Lead by Example update/review

I updated the lists with the new Commander Specialization trees and Signature Abilities.

REVIEWish part.

pre- TLDR: Limited but otherwise solid new game options that entail no surprises or frills. If you want to run massive battles on a regular basis, this book is a wonderful must have. Everyone else should pass.


With a title like Lead By Example, one would hope that this supplement would be a shining example of what a great Supplemental rules book should be. Unfortunately I found it rather the opposite.

The new races don't explore any new territory and have no stand out qualities that aren't negative (i'm looking at you Water Dependence).

There are some neat new pre-fab base parts if your party is slowly building a base of operations from the ground up. Other than that, there is disgustingly little in the way of new toys (gear, equipment, ect.). 

There aren't many new ships, and most of them won't be the kind you directly interact with on a regular basis. (primarily because they are giant) these ships are cool, and having a few statted out is nice but on the whole they won't come up much.

The new Specialization trees feel like snake oil.
they try to sell you their great new flavor but then you realize the only ingredient is nutrasweet... and for the same cost you could have gotten some full on cane sugar from that cool specialization tree over there..
The Specialization trees themselves are pretty on theme, and on their own don't seem all that bad. Unfortunately this book doesn't exist on its own, and with a change in the flavor text, you could do a better job accomplishing your goals using other pre-existing trees. about the only thing you couldn't get from other trees, are the talents dealing with the new Mass Combat game mechanic...

that brings us to the new Mass Combat game mechanic.
The mechanics for massive scale combats like the ones frequently seen in movies and the Star Wars Clone Wars animated show, are actually quite good. I think they are simple to understand, fit with the rest of the established rules very well and allow for a lot of fluid storytelling and interpretation.
Unfortunately as many experienced GMs can attest (myself included), large scale military engagements of this kind are extremely difficult to manage, even in the best of circumstances. in order to keep players engaged and meaningful, they often require quite a bit more preparation and consideration.
maybe it's just me but i feel like giant military conflicts are suppose to be the backdrop to the epic stuff the party is doing, or as itself the climax to something grander. Either way, the party probably won't be and maybe shouldn't be participating in those kinds of massive combats super regularly.

so the question becomes... are you and your group going to utilize these rules enough to make them worth while?... remembering that the Specialization trees also have talents and features designed to interact with these rules...

if you are going to be doing lots of large military engagements, then this book is pretty awesome and you should definitely buy it.
if you are like the other 97% of people who will likely only have one or two (if any) large combats ever in their entire campaign... you should probably just adjudicate the rules on your own and save the money.

Keeping The Peace Update

Added all three new Guardian Specializations and the two new signature abilities as well as the new force power Suppress.

no reviews any more.
I don't have a whole lot of time so the reviews got cut. Apologies to anyone who was hoping i'd continue reviewing the books.

The Iktotchi are a pretty neat race though.

Fly Casual Update

better late than never...

It was brought to my attention by Sgt Dan that I apparently never updated the Smuggler trees after Fly Casual was released.

I have remedied this oversight. I updated the Smuggler tree pdf.

I also want everyone out there to know that I will work to update the Guardian Tree sometime soonish. Once I have updated the Guardian trees I will update the full pdf.

also still sorry to those who want me to make Lightsaber or any other skill have a variable base characteristic... I still can't make this work.

and..
my super secret project is still in the works and moving along nicely considering my limited time.

A few ships for the holidays

Hope everyone who had or has holidays to celebrate has or had a good time doing so.

I was cleaning house a while back and found a copy of Star Wars the Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels that I acquired so long ago, I forgot I even owned it. Naturally I cracked it open and to my surprise there were several ships that were in this old text that were not already created by FFG or myself. So there was only one thing to do.

Here is a Selection of ships from that book that have not yet seen iterations from either myself of FFG.

A-9 Vigilance Interceptor

Bantha-2 Cargo Skiff

Conqueror-Class Assault Ship

Crescent-X9 / Coruscant-Class Courier

Delaya-Class Courier

MT-AT Mountain Terrain Armored Transport

Pursuer-Class Enforcement Ship

Quasar Fire-Class Bulk Cruiser

V-Wing Airspeeder

Y-4 Raptor


I hope everyone enjoys these.
Unfortunately for me the events of everyday life with a child continue to suck up the vast majority of my free time. Additionally, I have also been experiencing some unexpected financial burdens of late. While these things are not the end of the world for me, they do mean I have had to cut back on certain things.
My updates regarding new material may slow down a bit further, but I will definitely do my best to continue updating stuff and working on material when and how I can.


