Galactic Campaign Guide: A Star Wars Accessory

by Peter Schweighofer and J.D. Wiker

Book Overview

It'll take a few moments to get the coordinates from the navi-computer. Countless planets span the galaxy -- every one just a hyperspace jump away. From bustling spaceports to desolate wastelands,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786928921
• ISBN13: 9780786928927
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 1.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.5" x 11.1"

Customer Reviews

Priceless

Probably one of the most valuable guides I bought. Full of ideas and notes. My players loved it from the first day.

GMs

If you run a star wars campaign i think this is a must have. it has a lot of great ideas.

Good Content, Disappointing Art

The Galactic Campaign Guide is a tool for gamemasters. Among the things provided here, are a hundred adventure ideas, descriptions, maps and adventure ideas of dozens common locations such as cantinas and so forth, descriptions of several environmental items, such as computer ports and escape pods, planet generators, and GM character generators. The list goes on. This book comes in really handy when you need to whip up a quick adventure, location, or character. It takes some of the backbreaking work out of planning a campaign. Also, I would recommend this for beginning gamemasters. The advice here will really help beginners get into the swing of things. However, if you're an experienced gamemaster, the advice section will probably be common knowledge for you, so you'd only be able to use this for the locations and generators. The downside of this book is the art. A lot of the artwork is done in a cartoony style in which the Star Wars world is mixed with the modern world. You end up with ridiculous art like a Star Wars alien wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. They could have done a much better job with the art. If you're a beginning gamemaster, be sure to pick this up. If you're an experienced gamemaster, you could probably skip this one.

A valuable resource for the GM

The Galactic Campaign Guide takes a departure from previous sourcebooks in that it's light on the rules, and heavy on advice. It is also the only sourcebook designed solely for the Gamemaster. However the GCG isn't clogged with the usual array of charts and tables, nor will you find prestige classes, new feats, or any equipment at all. Instead it focuses on the particulars of creating and implementing interesting campaigns, storylines, locations, and NPC's. Chapter 1: The Campaign Foundation is really the meat of the book. A full description of its contents would take some time, but needless to say this wide and varied chapter discusses everything from how to capture the feel of Star Wars to how to bring the PCs together to how to deal with party splits. Chapter 2: Settings describes a wide variety of urban locations that can easily be plugged in to any campaign, and it provides a few location-specific rules for each. Chapter 3: The Environment discusses props and hazards, among other things. Chapter 4: The People discusses some great supporting characters and also provides extensive name generators for the main character races. Finally, Chapter 5: The Heroic Journey devotes its entirety to this central concept of Star Wars mythology and provides a rare and in-depth look at how to truly make a campaign "epic." The GCG is also filled with the standard high-quality level of full color artwork in and out. On paper, much of what this book talks about might seem fairly obvious, for example, how to set the mood of an encounter. In practice, however, some GM's simply don't know how to do this effectively, and even experienced GM's might unintentionally gloss over such an aspect. What this book has done is gather, combine, and explain much of what it takes to be a "good" GM into one single reference. What the book doesn't talk about in great detail, unfortunately, is how to tailor the campaign based on the levels of the characters. After all, would a level 1 character and a level 16 character both be saving the galaxy in the same way? Probably not, but the GCG doesn't discuss this. Nor does the book talk about player characters who attain great wealth, recognition, or power and influence. I realize that the authors had to stay within a certain page limit, and such omissions aren't unforgiveable, but they do prevent a good book from becoming a great one. Aside from these minor faults, the Galactic Campaign Guide succeeds admirably in covering most of the important aspects of running a campaign. GMs of low to moderate experience will probably find this book to be their best friend. An experienced GM will also appreciate it for its ability to take much of the grunt work and guesswork out of running a campaign. I strongly recommend it.