Rikoshi said:

Yup. Our current Saga game is set in the Old Republic time (specifically around KOTOR 2). Our group is basically what EotE is based on: a group of people that happen to deal with the underworld just trying to make a living and getting pulled into situations that demand them to step up to the challenge. We have a smuggler captain, a pilot, a mechanic, what would be called a hired gun/marauder in Edge, and a full-fledged Jedi. We're basically the crew of the Serenity, with the Jedi being our Sheperd Book. Most of the stories focus around the crew, dealing with crime bosses, and stuff like that. When the Jedi takes center stage, however, that's when the Sith come out. Our crew, though, knows how to deal with them, since Force users are not an uncommon sight in the galaxy-at least for them.

Jedi don't need to be stupid powerful and overshadow the group to be fun. But their presence is integral to the Star Wars mythos. The FS Exile is a good start, though.

>>>Jedi don't need to be stupid powerful and overshadow the group to be fun.<<<

I suspect you don't play Jedi…

:-)

I don't actually think a Jedi fan want to overshadow the rest of the group, so much as that they probably want to draw more from martial arts movies, and would like to be playing Samurai Jack or Raiden from Metal Gear Rising, and are probably only putting up with a less impressive Jedi because it is all that is going.

ErikB said:

No but I am not enamored with them either. They are just one component of the Star Wars universe. Unfortunately WotC's versions never really impressed me, so I am looking forward to FFG's take.

I think it would be entertaining to make a game about Jedi for the people who are enamoured with Jedi, intended to give them the best Jedi experience possible.

People who are not enamoured with Jedi might not find it their thing, but for those who are, it could be a heck of a lot of fun.

I think it would be entertaining to make a game that is not solely about Jedi for the people who are not completely obsessed with Jedi, intended to give them the best, most balanced Star Wars experience possible, because Jedi are an incredible minority in the Star Wars universe, even at the time when they were most prevalent.

People who cannot realise the reasoning behind presenting a more balanced view of the IP as opposed to a narrow dogmatic presentation of one small aspect of the entire IP might not find to be their thing, but for those who can, it could be a heck of a lot of fun.

Something that is looking to be quite existent in Edge of the Empire and hopefully will be continued to be fleshed out for all options in Age of Rebellion and Force & Destiny.

ErikB said:

I'm not one of them. I don't like Samurai Jack, for one thing. Mainly, it's because when I think of Jedi Knights, I like to focus on the "knight" part of the term. I view them as more paladin than monk, even if they're not typically wearing armor. That' snot to say I didn't think Darth Maul wasn't pretty badass. He was. But, for me, it was because of special training--maybe even actual Teras Kasi training--combined with creative use of Force powers, rather than just the fact that, because he uses the Force, he's just stupid good in a fight.

For me, the greatest lightsaber battle ever put on film was the duel between Luke and Vader in Return of the Jedi. Vader lacked the stiffness he had in ANH, and Luke had actually gained some skill since his defeat in ESB. But it wasn't just the fight. The physical part of the duel was just the vehicle fo rthe real story. It was the emotion involved in that fight that makes it leaps and bounds better than any other in the series. Without that emotion, you have what amounts to pretty cool acrobatic stunts, but an ultimately uninteresting premise.

In fact, the one duel that actually brought in a decent amount of emotion in the prequels turned out to be bad because of the overdone choreography. The duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin on Mustafar should have been the be-all, end-all of lightsaber duels. But, rather than lacking emotion, it was choreographed with so much needless twirls that never came close to hitting that, in the end, it approached laughable.

Maybe it goes into my RPG preferences. I like to play the little guy who's overwhelmed and fights his way to victory. I prefer to play straight World of Darkness to any of the other games in the system because I want to be challenged. I don't care for fighting 1/4 HD monsters in D&D. I'd rather play 4E and overcome an actual challenge in the combat.

To put it in comic terms, I don't want to be Superman. I want to be Batman. I want to be a step above, but I don't want to be so far above that nothing can really threaten me.

We might draw from the core cinematic influences for the original Star Wars: both samurai films and Westerns. Considering the Western remakes of samurai movies like A Fistfull of Dollars and The Magnificent Seven, there should be room for both!

