Hi, I'm new here, and this seemed like the best place to ask this question:

Edge of Empire, Age of Rebellion, and Force and Destiny are advertised as being truly cross-compatable, so what I'm wondering is how well do the games back up that promise? As somebody looking to get into the game, but primarily interested in the sorts of stories that can be told by basically mashing all three games together... Does everything basically break when you do that? Or have all three games been built along the general, same power-level?

Much appreciated, and sorry if I'm cluttering up the threads with this question.

~Yours

~TWP

Game balance-wise, there's pretty much no issues. EotE and AoR characters have no issue with FaD characters since Force-Sensitives need to worry about gathering Force Ratings, and spending XP on Force Powers, so it spreads them a little thin for a while until much higher XP levels.

The only potential problem is more of just making sure each player gets what they want in terms of story. So a person may roll up an EotE character in the hopes of smuggling, a person makes an AoR character because they want to hit the Empire, and a person make a FaD character because they want to start a new Jedi Order. Of course, there's nothing stopping players from rolling characters from the different books and having a more unified expectation of what they want from the game (so maybe they all want to be smugglers despite having a force-sensitive and somebody with soldier skills). But really this is the only potential hurdle in mashing books together.

Excellent. I have a group that's very haromious to begin with, so the motivation thing is less of an issue. My primary concern was power-level and interconnectivity, and it seems like that's not really an issue.

Whew. Thanks!

The entire game line was pretty much designed with the idea of a GM using all three books for a single campaign, so Lathrop's pretty much on the mark in terms of there being little issue of mechanical balance between characters from the three books.

That being said, each book does have a slightly different focus in what the PCs are capable. EotE PCs tend to have a broad range of skills that are best suited to surviving on the galactic fringe, both in terms of location and legality, and tend to have a pretty broad range of career skills to start with. AoR PCs tend to generally have more of a combat focus to them, being that they're meant to be fighting the Empire. FaD PCs (at least in my view) tend to be in something of a mid-ground, but also having access to various Force talents and Force powers that can tip the odds in the FaD PC's favor. But in spite of two years of people being afraid that FaD characters were going to dominate the game once the book was published, FFG has thus far managed to avoid. I and several others here have played a FaD character in a campaign that featured PCs from AoR and EotE, and mechanically they all got along pretty well. The FaD characters might seem a little more powerful at first glance, but again as Lathrop noted those characters are quite likely to be spending their XP on purchasing and improving Force powers, where AoR/EotE PCs will be able to spend that same XP on their skills and talent trees.

In terms of group dynamics, it sounds like that's not an issue for the OP, but it is something for other groups to think about. Star Wars RPGs from WEG up through Saga Edition have had issues with Force users, particularly the Jedi crowd, all but hogging the spotlight from the rest of the group. Part of that issue was mechanical imbalance once the Jedi PCs became reasonably competent, but part of it also was that a lot of GMs tend to create their adventures with the Jedi characters more at the forefront; some of the blame in recent times can be placed on the more recent Star Wars media, as The Clone Wars was generally all about the Jedi leads, and Star Wars Rebels is placing a lot of the focus on Ezra and his path to becoming a Jedi (see the three most recent episodes, from Empire Day up to Path of the Jedi for a prime example of this). While such focus works for other media, it generally doesn't hold up for the RPGs due to the need for a group dynamic and most of the other players wanting their time in the spotlight. A Force user can make for a far more dynamic character, particularly if they're wielding a lightsaber, and it can be hard for other players to feel they can compete with that sort of character.

Personally, I generally tend to "hang back" when playing a Jedi-type and only step up with lightsaber in hand if the situation really calls for my PC to do just that. More often than not, the other PCs have skills and talents that make them far better suited to overcoming an obstacle in an encounter; trying to use the Force to solve every challenge can wind up becoming no different than using a sledgehammer to solve all your problems. And besides, why use a mind trick for a brief deception when there's a Colonist who can twist those Imperials around his finger with a few well-chosen words? Yeah, the Enhance power might give you a boost to Piloting checks once you've bought the proper Control Upgrades, but odds are that Ace in the group is going to be able to do things with a starship that you'll never be capable of matching thanks to the various talents she's picked from her career. And yes the Move power can cause a lot of damage and tear up the scenery, but it's also incredibly obvious, so allowing the team's slicer to disable the door's electronic locks has the same end result but doesn't leave blatant evidence that there's a Force user on the rampage.

As far as I'm concerned, there's only one system. FFG has packaged it as 3 independent games, but it's pretty much just marketing. To me, it's just The FFG Star Wars RPG.

The only place where things kind of turn into a gordian knot is the Duty vs Obligation vs Morality. Not that the three systems conflict or anything, but more that it's a lot of data to keep track of, and a lot of rolling at the beginning of the game. I would probably pick one and go with that.

Otherwise? Completely, seamlessly compatible.

The only place where things kind of turn into a gordian knot is the Duty vs Obligation vs Morality. Not that the three systems conflict or anything, but more that it's a lot of data to keep track of, and a lot of rolling at the beginning of the game. I would probably pick one and go with that.

Otherwise? Completely, seamlessly compatible.

dont roll at the beginning. roll at the end. Then you know what to plan for at the next session. You roll someones bounty obligation you can write that into the session instead of trying to shoehorn it in.

Eh, that's still three data points that I have to track - and really, only one of them thrills me (from a story telling standpoint). I'd still be inclined to ditch them all but Obligation.

Thank you, everyone. This is great news.

Now, of course, I just have to figure out the game's unique dice. They give me a wee bit of a headache.

Thank you, everyone. This is great news. Now, of course, I just have to figure out the game's unique dice. They give me a wee bit of a headache.

I've got your back on this...

From a player point of view:

Green, yellow and blue > Purple, red and black.

If it makes you feel better, it became pretty easy to read them - well, at least being able to quickly match up threat and advantage, success and failure for the final amount. Mind you, interpreting them - that's something else all together. If I need anywhere to work on, it's coming up with cool and interesting interpretations on the rolls beyond "You take some strain".

Thank you, everyone. This is great news. Now, of course, I just have to figure out the game's unique dice. They give me a wee bit of a headache.

I've got your back on this...

From a player point of view:

Green, yellow and blue > Purple, red and black.

You can try the Dice APP. Some people prefer it because it simplifies the roll counts for yeah.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=220

one thing that can be helpful is start with a group template. Its an idea from Fear the Boot Podcast. Basically you start by discussing what the group will be before you make characters and you figure out why they stick together etc. before you make characters.

No matter how daunting the dice may appear to be or how many are on the table,

the easiest way to view it is knowing that among the dice,there are only 6 symbols which you need to learn.

Success,Failure,/Advantage,Threat,/Triumph,Despair.

The last die (the Force die has specific use ),and has only two uses so far.

To determine the number of destiny tokens and to use force powers.

Donovan summed it up perfectly.

We are starting to have characters from one campaign join the other, and it's all blending in seamlessly. Keep 'em separate for story reasons, or use them all together - it's really all one game with different emphasis on the Fringe/Galactic Civil War/Force users.

I don't use Obligation/Duty/Morality but others have mentioned they can all work together.

Kudos to FFG for doing it this way - the games were never intended to represent different levels of power and FFG were anxious NOT to repeat the WH40K fiasco (which wasn't really their fault, but they took the lessons they learned from it and WHFRP3 and applied that with this game).

As for the special dice... That's an art, not a science, but it gets much easier after you've played a few games.