Only just come across this game and wondered what it is all about.

Is it essentially a Star Wars game, played as D&D used to be for example? I have Imperial Assault and love it and was looking for my next FFG venture.

Whats the score regards the Core Rules and Beginners set? would most plump for beginners first?

Thanks

No. It is nothing like D&D, Thank the Force. The rules and game mechanics are completely different, as is the overall game play. IT is a much more "Narrative" system that encourages cooperation between the GM ad players to create the story, and is much less about killing enemies and looting boxes (a staple of D&D). In fact, the "Murder Hobo" mentality is the very antithesis of this system.

It is a tabletop roleplaying game, as Dungeons and Dragons is also a tabletop roleplaying game. You make characters and play through adventures.

There are many, many differences, though. Genre, setting, mechanics, even the general 'point' of the game is different.

Yes. It is like D&D in a galaxy far, far away. But better.

It is similar to D&D in that it is a role playing game, but the emphasis is on telling the story. The narrative dice system actually assists in this, rather than detracting from it.

31 minutes ago, VAYASAN said:

Whats the score regards the Core Rules and Beginners set? would most plump for beginners first?

Definitely start with the beginner box, especially if you have only played D&D. It's the same idea: create a character, role-play through a story, etc; but the mechanics are different enough in this game that you'll want a more hand-held intro. The AoR beginner box is excellent, especially if you download the free PDF continuation of the adventure. Plus it gives you a set of dice, which you will need if you buy the core rules anyway. The beginner box + PDF will probably give you 3-5 evenings of gaming enjoyment...well worth the price of admission.

Although do note that the Beginner Box does not contain the full rules, so if you do want to proceed, you will also need to spring for the book. The core rules are the same across AoR, FaD, and EotE, but each provides different careers/specializations.

Although the sample rules + dice + tokens + other stuff does make the Beginner Box reasonably valuable. I would get it over just getting dice, and you definitely want to have the dice.

20 hours ago, whafrog said:

Definitely start with the beginner box, especially if you have only played D&D. It's the same idea: create a character, role-play through a story, etc; but the mechanics are different enough in this game that you'll want a more hand-held intro. The AoR beginner box is excellent, especially if you download the free PDF continuation of the adventure. Plus it gives you a set of dice, which you will need if you buy the core rules anyway. The beginner box + PDF will probably give you 3-5 evenings of gaming enjoyment...well worth the price of admission.

Note that the Beginners' Boxes do not contain character creation rules. They contain only pregenerated characters with very limited advancement options.

Similarities:

- Both are Tabletot Role Playing Games.

- Both use a character sheet, pen, rubber and dices.

- Both need a table with friends ready to have fun. Potatoe chips, popcorn and soda are optional.

- Both games focus on PCs having adventures and some combat when things blow up.

The big difference is this

- D&D rolls are Math Oriented => d20 + modifier A + modifier B + ... + modifier N versus a dificulty number to equal or surpass, like many, many TRPGs out there.

- Star Wars (Edge of the Empire and the other cores) are narrative oriented => you get successes, failures, advantages, threats, triumphs (crits) and desperations (crit fail). No binary results of "I hit, I miss, roll damage...", and there are no rules set in stone (like 3 succeses + 1 failure mean A, 1 failure + 2 advantages mean B...). NO. You set the result depending on the scene and your imagination. GM and Players have to improvise, a lot. There are suggestions of how to interpret dice results in some skills, but that's all, suggestions, NOT rules set in stone. It is an important change of paradigm, and for that you will love it or hate it.

A second difference that I want to explain is this:

- Both D&D and Star Wars support combat situations and are action games, but FFG-SW have rules that support other types of campaigns: spionage, sabotage, intrigue, politics, investigation, crime scenes... You can play that with D&D, too, but the FFG-SW rules and "classes" support this type of adventures much better.

- Experience rewards don't come for "killing monsters". The more stormtroopers you kill does not equals the more fast you "level up". And combat, in some situations, is best avoided.

- D&D functions by classes and levels. The higher level you are, the more life points and aptitudes you get. In FFG-SW there is NO class level, and "life points" are hard to earn. Wear no armor, take no cover and jump happily to the battlefield like a "man", and you will be killed in 2 blaster shots (3 if you have gone for the "life point giving" talents). Sometimes is better to run and avoid combat.

- Min-max numbers is not as important in FFG-SW than in D&D. It focus more on who you are and less in how a killing machine you are.

And the third thing that I think is worth mentioning is this:

- FFG-SW and D&D (5th edition ONLY) are similar in the way they give more focus to interpretation. D&D 5th have Personality, Ideals, Bonds and Flaws traits to give depth to the character, and mechanically favors your interpretation. FFG-SW have motivations, backgrounds, obligation (EoE), duty (AoR) and morality (FaD) traits to flavor your PC, and all have mechanics that affect the character in game.

- In most TRPGs, when you look at a character sheet what you see is numbers, statistics and what the PC can do. With FFG-SW (and D&D 5th, FUDGE/FATE, 7th Sea 2nd... etc) you also KNOW who the character is. Of course you can do that on D&D older versions in a separated piece of paper (or in your mind), but showing only your character sheet what people see is only numbers and powers. In this other games, they see who your character is, and how interesting is playing him not by its numbers, but by its "narrative" traits.

As for what to use for beginning... well, I played the beginners game in a RPG Event, but it didn't cleared me the rules. I find the beginners box best suited for children and teenagers: simplier and fast to begin playing.

Buying Edge Of Empire cleared me things a lot. And I enjoyed the reading. I downloaded cheat sheets that I didn't understood and found confusing until reading the rules from the book, and I found them very, very usefull and elegant, and made me enjoy the ruleset a lot.

Also, I had an idea for a group of adventurers, and neither WEG d6, nor SAGA Edition, nor D&D 5th edition adaptations, nor FATE adaptations allowed me to reflect what I had in mind. FFG-SW did it, and did it incredibly well. And it does also well with other science fiction characters from videogames, movies or tv shows (in my humble opinion, of course).

So, what I advice you is buying one of the three settings depending on what you want to play and the tone of the adventures you want to run (scum, rebels, force users), and use Youtube or cheat sheets to help you understand better the game.

But i warn you: have an open mind. It is a big change of paradign (well, it is for old school gamers like myself)

I was very hesitant of buying the game for all the negative comments (even hatefull comments) on internet, and what I saw was that people love it a lot or hate it a lot, and people that hate it are, in a high percentage, people that hate narrative systems. And what happened is that I turned in one of those people that loves it.

I hope this comments can help you.

Have fun!

It is, like D&D, a game of character scale with story being intended to be created by play.

Mechanically, the mechanics are no closer to D&D than Settlers of Catan and Ticket To Ride...