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THE BOOK: In a distinct change from prior editions of Star Wars, the Saga Edition is a square book (9x9" as opposed to the usual 8 1/2 x 11") and is is matte black with a picture of a looming Darth Vader on the front in gold detail. This is good, but the same gold-detail-on-black is used for the photo reproductions of the main characters on the back cover, and it looks a bit odd. Moreover, the smaller page size causes the book's style to look generally cramped and unwelcoming compared to other D20 and D6 editions of Star Wars, even though Wizards is using the same art, graphics and movie pictures as in its prior editions, or graphics on the same high standard. My other issue is that the book includes a free battlemap stuck between pages 256 and 257, which I don't like because in my experience having a folded-up map inside the cover or pages of a book does funky things to the binding, and less than a week after purchase I could already see it separating.
Introduction
As in the D20 editions, the book explains itself by defining the premises "Star Wars", "roleplaying game" and ergo, "The Star Wars Roleplaying Game." It also describes the "Expanded Universe" setting only in terms of three eras, the Rise of the Empire era (the recent prequel movies), the Rebellion era (the classic trilogy) or the New Jedi Order era covering both the campaigns of Grand Admiral Thrawn and the galactic rampage of the Yuuzhan Vong race, which in the official fiction only recently ended. However while the book doesn't go into detail, it does for the first time raise the prospect of playing in the popular "Knights of the Old Republic" era (long before the movies, where Jedi and Sith were evenly matched) or the "Legacy" setting of Dark Horse Comics (years after the departure of the Yuuzhan Vong, when the Empire and the Sith have both regained a place in the galaxy).
The introduction actually goes over character creation before going into detail on the relevant rules. Specifically, characters use hit dice (as in classic D&D) but at 1st level they get maximum AND triple hit points (so that a Jedi with d10 hit die for his class gets 30 hp) - however the Constitution modifier for hits is only applied once. Characters in Saga use neither saving throws nor Defense/Armor Class - rather Reflex, Fortitude and Will Defenses are represented as difficulty numbers like D20 Armor Class, with Reflex Defense being the number used for most attacks on the character (like AC), Fortitude being the number used to hit the character with poison or a similar attack, and Will being used as the defense against mind-affecting attacks. This section also brings up new concepts like "Damage Threshold" and "Destiny Points."
Chapter I: Abilities
Saga uses the standard D20 abilities (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma) and on the same scale (10-11 is 'normal', every 2 points above 10 is +1 to rolls with that ability, every 2 points under 11 is a -1 to those rolls, to a maximum of -5 with a score of 1 and a score of 0 being totally non-functional). At 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter you add 1 point each to two abilities of your choice.
Chapter II: Species
This edition uses the same list of character races as the last D20 Star Wars, and in most cases the differences are very minor. Some races with a special affinity are given "conditional bonus feats" that give a +5 Skill Bonus to a certain skill provided the character is actually trained in it (e.g. Ithorians get a bonus to Knowledge/life sciences, but only if the character trained in that skill). Other cases represent the affinity as a chance to re-roll that skill, but in most of these cases the character has to accept the second roll even if it's worse.
Chapter III: Heroic Classes
The class list has been cut down to an essential five: Jedi (masters of the Force and general badasses), Noble (characters who use social skills and connections to succeed, ranging from actual nobles to crime lords), Scoundrel (scoundrels), Scouts (explorers and survivalists, including the 'Fringer' of old D20 rules) and Soldier (professional warriors like D&D Fighters, but with broader skills). In addition to picking a bonus feat from an approved list every even level, a character gets to choose a class talent at 1st level and every odd class level beyond that. These talents are organized into "trees" reflecting character concepts or sub-classes which are redundant or have little to do with the setting (for instance, the prior D20 games created a distinction between 'Jedi Consular' and 'Jedi Guardian' classes which was never mentioned in the movies; now these are represented as talent trees, so that a more diplomatic Jedi can take a few talents from the Consular tree without the need to split the class rules). You still get the option to multiclass at each new level, as in D&D 3rd, and can take any number of classes or prestige classes.
