| Star Wars Miniatures | The Star Wars Miniatures collection offers a great board game that doesn't require too much time or space to play. The miniatures are also exactly the right size for use with the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, which I would highly recommend. The old roleplaying system was made by West End Games, which I haven't tried.
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| Authors: Owen K.c. Stephens, Rodney Thompson
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
Buy New: $22.72
You Save: $17.23 (43%)
New (33) Used (9) from $22.72
Avg. Customer Rating:  72 reviews
Sales Rank: 30250
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 9.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0786943564
Dewey Decimal Number: 793.93
EAN: 9780786943562
ASIN: 0786943564
Publication Date: June 5, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Detailed Review on Differences Between Saga and Revised Editions October 23, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
To preface, I have played three versions of the Star Wars RPG (WestEnd D6, Revised Edition D20, and now the Saga D20 Edition). To sum things up, the system has come a long way and yet in some ways has come full circle back around to some of the things everyone liked in the original D6 system. That said, I would highly recommend the newest Saga Edition of the game system. The system has just enough rules to keep the realist roleplayer happy while making combat and other areas quick enough to keep the feel of a Star Wars adventure. The wealth of resources from the prior D20 modules and resource books from Wizards really help fill in the gaps that Saga does not cover well.
Let me also say that there are some things in Saga that are not well done. In an attempt to simplify the rules they made some game mechanics unusable. This being said, it is nothing a few house rules can't change.
Here are my likes and dislikes about the newest Saga Edition (comparing it to the Revised Edition D20 system since it uses the same base) and how our group has dealt with weak areas:
Likes-
1. Streamlined skills, no need to track hundreds of skill points. There is now one skill for perception (there were 3-4 skills for it in the Revised Edition).
2. Most of the game unbalancing feats from the Revised Edition were removed or modified into class talents specific to a class only.
3. Class talents and force powers are a great change to jedi and non-jedi character development. The variety of characters that can be created from the same class is great.
4. The removal of vitality and wound points (from the Revised Edition) and the embrace of hit points is a good change. No more will your 12th lvl character die in one critical shot. :-) Also, using the force does not drain your character of his hit points in the new system so you can actually use the force more frequently in combat.
5. Force points have a heavier usage in the system and remind me of the good ol character points of the D6 system. They are much easier get than in prior systems.
6. Droids as characters are easier to play in the Saga Edition with a much better rule set to work with.
7. Your character level more directly influences how good you are with skills, your defensive traits, and your damage delivered. All good changes from prior the Revised Edition.
8. Grid movement and the adaptation of minatures into the system is a great addition. We all use minatures anyhow, might as well use squares as movement distance.
9. The introduction of Destiny Points is a great addition to the Star Wars RPG. It allows for more heroic "there is no way he can pull this off" scenes where the impossible becomes probable (very much in line with Star Wars), and allows players to deepen their character history, goals, etc. and obtain physical rewards for following their destiny.
Dislikes-
1. No ability to play darkside characters (no rules for darkside sites, no sith force powers, no tainted status, etc.). You pretty much have to fall back on the Revised Edition for information on this stuff. I suggest the Revised rulebook and the Darkside source book (both D20).
2. I know the idea was to streamline the system but some things are just good rolplay elements. There is no details on the jedi trials and other steps a jedi takes to become a jedi knight. Again, you must refer to the Revised Edition for ideas and information on this stuff. In Saga, you hit that level and can automatically become a jedi knight. :-) Sounds a lot like an online RPG "ding", you have raised a level thing. 'Yawn'.
3. The ability for players to gain followers was greatly nerfed in Saga over prior versions of the game. Our entire group was sad to see this go away as it added a great deal of roleplay to the game. Of course you can always create house rules and add it back in. The Revised D20 Edition has good rules on followers.
4. Area attacks such as autofire and grenades are a bit too powerful in Saga. They basically always hit for at least half damage (if the attack is 10 or higher) unless you have a specific Scout class talent. We went ahead and nerfed this rule to "if the attack misses by 10 or less it does half damage. A 11+ miss does no damage." If you use Saga, try this rule instead and this will help ease this pain.
