For those who have EotE campaigns running, and are beginning to introduce elements of AoR into the mixture, how compatible have you found the two games? Are there any particular elements that you've eagerly included/excluded, and why? And how gently/heavily have you used the new rules to begin including elements of the GCW - and does your group of PCs have a choice in whether they involve themselves, help out in a minor capacity, or avoid the affair altogether?

A mechanic querie: have you suddenly dropped Duty onto established characters when they become embroiled with the Alliance, or is the mechanic only being applied to new, fresh AoR PCs? Which of the options from the errata (Duty Only, Both Obligation and Duty, One or the Other, etc.) are you applying to your game regarding the Obligation/Duty mechanics?

I am running Beyond the Rim. I allowed for any character elements from AoR to be used by the players in creating their characters. Only two people dipped into it. One took the Gran as her race and the other took the Force Emergent spec. Not a whole lot, but still there.

For the most part, we have only dipped our toes into the AoR Beta. We have used:

Ace Career (with Pilot Specialization) as a rebuild for a Smuggler Career (with Pilot Specialization) character that is all about being a hotshot pilot and doesn't really have any inclination for the shady side of smuggling. Character is likely to branch into Driver soon too.

Spy Career (with Slicer Specialization) used to build a corporate espionage Droid.

Sullustan species used to rebuild a (formerly Human) Explorer (Fringer/Trader) co-pilot character.

Gozanti Armed Transport used as a Black Sun-sponsored Q-ship (gotta love all of those retractable weapons).

Vigil corvette played straight as an Imperial patrol/picket vessel.

Nice. Not sure what I'll be putting in or making optional, when I get my hands on the rules proper... may sound my players out to find what they'd like access to now , whilst I also figure out what will make natural appearances later on in the campaign when the activities of the GCW become harder to ignore/avoid.

I should also mention that my campaign started in 5 BBY. We've had about 1.5 years of in-game time pass since starting, but the Rebel Alliance still doesn't officially exist for awhile yet.

My own is set 1 BBY, though when specifically isn't known. Helps to add tension to the fact that the Alderaan tragedy is coming... but they can't say for definite when .

The most we've been influenced? We're using talent trees from the beta - with the understanding that things are indeed in flux and may change on you at any moment. Beyond that, we've not started using Duty at all (and seem unlikely too, the way the characters are developing). We'll use ships and equipment occasionally, but pretty much we're just cherry picking information for inclusion.

We're using talent trees from the beta - with the understanding that things are indeed in flux and may change on you at any moment.

That will likely be my intention.

Aside from having to jury-rig a solution to the Duty/Obligation dichotomy, the biggest boon to my players has been the proper X-wing stats, rather than slightly modifying the Z-95 Headhunter stats.

Also, I had one player who really, really wanted to be a Mon Cal, and now his dream can come true.

My own is set 1 BBY, though when specifically isn't known. Helps to add tension to the fact that the Alderaan tragedy is coming... but they can't say for definite when .

Ooh! I hope you're including action on/around Alderaan, so your players can get nervous!

My own is set 1 BBY, though when specifically isn't known. Helps to add tension to the fact that the Alderaan tragedy is coming... but they can't say for definite when .

Ooh! I hope you're including action on/around Alderaan, so your players can get nervous!

Characters just got out of Alderaans gravity well and have almost completed their hyperjump calculations when they notice something odd in scanners. Alderaan has gotten new moon and it gives out weird energy readings.

Do they get their hyperjump calculations ready in time or not?

My own is set 1 BBY, though when specifically isn't known. Helps to add tension to the fact that the Alderaan tragedy is coming... but they can't say for definite when .

Ooh! I hope you're including action on/around Alderaan, so your players can get nervous!

I had one RCR campaign (pretty much a "bad guy" campaign with the PCs being intergalactic gangsters) that took place a few weeks before ANH. Players didn't know that, only that it was set about two decades after the Clone Wars ended (this was prior to RotS being released and the canon timeline being set more or less in stone).

While they never went to Alderaan themselves, they did arrange for a group of "uncooperative ex-business associates" to have their worldly remains stored on Alderaan via shipping a few customized bulk storage crates to an undisclosed location. Happened a few times, and with the bodies all being Niktos, the location came to be referred to as "Dead Nikto Storage" as a nod to Pulp Fiction (never confirmed if there was a sign out front or not; figuring not), which had a significant influence on the campaign and two of the characters (particularly the one that was playing a Rodian version of Vincent Vega). Well, eventually Alderaan went boom, and the PC's biggest concern... now where were they going to ship the dead Niktos?

Yeah, it was a fairly dark campaign, but that was the intent from the outset. Heck, one of the other PCs was a Force Adept/Dark Force Witch that was patterned after Doctor Evil, though being a Near-Human with cobalt blue skin and naturally bald and another that was the Jawa version of Joe Pesci's character from Goodfellas.

