is it me? FFG Star Wars

[Darth Quiris]

I love. Star Wars and want to like the FFG game, but I am not totally sold yet.


I love the boost and setback dice idea and I like the complication of not just succeeding or not succeeding. One potential problem is that is plays slower in my experience. You can't just have the play say "I shoot the stormtrooper," roll dice, and the GM declare a hit or miss. There is usually threats or advantage (and possible triumph or despair) to deal with before moving on. I think I would like it better if the threats and advantages didn't come it as often, but that is a personal preference.


I also don't care for the idea of soak/DR in RPGs. I am an old D&D player so I like just having a pool of HP better. Again a personal preference.


The game is also a little to crunchy for me. With talent trees, force power trees, equipment mods, etc. there seems to be too much of a focus on character building for my taste.


That said. I want to give it another shot. However, I would love to see a slimmed down basic rule set for the game with options to remove soak, but I am not holding my breath.

I agree with the notion that if players and the GM want to interpret each and every single dice roll for all the Advantage and Threat stuff than it could slow the game down but I don't feel that it has to be done with every die roll. Sometimes all we need to know is if something is successful or not.

I think that if I ever do run this game I will let the players determine when they roll if they want to take advantage of the Advantages they rolled or not and if there is higher Threat than I would have the opportunity to use them or not but I don't think I would do it all the time... only when it is dramatically appropriate, which is how I feel that its supposed to be.

I also like the idea of sharing Advantages that are rolled. I am not sure if it's actually in the rules or not, or if this is just the domain of Talents but I feel that stealing from Fate games here could work in that if one player rolls the dice and gains some Advantage than that player can share it with the next player to act so that player can use it instead.

 

[Desdichado]

**I am a unashamed non-fan of the prequel trilogy, and have never bothered with learning anything about the Expanded Universe, other than reading Splinter of the Minds Eye 35 or so years ago, so it will be a Rebellion era game anyway

That mostly describes me, but what brought me back into excitement for the franchise again were a handful of products--Knights of the Old Republic and the CGI Clone Wars TV show. I'm also fairly excited for the launch of Rebels here soon.

 

[Elven]

I downloaded a Edge of Empire fast play adventure freebie thing, and the resolution mechanics seem crazy complicated to me. Probably the whackadoo dice make it worse when reading, but IS it a scomplicated as it seems? My first reaction is " I would never get into RPGs, if this was my first experience with a rulebook".


I am burnt out on D&D for the Kids group and looking to try something completely different. The kids like Star Wars. I am a big fan of the old D6 game, but not of the first two D20 versions (never bothered with Saga because of them).

Is it worh printing this thing out and buying some of the dice? I want fast cinematic Star Wars. Not involved tables and complex dice mechanics.

I wouldn't say its suitable for kids, I think the dice system has a steep learning curve to it, (and yes while it does add colour to the game, it is also a lot less intuitive and will pull you out of the flow of the game, I'm old school WEG's Star Wars 2nd Ed, Rev, fan, anything else seems to suck, )

I would look elsewhere first,

 

[Neonchameleon]

I wouldn't say its suitable for kids, I think the dice system has a steep learning curve to it, (and yes while it does add colour to the game, it is also a lot less intuitive and will pull you out of the flow of the game, I'm old school WEG's Star Wars 2nd Ed, Rev, fan, anything else seems to suck, )

I would look elsewhere first,

I'd have said the opposite, that the dice would be particularly good for kids, the learning curve is pretty shallow, and the people the dice pull out of the game are those who've been playing for 20 years or more and are used to using dice in a specific way.

 

[Elven]

I'd have said the opposite, that the dice would be particularly good for kids, the learning curve is pretty shallow, and the people the dice pull out of the game are those who've been playing for 20 years or more and are used to using dice in a specific way.

Not true at all, the dice system demands a degree of thought on the system that acts as a distraction to the game, (while D6 is a lot less intrusive to game play) anything system that makes you focus on the mechanics is always to the detriment of game flow,

But I will say this, it is more likely to fit those who play "board games"
Or prefer a more "narrative" type of play,

 

[Scorpio616]

But . . . but . . . but . . .

*sigh*

Sorry man, Savage Worlds is very swingy and a bit too rewarding of cation to the wind style play. When the main Dev goes on for multiple posts trying to justify why taking Full Defense is worse than Normal Defense action, there is a problem that goes beyond that section of the rules.

 

[Elven]

Sorry man, Savage Worlds is very swingy and a bit too rewarding of cation to the wind style play. When the main Dev goes on for multiple posts trying to justify why taking Full Defense is worse than Normal Defense action, there is a problem that goes beyond that section of the rules.

Yeah, Savage worlds is a buggy system, but it real does play better than it looks on paper,

 

[Jhaelen]

But I will say this, it is more likely to fit those who play "board games"
Or prefer a more "narrative" type of play,

I'd say kids tend to prefer a "narrative" type of play, and if you think about using Star Wars to introduce them to rpgs, all they have as a reference would be board games (or just 'roleplaying').

 

[Elven]

I'd say kids tend to prefer a "narrative" type of play, and if you think about using Star Wars to introduce them to rpgs, all they have as a reference would be board games (or just 'roleplaying').

That make no sense, their reference would be the movies, now do you think it would be easier to play in first person or third,
(are they putting themselves in to that position, or watching someone else from a distance, i think they may find "narrative" a little too abstract)

And the toughest hurdle to get over in understanding the concept of RPGs is to get away from the board game mindset,


So, nope sorry, disagree there

 

[Neonchameleon]

Not true at all, the dice system demands a degree of thought on the system that acts as a distraction to the game, (while D6 is a lot less intrusive to game play) anything system that makes you focus on the mechanics is always to the detriment of game flow,

But I will say this, it is more likely to fit those who play "board games"
Or prefer a more "narrative" type of play,

Given that narrative play is almost the opposite of board game I'm not sure what you think you are trying to say. And I'm not entirely sure why your scare quotes are necessary.

The only thing I can figure out is that you personally find the mechanics difficult due largely to the lucky/unlucky axis or the unfamiliarity of the dice, and you are so personally used to adding up collections of d6s with (in at least one edition) one behaving differently from others that you personally find it unintrusive.