5. Armor is still not that great in Saga (in comparison to the Revised Edition). The creators still have something against armor wearing folks. Armor basically becomes useless at higher levels unless you have a few specific talents from the Soldier class. As a house rule we have allowed armor to subtract the DR from the damage delivered by attacks, even if it lowers your defensive totals. This seems to be a fair trade off as you get hit more frequently but take less damage when struck.
6. The vehicle and starship rules, combat, etc. is not well done in Saga. The release of a future starship and vehicle enhancement in December 2007 will greatly help this piece. The other option is to integrate the Star Wars Starship Minatures game and create rules to bridge the gaps and use it in Saga. We have house rules for this and they work well. If anyone is interested in learning more about this please email me at ciridan@gmail.com.
7. Gambling is very poorly done in Saga, but I must say that it is better than prior systems. There has never been a good rule set for this to date, no matter what version of Star Wars you use. For Saga, we use the deception skill as the gambling base and we use house rules with an actual created Sabaac deck of cards in our games. This may be a bit over the top but the players love it and it uses their skill as well as their character's skill to modify the game. If you wish to learn more about this email me at ciridan@gmail.com.
8. This knock is more of a general one. I wish the makers of Star Wars RPG would incorporate certain elements of the video game Knights of the Old Republic into the RPG. Namely, the addition of implants to augment abilities and the ability to add certain crystals to lightsabers to increase abilities, etc. These are great adds to the video game and would make great quests and RPG items for players. We have made custom rules for this as well in our group. :-)
I hope this review was useful. I highly recommend the Saga Edition if you have not played it since the D6 era. For those that have played the Revised D20 system it depends on if you wish to remake characters and unlearn what you have learned...so to speak. This system kind of undoes a few areas of the Revised D20 so you need to have a group that is willing to step out and try a different way of doing things. If you have never played the Star Wars RPG, I recommend the Saga Edition as a good starting point. It is easy to use and fun to play.
MTFBWY,
Helix
Nice nice nice... October 22, 2007
The book is extremely well written. Having played with the previous rules, the Saga Edition makes things faster, easier, more streamlined, easier for new players to learn, and 100% easier to GM, while keeping true to the Star Wars Role Playing experience. The only downside is how many rule changes there really are (like a whole new combat structure), so it's imperative that you read the WHOLE book to make sure you've got it right. New support for Droid characters and other species is refreshing. I can't wait to play again!
 Star Wars Lite? October 19, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was mixed before I bought the book as it was suppose to be a prelude to 4e. The biggest problem with the last edition was some of the classes were unbalanced... (sorry Jedi users) and they did correct it, but perhaps too correct. Jedis have been whittled down and the other classes have been bolstered too much.
Feats have been streamlined and that does work for Star wars...but I do think they were streamlined too much. (This will not work well for 4e).
The book is ridiculously small and bare bones. There are 6 movies and with the different eras...I was expecting a lot more information...not a 35% smaller book. Where are all the NPC stats?
It's very similar to the Maneuvers system of Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords and I think a wrong choice for the jedi abilities. The `Dark Force' system is utterly a waste of space....the idea was good, but was implemented poorly.
Combat is quicker and streamlined and it works for Star Wars, but they went too far in its limits again. (Again 4e is wrong for this)
Vehicle combat is now a joke...a pure and utter joke...Now that my X-wing has Strength, Dex, Con etc...I was hoping for a lot more were not a lot less. This was made for 7 year olds...laughable.
All in all they did make some improvements over the last version, but took away more then was added...sorry I think I will go and `tweek' the last edition and make it more playable. Too bad as I probably will not even buy any other supplements now.
A Gameplayer Review September 24, 2007
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
10/9/2007
UPDATE: I now own this book, and have read at least half of it. My review of 9/24 (below) still stands. I've also spent about another 12 hours playing with the gaming group mentioned below. The overall gaming experience still feels faster and smoother than d20 3.5 (D&D). An example of the new streamlined system: A group of six players new to Star Wars d20 rolled up 1st level characters (Abilities, Species, Classes, Skills, Feats, Force Points and Equipment) in less than 90 minutes. Still feels better than my experiences with 3.5...
Small gripes:
1. It is a little frustrating that what appears to be many pages worth of material were "lost" from the "Revised Core Rulebook" edition to this new "saga" edition. I suspect that much of this material could just move verbatim to this edition. Why in the world not? Make more $ with future releases? That would stink...
