@Ironman, Force users and lightsabers are in Edge of the Empire. You've got Jedi-like characters, or even full-on Jedi renegades if you're lucky. Check Youtube if you'd like to see confirmation, a few videos have already been posted under "Star Wars Edge of the Empire."

I guess that brings up the question, how does a character get these abilities? Is it a career, or a specialization?

@Wulfherr, here's a wonderful picture of the sticker sheet that comes with the beta I found tonight:

http://dicemonkey.net/2012/08/17/star-wars-edge-of-the-empire/

Mostly d8s, d12s, and d6s. I remember loving the funny dice mechanics for WHF3e, but I'm not too keen about their selected symbols this time. Minor gripe, but just looking at them doesn't give me that intuitive groking I had with WHF's dice. If anybody with the book wants to comment on the symbols, I'd appreciate that, or any other tidbits, as I'm sure you're swamped etc.

Wow… Not only custom dice, but custom dice of different sides making it even more difficult to jury-rig regular dice. I am liking this less and less. And some symbols that only appear in specific dice?

They are really making the barrier of entry to this game for new players very high. I have a hard enough time describing basic die mechanics to some games that only use a d20 to some people. Imagine trying to describe "Okay, so you got two jedi birds, a wierd triangle circle thing, and two hollow circles… Uhmmm"

Custom dice are not really a barrier, if you're worried about spending 10 or 20 bucks on dice is too much you should probably be worrying more about how to pay rent.

UncleArkie said:

Some of use are not worried about paying rent, we are worried about paying $15 for a set of dice that are useless outside of one game.

ItsUncertainWho said:

Exactly, and not all barriers are monetary. Everyone knows numbers, but a new player, seeing those dice, might be a little bit intimidated. Or someone like me, a seasoned gamer, might simply be put off by the "gimmickiness" of it and really, there's no real reason to create custom dice except for them to be a gimmick

"With these custom dice, a range of deep and engaging story outcomes are always possible" See, I always thought that was up to the GM and the players but I guess I was wrong, all those bad games I've been were because my dice didn't write the story for me. All I need my dice to do is tell me if I succeed or not, I have my imagination for the rest.

Tensen01 said:

Well said.

I feel the custom dice and mechanics from WFRP a big improvement and i love em. But, its a matter of what you like and what you dont. For me, d20 stinks.

UncleArkie said:

I addition to the responses this garnered, I'd like to point out that sometimes it's more about a principle than about breaking the bank. Can I afford $20 on new dice? Sure, I could drop $20. But that's not the question. The question is, "Is it fiscally responsible of me to spend $20 on dice for one game?" It's like buying ice cream in inner-city London. Yeah, I like Ben & Jerry's, but I'm not gonna spend $12 on a cone. It's not worth that.

Sorry—double post…

But with that said, I probably wouldn't mind buying dice required for a game that I truly enjoy. And I think I'm gonna enjoy this one!

Seeing how it looks rather abstract and uses funky dice, like WFRP 3, I'll be picking it up when the real book is released. Our group loves WFRP 3 (fiddly bits, funky dice, abstract nature, everything) and while it looks like there won't be the fiddly bits we can live without those. I don't mind paying for a book and dice (even if I can't use them in another game). I do, however, mind paying for the beta book so I'll pass on that. Wish I made it to GenCon and the FFG in-flight seminar so I could have gotten a free copy of the beta, though

Mark

GM Chris said:

Looks like they're taking the best parts from their Warhammer Fantasy RPG rules and leaving out the clutter. They're even using custom dice that can be substituted with normal polyhedrals (something I recommended in the Wishing Well forums a while back. Also similar idea to what Cubicle 7 did with their The One Ring rpg).

Since this is just the Beta test, I'm wondering what the final product will look like; big thick hardcover with a pack of dice…perhaps in a slipcase, ala The One Ring? Or perhaps a smallish boxed set containing a perfect bound rules book, dice, and handouts?

So much to look forward to!!!!

