The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide is finally out, along with all the other Force Unleashed products like the novel and, of course the many many versions of the video game (except the PC. Argh.). This one has been a long time in coming. I turned over the final text for my portion of the book in the late spring of last year. At the time, I think we still believed the game would be out in November 2007, although now I'm not sure when we heard about the first postponement. In any case, that is a very fast turnaround for a major hardback RPG product. The lead time for most products is about a year for most companies.

This was intended to be the first supplement for the newly released Saga Edition for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. We were working on it before the actual game had even hit store shelves. The postponement of the video game changed the release date, since the background material presented in the product would be major spoilers so far ahead of the game release. The miniatures set was allowed to be released, as it revealed some names and some details, but not much in the way of story info. The original intent to release both at the same time, like last month's dual release of the Knights Of The Old Republic Campaign Guide and miniatures set. However, the Force Unleashed minis are still available, so you can pick them up now if you missed out before.

The design team was myself, Rodney Thompson (WotC Star Wars lead designer and Saga Edition author), Owen K.C. Stephens (Saga Edition, D&D and d20 author) and Peter Schweighofer (former Star Wars Adventure Journal and West End Games editor). It was a good, experienced team in both Star Wars and RPG design. It was nice to work with Peter for the first time since the West End Games days. Though I had known Rodney and Owen for a while, thanks mainly to GenCon, it was the first time I worked directly with them.

My sections included the Species, Heroic Traits and Prestige Classes chapters as well as the first half of the Empire chapter. Unlike the later KotoR book, there was already a huge amount of back story and previous material that needed to be included and covered. We were able to add some new material - for instance I created a backstory for Wullf Yularen who is one of those blink or you miss it Death Star characters from Episode IV, and Owen noticed that there was some post-Episode III design space with Sabe (Keira Knightley in Episode I), which Peter was happy to do. Both were tied into the Dark Times theme of the product, and someone the heroes/players might work for or against in their games.

From a rules standpoint, this was the first product where we were going to be able to add new talents, feats and prestige classes to the system (although it didn't turn out that way with the delay). After my first pass, Rodney and I discussed the details, and of course, there was further development and playtesting later in the process. There was also incorporating the whole Unleashed aspect of the Force...

So what does this book cover?

If you play the RPG, the book is essentially a Dark Times / Force Unleashed sourcebook. It gives you new species to play, plus new talents, feats, skills and destinies. Fans of the Dark Times comics will find a few of the species very familiar. There are six new prestige classes, which greatly expands the types of advanced characters you can play. There is an entirely new system for playing with organizations, if your character belongs to the Bounty Hunters Guild, for instance. There's also new Force powers, new equipment, and a ton of new vehicles and ships. Expect to see a lot of info on the ascending Empire here. There is also information for Gamemasters running a Dark Times campaign. And, of course, info on integrating the Force Unleashed into the game.

If you're a Force Unleashed fan, you're going to find background information on the major characters from the game and novel, as well as equipment, vehicles, beasts, allies and opponents.

So what about integrating the Force Unleashed video game with the RPG? This was a much discussed concern among RPG fans, who didn't want to see the game become completely unbalanced by the powerful scenes from the video game. There was a two-part approach. Rodney and I came up with a new (optional) mechanic and series of Unleashed abilities and Force Powers that allows both Jedi and non-Jedi alike to do uber-amazing things....when they really need to do so. However, the Force Unleashed's new Force Powers (like Repulse) have been included as regular Force Powers as well, plus more advanced versions are available asForce Techniques. Take a look at Vader's Apprentice's stats to see how it all comes together.

Okay, so that's probably enough rambling for the moment, except to say that I overheard a few teenage RPG players at my local comic/game store this weekend creating characters for that day's game. They had the new book and it was fun to hear which parts attracted the most attention and excitement. It sounded like they were having a lot of fun, which is always a good thing.