Hello!

If this has to any degree been answered before, links would be great. I searched around a bit and didn't find much.

I'd like to get the community's thoughts on what I might buy next as I venture into this seemingly really fun Star Wars RPG. I got the Edge of the Empire core book for christmas, that's all I have. I've contemplated buying the beginner game(unsure which one, read onwards) since it's barely twice as much as a dice pack, which it comes with, but it looks like a genuinely good primer too, I'm bracing to run games with people not too familiar with RPG's.

I've examined Age of Rebellion too, which I think just might end up being my favorite of the trinity of core books.

So for purposes of building a library where everything can be used with everything else to the fullest, what next? Should I snag Age of Rebellion right away and simultaneously expand a sourcebook at a time, alternating between Edge and Rebellion? Maybe pick up some stat decks? Backpedal a bit to one of the beginner games for the minimal investment they are? If so, any (less obvious) reasons to buy either beginner game?

Thanks in advance!

Get AoR if you can. The supplements are awesome (I own everything except the decks which don't add anything at all) and the beginner boxes are a great resource, but nothing tops the Core Books. They offer so many new avenues for story telling.

I'd recommend the Sector Supplements next. Powerful resources. Suns of Fortune and Lords of Nal Hutta are worth their cost. That or one of the beginner games. It comes with tokens, maps, a free dice set, an adventure which can just as easily be run for a more experienced group or newbies alike, and leads into another free adventure which is available on the respective 'Support' tabs for the individual beginner boxes.

Then, be picky with the career supplements you get. They are all awesome, but if you are strapped for cash, only go for what your group actually wants.

Good luck, and happy nerding!

Since you already have the core, I might have said the Beginner Game would be redundant. But if you don't have any dice yet, and if your players are new to RPGs, it's definitely the way to go. Lots of value for the dollar there, and as Serif said, there's a downloadable continuation to that adventure.

But it's not gonna be long until you want everything...

everything...

Everything....

AoR might be the most bang for your buck. Several new careers, specializations, species, equipment, ships! I think that's the way to go.

I'll also echo Serif Marak. The sector sourcebooks are awesome for a GM. They come with new species for your players but pages upon pages of fluff for the GM to work with. And those modular encounters are super nice to thicken up your adventures.

Edit: Now that the Force and Destiny Beta period has ended, you may want to check out the beta book. It's very inexpensive and comes with lots of new material All of the careers are Force related, but the species and equipment are universal (mostly. There are lightsabers and Force relics).

AoR CRB is probably your best bang for your buck, and having 2 CRB's for character creation purposes is very handy. the GM screens have some nice adventures in them too. But to get new players up and running the Beginner box's are defiantly the way to go.

Which Beginner box to get comes down to what style of game you and your players want to play. A rebellion strike team, or a band of smugglers? there are also free downloads that extends the Beginner boxes from FFG long arm of the hut (for EotE) or operation shadow point (for AoR)

lots more dice is great too, passing dice around the table can get annoying and slow the game down. when everyone has dice then they can be building dice pools out of turn, speeding things up a lot.

the beginner box's have great introductory adventures, maps (the only printed ones you will get from FFG), but the pre-gen PC's are a watered down version of whats in the CRB. if your an experienced GM consider letting the players create there own, or make it clear that these PC's will be retired at some point and new ones created.

for the career supplements i would consider encouraging the players who would like to use them to contribute to the group by buying them themselves.

You want it all.

I'm very surprised to see so many people advocating AoR. I strongly advise against it. There's a lot of overlap on the rules, the equipment, setting material. It's lovely to have of course, but for the price of AoR you could get a regular supplement of entirely new material that would be a lot more immediately relevant to a starting game - and enough left over for a pack of dice! Suggestions that AoR is good because it contains new careers and specializations, well... Honestly, you have a lot of gaming ahead of you before your PCs are hitting their third specialization (unless they're crazy) and there are plenty in EotE to keep them going till then. And the EotE ones are more appropriate to an EotE game too, if you're keeping with the theme of that book.