Han is wearing Western gunslinger gear with his vest and low-slung holster for quick-drawing. Obi-Wan is wearing a kimono, though it is raw silk. The lightsabers are definitley katanas. Vader is wearing a Kabuto helmet. That is a big reason I love Star Wars. Firefly references China instead of Japan, but the same mash-up is being done.

As Lickintoad said, we can try to influence the crew like Shepherd Book. Of course, it is easier to get Mal to do the right thing than it is to convince typical PCs…Right now, we are working on Ryloth to free some miners from a Hutt that put them in virtual slavery. My character is doing it because it is the right thing to do. Some characters are doing it to hurt the Hutt, and others are doing it for the pay. What do you do when the smuggling crew you've joined up with decides piracy is the way to go? That is the debate my table is having in character with one of the Hired Gun PCs. Instead of being samurai knights, I think Jedi aspirants will need to behave like ninja. There is a lot of oportunity for roleplaying with the EotE setting, particularly for Force sensitives and Jedi.

Jedi Master Gunner said:

If it were my smuggler, he'd kick anyone off his ship that felt like they wanted to be a pirate. He hates how "smuggler" and "pirate" are so often confused by people. He's a businessman, and his business is in freight delivery and courier services. Pirates attack vessels and steal them/from them. No slaves, no spice, and definitely no piracy.

The thing I liked about Book (and one of the many reasons I was upset at the cancellation of the show) was that he had this past that they hinted at and teased us about, but never got around to showing. I hold fast to the belief that Book was either an Operative or somethign much like him before "finding God" and renouncing his old ways. He remembered that training, though. After all, the Good Book says "Thou shalt not murder," but it is a bit fuzzy when it comes to kneecaps.

And, if the time came when Mal crossed the line, I have no doubt that Book would take up Mal's offer and find another ride at the next port.

When I heard that the game was being split into three pieces I though "great idea". The first three movies were a combination of westerns and war movies, the second were superhero movies (I admit to not watching those closely). Either you make the western heroes of the first super-powerful, or nerf the superheroes of the second, or split it up. I think they made the right choice. I want my smuggler to run when he encounters 20 bad guys. For people who want the superhero game, I am sorry you ended up at the of the line. I hope you give the western a shot. Think firefly.

You know the more I see these threads the more I think now the Jedi fans know what it feels liketo be last.Let me explain I love Mandalorians but unlike the fans of Jedi/Sith we don't get info on our culture or a focus on our culture even though we can beat the force users.The difference is we don't complain like the Jedi fans seem to do when we don't get our way.Now I for one am excited that I get to play the Mando Bounty Hunter first,then add in the Rebel,then a Jedi.All I have to say to the other Mandos is start training now boys because in two years it will be time to gain alot of honor hunting down the jedi.

Lotr_Nerd said:

Not to de-rail this thread, but if you haven't read the Karen Traviss Republic Commando series, you should check it out. The clone commandos were trained by the best Mandos available, even reference that the clone's helmet slits were a direct representation of the mando's.

Basically the commandos, not the gen-pop clones, are mandalorians that work for the republic/empire instead. Either way, one would gain you a great deal of knowledge on the mandos, by reading the books and identifying with their successors.

I have I was just pointing out to the Jedi people that now they get to see whats like when your favorite culture is almost always last in line.

$hamrock said:

Also bear in mind that she goes full-blown fangirl over the Mandalorians, getting particularly bad with the third book in the series and being at her utter worst in her fangirlism in the Order 66 novel, with everyone that came within close social contact of Kal Skirata and his merry band of miscreants becoming utterly in awe of them and brushing off their blatantly criminal acts (ones that have nothing to do with the war being fought) as "no big deal" simply because the Mandos are just that awesome. So take the perspective of those books with some hefty grains of salt, as Karen Traviss was quite devoted to making Mandalorians the Klingons of the Star Wars setting.

Lotr_Nerd said:

In terms of game mechanics, there's a huge difference between not getting Jedi and not getting Mandos right away.

Jedi, and be extension the Force, require a dedicated set of game mechanics to replicate their many abiilties, such as blaster deflection and various Force effects that exist outside of the three powers we go in the Beta.

