Sky Wars: Edge of the Kingdom Beta v1.1 is out! Free Fantasy Conversion

By Blue Dog, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

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It's finally here! The Beta v1.1 update for Sky Wars: Edge of the Kingdom, the 100% free, fan-made fantasy conversion for Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars RPG.
Included in the Sky Wars Beta v1.1:
  • Dozens of publishing errors including typos and missing information
  • Layout and design updates
  • Basic game design updates
  • Rules clarifications throughout the book
  • Updated Race stats
  • Updated NPC stats
  • Printable NPC Cards
  • Printable Character Sheet

You can find the full list of changes on our github

The vast majority of these fixes and tweaks were based on feedback from the community - your outpouring of support and help has been a pleasant delight during the original launch. While there are a lot of updates with this Beta, there's a lot more work to be done, including fixing the airship stats/combat rules and additional content like smithing, enchanting and alchemy rules.

We want to speed up the release schedule for beta updates, beginning with an overhaul of each of the careers based on user feedback/beta testing. First up is the Warrior career, due out in the next few weeks, with a new career following every few weeks after that.

While I'm working on that, some volunteer contributors have been writing content for a major content update, which will move us into Beta v2.0 and onwards, this includes 'The Realms' worldbuilding content and hopefully some other fun additions. This is being done concurrently and should hopefully all come together for the fall.

Book Release Schedule

  • Beta v1.2-1.8: Careers - Summer/Fall 2017
  • Beta v2.0+: Content & The Realms - Fall/Winter 2017
  • Final Version: Early 2018
Explore Osfilia, a loose collection of realms still working to recover more than thirty years after the devastation caused by the Sky Wars. Players may choose from eight races, able to become powerful mages, devout paladins, shapeshifting druids or follow any combination of eighteen different career paths.
Using the rules from any of FFG's Star Wars core rulebooks (Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, Force & Destiny), GMs and players will be able to create new adventures in what we hope will be an exciting fantasy sandbox.
Sky Wars: Edge of the Kingdom features:
  • New and updated rules to convert Sci-Fi to Fantasy
  • 8 Races, including Gnomes, Half Orcs, Dark Elves and Golems
  • Pages and pages of gorgeous artwork, donated by over 45 artists from Deviantart.com
  • 19 Career trees including Monks, Dragoons, Warlocks, Diplomats and more
  • Brand new ability and spell trees granting fantastic powers and magic to each career
  • Fantasy-based gear including weapons, armor and equipment
  • Sky Wars-era mounts and airships
  • Complete templates for NPCs and Adversaries
  • Custom Character Sheet

Sample pages gallery can be found here

The World of Sky Wars:
Quote
Over thirty years have passed since the world of Osfilia was swept into a war that raged across its entire surface. Armies of demons and the undead swept across every continent, led by the Storm King and his massive, ferocious dragons. Thousands of desperate, pitched battles raged across the surface of the world for years, destroying villages and towns, swallowing up cities and blackening fields.
Millions died in fire.
Finally, the races of Osfilia united together; elves, humans and dwarves joined the ‘Covenant of All’, a pact that llied the so-called ‘lower’ races of centaurs, orcs and giants - any who had yet to fall under the Storm King’s thrall. The alliance was successful in driving back the dark armies of the dread lords - the Storm King and his dread lords perished in the battle. An uneasy peace feel across the land for many years - but recently there have been increased reports of missing people, brazen attacks by previously cowardly creatures, and stories too disturbing to be related here.
No one has seen a dragon in 30 years...
Until now.

We've been actively monitoring and collecting feedback to incorporate into the Beta updates, mostly rule changes and balance, feedback on abilities and talents - what worked and what didn’t, etc. We're also always on the lookout for help and support: Writers, editors, designers, developers. Please feel free to share your feedback or volunteer to help out here and on r/skywarsrpg
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I would like to thank you for all the hard work you have put into project and continue to. My group has started using this and find the material very well crafted.

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I couldn't be less interested in another fantasy RPG if you paid me but man, this is good work!

I have enough trouble getting a game of SW going and don't see myself ever playing this but I will eagerly be reading and admiring the work that went into this!

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1 hour ago, MonkeyInSpace said:

I couldn't be less interested in another fantasy RPG if you paid me but man, this is good work!