AoR is also - and I want to emphasize this - a compatible game system, not the same game system. The Duty mechanics are different to the Obligation mechanics, the careers and specializations overlap quite a lot with the EotE ones (though they are different!). The emphasis of the two games IS different. If you're just starting up an EotE game, I would say not to dilute it with AoR right now.

Really, don't buy AoR as your first supplement! It's lovely but it should be way down your list.

The Beginner Set wont be a BAD buy. If you need more dice it immediately becomes a much more valuable proposition, it contains a simple introductory adventure and general shiny stuff such as pre-gen character sheets with artwork, etc. With regard to dice, I found that a single set is okay to play with for low-level characters, but it's really nice to have two sets. So you might want to keep that in mind for your decision about the Beginner set.

If you don't get the Beginner set as your first choice, you might want to consider buying an adventure book as they make great guides to creating your own. Beyond the Rim is good. Jewel of Yavin is great - but *not* appropriate for starting characters so avoid it for now unless you have the money to throw around. It's good to read and great setting material, but as an adventure your PCs will need some good experience under their belt before tackling it.

If you don't want to buy prepared adventures, you're looking at either one of the setting books or a career book. I would probably recommend Suns of Fortune to be honest. If you're starting off a new campaign, it contains a lot of what you might want - great setting material, modular encounters, a surprising number of things that bite and claw and just generally is an excellent product. Lot cheaper than AoR, too!

The new Hutt sourcebook is now out and looks lots of fun. I haven't yet got my copy so I can't recommend it. However it looks extremely promising and should fit in really well with most EotE games being the general Hutt / Crime book. I'm almost inclined to recommend it simply on its promise, but having not seen it in person yet, I cannot do that.

Of the career books, they're all good (haven't seen Fly Casual yet, of course). They are focused on those careers so when you buy Dangerous Covenants you're buying something that is mainly applicable to Hired Gun characters, but they're good nonetheless and they contain GM advice appropriate for each career - such as how to build a game around mercenaries or explorers or whathaveyou. I honestly can't recommend any one of them over the others as it really depends on what PCs you have and what sort of direction you want to take your campaign. Enter the Unknown is my particular favourite, but really it's too individual to choose. I will say that they're all very good, however.

So to summarize, I would recommend Beyond the Rim if you want an adventure, or if not get Suns of Fortune or Lords of Nal Hutta. Both are setting rich books filled with fun things you can use right away. If you haven't yet got some dice, the Beginners set may be a good choice. But if you were talking about spending AoR levels of money, I think I would probably go for one of the setting books and a dice pack instead. Up to you - FFG haven't yet published a bad supplement for EotE, imo. But the career books are focused on those careers so keep that in mind if considering those.

I hope this helps.

I second just about everything that knasserll says, especially the warning about not starting off with Jewel of Yavin. That was the first supplement that I bought, and while I love the story and concept, it's going to be a long, long time before I get to incorporate it into my game--if I ever get to.

Between Suns of Fortune and Lords of Nal Hutta, I think it's really going to depend on what type of game you and your players are interested in. I see the two books as almost mirror opposites with LoNH being the twisted dark half. LoNH will be extremely helpful if your players are looking to be "bad guys"; that's not all it's good for, but it really caters toward criminals and folks with a certain moral ambiguity. It reads very much like the book assumes you're either playing a Hutt or working for a Hutt.

SoF, on the other hand, is a little bit, well, sunnier. There is plenty of seediness and crime you can get up to, but that element doesn't dominate the text. I also think the modular encounters in SoF are more varied and more interesting.

I like the Talent decks.

My players are new to the system. They are all experienced role-players but haven't quite conquered the dice, much less exploiting extra maneuvers, or talents.

When I first got the appropriate specialization decks for their characters, they were hesitant to use them, since the spell decks or powers decks for previous editions of D&D were handled better as part of the character sheet.

