Has anyone played or run this yet? I saw it at GenCon and again at my FLGS. I was tempted to pick it up but didn't really want to plunk the cash down for a beta test. However, I see that 2 more volumes are still to come out for the beta - Age of Rebellion in 2014 and Force & Destiny in 2015.
If anyones played/run this yet, how is it? How does it compare to the West End Games and/or WotC SW games?
I've both run and played EotE, and I'd have to say it compares quite favorably to WEG, and combat-wise is an improvement over the WotC versions There's more to characters than just their skills like you had in WEG, but neither is EotE a level-based game, permitting you to advance your character as you see fit, be it focusing on skills, talents, or Force powers. It does have a class system in the form of careers, but it's not quite as restrictive as the d20 versions as the careers are kind of more of a "general theme" with each one having three specializations to further distinguish them. For instance, a Smuggler with the Pilot specialization is going to a rather different character than a Smuggler with the Scoundrel specialization, as would a Gadgeteer Bounty Hunter compared to an Assassin Bounty Hunter.
The most common complaint I've seen over on the FFG boards is the lack of fully playable Jedi Knights. There are Force Powers and a Force-based specialization, but what is available is fairly limited, and reflects mostly what we see in the OT. That said, if you do opt to pick up the Beta, be sure to download the Weekly updates from FFG (they're compilations, with each new week including the previous week's updates, so you just need the latest one), as they make some pretty radical changes to what's printed in the book (the Week 2 update especially, which gives the Force Powers a major revamp). Also, lightsabers are definitely not wimpy in this edition, being able to bypass character-scale armor with ease, but are also horrifically hard to procure and difficult to properly use.
Combat is very quick and remains dangerous from starting level to highly advanced. I ran some test combats using 300+ XP characters, and even a squad of stormtroopers proved to be a viable threat (if a short-lived one) for most of them (the Wookiee character simply had too high soak value and wound threshold for the 1 or 2 points the stormies were doing to really matter). Though it's not dangerous in a case of PC lethality (it's a bit tough to one-shot anything but a minion), but more in the "a couple good hits will knock most anyone unconscious." Healing works a bit differently, as there's a bit of a video game element in being able to get a quick recovery boost, though it does have a diminishing return the more you use it in the course of the game.
The initial stumbling block of the dice is a fairly short-lived one, although it does take a bit longer if you're converting the rolls of regular dice to the symbols using the conversion chart that FFG provided in the first chapter. In all honesty, the FFG dice roller app is worth the 5 bucks, as I found when I put it on my iPad to let my players roll their dice during the demo session I ran.
I do kind of hope that FFG sticks with the "release the Beta before the Final" plan, as being able to beta-test EotE helped reveal a number of issues, both in terms of gameplay and editing.