2. The new form factor (dimensions of the book) sticks out like a sore thumb. And frankly, the new size makes it look like Wizards is trying to pad the page count by using smaller pages.
Partial Solution: Buy a USED copy of the Star Wars "Revised Core Rulebook" here on Amazon, currently starting at $14.75. That's 381 full-sized RPG pages for just under 4 cents a page.
I would downgrade this book review to 4 or 4.5 stars, but Amazon won't let me.
9/24/2007
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT (yet) own this book, but am submitting this review as a gamer who has just finished a long tabletop gaming session.
I think I qualify as an Old School D&D gamer. I played Advanced D&D back in the early '80s. Within the past year, I've actively gotten my 11 year-old son involved in RPGA's Living Greyhawk. I initially played with him. I found the D&D d20 3.5 System clunkily complex, not clearly documented, and lacking sufficient in-line examples. Combat sessions that might have taken 20-30 minutes in AD&D, seem to take hours now. Arrgh. Similarly, d20 Modern (and d20 Future), suffer from the same over-complexity -- at least in my opinion.
When a group of adults my age invited me to a Star Wars gaming session using the latest d20 rules release, I was hesitant. But the newly revised d20 system was a breath of fresh air: Character sheets were readily absorbable. The game mechanics and combat system felt nicely streamlined compared to D&D 3.5. And combat sessions, though still a little long, were not as grinding as what I experienced in D&D 3.5. Many current gamers feel that this Star Wars RPG version is a direct predecessor of d20 4.0 (announced for release next June with the new D&D Player's Handbook). Sounds like a step in the right direction. I'll be buying this book shortly!
Game On,
AWAbooks
 Disappointing at best September 20, 2007
2 out of 12 found this review helpful
I waited patiently for this book with high hopes. It was indeed a sad day when this book arrived into my hands. For every positive revision in the game, it brings forth two negative aspects.
The book is very short, and it shows with the content of the book itself. This book contains only the bare bones of the rules. It offers very little in the way of star ship stats or equipment. It has a Galactic Gazette that provides next to nothing in the way of real information about the planets. It provides a higher page count in the droid section than on any story based subject. The art work is simply a copy/paste job from the other editions. Its sad. The poor look and feel of the book, mixed with a rules revision that simply seems stale makes this book something to avoid.
It does seriously depower the jedi. While this doesn't bother me since I always felt that they were very unbalanced when compared to the other classes, many people may have a problem with that. The force system does make it more usable by all the classes, but just takes away the feel of what it is to use the force with its limited use.
One of my biggest problems with the game is its need to make everything miniature compatible. The entire time I'm reading this book I feel like I'm reading a thick miniatures rule book. Everything is in miniature scale and designed to work with a battle map. They even throw in several segments pushing the miniatures for use with the game and saying how great they are. A product plug if ever Ive seen one.If you a big into the miniatures game, great. If not, than don't bother with this book.
I could rant about this book for hours, going through every chapter page by page, but honestly the book is not worth reading through again. There is a reason that the price of the book has almost cut in half since the release. keep that in mind. I plan on saleing mine and hope I can get something out of it. Please read ALL the reviews before buying.Good luck.
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Powered by the Force.| Star Wars Miniatures Forum - latest postings |
HOW to make a Revan or Exile "PC" mini?
Hey guys -
This is a minis thread for we KotOR fanboys. I understand not everyone is interested; please don't choose this as a place to make an anti-KotOR stand. Thanks.
There has been a LOT of chat about how could we possibly do PC representations of the main characters in the games, without...
Second call for Groups in the UK!!
Me and my Lady are again putting the call out for Groups in the UK.
We play, and have got a couple of our friends into it, but there are no tournament groups to be found!
Any body in the UK know of any?
They're gonna purp your nerp
This is souly for fun. It was an idea I had for the OR, and figured it could be just as in the R. And it's fun to see an old sergeant back to work with some old hairy followers
Wookiee Hunter AT-ST
Tarfful
Lando Calrissian, Hero of Taanab
Clone Commander Gree
Clone Trooper Sergeant ...
Wat Tambor & Droid Reinforcements
Maybe I'm having a brain fart, but do you have to follow the normal squad building rules when bring in the non-unique droids for this SA? It doesn't say from any faction, so I'm assuming you must follow the normal faction rules.
