Now that the CRB is landing all over the place, is it worth having an "official" impressions thread to collate all that geeky goodness?

I'd love to get people's vibes as they get that first waft of new rule book ink, that pleasing creak of a freshly-opened spine, that tingle of anticipation as they scan those lusciously illustrated pages, and the flush of jealousy as I still wait for mine to go out for delivery dammit!

Feel free to use this, or delete if one already exists which I've not spotted.

Just let's have more of those impressions!

Edit: apologies for the craptastic typo in the thread title - can't fathom how to change it.

I haven't had a chance to really pour through it, but I found it bold that FFG decided to include information from The Force Unleashed in the section covering the Corellian Treaty considering the general opinion of that game. Although I loved that story, I know many fans did not.

I loved the Force Unleashed. (Especially the Purge Trooper). Hopefully they show up in Force and Destiny!

I haven't had a chance to really pour through it, but I found it bold that FFG decided to include information from The Force Unleashed in the section covering the Corellian Treaty considering the general opinion of that game. Although I loved that story, I know many fans did not.

I haven't had a chance to really pour through it, but I found it bold that FFG decided to include information from The Force Unleashed in the section covering the Corellian Treaty considering the general opinion of that game. Although I loved that story, I know many fans did not.

That's interesting to me considering how long ago Lucasfilm called that out as non-canon

That's the first thing that popped into my head when I read that section too. I'm a tad disappointed, if only for the fact that the "history of the rebellion" is becoming as convoluted and nonsensical as "how the Death Star plans got to Princess Leia."

Overall, though, my impressions were extremely favorable. The art alone is worth the price of admission (for whatever my opinion's worth) and with the exception of a couple of really minor gripes about a few stat-block errors, it seems to be really solid quality.

Unlike the Age of Rebellion Beta and the Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook, there are no Aurebesh typos.

Edit: Oh, and I loved the picture they used for the write-up of Alderaan.

Yeah I personally thought shoving Starkiller into the birth of the rebellion was idiotic personally. IMO it made much more sense to have the rebel leaders have been planning the Alliance for decades and bring it about on their own without needing an FS Assassin, and Palpatine and Vader plotting to have the Alliance formed.

I'm somewhat less impressed by the art than I was for Edge. On some of the art of the lines don't look as crisp, almost as though a smaller image was stretched to make it fit a bigger space.

The Force Unleashed nonsense pisses me off for a couple reasons. Mainly, however, its because it turns the greatest Chessmaster the galaxy has ever seen into a third rate Ernst Stavro Blofeld. "Let me take my mortal enemies to my Super Top Secret Superweapon, give them a tour of the facilities and then let them stand around while I don't kill them so they can be rescued at the last second."

(Of course then Starkiller Sue totally curb stomps him, only staying his hand at the last second because continuity - but that's a small fraction of what pisses me off)

And then, "Hey, I seem to recall that Organa was up to something? I cant remember what though. Oh, I'm sure it will come to me sooner or later". No, if you have enough evidence that Organa is scheming against you (and catching him at the formation of the Rebel Alliance, then dragging him to your Super Top Secret Superweapon should be well beyond Reasonable Doubt), then why the hell did Palpatine not send an assassin to deal with him? Have the ISB to throw him into the deepest, darkest dungeon on Byss that he had? Have Vader come a-calling?

No, he just lets this all-but-convicted enemy of the state sit there untouched until Tarkin decided to shoot the planet out from under him 2 years later.

(Force Unleashed II was even worse. So, Starkiller Sue manages to somehow capture Vader alive - and they don't instantly execute him for crimes against humanity? Seriously, you're leaving a loaded gun like that - no, a loaded freaking atomic bomb - just chained up in the cargo hold until you figure out what to do with him? Really? Anyone with two brain cells to rub together would have dispatched him straight away.)

Desslok speaks for me. I think everybody knows how much I hate F-U and I'd hoped we'd heard the last of it when most of the EU was declared 'Bullshi-' oh, sorry, 'Legends'... There's some good stuff in the EU, but I find I really have to pick and choose. That's the beauty of having an RPG for me - we can decide what's 'canon' rather than Disney's merchandising department.

Mostly EoE drew me back to SW because I was a fan of the originals, but drifted away since the WEG game because the EU went in directions I no longer cared for : silly over-the-top new races that belong in anime not SW, superweapon escalation, and an endless procession of Mary Sues. Plus, Jedi were intriguing in the original films and since they've sorta become Asgardian God superheroes.

