Play me a song, Errata Man

Errata and clarifications for the three newest releases — Knights of the Old Republic, The Force Unleashed, and Scum and Villainy — has now been released.  Here are the highlights:

KOTOR:

• The Melee Duelist prestige class's prerequisites have been changed to "Melee Defense, Rapid Strike, and Weapon Focus in any melee weapon."  This means the Melee Duelist can now be played with any melee weapon, including a lightsaber (as was originally intended).
  
• Adhesive and Cryoban grenades have a 2-square burst radius.
  
• Massassi and Kissai treat the Massassi lanvarok as a simple weapon, not an exotic weapon.
  
• The Improved Energy Cell upgrade now costs only 1 upgrade slot.
  
• When using the Gladiator's Brutal Attack talent, you calculate damage first, see if it beats the damage threshold, then add an extra die if it does.  (This is how I figured it worked anyway.)
  
• The Gladiator's Exotic Weapon Master talent now also shares talents across exotic weapons (such as Weapon Specialization).
  
• The Wound power only makes moving down the condition track persistent if the damage dealt by the Wound power moves it down.
  

TFU:

• The Corruption power only deals damage on the target's next turn if it exceeds the target's Fortitude Defense by 5 or more.
  
• Large races get a +5 bonus to damage threshold for their size, making Togorians and Whiphids more attractive options to play.
  
• The organization created by the Natural Leader feat continues to grow in scale as you gain levels.
  
• The Independent Droid's Independent Spirit class feature applies only to a single skill check or attack roll.
  
• The Saboteur's Device Jammer talent works on any particular equipment you choose with an electronic component, excluding droids, vehicles and weapons.
  

SAV:

• If you have the Knife Trick feat and you have a concealed weapon, you threaten squares as though you were armed with a melee weapon.
  
• The Superior Protective Armor trait granted by the Superior Tech feat adds 2 to the armor bonus to Reflex Defense.
  
• The Charlatan's Damaging Deception talent now only triggers on the next attack before your next turn that hits, rather than just the next attack.
  
• The Outlaw's Uncanny Instincts talent now works once per round, not once per encounter.  (Thank goodness, as I couldn't figure out why anybody would take it otherwise.)
  
• All powered armor now has two extra upgrade slots; powered armor is defined as any armor that has "power" in the name (or some variant thereof), so a Corellian powersuit is considered powered armor.
  
• Two items combined by the Dual Gear upgrade each require their own power source.
  
• The last line of the Silverplate item upgrade should go with the Spring Loaded upgrade instead.  (If you have the Quick Draw feat, you may draw the item as a free action once per turn.)
  

Also, the missing Bonus Feat sidebar for Scum and Villainy is included!

Jedi: Burst of Speed, Close Combat Escape, Impetuous Move, Impulsive Flight, Lightning Draw, Opportunistic Retreat, Resurgence, Slippery Maneuver, Stay Up, Tactical Advantage, Wicked Strike

Noble: Cornered, Friends in Low Places, Hasty Modification, Impulsive Flight, Opportunistic Retreat, Signature Device, Superior Tech, Tactical Advantage, Wicked Strike

Scoundrel: Burst of Speed, Close Combat Escape, Collateral Damage, Cornered, Deceptive Drop, Desperate Gambit, Duck and Cover, Fleet Footed, Friends in Low Places, Hasty Modification, Impulsive Flight, Knife Trick, Lightning Draw, Signature Device, Superior Tech

Scout: Burst of Speed, Cornered, Deadly Sniper, Duck and Cover, Fleet Footed, Resurgence, Slippery Maneuver, Stay Up

Soldier: Burst of Speed, Collateral Damage, Deadly Sniper, Impetuous Move, Lightning Draw, Resurgence, Slippery Maneuver, Stay Up

Clone Wars copy

Some guy already got his copy of the Clone Wars Campaign Guide, and now I'm here to share spoilers with you:

• New rules for mass combat, so you can have giant battles between opposing armies.
  
• New "follower" talents for the Noble, Scout, and Soldier.  Followers are like animal companions in 4th Ed.; you have to split your actions with them.  Followers come in three types: Aggressive, Defensive, and Utility.  Each of the three classes can do different things with their followers; the Noble can have its follower take attacks directed at him.
  
• New species: Dug, Gen'Dai (although nowhere near as powerful as Durge), Iktotchi, Kaleesh, Kaminoan, Kerkoiden, Nautolan, Nelvaanian, and Vurk.  Also apparently Chagrian and Umbaran.  I'm hoping that Geonosian, Gossam, Skakoan, and other Confederate species are somewhere in the book too, because otherwise that seems like a glaring oversight.
  