These are certainly not bad classes, but they illustrate a core problem with the D&D-style class-oriented game approach. That is, there's no room for any character type outside the class lists, other than "nonheroic" characters (what D&D used to call '0th level characters' and which were actually given a few class abilities in prior editions of D20 Star Wars and D&D 3rd Edition). For instance, in the Star Wars D20 game my group is currently running, my PC is the ship's Tech Specialist. Now in the previous edition, this class was a bit too aptly named in that it had little ability outside technical skills, but it actually represented the Scotty/Chewbacca/R2D2 type whose non-combat skills are often vital to the group's success. There's no way I can make my character in the Saga Edition. Well, sorta, but I'd have to conform more to a Scout or Scoundrel stereotype and have more of those abilities (outside the Tech Specialist concept) than I would abilities that fit the concept. Whereas in the now-legendary D6 version of the Star Wars RPG, you could just build your own templates by assigning attribute and skill dice wherever you needed them. This is especially screwy given how the "lost" things end up getting crammed into classes where they don't fit (why DOES the Noble get Cybernetic Surgery as a potential class feat?). Reducing the class list certainly trims a bit of the fat, but after the fact one wonders how much meat was cut in the process, and again causes one to question why you can't just make something outside an increasingly small and arbitrary box.
Chapter IV: Skills
Skill rolls are the ability modifier plus half your heroic level rounded down. Being Trained in a skill simply gives you +5 to the roll, with possibly an extra +5 if you have the Skill Focus feat. There are several skills where you need to be trained to use them well (Acrobatics) or at all (Mechanics). Of these, Mechanics covers all the "Do Technical Stuff" skills in the prior edition, but there's still a Jump skill separate from Acrobatics. Wisely, they decided to make using the Force one skill, naturally called "Use the Force." Of course you need the Force Sensitive feat to use it at all, but with that, you get several untrained applications that Luke used, like "Search Your Feelings" (to get a premonition about a certain event or possible action). However there are several other aspects of the new Force rules that aren't as good. More on that later.
In Saga, each character class gets only a limited set of class skills with the starting number based on character class (plus Intelligence modifier) and you can't get any more after 1st level unless you use one of your feat slots for a "Skill Training" feat, and even then you can't get a "cross class" skill at all. However one advantage of multi-classing in this system is that while multiclassing doesn't add any actual skills, you are allowed to use Skill Training to pick up any skill that you have at least one level in.
Chapter V: Feats
Feats are distinguished from skills in that they aren't ranked for D20 rolls; you either have them or you don't. And unlike skills or talents, they aren't dependent on your class- in addition to getting a feat from a class list at every even level, you get an independent feat at every third heroic level (total).
Chapter VI: The Force
In Saga Edition, the Force is an ambient energy that gives characters a few extra dice to add to their D20 rolls. It also has a Dark Side that causes a character to gain Dark Side points from committing gratitutous evil or using inherently Dark powers like Force Lightning.
As in the D20 version, having a number of Dark Side points at least equal to your Wisdom means you are a bona fide Bad Guy and unsuitable as a PC in most campaigns. However, there isn't any particular drawback in rules terms to being dark, other than not being able to use "light" powers that a Sith would never use anyway. Moreover, there isn't any particular benefit to calling on the Dark Side either. The neat thing about the previous D20 rules was that the number of bonus dice you got for using a Force Point depended not only on level but whether you were Force Sensitive AND whether you called on the Light or the Dark. In the last edition, a low-level character actually got an extra die for calling on the Dark Side with his Force Point (the Dark Side being the quick and easy path to power) but the bonus tapered off at mid-level so that a high-level Jedi got more dice for a "Light" Force point than for the Dark, and once you officially became a Dark Side character, you could only call on the Dark Side when using Force Points (i.e. the Dark Side 'demands more than it gives' once a character is consumed by it).
In Saga, though, a Force Point only yields 1, 2 or 3d6 bonus depending on your level. The only variable is if you have the "Strong in the Force" feat (like Anakin and his kids) which makes the dice d8s. Also, characters start with 5 Force Points at 1st level and can never regain them except by going up a level, at which point they gain 5 plus half their heroic level, rounded down (a 2nd level character gets 6 points). However, any Force Points not used before going up a level are lost (they don't accumulate). So the old concept where you could actually gain Force Points by being heroic "at the dramatically appropriate moment" (like the Death Star battle at Yavin) is blown off. As is the concept that a "good" character using a Force Point for an unheroic or evil act loses it permanently. The Star Wars premises of dramatic heroism and morality - and the temptation to evil - that were so well depicted in both West End and D20 rules are replaced with a totally flat mechanic with no game factors to encourage "in-genre" action.
