Customer Reviews

Scum and Villainy (Star Wars Roleplaying Game)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Star Wars RPG team is really on a roll here. Another great book though it's far more focused than recent supplements. This is the perfect book if you're running a campaign with a smuggler, pirate, crime lord, bounty hunter, or any type of unsavory character we've seen in the Star Wars Universe.

That having been said there's almost nothing for Jedi here (they receive only one talent) so if you're playing a Jedi campaign and pressed for money, get the Knights of The Old Republic guide which came out in August. A breakdown of the book:

Chapter I: Character Options:

Here we get stats for the new species Blood Carver, Clawdite, Falleen, Gand, Jawa, Ryn, Toydarian, and Ubese. Honestly, these races are wonderful and really thought out. I wasn't the biggest fan of the KoTOR races, which i felt were too powerful, but these are just great.

All the classes get new talents. There's a whole new Noble talent tree called Disgrace, and previous trees receive major additions; most notably the Scoundrel's Fortune, Misfortune and Spacer trees, the Scout's Fringer tree, and the Soldier's Brawler tree. There's also new high tier talents that promote staying in a base class for an extended time.

New feats include Burst of Speed, Close Combat Escape, Collateral Damage, Cornered, Deadly Sniper, Deceptive Drop, Desperate Gambit, Duck and Cover, Fleet-footed, Friends in Low Places, Hasty Modifications, Hideous Visage, Impersonate, Impetuous Move, Impulsive Fight, Knife Trick, Lightning Draw, Metamorph, Opportunistic Retreat, Resurgence, Signature Device, Slippery Maneuver, Staggering Attack, Stay Up, Superior Tech, Tactical Advantage, and Wicked Strike.

Prestige classes receive lots of love. Ace Pilot gets the very Han Solo-ish Blockade Runner tree, Bounty Hunter gets some new talents and a new tree (Gand Findsman), Crime Lord is HUGELY expanded on (14 new talents!). Gunslinger gets a new talent and a new Pistoleer tree, based around dual wielding pistols. New prestige classes include Assassin, Charlatan (think Lando Calrissian), and Outlaw. Also, The Force Unleashed's Master Privateer class is updated here, with a new write-up and a new Piracy tree.

Chapter II: Outlaw Tech

This is a huge chapter on upgrading weapons and armor using a new slot based system. There's also a nice section on installing illegal upgrades to ships as well as some brand new starships (some with deckplans).

Chapter III: Fringe Campaigns

This chapter has some really great information on running a campaign set in the seedy parts of the galaxy. It also has an awesome table that helps build jobs for characters and calculates appropriate XP and Credit rewards. There's information on bounty hunting and running famous smuggling runs (The Kessel Run!) as well as information on the justice system and penalties for breaking the law.

Chapter IV: Fringe Elements

This part lists some famous fringe characters (Tyber Zann, Xizor, Zam Wessell, Zuckuss, etc.) as well as many archetypes. It also goes on to list some famous criminal organizations (lots of fluff here)and relevant starships.

Chapter V: Port Nadir

This entire chapter is dedicated to fleshing out Point Nadir, which is a fully realized shadowport that can be inserted into any campaign. I haven't gotten much into it, but it seems extraordinarily detailed.

Chapter VI: Mini-Adventures

Pretty self-explanatory. Rodney Thompson (the game's designer) said that in many campaigns a character will start off as a bounty hunter or a smuggler but will soon start working for a larger organization as the main focus of the story comes into play. So characters that call themselves "smugglers" don't very often do smuggling by a certain point in the game. He put these adventures in here to keep characters doing what they want to do in between the main story arc. 8 mini-adventures are here, all of varying CLs and themes.

Chapter VII: The Fell Star

An entire fringe adventure. I haven't played it yet but as soon as I do, I'll update it here.

That just about wraps us up. So like I said, if you're not a Jedi you should definitely consider purchasing this book. It has tons of invaluable information.

I felt that this book really encompassed the fringe elements of Star Wars, with quite a bit of priceless information for 'outlaw' style characters.

Chapter I-Character Options
There are quite a bit of long-missing species here, like Clawdite and Falleen. I like the rules for shapeshifting-not to hard to penetrate, but not a pushover deception either. There's also Blood Carver, Gand, Jawa, Ryn, Toyadrian, and Ubese. I felt that the Ubese would be kinda hard to hit at first level, as they start off with expensive armor and bonuses to Dexterity, but it's balanced out by low constitution.


As would be expected in a Fringe sourcebook, the Scoundrel class gets a lot of new talents, with the Jedi class getting only one. Noble gains the Disgrace talent tree, and Soldier gets Brawler. Scout gets a bunch of new expansions upon existing trees.


Quite a bit of new feats are introduced, most of them with an fugitive-like twist. Examples include Burst of Speed and Wicked strike,and several feats focus on Clawdites, like Metamorph, Impersonate, and Hideous Visage. These all make the Clawdite more appealing-I expect to see some in my upcoming campaigns.

Prestige Classes also get attention, especially Bounty Hunter and Crime Lord. Ace Pilot gets the Blockade Runner tree, and Gunslinger gets Pistoleer (wielding two pistols at once, like Jango Fett). Master Privateer from TFU appears again here, with a new talent tree. New Prestige Classes also make their debut here - Assassin, Charlatan (swindler), and Outlaw.

Chapter II-Outlaw Tech
This chapter has everything tech-based you could want, like armor, weapon, and ship upgrades, new equipment and crafts, and even rules for over modified ships like The Millennium Falcon. Basic Stuff.

Chapter III-Fringe Campaign
This section has tons of ideas and rules for GMs, like job generators, bounty generators, and cargo generators, all very useful. There's also good ways to build up parties of heroes, rules for the Justice System, and smuggling runs.

