Galactic Campaign Guide (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) [Hardcover]

J.D. Wiker (Author), Peter Schweighofer (Author)

Book Description

Series: Star Wars Accessory | Publication Date: August 1, 2003

It’ll take a few moments to get the coordinates from the navi-computer.

Countless planets span the galaxy -- every one just a hyperspace jump away. From bustling spaceports to desolate wastelands, it’s up to you, the Gamemaster, to provide the details and descriptions that bring them to life. Whether you’re preparing a game session beforehand, or running an encounter on the fly, this book will help you fill every corner of the galaxy with memorable individuals, cinematic locales, and desperate situations.

This sourcebook features:
• Information, tips, and ideas for fleshing out every game session, from individual encounters to entire campaigns
• 100 adventure ideas and over a dozen mini-campaign ideas
• 48 pregenerated and mapped-out encounter locations, such as a Nightclub, Hangar Bay, and Luxury Apartment
• Random name generators for all of the heroic species featured in the Star Wars Roleplaying Game Revised Core Rulebook
• 10 pregenerated supporting characters, including the Common Thug, Freighter Pilot, and Taxi Driver, along with tables for generating personalities, mannerisms, and quirks

To use this sourcebook, you also need the Star Wars Roleplaying Game Revised Core Rulebook.

This product is for use with all Star Wars eras.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

JD Wiker has contributed to numerous Star Wars products, including Secrets of Tatooine, The Dark Side Sourcebook, and the Star Wars Roleplaying Game Revised Core Rulebook.

Richard Baker works as a game designer and Managing Developer for the roleplaying game line at Wizards of the Coast, Inc. His most recent author credit is Condemnation, the third novel in R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen series.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786928921
• ISBN-13: 978-0786928927
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #927,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A valuable resource for the GM, September 14, 2003

By 

Scott Owen - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Galactic Campaign Guide (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) (Hardcover)

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Content, Disappointing Art, August 6, 2005

By 

T. Hooper "thdizzy" (Osaka, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Galactic Campaign Guide (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) (Hardcover)

The Galactic Campaign Guide is a tool for gamemasters. Among the things provided here, are a hundred adventure ideas, descriptions, maps and adventure ideas of dozens common locations such as cantinas and so forth, descriptions of several environmental items, such as computer ports and escape pods, planet generators, and GM character generators. The list goes on. This book comes in really handy when you need to whip up a quick adventure, location, or character. It takes some of the backbreaking work out of planning a campaign. Also, I would recommend this for beginning gamemasters. The advice here will really help beginners get into the swing of things. However, if you're an experienced gamemaster, the advice section will probably be common knowledge for you, so you'd only be able to use this for the locations and generators.

The downside of this book is the art. A lot of the artwork is done in a cartoony style in which the Star Wars world is mixed with the modern world. You end up with ridiculous art like a Star Wars alien wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. They could have done a much better job with the art.

If you're a beginning gamemaster, be sure to pick this up. If you're an experienced gamemaster, you could probably skip this one.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GMs, January 18, 2007

By 

Ryan P. Roossien "Ry" (Grand Rapids, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Galactic Campaign Guide (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) (Hardcover)

If you run a star wars campaign i think this is a must have. it has a lot of great ideas.