Allies and Adversaries

Here's a preview of the newest book, an anthology of NPCs.

-Nate

Allies and Adversaries (P)review

This book is the second in the black-bound line of era-specific books, following Dawn of Rebellion and preceding (announced after, but arriving before) Collapse of the Republic. It's laid out a little differently from that other, with four chapters dedicated to different types of characters whom the PCs might encounter. Those are Chapter 1: Rebels and Heroes; Chapter II: Imperials and Despots; Chapter III: Scum and Villainy; and Chapter IV: Creatures and Citizens. 

Power levels for these NPCs run the gamut from generic Alliance troopers all the way up to Yoda. Some of them are familiar from previous sourcebooks, while others I don't recall seeing before. Familiar faces include Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, Lando Calrissian, Leai Organa, Luke Skywalker, Mon Mothma, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Saw Gerrera and Wedge Antilles; Admiral Piett, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, General Veers, Grand Admiral Thrawn and Grand Moff Tarkin; Boba Fett, Bossk, Dengar, Doctor Aphra, Hondo Onahka, Jabba the Hutt, Maul and Zuckuss. 

Creatures—which I always find useful for bolstering encounters—include the acklay, bantha, bearsloth, dewback, dianoga, gundark, krayt dragon, loth-cat and loth-wolf, Mantellian Ffutterplume, mynock and vynock, nerf, nexu, rancor, reek, ronto, sarlacc, tauntaun, varactyl and wampa. 

All in all there are some thirty characters n each category, making this a highly utilitarian book. It can supplement a collection from any of the three lines, providing access to stats that would otherwise require a stack of books to transport. 

A highlight for me is the fact that Ewoks are introduced as a playable species.

Dawn of Rebellion (P)review

I know it's a bit late, but here's a preview of what people can expect from Dawn of Rebellion.

Page 1: Crawl

Page 2: Credits

Page 3: Table of Contents

Page 4: Foreword by Dave Filoni

Pages 5-9: Welcome to the Rebellion!/The State of the Galaxy/Life Under the Galactic Empire

This section provides an overview of the the Star Wars galaxy in this time period, which spans the years leading up to A New Hope—inlcuding events covered in the Rebels TV series and the film Rogue One.

Pages 10-49: Chapter 1—Worlds in Revolt

Presented in this chapter are overviews of numerous planets, including Alderaan, Atollon, Dathomir, the Death Star, Scarif, Jedha, Lothal, and five smaller ones. This seems like good material, including stats for creatures and modular encounters. Most interestingly, it also provides stats for characters from the TV series and films, including Princess Leia Organa, Saw Gerrera and even (former) Darth Maul.

Pages 50-89: Chapter 2—Organizations

This section describes numerous groups, including the Empire, the early Rebellion, Phoenix Cell, the Spectres, the Broken Horn Syndicate, the Free Ryloth Movement, the Protectors of Concord Dawn, and numerous “independent operators.” Here again there are stats, including Ahsoka Tano, Darth Vader and Lando Calrissian.

Pages 90-129: Chapter 3—Player Options

Presented in this chapter are four new alien species (the Drabatan, Gigoran, Iakaru and Tognath); six new universal specializations (Force adherent, Imperial Academy cadet, Padawan survivor, pirate, retired clone trooper and ship captain); six pages of new talents; new weapons including the lightbow and some heavy Gunnery weapons; four new droids, especially the KX enforcer and MSE units; and many different vehicles from Rebels and Rogue One.

Pages 130-143: Chapter 4—Game Master Support

This section provides guidelines for GMs, including treating campaigns like TV seasons, how to develop antagonists, and how to use Rebel cells in campaigns.

Page 144: Ad

All in all, this seems like a highly useful book. There's a lot of crunchy content for use in an Age of Rebellion campaign, of course, but also good material for Edge of the Empire games that involve up-and-coming Rebels. As always, the art is beautiful and the production values are top-notch. The decision to include stat blocks for major characters is an interesting one, and of course means that somebody's campaign will see the PCs kill Darth Vader.

Custom Character Sheet

I recently modified a character sheet I found out on the web. I think they were originally made by FFG forum members Caied and DylanRPG. I changed the logo in the upper right to be generic (I plan to blend all three games into one). I also added the Lightsaber skill, the Knowledge: Warfare skill, and made room for Force Powers, Obligation, Duty, and Morality on page 2.

I tried to use the most printer-friendly version they had, plus there's a very cool form-fillable version that calculates and displays the dice pool for you.

Click here to download it.

May the Fourth

For those who live in the Twin Cities metro area, Fantasy Flight Games will be hosting a night of game demos with an X-Wing tournament on Wednesday, May 4th. Check it out.

May the Fourth (2016)

-Nate

Great Pictures, part 1

This is an incredibly wonderful picture. My favorite Star Wars ship, docked on some exotic world. Various doorways beckon, leading deeper into the well-used installation. The YT-1300's boarding ramp itself invites us to run aboard (perhaps under a hail of Imperial blaster fire), drop into the pilot's seat and gun it for orbit.

