The quality of the WotC Saga Edition campaign books have been amazing. Both this and the Force Unleashed Campaign Setting (
Force Unleashed Campaign Guide (Star Wars))have been phenomenally well written and truly an example as to how such items should be made.
Chapter 0: Introduction
The introduction is concise and mostly consists of a timeline which begins at The Great Sith War (4000 - 3996 BBY). The timeline finishes with The Dark Wars (3956-3951 BBY). Compared to the FU introduction, I feel this one is a bit sparse, and it doesn't exactly mention what this era leads into, after the timeline "ends". Maybe Galactic Peace for nearly 4000 years? At any rate, the period the book does cover is quite active, and you should find no shortage of wars, battles, diplomatic missions and enemies throughout. in this 50 year span, there are no less than four enormous wars. You should be kept well occupied.
Chapter 1: Species
Here, we get 12 new options for character species. The species represented are: Arkanian, Arkanian Offshoots, Cathar, Draethos, Feeorin, Khil, Kissai, Massassi, Miraluka, Rakata, Selkath and Snivvian. All of them are quite interesting, and the Miraluka even give you a chance to play a race in which EVERYONE is force sensitive, yet blind. Quite interesting.
Chapter 2: Heroic Traits
The chapter begins with some assistance in creating motivation and back story in the Old Republic. It even offers some options as to how your team got together (instead of the oft used "you all previously know each other", or "you're all at a pub when..."). The chapter later focuses on the Heroic Classes. Each class gets a small description about how they function in this time period and they're given a few new talents to boot. The Jedi get five Consular, one Guardian, three Sentinel and a single Lightsaber Combat talent. Nobles receive two Influence and a Leadership talent. In addition, they get a new talent tree called Fencing, which comes with five talents for you to choose. The Scoundrel garners a new Fortune talent, while also receiving the Run and Gun Talent Tree, consisting of five new skills. Scouts get a new Awareness talent, and the Hyperspace Explorer Talent Tree with five of it's own talents. The Soldier get a Armor Specialist talent, a Brawler talent and a Weapon Specialist talent with a Rocket Jumper Talent Tree of five talents in itself. This chapter finishes off with some new feats. The feats are fair enough, and additionally, it points out a few "Feat Combinations" where two feats that your character might have will produce additional results when paired.
Chapter 3: Prestige Classes
New Prestige Classes and additions to existing ones. Elite troopers will see the Mandalorian Warrior Talent Tree added to their repertoire. Force Adepts will be glad for two new Force Item talents. Gunslingers also get two new talents. Jedi Knights get slightly more, two Duelist talents, the Jedi Battlemaster Talent Tree with five talents, the Jedi Shadow Talent Tree with five talents, and the Jedi Watchman Talent Tree with five talents. There's even four new talents for those pesky Sith Apprentices. There are three new Prestige Classes; The Corporate Agent, Gladiator and Melee Duelist.
Chapter 4: The Force
The users of the Force are much more pervasive in this era than in the standard Rebellion era. I wish they'd gone into detail with this just a little bit more, as it is they had a quarter page describing the situation. There are ten Force Powers, six Force talents distributed to the Alter and Control talent trees (four to the former, two to the latter) and ten Force Techniques. It goes on to mention different Jedi organizations, such as the Jedi Academies and Enclaves on Taris and Dantooine respectively, as well as the Temple on Coruscant. The Jedi Covenant, a secret sect within the Council, is also described. Then it goes into an intriguing bit about other Force-Using Traditions of the times. The Jal-Shey, Keetael, Krath, Luka Sene and the Order of Shasa are all detailed and given Talent Trees.
Chapter 5: Equipment and Droids
Short of describing the whole lot of items, of which a great many are quite interesting, I'll pick a few things out. They have alternate lightsaber crystals, which modify the abilities of your lightsaber somewhat. They have Pulse-wave weapons, which are the predecessors to Blaster weaponry. Also, they have templates that you can add to armor/weapons to adjust or improve their abilities. For instance, Echani armor doesn't protect as well as other pieces of armor, but it lets you move your full speed, while a Bothan weapon will deal extra damage when on Stun or Ion, but less when set normally. This adds some versatility to every weapon or piece of armor in the game, and could be quite the resource to make any piece of equipment unique and desirable by players. The Droid section is useful. It details the different degrees of droids and what their primary function is in this era.
