I'm ready for a new Star Wars RPG

[Yora]

Wait. The Force isn't spellcasting?

No, it's psionics. Completely different thing.

 

[bone_naga]

I enjoyed the D6 system because it was pretty quick and easy to get going. I was also a fan of the miniatures game and liked the compatibility between them.

My favorite so far is the FFG system. I know the dice are funky and they were very off-putting when I first looked at it but once I gave it a try, they really grew on me. I liked that they created a lot more outcomes than just success/failure which I thought was a very fitting approach to Star Wars.

I didn't care for the d20 versions. It just felt like D&D in space which was not the vibe I was looking for. I know some people have recommended 5e Star Wars homebrew stuff but personally I don't think any D&D variant is going to feel right for me when it comes to Star Wars.

I haven't tried a Savage Worlds Star Wars variant but I know some homebrew efforts do exist and can be found online. I'm happy with FFG but if I was looking for something else I might give that a shot.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I enjoyed the D6 system because it was pretty quick and easy to get going. I was also a fan of the miniatures game and liked the compatibility between them.

My favorite so far is the FFG system. I know the dice are funky and they were very off-putting when I first looked at it but once I gave it a try, they really grew on me. I liked that they created a lot more outcomes than just success/failure which I thought was a very fitting approach to Star Wars.

I didn't care for the d20 versions. It just felt like D&D in space which was not the vibe I was looking for. I know some people have recommended 5e Star Wars homebrew stuff but personally I don't think any D&D variant is going to feel right for me when it comes to Star Wars.

I haven't tried a Savage Worlds Star Wars variant but I know some homebrew efforts do exist and can be found online. I'm happy with FFG but if I was looking for something else I might give that a shot.

I like the FFG version, but I find it extremely annoying that Edge has been sitting on the IP for years and refuses to tell anyone what plans, if any, they have for it. Seemed very positive when they first got it, now its starting to feel disingenuous.

 

[kronovan]

I'm OK with the idea of a new Star Wars RPG and might even buy it. It'd have to not have proprietary play mechanics like FFG's special dice though, for me to buy into it. I'll differ from others here, in that I don't want anything that's based upon an adaption to a D&D ruleset - like the fan-made 5e flavor mentioned. I've yet to read such an adaptation that I was completely satisfied with. I also have the experience of attempting to run such Sci-Fi settings with d20 Modern-Futures, with less than stellar results.

I used the term OK, because truth is I've run Star Wars with Savage Worlds and the Cortex+ flavor of Cortex Prime with good results. With a decent sized library of Star Wars verse books, I'm happy to continue homebrewing with the aid of fan-made adaptations for those RPGs.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Of all the licensed RPGs, Star Wars has constantly eluded me.

D6 \ West End
I did not care for the West End version. I know, I know that's blasphemy. So many sing the praises of that system, but it just didn't seem to be that fun. It could have been the GM, but it was 'ok' at best. The supplements though, were OUTSTANDING!!! I still own a handful.

I think the praise is partially nostalgia, and partially that in it's day it was a pretty good system. I will say that while there's a lot I like about it, I don't think it quite holds up, but I do think that it did a really good job of allowing players to emulate the fiction of the movies well enough.

D20 \ WotC
I owned all three of these d20 star wars/d20 star wars revised/Saga. The first two were standard iterations of d20, they were reasonable at low levels, but quickly got out of hand, and bogged down the game play. I owned Saga edition it seemed like a good iteration, and sadly was never able to bring it to the table.

I hated d20 Star Wars because of the level scaling issue, and for how absurd Jedi got. Saga is better and has it's fans, but I don't really like d20 for sci-fi or sci-fantasy.

Genesys \ Fantasy Flight
Love the layout and aesthetic. I don't mind the breakup into the three books, but I still think they could have done one book like Star Trek Adventures, then make specific lines for Force based, location based (Outer Rim, etc), Rebellion Era, Old Replublic, New Republic, etc.
I tried the starter sets but couldn't do the custom dice. I don't have room in my brain for custom dice now, it's too late in my gaming life.

FFG's business model seems to be to put 80% of what you want in one book, and then put the rest in the next book. It's very supplement-heavy in a way that feels designed to encourage buying all the books rather than in publishing a complete game.

Savage Star Wars \ Savage Worlds
I have the Explorer's Edition and Science Fiction Companion for Savage Worlds, and have heard that there are a few fan made Star Wars supplements that allegedly make a great fit for the genre.
I need to try this, from a distance, it looks like it could really work.

I strongly recommend waiting until the new Sci-Fi Companion is released. The SWADE rules are much improved, but the Sci-Fi Companion is still waiting to be done. The Kickstarter for it was promised this year, but I'm not sure how likely it will be. The old Sci-Fi Companion desperately needs balance fixes and revisions.

With all that being said, I'm ready for a new official Star Wars RPG. Edge studio has the license now, right? How long will that last?

