Review: Star Dogs - Referee's Handbook

I have already talked about the Star Dogs - Player's Handbook in depth here. Per conversations with the author, the Players Guide was created as a vehicle for the Referee's Handbook and for his smooth ship combat rules. The opening page of the books states;

"The Star Dogs Referee's Guide is a collection of tools, tables, and generators for referees running a science fiction tabletop roleplaying campaign. While it has been written for Star Dogs, it is system neutral and can be used with any Science Fiction tabletop rule set."

As a disclaimer, I was provided a cope for review purposes.

Presentation: The cover is full and the interior is presented in clean double columns. The interior art is sparse, black and white, and has a distressed look like the cover. It really matches the feel for the game. The book itself is organized with a table of contents and everything you roll on is very easy to understand.

I am going to deviate from my usual review formula and use the tools and tables and roll up some awesomeness.

Planet Generation

• Landscape: Decaying meat mounds, ever pushed skyward from an ever growing flesh core
• Atmosphere: Fire, Flames, and burning
• Planet Population: Free Humans (Dominate Population)

Space Station Generation 

• Population (Dominant): Alien Civilization 
• Key Purpose: Restaurant Center 
• Atmosphere: Endless Charms hang from ropes and string
• This also has tables to randomize the map and to stock various rooms

NPC Generator

• Expertise: Vat Farming
• Modus Operandi: Works through impressive technology
• Appearance: Flower or generally vegetative tattoos
• NPC Want: Find immediate relief to severe pain

Alien Species Generator

• Basic Form: Bull
• Form Manifestation: Bloody, fleshy, inside out with organs on display
• Armor Technology Level: Medium Armor (+4AC)
• Weapon Technology Level: Modern melee weapons
• Communication Method: Via comlog on the data plane
• Special Ability: Psionics and thought power
• Culture: Two factions have recently formed in the species, there is simmering tension that often erupts into open violence 
• Want: Protect some technology recently discovered/uncovered

Final Thoughts: I only used the Referee's Handbook to roll up a handful examples. There are tables and information for creating cultures, space sectors, mission generator, dangerous sectors, impressive technology, advanced combat, random space encounter, spacecraft generator, and a nebula generator. This book is really dripping with inspiration and I think it could be used for different genres as well. I think this is worth picking up for the inspiration alone.

You can acquire the pdf here and the physical copy here.