PS. I was asked by a couple people about whether or not i can make it so that the Lightsaber Skill can have a variable base Characteristic that can be changed.
Short answer: no.
Long answer: I am an amateur at coding and most of what I did with these sheets was done with the help of google and a friend or two. while I have looked in to it, I can not figure out how to make it work. So until I have the time to find someone who can help me figure it out, it's not going to happen :(

pps.
thanks to those few who have donated. Every little bit helps financially, and it's always a nice warm and fuzzy feeling to know there are people who really support what your doing.

Book of Stuff

Those of you who frequent or ... even occasional my little blog here...
you might appreciate this one.

I was tired of flipping through all the books to find items to reward players with, or weapons for bad guys to use and so on ...

so to help me more quickly decide on stuff, i combined all the tables for all purchasable items, weapons armor ect, into one easy to look through location.
And as i often do, i thought hey, i did all this work, why not share it with others, so i made a basic cover and credits page and BAM!... here you go... THE BOOK OF STUFF

Now, this is just for reference, the complete text describing the items is not present here. for starters it would make it less convenient for quick reference, but also i'm fairly certain that would be illegal.

as a result, the vast majority of the items and stuff listed in these reference tables are virtually useless if you don't have the corresponding source book to then look up what they actually do. But that's fine since it's just for speeding up the look up process anyway.

Force And Destiny Update

Finally managed to get all the Career Trees and new Force Powers done up.
So those are now available on the sheets page.


People warn you, but nothing does it justice... Baby's take a lot of time and energy.
Unfortunately there isn't much else to report at the moment.

At least this is out of the way and there aren't any new class books for a while, so I should have a bit of a break to focus on my other more interesting star wars projects.

Force and Destiny Core rulebook review

As a Stand Alone game
    Force and Destiny is decent, but not as comprehensive as its predecessors.
The racial selection makes sense and seems pretty enjoyable. There is no option to play a Droid though which seems odd, but this game is focused on the Force and droids can't use the Force so I suppose it makes sense.  While it is understandably focused on exploring the Force, for a stand alone game it ignores far too much of the Star Wars universe outside of the Force. Each of the available Careers is focused in some way on the Force or using the Force, which is good for the theme of the setting, but bad when it's the only thing your stand alone game has. Since each Career gives you a Force rating, there are literally zero options in this book for a player looking to play a non-force-sensitive character (I think that's a big oversight in a stand alone star wars game).
    The rest of the book is pretty basic, standard exploring gear, average space ships. The best part of this book is in its Morality system. The system is elegant in it's simplicity and (for the most part) implemented very well. The Force Powers available to the players cover most of basics that people are familiar with from the movies such as moving things and influencing the weak willed with your mind.
    While many people were worried that this book would be a 'big book of the jedi' it most certainly is not. The careers, talents and force powers do not add up to Jedi. The book focuses on using the Force, but never on being a Jedi. I would even argue that it does such a good job of diffusing the Force powers in among other stuff, that it actually makes the thought of playing a Force sensitive character rather un-compelling. I suppose that at least this approach leaves them room to get more epic later, so good for them.
As a stand alone game, this is probably the weakest of fantasy flights (now 3 total) Star Wars role play games.
    Stand Alone Score 6/10


As a companion game to Fantasy Flights other Star Wars role playing games.
   Force and Destiny adds a few new races, a lot of new Force related talents and powers and a new Morality mechanic. Thematically, Force and Destiny fits in very well with the post Imperial universe most of us imagine. The Jedi Order as it was does not exist, so this book does not train you to be a Jedi of old. On the other hand, the iron grip of the Empire has loosened so those with force powers are starting to explore them more openly. On the whole, Force and Destiny is a decent kick off introduction to Force users in the FFG Star Wars roleplay universe. That said, i'd still like to break down some of its additions and give good and bad points about each of them with a bit more detail.

