A thought on a new book they could create.

By Darth Poopdeck, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

They could create a book with stats on all the characters from the movies, and how to incorporate them into your game (without getting them killed and stuff).

Does this seem plausible/realistic? I'd buy it.

Umm...no.

This idea has been discussed without end here, and the very overwhelming consensus is that they should never ever give stats for the iconic canon characters. No, not even then.

There are several very poignant arguments for why, but I don't feel like re-hashing them yet again. Someone else can do if for now, until I'm less busy and can afford the time to type up a detailed response.

I'm not sure. As old adage is, "if it has stat it can be killed". And I'd rather keep legendary characters as such. IMO, monster manuals are for more D20 styled games. If nothing else, I never want to end up at situation where for example PCs encounter Vader, and a player appeals for official stats. "He not that tough, see Official Movie Character book, page 66."

But anyway I'd probably buy that book.

I was actually a little surprised that they made stats for Lando in Jewel of Yavin.

As much as I'd like to see that kind of book I want more NPC's, creatures and ships or those entries from the core books collected into one book for each type. Carrying the three core books around is backbreaking.

I now agree.

Lando has stats? interesting...

I was actually a little surprised that they made stats for Lando in Jewel of Yavin.

I liked the explanation they gave (think it was on the O66 Podcast...?) where they said, essentially, that it was an "aspect" of Lando. It wasn't intended to be like "these are Lando's stats," but rather, "these are some stats that you can use to represent Lando in this adventure."

Given that NPCs aren't built using the rules for PCs, it makes sense that they can be redesigned depending on what need you have of them. Keep it simple: don't hard-encode them with a power level; just give them the stats they need to do what they need to do in your game.

That said, I think that FFG would have a fresh take on this idea, and if they ever published something like it, I would probably buy it :)

Edited by awayputurwpn

Would I buy it? In a hot second.

Do some people around here hate the idea? Yup.

Do they have good reasons? Totally.

Do I have good reasons for wanting such a book? Absolutely.

Will it ever happen. Not in a million years.

Edited by Desslok

Would I buy it? No.

Do FFG and Disney both dislike the idea? Yup.

Do they have good reasons? Totally.

Do I have good reasons for not wanting such a book? Absolutely.

Will it ever happen? Highly unlikely.

I'll go one step further:

Would I playtest it? Hell No!

They could create a book with stats on all the characters from the movies, and how to incorporate them into your game (without getting them killed and stuff).

Aww. The whole point of including them would be to kill them off in increasingly horrible ways!

But seriously:

Sten_no.jpg

Why not? It's a can of worms. Does Yoda have 6 Force Dice? Or twenty-six? Is Boba Fett the hapless goon we saw in the movies, who does nothing then gets killed by a blind man? Or the masked hunk who sweeps Karen Travesty off her feet in her dreams each night on a faulty jet-pack? How many Hard Points does the Millenium Falcon have (round down to the nearest hundred).

FFG would gain nothing, and start a million flame war threads. If we want them, we can stat them. But why, unless we're going to be fighting them? It gets like the D&D book, 'Deities and Demigods' where some idiot gives stats to Gods and wonders why everyone treats it like the Monster Manual for the high-level guys.

Oh man, I had entirely forgotten about Deities & Demigods. That was a complete travesty...

Oh man, I had entirely forgotten about Deities & Demigods. That was a complete travesty...

D&D descriptions of social/political aspects of worship? Sure. Descriptions of worshippers, temples, schisms, beliefs, how these can be integrated into an interesting religious-orientated campaign? Hell yeah.

Stats for Gods ??? Odin & Thor in a barbed-wire, steel cage death match with Ares and Quetzlcoatl? Um...no.

I wouldn't buy it. I'd rather see efforts thrown at new content not interpretations of existing characters.

I always plug for a whole book of modular encounters, named NPCs, and plot seeds.

I play RPGs to make characters and new stories and heroes, not use someone else's.

Agreed 100% - I would have loved more details on the different religions themselves in that book, so as to more easily incorporate them into a campaign. The stats for the gods themselves was completely useless.

And to attempt to turn this tangent back to Star Wars: while the iconic characters clearly aren't gods, the same logic applies here. If they have stats, the players might kill them. If you're trying to keep your game canon, this can very easily be a problem. Even if you're not trying to hold to canon, the point Marcy made about causing disagreements in the community for how accurate the stats should be is a real concern. It's pretty much a no-win scenario for FFG.

