Dawn of Rebellion Sourcebook

By Blackbird888, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

1 hour ago, awayputurwpn said:

So that Kanan guy on the book cover...

The realistic renderings of animated characters always looks so weird to me. Same with Hera on her Destiny card.

15 minutes ago, rogue_09 said:

The realistic renderings of animated characters always looks so weird to me. Same with Hera on her Destiny card.

I agree, but on the other hand I'm glad that they are keeping their styles consistent.

17 hours ago, Hexnwolf said:

In the most recent Few episodes of Rebels, they mention that Gar Saxon was Emperors hand, so the position, if not the person/people in it have moved into Cannon...

( http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gar_Saxon )

Well, from what it sounds like, the usage of "Hand of the Emperor" in Rebels doesn't have the same meaning and weight as the rank of Emperor's Hand did in Legends. If anything, calling Gar Saxon a "Hand of the Emperor" is a fancy way of saying he directly represents the Emperor's interests with regards to Mandalore, more so than an Imperial governor such as Pryce does with regards to Lothal.

Emperor's Hands in Legends were his (generally) covert Force-trained assassins, the surgical scalpel to cut out an infestation as opposed to the brute force hammer that was Vader and the Inquisitors with regards to dealing with Imperial problems.

Nothing about Gar Saxon suggests "subtle" or that he was trained in the Force. Yes, he was able to use the Darksaber, but then so was Sabine and there's no indication that she's a Force-sensitive.

5 hours ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

Well, from what it sounds like, the usage of "Hand of the Emperor" in Rebels doesn't have the same meaning and weight as the rank of Emperor's Hand did in Legends. If anything, calling Gar Saxon a "Hand of the Emperor" is a fancy way of saying he directly represents the Emperor's interests with regards to Mandalore, more so than an Imperial governor such as Pryce does with regards to Lothal.

Emperor's Hands in Legends were his (generally) covert Force-trained assassins, the surgical scalpel to cut out an infestation as opposed to the brute force hammer that was Vader and the Inquisitors with regards to dealing with Imperial problems.

Nothing about Gar Saxon suggests "subtle" or that he was trained in the Force. Yes, he was able to use the Darksaber, but then so was Sabine and there's no indication that she's a Force-sensitive.

Agreed.
It is a much more watered down title it seems.

It's a shame, too, since the title itself carries a heavy implication of the person/persons with that title being directly guided by the Emperor himself, and thus more akin to a covert force than simply a governor or the like.

On 7/29/2017 at 5:30 AM, Donovan Morningfire said:

Well, from what it sounds like, the usage of "Hand of the Emperor" in Rebels doesn't have the same meaning and weight as the rank of Emperor's Hand did in Legends. If anything, calling Gar Saxon a "Hand of the Emperor" is a fancy way of saying he directly represents the Emperor's interests with regards to Mandalore, more so than an Imperial governor such as Pryce does with regards to Lothal.

Emperor's Hands in Legends were his (generally) covert Force-trained assassins, the surgical scalpel to cut out an infestation as opposed to the brute force hammer that was Vader and the Inquisitors with regards to dealing with Imperial problems.

Nothing about Gar Saxon suggests "subtle" or that he was trained in the Force. Yes, he was able to use the Darksaber, but then so was Sabine and there's no indication that she's a Force-sensitive.

I wasn't aware of the title much more than I had heard it mentioned before (I wasn't really a fan of the EU from long ago, so I never really got into it much Outside some of the WEG SWRPG stuff). However, I'm not sure I entirely agree with your perspective on Gar Saxon being "Subtle" or not. I'll agree that in regards to his behaving with other Mandalores he's not been very subtle (the Darksaber fight with Sabine, and his wiping out of the Concorde Dawn camp), but he's not only the person in control of Mandalore for the empire, but he's also the head of the Imperial Super commando's (commando itself suggesting a special operational force, who, by the definition are a non-traditional, subtle, and Surgical strike unit).

Also, they may be "watering down" the title to not include force sensitivity, and I don't know if that's a horrible idea. But it seems that "According to Pablo Hidalgo in a Rebels Recon video, he and Dave Filoni based the design of the Super Commandos on unused designs for Boba Fett from The Empire Strikes Back. Hidalgo added that the Super Commandos' armor was design to emulate the Empire." ( http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_Super_Commando ) Which means to me that they are using some of the material Lucas had considered while creating star wars as well as pieces/parts/elements from the EU/Legends. And though it would interesting, no matter, if they were just a Mandalore supression force, it would be strange, then, not just to be a force under Saxon internal to Mandalore, rather than Imperial "super Commando's" By title.

Rather the two titles together (Emperor's Hand and Imperial Super Commando's) suggest to me (and I realize that until they have more canonical references to this, that either way is just guessing at this point) that Saxon is Visroy by title, and the commander of an imperial strike unit, to which the title Emperor's Hand might then have a closer meaning to it's EU counterpart (just without the force sensitivity, and overt training by the Emperor). And despite the Mandalore people not be the Superhuman Jedi killing philosophy/race that they were in the EU, clearly they are still a superior trained militant people, who one would want to have as a directly reporting Spec. Ops unit.

On 7/26/2017 at 7:53 AM, Donovan Morningfire said:

Now, for GMs that have been running Star Wars games for years or have read a lot of Legends lore over the years, a lot of that is stuff that we can handle on our own without needing a lot of prompting on how to set up the stories placed in that era. But there are newer and/or younger GMs who may well find the help this book can provide and the insight it can offer on that particular era helpful.

