The Dark Side Sourcebook

[IronWolf]

Star Wars is not normally my cup of tea -- I like the movies, but there is enough "wrong" about the way the Star Wars d20 game is written, that I have not really given it much thought.

Then I went to GenCon and saw the Dark Side Sourcebook.

I like it. I like it a lot. In fact, I have now taken the time to purchase the entire WotC Star Wars line and have a game that will begin in about two weeks. My players have no clue what they are about to get themselves into

This is the thougth and idea that has (in my opinion) been missing from Star Wars (as a game) for quite some time. A level of temptation that can lure the players into the downward spiral that is the Dark Side. This book has a lot of it. ANd I plan to use it to its fullest extent.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Short review: This book rocks.

Slightly longer review: I'm no expert on Star Wars history; other than the movies, my experience is limited to 'Shadows of the Empire' and the core rulebooks for the WotC and WEG systems.

With that being said, I found a lot of interesting info in the Dark Side Sourcebook.

The book starts with a five page abbreviated timeline of the rise and fall (and rise again... and fall again...) of the Sith Empire. Some have complained that this chapter is too brief, but i found it just about right for my attention span. Besides, this is a retread for many readers.

The next chapter has the crunchy goodies: 8 darkside prestige classes, several new feats and some dark force skills. Of the prestige classes, only 5 will be available in the movie timeline, since the remaining three are Sith classes, and 'there may only be two'. The classes all seem fairly balanced, and give a wider view of the dark side than presented in the films.

'Playing the Dark Side' is an excellent chapter on DM advice. This is probably the most adaptable piece of non-mechanics information in the book. Really, these ideas can be imported into any 'evil' campaign, regardless of setting.

The 'Dark Side Equipment' chapter is fairly short. I've never been a fan of long listings of gear, so this suits me fine. What's there is cool, though: double-sided lightsabers, sith swords, poisons, symbiotic armor, and so on. Nothing new to someone familar with the EU, but lots of cool bits for initiates like myself.

Chapter 5, ostensibly a NPC chapter, is where the history really begins. Each NPC description is followed by a lengthy description of their life, how they fell from grace, and their eventual fate. In addition to many characters from the novels and computer games, the darksiders from the main rulebook (the three Darths, the Emperor) have all been redone with the new rules, replacing some or all of their Jedi levels with Sith prestige classes.

The final chapters give creatures, generic stats, and ideas for campaigns predating Episode I by thousands of years, when the Sith held sway.

Final Analysis: If you're playing by the canon, this book may be of limited use. Certainly, the Sith are off limits for much of the timeline. But if you're willing to play with history, or you want to play in the Tales of the Jedi time period, this book is just what you wanted.

 

[Archer]

I recently got the autographed version of this product and I was totally blown away. I probably wouldn't have bought this book had it not been autographed with free shipping and a $3 off coupon and I would have been missing out on a truly excellent product.

This book has increased my understanding of the Dark Side immensely. It is full of excellent ideas, amazing layouts and good art.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

The one and only guide to information on the Dark Side. Lucasfilm, Ltd.-approved material appears in this product for the first time ever. Roleplaying gamers and fans of the Star Wars universe will be interested in the secrets revealed in The Dark Side. Included are histories of the Sith and other Dark Side sects, key descriptions of infamous Dark Side villains, and ideas on how to implement evil player characters into your campaign. The book also outlines critical insight on playing Dark Side characters and includes information on the Dark powers, feats, equipment, and weaponry (such as Darth Maul's deadly double-sided light saber).

 

[Simon Collins]

Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is not a playtest review.

Price: $29.95
Page Count: 160
Price Per Page: About 19 cents per page

Format: Hardcover.

Front Cover: Three iconic Dark Side characters with lightsabers - of good quality.

Other Page Use: The back page shows three more Dark Side characters - though the quality of the art is good, it looks as though the Emperor has used his Dark Side Feat 'Cause Constipation' on the other two characters. The back page also gives a brief introduction and overview to the sourcebook. The inside covers are, rather aprropriately, black. The first three pages contain credits and contents. The last two pages have an index, and an advert.

Internal Art: The book contains many stills from the films to illustrate various sections. The internal artwork is covered by five different artists, and the quality ranges from average cartoony stuff to good comicbook-style stuff, with one or two pieces that were poor, and one or two that were superb. The number of stills is significantly greater than the actual art.

