Showing posts with label wizards of the coast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wizards of the coast. Show all posts

2/21/2013

Star Wars Rebel Storm Booster Pack (7 Random Miniatures) Review

Star Wars Rebel Storm Booster Pack (7 Random Miniatures)
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What could be better than pre-painted plastic miniatures for your Star Wars roleplaying neeeds? I highly recommend these to anyone playing the game or just into collecting Star Wars stuff. The detailing is better than anything I could achieve if I painted them. Open a box and get ready to play!

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2/06/2013

Clone Strike Booster Pack (Star Wars Miniatures) Review

Clone Strike Booster Pack (Star Wars Miniatures)
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This goes great with the starter set. You really need the starter set to play the game. I also have the Rebel Strike and the Revenge of the Sith set. I love playing this game. It's great for any Star Wars fan.

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12/14/2012

Star Wars Miniatures: Force Unleashed Booster Pack Review

Star Wars Miniatures: Force Unleashed Booster Pack
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Got this and several similar packs to play with some friends who were getting back into the habit of playing role-playing games. The miniatures themselves are little over an inch tall and made of plastic. The only problem I have is that you never quite know what you will find in the box and some of parts of the pieces are thin and delicate, so they will break if you're not careful, but easy to repair if such a thing happens. Overall the pieces are nice to have for a more visual type of RPG gaming.

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7/08/2012

Star Wars Miniatures Ultimate Missions: Clone Strike: A Star Wars Miniatures Game Product (Star Wars Miniatures Product) Review

Star Wars Miniatures Ultimate Missions: Clone Strike: A Star Wars Miniatures Game Product (Star Wars Miniatures Product)
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Though I am a huge fan of the Star Wars Minis game, I am not a big fan of the scenarios in this book (some are pretty good, but most are not). However, there are several things I liked about this item that I thought worth sharing. The best thing about this book are the two maps at the end:
Map 1: Coruscant -- A very good to great map that is legal for 100 and 150 point tournament play. Works best with shooters, but melee characters also stand a good chance on this map.
Map 2: Geonosis Arena-- A very good map that is unfortunately no longer legal for official tournament play (but still a fun choice when playing a casual game with friends). Shooters have a moderate advantage on this map.
A couple of other nice things about this item is that there are several terrain tiles of various sizes, as well as Appendix with special rules for how to use some of them at the end of the book.
In sum, I would not necessarily buy this book for the missions (which make up 75% of this book), but this item is definitely/still worth getting for the maps, terrain tiles, and the special rules that make up the rest of the book.


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A new handbook that helps players enhance their use of Star Wars Clone Strike™ Miniatures.Second in a series of titles that accompany each Star Wars miniatures expansion, Ultimate Missions: Clone Strike provides extended information and gameplay suggestions for anyone looking to maximize their Star Wars Miniatures experience. In addition to game-related content, this full-color product also contains a fold-out poster map and new color terrain tiles to diversify gameplay. AUTHOR BIO: JD Wiker is currently freelancing while also working as president of The Game Mechanics, a d20 design studio. Some of JD's recent titles include d20 Future™, the Power of the Jedi Sourcebook™, the Star Wars Hero's Guide™, and the Galactic Campaign Guide™.

