Can someone break down the different Star Wars games for me?

As an aside, I can't believe there's a prefix for "Hobomancer," whatever that is, and not for Star Wars. Odd.

Anyhow, I have two young daughters--7 and 10--who love Star Wars. I'm considering running a very simple game for them, but have never run Star Wars and am a bit overwhelmed by all the options - it seems like there are a half a dozen or more distinct games from over the decades.

Can someone describe the different Star Wars options out there? Also, can you tell me which one would be best for young folk who would probably most like to play something epic, probably be Jedi?

Thanks!

Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.

Can't help you with details about the new FFG star wars, but I am familiar with the WEG and WotC games. WEG version was a d6 based game, and now that I think about, that's all I remember from it... The first WotC SW was pretty much D&D in space ruleswise. Not a bad game. Some balance issues if I remember right. Later SAGA edition is the one I played most. The rules are midway between D&D 3.5 and 4th edition. Mostly works like 3.5 but the skills for example work kinda like 4th edition. Of the SW games I played, this was in my opinion the best to build heroic characters and movielike action.



All I really know about the FFG game is, is that it uses its own special dice. The dice have some special symbols on them instead of numbers.

I don't have a background with the West End Games version but I am at least passingly familiar with the others. The most I know about WEG's Star Wars is that you get dice pools of d6s and Jedi, apparently, become hell on wheels.

There were 3 versions of the Star Wars RPG that WotC published. D20 Star Wars, D20 Star Wars Revised, and Saga Edition.

The first D20 version was early in D20's life cycle and makes a number of departures including different progression for saving throws. Revised edition normalizes things a bit more since it comes on the heels of the 3.5 revision of D&D. One aspect of the WotC versions before Saga Edition, characters don't track hit points - they track Vitality Points and Wound Points. VP are mainly like hit points but crits can go right to WP and PCs have lot fewer of those. One other issue of note - Jedi spend their VP to use force powers (all of which are bought as feats). Also, characters can call on the force and add a d6 to their d20 rolls - the number of d6s you can roll to pick the best one goes up as you level up.

As mentioned above, Saga is a precursor to 4e. It includes static defenses rather than saving throws (which also means no using force points to bolster your defense since a static defense has no d20 roll). Skills are binary trained/not trained and training gives a flat bonus. PCs advance in all skills as they level up. And this edition gives all classes both feats and talents. Many talents behave like encounter powers giving the PC a special thing to do once an encounter - each is thematically linked to a talent tree accessed by certain classes (scoundrel talents are different from soldiers or nobles, etc). Force users get access to additional build options in force powers. They are also generally used as encounter powers.

FFG's Star Wars game harkens back, a bit, to WEG's Star Wars because you build dice pools. But the dice are specially printed with successes, failures, and other modifiers to generate variations on the traditional binary result of success/failure. You could succeed but have additional negative consequences, failure with positive consequences, and so on. FFG also took the ballsy decision to put out 2/3 of the game system before introducing major force users. It starts on the fringe, then rebellion, and then finally introduced Jedi. Of course now that all 3 parts of the main rules are out, this may not have too much bearing any more.

I'm about to start an FFG game.

I never played WEG's d6.

WotC's original d20 Star Wars was, as Blackrat said above, basically D&D in space. Except the Jedi classes were overpowered. Too clunky mechanically for the fast action I want from Star Wars.

SAGA was easier to play, but still had balance issues. The Force was just really strong.

FFG is novel in that it assumes that a character like, say, Luke in Return of the Jedi is a mid-level PC. It takes a lot of XP to be able to pull off the basic suite of 'Jedi' abilities, like telekinesis, jumping, mind tricking, and deflecting blaster bolts. By the time a Force-using PC gets to that level, the non-Force-user will have a ton of tricks and skills of his own. I haven't run a session yet, so I can't tell you how it plays.

Note exactly what was asked but..

if you want to run star wars for kids you may want to try fate accelerated with this homebrew:

https://fate-accelerated-star-wars-the-infinite-empire.obsidianportal.com/wikis/main-page

very lightweight and easy. allows jedi and everything else Star Wars

I'm running a short adventure with my regular group between D&D campaign arcs and so far we have had a lot of fun with it.
I even used a few old WEG modules as inspiration.

If you're looking at the FFG games, I'd highly recommend a beginner box. They have everything needed for play (rules, and adventure, maps, tokens and dice) and are very reasonably priced. They each also have a freely downloadable mini-campaign on FFGs website which extends the adventure in the box (which typically runs 1-2 sessions).

I'd recommend the FFG game as very good for kids - the system is fairly straightforward and streamlined and the different coloured dice and symbols are *probably* easier for children to understand than traditional dice. The system is also much more oriented towards storytelling than complex rules which need to be learned.

In terms of the three lines offered, there is:
Edge of the Empire - focuses on the trials and tribulations of scoundrel type characters living on the fringes of (polite) society - think Han Solo, Chewbacca, Lando, Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett, etc.
Age of Rebellion - focuses on the heros and villains of the galactic civil war - think General Solo, Princess Leia, General Madine, Admiral Ackbar, Admiral Ozzel, General Veers, etc.
Force and Destiny - focuses on force users - note, not Jedi - on the run from agents of the ISB and Inquisition - think Luke Skywalker, Yoda, Darth Vader, the Emperor, etc.

Hope that helps - will answer any questions you have if I can!

Total editions...

