Recently been looking into this game and DMing it, though most of the article results are from when it launched 4 years ago. Soo... I'm asking on updated info.

A) given the main players in our group tends towards more unhinged antics and mayhem, I'm suspecting EotE is the best option. However, the rebels and Jedi packs may be of interest to them down the line. Would I buy said starter games to do that after the EotE core rules purchase?

B) I'm a little confused by the expansion books. Some seem to add environment rules (like hutt space), campaign paths (sith), or others seem like game mechanics that should be core (tinkerer). ... could I get advice on this?

The others I'll be playing with are entirely new to RPG, and the math light improv heavy nature seems ideal. So any help with this info would be super appreciated.

Cheers!

18 minutes ago, thinkbomb said:

given the main players in our group tends towards more unhinged antics and mayhem, I'm suspecting EotE is the best option.

Probably, but the rebellion is big and an alliance, not a unified group. And darkside play is legal and not rigidly defined.

So there's room to work.

20 minutes ago, thinkbomb said:

Would I buy said starter games to do that after the EotE core rules purchase?

Technically you can start with the beginner set, or core. Most people start with the beginner set to test drive it then get the full rules if they like it. The rules in he beginner games are modified for the attached adventure and abridged, so the more serious groups will either skip it, or just start with the full rules (which may not work depending on which beginner you run due to the Modifications made to the rules for the adventure).

22 minutes ago, thinkbomb said:

I'm a little confused by the expansion books. Some seem to add environment rules (like hutt space), campaign paths (sith), or others seem like game mechanics that should be core (tinkerer). ... could I get advice on this?

The three biggest categories are: Career book - books that focus on player roles and archetypes. (Smuggler, Merc Soldier, Technician, ECT.) Location books that focus on specific regions or a type of location (Hutt Space, Force centric locations, ECT.) And adventure books, which are canned adventures.

And FFG is now also adding: Compiled collections: Books compiling gear, or nocs, what have you. And era books, which right now only covers Clone Wars.

To keep everything marketable, almost every book has something useful in it. Crafting rules tables, a new playable species, ECT.

thanks a ton for the help so far.

let me rephrase one of the questions...

Say I buy core rules for edge, then later players want Jedi after a campaign. What would I buy at that point?

If starting with Edge of the Empire, I would recommend getting the starter set for that first. It's widely regarded as the best of the starter boxes anyway - a good well-rounded adventure in true Star Wars spirit (smugglers, Hutts, pirates galore). It will give you a good idea if you want to invest in the full Core Rule Book.

If you do decide to get into the game, I would say you don't need to get the AoR or F&D starter sets too after you're into EOTE (unless you're a completionist like me). Since the starter boxes have slimmed down rulesets, it can actually feel like a step back to go from a mainline EOTE game to a new starter box.

As for the books as a whole, they fall into the following categories:

Core Rule Books - the big manuals that give you the base rulesets for each individual game line. There is a lot of crossover between them as they cover a lot of the same ground, but still offer enough unique content to be worthwhile if you're planning to go all-in on the hobby. They are:

Edge of the Empire CRB - focus is on the fringe "scum and villainy" types

Age of Rebellion CRB - focus is on Rebels vs Empire

Force And Destiny CRB - focus is on Force Users

Then you have Career Sourcebooks . Each Core Rule Book above gives you six careers for each of the three lines, and each career comes with 3 specializations (similar to "classes" in traditional D&D-style RPGs). However each career has its own sourcebook which gives you an additional 3 specializations and a whole bunch of other info such as extra character creation options, powerful Signature abilities and themed gear/items catered to that career. They are:

Edge of the Empire: Dangerous Covenants (Hired Gun), Enter the Unknown (Explorer), Far Horizons (Colonist), Fly Casual (Smuggler), No Disintegrations (Bounty Hunter), Special Modifications (Technician)

Age of Rebellion: Cyphers And Masks (Spy), Desperate Allies (Diplomat), Forged In Battle (Soldier), Fully Operational (Engineer), Lead By Example (Commander), Stay On Target (Ace)

