Hi,

I own the SW EotE core rule book and I have been wondering if it was worth the investment to buy also the AoR crb. For this reason I went to my bookstore and checked up the AoR book. After this, I ended up with the conclusion that 50 € (I have no clue how many $ or £ does it cost in other countries) is too much money for the new material I would get. Similarly, people owning the AoR crb may wonder if it is worth the investment to buy the EorE crb. Actually, it may also be the case for the forthcoming book of Force & Destiny.

I am asking myself if someone else is in the same situation, and which would be a good compromise between customers and FFG. The two natural answers I came with were one, to release an AoR and EotE sourcebooks (that is a book like AoR crb but without the mechanics or other duplicate stuff you find in EotE / AoR); the second, would be to release some kind of pdf material, but they cannot do that.

This is a purely theoretical exercise, because we know it won't happen but... Do you have any ideas / suggestions on how FFG could do this?

Cheers,

Yepes

There are online stores that may offer it for less, but (depending upon your location) shipping might be expensive.

Due to the idea of them wanting 3 product lines that can stand alone, I can't see how anything like what you are talking about fits their plan. On the other hand why they came up with a plan to alienate people like this is beyond me. From what I can tell there isn't a single group that wants to be limited to one of the three product lines. Everyone given the opportunity wants to participate in the whole of Star Wars not just a little niche. So the idea of the three sets being splat books versus separate core rule books fits what the customer wants. But alas that ship has sailed and their business plan has it separated.

From a purely monetary aspect though, I am not sure how much regular stuff costs where you are at, but the CRBs in the United States seem to go for around 50 bucks, and that is equivalent to a movie with 3 or 4 friends plus sodas. Being that a CRB gives me more than just the 1 "movie worth" of value, even if half is regurgitated, it is worth it. Treat it like the Total Recall remake, or the Robocop remake.

At the end of the day, the EotE CRB has been out the longest and even at a discount it seems to hover only 7 dollars shy of full price on Amazon, I don't see the AoR CRB being horribly cheap anytime soon.

Tips to save money:

Buy the beta softcover CRB for Age of Rebellion from retailers or ebay. they can be found cheap. (You can find any changes to the rules on this forum.)

For Force and Destiny-- buy the beta from FFG online store when it becomes available, or wait until after the hardcover is released.

I honestly don't feel FFG is looking to steal people's money, I think it was simply how they wanted to present the products. You need look no further than the fact they allow some pretty slick spec Talent sheets be posted on this forum. Those specs are probably about 90% of the reason you would want AoR, Duty is interesting but it is hardly essential. F&D is going to be a bit beefier in mechanics simply by the likely expansion of the Force and however they cover Lightsabers, so that would be a more attractive buy I would expect, easier to justify cost.

I actually saved the money and snagged AoR and an extra copy of EotE (as my copy has seen a lot of love in the past year). I've been comparing the two recently as I'm trying to learn about how to tie them into the game, and there are a few differences.

That said, here's the breakdown for you:

==Why By The New Books==

1) New Talent Trees.

2) New Mechanics for campaigns (Duty vs Obligation) and how they tie to the other versions.

3) New vehicles, vessels and gear unreleased in previous books. (AoR has military ships and the equipment list includes mines).

4) New rules! This includes new talents, force powers, new actions/maneuvers (AoR has some nice ones for ships), and more.

==Why Not to Buy The New Books==

1) Redundant information: there's a lot that's repeated.

2) The Updates over the course of the beta can give you some useful information to work with.

3) The Talent Trees are freely reproduced, so they can be found online at no cost.

==Cost-effective Alternatives==

If you can't snag all the new books, here's a few ways to save cash at your table.

1) For core rulebooks, go for the Beta. Yeah, they're not as nice (not as much art) or sturdy (softcover instead of hardcover), but you'll get all of the rules and the errata updates as you go. You'll basically get the book for half price if you're able to act fast enough to grab it.

2) For splatbooks, snag what you really want for your own collection and leave the rest out. It can be a hindrance, but with how narrative and open the rules are, you can work without them.

3) If a player REALLY wants to have those new specializations, ships, or gear, ask them to purchase it for the table. The book is still theirs, but it's open information at the table.

I've had some players during my Star Wars d20 days go out and buy their own splatbooks because they read a review about a prestige class they really, really wanted to play. One guy even went out and bought the Arms and Equipment Guide since he really wanted more than a generic blaster to use for his Soldier.

Some players are better of financially than others, and can make things like this happen.

4) Pool the table's resources and get the book. My friends and I did this in college and it (usually) worked out. The general gist is to get everyone to toss in money and buy it for the table. This way, if the book is disliked, no one is out a few hours/a day's/two-week's worth of pay for the single book.

This was also a way I snagged a few out of print books: we pooled out resources, got it, I ran it, and the other players "sold" (some took the full price, some discounted, one guy just gave it to me) their shares to me so I owned the book after things were done.

5) Hint at your gaming table that you'd really like to bring it in. Some tables might be willing to do option #4 on this list, while others might just get money together to buy it as a gift.

I was running an off-and-on game (again, during my college days) and one of the players decided to order one of the books for me as a Christmas gift as he knew I wouldn't buy it for myself (and he really, REALLY wanted to use some of the rules in it).

6) Buy Used. It doesn't always work, but it's an option if you're not in a hurry to get those rules. Note that if you wait too long and the books go out of print, you'll be waiting a while until they're affordable again (there are still books on my Old RPG Wish List that cost more than my monthly car insurance).

Good luck and happy gaming!

For me, a big perk of having both is to have two copies of the rules at the table. My group doesn't buy a copy of the rules a piece. So, having the extra books to pass around in a fight helps things move. When planning, I also can have two rules sections open at once.

Yes, having a second copy of the core rules for table reference is a nice perk, and for me would be the main reason I'd get AoR if I do. But right now my plan is to stick with EotE and most likely get F&D just because I am hopeful there will be a decent amount of unique material in it.