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[Donovan Morningfire]

In the discussion between RCR and Saga Edition for Star Wars RPG, I'd have to go Saga Edition all the way. It's a far cry from being "4e lite," enough so that more than a few ENWorlders were very upset when the revealed 4e turned out to have very little to actually do with how Saga Edition works.

Saga Edition isn't as entrenched in "micro-management" as RCR was, namely the removal of skill points (something I honeslty loathed about D&D 3rd edition). And with skills working the way the do now, it's a lot easier to have the "jack of all trades" type of characters that we constantly see in the movies.

Another point in SWSE's favor is that it was designed more to mimic the stuff we see in the movies and cartoons, where RCR suffered from being "D&D in Space." Combat is much quicker and cleaner compared to the RCR.

Jedi are no longer the end-all, be-all type of characters they were under RCR, with everyone else being brought up to the Jedi's level. Anyone can be a decent Force-user; characters that take their 1st level in Jedi just getting a running head start. One point to be wary of is that Force-users, especially those that took Skill Focus (Use the Force) at an early level, will frankly dominate the game in the early levels, but once the bad guys' Defense scores start catching up, it becomes much more difficult to affect them with Force powers.

One thing to bear in mind is that making a heroic character that totally sucks at combat in SWSE is next to impossible, and a lot of the feats, not only in the core book but many of the supplements, tend to deal with combat. Of course, many of the RCR's non-combat feats were of the "+2 to related two skills" variety.

If you're interested in just hearing more about Star Wars Saga Edition form the vantage point of two guys that play the game and discuss it at length, check out the earlier episodes of the Ennie-Nominated Order 66 Podcast (check the link in my sig). Granted, the first few casts are a little rough as Chris and Dave are still finding their feet in terms of show format, but they do a pretty good overview of the system.