Chapter IV-Fringe Elements
This chapter is the stats section, with people like Boushh, Jodo Kast, Jorj Car'das, and tons of generic enemy stats. extremely useful for GMs.

Chapter V-Point Nadir
Point Nadir is an enormous shadowport designed for the SWRPG, and has everything from weapon dealers to Hutts, bars to ports. I can't say that much about it, but I can say that there is a bunch of info for GMs looking for a unique place to set their campaigns.

Chapter VI-Mini-campaigns
This part has ten small missions for heroes to participate in, with themes ranging from salvaging Junk to assassinating Grand Moffs to escaping Kessel. Fun, fun, fun.

Chapter VII-The Fell Star
One fully made campaign, ready to played through and modified to your heart's desire. This is easily one of the best chapters in the book. I wish every book had one of these-it would make GMing so much easier.

All in all, I congratulate WotC for making one of the best source books I've ever seen. I eagerly await more!

I stumbled onto the Star Wars roleplaying game, Saga Edition while working at Barnes & Noble. In my youth, I had played West End's Star Wars game and greatly enjoyed it, but was curious to see what Wizards of the Coast (i.e. Hasbro) could do with the licensed Lucas property (I mean, they couldn't screw it up worse than Lucas did Episodes 1-3, right?) At any rate, this is, by far, my favorite supplement in the Saga Edition line (and they have all been good).

This book handles all things "fringe" -- those that live on the edge of inhabited space by chance or design. Rogue, scoundrels, criminal organizations, and hardworking folks that live make their living catering to the rogues, scoundrels, etc. There are new species (including Jawa!) and rules for "modifying" technology that are quite innovative. The notion of "shadowports" or rather, illegal spaceports, is detailed and the sample setting is one such shadowport located in a hollowed out comet(!). Naturally, there are prestige classes, and additional talent trees, etc. The book is very well organized and the illustrations are adequate (although a few could be better).

I highly recommend this book for any gamer, but also for fans of the Star Wars universe.

Scum and Villainy is probably Wizards of the Coast's most creative, fluffy book in its Star Wars line ever. Beyond the tons and tons of new character options and the new (exhaustive) rules for upgrading and modifying equipment, this book contains great information about the Star Wars universe - specifically the seedier side of Star Wars.

This was the side of Star Wars most often represented in West End Game's line of Star Wars RPG books in the 80s and 90s, and now WotC has picked up where they left off almost 10 years ago, forgoing the Jedi and the Force, and presenting the kind of lives Han Solo, Lando Calrissian and Boba Fett lived.

Like every other book in the line, this book contains a little bit of everything (except for anything dealing with the Force). You get new species, starships (and 2 new deckplans), weapons & equipment, etc... But what you also get is an entire chapter based around Point Nadir, an entirely new little slice of Star Wars never before written about. And after that chapter, you get page after page of fleshed-out adventures (something not usually seen in WotC's Star Wars line).

Rounding everything out are tons of "hidden" little nuggets of Star Wars gaming goodness: extensive docking bay generation tables, actual rules for nearly every kind of underworld job there is, and even how to navigate the Kessel Run. You get a few pages on exactly what happens if the heroes get arrested, from the arrest itself all the way through to the trail - with rules for everything along the way. I so badly want to run a courtroom scene with my heroes on trial now.

This review may seem little scattershot, but then again, so is this book. This is one of those rare few RPG books you can read from cover to cover, and yet, there is so much information on so many things, so many aspects of the Star Wars universe, that it's hard to pin the book down.
But needless to say, this is a 5-star book all the way, and like pretty much every other book released for this line thus far, it's practically required reading.

My wife got me this book for Christmas and I gotta say it is by far the best supplement they have put out for the Star Wars RPG Saga Edition. Unlike most other books it focuses on NON-force sensitive characters. There are many new talents, which seem to be taking direction from the design philosophy of D&D 4e: abilities usable once per encounter that let you do something tactically interesting in addition to a basic melee or ranged attack. In addition the feats and talents really seem to have been made with a good sense of balance, meaning feats and talents that have several prerequisites are really quite potent.

But my personal favorite part of the book is the Outlaw Tech chapter which includes new rules for upgrading equipment (which stacks with but is completely separate from the Tech Specialist feat). Finally players have something to spend their money on! It works almost like magic items in D&D, in that the upgrades give you little customization options for all your gear. All in all it's very reminiscent of the upgrades from the KOTOR games on the PC/Xbox, which is something I'd felt was sorely missing from the RPG.

Finally I was surprised by a bonus at the end of the book: a full adventure ready to run as a GM, as well as I think a dozen or more mini-adventures!

So in conclusion, if you are a GM or a non-force sensitive player, this is by far the best book to buy for Star Wars right now.

An absolutely awesome rpg supplement for the game that won 3 gold and 1 silver medal at the Ennies last year.

This book is essential for any group wanting to play as smugglers and bounty hunters, and considering that this is star wars, i can't think of why you wouldn't.

It also contains rules for upgrading items which adds an extra level of customization to the game.

I consider it to be the best supplemental book there is.

An essential product for my scrounger character.

The splat books for Saga are a much better quality than the splat books for 2nd edition.

Good book with lots of gaming ideas. Too bad they did spend a little more time editing it. There are a few references to concepts that got dropped during beta testing. Oops.

First let me frist say I love Star Wars, and role playing star wars is even more cool. This book is a nice edtion for the scoundrel class. Basically this book is for the scoundrel class. And it also adds some talents that make any class more seedy. The Coolest part of this book is the weapon modifcation. The abillity to make a personalized gun, weapon for your character is neat side point for your campain. Cool weapons, I think, is one thing that make star wars, star wars. This book also ship modifacations as well. Over all I thought this was a good supplement to the role playing experiance.