I have enough trouble getting a game of SW going and don't see myself ever playing this but I will eagerly be reading and admiring the work that went into this!

I'm actually loving seeing these rules--which I like--being used outside of Star Wars--of which I'm growing increasingly less fond. This is an awesome piece of work.

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On 6/14/2017 at 0:07 AM, MonkeyInSpace said:

I couldn't be less interested in another fantasy RPG if you paid me but man, this is good work!

I have enough trouble getting a game of SW going and don't see myself ever playing this but I will eagerly be reading and admiring the work that went into this!

It's usually easier to get a fantasy game of some sort going. You could try using this as a stepping stone into FFGs Star Wars if you were so inclined.

Edited by Ahrimon
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2 hours ago, Ahrimon said:

It's usually easier to get a fantasy game of some sort going. You could try using this as a stepping stone into FFGs Star Wars if you were so inclined.

Completely agree and that's a great point but the only regular group I know (short of looking for a whole new group, which I will be doing once work settles down a bit) won't consider anything non-fantasy related, and I just don't have the interest (or really the time).

Thanks for the suggestion, love this community.

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On 14/06/2017 at 3:36 PM, HappyDaze said:

...being used outside of Star Wars--of which I'm growing increasingly less fond.

Why, Daze?

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17 hours ago, masterstrider said:

Why, Daze?

I'm finding that I want a setting that's not built for children. No matter how much I try to take Star Wars more seriously, the foundation always crumbles and I'm left with some annoyance that detracts from my immersion in the universe. I tend to want a large degree of verisimilitude in my game worlds, and Star Wars tends to fail on this, especially the newer stuff. When I'm a spectator (such as reading or watching some SW materials) I can usually get past it long enough to finish the book/episode, but when I'm trying to interact with it as a player or GM, it damages my enjoyment too much. Some of my players have expressed the same concerns--we are trying to have "serious/mature" games in a setting that just isn't built for it.

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25 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

I'm finding that I want a setting that's not built for children. No matter how much I try to take Star Wars more seriously, the foundation always crumbles and I'm left with some annoyance that detracts from my immersion in the universe.

I kind of know what you mean, I also strive for a more "adult/mature" game, but I haven't had any trouble adapting it. Perhaps it helps that my regular players aren't Star Wars fans *at all*, so I can give it whatever vibe I want. I'm curious what kinds of things make the foundation crumble for you...?

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On 2017-06-07 at 10:13 AM, Blue Dog said:

It's finally here! The Beta v1.1 update for Sky Wars: Edge of the Kingdom, the 100% free, fan-made fantasy conversion for Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars RPG.

This is an amazing piece of work, and it looks great! Fantastic job!

Minor question that for some inexplicable reason jumped out at me when scanning through: why does Spint Mail offer a boost to athletics? Shouldn't it offer a setback? Otherwise everyone would be wearing splint mail at the Olympics...

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On 6/12/2017 at 9:00 PM, Ferryman said:

I would like to thank you for all the hard work you have put into project and continue to. My group has started using this and find the material very well crafted.

You're very welcome! Really happy to hear you're using it and enjoying it!

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On 6/14/2017 at 1:36 AM, HappyDaze said:

I'm actually loving seeing these rules--which I like--being used outside of Star Wars--of which I'm growing increasingly less fond. This is an awesome piece of work.

Thanks! Yeah as much as I love Star Wars I really wanted to be able use the ruleset in a fantasy environment.

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I'll chime in to say I really enjoy it too. You have managed to maintain a decent balance and included some rather interesting ideas.

Im not really convinced by the "every Specialisation has 2 trees" idea. It works and has a purpose but it still seems unnecessary to me. I also really like FFG's Force Power trees as a substitute for spells, I love that a Mage can get better at a spell rather than just learning new ones. But again your system works, makes sense, and is consistent with how magic normally works.

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1 hour ago, whafrog said:

I kind of know what you mean, I also strive for a more "adult/mature" game, but I haven't had any trouble adapting it.

I haven't either; in fact my players really enjoy some of the ways in which I've wrung the Saturday morning cartoonishness out of the setting.

