Hello, Can someone help with this simple, and possibly stupid question please.

What is the difference between the Begineers Box set and the New Core Book, and which one should I get?

Thanks

The core book doesn't come out till 2nd quarter (april to june) so the beginner box is all that is out. Not including a copy of the beta.

But don't wait for the Core book to come out! Grab a copy of the Beginner Game and you'll have yourself a good look at how the game will work and a sweet set of dice (and no, I don't work for FFG).

I. J. Thompson said:

The insinuation being that the Beginner Box set is a glorified "Quick Starter" of sorts? and I will only have the complete game if I wait for the "Core" book and get a set of custom dice as a seperate purchase?

You also get a full set of dice that you would have to pick up later for $15 anyway, plus an introductory adventure with a pdf followup you can download, some maps, destiny tokens, and character and enemy tokens. It's a pretty solid deal considering what you get.

The beginner box is missing many things that the core book will have. However, it offers several benefits. Firstly, it's out now and you and your friends can get accustomed to the general rules and how to play starting today. Secondly, it comes with /everything/ you need to play. As was mentioned, it has maps, tokens, dice, counters an adventure to get you started and a rule book with enough information to keep you going if you want to.

The core book, when released, will add full character generation and likely more gear, adversaries, ships, etc.. Basically, more of what you already have. It doesn't have the dice needed to play. It has no maps or tokens. Probably adds another adventure to what you have available to you. But the biggest thing really, is the character creation rules so that you and your friends can make your own characters to play instead of using the pregenerated (but still quite fun and interesting) characters.

Both are excellent products and, really, I'd probably recommend getting both in time. The other thing mentioned already is that the core book isn't going to be out for likely about 3-4 months and the beginner box, for what you are getting, is really quite affordable and a great deal of fun.

Can you please define, "Full" character generation, and how does the beginner box set not do this?

From what I am getting, the BBS has some pregen PC's and thats it.

Rimmer1 said:

You're correct, only pregen PC, no character creation in the Beginner Game. Also, the talent Trees used, are a mixed of the specialisation, so there is some small update to make to a "standard" character.

Well, thats somewhat disapointing, if I had known that I would have not ordered it from my FLGS.

I guess glorified Quick Starter is a very apt discription.

Rimmer1 said:

I wouldn't be too sore about having ordered it. It really is a well-done set, and having it means you're not going to have to buy a dice pack later on (though you might want to, anyway). Plus, Destiny tokens are helpful.

And as far as generating unique PCs goes, I'd wager that between what's in the Beginner game and the Beta book, you should be able to whip something up…

Rimmer1 said:

The beginner box is exactly what most (not all) beginner box sets tend to be. Enough rules to learn and pay the game with some pre-created characters and some options for advancing those characters but not the full game. If the beginner box was the complete game system with all the rules they wouldn't need to print a separate core book, and certainly not one that comes at twice the cost.

That being said, this beginner box is one of the more fun ones I've played with all the information the GM needs to keep the game running well past the provided adventure. Just not what the players need if they want to make their own unique characters. Still, for $30 you get $15 worth of dice, an adventure, the core essentials of the rules and enough information to continue playing your own adventures and get well acquainted with the system. That is a pretty fair price I'd say.

I am hoping that some of that extra space in the core book over the beta book will be used to offer a few more species to play however. The Star Wars Galaxy is full of so many interesting and unusual species after all.

The beginners box really is a beginners box. But it is very good at being so.
By beginners I mean a guided walkthrough on how to not only handle the rules, but the beginnings of roleplay as a concept.
you get all you need for the task at hand - leading a bunch of totaly new players through their first game ever.
And it is handled and presented very well.

Whilst it does not though give you character generation or any of the advanced concepts like Jedi powers etc. It does provide enough to get budding GM's and players going long enough to decide if they will continue on to further adventures. At which point the Core book starts to look very juicy. Though there is enough in the beginners box set to tide them over for a few more adventures at least.

Of course the Core set gives you all the rules. So an experienced GM and group can skip the beginners box if they want. But the the beginners box goes through the rules in a clear well laid out manner - with all the major rule details on the character booklets. So would work well as an introduction to the system itself for the group.

ShiKage said:

Excellent point. What did you want the Beginners' Game to be, Rimmer1 ?

I. J. Thompson said:

I wanted it to be a role playing game, not a glorified quick start.

Rimmer1 said:

Sadly, that frame of mind seems to have died out with the Basic D&D Red Box.

