Vehicles Disclaimer: Anyone who’s followed my posting, knows that Vehicular Combat is my major gripe with any of the incarnations of d20 Star Wars (to the point, I created my own Mega-Thread about how *I* would do it!). Take the following with this in mind…
Vehicle Sizes; I like the fact they dropped a separate chart for starships & character scales. I do not like the fact that the Millennium Falcon & Executor are the same Size category! I think an extrapolation of the Size Chart would have been a better idea, even if it meant Size Modifiers to Defense in excess of -10…
Vehicles have a Str, Int, & Dex stat?!? They do now! A high Str is a vehicle that can take damage with little negative effect, a high Int is a vehicle with good targeting computers, and a high Dex represents how maneuverable the craft is. While I applaud the new approach, I easily foresee tableside comments along the vein of, “You’re dumber than the X-wing, dude…” While the use of Stats on vehicles helps to make the mechanic more universal, I still think it might have been a better idea to have renamed it something else…
Defenses are once again dependent on character level (nice), or an armor bonus (highly arbitrary, which isn’t so nice).
What the…!?! No firing arcs?!? I cannot, simply cannot, say this is anything other than a horrible move. It totally removes a great deal of the strategy players could exercise in a starship battle. And, completely jumps the shark in emulating what we see in the movies. It is perhaps a bit more realistic in terms of space warfare, but Star Wars starship combat has always been a send-up to the tactics & technology of WWII.
Crew positions on a vehicle are defined a little better, though realistically there’s only a maximum of 5 positions + gunners + passengers on a starship (Making ISD’s even more inefficient!).
Weapons batteries have been simplified greatly, with a set bonus to attack rolls, and good rolls netting increased damage dice.
While a Dogfighting mechanic is introduced, it heavily favors a better pilot, no matter what kind of a jalopy he might be flying. In fact, so long as it’s a small jalopy, he’ll probably be doing donuts around Luke, even in his favorite X-wing! It gets even worse if you’re in a starfighter with a gunner, since even if you fail your Pilot check, your gunner can still take pot shots at the opposition (though admittingly, at negatives). Also, the wording here-in mentions airspeeders & starfighters only, meaning the Millennium Falcon cannot engage in a dogfight with TIE fighters, despite evidence to the contrary in Return of the Jedi…
Crew Quality is still laughable. A 1st-level character can fly rings around an Ace, no matter what his attack roll looks like…
Missiles & Torpedoes are ungodly fast apparently, since they manage to close in a single round. They get a second attack if it initially misses, at a penalty, the following round, then harmlessly explode (much simpler mechanic, than the previous edition).
Tractor Beams now work as a grapple, which with Str scores, makes large ships have a much better system inherently.
The rest of the Chapter outlines several iconic craft: AT-AT’s, snowspeeders, X-wing’s, TIE Fighters, Imperial Star Destroyers, etc, but as the book has no mechanic given for improving craft, your stuck with what’s presented in this Chapter, to a large degree. And how they reach some of their numbers seems incredibly arbitrary, IMHO.
Chapter 11: Droids These ARE the droid (rules) you’re looking for… While fairly simplistic, rules are finally given so that a player can choose to play a Droid with minimal fuss. Playing an established model, like R2 or 3PO is a little more intricate, but not overwhelmingly so.
While with enough credits, Droid PC’s can become unbalancing, I’ve always considered it the GM’s job to keep such things under control. A new GM may want to beware a player interested in playing a Droid however, especially a military one…
Chapter 12: Prestige Classes A number of Prestige Classes are presented here, most requiring a PC being 7th or 12th level (strangely, Jedi Knight & Elite Trooper require a +7 attack modifier). The upped requirement for gaining a Prestige Class (some old PrC’s could be reached as low as 2nd or 3rd level!), will make these a much larger decision, since you’re character will not have as much “play” room, in selecting multiple PrC’s (which, overall, simplifies things actually). PrC’s have enough of a unique flavor, and I think will be a welcome addition. Especially given the limited selection of starting Classes…
Chapter 13: Galactic Gazetteer A nice section for the GM, so he can tell players with the Knowledge (Galactic Lore) skill a bit about the universe at large (and simultaneously, give the GM adventure ideas!). This section will be an important one for GM’s who are NOT rapid Star Wars fans, as it will allow them a little better information on the nature of the Star Wars universe (the book is otherwise sparse with Setting Info, likely a conscious choice, so play can be done in multiple eras).