Many of the Force-user's special abilities are defined in the class talent trees for the Jedi and Force-using prestige classes. This chapter has a limited list of classic Force Powers that a character can take if he's trained in Use the Force. This works via the Force Training feat, which adds one Force power plus the character's Wisdom modifier. The feat can be taken more than once, and if the character's Wisdom goes up, he gets a number of new Force powers equal to the number of times he's taken the feat. However, each power can only be used once per combat, and once used, the character needs to rest for a minute out of combat to use them again, although when buying multiple powers you can buy the same one more than once so that you can use it more than once per combat. The description the game uses is that your suite of Force powers is like your hand in a card game, and once you "play" a power you can't use it for a while. I am not sure how much I like this rule, but I know I like it a lot more than the prior D20 standard where Force powers burned a certain number of your vitality (hit) points so that you needed to ration them just to avoid exhaustion or premature death in combat, which was rather un-Jedi-like.
After this the book lists a few special Force Disciplines and Force Secrets available with certain Force-sensitive prestige classes, allowing one to increase one's ability with Force Points or Force powers. There are also special talent trees for the old Alter, Sense and Control concepts, for Dark Side characters, and for the exotic Force traditions of the Jensaarai and the Witches of Dathomir.
Chapter VII: Heroic Traits
This chapter goes over most of the miscellaneous identifying traits of a character. Things like age, height, etc. Most of these don't matter much, but there are stats for the various races. With regard to age, older characters will gain in mental traits while going downward physically (in most campaigns this won't matter, but the classic movie characters who survived into the New Jedi Order era are Middle Age by that point).
Then the book deals with Destiny, a very interesting idea that almost makes up for the Force rules in encouraging dramatic heroism. Not every PC has (or wants) a destiny, but having and pursuing a great destiny gives several benefits, not the least of which are Destiny Points, which allow a character powerful effects like scoring an automatic critical hit or turning a hit against you into a miss. There are also short-term benefits to actions that advance the Destiny, a penalty for acts that set back the Destiny, and a great reward for fulfilling the Destiny. For example if Luke's Destiny is "Redemption" (of Darth Vader) then acts that advance the Destiny gain 1 Force Point, acts that set back the Destiny cause him to lose 1 Force Point, and fulfilling the Destiny (redeeming Vader from the Dark Side) causes Luke to gain 3 Force Points plus half the Force Points Vader lost for turning from the Dark Side (as a darksider who redeems himself loses all but one Dark Side Point and the Dark Side strips him of all Force Points for his conversion). Even in death, it may be possible to serve one's Destiny (as Obi-wan did).
Chapter VIII: Equipment
Equipment in this game is priced in credits (whether Imperial or Republic). There are some characters who have "Wealth Beyond Credits" in the form of assets like Han Solo's Millennium Falcon. However the book doesn't say whether a first level character can start with a starship (which is important if you actually want your space opera game to go out into space).
Mostly this chapter defines various bits of adventuring gear according to game stats, their legal status (licensed, restricted license, military or illegal), etc. in addition to cost. Weapons are mostly defined in broad categories (including the lightsaber category, since there are two-bladed lightsabers and other variants). Armor is rarely used as it is both expensive and restrictive (in game terms, you add EITHER the armor's bonus or your heroic level to Reflex Defense vs. attacks, meaning that even mid-level characters will outgrow the use of armor by the time they can afford it). You also get all kinds of miscellaneous equipment, ranging from survival gear to toolkits and even cybernetic limb replacements (which were never really dealt with in other versions of the game).
Chapter IX: Combat
This of course is where a lot of the real changes occured to the D20 system. Each combat round is 6 seconds, and initiative is rolled only once per character at the start of the battle (Initiative is a Dex-based skill in Saga). Note that while attacks use the base attack roll, as in regular D20, damage uses half the heroic level as a bonus to any damage roll. I suppose this makes sense in that high-level characters are supposed to do high-level damage, whereas they can wade through squads of low-level enemies but have actual reason to worry against a single opponent of comparable level.
