RPG Review: Dragonstar: Starfarer’s Handbook

I picked this one up a couple of years ago when I was working at the now-defunct Getaway Games in Spokane, WA. It, along with two other Dragonstar books (Player’s Companion, Guide to the Galaxy) were on clearance, and I was allowed to add my substantial employee’s discount to the mix, so desperate were they to unload said books.
The first thing you’ll notice is the dialogue at the bottom of the front cover: “Requires the use of the Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook, Third Edition, published by Wizards of the Coast.” This isn’t a stand-alone book. It’s basically D&D in space (without the bipedal hippos of Starjammer fame), with a few extra features.
The first 16 pages are in color, introducing the players to the universe of Dragonstar. The art isn’t too bad, but nothing compared to Paizo or Wizards. It’s more comparable to the first edition of Midnight, which makes sense, because they’re both made by Fantasy Flight Games.
The second section covers the races, talking about each of the core rulebook’s races, and how they fit into the universe. There are a few slight tweaks to each race, but nothing major. Additionally, they feature drow, half-dragons, orcs, and a race called “soulmechs”. Stopping momentarily to look at their racial traits, I see that they have low light vision, move a little quicker (40 feet), and have a lot of immunities. However, they have some disadvantages, including not being able to heal on their own or with divine magic. Only arcane magic and repairing them will fix them. Not too bad.
The next chapter covers things like the standard classes and a few new ones, such as Pilot and Mechanist, and have some old prestige classes as well as new.
The next few chapters feature skills, old and new, as well as some new feats.
Equipment is a fairly large section, which makes sense, if you think about it. There’s a good 30 pages at least on that subject, but nothing that really stands out from standard sci-fi.
They spend a little time focusing on combat, covering things like grenades, flamethrowers and more, knowing you’ll be spending more time in long-ranged combat compared to D&D.
Magic has an interesting aspect to it, using “Spellbook Software” instead of standard spellbooks. Something to read up on more if you decide to pick it up.
And finally, the last chapter of the book covers vehicles. Again, nothing more spectacular than something that shows up in every other sci-fi book.
The Final Word
Is this book worth picking up? I think that if I presented this book to my players, they’d simply say, “Why don’t we just play Star Wars?” Which is a valid question. Why play sci-fi fantasy in a world no one knows, if you can just run a world everyone knows? But if you think your D&D game needs a little more sci-fi, or your sci-fi game needs a little more D&D, I’d definitely pick it up.