But now, the players ask for them at the beginning of each session just to serve as a reminder of what they can do. And it doesn't tie up the book when a question about a talent comes up.

If you are focused on an edge type game then my suggestion would be the beginners box and two extra sets of dice. There is a great deal of player made assistance that can help with talents and what not. I found having two sets of dice to share between three people works great. Any less than this and we began to struggle putting dice pools together and it is hard to share a set of dice with more than three people.

Play through the beginner game and the free downloadable PDF to get everyone comfortable with the rules. This will likely give you a couple months to save up some more cash and you will have a better idea of what direction you want to go with future purchases.

Like several people have said, as a GM, I'd say the setting books and maybe the adventure books will be the most useful to planning your campaign.

As a player, the profession specific books probably make more sense. (And as a GM, encourage your players to pick up the ones specific to their characters' professions, and then be sure to borrow them to check them out. )

Besides the Core Rulebook, I have Suns of Fortune and Lords of Nal Hutta for their setting details and modular encounters (which have been great) and Lost Horizons for my Doctor PC. I've been very happy with all of the books so far.

Suns of Fortune was one of my better buys, overall - fantastic value for the price. Lords of Nal Hutta is going to be delivered Tuesday, and if it blows it out of the water I'll post again. If you really want to branch out into the other trees - AoR and F&D - the beta books are around, and fluctuate wildly in price (from 20 to 50 bucks). If you snag them at the right time, they might not be a bad choice - not a ton has changed, and the beta updates are still available on the old forums.

If you have a couple players who want the same career, you might think of picking up the career book for that one, to help them distinguish the characters. I'm well on my way to owning them all, and if you're in the same boat, it's just a matter of the order you get them in. I do second the recommendation of the GM kit, though - especially for EotE, it's really nice to have the screen with its handy quick references (I actually got both it and AoR so my players had a screen to reference too). It also comes with an adventure, the EotE one I've run and my players seemed to enjoy it.

I am gonna recommend you go with your own instincts here and start with the best value, by grabbing a Beginners Set, personally I recommend getting both AoR and EotE beginners boxes for the dice, bonus adventures and tokens and some nice starting adventures and follow up downloaded material.

The AoR Beginners box will also give you some unit profiles that were not in the EotE Core book which is nice as well, until you get around to purchasing the AoR Core book which I would recommend at some point.

After the Beginner's boxes I would recommend grabbing the AOR Game Master's Set, its a handy reference screen plus the optional Squadron rules included in the adventure contained is a nice plus. The AoR Core book would be my next buy either before or soon after.

Because Edge has more career sourcebooks and supplements out so far, my next priority would probably be those career books and regional books saving any adventure material for last. By the time your players get a lot of use out of the EotE career books, more career books for AoR should have been released and you will have another Force and Destiny Beginner's Box and Core book to look forward to, for fleshing out the more mystical Force based elements of your campaigns with.

Specialization and Advesary Decks would be the last thing I would buy, you can print out copies of the talent specialization pages for players to mark to their hearts content without spending the extra money, if you later want to invest in cards with pictures to go along with talent descriptions you could later or better yet a player could buy the sets for his own specializations if he wants.

I'd like to get the community's thoughts on what I might buy next as I venture into this seemingly really fun Star Wars RPG. I got the Edge of the Empire core book for christmas, that's all I have. I've contemplated buying the beginner game(unsure which one, read onwards) since it's barely twice as much as a dice pack, which it comes with, but it looks like a genuinely good primer too, I'm bracing to run games with people not too familiar with RPG's.

I've examined Age of Rebellion too, which I think just might end up being my favorite of the trinity of core books.

IMO, the boxed set is a good investment, since it comes with dice, prepackaged characters, an adventure, etc…. It makes a great first buy. And even if you don’t buy it first, I think it makes a great early buy. Play-wise, it introduces you to things as you need to learn them, and only gives you a little added complexity at each step.

