So what I am wondering is, can I create and play a character in EotE and then just drop him into an Age of Rebellion game?

Yes.

Yes, totally. You can mix and match anything, as long as the group is okay with it. My players have an Enforcer (EotE), Saboteur (AoR) and an Ambassador (AoR), but the campaign is very Edge/Smuggling oriented.

Mechanically there shouldn't be any major issues. One of the things that might come up are: How does Duty operate for your character.. is he considered to have a duty of 0 or the default level of duty for the game? That needs to be discussed with your GM.

The other would be, what brings your character into the group and doing missions for the rebellion? But that can make for some interesting story and narrative in it's own right.

That being said, if you're using the Obligation mechanic you should bear in mind it has a different impact on the game, but that can be a good thing in a mixed group.

But as I said above, the simple (and dare I say only?) answer to your question is simply: yes.

Thanks guys. That is really awesome that FFG made them able to mix like that.

So what I am wondering is, can I create and play a character in EotE and then just drop him into an Age of Rebellion game?

Luke Skywalker was an edge character dropped into an AoR game btw.

As others have said there is the "duty" versus "obligation" mechanic, but really it doesn't have to affect the other Players at all. You can send money/or whatever your duty is to the rebellion and they don't have to ever help you at all with that. Conversely if they decide to help the rebellion, at that point Duty should be added for them so they can get bonuses too.

It is a pretty easy endeavor for any GM really. If they have issues it is more due to misunderstanding the game.

I only use the Obligation mechanic (and really only for chargen) for the current campaign. Though the careers in AoR were a better fit for the player's desired capabilities, the setting and their role is definitely more edgy. Though I might introduce the Duty mechanic if things continue on the current track, which is to turn these guys into Rebels...

So what I am wondering is, can I create and play a character in EotE and then just drop him into an Age of Rebellion game?

Luke Skywalker was an edge character dropped into an AoR game btw.

Certain point of view.

You can just as easily have him an F&D character in an Edge game.

Now Han... yeah Edge Character in an AoR campaign, no question.

So what I am wondering is, can I create and play a character in EotE and then just drop him into an Age of Rebellion game?

Luke Skywalker was an edge character dropped into an AoR game btw.

Certain point of view.

You can just as easily have him an F&D character in an Edge game.

Now Han... yeah Edge Character in an AoR campaign, no question.

That is trolling for an argument about how to build Luke, which there was already a YBTC about that, no need to rehash it and destroy this thread.

I only use the Obligation mechanic (and really only for chargen) for the current campaign. Though the careers in AoR were a better fit for the player's desired capabilities, the setting and their role is definitely more edgy. Though I might introduce the Duty mechanic if things continue on the current track, which is to turn these guys into Rebels...

One thing I've been considering as an interesting way of approaching this is to gather a group of players which will hopefully make varied types of characters ranging across the three different systems, so each would have their appropriate mechanic. Then run primarily published materials but sort of use the triggering of obligation, duty, etc.. help determine which one to play next.

Admittedly, as I type this out I realize various problems.. like what do you do if a duty and an obligation trigger? But still, I find the idea of starting off with the EotE beginner game and the bonus adventure to get a ship and have a bit of fun making it their own and from there move them through various adventures for the different systems could be pretty interesting.

Honestly I find all three Obligation/Duty/Morality mechanics tedious to think about post chargen. It puts too much of a mechanical imposition on the story development. At best it could be useful if I'm totally out of ideas, but that hasn't happened yet...

Morality is a bit different, I just don't like the concept of a justice scale, where little good deeds counter little bad deeds. Your character shouldn't be rewarded for living average lives or helping little old ladies after stealing a candy bar, they should only be rewarded for staying true to a moral ethic when doing so makes things difficult or even life-threatening.

Sorry, that's a bit OT, but one thing led to another...

they should only be rewarded for staying true to a moral ethic when doing so makes things difficult or even life-threatening.

This I do agree with as well. It should only really be a reward when there is effort involved in actually sticking with your morals. If there isn't a risk of some kind then it's not really character impacting. Similarly, penalty shouldn't happen for every little thing but the conscious choice to give in to the weakness present for your morality.