Text Density: Text density and white space are average. There are significant margins on the side of each page. There are a lot of film stills in the book, some of them quite large, and with a definite feel of padding the book out.

Text Style: The style of writing is engaging and relevant to the theme. The editing is excellent.

Whats Inside:

Chapter One: The Dark Side (5 pages) briefly introduces the Force and the Dark Path, before giving a rather lengthy historical timeline of the Dark Side.

Chapter Two: Playing The Dark Side (27 pages) begins by introducing two Dark Side templates that can be applied to a character after he gains a certain number of Dark Side points. Tainted Characters have Dark Side points equal to half their Wisdom score, whilst Dark Side Characters' Dark Side points are normally equal to or greater than their wisdom, though all Tainted Characters must make a Wisdom check every time they gain a Dark Side point or automatically become Dark Side Characters. Information on reducing Dark Side points for these templates is also given, as is a sidebar dealing with Dark Side points for non-Force Sensitive characters. These characters have access to new skills (Knowledge (Sith Lore), Read/Write Language (Sith), Speak Language (Sith)) and Force-based Skills (Alchemy, Control Mind, Drain Energy, Drain Knowledge, Illusion, and Transfer Essence) as well as more skill points. A revised table showing Force-based Skills for all Force-sensitive character classes is given. A number of new Dark Side Feats are also given (Drain Force, Hatred, Rage, Sith Sorcery, Sith Sword Defense, Sith Sword Expert Defense, Sith Sword Mastery, and Summon Storm). Next up are new Dark Side Prestige Classes - Dark Side Devotee (a Dark Side Force Adept), Dark Side Marauder (mercenary force-abusing warriors), Emperor's Hand (assassin), Dark Force Witch (primitive Dark Side force-users, e.g. Nightsisters of Dathomir), Imperial Inquisitor (converts force-users to the Dark Side), Sith Acolyte (e.g. Darth Maul), Sith Lord (e.g. Palpatine) and Sith Warrior. There are 'Era Notes' sidebars giving advice on how each of the Prestige Classes fits in historically, and a sidebar on 'Corrupted Jedi'. The Sith prestige classes are limited to particular historical periods. Each class has full stats and details of their special abilities.

Chapter Three: Gamemastering The Dark Side (18 pages) discusses Tainted and Dark Side characters in more detail, including the long-term effects of using The Dark Side (mainly physical debilitation) and gaining Dark Side points. The next section deals with Acts of Evil (Fear, Anger, Hatred, Suffering, Pride, Aggression, Vengeance, Greed, Jealousy and (the need for) Love). Each subsection gives an example of the act, which gives rough guidelines for GMs to run characters and judge PC actions. This is further explored in the following sections - Running Dark Side Heroes and Running Dark Side GM Characters. The next section deals with Running Dark Side Campaigns. Much of this information is geared to running PCs that are affected by The Dark Side, including ideas for an Underworld, Imperial and Darksider campaign. It concludes with ways to end the campaign, either in redemption for the characters, or going out in a blaze of glory. The final section deals with the Four Stages of the Dark Side - temptation, imperilment, submission, and atonement/redemption and includes a sidebar on the temptations of Force Feats such as Control, Sense and especially Alter.

Chapter Four: Dark Side Equipment (10 pages) details new weapons and armour (Sith Lanvarok, Double-bladed Lightsaber, Sith Sword, and Dark Armour - which is more of a template), vehicles and starships (sith speeder, sith infiltrator, and sith battleship), droids (interogator droid mark III and sith probe droid), equipment (alchemical apparatus and sith poison), and artifacts (sith holocron, sith amulet, sith talismans, and orbalisk armour).

Chapter Five: Dark Side Traditions (41 pages) has a long listing of NPC Dark Siders from different historical periods including Darth Bane, the Nightsisters of Dathomir, Darth Sidious, Darth Maul, The Emperor, Darth Vader, Mara Jade (as Emperor's Hand), and Kyp Durron (as a fallen Jedi). Each entry has background, history and description (including stats). The section also includes a passage on Dark Side books.

