The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide
The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide was the first of Wizard of the Coast’s campaign books for its new Saga Edition of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. The 224-page book takes its inspiration from the video game of the same name, detailing “the Dark Times” between the end of the Clone Wars and the beginning of the Rebel Alliance.
While basing a sourcebook on a video game can be risky – particularly when that game is an uneven, occasionally gimmicky shooter like The Force Unleashed – this campaign guide manages to overcome its namesake’s shortcomings. It does this by going beyond the game to pull together information from the movies, books and the rest of the Star Wars extended universe to create a robust guide for an underutilized era.
Written by Sterling Hershey, Peter Schweighofer, Owen K.C. Stephens, and Rodney Thompson, The Force Unleashed was Wizards’ first campaign guide for the new edition of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. As such, it introduced the formula for future campaign guides with its mix of new species, skill uses, feats, talents, prestige classes, equipment, vehicles and an infodump’s worth of campaign background.
Among the ten species The Force Unleashed introduces are the plant-like Felcians, the diminutive reptilian Aleena, the white-furred, sloth-like Talz, and the three-eyed Gran. It’s an obscure mix, most of which are either allied with or oppressed by the Empire, but it fits the setting. The Force Unleashed campaign is all about experiencing the dark edges of galactic society, and its not surprising that there would be a number of new (or obscure) aliens lurking there.
The book introduces six new prestige classes: Enforcer, Independent Droid, Infiltrator, Master Privateer, Medic and Saboteur. This seems like overkill in relation to the 3-4 new prestige classes we’ve seen in subsequent campaign guides, but they work within the context of the book. The Enforcer, with abilities that grant access to increasingly expensive military hardware as he/she levels up, provides a law enforcement alternative to the noble’s wealth talent.
The Independent Droid gives droid characters much needed options to negate some of their inherent drawbacks, such as susceptibility to ion damage, while giving them new abilities, like the “hotwired processor” talent which boosts their mental abilities for a short time. Droids can have a hard time finding prestige classes that fit; having one custom designed for them is a welcome addition to the game.
The Medic prestige class is an odd one to include in a sourcebook like The Force Unleashed. Its combat-support talents would seem to fit better with something like The Clone Wars, and I suspect they included it here knowing that supplement wouldn’t be released for a year. There’s also no denying that Saga Edition can be far more lethal than many of its d20 kin and many of the medic’s talents excel at bringing characters back from the brink of death. It’s a useful prestige class to have around, and it could be handy in a Firefly-like game where players spend most of their time on the run, without access to hospitals.
In many ways, a Dark Times campaign is about the subtle exercise of power. While the Emperor and his legions are becoming more openly oppressive, those who oppose them must move in the shadows. Heroes can’t hope to go up against the Empire and win; instead, they have to rely on friends and connections to survive.
The Force Unleashed encourages this reliance by providing a framework for organizations that characters can join, rewarding them with in-game benefits as they rise through the ranks. Among those organizations detailed are the Antarian Rangers (former field support troops for the Jedi), the infamous Black Sun criminal syndicate, the Bothan Spynet, the Bounty Hunters Guild, and House Organa.
Each organization’s entry spells out the group’s galactic reach, its type (business, military, criminal, etc.) as well as enemies and allies. There’s also an “organization score criteria” which is used to rank an individual’s standing within the group – the higher the score, the greater the influence. For example, Dark Sun operatives get a bonus based on their Dark Side score, having a level in the scoundrel class, recruiting new members to Black Sun, and killing an enemy of the group. Players can found their own organizations by taking the Natural Leader feat.
This organization score criteria mechanic is a crunchy one, complete with rules for resolving conflicts between organizations, but I can see it appealing to players who’ve always wanted to rise through the ranks of an organization or command one of their own. The concept fits the setting, and it’s easily portable to other Star Wars eras; it would be particularly good for the corporation-intensive Knights of the Old Republic timeline.
Other new mechanics, which are possibly the most disruptive to an ongoing campaign, are the Unleashed abilities. These take the form of feats and force powers that typically require a character to spend a destiny point to unlock some exceptional, one-time combat effect.
Destiny points are a rarity in the Star Wars game – players only get one per level, and even then only if they have picked a “destiny” to guide their characters’ future – and the unleashed abilities are correspondingly powerful. For example, the “Unleashed Move Object” force power gives characters the ability to destroy vehicles and possibly even starships as it adds a 2x multiplier to the damage done by thrown objects.
“Unleashed Dark Rage” grants dark siders a +10 bonus to attacks and damage for an encounter, “Unleashed Cleave” allows characters to attack every opponent within range when they drop one with a single attack, while “Unleashed Penetrating Attack” ignores all damage reduction for a round.
The Unleashed powers are the one area of the book that doesn’t jive with the Dark Times tone; everywhere else characters and GMs are counseled in the disciplined, cautious exercise of power (particularly Jedi, who are all but hunted to extinction during this time). Yet here we have abilities and powers that are exceptional in every way, and can’t help but draw the attention of the Empire. It fits the video game, but little else. This isn’t to say the powers themselves are a bad thing; in fact I find myself liking the mechanic, but I would never release them unchecked into my campaign. Instead, I see them as seasoning – keystone abilities for exceptional heroes and villains.
About half of the book is given over running a Dark Times campaign, introducing era-specific vehicles and starships, an updated galactic gazetteer looking at new and existing worlds, and an extensive chapter chronicling the major branches of the Imperial government. This isn’t a re-hash of Rebellion era facts; instead the book looks at how Clone Wars-era institutions evolved as their Imperial counterparts, how the Empire replaced the Jedi order with its own military units, and what happened to all of that Separatist and Republic military hardware in the intervening years.
There are write-ups on future Rebellion leaders Bail Organa and Mon Mothma, as well as Corellian senator Garm Bel Islis, while the Imperials have write-ups on such signature characters as Admiral Thrawn, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, the eventual traitor Crix Madine and – of course – Darth Vader’s secret apprentice.
The Force Unleashed is a solid sourcebook for anyone running a campaign in which the Galactic Empire is the major antagonist. Its content can easily be plugged into a Dark Times or Rebellion era game, and those running New Jedi Order games will find plenty of material with which to garrison their Imperial remnants.