An old WEG friend asked for a review of the game...

By I. J. Thompson, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Did I leave anything out? :D

I never thought I'd say this, but... this system is rapidly becoming my system of choice for Star Wars (or anything, really)!

This is largely due to the narrative dice. There are three types of both 'good' and 'bad' dice, and they have symbols on them instead of numbers - Successes and Advantages on the good dice, Failures and Threats on the bad dice. You grab good dice based on your skill and other helpful elements, bad dice based on difficulty and impeding elements, and roll them all.

Successes and Failures cancel each other out, one-for-one. If you have any Successes left over, you've succeeded, and if not (or if you just have some Failures left), you've failed. But it's not just a pass/fail system, due to Advantages and Threats. They also cancel each other out, one-for-one. If you have any Advantages left, whether you succeeded in the task or not, something good happens. The reverse happens with Threats - again, whether you succeeded or not. Then, it's up to the player (or the GM, if the player doesn't want to), to describe what actually happens.

So, say Indiana Jones rolls an Athletics check to jump the chasm to escape the temple before the door closes. He succeeds, but he's got some Threat left. So, the player explains that he made the jump and grabbed onto a vine sticking out of the ground on the other side - but now the vine is pulling out of the ground! He's gonna have to make another Athletics check on his next turn to climb out safely.

Yesterday, my character took a shot at a Gamorrean and failed, but with an Advantage. So it was described that, while her shot completely missed its intended mark, it shattered a light fixture right next to another Gamorrean who was attacking one of my character's allies, startling it. This enabled that player to roll an extra 'Boost' die on his attack, and he plugged the Gamorrean.

With all the players (and not just the GM) throwing creative ideas in the soup in this way, it enables everyone to start riffing off of each other and making scenes really cinematic and exciting. Certainly better than saying "I need to roll an 18 to hit this guy" while all the other players play with their phones and wait for their turn. Unimaginative players who just want to spend the evening chipping away at somebody's hit points will probably hate this game, because it would shine a spotlight on their shortcomings. But for players like everybody here, it's a goldmine.

Hit points! Damage! Another great system. Remember in other games how everyone would ooh and ahh when you rolled a 35 for your attack roll when you only needed a 13? And then you rolled damage and barely grazed him? Here, every net Success you're left with on your attack roll is added to the weapon's damage. So the better the hit, the more it hurts. Net Advantages (usually about 3-5, depending on the weapon) can be spent on Critical hits. There's a table for that, with all sorts of nasty effects. And vehicle combat works in exactly the same way - if you get Critted, roll on the table and see what's happened to your beloved starship.

Another great system is Destiny points (tokens). They're a little better than D6 Character points, a little not-as-good as Force points. Each session begins with a random number of them (usually about 3-8). Each one has two sides, dark and light, and they're attributed at random. If you really need to succeed at your task, you might reach out and flip one of those light-side tokens over, which will add a benefit to your roll. The trouble is, that once-light Destiny token is now a dark token, which means it's available to the GM to flip over when one of the baddies really needs to succeed. 'Balance of the Force', indeed! tongue.png

D6 still has the edge in ease of learning (due to the familiar dice), and ease of character creation (nothing will ever top "just spend your character points on whatever skills you want"). I haven't really gotten into the Force chapter yet, so I can't comment on that.

But that is a major gripe among some people: Edge of the Empire is just one game of an eventual three, all cross-compatible (so we're told). Edge of the Empire deals specifically with the galactic underworld, while Age of Rebellion (due next year) brings in the galactic civil war. Force and Destiny (2015) is supposed to bring in full-on Jedi characters. So you can't be Mace Windu yet, which had a lot of people whining on the forums. But given the very specific original trilogy time frame these games are set in, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

Wow, I didn't mean to go on like that. Nutshell: game = good!
lol.gif

Edited by I. J. Thompson

If you want a Glowing Endorsement, tell him it turned the heads of four long-term (as in since 1989 or thereabouts) WEG players.

Looks pretty good to me :) Though I am eagerly awaiting the Force and Destiny book, because I can't wait to run a Jedi campaign, I'm glad they're taking their time with it. I want them to get it right. Plus, there's so much fun to explore with the current system I don't expect I'll run out of stories and fun before F&D is out.

Great summary of the game! :)

Like yourself, I find myself being drawn further and further toward SWR as the system of choice for RPing in the Star Wars universe. I still love WEG - it was the first system I properly understood and used (in a Star Wars game played online) - but SWR... is just epic.

While the die system is so very different from WEG D6, this game is truly the spiritual successor to it. D20 wasn't really done "right" unil Saga Edition and even then it felt like a poor fit.

In fairness, d20 was arguably always a poor fit for "Star Wars" as some of us think of it, Saga was simply better at it than prior incarnations (of d20). I will say/suggest that FFG seems to have deliberated carefully about the basic concept behind their Star Wars RPG, in particular how it should differ from the prior WEG/d20 lines, and then built up their RPGs accordingly.

