Interested in Star Wars RPG - Where do I start?

weldon · Oct 31, 2015

I'd like to read the Star Wars RPG books and learn the system. There's little chance that I will actually play the game, but I'd still like to read up on it. I love Star Wars and RPGs, so the chance to combine the two is almost too good to pass up. Where should I start?

D6, FFG? Edge of Empire, Destiny and Force, Age of Rebellion? Starter set, Core Rulebook?

aramis erak · Nov 2, 2015

The FFG starter sets contain very little setting information. So, if going FFG, for reading value, go with the hardcovers.

It's getting hard to find physical copies of WEG in decent shape. And most of us with them won't part with them.

Personally, I didn't care for the WOTC versions, but the fluff ain't bad, and the SWSE art is pretty nice.

darjr · Nov 2, 2015

I think the odd shaped wotc sw book is hard to find and/or expensive. Do take a look at http://swrpgnetwork.com

weldon · Nov 2, 2015

Thanks, [MENTION=13962]Aramis[/MENTION]-erak. If I pick up one of the FFG core rulebooks, is there a natural place to start? I don't quite get what the different "versions" mean.

aramis erak · Nov 3, 2015

weldon said:
Thanks, [MENTION=13962]Aramis[/MENTION]-erak. If I pick up one of the FFG core rulebooks, is there a natural place to start? I don't quite get what the different "versions" mean.

Essentially-

Edge of the Empire is "Firefly in the Star Wars Universe", and is mostly fluff relating to the outer rim. It corresponds well to the first 3/4 of Ep IV, and somewhat to Ep I.
Age of Rebellion is focused upon the core and rebellion, in a much more vague way than the others. It provides a good bit of hardware for the military. It corresponds nicely to the the remaining 1/4 of Ep IV, and about 1/2 of Eps V and VI.
Force & Destiny focuses on Jedi and Sith. It corresponds (somewhat) to the rest of Eps V and VI, but MUCH MUCH more so to Eps II, III, and TCW.

Mechanically.... the core rules are the same. What differs are the class/specialty sets, the races, and the ships and planets, and what force powers are in the book.

weldon · Nov 3, 2015

Thanks for the run-down. That actually helps a lot.

I'm really curious about this one bit - what do you mean by "a much more vague way" below? Vague as in, there are fewer explicit connections to the movies?

aramis erak said:
Age of Rebellion is focused upon the core and rebellion, in a much more vague way than the others.

aramis erak · Nov 4, 2015

weldon said:
Thanks for the run-down. That actually helps a lot.

I'm really curious about this one bit - what do you mean by "a much more vague way" below? Vague as in, there are fewer explicit connections to the movies?

It lacks certain elements that one would expect, like
(1) typical force organization (on either side)
(2) typical hierarchies
(3) Typical installation types.

One can infer from the ships just how many troops are typically deployed, but there's no definition of what that size of unit is called, nor how it breaks down into subunits.

thedaringdragoon · Nov 5, 2015

aramis erak said:
It's getting hard to find physical copies of WEG in decent shape. And most of us with them won't part with them.

Personally, I didn't care for the WOTC versions, but the fluff ain't bad, and the SWSE art is pretty nice.

Yeah seriously! My WEG copies are gonna be buried with me. lol. Personally though I found that with the d20 Future supplement and a good familiarity with the d20 mechanics and splat books you can make a pretty decent Star Wars Campaign out of the WoTC d20 SW game but it does take some work. And the WoTC versions have pretty good fluff also the.

I haven't looked at the FFG one yet so I couldn't comment. Honestly though I prefer the WEG game more then d20 but no one in my group has the books (besides me) and I don't loan them out or want to risk damaging them by scanning soooo d20 for us when we feel like SW.

Also for more fluff info, I've found The New Essential Chronology to Star Wars by Daniel Wallace a useful tool in sorting out all the old EU stuff more so if you ever get around to playing and want to use EU in a campaign.

bone_naga · Nov 8, 2015

I like the FFG rules the best but you can't beat the sheer amount of setting information found in the WEG books. Check out this site that appears to have a whole bunch of copyright infringing pdfs on it so that a mod had to remove the link to it...

Mod Edit: Link removed. Sorry. ~Umbran

Chimpy · Nov 9, 2015

I really enjoy the Fantasy Flight series. I think the system can be a bit of a shock for people coming from more tactical games or d20 systems, but I think the FFG system leans much more towards story telling and character development. If one is in the right mindset, it's really rewarding. Plus the production values of the books are really high, too.