Customer Reviews

Central Casting: Heroes of Legend (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have both the 1st and 2nd editions of Heroes of Legend. I give each edition 5 out of 5 stars because each is a great resource for building characters including backgrounds, occupations, hobbies, traits, contacts & acquaintances and more. Either edition can be used as a system with dice to generate a complete character (other than stats which will be determined by the RPG system you use), or the tables can be scanned for ideas. The book (either edition, though the 2nd edition includes more material) is so good that I hope for the sake of others it someday goes back into print or is made available in electronic format.

This review is primarily a comparison of the 2nd edition of Central Casting: Heroes of Legend published in 1995 vs. the 1st edition published in 1988. Before I had both editions, I was curious about how much material the two share since Amazon lists each edition with a different author. As noted below, much of the information from the 1st edition is included in the revised and expanded 2nd edition, and the author of the 1st edition is given credit at the beginning of 2nd edition.

The following are general comparisons; later I will edit this review to add more specific comparisons.

1st edition:
- Author, cover artist and illustrator: Paul Jaquays
- 96 pages plus table of contents on inside of front cover and blank character sheet on inside of back cover

2nd edition:
- Authors: Robert Sassone credited with material new to the 2nd edition, plus fiction and layout. Paul Jaquays credited with material from the 1st edition that is included in the 2nd edition. According to the introduction to 2nd edition, the new edition contains ``new, revised and expanded material``.
- 188 pages plus two-page example character sheet and two-page blank character sheet

1st edition vs. 2nd edition:
- the difference in the margins result in significantly more white space in 2nd edition compares to 1st edition. Margins around each page of 1st edition are about one-half of an inch, compared to the margins around each page of 2nd edition as follows: left margin one-half of an inch, right margin two and a half inches, top margin three-quarters of an inch, bottom margin one full inch. The right margin in 2nd edition is wide to allow for section numbers and titles. Within the margins, both editions use a small font.
- the introduction and explanations sections of 2nd edition have been completely rewritten compared to 1st edition.
- both 1st and 2nd edition contain numerous tables broken down into 9 categories numbered from the 100`s to the 900`s. Most of these sections contain similar types of tables from 1st edition to 2nd edition, except some of the sections are mixed around in 2nd edition compared to 1st edition.
- the only tables I can identify in 1st edition that are not included in 2nd edition are tables for sexual disorders
- the contents of most of the tables in 1st edition are repeated in 2nd edition
- as indicated above, I will edit this review later for more specifics, such as what tables have been added to 2nd edition that are not in 1st edition