Alright so I was at Barnes and Noble today looking at the Age of Rebellion core rule book, contemplating purchasing. I decided not too because except for a couple species, classes, and ships. It didn't seem to add more to me. Now I own EVERY edge book, and the group I play with we prefer the edge setting over fighting Rebel vs. Empire. Can someone tell me a reason to get the AoR book, and how it could better our game. Also are any of the other AoR books worth getting. I only briefly skimmed the book looking at species, weapons, and adversaries mostly. I want to by the book, but can't justify the price to myself. So give me pros and cons. Also would it just be better to get the AoR books excluding the Core rule book? I'm just really curious. Thanks everybody. (Side note, no intention to get it from Barnes and Noble, they were just the only local place with a physical copy)
Trying to convince myself AoR is worth it, need some help.
Our group are playing an edge game where the PC's work for The Black Suns gaining Duty in the process, so it's been great for that.
But unless you want to take your group in that direction, or need the enormous amounts of reference material, then don't bother.
On a side note different people in our group have committed to buying the different lines, 3 of us will each get 1 of the full lines, you could consider trying this
I suppose it does depend on whether or not you intend to run an AoR game in the first place. If you have no intention on running one, then it's probably not worth it. If you think you might start or migrate into one, then it's might be justifiable. As for the other AoR books, that depends. Desperate Allies offers plenty of cool weapons, armor and gear, but is scant with ships and vehicles and Far Horizons tackles many of the same rules, and is tailored for Edge players. Stay on Target definitely offers plenty to either game all around.
Well, pretty much the back half of the book is all new: planets, weapons, ships - whole buncha stuff. So I would say yes.
I guess if you dont want the fluff and color, you could get the Beta, probably for a song. You'll get all the stats for a reduced price.
I agree with RB and BB on this one, except there are more than just races, there are weapons, equipment, ships, and careers that can be utilized.
The races, equip, and ships speak for themselves, careers on the other hand, you take away the opportunity to play a Rebel or Imp that left those respective factions to live on the edge. Players leaving those 2 factions have the opprotunity to pick up obligation from leaving the other factions, and a brilliant backstory could be found by leaving those factions, along with awesome stories when they run into someone of those factions.
It is all up to you, but when RB says divide the purchase of the books up, I very strongly agree.
EDIT: Sorry Desslok you ninja-ed in on me but I agree strongly with you also.
Edited by OspreyDesperate Allies has a TON of fun weapons, armor, and gear for social characters. It also has expanded rules for protocol droids.
Stay on Target obviously benefits pilots, but also includes great rules for astromechs as well as beasts and mounts.
I play in an Edge game and GM another. I haven't used the AoR CRB much, but it has been nice for a ship here or there that isn't in EotE. I haven't compared gear lists yet to see how different they are.
I've found that I general prefer the feel of Edge over the other two lines for my Star Wars gaming. I do own all of the products in print (excepting the Force and Destiny Beta where I stick with my playtest PDF), but if I were tight on money, I'd just stick to the Edge line exclusively.
I'm NOT going to try and convince you to get AoR. There is a high degree of overlap between the books. If you have high disposable income by all means get it because it has new ships, a new Force power tree, better artwork and new adversaries. It's a polished and great game. But you already have one of those and the emphasis in AoR is different. EotE the careers, Obligation, the adversaries, etc. are all focused on criminals and other such grey characters. AoR is about rebels.
By all means get it if you can casually and you want it. It's also helpful to have a second copy of the rule book (though clearly a luxury). But if you're feeling the need to buy stuff, I would instead get one of the supplements. I have Stay on Target (you can always open up the specializations to other careers if you want) and Desperate Allies seems popular with some.
I will be getting the locations book for it when it comes out shortly.
Ultimately it is all up to you, how much freedom with weapons and careers and other equipment you want the players combine. There are people in real life that are content in staying where they are at and are just as happy as the people that have the entire set. I love the edge stuff and would rather just play there, but I also have AoR, and have had players go AWOL and use their AoR careers in Edge. Not mandatory to have everything and opinions are like armpits, everybody has them and most of them stink.
Well, pretty much the back half of the book is all new: planets, weapons, ships - whole buncha stuff. So I would say yes.
I guess if you dont want the fluff and color, you could get the Beta, probably for a song. You'll get all the stats for a reduced price.
Yup.. TBH you don't know where you'll be in 6 months,,, (you could still be playing EotE or not).
I've not read AoR, I've flicked through and know that one of the ship starting options in a small (very small) fleet of Y-Wings,,,you may take the AoR route..
IMO AoR and F&D should have been 'Core Supplements', not releases on their own and no doubt there's a long chat thread somewhere else about this...
Though we're playing an EotE campaign, two players found better career fits by taking the Ambassador and Sabateur specs at chargen. But you could get that info from the various printable Talent trees people in the communit have made. There's no compelling reason to have the AoR book, same as there's no compelling reason to buy any sourcebook. For the price, I think the AoR book easily has as much new info as a couple of sourcebooks, it just depends whether you're going to use any of it.