Force and Destiny: Disciples Of Harmony (Consular), Endless Vigil (Sentinel), Keeping The Peace (Guardian), Knights Of Fate (Warrior), Savage Spirits (Seeker), Unlimited Power (Mystic)

Then each line has Adventure Modules. These are exactly what they say on the tin - self-contained stories that can be used as-is or adapted by GMs for their own stories. Some are designed for starting-level parties while others are intended for mid- or late-tier parties. They are:

Edge of the Empire: Beyond The Rim, Jewel Of Yavin, Mask Of The Pirate Queen

Age of Rebellion: Friends Like These, Onslaught At Arda I

Force and Destiny: Chronicles of the Gatekeeper, Ghosts of Dathomir

There are also Region/Sector books, which are basically supplements that go into bigger detail on certain areas or groupings of planets and worlds in the Star Wars galaxy. These usually contain more character options, mini-adventure modules and a wealth of gear and NPCs for your parties to fight against.

Edge of the Empire: Lords of Nal Hutta (Hutt Space), Suns of Fortune (Corellian Sector)

Age of Rebellion: Strongholds of Resistance (Rebel sympathising worlds, such as Mon Cala or Chandrila)

Force and Destiny: Nexus of Power (worlds strong in the Force, such as Dagobah or Bardotta)

And lastly FFG has been releasing Era/Compilation books. Although all books in all three lines are compatible with one another, these books are specifically designed to be used in conjunction with any or all of the three lines simultaneously. The era books take the focus of the game out of the original trilogy and introduce new careers and specializations, whilst the compilation books are just that - compilations around a certain theme to help GMs reduce book clutter. They are:

Allies and Adversaries: A compilation of NPCs, including many characters from the movies such as Luke Skywalker or Emperor Palpatine.

Dawn of Rebellion: An era book set in the lead-up to A New Hope, focusing on the Rebels TV show and the events of Rogue One. Includes characters and gear such as the Death Star or the crew of the Ghost, as well as a bunch of "universal" specializations and more.

Gadgets and Gear: A compilation of weapons, items and other gear taken from across the three lines. Also has a small scattering of unique items thrown in.

Rise of the Separatists / Collapse of the Republic: Two books centered around the Clone Wars era. RotS focuses primarily on the first half of the war, and introduces new Clone Soldier and Jedi careers, whilst CotR covers the second half of the war and expands the Clone and Jedi careers with extra specializations.

Phew, that was a bit of an essay but I think it covers everything. As of writing this there is no future content announced (Gadgets and Gear + Collapse of the Republic came out in the last couple of months) but it is widely expected that more era/compilation books are on the way.

Hope that helps! I might save this post so I can copy and paste it for others in the future and/or update it when new books come out.

40 minutes ago, thinkbomb said:

Say I buy core rules for edge, then later players want Jedi after a campaign. What would I buy at that point?

Start with the EotE beginner game. The "in the box" game is good, and there is a PDF download that gives you another 3-5 sessions of play, so with that and the dice it's a pretty good deal. What I did to introduce the players to the game was just use the pre-gens. After the first session everybody had an idea how the game worked, and that gave them enough info so they could make their own PCs. In the next session I just handled this as if the new PCs were "on the ship" already, and the pre-gens became NPCs.

Depending on how much "Edge time" you want for your game, you might end up interested in a few of the career sourcebooks. The best of them (IMHO) are the Far Horizons (gives you much needed insight into how to use social skills); Fly Casual (great for trading and smuggling rules); and No Disintegrations (fantastic rules for setting up clues for investigations etc).

Note that even in an Edge campaign you can have a Force sensitive character, as there is a universal spec that caters to an on-the-run, under-the-radar type, and a couple of key Force powers are included in the core book.

If you want to steer into Jedi after that you need the F&D core rules, but only because it has the full list of Force powers. If you want to play actual Jedi from before the Empire, I wouldn't suggest using the careers in F&D though...I think the ones specified in Rise of the Separatists and Collapse of the Republic are much better...again just MHO. This isn't to say the specs in F&D are bad...some are pretty interesting, and the lightsaber-specific ones are key to allowing people to shine with a lightsaber without having high Brawn (which is the default).

