Star Wars Hero’s Guide

By Robert J Defendi

            So the Star Wars line has been light on books on expanding classes, like Sword and Fist for D&D, so this book was needed and long in the coming.  It’s light on the information, only 160 pages, but is hardbound like most of the Star Wars books, which is a plus in my opinion.

            First the look.  The cover is nice, harkening back to the old movie posters.  The interior art is decent, and the layout is good.  The biggest thing that stands out to me here as they do many of the things the old West End version did, including imperial recruiting posters and corporate logos.  Problem is, West End did it much better.

            Okay, this book started off as if it was trying to get on my bad side.  First it stresses a little too much that the information inside is optional, which to me sounds like the writer covering his bases if he isn’t sure how the book will effect play balance.  It begins to regain ground by launching into a discussion on dramatic hooks and how they effect character, which earned it points, but then came chapter 2.

            Chapter 2 is all archetypes.  If you aren’t familiar with them, archetypes are basically a guide to multiclassing to suit a certain character concept.  I’ve always thought this was a stupid concept and a waste of pages (I can handle my own multiclassing strategy, thank you) although this tries to pay lip service to making itself useful by adding three new abilities to each archetype which are swapped out for certain class abilities, but this just means you can never get those original abilities, since you are already multiclassing.  Some of these would have made nice prestige classes, I would have preferred five-level prestige classes for the imperial and rebel officers, for instance, and as it’s presented, it just doesn’t work for me.

            Chapter 3 starts with new uses for old skills.  I liked this section, because it helps to have rules for things like seduction and I don’t like them adding new skills to a game like D&D.  It also answers something that really bugged me in the original game, which was a lack of description on how to do those giant leaps Jedis perform so often (it’s the move object force skill).  Next come the feats, which are okay, but the best part are the lightsaber form feats, an idea that I think will really add to the game.

            Chapter 4 are prestige classes, including classes like the Chief Engineer and Sharpshooter.  This is a good section and adds some nice variety to the career path of non-force using Star Wars characters.

            Chapter 5 includes factions, and rules on how to handle character’s connections to these factions, much like in Everquest.  Each of these factions have nice little five-level prestige classes, but most importantly of all, they have feats that are unique to them, ala Forgotten Realms.  I felt this was a nice way to add flavor to a game, and think more WotC products should do something like this.

            Chapter 6 is about technology, but aside from gear, it talks about some important but often ignored subjects like loans, interstellar and local communications, and individual communication systems, such as what you might find on a ship.  It then moves on to the new equipment, including a section on cybernetics, in case you have a habit of lightsaber dueling Sith Lords.

            Chapter 7 is a sparse little section on combat.  I don’t know if I minded how small it was.  It covered important information like aiming (but not well) and throwing lightsabers (this one was okay), and I don’t need more rules bogging down my d20 combat.  If it had done a better job on the subjects it treated, I would have liked it more.

            Chapter 8 is the obligatory force chapter.  It has new force feats and mostly consisted of information on different force sects, which didn’t appeal much to me, but will probably appeal to others, and I do like anything that makes a universe richer.

            Chapter 9 is the chapter on droids.  It starts off with information on droids as henchmen, then includes two prestige classes, the Espionage Droid, and my personal favorite, the Berserker Droid.  Okay, maybe there’s something fundamentally wrong with me, but I loved this class.  Something about the idea of a droid going nuts and hacking into people that just appeals to me.  Maybe I saw Alien or Saturn V too many times as a kid.

Conclusion

            Despite a few problems, I had an overall good opinion of this book.  It’s nothing that would make me rush out and demand it at my local store, but if I played enough Star Wars and had begun to exhaust my character options, I’m sure I’d feel a greater need to possess this book. Overall, I’d suggest buying it, if you’re an avid Star Wars player.  If you can get you GM to approve all the character options, that is.