Gen Con Game Fair always sees a mix of experienced gamers and newcomers first entering the world of Star Wars. In a preview of upcoming product for this year and next, Wizards of the Coast gave glimpses of titles that benefit all levels of gaming experience.

Players are always eager for new toys, and the upcoming Arms and Equipment Guide, slated for this November, promises a quartermaster's inventory of weapons and gear. "It's a collection of goodies and a pile of droids for your heroes to tinker with or take on as companions or cohorts, or to blow to smithereens," said Design Editor Chris Perkins, showing off line artwork from the book by Chris Trevas.

"There are more blasters than you'll know what to do with. As you know from the Revised Core Rulebook, we don't really get into specific manufacturer names for generic blaster types. Here we get very specific. The book also has rules for building weapons of exceptional quality that actually have greater attack and damage properties," said Perkins.

In January of 2003, Wizards of the Coast will release Coruscant and the Core Worlds, a 160-page hardcover book that explores some of the most significant worlds of the galaxy throughout several eras of adventure. Coruscant receives the bulk of the coverage, but other notable worlds include Kuat and Corellia. "Each entry includes all the statistical information on the world, key locations of the world, key villains and antagonists, new creatures, aliens, gear, vehicles and more," said Perkins.

Also in the works for 2003 is The Ultimate Alien Anthology, a title currently in the editing phase. "It draws heavily on aliens we've seen before, and also introduces a bunch of new ones, including all of the Episode II species," said Perkins. "All of the alien entries are set up the same way as the character races in the species chapter of the Revised Core Rulebook. All of the species look to be played as heroic characters, with the GM's discretion. It will be full color with all new artwork."

Two untitled books slated for next year serve as additional options for players/heroes and gamemasters alike. "The closest thing I can equate the players/heroes book to is if you were to take all of the D&D class books, Sword and Fist, Defenders of the Faith, Tome and Blood -- books that give new options and prestige classes for different characters. This book of heroes has all of that in one 160-page hardcover book: new prestige classes, new feats, new combat abilities, rules for joining the Hutt criminal syndicate or the Black Sun syndicate, or the Rebellion," said Perkins.

"Some of the material will be compatible with Star Wars Galaxies, the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game coming out soon," added Bill Slavicsek, Vice President of RPG Research & Development.

A few months after the release of the players/heroes book Wizards of the Coast will publish a book geared toward Gamemasters. "It's designed to help GMs construct campaigns that take characters from levels one through twenty. It's very specific as far as providing resources for the GM who doesn't have a lot of time to put together a campaign. So, everything from random name generators for different species, to adjudication rules, to adventure seeds, to little tricks and things to help you plan interesting adventures," explained Perkins.

The last title mentioned for 2003 was an untitled book that serves as a supplement of sorts to the Ultimate Alien Anthology. "It's part Monster Manual; it's part Enemies and Allies; it's basically a big book of bad guys. These are things you want your characters to kill and beat up on. Sith Witches, colossal-sized droids, big creatures, modified creatures... just pre-generated baddies of all shapes and sizes," said Perkins.

For more information about The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, visit the official website of Wizards of the Coast here.

For more starwars.com Gen Con 2002 coverage, check out:

• TCG Championship Results
• Q & A with Star Wars Authors
• TCG Championship This Saturday

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	Coruscant and the Core Worlds Arms and Equipment Guide Star Wars Roleplaying Game Revised Rulebook
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