Bill SlavicsekBesprekingen

Nice updates to original Star Wars RPG core book.
Far more versatile in it's game design.

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For quite a while I had been looking for a science-fiction roleplaying game that was more like Dungeons and Dragons than a roleplaying game that involved either this:

R2D2

or this:

USS Enterprise

and while I might think these are pretty cool:

Star Destroyer – Star Wars

as well as these:

Light Saber

this really annoys me:

C3PO

as does this:

Spock

(he's not that bad) and while talking about science-fiction characters that tend to rub me up the wrong way, I simply cannot forget him:

Jar Jar Binks

Anyway, enough of all these pictures and more on this particular book. Most of the science-fiction roleplaying games tended to all be single setting games, based around (usually) Star Wars (and while there may have been a Star Trek game around, I am not sure whether it was all that popular). What I was looking for is something more generic, much like Dungeons and Dragons. Dungeons and Dragons did have their own specific worlds, what I really liked about it was that you could, and were encouraged to, create your own. This meant that if you wanted a world without elves you could create one (and while I did create some worlds, I generally included elves, though in one of them the elves were arrogant and stuck up creatures that believed themselves to be superior to everybody else; so while players could play elves, they tended to be treated with hatred and contempt).
Science-fiction poses a different problem because the scope is much larger. You could create a space opera, much like Star Wars (or Star Trek), or you could create a near future dystopia (such a Nueromancer) or even a modern setting where you are investigating alien sightings (much like the X-files). You could even create a amalgamation of all three (though that would be quite difficult).
What I wanted was a system that was generic and I could add and remove what I wanted to create a world (or universe) that I liked. I tried it with Traveller, but the rules were so complicated that I ended up ditching it. Shadowrun was cool, but once again, it was a single system setting, and to turn it into a space opera with magic was simply too difficult to do (since you have to create rules for space ship combat, which can be very difficult if it does not exist in the system).
Alternity actually provided everything for that, but the only problem with this was that it appeared and then pretty much disappeared quite quickly after that. It has since been replaced with the much more generic d20 Modern and d20 future, which I have played recently (though not since I left Adelaide). Also, while the rules were similar to Dungeons and Dragons, it was somewhat difficult to amalgamate the two systems since there were enough differences to end up making them incompatable. Further, when it comes to magic I prefer the Shadowrun system where spell casting tends to exhaust you; and while you can theoretically cast any number of spells that you like, the more you cast the more dangerous it becomes to your health. Such a system, unfortunately, does not exist in Dungeons and Dragons and I also suspect that it does not necessarily exist in Alternity either because when you come to science-fiction roleplaying you tend to discard magic in favourite of mind powers.½

This 'For Dummies' book provides an overview of the mechanics and general gameplay of the fourth edition of dungeons and dragons. If they had contrasted the 4th edition with the 3rd edition and then also with the pathfinder series, it would be more informative for your typical dungeons and dragons enthusiast.

An excellent resource for getting myself back into Dungeons and Dragons after a 15 year break in which all the rules changed twice (or more!). Mr. Slavicsek has created the first book in the "For Dummies" series that I can recommend without feeling like I'm being condescending.

An update to Troy Denning's seminal Dark Sun settting -- one of the best sword & high fantasy worlds ever created. Along with Planescape, in addition to being one of the coolest fantasy settings in general, this is the best setting created for D&D. If you want good fantasy without the standard medieval / foresty / goody toeshoe elves / evil orcs running around / copied off tolkien, then this is the world for you. Athas is a dying world, tainted by ecologically damaging Defiling magic, scorched by a damaged sun, void of the divine influence of egomaniac deities, ruled by Sorcerer Kings who think they can become deities, where tyranny and slavery are the norms, evil behavior ain't as bad as it is elsewhere, and adventurers adventure to survive not to save some dunce who ain't very good at surviving. Check out the original box and the updated box.

This book puts everything you need to tell a Star Wars story into one volume: a good basic selection of all the possible character combinations, examples that relate to the films, rules for everything from space combat to droids, and a really good gamemastering section that even works in some basic economic ideas to use in worldbuilding. The class/feat/skill system is a bit of a jumble, but there's only so much you can do with the underlying d20 mechanics (I'm no fan of class/level systems); the writers have managed to do a good job despite it.½

A good collection of ideas for fleshing out the Dark Side in a Star Wars game, including prestige classes, the psychology of the Dark Side, an abbreviated history of the Sith, and creations of Sith Alchemy ranging from metal swords that can take on lightsabers without handwaving a source of cortosis to mutated critters whose baseline stock would normally have the sense to stay away from player characters. Antedates the Knights of the Old Republic games, so it lacks the storyline developed there. Well worth having in a game master's collection.

D20 modern is a pretty solid set of rules.

Good overview of Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition especially for whose of us started with the 1st Edition in the late 1970's½