Tell me about STAR WARS: EDGE OF EMPIRE

Fiddleback · Jun 24, 2013

Morrus said:
How does the starship combat work? Is it a tactical system?

Abstract and lots of folks have trouble with it. We're sort of hoping for some clarification from the core book when it comes out.

It helps to consider that your ship is at the center of the combat and all other ships and whatnot essentially maneuver relative to it. Like a fixed viewpoint in a video game to some extent.

Everyone on your crew has the opportunity to do things which effect either the ship's ability to hit things or its ability to be hit. Essentially adding or subtracting dice to any rolls made for or against. These can be maneuvers, things with the nav computer, repairs, targeting, gunnery, etc. Everyone aboard ship has a role to play in making the combat successful and not just the pilot. Very character driven, but not as tactical as some folks would prefer.

People keep trying to work out ways for X-wing to stand in for ship combat because they want something a little more grittier. Which is fine, but it pays to remember it is a narrative game.

Donovan Morningfire · Jun 25, 2013

Morrus said:
As an aside - how useful would it be for for running a home brewed scifi universe, rather than the Star Wars one? (Not that I want to particularly; just curious).

Probably quite easy. I know there's been an attempt to do a Mass Effect hack (treating biotics in a method similar to Force powers) over on the D20 Radio forums, and it's drawn a lot of favorable comparisons to Firefly/Serenity in terms of the general feel that FFG has presented.

So folks wanting to shave out the Star Wars aspects of the game could do so quite easily and without a whole lot of fuss. It's easy enough to rename the ships to something that fits your home-brew setting of choice, and the only thing really tied to Star Wars in the equipment chapter is the lightsaber; there is a bowcaster, but that can be reskinned as well without much problem.

Waxfire · Jun 29, 2013

I really didn't like the railroad nature of the adventure included, though that is forgivable given that it's an introduction. The part that I thought was unforgivable was that it's set on Tatooine and you really don't interact with any of the Tatooine setting. You could be on any backwater planet for all it mattered. I couldn't understand why they failed to introduce any of the special parts of Tatooine to draw players in.

I wound up rewriting the adventure to involve an escape from the Hutt's palace, a speeder chase through canyons, a crash in the desert leading to an encounter with sand people, travel to Mos Eisley where they searched in the spaceport cantina for a contact, only to be spotted by one of the Hutt's spies, a purchase of a missing part from some Jawa traders, a shoot-out with some guards and finally a short space battle in orbit before a Star Destroyer jumps into orbit chasing a ship that just jumped in as well.

All in about three hours of play time, using the same base characters, but actually using the Star Wars background to immerse the players in the setting. This is what the adventure I feel utterly fails to do.

On a side note, I left the stormtroopers and Empire out until the very end and made it more about henchmen of the Hutt, to further differentiate the smuggler/backwater feeling and leave the Empire stuff to future adventures, when they get closer to the core.

Nevertheless, it's a good game and worth checking out. I just hope they use the rich setting more in the future.

Olgar Shiverstone · Jun 29, 2013

Waxfire said:
I wound up rewriting the adventure to involve an escape from the Hutt's palace, a speeder chase through canyons, a crash in the desert leading to an encounter with sand people, travel to Mos Eisley where they searched in the spaceport cantina for a contact, only to be spotted by one of the Hutt's spies, a purchase of a missing part from some Jawa traders, a shoot-out with some guards and finally a short space battle in orbit before a Star Destroyer jumps into orbit chasing a ship that just jumped in as well.

Great advice, and a very clever adventure rewrite.

Welcome to EN World!

NMC · Jun 30, 2013

Donovan Morningfire said:
One thing to bear in mind for EotE is that the players can't really just sit back and let the GM alone interpret the dice results. In fact, it honestly seems that Jay Little and the EotE design team are expecting players and GMs to work together to turn the results on the dice into part of an interesting story.

This is a good point, and, as long as everyone recognizes that it needs to be balanced, it can work well. When I was running the intro adventure, for example, the Trandoshan bad guy had locked himself in the cockpit of the freighter. One PC made a Computers check to bypass the lock, which succeeded, but also generated some Threat. A player suggested that the door should start to open, but then stick halfway; this set up a challenge for the Wookiee, who made a very successful Brawn check to push it open the rest of the way.

-Nate

ObiWanKenobi · Jul 1, 2013

CAFRedblade said:
There is a nice little write up on the game from FFG on their website, with a basic covering of the dice mechanic.

Thanks for that link! That was one of the better reads I've seen on that compared to some of the other write up's i've seen.

Venthrac · Jul 3, 2013

While I don't have any great pithy insights to share here, I will say that I've enjoyed the game greatly and was an active member of the beta. I think you would enjoy it, Morrus, and I hope you will give it a try.

You can also wander over to the FFG booth at GenCon and watch the game in action if you're curious. I myself will be at one of those tables on Thursday morning

ObiWanKenobi · Jul 3, 2013

Venthrac said:
While I dno't have any great pithy insights to share here, I will say that I've enjoyed the game greatly and was an active member of the beta. I think you would enjoy it, Morrus, and I hope you will give it a try.

You can also wander over to the FFG booth at GenCon and watch the game in action if you're curious. I myself will be at one of those tables on Thursday morning

Venthrac,

Would you mind sharing some insights as to what you experienced/seen during the beta testing? Were there alot of bugs?

Umbran · Jul 3, 2013

Jan van Leyden said:
SW:EotE is a refreshing take on Star Wars gaming. Top-notch production values, a low price...

You may have been speaking of the introductory offering. However, I note that the FFG website says the core rulebook will be $60. Stack the special dice on top of that, and we're talking $75. That's not particularly low price for an RPG. It is running on the higher end of average.

Jan van Leyden · Jul 3, 2013

Umbran said:
You may have been speaking of the introductory offering. However, I note that the FFG website says the core rulebook will be $60. Stack the special dice on top of that, and we're talking $75. That's not particularly low price for an RPG. It is running on the higher end of average.

Wow, that'sa what I call a quotation out of context!

First line of my post:

Jan van Leyden said:
Well, I own the Beginner's Set and have run it for my son (12 years old) and one/two of his friends.

And directly after the section you quoted:

Jan van Leyden said:
On the other hand I'm not sure that I'll buy the full game. A, what, 500 pages rules book seems a bit out of character for this game. But FFG will publish a stand alone adventure for the Begfinner's game, which is an article I will buy - only for the sake of my son, of course.

No, I don't call a $60+ game a bargain. And I'm still not sure about the whole game.

Btw: The dates given for the posts - in this thread at least - seem to be off. My original post is stamped as of being from June, 21st, while it must be from around April.