For me, EoE took the best snippets of the EU and made them feel like the original films. I loved how, say, Centrepoint was presented as a mystery, rather than another boring superweapon-of-the-week.

But back to the question - there wasn't a lot in the book that was new for those who already have EoE and the Beta updates. But it's nice to have the art and everything in one place. I guess we gotta get used to their three-game format and how that means a lot of stuff will be reprinted.

I'm kind of glad my knowledge of the EU consists of the original Han Solo trilogy, comics from the 80s, and the Thrawn books. I can only assume the video game stuff was because someone on FFG staff really loved the game and paying homage to the fact Lucas thought up the name StarKiller I guess.

I think I player KOTOR, been a long time, I generally don't bother with movie property video games because they are typically crap.

In any event I don't let the EU, lack thereof, or even canon, typically get in the way of game ideas I have. I run things the way I like and from all manner of sources. I've got my idea kicking around for how I want to do an AoR game and how I felt the Rebellion would have actually worked and done most of what it did. It's not EU. It's not canon. It's 2P51.

I'm pretty disappointed that any FU stuff made it into the game. As was already said, that crap was declared non-canon long ago. Now with including it after the total EU wipe, it makes me wonder what gives at FFG.

I really hope we don't see Star Destroyers being tossed around in F&D...

I have yet to lay my hands on my copy yet due to some mm screw ups, but I'd imagine that FFG's decision to include the FU "story" into the rpg canon would more likely be due to the lack of any set canonical background. It provides some shorthand for people to work from, or throw out completely if they want, but likely it is something that sw fans are at least familiar with. I never played rough those games all the way through, so never got the full details for that plot line, but from he bits I've been told, one could make adapt what happens to make an interesting backstory....well that doesn't really matter.

When are pcs truly going to discuss the background of he rebellion at the table? I'd imagine that they are likely to be focused on the present mission and creating their personal stories. Better yet would be to create a campaign that could allow your pcs to form the rebellion themselves. I think that FFG prolly just stuck that in there as it is the most widely known backstory on the rebellion, whether or not it is a popular one.

What on earth is a "Starkiller Sue"?

What on earth is a "Starkiller Sue"?

The player character from the Force Unleashed video game goes by the code name of Starkiller. He is the secret apprentice of Vader and is far more powerful than just about every other Jedi shown of comparable experience. In a video game this makes sense for gameplay, but it strains believability quite a bit.

It's a Mary Sue that can pull a star destroyer from orbit using the force.

I'm pretty disappointed that any FU stuff made it into the game. As was already said, that crap was declared non-canon long ago. Now with including it after the total EU wipe, it makes me wonder what gives at FFG.

I really hope we don't see Star Destroyers being tossed around in F&D...

You forget one of the oldest pieces of Force related wisdom "Size matters not."

Seriously of all the reasons to complain about FU and FUII the dragging down of the Star Destroyer should be nowhere near the top of the list. Please tell me there was no mention of FUII's Battle of Kamino or its aftermath. That was IMO the dumbest part of the FU storyline by far.

I was hoping that the new rulebook would offer some clarification on various rules but it seemed that most rule sections are just cut-and-pasted from the EotE book. That's a big disappointment.

There's waaaaaaaaaay to much EU stuff in the rulebook, yet the rulebook doesn't have a Legends banner.

A consideration. I don't like a lot of things from "Legends" (I'm a canon-lover now XD) but I understand that in a roleplaygame they use non-cnon sources because in an open world made by players and GM, based only canon, there wouldn't be enough material to fulfill an story because only canon material are movies and clone wars (rebels in a future).

So, I understand that they add some Legends on Edge. FU (Bad name XD) can have a "hard to believe story", but its main goal was to become a "Wooaaah! Adrenaline rush VIDEO game! Where you can be and kick Vader ass to moon!".

So, I don't like but I fully understand it.

PS: Long time no see Maelora!

PS2: Doctor Who 23rd August!

What on earth is a "Starkiller Sue"?

The term "Mary Sue" is generally slapped on a character who is important in the story, possesses unusual physical traits, and has an irrelevantly over-skilled or over-idealized nature.

Although more accurately, he would be a Canon Sue, being from an official source and all (and perhaps arguably a God Mode Sue).

Seriously of all the reasons to complain about FU and FUII the dragging down of the Star Destroyer should be nowhere near the top of the list. Please tell me there was no mention of FUII's Battle of Kamino or its aftermath. That was IMO the dumbest part of the FU storyline by far.

