Galactic Campaign Guide (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Galactic Campaign Guide takes a departure from previous sourcebooks in that it's light on the rules, and heavy on advice. It is also the only sourcebook designed solely for the Gamemaster. However the GCG isn't clogged with the usual array of charts and tables, nor will you find prestige classes, new feats, or any equipment at all. Instead it focuses on the particulars of creating and implementing interesting campaigns, storylines, locations, and NPC's.
Chapter 1: The Campaign Foundation is really the meat of the book. A full description of its contents would take some time, but needless to say this wide and varied chapter discusses everything from how to capture the feel of Star Wars to how to bring the PCs together to how to deal with party splits. Chapter 2: Settings describes a wide variety of urban locations that can easily be plugged in to any campaign, and it provides a few location-specific rules for each. Chapter 3: The Environment discusses props and hazards, among other things. Chapter 4: The People discusses some great supporting characters and also provides extensive name generators for the main character races. Finally, Chapter 5: The Heroic Journey devotes its entirety to this central concept of Star Wars mythology and provides a rare and in-depth look at how to truly make a campaign "epic."
The GCG is also filled with the standard high-quality level of full color artwork in and out.
On paper, much of what this book talks about might seem fairly obvious, for example, how to set the mood of an encounter. In practice, however, some GM's simply don't know how to do this effectively, and even experienced GM's might unintentionally gloss over such an aspect. What this book has done is gather, combine, and explain much of what it takes to be a "good" GM into one single reference.
What the book doesn't talk about in great detail, unfortunately, is how to tailor the campaign based on the levels of the characters. After all, would a level 1 character and a level 16 character both be saving the galaxy in the same way? Probably not, but the GCG doesn't discuss this. Nor does the book talk about player characters who attain great wealth, recognition, or power and influence. I realize that the authors had to stay within a certain page limit, and such omissions aren't unforgiveable, but they do prevent a good book from becoming a great one.
Aside from these minor faults, the Galactic Campaign Guide succeeds admirably in covering most of the important aspects of running a campaign. GMs of low to moderate experience will probably find this book to be their best friend. An experienced GM will also appreciate it for its ability to take much of the grunt work and guesswork out of running a campaign. I strongly recommend it.

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