Is this a mining colony? Is that a bounty hunter near the mandibles? Is that Chewie coming out of the bay to the right? One could write an entire adventure from the juicy tidbits presented in this image, and perhaps flavor an entire campaign with ideas extrapolated from details.

Simply wonderful!

Force and Destiny (P)Review

After having a chance to browse the new book, I wrote up a summary of what one can expect from it.

-Nate

Force and Destiny (P)Review

Presented here is an overview of what one can expect from the new Force and Destiny core rulebook.

Pages 1-2: Inside title pages

Page 3: Opening crawl

Page 4: Credits

Page 5: Table of contents

Introduction (pages 6-13)

This chapter provides some introductory fiction, an example of play, an overview of the game's style and focus.

Chapter 1 (pages 14-39): Playing the Game

This is pretty familiar fare, consistent with material from the previous two core rulebooks.

Chapter 2 (pages 40-109): Character Creation

While the layout of this chapter is standard, it presents numerous new possibilities for players.

• Morality, of course, is the new mechanic akin to Obligation and Duty.
• The species for this game are Cerean, Human, Kel Dor, Mirialan, Nautolan, Togruta, Twi'lek and Zabrak.
• There are six new careers, each with its own specializations—Consular (Healer, Niman Disciple and Sage); Guardian (Peacekeeper, Protector and Soresu Defender); Mystic (Advisor, Makashi Duelist and Seer); Seeker (Ataru Striker, Hunter and Pathfinder); Sentinel (Artisan, Shadow and Shien Expert); Warrior (Aggressor, Shii-Cho Knight and Starfighter Ace).
• New motivations specific to Force-users
• Suggestions for group resources, including a starship, along with a Jedi holocron or mentor

Chapter 3 (pages 110-133): Skills

This is pretty familiar stuff, too.

Chapter 4 (pages 134-153): Talents

This chapter breaks down the talents for the new careers and specializations. There seems to be a lot of new material, given the Force-centered nature of those character options.

Chapter 5 (pages 154-201): Gear and Equipment

While much of this is similar to what one can find in the other core rulebooks, there are some notable exceptions.

• For one thing, there's new material involving different kinds of lightsabers, various cortosis items, types of robes, etc.
• There's information about holocrons and ancient talismans, too.
• Lightsaber modifications are added to the list of those for other weapons, including different types of crystals.

Chapter 6 (pages 202-227): Conflict and Combat

This is pretty familiar stuff.

Chapter 7 (pages 228-271): Starships and Vehicles

The mechanics in this chapter are much the same as those in previous core rulebooks, but the different types of vehicles detailed provide some variety.

• Airspeeders: Civilian model, Talon 1 cloud car
• Landspeeders: Passenger model, A-A3 light speeder truck, 85-XS Odyssey heavy speeder bike
• Wheeled and tracked vehicles: Gallis-Tech 48 roller, groundcar
• Walkers: AT-HCT
• Starfighters: Y-Wing, Delta-6, Delta-7, Delta-12, Lambda shuttle, Pathfinder scout ship, X-Wing, TIE/LN
• Freighters and transports: G9 Rigger, HWK-290, HT-2200, Simiyiar light freighter, ZH-25 Questor
• Capital ships: ADZ-class destroyer, CR90 corvette, IR-3F light frigate, Victory-class star destroyer

Chapter 8 (pages 272-305): The Force

This chapter provides, not surprisingly, a lot of new material.

• There's a lengthy overview of using the Force in play.
• Eleven new Force power trees: Battle Meditation, Bind, Enhance, Foresee, Heal/Harm, Influence, Misdirect, Move, Protect/Unleash, Seek and Sense.

Chapter 9 (pages 306-339): The Game Master

The material in this chapter resembles that from other core rulebooks, except that it is tailored to adventures and campaigns involving Force-users.

Chapter 10 (pages 340-375): The Galaxy

This chapter provides an overview of the Star Wars galaxy, as expected, along with new planetary profiles: Cerea, Coruscant, Dagobah, Dorin, Ilum, Moraband (Korriban), Ossus, Weik.

Chapter 11 (pages 376-397): The Jedi and the Sith

There's a comprehensive account of these two organizations' histories, along with overviews of other Force-using sects and their lost artifacts.

Chapter 12 (pages 398-421): Adversaries

The NPCs detailed in this section include some interesting new ones, including the Imperial assassin, the IG-100 Magnaguard, different types of Force-users, and new creatures: acklay, jackobeast, jubba bird, kaaten, kouhun, maalraa, tusk cat, vornskr and ysalamir. There's also a section specific to the Inquisitorius.

Chapter 13 (pages 422-440): Lessons from the Past scenario

I didn't read this one, because I intend to play it at some point.

Pages 441-444: Index

Pages 445-8: Character sheet, ship sheet and base of operations sheet

All in all, this book provides lots of new material for using the Force in Star Wars adventures. Most notably, I think it would be invaluable for running adventures and campaigns set in time periods other than the Rebellion Era.