Well, pretty much the back half of the book is all new: planets, weapons, ships - whole buncha stuff. So I would say yes.
I guess if you dont want the fluff and color, you could get the Beta, probably for a song. You'll get all the stats for a reduced price.
IMO AoR and F&D should have been 'Core Supplements', not releases on their own and no doubt there's a long chat thread somewhere else about this...
Oh there is more than just one long thread on that, there are probably 5 or 6 long chat threads on this. So please instead of stating that opin here and hijacking the thread, go there and read them LOL. 
As for whether or not to get the AoR book...
If the GM is sticking with a purely EotE campaign, the only thing the AoR book offers to the players is some new species and some alternate starting career options that generally have more of a focus on combat prowess; 4 of the 6 offer Ranged: Light as a career skill, and there's a universal specialization that is all about taking a non-combat character and making them very combat capable while adding a bevy of combat skills as career skills. So if a player wants to make a character with a quasi-military background, AoR offers a number of options that aren't Hired Gun/Bounty Hunter or reliant upon picking up various non-career skills.
For the GM, the stats on various Alliance and Imperial ships are nice, but not necessary. A Star Destroyer is something an EotE group is going to flee from, and the TIEs presented in EotE work fine for most starship encounters.
Me, I'm a completionist, so every book published for this system, be it AoR, EotE, or FaD I'm going to buy it because I want the material and it helps support the system and thus leading to further books.
On the flip side, I know some folks that had zero interest in the EotE book, but chomped at the bit to pick up the AoR book and have been running games using just AoR with nary a glance at EotE material. And I'm sure there are groups that only want the Force and Destiny rulebook so that they can include proper Force users in their games with no intention of running a purely FaD campaign at any point in time.
It's ultimately a matter of taste. If you as the GM honestly don't see a need to include the AoR material into your games, then don't. The game was designed so that a group could freely pick and choose from the three game lines based upon what sort of game they wanted to run, as each line was meant to be able to stand on its own.
Here you go. $6 for the Age of Rebellion beta book. Comes with an adventure you can only get from the book, and hardly anything has changed since the last beta update.
FFG isn't going to loose the licensing anytime soon so I'd say don't get it until you feel you want to. EotE is pretty complete for what it is as it is. Besides I would imagine that used copies will stat to pop u up at some point or prices on Amazon will drop a bit in the coming years, you can always get it later.
I would say the AoR CRB may not be required, but skipping the AoR setting/career books would limit the amount of game play you can work with.
At the same time I see value in every little bit. The additional fluff of how to integrate a species into the alliance or the fringe. What ships should be available to a starting group, the talent trees and focus differences.
Soldier - Medic versus Colonist - Doctor
The differences are what makes Star Wars awesome. If you focus on "well that is just the same thing they just said" you miss the glaring differences that influence story writing.
Thanks guys, a lot of great suggestions. Think I'll talk to the others in my group and see if they want to go in and if not will probably pick up the beta and supplement books. Really appreciate all the input!
One thing I don't think anyone said that, for me, holds some value.
In the equipment section -- where players invariably spend most of their time post character generation -- the tables are just plain better. Easier to read, make more sense logically in how and when they're presented.
I will tell you save your money and buy the Force and Destiny core book instead, unless one of your player absolutly want to play a Mon Calamarian, 
because star wars without the force user is not star wars.
Vilainn6, or they can buy both and have a TON of wonderful ideas and settings and careers and races to work with!
More ships - Boo yah
More ideas how to integrate the Force - More boom for my buck
More options.
(no I do not work at FFG, I just enjoy the products and I have honestly used every single book in my games).
I will tell you save your money and buy the Force and Destiny core book instead, unless one of your player absolutly want to play a Mon Calamarian,
Is there no Force users in Edge?
Vilainn6, or they can buy both and have a TON of wonderful ideas and settings and careers and races to work with!
More ships - Boo yah
More ideas how to integrate the Force - More boom for my buck
More options.
(no I do not work at FFG, I just enjoy the products and I have honestly used every single book in my games).
On almost every page of every book I find myself inspired with ideas for new encounters, npc's, pc's and campaigns. There is so much in every book that in intangible and awesome!
Vilainn6, or they can buy both and have a TON of wonderful ideas and settings and careers and races to work with!
More ships - Boo yah
More ideas how to integrate the Force - More boom for my buck
More options.
(no I do not work at FFG, I just enjoy the products and I have honestly used every single book in my games).
On almost every page of every book I find myself inspired with ideas for new encounters, npc's, pc's and campaigns. There is so much in every book that in intangible and awesome!
Same here. I still didn't realize there are no force users in the edge core book though 
All three books have force users, AoR and EoE have the force sensitive exile/emergent which are specializations which allow you to dabble with the force where FaD is focused on the force. So unless you are planning a game with pure force users the biggest draw of FaD are the force power lists as it has a bigger selection. Personally I plan to have all three when I have the funds but that is me. As to AoR, again I would suggest it is only worth it if you want to run rebellion plots and even then you can do that with EoE. You could look at buying the other books at a later time as they are good but absolutely necessary, not really.