Resolving inconsistent gear and vehicles

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

First off, I want to say that I love the Star Wars FFG RPG and rarely have issues with it and this really isn't a big issue.

Across some of the books, we see various items, gear, weapons reprinted, usually across the different lines. Most of the time, these items are consistent, with no deviation.

However, sometimes, there are minor deviations that occur and to me this causes some problems as someone who uses Oggdudes character generator. So I pose the question to fellow players and GMs.

"How do you resolve conflicting information about an item in the game?"

Some examples of this occurring:

Rocket Boots, they appear in both No Disintegrations and in Collapse of the Republic, all stats, price, rarity etc are the same, the only difference is the the
No Disintegrations: System Strain threshold of 3
Collapse of the Republic: System Strain threshold of 4.

In this example, do you simply treat Collapse as an errata of the original boots? Or are they varients? If the latter why would a player not buy the Collapse variant?

--------

The Phase I ARC Trooper Armor has the same stats and ability, but the hardpoints are different:
Knights of Fate: Price: 5000, Rarity: 8 (R), Encumbrance: 4, Hardpoints: 2
Rise of the Separatists: Price: 6000, Rarity 7 (R), Encumbrance: 5, Hardpoints: 4
This is a bit more complicated, the price and rarity being different makes sense due to the time period being different...but the encumbrance and hard points?

It is worth mentioning that the one from Knights of Fate matches the Phase II armor from Collapse exactly except with a different ability...
So do you retcon the Knights of Fate one as being the Phase II armor and errata the ability to that? Do you treat them as varients? One is harder to find, but cheaper and has less encum and HP?

--------

The DC-17 Hand blaster in Rise mentions the GM can spend three threat or a despair to have it run out of ammo, while the version in Collapse of the Republic is missing this part.

Personally, I don't see that as an errata and simply missed information. But isn't that cherry picking at that point?

--------

Yes, a lot of examples are from the latest books, it's mostly because they are fresh in my mind. However, perhaps the most infamous example is the Protectorate/Fang starfighter.

This ship...this ship has three different appearances across the lines: Dawn of Rebellion, Unlimited Power, No Disintegrations. Again, in the interest of simply posting an entire statblock, I am just posting the actual stuff that is different between the various printings.

No Disintegrations: Mandalorian Protectorate Starfighter
Shields: 0/0/0/0
Armor: 2
Hull Truma Threshold: 12
System Strain Threshold: 10
Navicomputer: Yes
Sensor Range: Close
Encumbrance: 2
Price: 120,000
Rarity: 9
Special Ability: Narrow Attack Profile, treat as 1 silhoutte lower when attacking this ship.

Unlimited Power: Mandalorian Protectorate "Fang" Starfighter
Shields: 1/0/0/1
Armor: 2
Hull Truma Threshold: 10
System Strain Threshold: 10
Navicomputer: Yes
Sensor Range: Medium
Encumbrance: 4
Price: 175,000
Rarity: 8

Dawn of Rebellion: Fang Fighter
Shields: 1/0/0/1
Armor: 2
Hull Truma Threshold: 6
System Strain Threshold: 8
Navicomputer: None
Sensor Range: Short
Encumbrance: 4
Price: 185,000
Rarity: 7

Clearly the name is an issue. Originally thought to be called the Protectorate Starfighter, it was eventually revealed that it's actual designation is the Fang Fighter.

How do we reconcile this mess? Do they retcon each other? Are they simply variations of the chassis? The Dawn of Rebellion one is a mess. It is worse in every day than the Unlimited Power version..but is about 10k more expensive, sure it is a lower rarity..but I'm not sure that balances it out...

--------

Please feel free to post your own examples. The intent of this is to come up with a way to resolve these inconsistencies.

The mandalorian starfighter is manufactured by three different companies, and are three different variants.

Honesty I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all rule of thumb that you can apply to this, and it comes down to the GM's discretion.

For example, in the case of the Rocket Boots I would treat the more recent RotS version as the one to use since it is a more recent printing and gives the player a single, manageable extra benefit (+1 ST)

In the case of the ARC armor however, I would probably edge towards assuming the Knights of Fate version is an errata and should be styled 'Phase 2' instead since it matches the corresponding one in CotR exactly but differs from the Phase 1 variant in RotS, and when it comes to CW-era gear it makes sense for the era books to take precedence.

In short, different examples require different solutions.

I have to admit, I normally don't even notice. I use the stats of the one I'm looking at in the moment. If it becomes an issue our group looks at both sets and picks whichever we think is most appropriate. It's not really worth spending to much time fussing over.

I kinda feel like rocket boots were just better in the past.

~18 years of the Empire decimating corporate interests on the back of a devastating war has not been good for manufacturers of equipment used to fight the Empire.

On 8/1/2019 at 8:12 PM, Ebak said:

First off, I want to say that I love the Star Wars FFG RPG and rarely have issues with it and this really isn't a big issue.

Across some of the books, we see various items, gear, weapons reprinted, usually across the different lines. Most of the time, these items are consistent, with no deviation.