• There are rules on playing clone commandos and ARC troopers — the book doesn't recommend playing a normal clone soldier, as they're "bred for obedience and military discipline," not independent thinking.
  
• Three new prestige classes: Droid Commander (a droid-only class), Military Engineer, and Vanguard.  Also, the Jedi Knight prestige class gains the Jedi Healer and Jedi Archivist talent trees.
  
• 21 new feats: Anointed Hunter, Artillery Shot, Coordinated Barrage, Droidcraft, Droid Hunter, Experienced Medic, Expert Droid Repair, Flash and Clear, Flood of Fire, Grand Army of the Republic Training, Gunnery Specialist, Jedi Familiarity, Leader of Droids, Overwhelming Attack, Pall of the Dark Side, Separatist Military Training, Spray Shot, Trench Warrior, Unstoppable Force, Unwavering Resolve, Wary Defender
  
• New Force powers: Cloak, Levitate, Malacia, Morichro, Phase, Rend, Shatterpoint, Technometry.
  
• New talents: There is a new Light Side talent tree for Force-sensitive characters, and one of the new Force talents is Psychometry (Quinlan Vos' ability to read the past by touching objects).  Also three new Force traditions: the Bando Gora (from the Bounty Hunter video game), the Believers, and the Korunnai (Mace Windu's people, from the Shatterpoint novel).
  
• Lots of new gear; no new upgrades.
  
• Lots and lots of new ships.
  

Latest releases

A few minor items:

• The Clone Wars Campaign Guide comes out later this month (on the 20th, I believe). It will include rules for playing as clones, a new system of mass combat, and plenty of material from the Clone Wars novels, comics, TV shows, movie, etc. of the past seven years (egad, did Attack of the Clones really come out in 2002?).
  
• Knights of the Old Republic #36 is out now — the story arc that started in issue #1 is over, and a whole new chapter of Zayne's life begins. The threat of the Jedi Covenant is gone, but the galaxy is still an unsafe place for Zayne, Griff, and their friends as a new scam quickly goes awry.
  
• Legacy #31 is out now too, the last issue of the Vector crossover. Cade, his friends, and the Imperial Knights have allied with Celeste Morne to lure the Sith into a trap in hopes of assassinating Darth Krayt and toppling his Sith Empire, but as Celeste Morne's control over the Muur Talisman starts slipping, it's hard to say who's actually in danger! A major character dies in this issue, changing the Legacy era forever!
  

Next game!

The next game will be on January 11 at 3 p.m., assuming my very pregnant co-worker hasn't given birth yet (she's not due until a week later, but you never know). There's a short teaser about the next session up on the side.

Banter!

Two great bits from the recent Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode 2:

The Fightin' Dice-Flingers

What are players' thoughts on combat?  It came up at the recent D&D game how I've been including more combat in Star Wars, and reaction seemed mixed that I was starting to include tougher encounters, in part because with one big exception (Gobmush), not everybody optimized their characters for combat.

Here's my reasoning behind the uptick in tough combat encounters lately:

• We had significantly less and easier combat at the start of the game; we didn't have a combat encounter I'd orchestrated until the third session.  See also: Freeing On-Warr from the Sith battleship, in which we breezed over most of the encounters in favor of getting more story done.
  
• Story-wise, as players move closer to fulfilling their goals (rescuing Ewoks, destroying Riga the Hutt, evading the Exchange on Taris, etc.), enemies are more likely to notice and take greater efforts to stop the characters.
  
• I'm not great at predicting how fights are going to go, Challenge Rating-wise: I thought the rakghoul fights on Taris might be a party-breaker, but not a single PC got bitten; at the same time, Rex, as written, is of a high enough level that he should have been able to take on the whole party, but I kept rolling poorly and two PCs took him out.  Conversely, the fight with Aya Lim proved to be a tougher fight than I expected.
  
• As more combat is incorporated into the game, I'm getting more interested in incorporating scenery and terrain features into those encounters, which can make them seem more difficult.
  
• Skill-based encounters haven't been reduced.  (If anything, I'm going to incorporate more of them, as I've got the handy DC table in Scum & Villainy now.)
  
• Some of the party is optimized more for vehicle combat than ground combat.  I am looking for more excuses to incorporate space combat, and I can promise that the next game will, in fact, open with space combat.
  

Brief news

If you haven't seen already on the right, the next game is January 4 at 3 p.m.  2009 starts with a bang!

Also, I've been working on a few more character write-ups, and the next one will be Rek's often referred-to but never seen father, Areta Luk.