A book? Nah. If anything, maybe an adversary deck. There's not enough material to justify a book; at least not enough material that most would be interested in.

As far as non-standard book releases for this game line go, I can conceive several more things that would be much more useful than a book on adversaries, in general. PDFs, a player's handbook, a Heroes & Rogues -esque book on character backgrounds, a book revamping vehicle combat, an art book, a book on Star Wars cocktails, a book on regular cocktails, all the ingredients for cocktails in a box made to look like a book, more of the previous, one or more compilations of player options, a book dedicated entirely to vehicles and starships, era books, and so on.

Most, if not all, of those are highly unlikely, but much more interesting than a book on stats for the characters on screen.

Even in the Jewel of Yavin the stats were listed as being only what was relevant to the game, apparently previous versions developers even said that by the end of it they realised it was a waste of time stating out the various characters, what use do they provide in the majority of peoples games. This is a narrative system,if you want him in your game Vader does what he needs to do, no more and no less, if you want the players to be the hero and you need stats so that they can fight him, he has whatever is appropriate and is still a challenge for the players.

I would rather have a page full of material like the Wiek info from nexus of power, than a character stat block that ultimately most people would say, too weak, too powerful, my pc could take him, he doesn't have this ability that he used in book H5 page 220 /deleted scene V10 from x bluray version of return of the revenge of the empire strikes back.

It's a waste of a writers time if you ask me and given its a 10 min job to make an adversary up its something best left to the individual GM.

Having said all that if there is enough demand for it, why not, you could always choose not to buy it. As for Disney being against it, r kidding. I remember when common sense and justice and morality ruled, now its big business.

Example film comes out, you get a DVD later and if you are lucky a collectors disc that has 2500 minutes of extras (OK maybe extrapolating here) on your double disc extra. The Force Awakens comes out on 20 different versions some with exclusive deleted scenes on them, so if you want the "full" experience you have to buy about 7 different versions, but wait, none of these have a directors commentary, for this you have to either have to wait for the collector edition coming this November or you have to suck it up and buy both.

Why, because Disney know there are plenty of mugs like me who will buy the release Bluray , the 6 month later in time for Rogue One collector edition, the one year anniversary version one month later, and the pre Episode 8 version that has X new footage never before seen.

Call me a cynic but Disney thinks about returns, not what is best for the RPG. Thankfully we have FFG doing that, and a reasonable job of it (Disney would have had a TFA core book ready for release and a 2nd edition within 6 months with never before seen extras.

A thought on a new book they could create. you say ..

A BOUNTY HUNTER SOURCEBOOK! I shout in reply from the bar!!

You'd need to figure out what version of the NPC you're talking about. Luke the farmboy is going to be a totally different character than when he walked into Jabba's palace. Even someone like Han goes from being a smuggler skulking in cantinas to a guy leading military assault teams.

I agree, any major characters should be at the most given the Lando treatment to fit into an adventure, and the stats just make sense for that adventure. No book giving out general stats for them.

Edited by Atama

Does Yoda have 6 Force Dice? Or twenty-six? Is Boba Fett the hapless goon we saw in the movies, who does nothing then gets killed by a blind man? Or the masked hunk who sweeps Karen Travesty off her feet in her dreams each night on a faulty jet-pack? How many Hard Points does the Millenium Falcon have (round down to the nearest hundred).

Answers, in the order they were received:

  • Yoda only has 1 Force die, but he gets to just keep rolling it for additional pips, as many times as he wants, until he generates the amount of Force points he needs.
  • The Millennium Falcon has all the hardpoints. Including yours.
  • Neither Boba Fett nor Karen Traviss were available for comment regarding their relationship.

They could create a book with stats on all the characters from the movies, and how to incorporate them into your game (without getting them killed and stuff).

Does this seem plausible/realistic? I'd buy it.

Could they create such a book (at the opportunity cost of other books they are highly requested by the FFG SW line GM/Player base)? Sure

Will they? I highly doubt it, for reasons given on this thread and on many more threads like it.

Having said that, I have read many a good thread where people have posted their take on a "named character" or requested help in creating them, as part of an exercise in learning how the rules work or for specific story reasons and have gotten good positive feedback.

There is a very good Vader thread (somewhere, **** having to keep track of multiple forums) where different aspects of Vader's character "NPC sheet" where made, with good explanations on why certain stats and skills where chosen; I need to find that tread again and bookmark it... :)