One of my favorite things about the old WEG edition was how they stated out the heroes and villains of the movies. I was really disappointed when I didn't see that in the first released books. Have they done that since?
Have they come out with this?
Here we go again...I'mma let someone else field this one this time.
No, and from what we have heard they probably won't. The thinking is that the big characters are either way too powerful, and if you give them stats then they can be killed. The other possibility is they are not in your game, since the PC's have replaced them.
In other words if Darth Vader comes after you your only choice is to run, run, run.
Lando has Stats though I think.
One of my favorite things about the old WEG edition was how they stated out the heroes and villains of the movies. I was really disappointed when I didn't see that in the first released books. Have they done that since?
Nope, and more than likely FFG isn't going to waste valuable page space on a bunch of stat blocks that most people either won't use or will simply complain about how the author "got it wrong."
Closest they've come is Lando in the Jewel of Yavin adventure, and his stat block is cited to only be for the role he fulfills in the adventure as the Baron-Administrator of Cloud City.
Well, obviously it is not important to those who play it, but for me, I didn't buy much past the first Edge book. Seeing the heroes from the movie shows the rules in action (if it is difficult to build one of them with your rules, then the rules may have a problem), and lets players compare and possibly inspire their goals for their characters. Besides that it is just cool to compare Boba Fett to Han Solo, etc.
It's not that the rules have a problem it's that in several threads where people have tried to stat Darth Vader no one comes to a solid conclusion and everyone (who cares) has their own version and they believe their personal versions are correct. Second there are so many problems that arise when you stat them out Cheifly among them that they can die. While it is cool to compare what heroes and villains would have it's better that if you need a cameo from a movie character you deal with it narratively. An example Vader meets party if he attacks he is always successful, Why? "I find your lack of faith disturbing" he's Vader of course he will kill your party if he gets close. Now if you must have stats (I am one who must have stats on some of my favorites) and your fine with Major Characters dying (I am also fine with this) in your campaign go for it stat them, we won't stop you I have stats for Vader they are ridiculous and Overpowered to make him almost unkillable, so if my party really wants to they could try and take him and even then I wouldn't use the stats in the fight until they had a ton of XP. All in all they can be stated and the system isn't broken cause the stats don't exist. Should they have stats officially, No. Unlfficially, depends on your cup of tea.
Edited by ShlambateWell, obviously it is not important to those who play it, but for me, I didn't buy much past the first Edge book. Seeing the heroes from the movie shows the rules in action (if it is difficult to build one of them with your rules, then the rules may have a problem), and lets players compare and possibly inspire their goals for their characters. Besides that it is just cool to compare Boba Fett to Han Solo, etc.
Movie character stat blocks do not show the rules in action. If that were the case then the stat blocks for Minion/Rival/Nemesis is pretty much all you need.
And the issue isn't that it's difficult to build one and thus there's a rules problem. The problem is that movie characters so rarely perfectly line up with rpg rules. Even when WotC stated up the movie characters they were never quite right. At least FFG admitted that upfront that there was no way to really capture the movie characters perfectly so why bother? Players can already be inspired by movie characters. You don't really need a bunch of stat blocks for that. The wonderful thing about the lack of a stat block is actually there is no wrong way to create one of the movie characters. There are three to six different ways one could create a Luke Skywalker inspired character. All of them are pretty much the correct way to make Luke Skywalker. That is hands down better than the book telling me the one right way to do it. If people can't create a Luke like character without seeing how the FFG team did it then they have bigger issues at play.
Also, I never saw the point of comparing PC's to official canon stats. Either the PC's were woefully outmatched or laughingly over powered compared to movie characters.
Why is "they can die" an argument? Just because you stat out a character it gives a green light for players to kill them? Just do it narratively anyway. This was never a problem in previous editions at my table. You just never saw these characters in my games. If a GM doesn't want someone to die, don't make it an option. If a GM narrates an encounter with Boba Fett he shouldn't be surprised if the players try to kill him, but just because there are stats in the books doesn't mean anything. The GM is either going to fudge the rules or not regardless.
Early this year at a small Gaming convention (Gamer Nation Con) one GM set out to break the system, he crafted the entire Jedi Council as PC's. Yoda had over 2100xp, the others where all around the 2000 mark. He then set about making an adventure for them. The game worked fine, some died, some fell unconscious, the level of epicness was high. But the point was that its possible to create these legendary characters, play them as PC's and challenge them. But printing these characters in FFG books would take up 3 pages each, and thats a waste IMHO.
Now if you would like to see why its a hard task for FFG to create these characters check out this list of "You Build The Character" competitions run on this forum:
#1 Chewbacca
#4 R2-D2
#8 Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader
#9 The Jedi
Something you will notice very quickly is how varied each persons interpretation of those characters is. Now imagine what would happen to FFG if they printed "official" stats. Some people would say "yeah ok", others would grumble "Too over powered" while a third group would be shout from the top of every building "THATS NOT ENOUGH!!!!" The forums would become a firestorm, pages of valuable book space would be used, and yet no purpose would be evident for their publication.
IF FFG decide to print more of the major named characters it will only be because doing so has a purpose. The NPC will be created for a story reason, just like they did with Lando, and will serve a purpose. Until they have a purpose or reason to print those characters Im sorry to say I would not be holding your breath.
Another reason not to stat the icons is that everybody plays this game at a bit different power level. Some people feel their character maxes out around 300XP, others feel 800 is around mid-range. It very much depends how you play and whether you go for breadth or a monolith. This is a strength of the rules IMHO. So it would be pointless for FFG to waste the space when their offering would probably only disappoint the majority.
It's easier to do with D20, since the power levels are standardized. I never saw the point with WEG, honestly, and viewed it more as cheap filler, because they kept reprinting them in practically every sourcebook.
Putting the stats aside, the lack of definitive Force Rating max makes this a challenge too. I remember partaking in a Vader/Palpatine stat-out and fell into the misleading idea that FR3 was max, then I reread the rules a few times and found this to be incorrect. With a long enough play time and enough XP to throw at the problem in theory one can grab a +1 FR from every tree in the books. By then things would just be silly.