The two recent generic Star Wars source books have given me hope that perhaps FFG will finally release a single book or product line that lets me run a Star Wars adventure for my friends.

I understand deeply the desire to make separate games about Star Wars.

Infact I tried to run edge of the empire years before it was released. I told all my freinds I was going to run a fringe crime noir Star Wars game. Set between episode 3 and 4

You know what happened?

i got two jedi, a frenger and a Rebel.

i was trying to make Star Wars a thing it wasn’t and my stupid campaign suffered for my ignorance. The players knew what Star Wars was. A group of characters with diverse backgrounds and motivations coming together and growing through that exposure to eachothers diffrences.

i enjoyed the edge of the empire starter set but never made the leap to the ful game because heck I don’t want to learn three huge games to run something that looks like the Star Wars movies I like.

Fix this FFG

Crime noir...

So a colleague of theirs is killed and one of the Jedi is framed.

Bountyhunters have been sent after them and they need to find out who did it and why before they end up being overwhelmed let alone the empire's response to this...

Does that help...

It shouldn’t take $180 of books to run a Han, Luke, Leia, team.

Too late to complain about it now.

I want to be able to respond to a post with overly large text regarding too many core books in just one thread.

Fix this.

While early on this was a complaint given by many, I think now it's a moot point. As pointed out, it isn't going to be fixed. It's a little late for that. There are three lines of books with several supplements each. Second, this game has been around long enough there are quite a few sources out there which would allow you to grab the Force & Destiny book and easily run the group you described above.

The only way you are going to get one generic core book would be a re-release of the entire line in a 2nd edition. I don't see that happening for years, perhaps another decade. So, you can either wait for that or simply grab one book and start googling sources to cover the others.

2 hours ago, Swordbreaker said:

Too late to complain about it now.

Yep. And since the three book model proved to be fiscally successful for FFG, it's not likely they're going to change course and try to cram everything into a single rulebook. WotC took that approach, trying to have their corebooks cover the prequel era, the OT era, and the NJO era, with the Saga Edition catching it the worst in terms of barest of bare essentials.

And that's not counting that D&D has been using the "you need three books in order to play" model since the inception of D&D 1st edition, a business model that is still alive and thriving for that product line to this day.

The players guide, GM guide, and monster manual are an entirely different thing then the Star Wars FFG line.

1 hour ago, TylerTT said:

The players guide, GM guide, and monster manual are an entirely different thing then the Star Wars FFG line.

Well yeah...

The D&D ideal model says if you have a group of 5 players and a DM, you're expected to have 6 players handbooks, a DM manual, and a monster manual.

At a bare minimum you're expected to have one players manual, a DM manual, and a monster manual.

Not to mention dice, miniatures, ect.

WotC divided up the content into three mandatory products. You need the players guide to play, the players guide and dm guide to dm, and the monster manual if you don't want to custom stat everything.

By comparison to play star wars, you only need dice (or the app) and a minimum of one book. It's got a full party's worth of player options, gm guidance, and a block of samples and an adventure.

Yeah to get the full Monty you'll need two or three cores depending on how you stat things, but you won't be lacking for a healer, or face, or pilot or whatever.

So WotC says to even play you need three books, FFG says to play you need one, but probably want more. The real difference is WotC, well then TSR, convinced everyone 3 books was required so long ago it's now accepted as fact. And FFG decided to phase into the system, releasing three cores over several years not just for money, but because they saw how WEG and WotC struggled to balance a lot of functions and properly sample the entire IP, and thought it was a better idea to take their time.

The DND books come in box sets

If FFG made DND there would be

Wizard club. An rpg about being wizards!

fighter gang. An rpg about being a fight man!

rouge no freinds. An rpg about being rouges with no freinds!

If you want to recreate an adventureing party from your favorite book just learn three whole games!

The classic dnd split is great because one book governs the game and the two other books serve as a reference for the player options and the monster options. You can keep three page spreads open at one time

oh and those books used to be sold in a box.

1 hour ago, TylerTT said:

The DND books come in box sets

If FFG made DND there would be

Wizard club. An rpg about being wizards!

fighter gang. An rpg about being a fight man!

rouge no freinds. An rpg about being rouges with no freinds!

If you want to recreate an adventureing party from your favorite book just learn three whole games!

The classic dnd split is great because one book governs the game and the two other books serve as a reference for the player options and the monster options. You can keep three page spreads open at one time

oh and those books used to be sold in a box.

What? Since when does DND come in a box set? And you realize that each class has extra sub classes that are so scattered through all their supplements that its almost impossible to reliably find. There are honestly some things that are only accessible through the dndbeyond website.

It seems you just want to harp on FFG and their practices when almost every company pulls something similar.

If your players are trying to pull sub careers from sourcebooks, maybe you should tell them to go buy those themselves? Or maybe tell them that they can only pull from the the CRB since the story is going a certain way.