Female Minis Players
Out of curiosity how many girls do you guys have in your Minis Group. My LGS has two that shows up for tourneys on a regular basis, myself and another. Also how do the gals do in your events? Are they frequent attendees and what do they play?
I had a dream, it was weird.
I had a dream last night. It went like this:
I went to my LGS and bought a pack, I don't remember what it was, but I remember being sad about what I pulled. Until I opened the cards and there was a letter from Rob in there. It said "congratulations, you've won a tour of the factory and you also...
Promo Maps!!!! Where can I get them?
All right I know this might in the wrong spot but I really need to know where I can get the Clone Wars map and the KOTOR promo maps...
Also can someone post a pic of the CW map?
Thank you in advance. Oh and My LGS didn't have the right poster map for KOTAR :( So any help would be great!
Marka Ragnos Force Spirit
Marka Ragnos, Dark Side Spirit
Cost ?
HP -
Def-
Atck -
Damage -
Special Abilities
Dark Side Spirit (Ignores all terrain. Cannot open doors. Cannot attack or be damaged, and does not count as a legal target. Does not provide cover. An enemy within six squares can spend 1 Force point to Remove this...
Imperials, 150 pts
hi all,
what do you think of this imperial 150 pts squad to paly some scenarios and campaign battle, we use fringes as a different faction, so cannot be used from others.
darth vader IC
elite stormy x2
stormy officer
admiral ozzel
stormy on dewback
stormy with e-web
gen. veers Hologram
Working on a self prodject
Everyone talks about it, I'm up for designing it. I have basic blueprints on how to build the first "Electronic Board"
First let me tell you that it is far from being started but the general idea of shape/sizie/workability is set. Many of you have wanted 3-D boards and such, well this isnt quite...
Rebel Direct Damage
--YoD(a), Revisited--
48 Vader's Apprentice, Redeemed
36 Yoda of Dagobah
28 Luke Skywalker, Hoth Pilot Unleashed
27 Han Solo, Smuggler
18 C-3PO and R2-D2
14 Princess Leia, Rebel Hero
12 Deena Shan
9 General Dodonna
4 Mon Calamari Tech Specialist
Question about Furious Assault.
Replaces turn: Can move up to 12 squares, then attack each legal target once"
I need someone to define "legal target"
Thank you!
Bastila Shan, Knight of the Old Republic
Cost 75?
HP 150
Def 20
Attack 15
Damage 20
Special Abilities
Melee Attack
Quadrouple Attack
Munn tactics broker
Just came to my head. If you had someone that had reinforcements X for a roll of 1
do you get them each round?
WIZARDS: SWM FOREVER!!!
I don't post much here but I do read the threads quite often and I've noticed a bit of negativity as of late. I just wanted to encourage the admins and creators of star wars minis to not get discouraged by it. I for one want you to know that I'm not leaving the game, am not angry about any new...
Tourny Squad
Just want some Ideas on this.
Jaba Crime Lord 15
Moff Nyna Calixte 18
Grand Admrial Thrawn 37
Mas Ameda 8
Kel Dor Bounty Hunter x5 65
uggie x2 6
149 pts. 11 Activations (6 Turns)
Thrawn and Ozzel
Ok, I'm reading a thread in the General forum where someone says that they played someone using Thrawn and Ozzell and they were getting Ozzel's reserves every round.
Using Master Tactician, you do NOT get to choose what your initiative roll is, do you?
Master Tactician: Roll for initiative as...
Genohardans...tourny worthy?
Wanted to make a tourny worthy squad with the genos. Kota buffs em and they get deathblows and czerka gives em twin. Try to swap for repulse...has door control...suggestions? Comments? Thank you....
Captain Panaka 23
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GenoHaradan Assassin 21
GenoHaradan Assassin 21
...
House rules for melee
Please let me know if this thread belongs in a different forum (customs perhaps?)...
Would like to hear what folks are using for house rules to help melee out. I know a lot of folks generally agree that melee is underpowered in the game, and I happen to be one of them (and yes I know a lot of...
Vong able to go into any army?
Can't remember where I saw this notion but somewhere it was suggested that the Vong could act as Fringe and be added to any army. Was this just an "idea" or something that's actually done in tournaments and whatnot? Personally I find the Vong near unplayable in any effective manner, but if they...
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