Chapter Six: Creatures and Archetypes (28 pages) includes description and stats for Dark Creatures (Battle Hydra, Dxun Tomb Beast, Dark Side Dragon, Massassi, Orbalisk, Sith Hound), Sith Mutants (Massassi Abomination, Silooth, Chrysalide Rancor, Sith War Droid, Sith Wyrm), and Dark Spirits (Dark Side Spirit, Guardian Spirit). It also has stats and descriptions for GM Archetypes: Dark Jedi, Dark Side Adept, Dark Side Avatar, Dark Side Spirit, Emperor's Hand, Tainted Jedi, Imperial Inquisitor, Jedi Knight, Nightsister, False Prophet of the Dark Side, Shadow Academy Student, Sith Apprentice, Sith Minion, and Sith Lord). Stats for each of these archetypes are given at three different levels for easy integration into a campaign or adventure.

Chapter Seven: Dark Side Campaigns (18 pages) discusses in further detail development of Dark Side campaigns in different eras (including a sidebar on alternative histories) before discussing Dark Side Sites - their effects on Force-using characters followed by some example sites (e.g. the cave on Dagobah) with advice on using them in your campaign. A more detailed idea for a campaign setting in the Sith Empire (5000 years before the Battle of Yavin) is then developed, including some adventure hooks.

The High Points: As promised in the adverts, The Dark Side does enable players to play Dark Side characters, and allows the GM to control that play and develop ideas around corruption and redemption in his campaign. Players and GMs alike are given a variety of new feats, skills, etc. to enhance this opportunity, and new creatures to either use against the PCs or to ally with them (if they play Darksiders) - I particularly liked the idea of the Dark Side Spirits. The book is clearly written and on the whole well presented.

The Low Points: I had a problem with this book even before I bought it - my idea of Star Wars PCs is that they are Heroes with a capital 'H' and that playing 'evil' characters, despite its attraction and the interesting roleplaying possibilities, is just not thematically sound for Star Wars - if I want to play evil characters, there are plenty of other games out there more suited to it. And what we do get is a fairly watered down version of evil - the threat sensed in the films from Vader and the huge destructive power under the Emperor's will, seems not to truly come to fruition in the text, despite it covering the right bases. I bought the book in the hope of getting some really evil ideas as a GM for running Dark Side villains, but the theme throughout the book is focused on players becoming Darksiders. Much of the information (e.g. equipment, prestige classes) is orientated towards the Sith, who are actually not playable as PCs during the era that the films cover.

Conclusion: The book ended up falling between two stools as far as I was concerned - it focused on players as Dark Siders but did not have enough depth to make it work, and did not have enough focus on Dark Side villainy for GMs to truly make full use of it (I found the NPCs in Chapter 5 too powerful for use face to face with PCs and a bit of a waste of space). Despite these faults, there is plenty of useable information in here that can be robbed to enhance a Dark Side-orientated adventure or campaign - the creatures and archetypes section and the skills and feats (if applied to GM characters) are the most pertinent sections in this regard. On balance, the book fails as a whole but provides some useful information for me as a GM and provides the basic ideas for running a campaign with player characters becoming corrupted and possibly redeemed. But theres a lot left for the GM and the player to do to put some meat on these bones, and I question its thematic content in relation to the basic Star Wars theme of Good Vs Evil.

 

[trancejeremy]

Disclaimer: I do not have the d20 rules for Star Wars. However, I am a huge fan of the old Star Wars RPG from West End Games, and have just about every book made for it (I'm missing a few Adventure Journals and a handful of the old adventures).

I wasn't actually planning on buying anything from the new SW game, not so much because of the conversion to d20 (I love D6, I like d20 enough) but because Mr. Lucas is, in my opinion, a jerk*. But I've heard a lot of good things about this book. And I do love the Star Wars universe. After a quick flip through at my local GS, I bought it.

As the name implies, it's a sourcebook devoted to the Dark Side of the force. It's fairly large for a sourcebook at 160 pages. It's also priced large, at $30, though it's both in color and hardback, which makes up for it somewhat. (I got mine used for $12). The artwork is something of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it's in color. On the other hand, most of it's really really ugly. For instance, on the cover, the red haired woman is apparently Mara Jade. Yet the woman on the cover barely appears to be human, much less extremely attractive. (Bea Arthur, from the Star Wars x-mas special, looks attractive than the woman on the cover...) Most of the art is like this, though some seems to be from the comics (or comic book inspired) and some are stills from the various movies. This is a huge step down from the art in the WEG books. It's also odd because some of them do work for Dragon Magazine now or other d20 companies.

Anyway, on to the content itself....

Chapter one is awfully short and just describes the basics of what the Dark Side is. About 6 pages. What I like about this is that they have combined the Sith of the Sith comic series, the Sith in the movies (or rather, Ep I) and with the Sith of the later novels. It sort of combines them together. Pretty good job of melding all the other material into a fairly coherent history.