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5/26/2012

Star Wars Galaxy Tiles: A Star Wars Supplement (Star Wars Accessory) Review

Star Wars Galaxy Tiles: A Star Wars Supplement (Star Wars Accessory)
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The item description says this item contains six double sided terrain tiles, but that's not quite true. It does contain six double sided sheets, but four of them break out into multiple (between 5 and 13) smaller double sided tiles. All in all there are 38 double-sided tilesin this set (for a grand total of 76 images). Here is a brief description of what's on each tile:
TILE 1 (one 8x10 square tile): Empty grey tile floor/room on one side, and open brown grate tile floor with two computer consoles (low objects/hindering terrain) on the other side.
TILE 2 (one 8x10 square tile): Empty grey tile floor/room on one side, and grey tile floor/room with some low objects/hindering terrain on the other side.
TILE 3 (five tiles ranging from 2x4 squares tiles to 4x8 squares): Empty grey tiles on one side (to expand the size of rooms or for hallways), and steps and shaft with walkway on the other side (mostly for hallways/walkways).
TILE 4 (five tiles ranging from 2x4 squares tiles to 4x8 squares): Empty grey tiles on one side (to expand the size of rooms or for hallways), various hindering terrain (pits, low objects) on the other side.
TILE 5 (thirteen tiles ranging from 1x1 square to 2x8 squares): Empty grey or grate tiles on one side (to expand rooms or for hallways/walkways), and various hindering terrain (doors, pits, low objects) on the other side.
TILE 6 (thirteen tiles ranging from 1x1 square to 2x8 squares): Empty grey or grate tiles on one side (to expand rooms or for hallways/walkways and some hindering terrain), and grates (to expand rooms or for hallways/walkways) and various other objects (doors, turbo lifts, etc.) on other side.
On the plus side, the images are high quality, and they are printed on a very thick, high quality card stock that should hold up for many uses. I also like that there are several smaller tiles rather than just six big tiles. Because of this, the set is fairly versatile and can be used to create numerous maps. Three sample complexes that can be made with these tiles are provided on the inside package, but I see many possibilities - especially if you buy more than one pack. So all in all, you get a fair amount of bang for your buck.
On the minus side, the various types of terrain are not marked (walls, low objects, hindering terrain, pits, etc.), so these tiles cannot be used with the Star Wars minis game. I recognize these were designed for the RPG and not the minis game, but it would have been VERY easy for Wizards have given us a (Ploovo) Two-For-One by also making these tiles usable with the minis game (after all, that's what they did with the D&D minis cards -- they put stats/info for both the minis game and the RPG on each and every card). I'm very disappointed they didn't do something like that here.
In sum, if you play the Star Wars RPG and want an easy way to create your own maps, I think you'll be happy with this item. But, if you were hoping to use them for the Star Wars minis game (i.e., Rebel Storm, Clone Strike, etc.), I would pass on these tiles.


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3/04/2012

Rebellion Era Campaign Guide (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) Review

Rebellion Era Campaign Guide (Star Wars Roleplaying Game)
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The Rebellion Era Campaign Guide for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game (Saga Edition) focuses on roleplaying in the time of the original trilogy, a key era for many of us that grew up with the movies and loving Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, R2, and Darth Vader.
Chapter 1, "Heroic Traits," introduces an Alliance cell party concept and then moves to one of the best features of the book, the addition of backgrounds. Mechanically, these generally reflect skills tied to the background but ideas for fleshing out characters also provide a nice boost to character development. The chapter includes additional class talents and sample concepts as well as regular and species feats before introducing the Kilian Rangers as an additional Force-using tradition.
Chapter 2, "Prestige Classes," contains additions for Ace Pilot and Officer as well as two new prestige classes, Improviser and Pathfinder. The former basically seems like the MacGyvers of Star Wars: "Improvisers can quickly grasp the needs of a situation, analyze what tools are at hand, remember relevant information, and combine all these factors into a hasty (though not necessarily elegant solution." Pathfinders really consist of extensions to the Scout class, using Jan Ors as an example.
Chapter 3, "Equipment and Droids," has a few minor weapons, armor, equipment, and droid listings, but much of that type of content actually shows up in factional chapters 6-8.
Chapter 4, "Vehicles and Starships," holds particular interest for the remaining players of the MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies. In addition to a few speeders, this chapter lists statistics and background for most of the SWG Freelance faction starfighters and a few other ships, including some space transports.
Chapter 5, "Rebellion Era Campaigns," discusses some themes of the era as well as campaign elements and suggested adventure hooks. New game masters as well as those looking for a few new ideas for their campaigns and role play will really appreciate this section.
Chapter 6, "The Rebel Alliance," lists a brief history of the Rebellion and outlines the organization of the Alliance, including a little bit of clarification on Special Forces versus Special Operations (mostly independent operatives). It gives data for some Alliance personnel (generic NPCs) and personalities (e.g. Ackbar, Wedge, Cracken, Biggs, Nien Nunb, and others). Also, the chapter has a Technology and Vehicles section, including rules for tactics from the Rebel Field Guide (an in-universe manual), plus Weapon Emplacements, Combat Assault Vehicles, and several starships not listed in Chapter 4.
Chapter 7, "The Empire," has a similar structure to Chapter 6. It includes an even briefer view of the organization of the Empire and its military, generic NPCs, and only two specific NPCs (Grand Moff Trachta and Janek "Tank" Sunber). Additional equipment, droids, vehicles, and starships round out the chapter.
Chapter 8, "Fringe Factions," could well have fit into the Scum and Villainy book. It lists stats for three bounty hunters from Episode V (4-LOM, IG-88, and Dengar), then a bit of background and additional NPCs or vehicles for Black Sun, Cloud City, Jabba's organization (including a few GM tips for encounters with the famous Hutt), the Zann Consortium, and the Corporate Sector Authority. One beast, the Cracian Thumper, is included.
As we've come to expect in these books, it includes quite a bit of high-quality art. While it does use a few movie stills here and there, most of the art reflects new droids, vehicles or starships, plus a few NPCs rendered very very well. The art style fits very nicely with the rest of the Saga Edition books, so if you have enjoyed the others, this one will definitely carry its own weight.
Unfortunately, the editors appear not to have proof-read very well. Lots of spelling and grammar errors made it to print, the outline "levels" don't always seem to match properly, and in one glaring case an image of Crix Madine is used as Carlist Rieekan. The spreading of equipment, droids, and starships out of their respective chapters and into the factional chapters also may make it difficult for GMs to rapidly find what they need.
Overall, I really enjoyed the references to content from Star Wars Galaxies and the help with character backgrounds and hooks. Due to this latter part alone, GMs or players with campaigns in nearly any era should find it helpful.

