This book greatly expands upon the Star Knight and Alien Mystic classes presented in the White Star core rulebook. It draws a great deal of inspiration, class concept-wise, from WotC's line of d20 Star Wars books, but provides different takes on old favorites. I especially like the Force Ade- err, Way Adept class add-on, and the Alien Star Knight, which adds a lot of customization. The new meditations are very good at emulating various Star Wars powers.
The only quibbles that I have with the book are technical. The font/type size used is not the easiest to read, especially when it comes to tables. In the Meditations section the author makes sure to include the meditations in the core book, as well as his new material. This saves a lot of time from flipping through two books. In the master list at the beginning of the section he puts the names of the new content in italics, which is commendable. I would have liked the meditation names in the main part of the section to be italicized, too, so I wouldn't have to flip back a few pages to tell what's new and what's not. There are also a few tables and stat blocks that get cut between pages.
Other systems make an appearance from d20 Star Wars, including star sword techniques and tricks. The author takes care to mention that they can add greater power the Way (his term for Force wielders) classes, and I agree, but it's costly and time-consuming to learn them. I hope that he follows up this book with a range of supplements that add customization to the other classes, as it's a pet peeve of mine when one class gets all the goodies. That problem is especially egregious in White Star, where the classes are all very abstract to begin with.
I really like the Void and Eclipse Knights. The alternate system of Focused Meditations is easier to implement than the regular meditations, and it does a nice job of grouping powers together by theme.
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |