Return of the Star Wars RPG

Return of the Star Wars RPG on store shelves

By Editor T. Rob Brown
At retailers (June 6, 2007) -- Star Wars RPG fans have been waiting since a long time ago, yet not necessarily in a galaxy far, far away, for the return of the well-loved Star Wars-flavored d20 system. Now, the circle is complete.

When last we met news from Wizards of the Coast, a division of Hasbro and publisher of the Star Wars RPG d20 line, in 2005 the support of the RPG portion of their Star Wars franchise rights had taken a complete backseat to the miniatures game. Despite the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the company focused on its miniatures line and left the Star Wars RPG fans stranded in space without a hyperdrive -- they even canceled the RPGA Living Force campaign. Then, in early 2006, RPG stats were suddenly included with some of the company's Star Wars Miniatures line products. This was followed up by an announcement at Gen Con Indy 2006 that they were working on a new Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition Core Rulebook, scheduled for an April 2007 release.

Despite some expected delays, the fruit of that labor is now on store shelves and in the hands of many die-hard Star Wars RPG fans. Initial reactions from the fans might have included, "another core rulebook?", "It's about time they included Revenge of the Sith material," or "Where did armor class go?" The truth of the matter is that Wizards has completely revamped the rules system -- they've streamlined it, made it sleeker, faster to play, easier to create characters with, and made lots of changes that just might appear in upcoming versions of their more-popular Dungeons & Dragons RPG line.

By streamlining the classes down to five basic, starting classes, it might seem like they've taken options away from the players but in fact, the options are vast. Through the use of a new Talent system, each class has numerous variants via Talent trees for wide customization opportunities.

For instance, in the Revised Edition players could choose between three Force-based characters: Force Adept, Jedi Consular, and Jedi Guardian. To streamline this class, there is just Jedi. Within Jedi, though, are talent trees for the Jedi Consular, Jedi Guardian, Jedi Sentinel, lightsaber skills, and so much more. You can now mix and match these Feat-like abilities to build your character just the way you want them.

Want to build a gunslinging scoundrel with awesome piloting skills like Han Solo? No problem, he's still a Scoundrel class. Perhaps you want to tailor your scoundrel to be more of the gambling type like Lando Calrissian? No problem, he's still a Scoundrel class -- just taking different Talents than Han Solo would have.

The vast number of improvements and changes to this system are too numerous to list in this article. For a time, fans will be the learner. The best way to soak up the new system is to play the game with some friends or pick up the book and delve into its immersive chapters.

Star Wars RPG Saga Edition is now the master.

[Editor's Note: For Additional Star Wars RPG Saga Edition links visit: Official Star Wars RPG Page, Star Wars RPG Saga Edition on Overstock.com, http://greatsithwar.com, http://t-rob.com/swrpg.htm, and don't forget our site's forums at http://t-rob.com/phpBB.]

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The Eberron Campaign: Session 1

d20 Addict: Series 1: The Eberron Campaign

By GamingNews Editor T. Rob Brown

(Friday, Feb. 25, 2006) SESSION 1: THE CHARACTERS MEET...

After spending a week or so to get the characters created, work out character backgrounds, and to give the dungeon master (DM), yours truly, an opportunity to read over the starting materials and necessary background information, we finally were ready for our first session.

I suppose first you must learn about the players and their characters if you are to better understand the journey that is to come.

Our first culprit, I mean adventurer -- or expert treasure hunter, is a chaotic good, female changeling rogue Tegan played by Jim "Nimrod" Stokes. Far from the party leader, but often useful in those tough situations, this rogue has saved the party's skin several times.

The second party member is the chaotic good, male human cleric Thragar Wittenhelm played by John Manard. This character worships the Sovereign Host. This character is perhaps one of the party leaders.

Third on the list is the lawful good, male human marshal Garland Von Jord played by Jesse White. This character is perhaps one of the party leaders.

Fourth among them is the tank, the neutral good, male personality warforged fighter who has yet to be named by the party played by Tim Marcum. When there's a fight to be made, he's the one that gets to taking care of the situation.

Fifth is the magic support character, the chaotic good, female shifter sorcerer Xxxx Xxxx played by Phil Xxxx. Xxxx keeps his raven familiar onhand for spying purposes.

Sixth is chaotic good, male shifter ranger-barbarian Kegan played by Jonathan Gruver.

