What are your current thoughts on this game?

By fjw70, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Now that it has been out a little while are you still as excited as you initially were? More so? Less so?

I am not as excited as I was initially. I still like the game and have fun with it, but more as an occasional game to play and not as my main RPG.

This week I switched my group back to 4e D&D and we agreed to occasionally come back to this game to continue the story we started.

I am an old D&D player at heart and really miss rolling d20s and fighting dragons.

If your group prefer 4e, it's no surprise you guys aren't so excited about EotE :)

Still excited and having a blast. This system sings to me like few others.

I was also an old guard D&D player, so I get the nostalgia for a fantasy game. That said, I haven't played true D&D in well over a decade. Hackmaster & my own RPG for that.

We switch up though to keep the players fresh every year to year and a half in my Sunday group. Of course, I loved EotE so much I grabbed a few players for a mid-week game every other week in addition.

We're consistently, session after session, having great games at my table. We've been playing every other week since May (started with the Beginner Box) and I feel like we're just getting started.

I'm a long-time gamer myself and this system is providing my group and me with a lot of fun I anticipate continuing for a long time to come.

Loving it.

I haven't played a tabletop RPG in a long time so I missed the various editions of D&D or other Star Wars RPGs. EOTE is really scratching my storytelling itch!

The dice results are irksome. Sometimes I'm the GM, and I don't know what to do to be impartial to a roll result. Things get tricky when you fail, but there are a few advantages, or you pass, and you have no idea what to do with the other advantages (use them or ignore them?). Sometimes players get this, and they'll help the GM by asking them to use the advantage in a certain way. Some players just completely trust the will of the GM on the die roll. Sometimes it's me, sometimes it's the players, sometimes it's the GM. I've seen someone "save" a triumph for later.

I like the game because it's definitely narrative and fun that way, but generally too abstract, thus forcing one playstyle. Here's what I'd change:

-The ranges and speeds in the game are tough to deal with. It's such a common complaint that an alternate ruleset for it would have been nice. You know what, just overhaul space combat completely. Use a map, except allow players and the GM to narratively fill in the map as they play (like the player will make a bad turn and accidentally hit an asteroid that wasn't previously on the map).

-Add an XP amount for every enemy (for purposes of either measuring the difficulty of an enemy, or awarding its xp), and add a section on how to build enemies from scratch.

-Deck plans for every freighter. If FFG wants to milk us with 3 books, they better give us variation and lotsa goodies per book... Deckplans!

-Conversion of unused die results. This is just an idea and possibly off topic but instead of having the players ever ignore a die result (like 5 advantages and 1 success to convince one person), throw that excess advantage into a storage that either cancels out threat in the next 3 checks, or gets converted into light or dark destiny points. To make sure this tactic isn't broken, there's a cap on how many results can be stored, related to how trivial or difficult the task was.

-Also plz plz don't make me buy the same book thrice.

Oh yeah, even with all this negativity, I still like the game a lot.

Edited by hencook

If your group prefer 4e, it's no surprise you guys aren't so excited about EotE :)

This, really. I'm not starting a flame war or anything (re: yes I am), but I think he stated it perfectly.

The problem and glory with Edge of the Empire is it is exactly what you and your players bring to the table. If you just roll dice and take it at face value, it can be boring. If you're not a creative person and want more "given" content, it'll probably be boring.

However, if you're rolling with a creative group, if you love the idea of Failed Advantages (i.e. asking a guard a question, failing to get an answer but perhaps his eyes flick in the "proper direction" of where you need to go), and your group loves reacting to what the dice say appropriately, then EotE is hands down amazing.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as an example last night: The group busted in a bad guys Suite guns blazing. They took down 3 of the 5 Minions and hadn't touched the Rival yet. Suddenly as one of the players shot, he rolled 4 disadvantages and a miss. I went ahead and opted that his blasts went so far that they hit a security terminal and activated the turrets in the suite.

One of my players, of course, asked "Wait, why didn't they activate the turrets earlier if they were there?", in which case I responded "Because the dice hadn't told me they were there yet."

EotE really encourages a fluid environment, and I see many, many groups getting turned off by this while many others falling head over heels for it.

My group is loving it. We have found a number of 'weak areas' - namely vehicle combat - but we're optimistic that further expansions might shore those bits up some.

If your group prefer 4e, it's no surprise you guys aren't so excited about EotE :)

This, really. I'm not starting a flame war or anything (re: yes I am), but I think he stated it perfectly.

The problem and glory with Edge of the Empire is it is exactly what you and your players bring to the table. If you just roll dice and take it at face value, it can be boring. If you're not a creative person and want more "given" content, it'll probably be boring.