Mandos on the other hand are more of a role-playing thing, and quite frankly can be played using the existing material. Choose either Hired Gun or Bounty Hunter as your starting Career, select a specialization that best suits how your Mando fits, and then load up on Obligation for as much extra money as you can to buy the various toys with an eye toward procuring a set of superior heavy combat armor as your suit of Mando armor. If you want to read up on Mando culture, Wookieepedia provides all the information you need. Need to have your armor made of beskar? Just adopt the cortosis armor option, since mechanically it has the same effect. Need your armor to be able to pack in more gear? Either take a spec that provides the Tinkerer talent, or convince an ally who does have said talent to upgrade your armor instead of one of their own gizmos.

So while the folks that would like to have Jedi are going to have to wait until 2015, there's nothing at all stopping folks that want to play a Mandalorian in EotE from doing so.

Mandothing vs Jedi it is not a fair comparision, the Jedi play a pivotal role in the Star Wars universe, beign the main characters of 6 movies. While the Mando whatever are just a post creation apearing only in this EU thing (which is a giant mess). It is not comparable the expectation for getting mechanics describing the Jedi with the expectation of having a sourcebook for the Mandalorian.

Cheers,

Yepes

Yepesnopes said:

Well that and the only reason anyone cares about Mandos at all is because enough people thought Boba Fett looked pretty badass in the movies, being the one guy singled out by Vader as a prior poster noted, and actually willing to talk back to Vader when it came to possibly losing out on the bounty that Jabba had posted for Solo's capture. And even that didn't really start gathering steam until Karen Traviss started turning the Mandos into Star Wars' answer to Star Trek's Klingons (violent warrior society with a code of honor with varying degrees of adherence based upon the individual and their own made-up language).

As a side note, Take a look to this, is this the final version of the Lightsaber? auch!

Defensive and Deflection look like Lightsaber related talents. Not listed on the charcter's talent block, but I'm sure they'll show up in some talent tree eventually, or end up in their own Lightsaber tree. Interesting find, how'd you do it?

E

Defensive and Deflection are Weapon Qualities, though I wouldn't really be too surprised if the weapon's text block specifies that they only become available with training in the skill since they were removed from the weapon in the week 11 update. Or perhaps that this particular NPC has some abilities that allow him to use those qualities.

Andrew Tatro said:

Yeah, I'm really hoping that FFG didn't backpedal and put Defensive and Deflection back onto the lightsaber as default weapon qualities.

I could easily accept the Forsaken Jedi having special talents that generally aren't available to the PCs due to the FJ's actual Jedi training.

Having said qualities "unlock" as a character progresses in the lightsaber skill was an option that I know was suggested during the Beta period, and would enable a character that's devoted the time and XP to mastering a non-career skill to get some nice perks when using a weapon that's going to get them into a host of trouble in most civilized portions of the galaxy.

The great news for you, Greg, is that you have a wealth of options. There are several good Star Wars RPGs out there, and while this particular edition is probably not going to meet your particular needs, I'm sure one of the others will. Role-playing games don't really get old, so pick the one that works best for you and have at.

Happy gaming!

Unfortunately this is probably the #1 reason I cannot get ANYONE I know to play this game except one friend I have that is a Star Wars geek. I can't seem to pay people to play. As soon as they hear 'no Jedi' that say they would rather play Firefly or something different then.

If that's the case, you'll be very well served by EotE. Firefly has a *very* similar flavor to Star Wars on the outer rim. Simply subtract the Force, and bump up the rarity of energy weapons like blasters, and you've got a solid system for a Firefly campaign.

Unfortunately this is probably the #1 reason I cannot get ANYONE I know to play this game except one friend I have that is a Star Wars geek. I can't seem to pay people to play. As soon as they hear 'no Jedi' that say they would rather play Firefly or something different then.

If that's the case, you'll be very well served by EotE. Firefly has a *very* similar flavor to Star Wars on the outer rim. Simply subtract the Force, and bump up the rarity of energy weapons like blasters, and you've got a solid system for a Firefly campaign.

Hell, over on RPG.net, we're already coming up with sheets for the Firefly crew in EotE.

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?693961-SW-EotE-I-made-the-Kessel-Run-in-less-than-twelve-parsecs!!!&p=16952422#post16952422