GALAXY GUIDE 4 - ALIEN RACES
I was comparing the 1E and 2E GGs, and I found quite a bit of difference. The 2E description adds a bit more than what you get in the 1E guide, and the 2E books is more organized.
The GM notes in the 2E are more extensive than the Roleplaying notes in the 1E guide. From the 1E book, it seems that all Bith are pacifists, but the 2E book makes it clear that this is true more so for the Bith on their decimated and dangerous homeworld of Clak'dor VII. Many Bith leave their homeworld, and many find employment among the Fringe. The Fringers are not limited on skills like Blaster as are their pacifist brothers.
The biggest change are the stats allowed. First, Bith are given mechanical bonuses for their eyesight, Dexterity, and sense of smell under certain circumstances. You don't see that in the 1E book.
Where the 1E book gives you stats for a typical Bith (no skills, attributes only), the 2E book gives you a range.
A 1E Bith is provided as...
DEX 1D
KNO 2D
MEC 2D+2
PER 2D+2
STR 1D
TEC 2D+2
The 2E book says a normal Bith has 12D for stats to be used in these ranges:
DEX 1D/3D
KNO 2D/6D
MEC 2D/5D
PER 2D/5D
STR 1D/2D
TEC 2D/5D
I will say that the 2E books makes more a more interesting character. The 1E description leads a player to believe that all Bith are pacifists. They don't want to endanger life. Well, who wants to play that? That's great for an NPC, but this is STAR WARS, baby! Player want to shoot blasters!
The 2E version of the book tells us that many Bith who leave their homeworld become gifted pickpockets, con artists, and gamblers. Now, doesn't that seem like something more interesting? Something a player might want to play?
The 1E core rule book tells us that alien characters can have attributes higher than 4D and lower than 2D, unlike the human player character templates. The 1E GM must use his judgement on how this applies to Bith. I don't know if this is good or bad, but the 2E books gives limits for players and GMs to work with.
But...looking at those stats...where three attributes can go to 5D, and one can go to 6D? Make this a player character, using 18D for attributes, and now the player has a pretty bad-assed character on his hands.
Is this good? Not necessarily. The bad side to this is the dice creep that is prevalent in 2E games. Some skills will be
(KNO skills) if the player wants, and/or the character could have all MEC, PER, and TEC skills at 7D. Plus, remember the bonuses that I mention above giving another +1D in certain situations (and if you play 2E, you've got skill specilization and Character Points on top of all this).
No wonder some 2D players complain of rolling too many dice. And, one of those 2E dice explodes! The Wild Die!
That is dice creep, and it leads to thing like regular stormtrooper being ineffective, under-powered, and just not scary to 2E characters.
As a 1E GM, I do prefer the 1E "average" stats without the limits listed. That way, a player doesn't see the limit and maximize his character that way. If there's a good story element, then maybe the GM allows a higher attribute or two for a specific Bith character--but it is minimized, this happening, going through the GM.
As a GM, I'd much rather keep my games rolling 2D or 4D or sometimes 6D on a roll rather than rolling some of the extreme dice hand fulls that we see in 2E.
I'd say that there are some good things to consider about the 2E book, but if you use it, don't go overboard. Remember what a 1E game is all about.
Edited by player3412539