Lord_Blacksteel
Adventurer
I ran thru a similar re-look last year with 2ER&E and then again last month when I picked up the 1st edition book and while there's a lot I like there are things I would change, especially with 2ER&E.
The skill list is just choked with over-specialized redundant skills and combat is full of modifiers and special cases and clunky concepts. It reads like a Star Wars game that someone has tried to turn into a general space opera system, and that's pretty much what happened. I know some of it was to clamp down on skill inflation - presumably that's why you end up with literally 14 different mechanical repair skills and things like being able to move half of your movement with an action at no penalty but if you move more than half of your movement rating then it counts as a second action. Yeah that's great.
1E may suffer from rapid skill inflation (I am told, I never ran or played it long enough to see it) but it also plays a lot more like the movies. I think a tweaked 1E would make a pretty good game even now.
The skill list is just choked with over-specialized redundant skills and combat is full of modifiers and special cases and clunky concepts. It reads like a Star Wars game that someone has tried to turn into a general space opera system, and that's pretty much what happened. I know some of it was to clamp down on skill inflation - presumably that's why you end up with literally 14 different mechanical repair skills and things like being able to move half of your movement with an action at no penalty but if you move more than half of your movement rating then it counts as a second action. Yeah that's great.
1E may suffer from rapid skill inflation (I am told, I never ran or played it long enough to see it) but it also plays a lot more like the movies. I think a tweaked 1E would make a pretty good game even now.