Final related note (partly because it came up in a recent thread): don't be afraid to grant XP and let people explore other specs, but at the same time encourage the players to spread their XP out. It's very easy to let PCs become really REALLY good at one thing: a Brawn 5, Melee 5 Wookie for example, is only around 100 XP, which means they will slaughter everything you throw at them...but they won't make a basic Fear check and they will be totally useless if they aren't killing things. People complain that their games are "over" by the time the PCs reach 300XP...and it's true the game allows this to happen. In fact, it seems to encourage it by charging extra XP to branch out into other areas. But you don't have to let it turn out that way. Lots of people play well into the thousands of XP. One of the ways is to waive the extra-spec surcharge so players feel more free to explore new areas of expertise; another is to just make sure less-obvious skills are needed by everyone (eg: Cool, Discipline, Resilience, etc).

Hope that helps...

1 hour ago, thinkbomb said:

Say I buy core rules for edge, then later players want Jedi after a campaign. What would I buy at that point?

This is a rather loaded question, as opinions vary wildly based on what you think a Jedi is, what you think they should be able to do, and how you think the game system does it.

Shortest answer possible?:

- Both EotE and AoR have limited force options. Essentially you can "multi-class" a non-force Spec into force sensitiveness. It should be noted that unlike other game systems multi-classing is typically not a hinderance in this system and indeed certain builds and character concepts require you do it to "get there." However note that in EotE and AoR "Jedi" aren't quite a 100% thing, so playing a 100% EotE/AoR game lightsaber usage will be very limited, though the game bumps up the power of sabers in a 100% EotE/AoR setting a little to compensate. (kinda complicated to explain without familiarity of the core books, but basically EotE/AoR treats sabers like you see them in ANH and ESB, as these strange and powerful heirlooms and artifacts, where FaD treats them more like any other weapon, reducing their base strength, but opening up skills, talents, modification options and so on.)

- Rise of the Separatists and Collapse of the Republic has the official Jedi Career and Specializations in them, and those books are written in a way that you can run a Jedi with any core book, though having FaD on hand is certainly the easier option. The thing about this is the Jedi Archetypes presented are a broad baseline vanilla flavor. Two character specced out as Jedi Knight are both working off the same workbook pages.

- FaD doesn't have "Jedi" as a formal career option, instead all player options are Force sensitive, Saber usage is in full effect, and a pile of force powers are on deck and ready for use. And that's kinda why "Jedi" is a little murky. A guy that takes the Jedi career is going to be able to broadly represent a Jedi just fine, where in FaD you may end up with a guy that's more specialized in a role (healer, sneaky, fighter, duelist) but still skilled with a lightsaber and played as a "JedI' and well... could still be a Jedi.

- Also you'll occasionally find some oddballs. Like Dawn of Rebellion has the "Padawan Survivor" option where a player can take a EotE/AoR character and have them come out as a secret Jedi Padawan Survivor of Order 66, gaining/remembering/revealing skills and abilities related to that.

- Finally, creating a "Jedi" in this system is tricky as the power and ability of a "Jedi" can be widely interpreted. How rigidly you interpret Talents to in-game effects, what powers you think a character needs when in their play-life-time, general measures of force strength and ability, and so on will all impact what you're looking for. As such this has been a hotly debated topic. While a "Starter" level character pretty much can't be a "Jedi" with perhaps the exception of a Jedi:Padawan (maybe, kinda-sorta), beyond that things can escalate quickly depending on how you look at it. Some say the book suggest "Knight Level" will do, plenty others insist that you need double, triple, or even ten-fold the suggested numbers to make a true "Jedi."

I should also mention that force-users and non-forcees are pretty well balanced in this system. That can however cause some interesting situations when you start cranking up starting ability to be what you envision as a "Jedi." Often to get a good "Jedi" you'll be making a powerful, but rather diverse character. Someone that's good at many things, and knows all the magic spells to a certain level of competency. However, because of how the game works, a non-force user at that same level can get pretty beefy. A Merc Soldier at that same level that focuses on just being a Merc Soldier, will be pretty crazy-powerful, to the point that the Jedi may actually start to feel like the weaker character. It's not that he is weaker, it's that the Jedi has a list of abilities so long that it's rare all of them will apply, where the Merc Soldier will be more specialized in what he can do, but when it's his turn to do it, every tool in his toolkit is applicable.