Naw, they spoke of the game(s) in the most high level of terms, not really getting into the nitty-gritty like that. Secretly agent of the emperor, saved Mothma et al from the off the Death Star and so on. A brief mention of the Family Crest as rebel logo was about as detailed as they got.

PS2: Doctor Who 23rd August!

I wondered where these 'tossing star destroyers' references came from in the EU. Now I can focus my loathing on that piece of EU more precisely.

Good to see ya, Josep!

Meh, I'm happy to ignore all aspects of canon anyway. One benefit of rewriting the whole setup, for me.

I fully understand why Disney/Lucasarts need to apply a 'canon' considering they are bringing new movies out. They don't want to be constrained by 35+ years of fanfiction, but they don't want to alienate the EU fans either.

But I don't see why that should apply to a role-playing game. We can use - or not use - whatever elements we wish. So it really doesn't bother me whether it's in the books or not. I'll toss out anything I dislike, and use anything I like.

For me, Eff-You was the nadir of the EU, the very lowest scraping of the barrel. It was everything I disliked about the direction the franchise had taken in the last 20 years. In fact, it almost read like a retcon parody. If you wanted to make a satire of all the things that were wrong with the EU, it would look something like Eff-You.

I would say the same I use to say as always but... that everyone pick what he/she likes believes, like with canon chars stats.

Star Wars seems a pretty good open universe. The Force is a mystic god, a bacteria, an experiment from an extra-galactic specie called Celestial?

There is sufficient info and alternatives for almost everyone. Official and canon stats helps to understand the world, but are just a reference or a guide. Of course a canon puritan can come to my game and say "oh! killiks and rishi aren't canon...nerd!" my answer would be Force Unleashed abreviated XD And as I said I'm a canon lover! But I'm aware that we need more info to fill up the world.

If you are from the new or the old movies... just enjoy and have a great time with friends in this awesome space opera

PS: I loved the Force Unleashed joke XDD

Well, I don't know how good a friend he is but the actor Starkiller is modeled after and voiced seems to be a big fan of FFG and has made appearances of Order 66. Now the deeper story of FU was the fact that the Emperor ALLOWED the rebels to escape. See Palpatine is one crafty SoB and he didn't see the rebels as much of a threat because at that point it was just a bunch of whiny senators with no military muscle really. The reason he let Organa live is while he couldn't confirm or deny it Alderaan at one point and time was a major militant planet and they got rid of their weapons when they became pacifists. However, the people of Alderaan were not idiots and supposedly stored all their firepower onto a vessel and sent it to fly around the galaxy on automatic. If Palpatine had killed Organa right then he would of had rearmed Alderaan and had to deal with an actual threat. Also by showing them the awesome power of his Death Star he made have intimidated the members of the Rebellion to give up before they started. As for FU2 and the battle of Kamino it would of been the second battle as there was already the Clone Uprising that occurred in Battlefront 2. Again Palpatine probably let it slide just because he was tired of Vader screwing up and picking up speed. However, with that battle it showed the Emperor that the Rebels could be a credible threat and needed to be dealt with. Especially, if they captured Vader and tried to have him reveal all the Empire's secrets (btw in the novel that doesn't happen as Vader is rescued before he ever gets to the destination).

However, this is just speculation on my part as I have no issue with FU being part of the canon as long as the over the top OMG powers are not.

F-U is a fun game. It is kind of like Man of Steel the movie. I enjoy the movie and all of the explosions and fighting, but I don't consider him Superman. I don't think too much about the plot or the fact that Johnathan Kent wants to leave a bus of children to die. It would just make my head hurt. Force Unleashed is a fun ride you try not think about too hard because it will just hurt.

That said, it is not canon and Super Saiyan Starkiller does not exist in the Star Wars universe. Any reference to him in Age of Rebellion is obviously misinformation, a data fluk, or imperial propaganda. Also Jar Jar Binks obviously started the rebellion.

Just got my book last night. I like it and can't wait to play. I could care less about an of the FU/canon stuff because I can and will ignore whatever it is I don't like. I pretty much let my players know that the only thing I consider canon is the movies anyway.

I've heard some complaints about repeating races and this book being almost the same as EotE. I think this is kind of silly, as everyone knew there would be overlap and that this isn't an expansion. It is it's own game that is compatible with EotE.

Overall, I'm glad it's out, I'm glad I bought it. I like the art. I'm happy with careers, species and especially new ships and adversaries.

Feel free to continue whining. I'll be over there having fun.