Chapter two is about 25 pages. It's on playing Dark Side characters. This is something new to me, as the old WEG SWRPG wouldn't let PCs play them. Anyway, this mostly is just the mechanics of it - new templates, skills (and new uses for old ones, I think) and some Dark Side prestige classes. Some of these classes seem to be new, while some are based on things from various novels and previous RPG products (including from WEG). For instance, there is a 'Dark Force Witch' class, which is from the novel The Courtship of Princess Leia. And the 'Imperial Inquistor' class, the concept of which was invented by WEG (I think) and later showed up in novels and such. So again, interesting to see how they melded past stuff with new.

Chapter 3 is on gamemastering Dark Side characters. It's not that long, but has advice, and goes into the stages of being corrupted by the Dark Side. Nothing terribly new here if you are a Star Wars fan.

Chapter 4 is on Dark Side Equipment. Pretty boring. New droids and ships and such (though not many).

Chapter 5 is very large at about 42 pages. It's on various Dark Side organizations and traditions. This is probably the most interesting chapter. It's start off with the Sith from the Tales of the Jedi comics (set in very early days of the Republic), going into descriptions and stats for the major characters, then goes into the "New Sith", which comes from Episode I (or the novelization of it), which was started by a guy named Darth Bane. It then moves towards the era of the movies with the Nightsisters of Dathomir (again, from the Courtship of Princess Leia book), Darth Maul & Darth Sidious, then some from the original trilogy and then it moves to the New Republic era. Lots and lots of different sources are used - various novels, comics, even prior WEG characters like Grand Inquistor Tremayne. Even from the Young Jedi series (or whatever it's called), and the Dark Forces video/PC games, so it's pretty comprehensive.

Chapter 6 is on critters and generic NPCs, and is about 30 pages. The critters are okay, as are some of the NPCs. But there should not be such a thing as a 'Generic Emperor's Hand' (I'm not even sure there was another Emperor's Hand besides Mara Jade)

Chapter 7 is on types of Dark Side campaigns and is about 15 pages. It includes several plot hooks and a couple locations. I think part of this chapter should have been placed in Chapter 2.

Lastly, there is a short index.

Just how valuable this book is is hard for me to judge. Since I don't play or run a d20 Star Wars game, but d6, most of the rules stuff in this is not terribly useful. But it seems to be well done. I'm really not sure the Emperor's Hand deserved it's own prestige class. And the stats for Mara Jade are pretty wimpy - in d6, she was by far the most skilled of any published character (202 skill dice total, by comparison, Boba Fett has 145 and Grand Inquisitor Tremayne 34). Mara Jade is the top assassin in the galaxy, yet she's only 11th level in this book (Tremayne by contrast is 15th). The creator of Mara Jade worked with WEG, so presumably her stats in WEG's books are close to the creators visions. And the guy who created Tremayne was the head of the Star Wars line for WEG in the later days (Eric Trautmann), so presumably he knows what he was capable of.

On the other hand, it's almost an encyclopedia in terms of what it covers (in terms of the Dark Side). It seems to ignore the Emperor is reborn story arc of the Dark Empire comic book series (which might be a good thing, as many people hate it), but even so, it uses at least one thing from it. As I said, it covers all sorts of sources - novels, graphic books, comics, video games, previous RPG - they did a great job of keeping this product in tune with the entire Star Wars universe.

So, I think this is worth 4 stars. It's packed full of Dark Side info, but is a bit pricey, has some stat problems (characters are not what they creators intended)**, has ugly artwork, and the text could be denser. I would recommend not paying full price for this - if you can get it used for about half price, it's worth it. But it's only worth $30 if you plan on running a Dark Side campaign.



*(I think it's a shame they can't just dual stat new SW books, and it's part of why I think Lucas is a jerk - I know for a fact that WEG were willing to go along with it. If he can make his fans learn an entirely new CCG and make their old CCG collection completely worthless, he doesn't care about fans who spend $100s on old SW RPG books. But that has no bearing on the score. )


**(I wasn't impressed by the d20 stuff in this book to use it in my regular d20 game. Or even Dragonstar. But some of that has to do with the d20 SWRPG not being fully compatible with D&D or regular d20, since it uses the VP/WP system. But I haven't tried it, so take my comments with a grain of salt, and I didn't count them in my score)