Thanks a million for all the suggestions! Y'all actually cleared up the questions I had (and then some).

In general, our group is pretty laid back as far as cut-throat competitiveness is concerned ... so hearing that things are "generally balanced" is great. ^^ That's something the other players will appreciate. (we're actually coming in after playing Imperial Assault ... where the refugee jedi were balanced with other heroes. Also most all the other players are is very new to RPGs in general, so I have that advantage of blank expectations.)

As far as (how ghost of man mentioned) "what constitutes a Jedi" ... my hunch is that they'll probably aim for something like New Hope, Empire, or Rebels if they go that route. By looks of it, core set should be fine upfront, with F&D when needed.

Again, thanks for the all the advice! super appreciated.

I w I uld reconmend giving the order 66 podcast a listen. Start with the kung pow chicken episode. As it will help you understand what to expect. As this game is NOT like D&D

2 minutes ago, Daeglan said:

I w I uld reconmend giving the order 66 podcast a listen. Start with the kung pow chicken episode. As it will help you understand what to expect. As this game is NOT like D&D

I've watched a couple groups play the game already, actually (Penny Arcade's stage show was hilarious and surprisingly family-friendly-clean). The fact that it isn't like D&D is what has me thinking it'll be easier for the others to pick up.

If you really get into FFG SW go all in on one line first..or get them for Christmas and Birthdays to alleviate the cost, maybe the Career splat first, then the setting or an adventure or two.

I went for Edge first then added in the F&D stuff. TBH I'm not to interested in Rebellion as D6 was more Rebellion the way my GM ran that.

Even when we were playing different systems I would still get my SW stuff out and read it...the only downside is the reprint lag... but you'll catch up

36 minutes ago, ExpandingUniverse said:

If you really get into FFG SW go all in on one line first..or get them for Christmas and Birthdays to alleviate the cost, maybe the Career splat first, then the setting or an adventure or two.

I went for Edge first then added in the F&D stuff. TBH I'm not to interested in Rebellion as D6 was more Rebellion the way my GM ran that.

Even when we were playing different systems I would still get my SW stuff out and read it...the only downside is the reprint lag... but you'll catch up

I went for various sourcebooks first, while (im)patiently biding my time for a few months, knowing a local store’s annual Free Comic Book Day buy 2/get 1 free sale was coming up. Picked up all 3 CRBs that day.

Sales are your friend. 😁

1 hour ago, thinkbomb said:

I've watched a couple groups play the game already, actually (Penny Arcade's stage show was hilarious and surprisingly family-friendly-clean). The fact that it isn't like D&D is what has me thinking it'll be easier for the others to pick up.

Order 66 can be invaluable both as a GM and player. I fill both roles (depending on the campaign), and I’ve gotten a ton of helpful hints and ideas from it as well as the Genesys-focused Dice Pool (now sadly defunct) and The Forge podcasts, all on the D20 Radio network.

1 hour ago, thinkbomb said:

I've watched a couple groups play the game already, actually (Penny Arcade's stage show was hilarious and surprisingly family-friendly-clean). The fact that it isn't like D&D is what has me thinking it'll be easier for the others to pick up.

That episode is still worth a listen. Theu all are.

9 hours ago, ExpandingUniverse said:

If you really get into FFG SW go all in on one line first..or get them for Christmas and Birthdays to alleviate the cost, maybe the Career splat first, then the setting or an adventure or two.

If it looks like the game is taking off and your players are getting into it, one easy way to spread the costs around? Have them buy their own career books for their characters.

13 hours ago, Desslok said:

If it looks like the game is taking off and your players are getting into it, one easy way to spread the costs around? Have them buy their own career books for their characters.

The only reason I went OCD and all in for every Edge and F&D release was I totally missed the boat on SW d6 - except the core rules