As in D&D 4th, there are standard (attack) actions, move (move x number of squares, draw a weapon) actions, or a few swift (minor) actions called "free" actions in the new D&D. Saga also retains the D20 full action option, where certain highly complex actions require the entire round to accomplish. Note that in Saga, even though characters get a Base Attack Bonus for class, they don't automatically get multiple attacks for high level unless they bought appropriate feats, and these require the full round action. You may take a second move action in place of the standard action, or you can sacrifice either the move or standard action for another swift action (possibly getting up to three swift actions). Unlike the new D&D - or for that matter the old D20 SW - there isn't a chart listing all the categories of standard/move/swift actions in one place for reference.
Saga Edition goes back to the D&D basic hit-point standard, reversing one of the few truly good ideas in the D20 SW, where characters had a generally fixed set of wound points and then added "vitality" points based on hit dice, the former reflecting actual capacity for physical punishment and the latter one's ability to endure combat and other threats due to experience, with wound points generally being taken off only when vitality was exhausted or a critical hit was scored. Hit points are that much more unrealistic (especially with triple points at 1st level) so to account for this, SWSE throws in several complications.
In addition to just taking hit point damage, it is possible for a character to take condition damage that reduces his D20 rolls and Defense scores due to factors ranging from force-marching through a hot desert to getting poisoned by a Yuuzhan Vong weapon. Most of these recover over time. It is also possible to suffer a persistent condition (such as getting your hand sliced off by a Sith Lord) that does not heal without special circumstances (in this case getting a cyber-replacement). However the charts for these conditions aren't as clearly read as the health levels in D6 Star Wars or either version of The World of Darkness, and moreover there's a strange distinction between losing all your condition levels (being mostly dead) and actually being dead. It's rather difficult to actually kill a character in this game through straight hit point loss; rather you have to deal his Damage Threshold (Fortitude Defense rating) in negative hit points, or perform an un-heroic coup de grace on an unconscious character. For an in-story example, C3PO apparently wasn't actually killed in The Empire Strikes Back, just "disabled" since it was possible for Chewbacca to repair him. Of course most of us would consider being blown into several parts to be more than "disabled."
Chapter X: Vehicles
Vehicles usually operate on character scale with Size modifiers, but also have Damage Reduction and often Shield Rating on top of that (the difference being that damage to shields may reduce shield rating). In addition the larger capital ships will operate on a "starship scale" where several ships might operate in the same mapgrid square. This chapter shows the list of actions that can be taken by crew members (usually a starfighter is a one-man crew, but may have a droid assistant) along with specific rules like increased damage for weapon batteries, missile locks, and tractor beams. And then the chapter gives various vehicle examples ranging from the Scout Walker to the Imperial Star Destroyer.
Chapter XI: Droids
This is the chapter for Droid creation, including droid player character creation. Technically all droids are programmed to do certain tasks, but all but the most menial droids also have a "heuristic processor" that allows them to interpret orders, and thus think for themselves. Droid characters are "built" with ability modifiers for their classification and stats are also adjusted because they do not use the Con stat. As unliving beings, they cannot take the Jedi class. There are tables of various built-in "equipment" and the player gets a certain budget including starting funds to build the droid to custom design if he wishes. Then you get a list of droids including the famous Astromech and Protocol models, and the "fourth degree" elite soldier droids, which are usually not allowed as PCs.
Chapter XII: Prestige Classes
Like most D20 variants before D&D 4th, SWSE allows characters to branch into prestige classes after reaching a certain number of prerequisites, and this feature is pretty much necessary if you want to become a Bounty Hunter, Ace Pilot or Jedi Knight (as opposed to Padawan or just plain Jedi). The prestige classes go to 10 levels, except for a couple of elite classes (Jedi Master and Sith Lord) that require a character to be at least 12th level before taking them, and thus only have 5 levels.
Each prestige class has its own unique benefits, and like the other classes each has a talent list that you can pick from at each odd level. However prestige classes do not get feats at every even class level.