As a new GM, this is exactly why I would most likely find this type of sourcebook useful as I intend to set my campaign in the 19-09 BBY timeline; the currently release product lines have very little hard information on this "transition" era between the fall of the Republic and rise of the Empire (at 20 year time frame).

The product page for this book is leading to a 404 page...hope that's not a bad omen...

**** you FFG

TAKEMYMONEY!TAKEMYMONEY!TAKEMYMONEY!TAKEMYMONEY!

5 hours ago, jivjov said:

The product page for this book is leading to a 404 page...hope that's not a bad omen...

Naah, same thing happens with one of the other new releases (don't remember which one).

Probably just a bug.

6 hours ago, OddballE8 said:

Naah, same thing happens with one of the other new releases (don't remember which one).

Probably just a bug.

Cyphers and Masks is 404ing too.

Product page is now live .

Not much, except for this line...

Quote

Included in the sourcebook are new talent and species options for players, modular scenarios for gamemasters to include in their campaigns, and a wealth of information about the organizations, characters, and history that make the Star Wars saga so iconic.

Edited by Blackbird888

Am I the only one worried by the lack of mention of new equipment and vehicle options?

7 hours ago, RogueCorona said:

Am I the only one worried by the lack of mention of new equipment and vehicle options?

Nope, partly because there is already a ridiculous amount of equipment, but also because I'd be surprised if they didn't have those sections. I won't be that bothered if they're not there, i'm just expecting they will be.

The product page just has anecdotal information. Other books pages don't always mention everything, but that doesn't mean they don't have it.

The only reason why checking the product page is they sometimes have information not covered in a news article.

Edit for coherency.

Edited by Blackbird888

I wonder if the images that look like the rebels crew dont because licensing or copyright prevent them from using the exact likeness. If you look into the Star Trek reboot license they had to have no semblance to the original series or films, so even costumes etc had to be different.

Even using tribbles had to have a special license.

Edited by syrath
59 minutes ago, syrath said:

I wonder if the images that look like the rebels crew dont because licensing or copyright prevent them from using the exact likeness. If you look into the Star Trek reboot license they had to have no semblance to the original series or films, so even costumes etc had to be different.

Even using tribbles had to have a special license.

I'd say that's just the artstyle. The illustrations in the FFG books tend to be more on the realistic side. It would be pretty jarring to have the cartoony Rebels thrown in here and there.

My guess though would be that they do hold the licenses, considering more and more canonized content has been seeping into the newer books.

In fact I'd say that Disney closely supervises the further developement of the RPG, hence why new releases have been slow (at least it feels like that for me). Even to the point of pruning Bothans from all reprints in prep for their rework.

I'm beginning to worry that this may be the only setting/adventure material book that will be released for awhile. The announcement for Ghosts of Dathomir is about to have its first birthday which indicates it's stuck in development h-e-double-hockeysticks.

Is FFG is stuck in a Catch-22 with the Star Wars license? It's more than reasonable to assume that Lucasfilm wants tie-in material to support the primary film and TV media - meaning focusing on settings, plots, and characters already featured on-screen. All of the novels and Marvel comics focus solely on the screen heroes. But that's not actually enough material to fill more than one role-playing game source book and writers can't pen anything that might conflict with an upcoming TV show or film. Until Episode IX drops in 2019, there's nothing that can be done with a post-Jedi, pre-Awakens "era" volume.

Suns of Fortune and Lords of Nal Hutta are both really good source books and I wonder if they would have been publishable post-Disney.

Edited by Concise Locket
Cogency
7 hours ago, Concise Locket said:

I'm beginning to worry that this may be the only setting/adventure material book that will be released for awhile. The announcement for Ghosts of Dathomir is about to have its first birthday which indicates it's stuck in development h-e-double-hockeysticks.

Is FFG is stuck in a Catch-22 with the Star Wars license? It's more than reasonable to assume that Lucasfilm wants tie-in material to support the primary film and TV media - meaning focusing on settings, plots, and characters already featured on-screen. All of the novels and Marvel comics focus solely on the screen heroes. But that's not actually enough material to fill more than one role-playing game source book and writers can't pen anything that might conflict with an upcoming TV show or film. Until Episode IX drops in 2019, there's nothing that can be done with a post-Jedi, pre-Awakens "era" volume.

Suns of Fortune and Lords of Nal Hutta are both really good source books and I wonder if they would have been publishable post-Disney.

It is not in developement. The first shipments container literally fell off the ship. If you dig into it this is not an uncommon occurrence. so that had to be reprinted. Along with as a best guess the initial shipment of fully Operational and a shipment of an Arkham expansion. This is all pieced together from various sources. Like the Devs saying the shipment was diverted. And it was not pirates because no one was hurt. Someone asked a distributor and they said container fell off ship, Which fits the other clues. So likely they found out when the ship got in port. So anything printed after that boat will arrive first. Then after reprinting and reshipping a new shipment. We will get the books. Cyphers and masks will probably come first.

It's like people never had an item get lost in the mail. This is just a very large case of that.

Edited by Stan Fresh
9 hours ago, Stan Fresh said:

It's like people never had an item got lost in the mail. This is just a very large case of that.

exactly

12 hours ago, Stan Fresh said:

It's like people never had an item get lost in the mail. This is just a very large case of that.

Something Something Chinese printer bankruptcy something something container fell overboard something something ship lost at sea something something.

Hey, sometimes even the best of captains have to jettison their cargo when Imperial customs ships approach...

On 9/21/2017 at 4:34 PM, Daeglan said:

It is not in developement. The first shipments container literally fell off the ship.

Cool. If it wasn't announced on FFG's home page, I just missed the news.