Heck, at least with the "lack of Jedi" there's a clear case to be made that EotE/AoR are tightly focused on "realms that you usually don't get lightsaber action in"... or, alternately, how the progression of what's been revealed of the Force has arguably paralleled both the original trilogy (again, almost certainly by design) and in particular Luke's progression. After all, what is a Jedi but a way of life...

While the die system is so very different from WEG D6, this game is truly the spiritual successor to it. D20 wasn't really done "right" unil Saga Edition and even then it felt like a poor fit.

I couldn't even wrap my head around the problems even with Saga. Every time I tried to run a campaign with that system... something about it just felt.... terribly terribly miscalculated. I won't go into it, but it was, frankly, a terrible system that did not spend enough time in QA and Design. It was a cash grab. Not to mention... it had some pretty crappy art in it.

However, this game, EotE, has GOT IT GOING ON! You don't have a bunch of off the wall calculations to make. It's streamlined. It's simple. It's deep. I love it.

While the die system is so very different from WEG D6, this game is truly the spiritual successor to it. D20 wasn't really done "right" unil Saga Edition and even then it felt like a poor fit.

The problem that I had with D20 was the class system. Forcing players into one roll when the movies clearly show "players" all over the map. Is Han Solo a general? A smuggler? What the hell is Lando - gambler? Con man? Administrator? General? Luke's a commander starfighter pilot jedi knight moisture farmer.

Sure FFG encourages one to stay within their profession by point costs, but if I want my Politico to have piloting and gunnery skills, I can buy them without issue.

Oh, and the D20 starfighter combat STANK! As in completely dysfunctional.

Edited by Desslok

See, I wouldn't say that Star Wars couldn't be emulated, and even enjoyed, using the d20 rules: the 1st Edition version was my FIRST paper-back rulebook, and I used it to run my first game with some friends at home. It was great, and they enjoyed my first one-shot enough that I was asked (many times) to turn the one-shot into an extensive campaign; they brought back their same characters, levelled them up by a step, and the stories went on for a good few years.

When RCR came out, we upgraded to that system, and it became the main rules we used for the duration of the campaign. Eventually my friends moved away and the campaign came to a premature (but epic) conclusion. In the wake of having no players, I dove back into my online gaming, signed up with a WEG campaign that would run for about seven years (and presently has a sequal campaign that I'm a part of), and was sent the R&E edition of that rule system by the GM. After that time, WEG became my personal favourite and I've used it for any/all Star Wars games up until the time that EotE reached my door.

I find it very hard to define what about EotE sells it for me above the other systems available. There's so many pro-points to it that I couldn't possibly summarise it.

WEG will always be a very close second to EotE, but it may be used from time to time in order to run games (I'm even planning on using it to run a campaign set around the period of KOTOR and TOR, or perhaps a storyline set before/during the prequel era); but SWR has certainly become first choice.

Can i also chime in as a long time RP how BORING the d20 system is? Even the WEG system had an open ended bell curve with rolls. but with the narrative dice, it just adds so much more to the game.

Ah. So this is going to be one of THOSE threads.

Ah. So this is going to be one of THOSE threads.

Well, we could try and lure Erik out of AoR to call us all fascists for loving the Empire. Would that make the thread better?

Ah. So this is going to be one of THOSE threads.

Well, we could try and lure Erik out of AoR to call us all fascists for loving the Empire. Would that make the thread better?

Just, no. Please no.

As to the OP, if you want I did a review on my blog along with an extended look at the first two sessions.

While the die system is so very different from WEG D6, this game is truly the spiritual successor to it. D20 wasn't really done "right" unil Saga Edition and even then it felt like a poor fit.

The problem that I had with D20 was the class system. Forcing players into one roll when the movies clearly show "players" all over the map. Is Han Solo a general? A smuggler? What the hell is Lando - gambler? Con man? Administrator? General? Luke's a commander starfighter pilot jedi knight moisture farmer.

Sure FFG encourages one to stay within their profession by point costs, but if I want my Politico to have piloting and gunnery skills, I can buy them without issue.

Oh, and the D20 starfighter combat STANK! As in completely dysfunctional.

This. This. A million times, this.

I too find Star Wars from fantasy flight games to be the best i have ever played/ gm'd.

I am patiently waiting for Age of Rebellion and Force and Destiny, but Edge of the Empire will always have plenty to offer.

The d20 systems didn't have the "FEEL" of Star Wars as does FFG line.Anyways, my group is enjoying this game immensely,

and i look forward to purchasing the entire product line.So, all i can say is if you want Star Wars, play the best. Rock on FFG.

I could not agree more with everything that everyone above says about d20. d20 was a horrible, horrible rpg for star wars.