Things change a little between the boxed set and the full CRB, however. They’re not quite 100% compatible, but once you understand the core game, it’s easy enough to adapt.

With regards to the core rulebooks, I think AoR is a little more polished than EotE, as they’ve had a chance to work out a few bugs and they’re writing for a setting that is more similar to the Original Trilogy movies.

So for purposes of building a library where everything can be used with everything else to the fullest, what next? Should I snag Age of Rebellion right away and simultaneously expand a sourcebook at a time, alternating between Edge and Rebellion? Maybe pick up some stat decks? Backpedal a bit to one of the beginner games for the minimal investment they are? If so, any (less obvious) reasons to buy either beginner game?

Speaking only for myself, I haven’t found much use for the Specialization Decks. I bought several, including all the specs that I figured my first character would use. I opened one of them.

For me, when I’m at the table, I don’t play with cards. That thought just doesn’t occur to me. Maybe if you were a huge MtG or Pokemon player, it would be different. But for me, those cards just aren’t useful.

As a GM, I believe that the Adversary decks are VERY useful, however. I can’t wait for FFG to publish a lot more Adversary cards.

In fact, it’s so hard for me to wait that I bought a copy of the AoR adventure book “Onslaught at Arda” and shipped that to a guy who is doing his own fan-made Adversary cards, just so that he could finish his set that much faster. His art isn’t nearly as pretty as the FFG art, but he’s got almost every known adversary in all the printed books.

With regards to buying Adventure books, or Region books, or Specialization books, I will have to say that I generally lean towards the latter two types of books and not so much towards the Adventure books. But then I’m a player who tends to be looking for the latest cool gear, the latest cool races, and so on.

For the Adventure books, if at all possible, I would suggest that you spend some time reading them at your FLGS before you actually buy any. The different books are aimed at different levels of PCs, and while there is a fair amount of adaptability towards handling more or less experienced parties, that only goes so far. In my experience “Jewel of Yavin” is probably one of the most advanced Aventure books that FFG has published so far, and if your party isn’t pretty experienced, then they’re likely to have a tough time getting through that one.

Beyond that, I think you need to know what kind of campaign you want to run. If that’s the Scum and Villainy type, then go with EotE. If you want to be in the Rebellion, then AoR. If you want to have lots of Force-users, then the FaD CRB is coming out soon.

Knowing what type of campaign you want to run will help you narrow down what resources for your library that you will want to focus on first.

I've examined Age of Rebellion too, which I think just might end up being my favorite of the trinity of core books.

Thanks in advance!

If you like Age of Rebellion why not pick up the Age of Rebellion Starter Box? If you and your friends enjoy that experience and want to continue your adventures you could then consider the AoR core rules.

The EotE core rules would not be completely wasted as you will have the races, careers and specialisations that can build up more variety to your game.

Mind you I think some of the answer to this question lies with your players and what they would like?

I like the Talent decks.

My players are new to the system. They are all experienced role-players but haven't quite conquered the dice, much less exploiting extra maneuvers, or talents.

When I first got the appropriate specialization decks for their characters, they were hesitant to use them, since the spell decks or powers decks for previous editions of D&D were handled better as part of the character sheet.

But now, the players ask for them at the beginning of each session just to serve as a reminder of what they can do. And it doesn't tie up the book when a question about a talent comes up.

I'll echo that. This is coming from someone who really dislikes wasteful extras, too. The cards are very helpful for some players because they can quickly look through and find what they want and what it does and use it. For some players its pretty meaningless. For a couple who are less... mentally organized, they're a great boon.

However, they are a luxury. I wouldn't put them on the same scale as SoF or LoNH.

I do second the recommendation of the GM kit, though - especially for EotE, it's really nice to have the screen with its handy quick references (I actually got both it and AoR so my players had a screen to reference too). It also comes with an adventure, the EotE one I've run and my players seemed to enjoy it.

