Star Wars: New Jedi Order
- Thread starter IronWolf
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Simon Collins
Explorer
Beware! Though this review attempts to avoid spoilers, the basic premise of the book may be a spoiler in and of itself, so if you don't know anything about the New Jedi Order and are likely to play in a campaign in this era, stop reading now.
This is not a playtest review.
The New Jedi Order Sourcebook (NJOS) is an accessory from Wizards of the Coast giving background detail to the post-movie Star Wars era, focusing on the invasion of an aggressive race from beyond the Star Wars universe, known as the Yuuzhan Vong.
NJOS is a 160-page full-colour hardback book costing $29.95. Though margins are fairly large, font size is good and there is little wasted space. The artwork is mostly good to superb, though artists are used with very different styles. Maps are basic but functional. Writing style and editing are good.
NJOS approaches the NJO setting from a novel-related standpoint. That is, the chapters cover the situation, technology, characters, etc. from the first nine novels in the NJO series - Vector Prime, the Dark Tide duology, the Agents of Chaos duology, Balance Point, the Edge of Victory duology, and Star by Star. Having said that, the book actually begins with a chapter entitled Prologue To Invasion, which gives an overview of the Yuuzhan Vong (with a more detailed equipment listing than found in the original rulebook), and a brief outline of the state of the galaxy immediately prior to the invasion (including the Jedi and the Imperial remnant).
The remaining chapters detail the progression of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion in line with the novels. Each chapter covers a host of different information - from the situation and characters (which is a bit of a recap for those who have read the novels) to stats for Yuuzhan Vong 'technology' and tactics, prestige classes, new species, feats, weapons, ships, the progression of relationships between the main characters, equipment, droids, and a new force technique. Each of the novel-related chapters also has some fairly well-developed adventure ideas aimed at encouraging GM's to run adventures linked in to the novels. The book ends with some thoughts on where the GM might take a campaign after Star By Star (the novels following on from Star By Star can of course give further inspiration but NJOS only covers up to Star By Star).
Conclusion:
For those who have enjoyed the NJO novel series, the NJOS gives the GM pretty much all she needs to run a campaign centred around the action of the novels. For those who haven't read the novels, the book gives enough information to GMs who don't want to read them to still run a campaign focused on the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. This was a difficult line to tread and the book is on the whole fairly successful in dealing with it.
Not that the book was necessarily designed to do more than be a basis for running a campaign around the novels, but NJOS does sometimes read a bit like an advert for the novels, and the product does not move much beyond the confines of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion - in other words it is necessarily limited in its view of other issues. I was disappointed to find that the campaign setting advises use with medium to high level characters only, as this does not take account of GMs wanting to start a new campaign in the NJO setting with 1st-level characters - I would have liked to have seen some adventure ideas in the introductory chapter aimed at bringing beginning characters into the picture, so that they are medium-level in time for the beginning of the invasion.
This is not a playtest review.
The New Jedi Order Sourcebook (NJOS) is an accessory from Wizards of the Coast giving background detail to the post-movie Star Wars era, focusing on the invasion of an aggressive race from beyond the Star Wars universe, known as the Yuuzhan Vong.
NJOS is a 160-page full-colour hardback book costing $29.95. Though margins are fairly large, font size is good and there is little wasted space. The artwork is mostly good to superb, though artists are used with very different styles. Maps are basic but functional. Writing style and editing are good.
NJOS approaches the NJO setting from a novel-related standpoint. That is, the chapters cover the situation, technology, characters, etc. from the first nine novels in the NJO series - Vector Prime, the Dark Tide duology, the Agents of Chaos duology, Balance Point, the Edge of Victory duology, and Star by Star. Having said that, the book actually begins with a chapter entitled Prologue To Invasion, which gives an overview of the Yuuzhan Vong (with a more detailed equipment listing than found in the original rulebook), and a brief outline of the state of the galaxy immediately prior to the invasion (including the Jedi and the Imperial remnant).
The remaining chapters detail the progression of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion in line with the novels. Each chapter covers a host of different information - from the situation and characters (which is a bit of a recap for those who have read the novels) to stats for Yuuzhan Vong 'technology' and tactics, prestige classes, new species, feats, weapons, ships, the progression of relationships between the main characters, equipment, droids, and a new force technique. Each of the novel-related chapters also has some fairly well-developed adventure ideas aimed at encouraging GM's to run adventures linked in to the novels. The book ends with some thoughts on where the GM might take a campaign after Star By Star (the novels following on from Star By Star can of course give further inspiration but NJOS only covers up to Star By Star).
Conclusion:
For those who have enjoyed the NJO novel series, the NJOS gives the GM pretty much all she needs to run a campaign centred around the action of the novels. For those who haven't read the novels, the book gives enough information to GMs who don't want to read them to still run a campaign focused on the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. This was a difficult line to tread and the book is on the whole fairly successful in dealing with it.
Not that the book was necessarily designed to do more than be a basis for running a campaign around the novels, but NJOS does sometimes read a bit like an advert for the novels, and the product does not move much beyond the confines of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion - in other words it is necessarily limited in its view of other issues. I was disappointed to find that the campaign setting advises use with medium to high level characters only, as this does not take account of GMs wanting to start a new campaign in the NJO setting with 1st-level characters - I would have liked to have seen some adventure ideas in the introductory chapter aimed at bringing beginning characters into the picture, so that they are medium-level in time for the beginning of the invasion.
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