Chapter 6: Vehicles and Starships
This chapter details the different modes of travel or space combat. It's useful and informative, if not a section that you can be terribly verbose about.
Chapter 7: Old Republic Campaign
This is a treasure trove of useful information about the state of the Old Republic. The subsections touch on the amount of Force users, and focuses on how not all of them are Jedi, and how the Jedi are not interested, at this time, in making all the force users unify under the banner of the Jedi. It explains the Exchange, GenoHaradan and Swoop Gang threats present in most cities. It goes on to touch on the four great wars to occur in this time, and what possible adventures could take place during each one. It then describes the different types of "mysterious enemies" that might be encountered like the Rakatan artifacts and tells of the new powers that are coming to the forefront, such as the Czerka Corporation. The chapter ends with a timeline that focuses on important events and battles in the KotOR era.
Chapter 8: Galactic Gazetteer
A few pages detailing new planets that are prominent in this time and descriptive adjustments to planets previously mentioned in the Core Rulebook.
Chapter 9: The Jedi
A short, if useful chapter describing the Jedi's slightly different philosophy toward the universe at this time, a description of how they're viewed during each of the wars and a few pages of important NPC Jedi of the time, including Ulic Qel-Droma and Bastila Shan, among others. The Jedi have a single unique ship added to their side at the end of the chapter.
Chapter 10: The Sith
Mirroring the Jedi chapter, it begins with a preface explaining how the Sith have gotten where they are today and there is a small timeline of how they're viewed and how they act during the wars. The chapter then suggests how to use the Sith and offers plenty of stat blocks for everything from Sith Troopers to Sith Mages to a Dark Lord of the Sith. It goes on to detail important characters, such as Exar kun and Revan. The Sith are gifted with the Interdictor-Class Warship, Centurion-Class Battlecruiser, Derriphan-Class Battleship, Herald-Class Shuttle and the Sith Interceptor. There's also a Sith Assault Droid.
Chapter 11: The Republic
As before, we get a timeline with information regarding the Republic during each war. It goes on to detail life in the Republic Navy and the Army. It talks briefly about the Senate and stats are given for different people, from a Republic Navy Lieutenant to a Republic Army Recon Commando. Various personalities are statted, such as Bao-Dur and Carth Onasi. Then it goes on to Republic only equipment and weapons. Unique ships are the Aurek Tactical Strikefighter, S-250 Chela-Class Starfighter, Conductor-Class Short-Haul Landing Craft, the Ministry-Class Orbital Shuttle, KT-400 Military Droid Carrier, Foray-Class Blockade Runner, Hammerhead-Class Cruiser and the Inexpugnable-Class Tactical Command Vessel.
Chapter 12: The Mandalorians
Keeping the trend going, there is a timeline through the four great wars. It then details what life is like as a Mandalorian and how you can join the cause. It then describes Neo-Crusaders and what life would be like as one of them. You get stats on a few types of Mandalorians, such as the Mandalorian Neo-Crusader and Mandalorian Neo-Crusader Shock Trooper. Descriptions of notable individuals include but are not limited to Mandalore the Indomitable, Canderous Ordo and Demagol. It lists a few pieces of unique equipment and the legendary Basilisk War Droid. The Starship section includes the Davaab-Type Starfighter, Shaadlar-Type Troopship, Teroch-Type Gunship, Jehavey'ir-Type Assault Ship, Kyramud-Type Battleship and the Kandosii-Type Dreadnaught.
Chapter 13: Allies and Opponents
A good bit of notable peoples and things are statted at this end to the book. You can find G0-T0, HK-47, Dob and Del Moomo, various opponents like the Czerka Scientist and Krath Adept and a few ships, like the Ebon Hawk.
I struggled very much, wondering whether to give it 4 or 5 stars. I believe that the FU Campaign Setting is a better book, it had a few things I think were done better. However, after going over all the information again, this book still deserves full marks. My largest irk comes from the artwork. I do not like the cartoony look that was adopted for the drawings, but as that has nothing to do with how great this book is, it won't affect my score. This book gives me so many ideas and boosts my enthusiasm for the game to new heights. This is what books are supposed to be like.