However, if you're rolling with a creative group, if you love the idea of Failed Advantages (i.e. asking a guard a question, failing to get an answer but perhaps his eyes flick in the "proper direction" of where you need to go), and your group loves reacting to what the dice say appropriately, then EotE is hands down amazing.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as an example last night: The group busted in a bad guys Suite guns blazing. They took down 3 of the 5 Minions and hadn't touched the Rival yet. Suddenly as one of the players shot, he rolled 4 disadvantages and a miss. I went ahead and opted that his blasts went so far that they hit a security terminal and activated the turrets in the suite.

One of my players, of course, asked "Wait, why didn't they activate the turrets earlier if they were there?", in which case I responded "Because the dice hadn't told me they were there yet."

EotE really encourages a fluid environment, and I see many, many groups getting turned off by this while many others falling head over heels for it.

It all depends on where the group falls in the whole detailed vs narrative continuum.

That said, lets please not start another flame war. There are so many on here already about space nazis and other unimportant detritus. Lets just say that every group is different and House Rules are made to make everybody happy.

The dice results are irksome. Sometimes I'm the GM, and I don't know what to do to be impartial to a roll result. Things get tricky when you fail, but there are a few advantages, or you pass, and you have no idea what to do with the other advantages (use them or ignore them?). Sometimes players get this, and they'll help the GM by asking them to use the advantage in a certain way. Some players just completely trust the will of the GM on the die roll. Sometimes it's me, sometimes it's the players, sometimes it's the GM. I've seen someone "save" a triumph for later.

You need 50CCs of Skill Monkey, stat! You can use every aspect of a roll without throwing anything out, and I definitely wouldn't allow someone to "save a triumph for later" in any other fashion than a boost die on the next related action - e.g. he gets a triumph on his slicing roll, so next time he goes to slice the computer he gets in much more easily since he had the foresight to install a back door.

I always try to frame scenes cinematically, so it isn't terrible to come up with a narrative that reflects the roll:

* 1 failure and 4 advantages on that mechanic roll? Well, you can't fix it, but your pal j1M1 the mechanics droid not only knows about it, but he's sent you a schematic over comms that will help you on your next attempt.

* 3 successes and 2 threats on that perception roll in the Nabat shadowport to notice the Imperials at the Security Station? Yeah, you notice them, but they notice you noticing them.

These are just a couple examples but they demonstrate taking the roll and running with it. You don't have to go ***-for-tat to account for every die for every roll, but there's certainly a lot of ways to interpret every roll, which is one of the big charms to this system in my mind.

I am an old D&D player at heart and really miss rolling d20s and fighting dragons.

I get this, albeit in reverse: I just can't seem to get excited about an rpg if it ain't Star Wars! For my fantasy fix, I play Talisman. :)

I'm in no position to play any rpg however. But if I could, it'd be EotE!

I am an old D&D player at heart and really miss rolling d20s and fighting dragons.

I get this, albeit in reverse: I just can't seem to get excited about an rpg if it ain't Star Wars! For my fantasy fix, I play Talisman. :)

I'm in no position to play any rpg however. But if I could, it'd be EotE!

Ugh. Talisman. The original Fantasy Monopoly that goes on forever.

Shut up I like it! And it only goes on forever if all the players are playing like wimps. :D

I was in love with this system (more or less) when it was WFRP3 and since then I have created a Fantasy skin of EotE that is working wonderfully. My fantasy group hasn't said a word about missing parts of D&D and my Star Wars group is skipping our annual Halloween Call of Cthulhu game to play more EotE (hopefully with a spooky twist).

From time to time, we discuss fantasy mods of this system over at the d20 radio forums.

Everyone is really enjoying themselves. We love the dice, the abstraction, the narrative gameplay and the quick combats. Yes, yes, yes. We're signed up for a 3 year long campaign thank you very much.

Shut up I like it! And it only goes on forever if all the players are playing like wimps. :D

You can like it just fine... but I won't be joining you. Perhaps a nice game of Hackmaster?

Everyone is really enjoying themselves. We love the dice, the abstraction, the narrative gameplay and the quick combats. Yes, yes, yes. We're signed up for a 3 year long campaign thank you very much.

Wow, you got them to sign a contract? Sweet.... ;)

If anyone reneges, they'll be defriended on facebook. *ooh Shock Horror!* ;) haha

If anyone reneges, they'll be defriended on facebook. *ooh Shock Horror!* ;) haha

Gasp! The HORROR! :D

I started out interested but cautious. After the first session I can very comfortably say that this is not only the best Star Wars RPG out there, but it may very well be the best RPG ever made.

I think at the heart is the fact that while being an extremely narrative focused game, the mechanics are well written, well thought out and non-invasive. You don't stumble over them when you role-play and things like combat don't drag you out of the narrative, quite to the contrary, combat in EOTE is more narrative then narrative mode. Their is so much fine detail available in those narrative dice roll that you can't help but create elaborate scenes and imagery.

Personally I hope this narrative dice system takes off and becomes a fad because I can see a lot of really amazing games being developed using it.

