Star Wars Saga Edition (P)review
I heard about the upcoming revision to the Star Wars Role-Playing Game, Saga Edition a while ago, and my first reaction was to groan in annoyance at the money-grubbing materialism of the publisher. I own both the original and revised editions of d20 Star Wars, and while both have their high points, I really don’t think they warranted the near $70 cost. Hearing about a third revision evoked an emotion more closely related to nausea than to excitement.
Still, I am a quintessential Star Wars freak, so I hunkered down with some of the previews for the new edition, just to see whether it will be worth the time/money to research further. To my surprise, I find myself really looking forward to reading the new system. The changes described all seem to address failings in the d20 system that I’ve been struggling to correct, and they seem to do so relatively elegantly. The game sounds significantly more fun, and I may end up pulling a number of the game’s mechanics into my own campaign (should my ever-bewildered-by-the-overwhelming-quantity-of-house-rules players choose to allow it). The rules that sound most intriguing are the new damage system, the revised Force mechanics, the consolidated skill lists, and the Running Attack feat (I’ve always hated that Spring Attack, Shot on the Run, and Ride-By-Attack are all separate feats and require significant investment in prereqs). The new talent-trees also sound incredibly flexible - almost turning the normally class-based d20 system into a hybrid class/skill-based system.
I’m still a little disillusioned at the prospect of having to buy an entirely new collection of Star Wars RPG books (to take advantage of all the new rules), but most of that material can be modified at relatively small costs in time, should the monetary costs prove to high.