FFG STAR WARS....Revisited

[JeffB]

So a few threads down we have my thread from 3 years ago asking about the system and some discussion of FFG vs. other systems, and eventually nerd arguments that derailed things.

I have remained intrigued about the dice mechanic/system as I like narrative style games where dice take every round into the unpredictable/not just pass-fail and requires some improv on the part of myself and players. Dungeon World has become my go-to D&D game in recent years.

But my "Kids" group- now heading off to college in the Fall- was my concern with FFG system at the time. I did not think it would have suited them then, and I still do not think it would have. So on a few occasions I ran some StarWorlds (DW derivative) and WhiteStar (S&W-OSR space Fantasy), but WEGD6 has always remained my fave Star Wars game.

That said, I have always compromised my own wants/needs for the Kids', But DADGUMMIT, I want to try the FFG system and so a few weeks back I picked up the Age of Rebellion Beginner Game. I read and studied and ran the the adventure myself to get used to the dice and surprised the two players who showed up on Sunday to "play some D&D". Seeing it all laid out, map, dice, character folios, the initial reaction was "Whoa...this looks cool!" Good sign, but despite my own excitement I really had my reservations about what they would think of the dice mechanic. And they seemed a little skittish upon closer inspection of the dice, which knocked me down a notch.

However, I had prepped alot to make sure I could explain the dice mechanic easily and everything would run smoothly. I had been watching the Original Trilogy (my beloved Original Theatrical Releases) and DVR'ed episodes of Rebels non-stop for two weeks noting all the things I could use when narrating dice results.

And it payed off. Probably the most fun session we have had of anything since our initial Dungeon World campaign a few years back.

By about 1/2 the way through, they had the dice mechanics pretty much nailed down, and through my examples, were using Advantage not only mechanically, but really getting into the narrative and pulling off some spectacular failures and unnerving successes. In the final scene....And I don't usually post much "lemme tell you about our game" type things, but the Kids really were enthralled and made for an awesome session, so pardon my excitement..




SPOILER for "Takeover at Whisper Base"






The two characters were on one speeder bike (a bad decision meta-game wise, but appropriate, narratively from the previous scene), the PC Ace plinking away at the imperial officer in the AT-ST while the PC Soldier on the back was trying to fend off the two other scout troopers on speeder bikes who pulled in behind them. They made some great rolls, using Advantage and Triumph to take out one speeder bike which then clipped the other forcing him to fall way back. Then the Soldier told the Ace to pull up to the side of the AT-ST and the Soldier decided to leap onto the AT-ST. I was stoked when I heard this. Dice pool formed, and the Soldier not only made the roll, but with a few Advantage got to the hatch easily, flipped it open and threatened the Officer to "pull over". The Officer swerved to shake the Soldier off, but blew the roll, with everything cancelled out. The Soldier fired and completely missed(!-tree branch hit him just as he fired, I decided) but with several Advantage , upon which the Soldier declared he had hit the AT-ST controls and started a fire and malfunction in the cabin. The Imperial Officer was burned badly and the AT-ST was stopped.

BUT- upon seeing this I had the remaining Scout trooper turn tail and take off back to the base- Where he could release all the Imperial Prisoners- The Ace takes off after the trooper and after a few harrowing maneuvers shoots the Speeder Bike down, which concluded the scenario.

I LOVE THIS GAME

I did have a couple times where I/the players were stymied on trying to come up with something that was not just "you take/recover 1 strain", or I forgot a rule, but 90% of the time everything ran fast and smooth. Frankly the game is far less complicated than it reads/looks. I was quite happy that Vehicular combat runs pretty much the same as personal combat.

I also found Stormtroopers were tough. Easy to take out (there was one awesome scene with a great roll and an AP Grenade), but they hit hard. both PCs were getting whittled down by their concentrated fire.

There was plenty of improv and the adventure played out very differently than when I ran it for myself-as expected, but the dice mechanic played a significant part there too.

Did I mention I LOVE THIS GAME???

And thankfully so did the players. First reaction after the session/scenario ended- "We have GOT to play this again next time". And there was big praise for the dice mechanics, and admission of being intimidated and very hesitant about them before the session started. I get it, I felt the same way too.

And for the first time in a long time, we sat around and talked about how awesome this scene or that scene was. It was a great Sunday, and a great time. I'm going to miss them when they go off to School.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Definitely fits my personal perceptions of it. My players mostly liked it but unfortunately it just wasn't the flavor that one or two cared for and they all were more interested in continuing our 1E D&D campaign. Some day, I'd relish the chance to try it on again only as a player instead of GM.

 

[cmad1977]

I like it. I have occasional 'issues' but it's fun.


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[Jacob Lewis]

Thank you for sharing your experience! It is refreshing to see the enthusiasm after taking such care and preparation to ensure such a positive experience with the game. To be fair, the system is very different than what​ most gamers are used to. When I introduced my old gaming group, it took a few sessions to realize they were still in that D&D mindset of maximizing builds, killing the enemy and looting the corpses for the next upgrade item of power. On the contrary, I introduced my wife to role-playing games with the beginner set for Edge of the Empire and she took it like a natural. I, too, love this game, and I am thrilled to see more enthusiasm like this!

