Pyramid Review
Alien Anthology (for the Star Wars RPG)
Published by Wizards of the Coast
Designed by Steve Miller and Owen K.C. Stephens
Illustrated by Ralph McQuarrie, Adi Granov, Sam Wood, John Gallagher, and Mikael Noguchi
Edited by Brian Campbell and Cory J. Heandon
128 page trade paperback
Alien Anthology at long last covers the vast scope of alien life in the Star Wars universe. Not only does it explain some concepts presented but not explained in the Core Rules, but it provides information on other races that allow GMs and players to greatly expand the diversity in their games.
The book has two main sections, "Creatures" and "Aliens," and for purposes of this review I'll also group some stuff under "Other Goodies."
The Creature Source Section is, in terms of just general information, a much-needed resource for the game. It finally explains the different creature classes like "Predator" and Scavenger, and provides a system for creating new creatures that work well with the rules. Sure, you could have just made up stats for whatever, but I really appreciate the clear and concise system it provides. It even goes so far as to finally explain the relationship between size and wound points, which confused me for a while when I first examined stats for really huge critters in the game.
The other great addition in this section is a series of templates you can add on to existing creatures to create even more diversity. My personal favorites have to be "Highly . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: November 30, 2001
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