Oh noes! Now that there's a generic system being released in direct competition of Star Wars, this clearly means that the end is near! Surely this is a sign that FFG is winding down Edge and it's companion lines! NOOOOO!

Okay, now that we have the panic out of the way, on to actual discussion.

Actually, in all seriousness, if FFG started winding the line down, I think I'd be okay with it. We still have a bunch of F&D careers left to go, a handful of Age careers left and there's still some other Edge - so even if they sunset the range, it's not like all the books would instantly dry up overnight. And while not quite as plentiful as WEG, we've gotten a pretty good selection of books with crazy diverse content. A year of wind-down is a pretty good place to stop.

However, on the other hand - Star Wars is a money maker. Like how an actor takes a terrible blockbuster to put money in his pocket so he can do more artistic films during the quiet times, FFG could the Star Wars License to Print Money to bankroll the more risky ventures. The flip side of that, however is that The Mouse, he gots ta get paid. Producing Star Wars product means that Disney gets a slice of that sweet, sweet income. Launching your own generic system that is compatible with the 30 books already out there means that FFG gets the whole pie.

[EDIT - Also, does cutting The Mouse out of the loop pass the savings onto us? Will we see a 40 dollar CRB and 25 dollar add-on books? Whats a non Wars RPG book go for these days, anyway?]

And of course one of the other indicators that the licenses isn't going anywhere is that FFG is still launching new Star Wars platforms and the current stuff like X-Wing is still selling like hotcakes. Star Wars is still a huge pile of money, and FFG is unlikely to leave it on the table, so if I were a betting man, I'd say that there is a slim chance of the two companies parting ways - at least for now.

Where am I going with this? No idea - just wanted to ramble for a few moments.

I'll go the other way and say that there's no guarantee that Genesys/NDS will sell all that well without Star Wars. It might be as big of a dud as DH2e.

Strong point. WEG's generic D6 engine - well, the company imploded before they really got it going - but it didnt really show any signs of taking off like a rocket while the heart was still beating.

I don't think of it as a winding down as much as a reducing the frantic pace of releases. I'd expect we will see them shift Star Wars to releasing a sourcebook or two a year, and an adventure or three a year. Then move onto creating content for use with Genesys. So we are going to probably still end up with a RPG NDS book release monthly, it will just be a blend of Star Wars and Genesys content as opposed to solely Star Wars content.

I imagine they'll still keep making Star Wars books for as long as they make enough money to warrant paying for the license. Paying for the license is just a mooney sink unless they're putting out content to support it. As others have said, I wouldn't be surprised if they slow down the pace a bit, but I doubt they'll cut it all together until they've milked all the cash out of it they can.

I wouldn't be surprised to see them try and do some cross-platform synergy type thing to make sure people know they're linked. A little cross promotion never hurts. I for one am excited to try Genesys. As much as I love Star Wars, I can't live on Star Wars alone. I look forward to shaking out the new rules with a different genre.

I doubt that a fully FFG role playing game will get any more attention than the ones they licensed. FFG isnt an RPG company, it is a boardgame company.

Maybe tho this is a backdoor to a second edition of Star Wars RPG. If they make the generic rules truly generic and then make Star Wars products for that system, that could be interesting. That depends on how much they actually use the experience with the star wars game with the new one. If they are reasonable compatible, but the new game has updated rules that could be a good game. If they basically reinvent the wheel again for the new game, I doubt I will spend much on it.

Having picked up The End of the World: Wrath of the Gods, I wouldn't mind seeing EotW ported over to Genesys.

Yeah, it'd be cool to see the assorted End of the World games ported over. I picked up the Alien Invasion one and it seemed to be this kind of hybrid of the D6 engine that wanted to be the FFG engine when it grew up. So the engine was kind of tepid, but the concept sounded fun enough.

10 hours ago, Split Light said:

I imagine they'll still keep making Star Wars books for as long as they make enough money to warrant paying for the license. Paying for the license is just a mooney sink unless they're putting out content to support it.

I imagine X-Wing, Armada, Imperial Assault and Destiny make much, much more money than the RPGs do anyway. And presumably are covered by the same contract.

FFG making this Genesys book reminds of when Wizards of the Coast made their licensed D20 Cthulhu rulebook. WotC made a lot of synergy sales to D&D DMs who wanted Lovecraft monsters. I might be wrong but I think more copies of the D20 Cthulhu rulebook was sold than the combined sales of several editions of the regular Call of Cthulhu RPG rulebook.

FFG is going to get a lot synergy sales of Genesys to their Star Wars RPG customer who might use the new crunch, updated rules and get new inspiration for their games. Some GMs might even introduce Fantasy Magic as new and obscure Force powers. And Dragons.

Many SW players may feel like they've already paid enough for the system and that there's little to be gained with yet another core rulebook.

I can't see people buying Genesys just for rules updates, yeah.

Within a day or two of release all the relevant rules changes will have been discussed to death and probably handily formatted into unofficial errata documents for Star Wars. That is, assuming the system is similar enough for the rules to be copied over directly (which I think is probable, but they might surprise us with big overhauls).

But it will have Dragons, right? And steamdriven Mechas.

Jedis and Starships against Dragons and Mechas that's my excuse for buying this book.