Bear in mind that Edge is FFG, more or less. Asmodee bought FFG, and they decided to split the TTRPG stuff into a new studio. That's why FFG shut their TTRPG branch down. And Asmodee botched it so badly that the Genesys dice went out of print for like a year. I really hope Edge gets some resources in terms of personnel and funding from Asmodee, but it's taken like three years to do this transition and it feels like it's nowhere near done.

Would Modiphius do it justice? Their system seems to be able to handle a multitude of genres and styles.

Modiphius sells a lot of licensed IPs. I don't think they're necessarily the right system for those IPs. They just are good at getting licenses and changing the paint on 2d20.

 

[Micah Sweet]

FFG's business model seems to be to put 80% of what you want in one book, and then put the rest in the next book. It's very supplement-heavy in a way that feels designed to encourage buying all the books rather than in publishing a complete game.

That sounds like an argument against the business model, not the game.

 

[Arnie_Wan_Kenobi]

I tried the starter sets but couldn't do the custom dice. I don't have room in my brain for custom dice now, it's too late in my gaming life.

This is exactly what my impression was after running the Rebel starter set. I felt like my party struggled with the improv element of the FF system rolls, and I chalked it up to almost all of them are coders or engineers (of all flavors).

 

[innerdude]

That sounds like an argument against the business model, not the game.

100%. I resisted going to FFG Star Wars for 6 or 7 years because of just how irksome the model was of putting 40% identical content in all 3 "core" rules for EotE, AoE, and FaD.

Like, "Why am I paying a premium for the same rules???? This is ridiculous!"

But I liked the idea enough of the narrative dice system that I bought Genesys before I bought EotE, thinking, "Shoot, I'll just backport what I want to a Genesys framework." But when it came down to it, there was enough lore in the core books, at least for EotE and FaD, that I eventually broke down and bought them.

And then I and my group liked the system well enough that I broke down and bought a bunch of supplements after that, plus 3 sets of dice.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the system . . . but really, FFG needs a business model that doesn't make it feel like they're dragging me into an alley and mugging me.

*Edit --- If you want the "Barest of Bare Bones" minimal supplements for a full-fledged FFG Star Wars experience, you can basically make do with Edge of the Empire, Force and Destiny, and the Gadgets and Gear supplement. Unless you really, really, really, want the space craft stats for the Alliance armada ships (X-Wing, A-Wing, Blockade Runner, Mon Calamari cruiser), you really don't need Age of Rebellion.

 

[innerdude]

This is exactly what my impression was after running the Rebel starter set. I felt like my party struggled with the improv element of the FF system rolls, and I chalked it up to almost all of them are coders or engineers (of all flavors).

The thing that makes it work is to remember that it's not just "improv", i.e., not just trying to come up with weird edge case-y stuff ("Oh, uh, I guess your gun jams . . . again. Or, err, um, you trip over your feet . . . again") that applies to a discrete, individual action. That would get tiresome and grating and lame really fast.

If you can get into the mindset that the narrative dice are also about things like "fronts" in Powered by the Apocalypse, i.e., the trouble or advantage coming from the dice doesn't have to manifest right this second. It's about having much more open-ended GM backstory/notes, giving players radically more freedom to suggest plot/scene elements. Remember that this is Star Wars --- tech, and gadgets, and weird sci-fi phenomena are part and parcel with the setting. You have to get out of a GM mindset of information scarcity and into a mindset of GM "free flow of information." This isn't about gating the treasure and loot behind indomitable puzzles (most of the time anyway). If your players are going around looting every stormtrooper corpse for their T-11 blaster rifles, they're doing it wrong.

Our group may have just been naturally good at getting into that frame of mind, but we loved it. I'd go back to FFG Star Wars / Genesys in a heartbeat. Only reason I'm not playing it now is I moved out of state and haven't found a new group yet.

 

[Bacon Bits]

That sounds like an argument against the business model, not the game.

Yeah, but you kind of have to penetrate the business model to get to enough game to feel complete. That's why it can be a little annoying.

Like Edge of the Empire has the kind of stuff you'd find on the edge of the galaxy. Bounty hunters, explorers, colonists, smugglers, etc. Age of Rebellion has the kind of stuff you'd find in the Rebel Alliance. Ace pilots, spies, commanders, diplomats. Force and Destiny has the force users. Guardians, sentinels, warriors, consulars. And there is overlap. Not just in what roles a class might play, but just in actual duplicate content. Each book has a complete set of the core rules of the game and six classes. And each of the 18 classes has their own specialty book, too!

And spaceships and land vehicles? That's it's own book. Special equipment? Also it's own book. Monsters and NPCs? Another book.

Like WotC feels like they're printing a lot of books, but except for the core three they mostly don't feel essential or have a lot of companions. With FFG, it feels like they've purposely published things to get maximum value extraction by breaking up the game into as many places as possible, including doing so while repeating a bunch of content.