Seventh is choatic good, female gnome bard Hevyn Glitterdust played by Phill Hilt.

Outside of those chief seven player characters (PCs), there have been four other PCs who have joined in their adventures from time-to-time and could possibly re-join the adventures as things progress. For now, we will stick the main seven characters.

As our "little" tale begins, the adventurers are in the towered metropolis of Sharn, a major city in Breland on the continent of Khorvaire. For those of you who have the Eberron campaign setting book, feel free to browse the map there -- there's possibly a map located on the Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) website. I prefer to use the map of Khorvaire created by WOTC that was included in the Eberron DM Screen pack.

The adventure we started is located in the campaign setting book -- and of course, as always, I twisted a few things around and changed a few things just to keep the players on their toes, er... well, maybe on the edge of the comfy sofa or loveseat in my living room.

[MORE TO COME]

The Eberron Campaign: Introduction

d20 Addict: Series 1: The Eberron Campaign

By GamingNews Editor T. Rob Brown

(Thursday, Feb. 24, 2006) INTRODUCTION...

Like many Dungeons & Dragons fans out there, I began playing back in the '80s with a group of friends from junior high school. We would play pretty much wherever we could find a place to play -- some of the best memories came from playing in a friend's basement or playing on a Boy Scouts overnight trip.

Most of us who have been playing that long have traversed the original scape of Blackmoor, journeyed the lands of Greyhawk, shared space with Elminster and Drizz't on Toril and its chief continent Faerun (Forgotten Realms), skimmed the mists of Ravenloft, darted through space in Spelljammer, avoided the Kender of Krynn (DragonLance), suffered the heated deserts of Dark Sun, and lamented the tortures of Planescape. We have journeyed the lands to and fro and as Bilbo Baggins said in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, we have gone, "There and back again."

Through all those grand adventures we have been guided by creators of these worlds: Dave Arneson (Blackmoor), Gary Gygax (Greyhawk), Ed Greenwood (Forgotten Realms), Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (DragonLance), and countless others. For most, we have come to treasure each and everyone of these worlds. For some, certain worlds have been hated or even despised for one reason or another.

Whether you have grown tired of the old worlds that we have journeyed so much in the past or if you're just looking for something new -- there is Eberron and its creator, Keith Baker.

If you're new to Eberron, it's quite an interesting place -- similar, yet also disimilar to the D&D worlds of old. For some, this is exactly what they've been searching for in a new world to explore. For others, it just isn't on their to-do list.

"What makes Eberron so special?" you might ask.

The world of Eberron combines the feel of traditional D&D with a sprinkling of steampunk, some action-adventure of the Indiana Jones variety, and a dab of the old gumshoe-style private investigator stories. You put all that together, stir in some gnomish contraptions, high magic, introduce technology -- but not as technology -- as magical enchantments, and an in-depth history of a war that completely reshaped the world, and you have a very unique place indeed.

Ever since its release in 2004, the Eberron campaign setting created by Keith Baker has become a big hit with D&D fans. It was the first campaign setting completely built using the 3.5 edition rules, it was Wizards of the Coast's (WOTC) elite choice from thousands of campaign settings submitted in a major campaign search, and is being fully supported by WOTC with frequent book releases, novels, and now two computer games (the massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) D&D Online: Stormreach and the real-time strategy (RTS) game Dragonshard).

For some fans, the Eberron campaign setting is new and fresh -- for others, it is too disimilar to Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms campaign setting, which older fans have come to love and cherish through the years. For those new to Eberron, it is a world that follows all the rules and traditions of D&D staples like Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms but offers many new twists -- the chief, of which, are the warforged. Warforged are living constructs forged during a great war that spread across Eberron. Although they share some of the same traits with the monsters known as constructs, they are sentient and constructed differently so they do have critical locations and do not possess all the amazing abilities of a true construct. As a player race, a warforged can be great at most anything -- but they are excellent fighters and barbarians.

In addition to the warforged race, there are three other new player races introduced with the Eberron campaign setting: The shifter (lycanthrope descendant), changeling (doppleganger descendant), and kalashtar (human-alien hybrid race). Aside from the four new races, the game also introduces a new core player class: The artificer.

With the popularity of this new campaign setting, one of my many gaming groups decided it was time to adventure in this newer world...