4th edition was mentioned and I just want to throw a rock at that window and say that without question, it is the worst system I have ever played. It represents everything that is wrong with where role-playing was briefly going and I'm so glad to see Wizards of the Coasts recognizes what a huge mistake it was.

^^^ what he said. (+1)

The dice results are irksome. Sometimes I'm the GM, and I don't know what to do to be impartial to a roll result. Things get tricky when you fail, but there are a few advantages, or you pass, and you have no idea what to do with the other advantages (use them or ignore them?). Sometimes players get this, and they'll help the GM by asking them to use the advantage in a certain way. Some players just completely trust the will of the GM on the die roll. Sometimes it's me, sometimes it's the players, sometimes it's the GM. I've seen someone "save" a triumph for later.

I like the game because it's definitely narrative and fun that way, but generally too abstract, thus forcing one playstyle. Here's what I'd change:

-The ranges and speeds in the game are tough to deal with. It's such a common complaint that an alternate ruleset for it would have been nice. You know what, just overhaul space combat completely. Use a map, except allow players and the GM to narratively fill in the map as they play (like the player will make a bad turn and accidentally hit an asteroid that wasn't previously on the map).

-Add an XP amount for every enemy (for purposes of either measuring the difficulty of an enemy, or awarding its xp), and add a section on how to build enemies from scratch.

-Deck plans for every freighter. If FFG wants to milk us with 3 books, they better give us variation and lotsa goodies per book... Deckplans!

-Conversion of unused die results. This is just an idea and possibly off topic but instead of having the players ever ignore a die result (like 5 advantages and 1 success to convince one person), throw that excess advantage into a storage that either cancels out threat in the next 3 checks, or gets converted into light or dark destiny points. To make sure this tactic isn't broken, there's a cap on how many results can be stored, related to how trivial or difficult the task was.

-Also plz plz don't make me buy the same book thrice.

Oh yeah, even with all this negativity, I still like the game a lot.

I'm going to go ahead and deconstruct some of this post. I really want to do it as training purposes for me as a completely new player to EotE, so I do apologize, I don't mean to insult or anything, just playing off your thoughts in contrast to my own.

1) I agree that ranges are confusing. They still confuse me. I think the best way to think of them is simply as narrative. Use them to simply measure where combatants are from one another. Other than that, allow the players to move around freely as much as they want . . . particularly if it suits the narrative and adds to the action of the scene.

2) I definitely don't want XP assigned to enemies. This is a level'less system, it's a horizontal progression. Will a player playing for a year be better than a new character? Yes. Will that new character be powerless against the vet player? No. Assigning "power levels" to NPC Stat Blocks will, in my opinion, devalue the system as a fluid narrative as a whole.

3) Deck plans? Google.com. :) Also, I don't think they're "milking us" for 3 books. Each book is going to be vastly different with vastly different power levels. A new character from the Edge of the Empire book is likely to be peanuts compared to a new player from the Force and Destiny book. Each book is an all new game that HAPPENS to fit together like Lego's should you choose.

4) Dice conversion ties into creativity. Your example, 5 Advantages on 1 Success. Be creative! The player succeeded at what they are doing, and something AMAZING happened, 5 advantages is nothing to scoff at. Leadership check? You get the crowd on your side. Negotiation check? He gave you something extra, perhaps even took the wrong cred stick from you and saved you thousands. I don't feel there should be hard and fast rules for "extra rolls" as each roll should be used in completion to tell a story.

5) Re: #3. They've stated multiple times that they chose to separate the Star Wars experience into 3 aspects, as nobody could agree on what makes Star Wars Star Wars. It certainly won't be the same book, although each book will contain the basic rule sets as it is intended to be bought separately.

Anyways, those are my new comer thoughts. Feel free to discuss them. I'd like to hear everybody's thoughts.

Personally I didn't mind 4E. We still roleplayed and we enjoyed tactical combat. I liked it because it was different enough from d20 (which I had played almost exclusively for years so was long in the tooth - which was why I skipped Pathfinder). That said I am enjoying this system too as it is more free-form which is refreshing from the years of tactical gaming. Plus, it's not fantasy

4th edition was mentioned and I just want to throw a rock at that window and say that without question, it is the worst system I have ever played. It represents everything that is wrong with where role-playing was briefly going and I'm so glad to see Wizards of the Coasts recognizes what a huge mistake it was.

Have you seen the Iron Kingdoms RPG (Privateer Press, 2012)? I love the setting, but the rules are very clearly a minis war game with a thin coating of RPG applied.

Yes, let's not get into the game warring. As far as creativity goes, you can be creative with any RPG. I don't think any game has cornered the market on creativity. It's just that each game supports creativity differently.

Quick combats aren't a selling point for me just like quick interaction encounters wouldn't be a selling point either. I enjoy many aspects of RPGs.

I will say I like this game more than any other Star Wars RPG.

Even though I enjoy the dice mechanics, I do sometimes miss the simplicity of just rolling a d20.