I was wondering, since it was said that the next 2 core rulebooks will be about the same size as EotE, would they both contain the same basic rules? For example, in the D&D Essentials player's books, there is probably almost half of the book as repeated info, regarding how to play, skills, feats, equipment, combat, etc. But in older books, such as the Player's Handbook 2 or 3, the rules were not repeated, just new stuff for the vast majority of it (if not all of it).

With each book being a stand-alone gaming product, I am fearing that these books will be more like the Essentials and duplicating many pages of content that those that have EotE will not really want to buy again...

If that IS the case, how about something similar to the recent Marvel Heroic RP, where there is a deluxe version that includes everything new, but also the base rules, and then also have a thinner, cheaper book that only contains the new info for the new setting.

They are doing three stand alone books. So yes there will be duplication of rules and mechanics. What we will get is new careers and specs, new talents, new world info and adversaries, and probably new Force info. It is doubtful they will do a slimmed down version.

I assume the same, but hope we are both wrong! LOL

I agree with you Rais, slimmed down alternatives would be great for those who already have the Edge of the Empire. I also agree it probably won't happen.

I will say that there is an advantage to having all three Core Rulebooks with repeat information. If you've got players over who don't have the books and need to create a character, or you yourself need to look something up, it won't matter which book you open. No matter what kind of career you are pursuing you can always check out all the rules in any given book, and no matter which standard rule you need to check up on, any book you have at the table will do. No need to pass the book around, very little juggling.

It's a small consolation, but there you have it.

I imagine the Playing The Game, Conflict and Combat, and Game Master chapters will be almost identical (maybe Skills too). Every other chapter will be mostly new.

I imagine it will be similar to dark heresy, rogue trader, death watch. On the plus side, each book has its own specific rules and lots of fluff. On the negative side, there will undoubtedly be basic system duplication, so that each can (if desired) be played as a stand alone system.

Dark heresy, rogue trader and death watch also upped the player abilities (a first level rogue trader character was equal to a level 7 dark heresy character, similar with death watch over rogue trader...) with each successive book, and I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same thing with the next two books for Star Wars..

Ether embrace your setting... The rim. Or buy another book and expand your play style.

The 40K games arent completely compatable tho. The basic rules are the same, but there are enough differences that you cant do a Dark Heresy to Rogue Trader to Deathwatch game.

I think that would be a real problem for Star Wars. In 40K you dont have Inquisitoral Acolytes become Rogue Traders and you dont have anyone become a Astartes after puberty. This means that the incompatablility isnt all that big a deal. In Star Wars, you do have scoundrels become rebel generals and fringers become Jedi knights, so having incompatable games isnt going to work.

I expect that there will be about 35% duplication. Most of the skills, talents and basic gear will have to be duplicated, along with the basic rules of the game. The rebel alliance info and cap ship combat should be all new, and I expect that most of the detailed setting info will be different planets than the EotE book.

The 40k games are really close though, and I imagine the same thing will happen here to some extent. The rules will be new, more in depth and in some cases "patches" over what they find to be broken. It may not be the best, but it is preferable to really having no updates to your system after splat books...

For instance, the way semi-auto and full-auto works changes from Dark Heresy to Death Watch to Only War, but they can easily be worked in backwards and in many cases just are better rules. I don't know if they were meant to be or not, but they seem like it here at least.

If they tweak some mechanical roll in AoR from EotE, I imagine it would be an update not a real retcon. I have had Dark Heresy characters in Deathwatch campaigns, and with a little tweaking they fit in well really.

The 40k games are really close though, and I imagine the same thing will happen here to some extent. The rules will be new, more in depth and in some cases "patches" over what they find to be broken. It may not be the best, but it is preferable to really having no updates to your system after splat books...

For instance, the way semi-auto and full-auto works changes from Dark Heresy to Death Watch to Only War, but they can easily be worked in backwards and in many cases just are better rules. I don't know if they were meant to be or not, but they seem like it here at least.

If they tweak some mechanical roll in AoR from EotE, I imagine it would be an update not a real retcon. I have had Dark Heresy characters in Deathwatch campaigns, and with a little tweaking they fit in well really.

Beyond the rules changes from WH40K line to line the biggest issue in crossing over is how advancement works and what the xp scale is going to be. That has varied dramatically from line to line in the WH40K lines to the point where they are not truly compatible. I hope that I don's see this happen here.