New Races.
    Good: The new races all  make perfect sense and fit with the Force sensitive focus of this supplement.
    Bad: None of the new races have any particularly unique or engaging abilities, features or qualities with the possible exception of the Kel Dor.

New Careers/Specialization trees
    Good: They support in a variety of ways, the Force focus of this supplement. For already existing characters the new Specializations are varied enough to give most players a new option to continue their current focus while gaining some Force and Lightsaber abilities.
     Bad: Some of these trees definitely step on the toes of existing careers and trees. The varied nature of the new Careers and their Specialization trees means that Existing characters may have already spent significantly more XP to accomplish what they can now get from one or two of these new trees. Also, may make it too easy to get extra force rating?

New Skill
    Good: There is only one new skill (Lightsaber). Using a Lightsaber, you can do cool stuff later.
    Bad: Lightsaber skill is based off of Brawn (which makes very little sense for a weapon that weighs, at worst a few pounds and is primarily about agility and speed), where it should have been based off of Agility (i do understand that they did this for balance reasons as Agility is already the most important combat stat by far). It's an especially weird decision since there are talents that allow you to use almost any attribute to wield your lightsaber, and the coolest lightsaber tricks will require some other specified attribute.

New Talents
    Good: most of the new talents are pretty well worded and do neat things. There are talents that allow you to use other Ability scores instead of Brawn when wielding a lightsaber (that's neat). Lots of cool talents that use Force dice to help do cool stuff.
    Bad: a lot of the coolest talents require you to use Force dice to help do the cool stuff (not so awesome if you have a low force rating, or worse don't even WANT a force rating but want the cool abilities). The coolest lightsaber tricks are restricted to a specific Ability type such as Lightsaber (Intelligence), which means that you will never be good at all the lightsaber tricks, instead you might at best be good at one trick and mediocre at one or two others.
    I already recommended to my group that all talents that require a Lightsaber (Specific Ability) check instead just require a Lightsaber check which still allows you to use other Ability scores if you have training in those techniques.

New Gear
    Good: the new gear is pretty basic for the most part but at least it's there. The new lightsaber and the Holocrons and other Ancient Talismans category is where it really shines.
    Bad: not a whole lot of new gear. I am also concerned that the Talismans and Holocrons have the potential to be far too powerful if they experience any power creep at all in future content.

New Ships
    Good: The new ships add options to the game?
    Bad: There is nothing interesting or unique about the new ships. also, there aren't very many ships that are actually NEW if you include the other FFG star wars games.

New Force Powers
    Good: There are 6 new Force powers not seen in other FFG Star Wars games so far. Lots of versatility built in to all the Force powers makes them good for multiple situations.
    Bad: the powers Heal/Harm and Protect/Unleash sort of seem a little redundant even though they are technically different. Misdirect reminds me more of a fantasy word wizards illusion spell than of a force power. Battle Meditation steps pretty heavily on the toes of anyone who might be a non-Force user leader type.

New Mechanic
    Good: The morality scale is fairly simple, makes pretty good sense, and is pretty easy to manage in game. They take a complicated concept like morality and do a pretty reasonable job of applying numbers and rules to it.
    Bad: Considering how many ways there are to earn conflict and the ways in which it is earned, it is VERY easy to fall prey to the Dark Side. I know that the dark side is suppose to be the seductively easy path, but in a game it starts to be less fun when you want your character to be good, but being morally 'good' means shooting yourself in the foot on a regular basis by not taking advantage of dark side mechanics. I can easily envision players spending XP on powers that their character is rarely able to utilize, lest they 'give themselves over to the dark side'.... and if that's the case, then the player has very little motivation to spend that XP on those powers in the first place.

New Adventure
    Good: well put together, rather interesting and very easy to work in to other story lines.
    Bad: not particularly great if your group doesn't give a flip about the Force or Lightsabers, but then, if you didn't you wouldn't have the book so...

Over all, this book is about what I have come to expect; A great deal of material duplication, a reasonable bit of "new content", an almost willful ignorance of how it effects the other games, and just enough interesting new stuff to get people to pay. Surprisingly though, I think its actually a better book that Age of Rebellion when put in the context of the other FFG Star Wars role play games.

Companion Book score 7/10