Chapter XIII: Galactic Gazetteer
The Gazetteer reviews the major planets of the Star Wars galaxy in terms of gravity, number of moons, length of day and solar year, etc. It also measures by lore, where major facts about the planet are known with a certain difficulty roll on Knowledge/galactic lore, and facts about the inhabitants are known on Knowledge/social sciences rolls. The DCs generally determine how well-known these facts are, such that facts about the forest moon of Endor take DCs of 20 and up, given that no one even knew Ewoks were on the satellite until the events in Return of the Jedi.
Chapter XIV: Gamemastering
In advising the GM, the chapter first starts with the GM's responsibilities, which include teaching the game to new players. Responsibilities also include being trustworthy (in the sense that players can trust the GM to be fair and run things so that the game is entertaining for everybody. He also needs to know how to run a game, including dealing with situations like a player who can't show up, resolving conflicts between players (that may or may not have anything to do with the game), etc. and this section includes advice for how to deal with these issues.
This chapter also gives the rules for experience points and how they're awarded. As in the prior D20 games, experience is organized in Challenge Levels (CL) which are usually synonymous with experience levels, such that an NPC with 11 heroic levels is CL 11. The CL can be adjusted upward or downward for circumstances; e.g. if the group ambushes a bounty hunter who's already wounded, his CL would be less than normal for his level. Adding "complications" like cover or obstacles also adjusts the CL (up if circumstances favor the enemy, down if they favor the PCs). The total CL yields an XP reward as listed on page 248, with the XP (usually) divided equally. In the case of multiple threats the GM makes an average by taking the total CL and dividing by 3 to scale what challenge the encounter would be for four PCs. For example, an encounter with a CL 8 crime lord and five CL 5 assassins is total CL 33, divided by 3 is an encounter level of 11. This is a fair challenge for four heroes of levels 10-12 and a difficult challenge for characters of 8th to 9th level. It's likely too tough for a party of 7th level or less. As they say, designing encounters is "more art than science."
This chapter also deals with more nuts-and-bolts matters like environmental hazards, the effects of high (or low) gravity, visibility modifiers, and so on.
Chapter XV: Eras of Play
This chapter briefly reviews the three main "eras of play", being the Rise of the Empire (prequels) era, the Rebellion era (the classic trilogy) and the New Jedi Order era in the novels set after Return of the Jedi. The text details the setting in each case, and the general place of player characters in each era. For instance, heroes before the Empire will generally work with the bureaucracy of the Republic and the Jedi Order, whereas afterwards things are a bit more "ad hoc" as the Good Guys have to survive against the Empire and then try to rebuild order after its defeat.
Next the book gives us examples of the main characters from the movies, primarily from the classic trilogy but also including Padme and Episode III Obi-Wan, Yoda and Palpatine. Unlike the last edition, it doesn't show the older characters from the New Jedi Order books. The main problem I see with these characters is that if the write-ups of Yoda and Emperor Palpatine are accurate, then Yoda should have handed Palpatine his ass in Episode III instead of just barely losing.
Chapter XVI: Allies and Opponents
The final chapter goes over a list of generic opponents that characters could fight, including beasts, who are defined as a class. As in, having their own defense scores, d8 hit dice, class skills and levels. A beast with an Intelligence of 3 or more can multiclass as a heroic class. Stats for "nonheroic" characters (like civilians and most Stormtroopers) are given, as are some NPC types built on a Human base. Finally there are race templates for the rarely seen Aqualish (Walrus Man), Hutts, Neimoidians (Trade Federation) and Yuuzhan Vong.
SUMMARY
My main opinion after reading the Saga Edition is that I like the prior edition of Wizards' Star Wars RPG a lot more than I thought I did.
Even though the Saga Edition is pretty obviously the base for the new D&D rules, from what I've seen so far I actually like the new D&D more than the Saga Star Wars. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because Wizards had more freedom to change around its own brand than the Lucas property. In any case, the Saga Edition changes d20 Star Wars where it didn't need to be changed, gives us some good rules and some that are worse than the prior versions, and leaves some of the flaws of the prior rules intact.
Style: 4
This is more like a 3.5, but even if I didn't like the way the book looks, it's still well produced. To the extent the style works, it's because it keeps a lot of the art and descriptions from the last edition.
Substance: 3
By the same token, however, the Saga Edition of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game is not a clean break from prior material like the new D&D, and it doesn't present itself as a better game from D&D 4th or even the prior d20 Star Wars.