This section also has the rules for traveling through Hyperspace, which is a little odd, since I would figure that would be in the Vehicles section.
Chapter 14: Gamemastering A fairly standard treatment for “how to run a game” is presented, giving time-honored tips to new GM’s.
Hazards are also introduced here, including things like Fire, Gravity, & Disease. I think they set the Challenge Level’s a bit low for some of these Hazards (particularly Acid!), and the section is VERY short, but it conveys the important mechanics to a GM.
Chapter 15: Eras of Play About 2 pages are given on setting up the Prequel Trilogy, Original Trilogy, and New Jedi Order. Notably missing is any discussion on the Old Republic (the incredibly popular KOTOR computer games, and Dark Horse comics), or the new Legacy Era. Most of the rest of the chapter is actually “big name” character write-ups (Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, etc). The write-ups are actually a bit helpful, since they give you an idea of what you can do with the new system (as opposed to earlier editions).
Chapter 16: Allies & Opponents A short section that gives us the Beast Class, for making all your assorted alien fauna. It also has several notably creatures included as stat blocks, including my fav’s of the Acklay & Rancor. It then presents us with the “Nonheroic Class”, which has the “Mook Rule” written all over it! It then presents a few Nonheroic write-ups, mostly enemy combatants. My only grief is most of the NPC’s in this section are soldiers or thugs of some sort; very little space is given to anyone else, like a Slicer or Mechanic. The Chapter ends with a bit of a surprise: 4 new alien races (Hutts, Aqualish, Neimodians, & Yuuzhan Vong)! More alien races are always good, but a dedicated Aliens book for the new edition is something I see in the future (hopefully, a Gamemaster book with many more NPC write-ups will also be in the foreseeable future!).
Index While an index is included, I’ve found it to be less than helpful, honestly. It’s usually quicker to look for a page number in the Feat or Combat chapters, than try to use the Index. Nice try, but it falls a lot short.
Character Sheet Nice character sheet, but the funky size makes me wonder how I’m going to ever use this thing…
Final Thoughts? The book is nicely put together, with nice artwork inside, and excellent still shots from the movies. It’s pretty, and that’s always a bonus when trying to sell the game.
It’s a simplified version of d20. While some people will complain about that, overall I think it’s a good thing, since it makes getting new players a bit easier, especially people new to RPG’s in general, which I’ve found Star Wars an excellent intro to our hobby.
It’s combat heavy. I realize the name of the series is Star WARS, but I still would have liked to have seen more crunch & flavor on the setting, and technical bits of the game. I like building things, and I’m sure I’m not the only one…
It’s more cinematic. I’d even go so far as to call this book more “d6”, than “d20”, in that regards. An obvious intent to speed up gameplay was made, and it shows, for good or ill.
Is this the best edition, compared to d6, OCR, and the RCR editions? That’s a tough one, since you’re asking me to compare it to one of my RPG darlings, d6 Star Wars. I will say it has incredible POTENTIAL, and if Wizards markets this well & produces quality material to supplement the Corebook, it could easily become big. I’ve always found the Star Wars RPG a wonderful tool to introduce people to role-playing games, and the simplified game of Saga Edition makes that even more true.
Would I play it? Heck yeah! ;) I can be critical of a product, and still like it. And I truly do like much of what I see in Saga Edition.
You’ll likely be finding me demo’ing the game, at local Cons! :D