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On 17/06/2017 at 2:22 AM, HappyDaze said:

I'm finding that I want a setting that's not built for children. No matter how much I try to take Star Wars more seriously, the foundation always crumbles and I'm left with some annoyance that detracts from my immersion in the universe. I tend to want a large degree of verisimilitude in my game worlds, and Star Wars tends to fail on this, especially the newer stuff. When I'm a spectator (such as reading or watching some SW materials) I can usually get past it long enough to finish the book/episode, but when I'm trying to interact with it as a player or GM, it damages my enjoyment too much. Some of my players have expressed the same concerns--we are trying to have "serious/mature" games in a setting that just isn't built for it.

It's a very primitive setting in terms of plot options and scope. The whole Star Wars universe is a pulpy, gimmicky, adventure driven place with little room for depth. The story architecture is driven around being a Force user and if you're not, there is this separate, miraculous world that you cannot participate in; both in story and metaphorically. Add to that, the Disney-fied version where they are basically retelling Star Wars - A New Hope in 75,000 different ways, and you have something not just spread too thin, but scraped together.

In other fantasy settings, the hero can change according to the story, from an Orc to a Soldier, a scholar or an artist. But Star Wars is very established, which makes it hard to "re imagine" the landscape from its current form, leaving little room for the aforementioned characters to become the hero. And even if you could become the hero, ask yourself: would it still feel like Star Wars or just a gaudy reskin.

If you want Star Wars to have any depth, you will need to rewrite the landscape and canon material, which I'll be honest, is a big (t)ask. I can see the interest in a D&D style setting, where the universe is open to interpretation and allows for the players/GM to experience "new things" that are all but exhausted in the Star Wars landscape. Even if FFG/Disney come up with a new race, planet, ship, weapon, etc., the core of the game is about the Force and it's impact on the world. The rest is just fluff. Stormtroopers, Jedi, Sith, Vader, Palpatine, The Skywallkers, are all just members of the landscape that drive the one story about the Force.

If you wanted to run a game that is non-force, you are just a bunch of people in Star Wars skinned world, doing stuff that revolves around either fighting or joining the Empire/Sith empires. There isn't a diversity in the storylines for anything outside of this scope. That's not to say that it wouldn't be enjoyable.

If you play a Force focused game, you're just trying to become more powerful in the force and compete against your darker nature to make good decisions. That's about as deep as it gets. The Force class can only be played one of three ways - light, dark or neutral. This is the same as saying that the Necromancer is the only class in D&D and you have to learn to play it 20 different ways, instead of having a variety of options and histories.

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On 6/16/2017 at 1:15 PM, whafrog said:

This is an amazing piece of work, and it looks great! Fantastic job!

Minor question that for some inexplicable reason jumped out at me when scanning through: why does Spint Mail offer a boost to athletics? Shouldn't it offer a setback? Otherwise everyone would be wearing splint mail at the Olympics...

Whoops, this is probably an error and should be a setback for sure.

On 6/16/2017 at 1:54 PM, Richardbuxton said:

I'll chime in to say I really enjoy it too. You have managed to maintain a decent balance and included some rather interesting ideas.

Im not really convinced by the "every Specialisation has 2 trees" idea. It works and has a purpose but it still seems unnecessary to me. I also really like FFG's Force Power trees as a substitute for spells, I love that a Mage can get better at a spell rather than just learning new ones. But again your system works, makes sense, and is consistent with how magic normally works.

Totally respect your opinion, but I personally really dislike the force powers. I've always thought that adding a different style of trees, that have a whole separate ruleset for activation and usage (even requiring new dice) made it clunky and yet another thing to keep track of. I find my approach in Sky Wars of having two sets of abilities/talents that work essentially the same and can be utilized on the fly in the game with a quick skill check roll keeps the game interesting while running smoothly.

The other aspect is that you basically have to choose between getting better at one or two specific things vs having a whole range of abilities and spells. The Force Powers are extremely specialized with only a couple minor power additions throughout the tree, vs my system that gives user a wide range of abilities and spells.

I like to think I've kept in mind the thematic (and often mechanics-based) growth of the abilities and spells - each layer is generally more powerful than the preceding one, though there are circumstances where they are just different spells or abilities. This is also why some of the trees are shorter and can be picked separately (which I need to outline more clearly in the rules and on the ability sheets themselves).

The downside to this approach is that coming up with solid abilities/spells for each career is challenging, in order to keep from repeating abilities, or making things overpowered or clunky. I want each ability tree to feel 'right' thematically and also be useful in and out of combat (though to be fair, most of the abilities are combat-focused).