Considering how little of the book is "standard" rules (and not character generation or setting specific to EotE) I don't think it is as big of a deal compared to other games.

Considering how little of the book is "standard" rules (and not character generation or setting specific to EotE) I don't think it is as big of a deal compared to other games.

I want Talent X to be exactly the same across the lines. If it needs to be different, then make it a different Talent with a different name. See the many forms of Jaded in the WH40K lines for an example of how they failed on this one before.

I want the Skill list to be the same across the lines. Adding in a new Skill to cover something not already covered is OK, renaming and redefining preexisting Skills is not OK. For example, I don't want to see Pilot (Space) redefined into Pilot (Starfighter) and Pilot (Space Transport).

I don't think they're going to do that. They seem to be stressing that all the games will be compatible, since they make reference to characters traversing all the games in their video.

I'm thinking 60-40. Enough repeat information that some people who have/will have purchased Edge of the Empire will feel like AoR and FaD are just expensive splat books. Enough new information that everyone will buy in anyway. But, as @HappyDaze and @korjik mentioned, it would be a real bummer to have advancement, skills and certain basic talents rewritten differently three times over three games. From that standpoint I am ironically hoping for a HEALTHY amount of repeating. And @DylanRPG brought up a good conciliatory point, in that you could use each core book to look up general rules references. For the people that get into the system later down the line, I hope they get complete games.

Beyond the rules changes from WH40K line to line the biggest issue in crossing over is how advancement works and what the xp scale is going to be. That has varied dramatically from line to line in the WH40K lines to the point where they are not truly compatible. I hope that I don's see this happen here.

It's inevitable. Just the capabilities we see Ben in Ep IV:ANH use require Force rating of 3+, and at least 200 XP. If one's going to play a surviving Jedi, or an Emperor's Hand, or a Vader's Apprentice.

I do hope it's worded as a different pool of XP the racial bases compatible, but with a "Skills and Talents Only" pool of, say, 50-100 XP...

I want Talent X to be exactly the same across the lines. If it needs to be different, then make it a different Talent with a different name. See the many forms of Jaded in the WH40K lines for an example of how they failed on this one before.

I want the Skill list to be the same across the lines. Adding in a new Skill to cover something not already covered is OK, renaming and redefining preexisting Skills is not OK. For example, I don't want to see Pilot (Space) redefined into Pilot (Starfighter) and Pilot (Space Transport).

So do I. If not the same, give it a different name. Unlike the 40K games, different types are much more likely to mix-n-match.

Beyond the rules changes from WH40K line to line the biggest issue in crossing over is how advancement works and what the xp scale is going to be. That has varied dramatically from line to line in the WH40K lines to the point where they are not truly compatible. I hope that I don's see this happen here.

It's inevitable. Just the capabilities we see Ben in Ep IV:ANH use require Force rating of 3+, and at least 200 XP. If one's going to play a surviving Jedi, or an Emperor's Hand, or a Vader's Apprentice.

No I don't think it is inevitable. Given enough XP gained by characters, and access to higher Force Ratings, we can see characters as they are in the movies, without them being head and shoulders above other character types of the same XP amount. Ben and his abilities are above anything available in EotE, but not of later books to come. His character, though, barely scratched the surface of what he could do.

I imagine we may see an expansion of the Force Rating in AoR to 3, 4 at the most, and the addition of one or two additional powers (along with the current ones).

It's inevitable. Just the capabilities we see Ben in Ep IV:ANH use require Force rating of 3+, and at least 200 XP. If one's going to play a surviving Jedi, or an Emperor's Hand, or a Vader's Apprentice.

Given the current scale, I'd say he would be a Jedi Knight at least, so probably Force Rating 4~5, maybe 6.

I also wouldn't make Ben a starting character, given that he'd been through at least 3 campagins (ep 1-3) and the years between.

Even in Ep4 i wouldn't have Han or Chewie as starting characters. Luke would be as green as they come, kind of. Probably an FSE with his bonus skills in Space and Planetary, 3P0 and R2-D2 would absolutly be moderately advanced, but the actual Jedi would all have a significant ammout of xp under their belts.

For me personally, I'm really looking forward to seeing a scaling xp system. I just want the force classes to be balanced with the others, so as not to hog the spotlight.