The thing is that the dice argument could be taken to "why don't we be angry with the use of all non-standard polydron" no more D12's, no more D10's. Every game should just use standard D6, no custom printing because why should we not be able use our dice for every kind of game. If we thought that non-standard dice were bad in 1972 D&D would not have been and we would not have role-paying games as we know them. What I am saying is, it's a silly argument, judge the game on it's merits as a game, not on what kind of polydrons you have to invest in to play it.

This is just lame from FFG…

I mean - three different books? when all previous iterations of star wars RPG needed only a single book, and there is no actual reason for that (hi, if i want to jump from core to fringe… guess what? Buy another book!)

Lame, happy I got my SWSE.

UncleArkie said:

Except that, in the gaming world, all those dice HAVE been standard polyhedrons for 40 YEARS. We all own multiples of those dice, and they are readily available from every neighborhood game store. They are reusable for almost every single game that's been on the market for those 40 years. I have all the dice I should need to play a game, so being forced to buy a new set of dice, that is only usable for that game, for reasons that I can only describe as more pretentious than the worst Indie game(which generally use those regular dice), IS one of the merits/demerits of the game. It is directly related to the playability and ease of aquisition of the game. Those ARE important factors.

I own FUDGE dice. I own 4 sets of FUDGE dice. But those 4 sets cost $10 and can be used with dozens of games. They are also, unlike what I'm seeing on that sticker sheet, EASILY replaced by just regular d6s.

How about giving the dice a chance and stop being tight wads? I have and find they add some very cool narrative ideas.

Whoa there, Daddystabz, no need to make disparaging remarks. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions.

You've got the book, and thanks for the videos… and the folks who are responding on this forum are still paying attention. How about enlightening us all about the potential of the dice? I'm sure they lend themselves to more than binary "pass/fail" results. Help sell it, man.

I just get so tired of people griping about everything new before they even give it a chance. Just research it and give it a shot….maybe even demo it before making opinions.

daddystabz said:

Hey, man, I hear ya. Heck, I like the dice mechanics from WHF3e, and I'm still being a Doubtful Donald on this one. I have my fears, and an entire collection of the SAGA Edition, so I'm still on the fence. But I love the hub bub, so I'm all up in this forum, I tell ya.

But like you said, hopefully those who have doubts about anything (mechanics, era, character options, marketing tactics), hopefully they (and I) will get a demo in or chat with a friend who has the book and at least finds some enjoyment from it, or a unique experience, or what have you.

Tensen01 said:

People have already said that there is a table in the book that shows you what number on a dice relates to what symbol, so you can just use that and not use any special dice at all - it'd just make it a different way of interpreting the result.

The dice just don't seem to be the huge issue some people think they are.

daddystabz said:

daddystabz said:

You see that is exactly the same thing that gets me riled up, self entitled much? Oh NO! Someone is doing something outside the box, I must stifle creative thinking at once, these games were good enough for my father and they will sure be good enough for me. That mentality irks me, it's irksome.

As for the 40 years thing, thats not my point, you skip straight to what you think you can use, my point was that if no one 40 years ago hadn't said "wait, dice can have more or less than 6 sides, that's a great idea" then there wouldn't be all these weird mechanics. Now that someone is adding new symbols to dice that can mean a variety of things you open up for a whole new mechanical universe that isn't just 2+2. WFRP v3 wasn't perfect, it took it too far in a lot of cases, but it does the dice right.

Also I hope they publish more than one core a year, there is a few gamers with a lightsaber craving in my group

UncleArkie said:

Force Powers and lightsabers are in this edition of the book, so that shouldn't be an issue.

The only way it WILL be an issue is if they want to play as full-fleged Jedi or Sith.

daddystabz said:

Well yes, but they shouldn't be all that common at all, since it's the middle of the Imperial era.

Ragnvaldr said:

I just kickstartered the new 5th edition of Traveller which I was going to make a star wars game from, so I'm not going to get this. And I only mention it because they also charged $30 for their beta. It got exclusively long term fans in as the play testers and fact checkers. And they all are receiving the PDFs of the rule book free. Not sure if they got a discount on the dead tree edition.

Another thing about traveller 5 is that it's a 500+ rule book, I'll let you know how the bindings on that hold up. Maybe more books will be better

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