Still, FFG did provide a separate rulebook with all the basics needed for GMs to create their own adventures, including quite a few NPCs that aren't used in the pre-packed adventure. So as long as your GM has a little free time and some creativity, they can certainly create and tell their own stories in EotE using just the BBox material. There's also the fact that each of the player folios (including the online ones) have a talent tree with them, and info is provided on raising skill ranks. So while there's no rules for making your own characters, the ones presented can easily be played for a quite a few adventures.

So while it's not a full rule system in and of itself, it's a **** sight better than the 4e Essentials Red Box that WotC published a few years ago, which really was just a glorified quick-start adventure.

Rimmer1 said:

Honestly, by definition it is a roleplaying game. It has all the elements of being able to play the role of a character. It even has all the rules needed by the GM to continue to create their own adventures and stories beyond the one provided in their adventure book. It has a rulebook with all the necessary rules to play. Sure, there is more content within the Core Book; more adversaries, more gear options, more class and specialty options and, most notably, a full character generation ruleset for making your own characters. However, that doesn't make the beginner box not a roleplaying game. The characters they provide come with a full talent tree and specialization to allow you to easily advance well beyond where the starting adventure takes you.

Given the $30 price point, what they provided is quite a reasonable offering. I'll certainly be one of the first to say I feel $60 for the core book is pretty steep but then it's 450 pages of gaming goodness and likely hardcover and full color based on my experiences with their Anima books. To expect everything you need to play, including dice, maps and tokens, along with their entire RPG ruleset for $30 is a bit unreasonable.

ShiKage said:

Given your above criteria, my old "Warlock of Fire Top Mountain" fighting fantasy book, is a fully fledged role playing game. No, this new SW RPG, I am going to refer to as a "G-QS"

If I had a realised this I would not have purchased it, but hey Caveat Emtor and all that, but by the time I did realise I had already ordered it and felt somewhat obligated to my FLGS to complete the purchase.

All that being said. As far as value for money goes, not bad at all, quite a number of things contained therin, and of a very high production value as well, consdiering the dice set alone will be $15 (IIRC) I am not totally unhappy with my purchase. BUt lets face it, when the "Core" book comes out, this box (dice exepted) will never again see the light of day.

In addition to the above, FFG did release an expansion story and two additional pre-generated charecters for the beginner box set. While the beginner box set may not be all things to all people, it's very good at being an introduction to the FFG mechanics and style (so you can see if you even WANT to try the big book), as well as an introduction to tabletop Role Playing for the absolute noob, be they noob GM or noob PC.

If you buy the beginner box, you're either saving $30 by realizing you don't care for the FFG take on star wars role-playing and therefore not buying the corebook at $60, or you're spending $15 to find out that you do like the FFG take and finding out you do want the corebook(because you're going to need that $15 set of dice anyhow). The beginner box materials are all top notch, from the rulebook to the maps and tokens. It's not like you're wasting your money, if nothing else you've made sure you'll have a set of dice when the core rulebook comes out =D

bobfrankly said:

Don't get me wrong here, I totally agree with you in regards to the value for money aspect of this box, the production values alone are amazing, let alone the sheer volume of material, and the shinyness…………………..so shiny!!!!!!

What I am annoyed about, is getting a Glorified Quick Starter, rather than an actual RPG, but hey. Caveat Emptor.

Rimmer1 said:

You keep saying 'glorified quick-starter', but not going into any detail about what you want. Knowing that the product is a 'Beginner Game', released in advance of the 'Core Rulebook', what, specifically, did you want from the Beginner Game?

Honestly, I'm curious.

I. J. Thompson said:

He wanted a complete roleplaying game.

Rimmer1 said:

You sound like a pretty avid and experienced gamer in the role-playing department … I don't know how large your circle of gamers is, and although the Beginner's Game will not likely make it to the table with them, it might be nice to have on hand when you either want to introduce new people into the hobby, or, somebody gets curious about it (for example, maybe someone who loves Star Wars but hasn't ever been into tabletop role playing games before).

Rimmer1 said:

What were you expecting? I've never seen a "Beginners Box" or "Beginners Rules" that was anything else. WotC and Paizo were this way. GURPS, Shadowrun and Savage Worlds just put out free mini books for their Quickstarters. GURPS and Savage Worlds called them "Lite" versions of the rules. And what you got in the box is exactly as described outside of it.

But he won't say how what he got *isn't* a role playing game.

He may be harkening back to the olden days ofthe D&D blue and red boxes. You could, in theory, play with just those if you wanted to.