I am running both a EotE and a AoR campaign. All races are available to players in both campaigns. The Force trees from both books are available in both campaigns. I plan to give the EotE players a chance to contact and even join the Rebellion if they want. if they join the rebels then I will let them accumulate Duty. For the AoR players they will have the opportunity to accumulate Obligation, I think the easiest will be Debt, should they want to get an easy loan .

I can't wait to be able to include AoR stuff.

I wasn't paying attention to the game when the EotE beta was out - how must changed was the Beta from the final? Was it pretty close to what we got? Realizing that past performance is no indicator of future events, I'm trying to get a feel of how final the AoR beta is.

I wasn't paying attention to the game when the EotE beta was out - how must changed was the Beta from the final? Was it pretty close to what we got? Realizing that past performance is no indicator of future events, I'm trying to get a feel of how final the AoR beta is.

Depends on which stage of the EotE Beta you're referring to.

Going from just the printed EotE Beta rulebook, there were a whole slew of changes, with various talents being completely re-worded and game mechanics being totally revised.

In contrast, going from the Final Week Update for the EotE Beta to the core rulebook, the number of changes regarding game mechanics was far less extensive, with much of the changes being additional adversaries and vehicles, the addition of melee weapon attachments, a few tweaks to the bonus career skills for a few specializations (Gadgeteer, Trader, and Scoundrel being the ones that I can recall off the top of my head), and a couple reprices of Upgrades for the Force powers.

So if past performance is anything to go by, then there won't be any sweeping changes between the AoR Beta + Final Week Update and the AoR core rulebook. We're more likely to get new material in the form of additional vehicles and adversaries, but the species, talents, and specializations aren't likely to get any radical changes.

It's the same game. Calling AoR anything but a supplement is just a cash grab on FFG's part. Any other system would have just released it as a splat book for half the price and not included hundreds of pages of redundant rules.

Well, that depends on how you want to define it. I'd say they're pretty different games from the feel of how they're presented. While the core mechanics are the same, the difference in the setting and types of games each caters to is different, also the careers and specialisations are quite different. I mean, sure they cover much of the same areas, but they do so quite differently. If theme and style of game-play is not enough to differentiate between games, what is? Type of dice?

And what is wrong with a "cash grab" in an industry like the RPG industry? It's not like they earn buckets of money on this stuff, I'd imagine the profit margins are pretty tight, particularly dealing with this license.

Anyway, this is a moot point and dangerously close to derailing a thread about something else.

In my own game I've used a victory stardestroyer once, to fire from long range at the players, they got the scare and ran. Good for them

It's the same game. Calling AoR anything but a supplement is just a cash grab on FFG's part. Any other system would have just released it as a splat book for half the price and not included hundreds of pages of redundant rules.

You're late to the party. And nothing you've said is new. FFG has been up front about their process. And oh my it is horrible that they want to make money. Want to teach them a lesson? Don't buy the game. Otherwise take your armchair game designer opinions and try to come up with something more original. People complain just as much when they have to buy a core book then different supplements. Just because it is a process you don't like doesn't make it wrong in any way.

This isn't a supplement, as much as you would like to make it out to be. It is the Star Wars game, but a different facet. Not everyone got on board with EotE, so they may be more interested in a game centred around the conflict between the Rebellion and the Empire. The same will happen when F&D comes out.

I'm sure that what I want to change and exclude will likely change when I've had a chance to properly look over the AoR Beta; until I have it in my hands, though, it's all just hypothetical.

You're late to the party. And nothing you've said is new. FFG has been up front about their process. And oh my it is horrible that they want to make money. Want to teach them a lesson? Don't buy the game. Otherwise take your armchair game designer opinions and try to come up with something more original. People complain just as much when they have to buy a core book then different supplements. Just because it is a process you don't like doesn't make it wrong in any way.

None of my group will be buying the book. We were pretty unimpressed with a payed beta but played along, unenthusiastic about $15 for some dice and the adventure costing extra because it was hard cover, but we're all disgusted by a book which really just boils down to a couple dozen pages for new classes and ships being the price of an entire game (which we already bought). We'll instead use the money to buy an entire game (from someone else.)

FFG has been up front about their process.

They have been pretty upfront about AoR being a game about playing as the heroic Rebel Alliance battling the tyranny of the Evil Galactic Empire as well. Just because that is a process you don't like doesn't make it wrong in any way.

Union, can you please take your discussion into PM? This topic isn't about whether the book is a money scam or a valid product that's worth the cash cost (FYI: I believe it's the latter), but a topic about what people who ARE using the book is applying in their ongoing EotE campaign.

Hey Erik, trying to put words in my mouth? Going to have to work harder than that. Please tell me when I ever said I didn't like the way AoR is set up? You're hilarious. Still trying to find someone to play with?

In terms of equipment that AREN'T ships, does the AoR book come with weaponry and armour specific to the Rebels and the Empire?