Hey just getting my feet wet with the beginner books, just curious if there are any written or video buyers guides to help navigate the resources available to us?

Generally just short summary of what each book/deck offers and a rating of some sort to compare them against each other.

Thanks!

This forum is about your best resource I'd say.

I don't think there's any real big compiled post out there like that, at least not one that's quite that comprehensive.

This should help you out a little, it's a list of each of the various books so far.

You can use rpggeek.com to see various people's ranks/comments on the books.

And at least item wise, you can use this to see what's in each book.

Basic info on whatever bonus rules are included, can probably be found with searching for the book's name on the forums and finding whichever threads have a particularly large page number.

If you want a hard recommendation, I'd say at least 1 Core (whichever one(s) would fit a campaign you want to run), a GM Kit, and some extra dice. If you want to get more extra stuff before playing the game, Fly Casual, in my opinion, has the most generally useful stuff regardless of the Core you use, and all of the Adversary decks are incredibly helpful if you run a less heavily structured game.

I don't think there's any real big compiled post out there like that, at least not one that's quite that comprehensive.

This should help you out a little, it's a list of each of the various books so far.

You can use rpggeek.com to see various people's ranks/comments on the books.

And at least item wise, you can use this to see what's in each book.

Basic info on whatever bonus rules are included, can probably be found with searching for the book's name on the forums and finding whichever threads have a particularly large page number.

If you want a hard recommendation, I'd say at least 1 Core (whichever one(s) would fit a campaign you want to run), a GM Kit, and some extra dice. If you want to get more extra stuff before playing the game, Fly Casual, in my opinion, has the most generally useful stuff regardless of the Core you use, and all of the Adversary decks are incredibly helpful if you run a less heavily structured game.

To add to all this wonderful advice. I would say, get a group together and talk to them and see what kind of Star Wars adventures they want to have. If they want Smugglers and Bounty hunters, look at Edge of the Empire. If they want Rebels versus the Empire, go for Age of Rebellion. And if they want to explore the mysteries of the Force, you'll want Force and Destiny.

If no one can decide what they want, well I hope you have an understanding partner.

Really, it doesn't matter what the books are or what they contain. Buy them all.

Really, it doesn't matter what the books are or what they contain. Buy them all.

Dude you've got a problem!

Really, it doesn't matter what the books are or what they contain. Buy them all.

Dude you've got a problem!

Apparently so do I ...

Seriously, though. We've ended up use bits and pieces of all the supplement books. In many cases we could have done without them, but they certainly added to the fun. Jump Boots for Stronghold of Resistance have been an entertaining item used in our EotE adventure. Especially since they require planetary piloting

Really, it doesn't matter what the books are or what they contain. Buy them all.

Dude you've got a problem!

If this is wrong, I don't wanna be right!

Hey just getting my feet wet with the beginner books, just curious if there are any written or video buyers guides to help navigate the resources available to us?

Once you have one of the core books, the value of the others should become self-evident. If you're a player, you'll probably want a supplement that covers your career, or if you have a particular species in mind to play then you'll also want to look at the region books.

If you're the GM...yeah, it's hard not to buy everything But if you're on a budget then pick a career book or region book that focusses on the type of campaign or the locale that you want to focus on. I'd also suggest running at least the downloadable PDF for a beginner game, and maybe another module like Beyond the Rim, before crafting your own adventure. BtR was extremely valuable to me for learning how to set up information gathering, wilderness encounters, and some social conflicts.

Freddie said it best.

Really, it doesn't matter what the books are or what they contain. Buy them all.

Well done minion, you have peddled our Illustrious Masters wares effectively once again. Here is your check. *hands you a piece of paper, looks a bit ratty, and is that crayon?*

Perhaps leave the career books up to the players to provide, while you as the GM focus on the settings books. Share the burden until you can acquire a full set for yourself.

All the books have merit. As a GM, if you are on a budget, pick up 1 or more CRB, based on what your group wants to play. Get the matching Beginner Box, the adventures are good, plus it gives tokens and most important, a set of dice. I recommend the Dice Roller app also.

After those, consider the adventure books. From a GM perspective, they are nice to give examples of how to deal with certain situations. THE CRB tends to be very vague on some topics.

The setting books would be next, based on where you want to play.

