Hi all,

I'm new to FFGs Star Wars RPGs and I'm trying to decide which to pick, my question is however, is it possible to combine characters from the other settings given how the core system is supposed to be the same?

Reason I ask is my group all have different preferences about what they'd like to be/ where they'd like to go within the Star Wars Galaxy. We were kinda hoping for something like a pre CU SWG where we could all be something different yet team up together to run missions.

Yes, everything is compatible. The biggest difference between the games is Obligation/Duty/Morality, but those mechanics don't contradict each other, only increase the paperwork a little.

They're designed to work together.

Yep. All compatible. Differences exist, but are not the type to cause problems.

Character mechanic: They all have a mechanic that allows the player to define character issues that can come into play. Edge has obligation, allowing the player to call in favors but also means favors can be called in on them...or bounty hunters...

Age has Duty: personal military goals, accomplishing them gets you rank increases, and access to resources.

FaD has morality: a light side/darkside mechanic with emotional strengths and weaknesses that will give you a boost when played to.

Lightsabers: Only FaD really has full saber options allowing the player to do more then flail around. So the numbers are different with AoR and EotE sabers being tricked out to the max to compensate. Not a huge issue as you can just use the FaD numbers and call it good.

All characters, no matter from which core game, are built using the same XP system. So given characters from each line of the same XP value will be of similar ability. It is not an exact science but it is fairly balanced.

This is helpful thanks, I couldn't find any information in the games themselves that suggested they could combine.

This is helpful thanks, I couldn't find any information in the games themselves that suggested they could combine.

I'm AFB, but the AoR book has a section on working with EotE, I think it's either in the character generation section, or the GM section. Same with F&D, which has notes on how to combine all three lines. EotE doesn't have this because it was released first.

pre CU SWG

Aw, man... almost brought a tear to my eye, there.

AoR Core page 342. F&D Core page 338.

Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion characters tend to be more powerful then Force and Destiny Characters due to the XP sink that is Force and Destiny. The multiple requirements tend to cause Force Characters to burn through xp while not having significant gains in actual power.

Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion characters tend to be more powerful then Force and Destiny Characters due to the XP sink that is Force and Destiny. The multiple requirements tend to cause Force Characters to burn through xp while not having significant gains in actual power.

I'm not sure what you're referring to. I don't agree at all with what you've stated, but maybe you have a specific situation in mind...?

Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion characters tend to be more powerful then Force and Destiny Characters due to the XP sink that is Force and Destiny. The multiple requirements tend to cause Force Characters to burn through xp while not having significant gains in actual power.

I'm not sure what you're referring to. I don't agree at all with what you've stated, but maybe you have a specific situation in mind...?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it would all be situational and come down to the exact powers, talents, and skills of the individual PC's. I can see situations where a F&D character is going to outshine an AoR or EotE character of equal xp. On the flipside I am certain there are builds and situations where, given equal XP the AoR or EotE character will outshine the F&D.

All comes down to where and how you spend that xp and what kind of challenges are being faced.

I would have said that Force Users judt have 1 more area they can focus on

Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion characters tend to be more powerful then Force and Destiny Characters due to the XP sink that is Force and Destiny. The multiple requirements tend to cause Force Characters to burn through xp while not having significant gains in actual power.

Even on pure numbers, this doesn't make that much sense. I guess you could say this because EotE/AoR characters only have two XP sinks (skills and talents), while F&D characters have a third (powers), but cost wise, how much more or less significant is a specialization tree from a Force power? And even if utility is the only measure of 'power', doesn't that really depend on the needs at hand? So a Bounty Hunter Gadgeteer might branch over to Pilot to fill that need, and a Commander Tactician might pick up some Diplomat spec to work as a face, what difference is it if a Sentinel Artisan picked up Misdirect or Seek to fill a different need?

I suppose if the Sentinel picked up a second spec and a power, he wouldn't advance as quickly as the others, but I would call that more a matter of managing XP than being objectively weaker.

First I would like to say yeah they all work pretty well with each other I'm currently running a game that has characters from EotE and FaD I was hoping for one person to pick an AoR class as well but they didn't want to so meh and if you do decide to run a game that is a combination of EotE, AoR and FaD my advice is to only allow characters to take a combination of 2 Morality, Duty, Obligation by that I mean let them take a Morality and Obligation or Obligation and Duty or just Morality, Obligation or Duty but not all three otherwise it can get too much for both you and the character to keep track of.

Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion characters tend to be more powerful then Force and Destiny Characters due to the XP sink that is Force and Destiny. The multiple requirements tend to cause Force Characters to burn through xp while not having significant gains in actual power.

I find this is somewhat true if you don't start at Knight Level play as FaD character do feel like they are a bit behind others if they spread out the XP a lot but once they gain a bit of XP and especially when they get their lightsaber and a FR of 2 they start jumping up to being very useful haven't got far enough in a game to say they can outshine the other classes but I think any class can out shine another if the PC plays them well enough.

Yeah, this product line is definitely a case of "lessons learned" from the mess that was the Warhammer 40K RPG line, which was meant to be compatible with one another but quite frankly wasn't.

All three games had their core elements designed around the same time, with the EotE Beta being used to try and hammer out as many of the flaws as possible, though the FaD Beta had to deal with an expansion of Force powers and revisions to lightsabers (much needed revisions IMO).

And I've played in a number of games that mixed AoR, EotE, and FaD specs, with the PCs starting at the same XP levels, and they are all pretty well balanced against one another. The EotE characters seem to have a focus on skill variety, the AoR characters have more of a combat focus, and the FaD characters are somewhere in the middle from what I've seen. I've got a FaD game with a Smuggler PC in the mix who is quite effective not only in combat but at sneaky stuff as well, and said PC pulls her weight in encounters just as much as the Force users. Granted, in said campaign the Soresu Defender finally got himself a lightsaber crystal (Lorrdian, which the PC had asked for prior to the campaign beginning but was certainly willing to wait for it), so we'll see how the combat dynamic changes in light of that.