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2/04/2012

Scavenger's Guide to Droids: A Star Wars Roleplaying Game Supplement Review

Scavenger's Guide to Droids: A Star Wars Roleplaying Game Supplement
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This is definitely not as good as some of their recent titles. They do have a pretty good new system for determining prices of droids, so you can create one of any class, any level etc, and they have a good way of pricing it. Other than that, its just not a very interesting book. I'd skip this and go with one of their others.

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1/07/2012

Threats of the Galaxy (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) Review

Threats of the Galaxy (Star Wars Roleplaying Game)
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This is basically a Monster Manual for Saga, split into NPCs, creatures, and droids. As a miscellany of opponents, it does a good job: you'll find plenty of people and beasties to throw against your PCs. There's some neat new rules and PC alien and droid options, too.
The organization could have been better. For instance, instead of slipping in the option to play Miralukas under Jerec the fallen Jedi's entry or playing a Bith under the Black Sun Vigo entries, why not put the new race options in one place at the end? The same goes for new equipment, skills, and feats.
But the entries themselves are quite good. In addition to stat blocks, you get commentary on what role the character, beast, or droid can play in an adventure. A number of entries are statted out at different Challenge Levels, too, and in the case of NPCs, include advice on what sort of lower CL minions such an NPC would tend to have.
Overall, this is a useful book; perhaps not a must-have at $35, but for Amazon's much lower price, I'm satisfied.

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Ready-to-play characters, creatures, and droids for your Star Wars campaign.This supplement gives Gamemasters an assortment of galactic denizens to populate their Star Wars Roleplaying Game adventures. Nowhere will you find a more useful hive of scum and villainy! This book presents scores of nefarious characters, fearsome creatures, and droids of various levels and across all Star Wars eras. Each character, creature, and droid entry includes game statistics, tactics, and encounter tips.