How could I have forgotten the GM Kit ? Yes - get that if you don't have it. Extremely useful reference tool, a couple of nice rules additions and a small but fun little adventure. Strong recommendation.

I'm very surprised to see so many people advocating AoR. I strongly advise against it. There's a lot of overlap on the rules, the equipment, setting material.

There is a lot of overlap, but there is a lot different. Especially if the players want more options when creating their characters in the beginning. The core book is about twice the cost of a career book, so you need to get at least twice the crunch to justify the purchase.

Career typically has 3 species, AoR has around 6 different ones. Career has 3 trees and 2 signature ability trees, AoR has 6 careers with 3 trees each plus the 2 universal trees for 20 new trees. AoR has 2 more force powers. (Note, all of the force powers are in F&D.) All of the equipment is duplicated except in AoR the Carbine loses ability to be fired one handed and there are a couple new grenades. I'm not sure how many new vehicles and enemies are in AoR compared to a Career book, but there are a bunch in there. AoR also has a new adventure to run, if you're into canned adventures, while the Career books might have plot point examples or single encounters. I'm also not sure how the page count for pure fluff is compared between AoR and a typical Career book. (It should be noted on stuff that is duplicated that there is new fluff, such as species.)

I believe that the amount of crunch in AoR is justifiable for the cost when compared to two career books. Especially if you are thinking about getting a second rule book for the table so that the players and GM can both have one to refer to for the rules.

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With the above being said, I'll agree with knasserll that AoR may not be the best choice. It is a different game system, and I often scratch my head as to why a different rule set was needed, but it does have a different feel. AoR is the military game, so all of the careers are more combat capable, while EotE is for con-man or heist type capers. The GM should think about if they want more combat characters or ones who solve problems more through talking or other non-combat means. This comes down to the feel of the game that you want to play. Do you want to fight against the Empire or try to scratch out a (not always honest) living on the fringe?

If the players like the options in EotE, and the GM wants to keep the game to the Edge, then I would recommend getting the Career books for the careers they want to play. The Signature abilities will give them something to build towards. I'd recommend the Beginner boxes if you haven't bought dice yet and like running book adventures. I found mine for about half off or so, IIRC that meant that I paid for the dice and about $5 for the adventure, light/dark side tokens, and extra rule set for my table.

If you're looking for stuff to bring into your EotE game, then I'd stay away from F&D. I believe that easy access to Force powers and lightsabers isn't balanced in EotE or AoR.

My take: If you're the GM buy a beginner box AND a dice pack (or both he AoR and EotE boxes, as through Amazon, they're 20 bucks), and the die roller program if you have a tablet. Dice pols get odd quickly, and it is far easier to have 3 red dice than to reroll 1 red 3 times, and it makes combat go faster if you don't have to pass dice between players. In the edge game I play in, both the GM and the hired gun run off the tablet, while my wife and I run with the 3 sets of dice that occupy the middle of the table.

I'm in a EotE group and, I'm running AoR, so right now, my personal resources, excluding my EotE GM's dice sets are:

1 Age of Rebellion Corebook

1 Age of Rebellion Beginner Box

AoR: Stay on Target

1 Edge of the Empire Corebook

1 Force and Destiny Beta Corebook

But I could handle running with just a corebook and the die roller, the rest is just gravy. If you're the GM, I'd go with Core, Beginner Box and extra dice of some form or another, and focus on the setting books, allow the players to pick up the splats if they want, or get them yourself if you can see a use for them (I got Stay on Target for the Astromech rules and more Tie fighters, the fact the party Ace can use it is just a bonus).

As an Edge of the Empire player I do fine with a Corebook and a set of dice, but I'm dropping the coin on Fly Casual as my character is a smuggler.

Not to necro, but I have only recently gotten to fully processing all of the information here, the overwhelmingly helpful responses were certainly unexpected. I'll shoot a few PM's to a few of you in particular who helped the most, but more so with a couple minor remaining questions. Thanks again, a LOT!