Picture of author.

Bill Slavicsek

Author of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe

69+ Works 3,616 Members 10 Reviews

About the Author

Image credit: Bill Slavicsek in 80's.

Series

Works by Bill Slavicsek

Star Wars Sourcebook (1987) 176 copies
Council of Wyrms (1994) 78 copies
Rebellion Era Sourcebook (2001) 78 copies
Dungeon Master For Dummies (2006) 72 copies
Star Wars: Death Star Technical Companion (1991) — Author — 56 copies
The Mark of Nerath (2010) 51 copies
Harbinger House (1995) 48 copies
Night of the Walking Dead (1992) 45 copies
The Deva Spark (1994) 42 copies
Doors to the Unknown (1996) 39 copies
DSR1: Slave Tribes (1992) 39 copies
DSQ2: Arcane Shadows (1992) 33 copies
DSS3: Elves of Athas (1993) 30 copies
Beyond the Prism Pentad (1995) 29 copies
Otherspace (Star Wars RPG) (1989) 24 copies
Dungeon Survival Guide (2007) 23 copies
ApoKERMIS Now! (1989) 3 copies
La Bataille des Jedi (1997) 3 copies
D&D Spieler-Handbuch v4.0 (2008) 2 copies
Council of Wyrms: Rules (1994) 2 copies
Moderno juego de rol (2003) 1 copy
Diablo II 1 copy

Associated Works

Player's Handbook (2014) — Contributor — 2,334 copies
Monster Manual (5e) (2014) — Contributor — 1,340 copies
Galaxy Guide 2: Yavin and Bespin (1989) — Author, some editions — 45 copies
Flashbacks Redux (2011) — Editor — 5 copies

Tagged

2e (16) 2nd edition (21) AD&D (65) AD&D 2E (47) adventure (23) Alternity (46) D&D (215) d20 (161) d20 Modern (55) D6 (29) Dark Sun (60) ebook (22) fantasy (90) Fantasy RPG (16) fiction (54) film (16) game (29) games (62) gaming (115) hardcover (20) modern (19) non-fiction (47) PDF (21) Planescape (49) Ravenloft (19) reference (91) role-playing games (126) roleplaying (109) RPG (578) rulebook (25) science fiction (220) sf (31) sourcebook (22) Star Wars (517) Star Wars d20 (16) Star Wars RPG (34) to-read (46) torg (24) TSR (30) Wizards of the Coast (39)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Slavicsek, Bill
Other names
Slavicsek, William
Birthdate
1971-10-06
Gender
male
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
New York, New York, USA
Education
St John's University
Occupations
game designer

Members

Reviews

Still my favorite! I had learned to play with 2nd edition and my friends and I did a lot of campaigning with 3rd edition, so I was so pleased when I finally had saved enough to buy a set of manuals for myself 3.5 premiered.

They had a good, long shelf life. Someday I'll switch over, but I'm holding onto these forever.
 
Flagged
ManWithAnAgenda | Jan 30, 2020 |
Nice updates to original Star Wars RPG core book.
Far more versatile in it's game design.
 
Flagged
jrashk | 1 other review | Mar 3, 2017 |
This commentary has graphics. To see the full review please go to Goodreads or Booklikes.

For quite a while I had been looking for a science-fiction roleplaying game that was more like Dungeons and Dragons than a roleplaying game that involved either this:

R2D2

or this:

USS Enterprise

and while I might think these are pretty cool:

Star Destroyer – Star Wars

as well as these:

Light Saber

this really annoys me:

C3PO

as does this:

Spock

(he's not that bad) and while talking about science-fiction characters that tend to rub me up the wrong way, I simply cannot forget him:

Jar Jar Binks

Anyway, enough of all these pictures and more on this particular book. Most of the science-fiction roleplaying games tended to all be single setting games, based around (usually) Star Wars (and while there may have been a Star Trek game around, I am not sure whether it was all that popular). What I was looking for is something more generic, much like Dungeons and Dragons. Dungeons and Dragons did have their own specific worlds, what I really liked about it was that you could, and were encouraged to, create your own. This meant that if you wanted a world without elves you could create one (and while I did create some worlds, I generally included elves, though in one of them the elves were arrogant and stuck up creatures that believed themselves to be superior to everybody else; so while players could play elves, they tended to be treated with hatred and contempt).
Science-fiction poses a different problem because the scope is much larger. You could create a space opera, much like Star Wars (or Star Trek), or you could create a near future dystopia (such a Nueromancer) or even a modern setting where you are investigating alien sightings (much like the X-files). You could even create a amalgamation of all three (though that would be quite difficult).
What I wanted was a system that was generic and I could add and remove what I wanted to create a world (or universe) that I liked. I tried it with Traveller, but the rules were so complicated that I ended up ditching it. Shadowrun was cool, but once again, it was a single system setting, and to turn it into a space opera with magic was simply too difficult to do (since you have to create rules for space ship combat, which can be very difficult if it does not exist in the system).
Alternity actually provided everything for that, but the only problem with this was that it appeared and then pretty much disappeared quite quickly after that. It has since been replaced with the much more generic d20 Modern and d20 future, which I have played recently (though not since I left Adelaide). Also, while the rules were similar to Dungeons and Dragons, it was somewhat difficult to amalgamate the two systems since there were enough differences to end up making them incompatable. Further, when it comes to magic I prefer the Shadowrun system where spell casting tends to exhaust you; and while you can theoretically cast any number of spells that you like, the more you cast the more dangerous it becomes to your health. Such a system, unfortunately, does not exist in Dungeons and Dragons and I also suspect that it does not necessarily exist in Alternity either because when you come to science-fiction roleplaying you tend to discard magic in favourite of mind powers.
… (more)
½
 
Flagged
David.Alfred.Sarkies | Feb 14, 2014 |
This 'For Dummies' book provides an overview of the mechanics and general gameplay of the fourth edition of dungeons and dragons. If they had contrasted the 4th edition with the 3rd edition and then also with the pathfinder series, it would be more informative for your typical dungeons and dragons enthusiast.
 
Flagged
chsbellboy | 1 other review | Jan 15, 2012 |

Lists

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Statistics

Works
69
Also by
4
Members
3,616
Popularity
#7,002
Rating
3.8
Reviews
10
ISBNs
77
Languages
7

Charts & Graphs