@TylerTT I see from your OP that you played the EOTE beginner box, but not a core game.

The game mechanics are the same. 100% compatible. In fact, historically from what I've seen that's the primary issue most people have the three cores... that they're SO similar, they should have been released Genesys style (One CRB with splatbooks for settings). There might be specific differences (Obligation vs Duty vs Morality) or VERY few rules tucked into the different CRBs, but I'd say that's insignificant compared to the various rules spread throughout splatbooks.

With your insistence that you'd have to learn "three whole/huge games"... I have to ask, have you compared the three core books, or actually looked at any of them? Your snark and fundamental misunderstanding in your latest post make me think that you may not have...

2 hours ago, TylerTT said:

If FFG made DND there would be

Wizard club. An rpg about being wizards!

fighter gang. An rpg about being a fight man!

rouge no freinds. An rpg about being rouges with no friends!

If you want to recreate an adventureing party from your favorite book just learn three whole games!

No, it's the same game. The mechanics in each book are completely duplicated. And actually there are iconic SciFi archetypes in each book that are different then Fighter/Rogue/Wizard, since Star Wars is not fantasy. So it's Soldier, Pilot, Techie, etc....in each book.

2 hours ago, TylerTT said:

The classic dnd split is great because one book governs the game and the two other books serve as a reference for the player options and the monster options. You can keep three page spreads open at one time

The advantage of being able to keep three pages open for reference is pretty insignificant when compared to having to purchase three books to play. FFG at least gives you an option of playing a full campaign with just one big book.

2 hours ago, TylerTT said:

oh and those books used to be sold in a box.

I'm not sure what you are getting at here. They are sold in a box so that somehow makes them one item??

1 hour ago, Sturn said:

No, it's the same game. The mechanics in each book are completely duplicated.

That's not quite true. The narrative mechanic (Obligation, Duty, or Morality) differs, the skills differ slightly, the talents listed differ (sometimes even for the same talent), the gear is sometimes subtly different (EotE allows the blaster rifle to be fired one-handed, FaD allows the carbine to be fired one-handed, AoR allows neither), some rules only appear in one book (one-roll combat and starfighter defense in EotE, various Gunnery salvo options in AoR), and FaD is the only one with a wide range of Force powers.

9 hours ago, TylerTT said:

The DND books come in box sets

If FFG made DND there would be

Wizard club. An rpg about being wizards!

fighter gang. An rpg about being a fight man!

rouge no freinds. An rpg about being rouges with no freinds!

If you want to recreate an adventureing party from your favorite book just learn three whole games!

The classic dnd split is great because one book governs the game and the two other books serve as a reference for the player options and the monster options. You can keep three page spreads open at one time

oh and those books used to be sold in a box.

You've mentioned this issue before, and I can understand how you might be frustrated if you have a group who want to recreate the "mixed group" of heroes in the movies, as you say. The thing is you can recreate the movies, you just have to be creative in interpreting the specializations. Your best bet is probably Age of Rebellion for this . Han may be a smuggler, but you can recreate him as a Commander (Commodore). Chewbacca could be an Engineer (Mechanic) or Ace (Driver). Leia is a Diplomat (Ambassador) or maybe (Agitator). Luke is an Ace (Pilot) with the Force-sensitive Emergent secondary specialization. 3PO can be a Diplomat (Ambassador). R2 a Spy (Slicer). Chewie can be a Soldier (Commando). All of these specs are in the AOR core book.

Sure, it's better to have all the options, but RPG lines need to be profitable, so you'll end up buying a few more books down the road. But my point is that you can totally recreate the OT-style of "mixed" play with just one core book. You just can't be literal about the names of Careers and Specializations.

16 minutes ago, SavageBob said:

You've mentioned this issue before, and I can understand how you might be frustrated if you have a group who want to recreate the "mixed group" of heroes in the movies, as you say. The thing is you can recreate the movies, you just have to be creative in interpreting the specializations. Your best bet is probably Age of Rebellion for this . Han may be a smuggler, but you can recreate him as a Commander (Commodore). Chewbacca could be an Engineer (Mechanic) or Ace (Driver). Leia is a Diplomat (Ambassador) or maybe (Agitator). Luke is an Ace (Pilot) with the Force-sensitive Emergent secondary specialization. 3PO can be a Diplomat (Ambassador). R2 a Spy (Slicer). Chewie can be a Soldier (Commando). All of these specs are in the AOR core book.

Sure, it's better to have all the options, but RPG lines need to be profitable, so you'll end up buying a few more books down the road. But my point is that you can totally recreate the OT-style of "mixed" play with just one core book. You just can't be literal about the names of Careers and Specializations.

Excellent point.

I do have all the books but to me they cover different parts of the universe. The comparison with D&D is thus:

3 books from star wars is the three settings, with rules to play the game in EACH one.

3 books from D&D gives you rules to play but no settings or real lore.

