Pyramid Pick: Star Compendium

Pyramid Pick

Star Compendium: Systems of the Verge

Published by TSR, Inc.

Designed by David Eckelberry

$21.95

The cover of the Star Compendium nicely captures the feel of the book: a trio consisting of a human and two aliens talking through the crowded streets of a city on a distant world where they are obviously visitors. Humans and other aliens fill the streets, going about their business. Cover artist Glen Michael Angus nicely captures the look of a small group of heroes on their first visit to a new world.

And new worlds are what the Star Compendium has in plenty. Intended as a supplement to the Star*Drive space opera setting for TSR's Alternity science fiction RPG, the Compendium contains information on six different star systems in the Verge, the main adventure setting of the Star*Drive galaxy.

Like many of the other books in the Star*Drive line, Star Compendium is full-color throughout, and takes good advantage of the expanded palette without going overboard. The layout is clean and very readable, although the glossy finish on the pages is sometimes annoying. Maps and diagrams are plentiful, and the artwork serves to illustrate material from the book as well as look nice.

The first 17 pages of the book provide an update on current events in the "State of the Verge." The chapter ends with a very useful and updated chart, providing distances between all the star systems in the Verge, including the new systems in the book.

Each system receives a complete . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.



Article publication date: July 30, 1999

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