IMHO. Yes, you can plug a character from one game into another with little extra work from the GM. The biggest extra work is deciding on if any or all of the Obligation/Duty/Morality mechanics would be used.

However, I feel that a GM should think about it some before just accepting everything. The base careers are built with some assumptions based upon the game system. EotE is less about combat and more about being scoundrels on the fringe of society. What this means is that more of the careers do not have combat skills because you're supposed to talk your way out of a problem as often as fighting your way out. AoR is about fighting a war, which means more (all?) of the careers have combat skills because you are actively fighting Imperials. FaD is all about Jedi, so it's a whole different ball of wax.

I feel that EotE and AoR are fairly interchangeable. It all depends on how much talking/combat the GM expects. Because everyone has force powers in FaD, I'd stress that the GM think long and hard before allowing a character from that line into the other two. Is it cool that the force user is always throwing around force powers or should they be hidden to avoid detection on the fringe? Will they get access to a lightsaber or will that call too much unwanted attention? I feel that the force user careers are a slightly different power level then the rest of the games and if a GM or players aren't careful then things can go out of whack.

Jamwes, you bring up a good point. If you are judging by fluff and feel, there may be some compatibility hiccups, but mechanically, the three should integrate just fine.

They are fully compatible, but it may be like tying three cats together.

I've played in a few "mixed" games, including a Slot Zero for GM Chris' "Ghosts of Memory" module, which had PCs from all three books and implemented Duty, Obligation, and Morality (pre-Final Beta Update) just fine. Duty for that module was tweaked to apply to the Sector Rangers, so a GM could very easily do the same for their campaign and shift Duty from applying to the Rebel Alliance to applying to some other large quasi-military organization without any notable difficulty. Another example might be House Organa as detailed in Saga Edition's Force Unleashed Campaign Guide, which (at the time) served as something of a starting point for the yet-to-be formed Rebellion, and was the de-facto agency to which the PCs playing through the Dawn of Defiance module were ascribed to be a part of.

Morality is mostly something for the Force users to contend with, and unless you've got one or more psychopaths in the party, the actions of the rest of the group shouldn't have too drastic of an effect on the Force and Destiny characters, since a large part of the suggested Conflict penalties are focused upon that PC's actions.

Force and Destiny PCs do start off with Force powers, some of which can be problematic as the PC invests more and more of their XP into it, with Move (damage output once you go beyond Silhouette 1) and Influence (mind trick against NPCs with crap for Discipline) being fairly prominent, and amusingly being in place as of EotE. FaD PCs are balanced not only by an overall lack of combat skills (Guardian and Warrior have Brawl and Melee respectively, while Seeker gets Ranged: Heavy) but by not having as many trained skills to start with as well as fewer base career skills, which works out to roughly be the 20 XP that an EotE or AoR PC would have to burn to become Force-sensitive via Force Exile or Force Emergent.

Things get a tad thornier where lightsabers are concerned, but FaD toned down the power of lightsabers significantly and the bulk of the specializations that focus on being a badass with a lightsaber don't provide the Force Rating talent. There's one exception, but it doesn't provide either of the counterattack talents the other lightsaber-based specs offer as it's balance point (as well as the Force Rating talent being pretty well buried in the tree).

If anything, the three books seem to have their own approach to combats:

EotE - try to avoid getting into fights as often as you can by any means necessary.

AoR - you're going to get into fights, so take them out before they take you out.

FaD - you're probably going to get into fights more than you'd like, but you can probably outlast your opponents.

Of course, it also helps that unlike the WH40K system that FFG inherited, their Star Wars system was meant to be inter-compatible (and in fact they probably anticipated that folks would want to mix all three games) from the ground-up. So you won't see nearly as much inter-system incongruities as you would with the WH40K system or White Wolf's Classic World of Darkness (kinda telling that their advice on cross-overs between systems was "don't try it").

Don't forget you also have the mechanics such as those presented in sourcebooks that cross over as well, such as the reputation scales presented in the Smuggler career book, or homesteads etc...

So what I am wondering is, can I create and play a character in EotE and then just drop him into an Age of Rebellion game?

As long as your ST is cool with it, the rules are basically 98% compatible. I'd ask whether using a Career from another line is allowed first and foremost instead of assuming it though.