14 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

It might be as big of a dud as DH2e.

The DH2e corebook was still in DriveThruRPG's top 5 most-downloaded products over a year after it was released. The line died because GW pulled the license; not because it wasn't selling.

But as to Star Wars, I'll be happy as long as they get the last of the career books out.

8 hours ago, Tom Cruise said:

I imagine X-Wing, Armada, Imperial Assault and Destiny make much, much more money than the RPGs do anyway. And presumably are covered by the same contract.

I'm pretty sure they're not covered by the same license. The RPG came a lot later, and RPGs don't seem to be part of the standard "tabletop game license." Consider that they have the card and board game licenses for A Game of Thrones and Tolkien's works, but the RPGs for those are handled by Green Ronin (?) and Cubicle 7.

11 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

Many SW players may feel like they've already paid enough for the system and that there's little to be gained with yet another core rulebook.

It sure feels like this will be the next generation of the NDS system, though, which in and of itself makes it interesting to many, myself included. I don't disagree with the point regarding the investment, but I wouldn't begrudge FFG to make some money.

The death of any RPG comes when people stop buying the books. I dont think the books will stop, I do reckon as others have said that they will release further settings books. Tattoine , for example hasnt had much mention beyond the beginner game, and im fairly sure it will have Jawa / sand people and Gamorreans in it. There are still a lot of planets and races to cover , and a lot of races that are only in one or another line. So adventure modules and settings books for the next few year then a 2nd ed drop, to keep the money coming in, because they will want to keep the license.

5 hours ago, themensch said:

It sure feels like this will be the next generation of the NDS system, though, which in and of itself makes it interesting to many, myself included. I don't disagree with the point regarding the investment, but I wouldn't begrudge FFG to make some money.

That idea may make it more attractive to some, but if it's based on already being familiar with it, then that's a closed group. Is the system strong enough to stand without Star Wars? I'm not convinced it is. Many of the people I know playing Star Wars play it despite the NDS, not because of it. I happen to like the system, but many if my friends do not. Some even strongly prefer other versions of Star Wars over it.

15 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

That idea may make it more attractive to some, but if it's based on already being familiar with it, then that's a closed group. Is the system strong enough to stand without Star Wars? I'm not convinced it is. Many of the people I know playing Star Wars play it despite the NDS, not because of it. I happen to like the system, but many if my friends do not. Some even strongly prefer other versions of Star Wars over it.

Can't deny any of that - different strokes and whatnot. I think the system has a good shot to stand alone but at this point it's all just speculation. Thus far, most people I know that have played the Star Wars system love it - but we don't know what this is yet. I remain cautiously optimistic that it will fulfill my wishes. In a few month's time we'll know.

5 hours ago, syrath said:

The death of any RPG comes when people stop buying the books. I dont think the books will stop, I do reckon as others have said that they will release further settings books. Tattoine , for example hasnt had much mention beyond the beginner game, and im fairly sure it will have Jawa / sand people and Gamorreans in it. There are still a lot of planets and races to cover , and a lot of races that are only in one or another line. So adventure modules and settings books for the next few year then a 2nd ed drop, to keep the money coming in, because they will want to keep the license.

Don't forget geonosians. They are also in the Arkanis sector.

On 6/28/2017 at 1:01 PM, Desslok said:

Strong point. WEG's generic D6 engine - well, the company imploded before they really got it going - but it didnt really show any signs of taking off like a rocket while the heart was still beating.

Likewise, it's not been all that big a swell from Dragon Age to it's generic version, Fantasy Age.

Generic doesn't sell as well, in general.

If they keep both, however, the crossovers (especially if they license the engine in hopes of selling the dice) can keep it going quite well.

I know we're talking 20 years ago, but the same issue was discussed by WEG in regards to Masterbook. Masterbook as a generic engine hardly sold at all; the boxed sets including Masterbook, however, sold rather well: Tank Girl, World of Indianna Jones, Necroscope... WEG claimed to actually make a profit on those. Torg and Shatterzone were the same engine, and drove masterbook sales. They said similar about the generic D6 Engine book... which had an open non-commercial license, and an inexpensive commercial one... not a big seller, but the licensed books using d6 sold well. When they lost the flagship (Star Wars), they lost the company.

Fixing DEFENCE is justification enough for any new iteration of the system, for what it's worth.

1 hour ago, Grimmerling said:

Fixing DEFENCE is justification enough for any new iteration of the system, for what it's worth.

DEFENSE

Well, that was easy. What's next?

7 hours ago, AK_Aramis said:

Masterbook as a generic engine hardly sold at all

Well, it didnt help matters that Masterbook was a terrible engine. Dear lord, of everything that's ever been on my shelf, Masterbook was clearly towards the bottom of the list.

7 hours ago, AK_Aramis said:

When they lost the flagship (Star Wars), they lost the company.

Well, it wasn't so much that losing the Star Wars license scuttled the company, it was the mismanagement of the parent shoe company that killed WEG.

Although it occurs to me that I should be grateful to that Italian shoe company. Sure it took us 10 years, but we wouldn't be here with FFG if they hadn't brought WEG down. I still love the engine, but this one is so much better.

What shoe company wasnit?