WEG (all editions) is a d6 dice pool, roll and total. It has (effectively) 6 editions...
1E: No initiative*, no haste. Everyone declares, then everyone rolls the actions, then actions resolved in descending die-roll order. No full round defenses. TN's in fixed increments of 5. 2 scales, ships and characters.
1.1E: Core plus rules upgrade. Adds full round defenses. TN's now ranges peaking at increments of 5.
1.5E: Core plus Rules Companion. Includes rules upgrade changes. Restricts force powers, adds haste, adds dice-capping for scale, has 6 scales.
2E: Adds initiative roll, alters process for full round defenses and haste, adds wild die, changes scaling from over cap=0 to over cap=cap. (Making affecting out of scale actions somewhat easier.) Movement ratings go from dice to fixed values.
2.5 aka 2R&E "Revised and Expanded" AKA 2RE: further changes to full round defenses. Scaling simplified and changed from dice capping to bonus dice.
3E: never released as such, but later released as "D6 Space"... mechanically, 2.5 with added advantages and disadvantages, but without the SW IP...

Note that no revised corebook for 1.1 nor 1.5 was published.

A fan made 2.75 level has been released in violation of the US laws...

License revoked for cause in mid-late 90's.

WEG Live Action
no-touch LARP rules derived from 2R&E. Much simplified.

WotC
all 3 Wizards editions are part of the D20 system; all are roll 1d20+stat+skill for TN+.

D20 Star Wars - essentially 3.5, but adding the Vitality/wounds split in place of HP. Force powered by burning vitality. Most non-crits do vitality damage, too. Despite this, Jedi get a pretty strong mary-sue type feel.
D20 Star Wars Revised - many minor changes. Not much improved, tho'.
Star Wars Saga Edition - major overhaul - skills simplified to booelan (you have them or not), Force powers reduced. Mechanically fairly similar to the (later released) 4E D&D.

SWSE vs WEG
SWSE is noted for massive fan uptake - but many continued to use the out of print WEG edition. Fan demand for WEG so high that almost all the books have wound up pirate-scanned.

Now that SWSE is OOP, most of its books scanned as well. The two largely don't overlap in fan base; SWSE fans tend to not be d6 fans, and vice versa.

FFG
3 game lines using one engine. In order released....

• Edge of the Empire - aimed at, essentially, "Firefly in the SW universe"...
• Age of Rebellion - aimed at "active duty in the Rebel Alliance."
• Force and Destiny - Full up force users - primarily jedi.

VERY minor revisions to a few things in AoR over Edge; I've found no such changes in F&D over AoR.

All use the same "funky dice" - color coded (but shaded such that the colorblind simulators leave them all distinguishable with any of the 4 "common" forms of colorblindness, including achromia. Symbolic results and cancelling of symbols is simple enough for even 10-year olds...

All three lines have a beginner box with no character generation, slightly lighter rules (crits resolved differently), a "teach you how to run the game while playing it" adventure, and 4 pregens in box, plus 2 extra available as PDF, and a follow-up adventure in PDF.

All three have their own corebooks, as well.
There is some overlap of fluff/prose, but it's not the same in the corebooks.
The vehicles and adversaries both have about a 1/5th overlap between any two cores; only a handful of items are in all three.

While the rules are largely the same, each has different classes, different specialties (with some overlap between AoR and Edge), and a different driving score.

• Edge's driving value is Obligation; when it triggers, it's bad, and requires you to deal with it, or you suffer penalties, and it may go up. Further, it can go up due to player action. Deal with it the right ways and it goes down.
• Age's is Duty and Contribution Rank. Duty is a positive value, when it triggers, it is good. It's raised by accomplishing missions. Contribution rank is gained by making duty exceed 100...
• F&D's is Morality. Follow the code, it goes up. Break the code, it hovers around a central point or starts to drop. Low value is bad, results in falling to the dark side. High values good, result in becoming light side. When triggered, amount of change doubled, be it for better or worse.

FFG vs SWSE & WEG
I'm noticing a lot more overlap between FFG fans and d6 fans than SWSE vs d6. Many SWSE fans seem to dislike the dice enough to stay with SWSE.

FFG Force powers are more narratively powerful, but mechanically more balanced, than any of the others.

Mercurius said:

As an aside, I can't believe there's a prefix for "Hobomancer," whatever that is, and not for Star Wars. Odd.

Click to expand...

Hobomancer. And I'm still trying to get this added:

Speaking of, if you have some DIY in your blood and a good grip on the Star Wars setting, you should try Modos RPG summarized here: http://modos-rpg.obsidianportal.com/

Your seven year old could get away with just rolling a d20 if you do the attribute+skill math for her. Here's a full character sheet - you tell me if it's kid-friendly.

--

Princess Luca, level 3

Concept: a red-headed Wookie princess with a strange knack for Force-lightning. She's out to avenge her "Nwanwangahagna," (goal) but has a very short temper (flaw).

Attributes: Physical 13 (+1), Mental 12 (+1), Metaphysical 8 (-1)

Skills: Magic (lightning) +1, Knowledge (Princessly) +1, Persuade +1

Perks: Observant, Armor Training (Wookie belt), Mana (max MP damage 12)

Hero Points (3): Luca uses hero points for making scary growls (persuade) and fixing things, Wookie style.

Gear: heavy crossbow d10, Wookie belt d6, tiara

From my experience with the original West End Games (WEG) version and the Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) versions, I think for youngsters they each have drawbacks and benefits.

The d6 version can be good for not having to do much explaining regarding how to read the dice. Then again, the FFG version might be more interesting to those who like more tactile options.

From a play perspective, I'm not sure the FFG version really suites my vision of Star Wars. From playing both the Warhammer Fantasy and Star Wars FFG versions, I think at some point you start asking yourself, "I have only 1 good dice and 3 bad die for this attempt...is it worth it?" That answer started become NO, it wasn't worth it. In other words, the dice mechanic fails the heroic nature of Star Wars.