However, sometimes, there are minor deviations that occur and to me this causes some problems as someone who uses Oggdudes character generator. So I pose the question to fellow players and GMs.

"How do you resolve conflicting information about an item in the game?"

Some examples of this occurring:

Rocket Boots, they appear in both No Disintegrations and in Collapse of the Republic, all stats, price, rarity etc are the same, the only difference is the the
No Disintegrations: System Strain threshold of 3
Collapse of the Republic: System Strain threshold of 4.

In this example, do you simply treat Collapse as an errata of the original boots? Or are they varients? If the latter why would a player not buy the Collapse variant?

--------

The Phase I ARC Trooper Armor has the same stats and ability, but the hardpoints are different:
Knights of Fate: Price: 5000, Rarity: 8 (R), Encumbrance: 4, Hardpoints: 2
Rise of the Separatists: Price: 6000, Rarity 7 (R), Encumbrance: 5, Hardpoints: 4
This is a bit more complicated, the price and rarity being different makes sense due to the time period being different...but the encumbrance and hard points?

It is worth mentioning that the one from Knights of Fate matches the Phase II armor from Collapse exactly except with a different ability...
So do you retcon the Knights of Fate one as being the Phase II armor and errata the ability to that? Do you treat them as varients? One is harder to find, but cheaper and has less encum and HP?

--------

The DC-17 Hand blaster in Rise mentions the GM can spend three threat or a despair to have it run out of ammo, while the version in Collapse of the Republic is missing this part.

Personally, I don't see that as an errata and simply missed information. But isn't that cherry picking at that point?

--------

Yes, a lot of examples are from the latest books, it's mostly because they are fresh in my mind. However, perhaps the most infamous example is the Protectorate/Fang starfighter.

This ship...this ship has three different appearances across the lines: Dawn of Rebellion, Unlimited Power, No Disintegrations. Again, in the interest of simply posting an entire statblock, I am just posting the actual stuff that is different between the various printings.

No Disintegrations: Mandalorian Protectorate Starfighter
Shields: 0/0/0/0
Armor: 2
Hull Truma Threshold: 12
System Strain Threshold: 10
Navicomputer: Yes
Sensor Range: Close
Encumbrance: 2
Price: 120,000
Rarity: 9
Special Ability: Narrow Attack Profile, treat as 1 silhoutte lower when attacking this ship.

Unlimited Power: Mandalorian Protectorate "Fang" Starfighter
Shields: 1/0/0/1
Armor: 2
Hull Truma Threshold: 10
System Strain Threshold: 10
Navicomputer: Yes
Sensor Range: Medium
Encumbrance: 4
Price: 175,000
Rarity: 8

Dawn of Rebellion: Fang Fighter
Shields: 1/0/0/1
Armor: 2
Hull Truma Threshold: 6
System Strain Threshold: 8
Navicomputer: None
Sensor Range: Short
Encumbrance: 4
Price: 185,000
Rarity: 7

Clearly the name is an issue. Originally thought to be called the Protectorate Starfighter, it was eventually revealed that it's actual designation is the Fang Fighter.

How do we reconcile this mess? Do they retcon each other? Are they simply variations of the chassis? The Dawn of Rebellion one is a mess. It is worse in every day than the Unlimited Power version..but is about 10k more expensive, sure it is a lower rarity..but I'm not sure that balances it out...

--------

Please feel free to post your own examples. The intent of this is to come up with a way to resolve these inconsistencies.

There is also a difference in Mandalorian armor between No Disintegrations and Collapse of the Republic . The CoR version of the armor includes an integrated Comlink and Vacuum Sealed as stock whereas they're not included in ND . I asked the Devs about that and Tim Cox said that the inclusion of the comlink and Vacuum Sealed was exclusive to Mandalorian armor of the Clone Wars era, and does not supersede the version in ND . However, he also said that if the GM wanted he could use the CoR version in any era.

Quote

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your question! The Clone Wars-era armor does have those additional features, but this entry does not supersede the one in No Disintegrations . Though if a GM wants to use the version in Collapse of the Republic in a game of any other era, they should feel free to do so! It does make the armor slightly better, of course, since vacuum sealed would otherwise require a hard point, so the GM would have to weigh that advantage in the context of their game.

Thanks, and I hope you’re enjoying the book!

---

Tim Cox

RPG Developer and Fiction Producer

Fantasy Flight Games

[email protected]

he/him



Rules Question:
I've got a question about Mandalorian armor. According to page 56 of Collapse of the Republic, all Mandalorian armor suits include an integrated comlink and are Vacuum sealed. However, in Dangerous Covenants, these are not included in the armor, yet, in all other cases are identical in terms of cost, Hard Points, Ratity, etc. Is the addition of the comlink and Vacuum Sealed eratta that can be applied to the earlier version of the armor, or is it exclusive to Mandalorian Armor of the Clone Wars era?

You might want to ask the Devs about those discrepencies as well.

Also some of it maybe tech improvements. For example the flak cannons on the clones wars ships in the clone wars era are not as good because they get improved later.