Alien Anthology (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) [Paperback]

Steve Miller (Author), Owen K. C. Stephens (Author)

Book Description

Series: Star Wars Accessory | Publication Date: October 1, 2001

Like the Dungeon & Dragons(r) Monster Manual, this product contains detailed statistical information that will give Gamemasters new options for nonplayer characters to include in their campaigns. The species descriptions also afford players opportunities to play the aliens as player characters. This is the ?rst collection of fascinating aliens and creatures from the Star Wars galaxy. It contains statistics and other information that will be fundamental to any Star Wars campaign, as well as be useful to any other campaign that uses the d20 system, such as the Dungeons & Dragons game.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786926635
• ISBN-13: 978-0786926633
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,138,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steve Miller lives, writes, and watches way too many movies in Washington State. He started his professional writing career doing feature articles and reviews, but soon detoured into writing roleplaying games. With a little luck, he'll be balancing criticism and more creative writing in the years to come.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alien Anthology vs Ultimate Alien Anthology, April 26, 2003

By 

Dressi "K N D" (Gainesville, Ga United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alien Anthology (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) (Paperback)

I own a copy of this... and i own a copy of the Ultimate Alien Anthology. I can say that despite popular opinion... the smaller Alien Anthology is still something i use quite often. Why?

Alien Anthology has several species that you could use, more than enough for any campaign that i would write. Granted i do like the larger selection the Ultimate Alien Anthology offers, the smaller version has more than enough for me and more than I'll probably ever use. It also has creatures, non playable species that the Ultimate Alien Anthology doesn't have. It also has guidelines on how to create your own creature and descriptions of creature skills and feats. Granted the Ultimate Alien Anthology has 180 species, pretige clases, new skills and feats, it doens't have predators, herd animals, vermin and scavangers.

Don't misunderstand, the Ultimate AA is a very very good resource for any GM, right up there with the Arms and Equipment Guide. The Ultimate AA lists out the species like they do in the book, with personality desriptions, sample names, adventurer types and whether or not Force users exist among the species, which the Alien Anthology doesn't. But if you are running an adventure and need a preditorial cat, the Ultimate Alien anthology will tell you how to hunt one, which speices hunt them, which prestige class to get to tame then, feed them, hunt them, breed them... but won't tell you a thing actually telling you what a preditorial cat is. It has speices ranging from the Space Slug to the Vornskr. And there aren't any repeats either... those mentioned in the RCR are not in the AA, creatures mentioned in the Power of the Jedi, Darkside, NJO or other source books are not in the Alien anthology. So is it still worth getting? Yes. I use it more often than my Ultimate Alien anthology because it is smaller, easier to navigate, easier to read, has more variety (not just playable species) and still a large selection of playable species.

If you are a GM you should own this and the Ultimate Alien Anthology. It maybe a marketing ploy, but it is still a vital piece of my campaign writing.

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent source for alien information, September 8, 2011

By 

ben.jammin' - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Alien Anthology (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) (Paperback)

This book provides a brief history, typical personality description, and a physical description for each race. You will also find a brief description of the alien's home world as well as all the information necessary to play the race as a character or NPC. There is art accompanying each race however, this artwork is the main reason that I cannot give it 5 stars. While the quality is good, in a few cases it is obvious that the artist did not read the physical description of the species.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wait for the Ultimate Alien Anthology, January 5, 2003

By 

Scott Owen - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alien Anthology (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) (Paperback)

If I could describe the Alien Anthology in one word, it would be "utilitarian." Granted, there is a whole lot of information here about a wide range of races, most of which are suitable as PCs. There is also a nice section on creatures and creature creation which encompasses about 1/3 of the book (actually, I found this to be the most useful part).

However, I walked away from this book feeling decidedly unimpressed. Perhaps it was the artwork and layout. The book is so neat and "clean" that it's practically sterile, and comes off feeling quite bland and uninspired. You definitely don't see the level of quality that was heaped on similar products such as the Dark Side Sourcebook or the Revised Rulebook.

Furthermore, I was hoping to see much more attention devoted to species-specific feats, equipment, and prestige classes. There just isn't much of that to be found here.

In short, it's my opinion that any potential buyer will be best off waiting for the release of the Ultimate Alien Anthology. The Ultimate book supposedly won't have any creatures, which may still prompt you to buy the original, but it promises to have a much more comprehensive list of races, gear, feats, and prestige classes.

At first I was tempted to rate this book at a 2, but I'm going to give it a 3 because of the excellent creature section and because there actually is a lot of information to be found here. This book is definitely the 1987 Honda Civic of Wizard's Star Wars line- it gets you where you need to go, but it does so with a minimum of style and flair.