Ever since Jewel Of Yavin's Announcement back in December almost 3 months ago, many of us have realised that there has been little spoken about for EotE since then and a follow up post giving more details about the adventure.
This has lead a few of us on the forum, along with my own Role-playing group to consider that once Jewel of Yavin is released, that will be EotE on hiatus until AoR and possibly F&D Beta are released into the wild.
Of course, there is every possibility that EotE will get a single book release around Gencon. We don't know for certain as FFG don't announce anything ahead of time, other than the usual 3 month rough window before a product is released.
With every LCG and certainly in the case of EotE, there is usually a 3-4 month window after the Core game is released before expansions start rolling out for it. In EotE's case we have seen Beyond the Rim, Enter the Unknown, AoR beta, Sons of Fortune, Dangerous Covenants and (next month's) Jewel of Yavin. Each of these books has been released a month apart since November or so, giving us a 3 month+ gap after EotE's core rulebook was released before the supplements started the 1 a month trend.
What should be taken from all this, first of all, is that EotE is the most heavily supported RPG FFG have ever undertaken. I haven't known the Warhammer books to ever be so heavily supported by FFG in such a short period of time. There is such a depth of content along with a quality and obvious love of the source material that has entered the pages of the SWRPG. I feel that we have been spoiled, in a way, with how good each book has been so far.
There is so much to look forward to!
SPECULATION
I honestly expect the next major announcement for SWRPG is the AoR GM Screen/guide seeing as that is yet to be formally announced. I do not expect EotE to be given a book release until the beginner game/Core Rulebook of the new game has been released.
This of course depends entirely on how big a team FFG have on the SWRPG line, they have clearly already put so much work into the system and there are many ways to expand the materials. So, going by all that we know(or can speculate) so far:
AoR materials will be the big Spring/Summer releases this year, with F&D beta following suit in August. In this time we may see one more source book for EotE, but with the focus on AoR I do not see that as likely.
Autumn/Christmas 2014 and Beyond
The release of AoR will be the true test to what FFG plan to do with SWRPG. There are still 4 source books for EotE's classes to be released (with 12 between AoR and F&D), we may see a book or two during the 3/4 month gap after AoR is released for EotE, before AoR starts getting it's own source books.
Once the AoR source books start, then we will see just where we are headed. Will AoR/EotE see simultaneous releases each month, doubling the content that we buy, or will they bounce back and forth month to month between both game systems?
Personally, I'd love to see 2 books a month if such a thing was truly possible, but with printing and shipping that does seem highly unlikely. However, the SW license is popular and unlike X-wing, it is much easier to produce books than complicated small models with paint apps.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
If anyone from FFG reads this post, I'd like to make one thing clear. I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS RPG LINE! I've been able to introduce Role-Playing to geeky friends who were turned off by the number crunching and combat focussed mess that D&D 4.0 was. The storytelling and dice aspects of this game really shine through to the people I have shown this game to.
I am very happy to buy 2 books a month, 2 books means twice as much content to enjoy and add to the experience with friends. However, I understand that may not be feasible and I do not want to be greedy in wanting MORE MORE MORE. SWRPG is a good thing and shouldn't be flooded by dozens of books all at once. I just hope that the books are well paced and no matter how F&D turns out, I am really incredibly excited about the future of the SWRPG.
Edited by Internutt