For D&D to get the settings you are investing into extra books and even then there isn't that much for settings outside of adventures.

D&D do printed adventures more frequently which is something I want more from FFG!

I like the three different core books from this Star Wars line/s. Each is a different game each is compatible with one another. I own all the current books. I didn’t feel like I needed them. I just like the material included. I just wish they realeased the books in a more timely favorable fashion.

By the by. Weg d6 Star Wars you only need one book.

On 3/21/2019 at 5:26 PM, Zuldan said:

By the by. Weg d6 Star Wars you only need one book.

That's not an entirely accurate statement. At only 121 pages the WEG core book is tiny! For comparison the FFG career books are 96 pages. You don't get any info beyond the most basic of rules. There is no equipment to speak of, there are only stats for five ships (one of which is the Millenium Falcon, lol), and no setting information. Aside from human your only species options are Ewok, Wookie, Mon Calamari (which are careers unto themselves), and the "Alien Student of the Force" whose species isn't identified.

If you want more info, you'll have to buy the Star Wars Sourcebook , although once again there is very little setting info in that book either. It's mostly just stats for ships and vehicles. They do have rules for ten alien races, but Ewoks, Wookies and Mon Calamari are on this list too, so it's really only seven.

How many WEG books would you have to buy to equal the information presented in just one of the FFG core books? I don't remember what the WEG books cost at the time (it was nearly 30 years ago!), but I think I'd rather pay $180 for three books that give me a ton more information and that also give me the flexibility to run any kind of campaign that I want with very little to no effort required on my part to make it work.

On 3/21/2019 at 4:26 PM, Zuldan said:

By the by. Weg d6 Star Wars you only need one book.

Ok, now you're just getting overexcited and being silly.

D&D bare minimum = 3 books - Player, DM, MM

SWRPG bare minimum = 1 book - Any 1 of the core books.

I would say that FaD is a slightly different beast than EoTE and AoR. If you are having force heavy characters, you need FaD. EoTE and AoR are basically interchangeable except for the patina.

Here's how D&D groups that I've been involved in worked: Each player brings a player manual, DM foots the bill for all 3 core books. GM and 4 players would be 7 books. While new players would generally share a players handbook, they'd very quickly pick up one of their own if they kept an interest in the game.

In SWRPG, 3 different players could buy the 3 separate core books and you'd be set. GM and 4 players would be 3 books.

I can't exactly put my finger out it, but the SWRPG books are more shareable/communal. D&D has always had a lot of book referencing just to handle basic play. I run SWRPGs online where half the players don't even have a core book and it doesn't seem to be an issue.

No matter how you look at it, SWRPG is cheaper or equal to D&D from a financial standpoint. As D&D is the standard comparison point for RPGs, I'd say SWRPG is doing just fine from a cost/benefit analysis.

1 hour ago, kmanweiss said:

D&D bare minimum = 3 books - Player, DM, MM

SWRPG bare minimum = 1 book - Any 1 of the core books.

I would say that FaD is a slightly different beast than EoTE and AoR. If you are having force heavy characters, you need FaD. EoTE and AoR are basically interchangeable except for the patina.

Here's how D&D groups that I've been involved in worked: Each player brings a player manual, DM foots the bill for all 3 core books. GM and 4 players would be 7 books. While new players would generally share a players handbook, they'd very quickly pick up one of their own if they kept an interest in the game.

In SWRPG, 3 different players could buy the 3 separate core books and you'd be set. GM and 4 players would be 3 books.

I can't exactly put my finger out it, but the SWRPG books are more shareable/communal. D&D has always had a lot of book referencing just to handle basic play. I run SWRPGs online where half the players don't even have a core book and it doesn't seem to be an issue.

No matter how you look at it, SWRPG is cheaper or equal to D&D from a financial standpoint. As D&D is the standard comparison point for RPGs, I'd say SWRPG is doing just fine from a cost/benefit analysis.

And if each player and the GM each pick up a career book. THey have 8 books. It is also so annoying how people get this attitude like they have to buy the entire line all at once. They don't

there are 33 books or so in the system. And if you did it the way I suggest in a matter of a few months you would have the entire line available. But you dont really need more than one or 2 books to play. **** I was able to play with the Edge beta just fine. That was one book. really the issue you the OPs own hang up.

On 5/13/2019 at 12:18 PM, Daeglan said:

really the issue you the OPs own hang up.

This. All you need are the dice and ANY of the core rulebooks. Everything else is flavor and coloring and unless you decide to go from the GCW to being hard-core force users, you can always just get by with the core books (in my humble opinion).

I should add, this is from the perspective of someone who has ALL the books (and beginner sets). I have read (most of) most of them but none of it has changed the basic game we are playing or how we play it and to suggest that this game is impenetrable because FFG have produce a lot of content is asinine and disingenuous.

A bit late to the party here, but this reads like a GM and the players not being on the same page about appropriate character concepts for a game.