The Dark Side: A Star Wars Accessory [ハードカバー]

Of course, if you are an avid Star Wars roleplayer, you've probably just ventured out onto your own. Now, you have official material that draws together quite a bit of EU books and comics and gives you a solid reference on the history and power of the Dark Side. As a book that summarizes the history of the Sith and the what we know about the villains of the books and movies (so far), it succeeds.

So why not five stars? This book is a double edged sword. The rewrite of Darth Vader's stats continues to illustrate the problems with the armor rules (see my review of the Core Rules for more info here). Dark Side character concepts are presented as Prestige Classes. However, some of the prestige classes have so little requirements that they are practically base classes.

Where else does the book succeed? There is an excellent chapter that is written as an antithesis to the chapter on The Force in the Core Rules. Written in identical style and format, the book intriduces you to the Dark Side's seductive and controlling power. It's a good read for GM's who need to portray this to PCs in their group that are wobbling on the edge.

Depending on your taste for EU, you may appreciate or not appreciate the powerful Dark Side equipment that is more than a match for the game mechanics of the Jedi. Sure, some GM's were looking for a game mechanic based challenge for their Jedi, but others (like myself) felt the constant challenge of tempering the Force with the Jedi Code was difficult enough to roleplay.

Nearly every Star Wars GM will love some parts of this book, and dislike others. That's because covering the Dark Side fully, by necessity, means covering the EU as well. Your own personal taste will come into play when deciding what rules to adopt, and what to leave out. But that's okay, it's a normal part of roleplaying. This one is a good buy.

I was compelled to buy this book, not only out of my own curiosity, but because I'm running a Star Wars game where the players expressed a desire to explore the realms of ethical questionability with their characters. I'm glad I bought it.

I might have only rated this with three stars instead of four, but for one thing: Hardcover. The hardcover alone is enough to make me appreciate a gaming book these days. Yes, they're heavy. But you can write on the back of them, the pages generally stay flat, and they're slightly more resistant to moisture. I could go on and on about hardcover gaming supplements, but I won't.

The contents of the book suffer some the same problems as the core rulebook. Sidebars and pictures tend to clutter each page, making it a little harder to find the rules nuggets you're looking for. Some of the information seems to be repeated in different sections too, making for a slightly redundant read at times.

Once you find what you're looking for, however, it's a decent sourcebook. Feats, skills, prestige classes, and equipment for dark Force-users are present, as you'd expect. Nothing mind-blowing there. They have some history and NPCs too.

My favorite part details the psychology of the dark side, and how characters get lured into it's grasp. It even tells how Love can motivate someone to turn to the dark side. This is the kind of material you need to make convincing and varied darkside characters, and to lure your players into courting the dark side of the Force.

I wanted more historical details about the Sith, the Republic, and the Hyperspace Wars, but I guess some of that is vague on purpose. They can't give everything away, and a lot of that kind of material has probably been written elsewhere anyway.

My end conclusion: A good book, and definitely useful if you enjoy dark and gritty role-playing.