An Open Letter to Fantasy Flight and Cubicle 7 -- Cut the "Foreplay" and Give Us the Good Stuff

So is this the same patters as the 40K RPGs? Escalating rulesets with the characters the bulk of the fanbase WANTS to play released dozens of books later?

frankthedm said:

So is this the same patters as the 40K RPGs? Escalating rulesets with the characters the bulk of the fanbase WANTS to play released dozens of books later?

Click to expand...

Show the research that proves this is what the bulk of the fanbase wants?

Morrus said:

I don't want Jedi. I think Star Wars is worse when hundreds of Jedi are running around waving purple lightsabers.

Click to expand...

Bingo!! We have a winner!

Lightsabers (and I can't believe I'm actually saying this) are freaking boring. They have been boring for over a decade. I would much rather see what life is actually like in the Star Wars universe without the damned Jedi running around. Know what my favourite 'era' of Star Wars was? The Marvel comic once the first movie run was finished and they got a decent writing team on the book (about issue 16 or so). No lightsabers beyond Luke & Vader (there was some blind Baron guy but Luke sorted him out pretty quick). *That* to me is Star Wars. Rebels fighting a desperate war against an Empire bent on crushing them - running out of supplies, breaking blockades, planting the seeds of rebellion on key Empire planets (this really happened in the comics! Honest!).

I really wasn't interested in Edge of the Empire before now. Hearing that there are no Jedi in it makes me want to buy it right now!

VictorC said:

You understand asking this question in the context of "A New Hope" would be like asking your Forgotten Realms DM why you can't play Elminster. Yeah, why can't you play the uber-powerful character that's already mastered the mystic arts of the setting.

Maybe that's why they split the party, you know. Sent the powerful mystic off on his own while the party (Luke, Han, Chewie and the Droids) played through the adventure.

Click to expand...

Even saying that he wasn't a powerful character in the manner of Jedi represented in the Prequel movies. He did a couple of mind tricks and showed he could handle himself in a low life bar. Beyond that, he was no different a character to that of, say Shepherd from Serenity.

My only problem with C7 is that they said they were going to release three core books focused around the different time periods of the setting. I was hoping that meant they were going to come out fairly close then pile on the expansion stuff. Instead they are taking their sweet time cake walking between the core books which wouldn't be so bad, but they are taking forever to release products to support the current one. I say consolidate the last two time periods and put out one more core book and then do all the splat however they want. Give people the chance to play the characters they want now.

FFG turned me off by not including Jedi despite it being a nice looking book. However the real downer for me was the development of special dice and then still requiring players to have regular d10s which aren't included in the special dice set. Don't push new mechanics that require gimmicky baubles and require me to spend in addition to that. I understand that most gamers already have d10s, I have well over a 100 of them, but the point is I'm as a GM I have to also think about the investment costs not just for myself but for my players as well. Hidden expenses is not a pleasantry most people will like.

Give us everything or give us nothing.

As for Star Wars I'm more interested in the Dragon Age conversion that's going on. Less dice and probably a lot better fit mechanic wise.

dm4hire said:

FFG turned me off by not including Jedi despite it being a nice looking book. However the real downer for me was the development of special dice and then still requiring players to have regular d10s which aren't included in the special dice set. Don't push new mechanics that require gimmicky baubles and require me to spend in addition to that. I understand that most gamers already have d10s, I have well over a 100 of them, but the point is I'm as a GM I have to also think about the investment costs not just for myself but for my players as well. Hidden expenses is not a pleasantry most people will like.

Click to expand...

The percentile dice is a bit of an overstatement. They are used as a randomiser in a couple of tables in the book, where you could just as easily choose. You don't need percentiles to play the game. That said, the big sell issue for the game will be the acceptance of the players to buy the dice.

Unfortunately I don't have the book or PDF so can't quote the section on the d10s, but as I recall it stated you needed several and that more often you would use it for d100 rolls, but it implies needing more than two d10s.

I will have, heck already have had, players that wanted to play a character like Luke from the first three movies. I'd prefer that Jedi PC's were in the first rule book. I think it was a mistake to not include them.

They are the mages of the setting.

It's a marketing/sales strategy that I don't appreciate, that's all. Making a good game with, even 'optional', Jedi PC rules would have worked better for my tastes.

frankthedm said:

So is this the same patters as the 40K RPGs? Escalating rulesets with the characters the bulk of the fanbase WANTS to play released dozens of books later?

Click to expand...

Yes, I think so. For my 2 cents Death Watch was a worse game due to the strategy. It wasn't quite compatible with the other books, yet the attempt at compatibleness left a rule set that didn't quite work, in my opinion.

Well, for me Deathwatch was probably the best game in the series, so I guess it takes all sorts.