Review: ACROSS THE STARS is a stellar book for POWER RANGERS RPGs

Last year, Renegade Game Studios launched the first Sourcebook for Power Rangers RPG: Through the stars. This 242-page book brings quite a lot to the table, and we’ll dive into it in a moment. Renegade was kind enough to provide me with a physical copy of the book, but all thoughts below are my own. You can purchase your copy from your local game store, the Renegade store, or even DriveThruRPG (affiliate link).

Across the Stars gives your Power Rangers RPG the stories that all players and GMs need to travel into space and face enemies from the Machine Empire, the Troobian Empire, the marauding Pirate Queen Divatox, and the forces of the United Alliance of Evil! With an entire universe to protect, the Rangers can expect to foil the plans of classic villains like Astronema, General Automon, Scorpius, and even Dark Specter himself. The enemies won’t wait either, with new bounty hunters like Darkonda and Dayne and the fearsome Psycho Rangers trying to stop the forces of good!

There’s plenty for both Game Masters and players Through the stars. There are new weapons, Zords, vehicles, equipment, perks and even roles. GMs will find tons of useful information not only for mechanics but also regarding various interstellar locations such as KO-35 and Aquitar. Additionally, a variety of enemies with minions and threats are also included. That said, the main reason to purchase and use Across the Stars is if you want to take your Power Rangers campaign into space. A lot of the new toys focus on space travel in some way and it looks like a lot of fun. There are rules for fighting in space as a Ranger and with ships.

Basically, you will have access to new pieces of the arsenal of the following Ranger teams: Lightspeed Rescue, Lost Galaxy, SPD and Omega (BOOM! Comics). It should also be noted that there appear to be errata versions of some In Space, Turbo and Zeo. It appears that most of the changes are intended to be clarifications (the information in Across the Galaxy looks much cleaner in my opinion), but some elements seem a little more functional. For example, Turbo Wind Fire is now classified as “Medium Energy Target” instead of “Energy Target” and has the sniper characteristic instead of silent.

The three new roles are Gold, Silver and Phantom Rangers. The Gold Rangers are designed to be a bit more of a tank with the ability to take damage for your allies. Silver Rangers are meant to be all-rounders and can do various things like increase damage, teleport to enemies, etc. Lastly, the Phantom Rangers are sneaky and have a lot of knowledge to help in various ways. Overall, I like them, although they seem a little overpowered since they technically gain access to their Zords at level 1 like the White Ranger, although the other six roles have to wait until level 3. I don’t know how much of a problem this actually shows up in the game and from talking to some in the community it’s not really a big deal. Therefore, this does not affect the final review score too much.

Another aspect that I really like about Across the Stars has to do with the different types of aliens. In the Basic rules For Power Rangers RPG, there is the influence of Not From Around Here, but it’s very vague. Meanwhile a Through the stars, at the end of many planets there are little messages describing how to create a character from that planet. For example, there is information for Aquitians that allows you to breathe both air and water instead of the normal perk, but your Hang-Up requires you to make sure to rehydrate.

Something that bothers me a little Through the stars is that some of the Minions repeat themselves Finster’s Monster-Matic Cookbook, but it’s a minor thing. There are also spelling and grammatical errors throughout the book, but it’s easy to make sense of it all. I have also noticed at least one instance where I question the actual events described. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but as I read the story presented in the first chapter or two there was at least one time when I thought, “this isn’t right.”

Overall, I think Through the stars it’s good Power Rangers RPG Source book. I don’t think it’s a must have as it’s very geared towards intergalactic adventures and campaigns, but it has plenty of tools for non-intergalactic adventures too. As always, the art is fantastic. It’s really nice to have a better guide to creating an alien character and the parts I’m not a fan of are pretty minor actually.