Starships of the Galaxy (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) [Paperback]

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

Book Description

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

This is the ultimate guide for players and Gamemasters who wish to build custom starships for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. In addition to newly expanded rules to enhance starship combat, this guide contains new ship types, templates, and powerful systems to add to your character's ship. Covering everything from laser cannons to defensive shields, it has what your character needs to make your ship a heavy cruiser or a nimble fighter.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (December 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786918594
• ISBN-13: 978-0786918591
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 8.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #840,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Star Wars R.P.G. Supplement!, November 29, 2001

By 

David (Salt Lake City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Starships of the Galaxy (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) (Paperback)

As an avid Star Wars fan and game master / player in several role playing games (Star Wars and others) I was thrilled when Wizards announced this title last year. The wait is finally over with mostly good results.

The sections in the book are well written and Wizards has used the space well. They seem to be supplementing the material in their source books with their magazine "Star Wars Gamer" Which is cool - so we should see a "Star Ship" adventure in the current magazine and not wasting space in this book.

The sections on ship construction, costs and modification are worth the price alone AND the deck plans are GREAT! They are modulure and can be used for making plans for a limitless number of ships. There are new prestige classes, skills, feats, manuvers AND ways to incorporate some old skills and feats into starship combat. With a few slick uses for some Jedi abilities to boot. The section with hints and advice for running combat situations was welcome, but not anything that a good G.M. wouldn't have already thought of. The list of ships statistics was fairly thurough and covered the whole range from Star Wars canon to expanded universe stuff and beyond.

The only thing that I don't care for and the reason I only gave this book four stars instead of five is the "new" combat system that was promised I think that was deceptive because it's not new at all, just and expanded version of the "abstracted combat already published". I have not talked to one person that cares for the "abstracted combat" from the core rules. It was hard for my group of players to wrap their brains around and we created our own "house" version of starship combat instead. All this book does is clarify the "abstracted combat" rules a little bit more (which was welcome) and add a new system of "abstracted distance" for combat. I was very dissapointed in the fact that they didn't have a optional version of ship combat with hard numbers using grids or miniatures for those of use who would prefer this.

Other then the "abstracted combat" part of the book - it's a gem and worth the wait. I would highly recommend Starships of the Galaxy for your Star Wars game.

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than the hype, worth your while for a Space campaign, July 22, 2002

By 

Stephen Morrison Lewis (New England, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Starships of the Galaxy (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) (Paperback)

Campaigns set on one planet are fine, but what if you want to step offworld, or duke it out with Tie Fighters? You could hop into a Corellian YT-1300 or an X-Wing Fighter for the Nth time, but what if you want some spice?

Starships of the Galaxy gives you all sorts of options. That's what most of this book is about. There are a few new feats, the mandatory prestige classes, etc., but most of SotG is dedicated to building starships and giving stats to Established ships of the Star Wars Universe.

SotG is an excellent reference book, and great for building your own ships. The rules for modifications are scant, but they are there and can be worked with.

The new space combat rules are about 50/50--They can help as much as they hurt. It's nice to have the options, though, and they are strictly at the GM's discretion.

This is a must-have for any Star Wars D20 GM/Gamer who wants to keep it fresh or build their own ship for gaming purposes.

15 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very useful tool. Though out of date now..., May 5, 2003

By 

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

This review is from: Starships of the Galaxy (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) (Paperback)

It is out of date. The Starships of the Galaxy worked with the original rules for Star Wars RPG d20. Since the revised rule book came out, many of the things in this book are no longer valid, just as the range increment or even the Starship record sheet. But is it still worth it? well that's for you to decide.

I write many different types of campaigns, and one of the types i write cater towards those people who put a lot of points in Pilot and Astrogate skills, as well as those who ventured into the Ace Pilot or Jedi Ace prestige classes. With this book i have managed to come up with so many varieties of craft and made so much available to my heroes. This book gives you guidelines for creating small craft (starfighters and transports) capital class (Star Destroyers, Frigates) and space stations (Executor, Hosk). It comes in very handy when for a reference on how to modify a craft. I use it a lot when writing these types of campaigns to try and provide a craft for the heroes on a budget. It list out many things about creation of starcraft that i wouldn't be able to write these modules without it.

It lacks in many departments as well, partly due to the outdated rules it was based off of. First of all, the combat system for space combat and airspeeder combat has changed dramatically, from abstract to a grid. So range increment is no longer needed and now the Speed needs to signify how many squares the ship can move. Since Ramming is the fastest Ion engine in this book, you're left wondering why a Ramming-class ion engine in the X-wing only moves 10 squares while the Ramming-class ion engine in the Millennium Falcon moves 12 squares. (RCR p 277 & 230). There is no clarification for this. As well many craft have a different atmospheric speed, this book doesn't even mention that. Another smaller problem are the prestige clases, they're outdated and you have to get the official Errata from WoTC.

Final verdict? I use it a lot when writing. I use it for the creation purposes of starships, capital to small, and even installations. I've already created my own starship record sheet. See if you can find this book for a cheaper price... becuase right now it really isn't worth what many places are asking for it...