For example, I'm working on the Windcrafter, Sky Pilot and Artificer specializations now - the talent trees are fairly straightforward (pulling from various careers in the books, they would be similar to consular, ace/pilot and engineer) but figuring out abilities that make sense is tough. Part of me is debating adding them to the Adventurer career and have them be like the 'Recruit' specialization, but that feels like a cop out.

Edited by Blue Dog
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Finally figured out where most of the idea came from Legends and Lairs "Sorcery and Steam" you need to post this over on the GENESYS forum so others can see what you have done, Pretty cool. If this did not come from that book I recommend you picking it up.

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Really quick question, is there any other material for this.

Great work

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there will be more in the coming months, This is all beta, full 400+ page final product will be next year hopefully.

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On 2017-07-02 at 8:08 PM, gilbur said:

Finally figured out where most of the idea came from Legends and Lairs "Sorcery and Steam" you need to post this over on the GENESYS forum so others can see what you have done, Pretty cool. If this did not come from that book I recommend you picking it up.

I legit have never heard of this - it looks pretty cool though, I might buy it (like $5 on drivethrurpg) and check it out.

On 2017-07-04 at 0:00 AM, gilbur said:

there will be more in the coming months, This is all beta, full 400+ page final product will be next year hopefully.

Whoa there slow your roll son! We're working on more content but I don't think we're going to hit 400+ pages. We're at about 135 pages right now and have an additional 15-20 pages for world building and potentially an introductory adventure if there's still enough interest. I'm glad you're excited and looking for more though ;)

Warrior career update is due out soon, but I just got a new job + have had a cold for almost 2 weeks so I'm mostly doodling ideas at the moment.

Edited by Blue Dog
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sorry about that, actually i look forward for a smaller pdf it saves on the printing. IT has been a while since I looked at your pdf been dealing with family stuff lately. Getting some what excited about GENESYS. Came to realization with your pdf Eberron could be ported over to the system now as well.

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On 2017-07-05 at 7:18 PM, gilbur said:

sorry about that, actually i look forward for a smaller pdf it saves on the printing. IT has been a while since I looked at your pdf been dealing with family stuff lately. Getting some what excited about GENESYS. Came to realization with your pdf Eberron could be ported over to the system now as well.

Haha I was just teasing, no worries there.

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Beta v1.2 is out! Warrior Career overhaul & Black & White printer-friendly edition.

Included in this update is a total reworking of the Warrior specializations talents and abilities, based on testing and feedback from the community. The Knight has more options as a protector of the group, the Blademaster is more deadly but more vulnerable and the Dragoon has some stunning aerial combat maneuvers.

I've also been going through some tutorials to optimize the pdf file - I've gotten the file size down from 125mb to 50mb and it doesn't look like I've lost any quality. Please let me know if you notice any issues with this optimization.

Black and White Printer-Friendly Version

I also made a printer-friendly Black and White edition. It’s not perfect but it should work for the time being – this was a request from a number of players attempting to save on printer ink or who had visual disabilities. I removed a number of full-page spreads for art as well as all the backgrounds and coloring where possible.

As always, you can find Beta v1.2 here.

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On 7/15/2017 at 10:34 AM, Blue Dog said:

Beta v1.2 is out! Warrior Career overhaul & Black & White printer-friendly edition.

Included in this update is a total reworking of the Warrior specializations talents and abilities, based on testing and feedback from the community. The Knight has more options as a protector of the group, the Blademaster is more deadly but more vulnerable and the Dragoon has some stunning aerial combat maneuvers.

I've also been going through some tutorials to optimize the pdf file - I've gotten the file size down from 125mb to 50mb and it doesn't look like I've lost any quality. Please let me know if you notice any issues with this optimization.

Black and White Printer-Friendly Version

I also made a printer-friendly Black and White edition. It’s not perfect but it should work for the time being – this was a request from a number of players attempting to save on printer ink or who had visual disabilities. I removed a number of full-page spreads for art as well as all the backgrounds and coloring where possible.

As always, you can find Beta v1.2 here.

So I was wondering if this has or will be finally out of Beta testing?

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I might be able to trick my partner into playing a Star Wars with this