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1/04/2012

Scum and Villainy (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) Review

Scum and Villainy (Star Wars Roleplaying Game)
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The Star Wars RPG team is really on a roll here. Another great book though it's far more focused than recent supplements. This is the perfect book if you're running a campaign with a smuggler, pirate, crime lord, bounty hunter, or any type of unsavory character we've seen in the Star Wars Universe.
That having been said there's almost nothing for Jedi here (they receive only one talent) so if you're playing a Jedi campaign and pressed for money, get the Knights of The Old Republic guide which came out in August. A breakdown of the book:
Chapter I: Character Options:
Here we get stats for the new species Blood Carver, Clawdite, Falleen, Gand, Jawa, Ryn, Toydarian, and Ubese. Honestly, these races are wonderful and really thought out. I wasn't the biggest fan of the KoTOR races, which i felt were too powerful, but these are just great.
All the classes get new talents. There's a whole new Noble talent tree called Disgrace, and previous trees receive major additions; most notably the Scoundrel's Fortune, Misfortune and Spacer trees, the Scout's Fringer tree, and the Soldier's Brawler tree. There's also new high tier talents that promote staying in a base class for an extended time.
New feats include Burst of Speed, Close Combat Escape, Collateral Damage, Cornered, Deadly Sniper, Deceptive Drop, Desperate Gambit, Duck and Cover, Fleet-footed, Friends in Low Places, Hasty Modifications, Hideous Visage, Impersonate, Impetuous Move, Impulsive Fight, Knife Trick, Lightning Draw, Metamorph, Opportunistic Retreat, Resurgence, Signature Device, Slippery Maneuver, Staggering Attack, Stay Up, Superior Tech, Tactical Advantage, and Wicked Strike.
Prestige classes receive lots of love. Ace Pilot gets the very Han Solo-ish Blockade Runner tree, Bounty Hunter gets some new talents and a new tree (Gand Findsman), Crime Lord is HUGELY expanded on (14 new talents!). Gunslinger gets a new talent and a new Pistoleer tree, based around dual wielding pistols. New prestige classes include Assassin, Charlatan (think Lando Calrissian), and Outlaw. Also, The Force Unleashed's Master Privateer class is updated here, with a new write-up and a new Piracy tree.
Chapter II: Outlaw Tech
This is a huge chapter on upgrading weapons and armor using a new slot based system. There's also a nice section on installing illegal upgrades to ships as well as some brand new starships (some with deckplans).
Chapter III: Fringe Campaigns
This chapter has some really great information on running a campaign set in the seedy parts of the galaxy. It also has an awesome table that helps build jobs for characters and calculates appropriate XP and Credit rewards. There's information on bounty hunting and running famous smuggling runs (The Kessel Run!) as well as information on the justice system and penalties for breaking the law.
Chapter IV: Fringe Elements
This part lists some famous fringe characters (Tyber Zann, Xizor, Zam Wessell, Zuckuss, etc.) as well as many archetypes. It also goes on to list some famous criminal organizations (lots of fluff here)and relevant starships.
Chapter V: Port Nadir
This entire chapter is dedicated to fleshing out Point Nadir, which is a fully realized shadowport that can be inserted into any campaign. I haven't gotten much into it, but it seems extraordinarily detailed.
Chapter VI: Mini-Adventures
Pretty self-explanatory. Rodney Thompson (the game's designer) said that in many campaigns a character will start off as a bounty hunter or a smuggler but will soon start working for a larger organization as the main focus of the story comes into play. So characters that call themselves "smugglers" don't very often do smuggling by a certain point in the game. He put these adventures in here to keep characters doing what they want to do in between the main story arc. 8 mini-adventures are here, all of varying CLs and themes.
Chapter VII: The Fell Star
An entire fringe adventure. I haven't played it yet but as soon as I do, I'll update it here.
That just about wraps us up. So like I said, if you're not a Jedi you should definitely consider purchasing this book. It has tons of invaluable information.


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New options for scoundrel characters from the Star Wars Roleplaying Game.Learn what it takes to be a smuggler, or how to build up a criminal empire that can rival the Hutt clans. Take your ship on the dangerous Kessel run, or chase down a bounty and claim your reward. Watch out for the long arm of Imperial law, though, or you may find yourself on a one-way trip to the spice mines.This book provides extensive information on life on the fringe in the Star Wars universe. More than just information for players, this book gives Gamemasters a wide variety of information on bounty hunters, crime syndicates, smugglers, pirates, and criminals of all stripes throughout the Star Wars setting. Covering everything from vile Hutt gangsters to smooth-talking con artists, Scum and Villainy gives both players and Gamemasters everything they need to fit right in at Mos Eisley spaceport.Scum and Villainy brings the Saga Edition rules to the fringes of society, introducing new rules and information on smugglers, bounty hunters, crime lords, and anyone else that walks outside the law.

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