Let the players pick up their splat books, unless you have extra cash. Just make sure they let you borrow them for a week or so.

Wow thanks for all the great responses, very helpful community here. Budget is a bit of a concern I guess, mostly just balancing this with IA and X-Wing.. and fishing now that it is summer But I've never balked at paying good money for quality and FFG delivers quality in spades it seems. I feel like wading into this system is key though versus just diving in, especially being first timers. This is why I was after a specific break down.

Force and Destiny is the path my group wants to take, they are more concerned with the force side of things where as I was pushing for EoTE but we can circle our way back eventually. Good advice on starting with the PDF's and the adventure books, I think that since this is our first table top RPG it is best to stay on the 'tracks' as long as possible until I have a full grasp on the rules of this universe and how an RPG adventure should work. But there is a ton of great advice about that on this forum I have already read and been going through, this thread I was more concerned with just trying to navigate what each book brings to the table (hey that literally makes sense in this case!) to help me decide which are necessary and which are more supplementary. It seems the short answer is: it really depends on where you want the adventure to go. Lots to think on here.

Edit: Lathrop that first link is key, that is exactly what I was looking for.. a break down of all the books and packs to figure out what does what. Great stuff.

Edit edit: I also wanted to ask, I generally play with a smaller group (3 of us total, sometimes 4), will that or should that affect the order in which I purchase things or which adventures or part of the RPG we decide to play? Basically, are there story threads that are geared towards a smaller group versus a group of 5 or 6? For me it seems fitting that a "Jedi" story line would focus on only one or two players, as they are supposed to be scarce in the galaxy at this point.. especially two together *cough* Ezra and Kanaan *cough* .. Ahem excuse me, I have a frog throat! Ok I'm done

I think FaD and EotE go well together. They both support small independent groups doing their own thing. Heck Obi-Wan was hanging out on Tatooine . So you should be fine mixing them up.

We run with 3 players and a GM and have not run into a game that was significantly outside our capabilities. As always, the GM will need to adjust some, but nothing you shouldnt be able to handle.

I GM a 2 player group, and there isn't any particular game theme, or game line that is "better" for such a small group. It's entirely up to the GM and his players. We've played an EotE game just fine, and we're now playing an FaD game.

It depends on the game you are running, and what the plot is. If you're trying to do some Ocean's 11 style heist, where you need 11 people to pull it off precisely, then yeah you're going to have problems. But other than something that number specific, you should be fine. Remember most action movies usually only have 2 people doing all the cool stuff. Think of every Buddy Cop movie you've ever seen. You can totally handle a story with 2-3 people.

I can empathize with budget concerns. As my own modest stock of the books slowly grows, I've been making do with borrowing and seeking out info online. After four months (give or take) being sold on the system, I still don't own any of the CRBs. Until tomorrow. Which brings me to my suggestion: keep an eye on sales. I'll be picking up all three CRB's tomorrow when a local store has a buy 2/get 1 free sale throughout the store for Free Comic Book Day.

I'd say core to your flavor (EotE, F&D, AoR), pick a region book (SoR, LoNH, SoF) and go.

Everything else is really gravy. I'd also suggest that you get all of the Beginner's Games instead of additional Dice packs. They come with dice and the marginal additional value is well worth the price increase.

After that, for the GM, I'd suggest more region books. Then, if players want "stuff," they can get their own books for either their career or the gear they want to buy.

Really, it doesn't matter what the books are or what they contain. Buy them all.

Dude you've got a problem!

It's catchy, whatever it is!

First off talk with your players, we came to an arrangement where different people focus on different lines.

Alternately If your sure you want to start with FaD then perhaps you get the Core, GM kit and Nexus of Power as well as the Beginner Box (sounds like you may have that already?), then let 2 of your players get Keeping the Peace and the soon (next month some time) to be released Savage Spirits.

let your players know it will be close to 2 more years before all the remaining Career books are released for Force and Destiny, whilst Edge has the most content and the last Career book should be out later this year, so is closest to a fully completed game.

Last option is to get another player to get FaD core, then you get EotE core, those 2 books alone give the best bang for your buck in your case. A single region book and the beginner boxes will just enhance that further.

Really, it doesn't matter what the books are or what they contain. Buy them all.

Dude you've got a problem!

Apparently so do I ...