 

[aramis erak]

Thank you for sharing your experience! It is refreshing to see the enthusiasm after taking such care and preparation to ensure such a positive experience with the game. To be fair, the system is very different than what​ most gamers are used to. When I introduced my old gaming group, it took a few sessions to realize they were still in that D&D mindset of maximizing builds, killing the enemy and looting the corpses for the next upgrade item of power. On the contrary, I introduced my wife to role-playing games with the beginner set for Edge of the Empire and she took it like a natural. I, too, love this game, and I am thrilled to see more enthusiasm like this!

There's plenty of build maximization possible with FFG SW.

The most important bit is in initial Character generation...

Given the extreme costs of raising attributes (1st attribute increase is typically about 75 points sunk cost) in play... and the low costs for skills, the single most important optimization is to spend as many points as your initial concept will tolerate on attributes, and spend NOTHING on skills. Skills are overpriced and still cheap, even after character gen, so are best purchased mostly in play.

The difference in overall competence has been demonstrated in my SW campaigns multiple times (by the obstinate bloke who refused to optimize) - his character was massively less competent at 500 XP spent than the rest of the party. Every time, he's complaining about his own ineffectualness after about 300 XP are down than all the others (who all optimized for max atts in CharGen).

 

[JeffB]

I don't suspect character gen will be an issue for us, they will stick with their pre-gens. And for now the Beginner Game has enough meat with it's condensed rulebook.

Adventure-wise, I've been wondering if I should continue with the adventure they provide online for free, or maybe convert some WEG material. The continuation adventure has some adventure seeds/plot points they would care for, and some I think they would not like at all (the whole befriending the natives/rally them to the cause- that seems necc to winning the final big showdown)

Anyone own any of the other FFG adventures they can recommend? Edge adventures are fine too, if it would be easy enough to throw a couple Rebels in as the protagonists.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

I highly recommend starting with the smaller adventures included with the GM Screens. In particular, the Age of Rebellion adventure, Dead in the Water, is excellent and includes specific ideas for introducing other characters from Edge of the Empire (i.e. how Han met Leia, or something like that).

The continuation of the Beginner Game, however, does have the advantage of using just the rules from the starter set if you're group isn't quite ready to make the jump to full-blown core rules. And if you can get your hands on Under a Black Sun, which was the original preview adventure for Free RPG Day some time ago, get it! The pre-gens are excellent and the adventure includes the Obligation feature used differently as triggered events.

Whatever you do, I hope to hear all about it!

 

[JeffB]

I highly recommend starting with the smaller adventures included with the GM Screens. In particular, the Age of Rebellion adventure, Dead in the Water, is excellent and includes specific ideas for introducing other characters from Edge of the Empire (i.e. how Han met Leia, or something like that).

The continuation of the Beginner Game, however, does have the advantage of using just the rules from the starter set if you're group isn't quite ready to make the jump to full-blown core rules. And if you can get your hands on Under a Black Sun, which was the original preview adventure for Free RPG Day some time ago, get it! The pre-gens are excellent and the adventure includes the Obligation feature used differently as triggered events.

Whatever you do, I hope to hear all about it!

Thanks for all the suggestions! I ended up finding a lightly used copy of the Core rulebook to satisfy my own Star Wars geekyness, and will check out the adventure in it. I'm surprised how hard the AOR core book is to find, even used. New , people want a fortune for them. Should be here in a few days.

I'll take a looksee around for those GM kits too! UABS I think you can still find online. That was the original freebie that prompted my original thread here. I forgot about it.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

The FFG print runs are typically small but frequent. They don't go out of print, just out of stock. This seems to confuse sellers who either believe the value of the books have suddenly escalated due to sudden scarcity, or just prey on consumer ignorance--I've seen books listed for $1000s!!

I was fortunate enough to find a number of books at half-price bookstores, including two core books for Edge and one for Rebellion. I gave the extra Edge core rules to the group I was playing with at the time so they could have an easy reference. Since then I have only managed to score a few more books at half price, and have slowly started paying full retail to fill out the collection. The priority buys for me were the adventures, of course. Assault on Orda I is a Rebellion campaign that introduces mass combat rules. Jewel of Yavin is very easy to incorporate Alliance characters and/or Edge.

 

[aramis erak]

I don't suspect character gen will be an issue for us, they will stick with their pre-gens. And for now the Beginner Game has enough meat with it's condensed rulebook.

Adventure-wise, I've been wondering if I should continue with the adventure they provide online for free, or maybe convert some WEG material. The continuation adventure has some adventure seeds/plot points they would care for, and some I think they would not like at all (the whole befriending the natives/rally them to the cause- that seems necc to winning the final big showdown)

Anyone own any of the other FFG adventures they can recommend? Edge adventures are fine too, if it would be easy enough to throw a couple Rebels in as the protagonists.

As yet, I've yet to see a bad adventure from FFG... Note that the book adventures are campaigns, Each chapter has taken multiple sessions of play at 6 hours per session for my groups. (Then again, the D&D adventures listing 1 hour typically take me 2 hours to run.)

The corebook adventures are all pretty good, too... if you can find a copy of the betas, they also have decent adventures.