Hi All,

Got a group interested in starting a new P&P campaign, and I suggested the FFG SW RPG... which has now made me the de facto GM (again).

My question for the group: which book (or setting? Not sure best word choice) works as the best intro? Or which books work best together? Would it make sense to give the players access to all three of the source books when it comes to character creation, or is that not effective?

I'm not worried about labor on my end, per se, and I have the three main books, I just don't know the system well enough to know how well characters from Age of Rebellion work with, say, Edge of the Empire. Does a mix cast work with the pre-gen missions? Does the system easily support custom missions?

Sorry if these seem like basic/mundane questions. We've got extensive experience with D&D (from 2nd to 5th editions) and Pathfinder, but the D20 experience may be more of a handicap than anything, and I want to try and get as much info up front as possible.

EDIT: Sorry, meant books, not PDFs. I'm not used to having physical copes of my source books, I usually buy Pathfinder PDFs. But I love Star Wars enough that just having these on my shelves is worth it. The fact that I might actually have folks interested in playing is awesome! But I will need to grab a couple more, because I only have the Cores.

All the books work well together. Depends on the story you want to tell and the characters your players want to play!

Try an episode 0 with them to gauge their interest and see which of the three they're most interested in.

Start off say by asking what Star wars character is their favourite and then ask what their favourite science fiction TV series is.

If enough answer Firefly then suggest Edge of the Empire

If they love The Clone Wars series consider Force & Destiny if Jedi are their thing.

If they suggest Star Wars Rebels suggest Age of Rebellion.

Only consider a mix if they really fancy running something specific to that book but most importantly keep it simple and have fun!

That last one is especially important!

No problem man! Everyone needs to learn from someone.

I run all three books. There is a section in AoR about how duty and obligation work together, it's worth a read. If you want you can also scrap one or the other and just work with one if you think doing both is too cumbersome. Morality is a different beast than duty or obligation but there is a section in FaD that deals with how it can integrate into the other two systems.

Personally I use both duty and obligation on all my characters and only the Jedi uses morality in addition to the other two.

It really depend if your players want to play criminals, soldiers, Jedi or a mix of the 3.

Well, my plan is to poll the players and see what they'd prefer (in terms of theme, not class specifics). If they all go hard one way and want to have a Firefly setup in Star Wars, we'll do that. If they're split, that's when I'll look into more rules and such. But I knew each book uses a different pool, and I wasn't sure if they worked well together.

Would it make sense to have a group on a YT-2400 w/ an X-Wing pilot (ship included?) backed up by a Jedi, working jobs on the outer rim? I guess I'm feeling there's a conflict of character interest, even before you get to dice. How could a fighter pilot fare in a group where he'd be the ONLY fighter option? ... Or does that happen in Rebellion anyway?

... I guess I just have some more reading to do when I get home. And pay special attention to the crossover notes.

Would it make sense to have a group on a YT-2400 w/ an X-Wing pilot (ship included?) backed up by a Jedi, working jobs on the outer rim? I guess I'm feeling there's a conflict of character interest, even before you get to dice. How could a fighter pilot fare in a group where he'd be the ONLY fighter option? ... Or does that happen in Rebellion anyway?

I wouldn't sweat it too much until I knew what the players were thinking.

If you really want to sweat it though: Be kinda careful about including a lone fighter pilot. It can be done but the issue is small vehicles like starfighters are statted a bit too realistically in the game. So one or two solid laser blasts and the fighter pilot may be out of play.

That said, it can be done, but the GM will have to carefully plan encounters and occasionally pull punches to make it work. If you're one of these "the stats say it has missiles, so they all have missiles" types, you may not want to go this route.

On the up side, 1) the EotE core basically says you can do a Phantom-Ghost thing if you want, no need for special mods and attachments. and 2) The Smuggler:pilot and Ace:Pilot are nearly identical, so you can start with the pilot using the (much more forgiving) freighter while he gets the hang of it and then use the Fighter down the road. Only really high performance fighters like the A-wing need one of the specialty pilot Specs to really make the most of them.

On the up side, 1) the EotE core basically says you can do a Phantom-Ghost thing if you want, no need for special mods and attachments. and 2) The Smuggler:pilot and Ace:Pilot are nearly identical, so you can start with the pilot using the (much more forgiving) freighter while he gets the hang of it and then use the Fighter down the road. Only really high performance fighters like the A-wing need one of the specialty pilot Specs to really make the most of them.

Oohh.. Which page/chapter?

But I knew each book uses a different pool, and I wasn't sure if they worked well together.

They do. Technically I'm running an EotE campaign, but I have an Ace:Pilot, Diplomat:Ambassador, and Hired Gun:Enforcer in my group. The first had a military background (Obligation due to being framed for an operation in which innocents died), second had a political background (campaign manager for a local politician who got caught up in a corruption scandal), and third had a criminal background (accused of selling out his gang leader).

The careers are just a fluff wrapper around an archetype. All three core-book careers can be used with any of the core books, just tailor the backstory appropriately.

As other have said you can mix and match all the books, you just have to be careful with the obligation/duty/morality mechanics. i recommend picking either obligation/duty and keep morality exclusive for force users, if it helps the current game I'm running I mostly a AoR campaing, but has the following PCs:

- Corellian Smuggler (pilot/charmer), whose familiy had problems with a the mob and got turned over to the empire.

- Human bounty hunter, who had always been in touch with the force, and now is starting to recibe formal jedi training (Assassin/Force Emergent/Shadow)

- Twi'lek ex-slave dancer, now a mechanic in service of the Rebellion Mechanic/Entertainer.

- Mon Calamari Soldier (Commando/Medic/Heavy) who was trained in the rebellion

- Wookie Commander of the Rebel Alliance, that is a veteran from the Clone Wars that saw the Order 66 (Squadron Leader/Peacekeeper). He knew was Force Sensitive for a long time, but was too old for Jedi training back in the day.

You can see that we have specs from all books and it works great

On the up side, 1) the EotE core basically says you can do a Phantom-Ghost thing if you want, no need for special mods and attachments. and 2) The Smuggler:pilot and Ace:Pilot are nearly identical, so you can start with the pilot using the (much more forgiving) freighter while he gets the hang of it and then use the Fighter down the road. Only really high performance fighters like the A-wing need one of the specialty pilot Specs to really make the most of them.

Oohh.. Which page/chapter?

EOTE Core, Pg 258, The "Starfighters and Freighters" breakout box in the lower right corner.

"most freighters have exterior clamps to haul one or two fighters through hyperspace"

If you want something more black and white, the Citadel's description calls out specifically that it does have clamps for 2 fighters in the first paragraph on page 261.

Thanks a lot!

I love the Citadel. Seems like a great ship overall..