Edge Studios confirms it still has the Star Wars license despite D&D's upcoming book

With this week's announcements by Dungeons & Dragons that they will be bringing us a D&D Star Wars game in 2027, many have asked what of the current official Star Wars TTRPG, currently produced by Edge Studios, having inherited the license from its sister company Fantasy Flight Games in 2020.

Wizards of the Coast--the owners of Dungeons & Dragons--had the license for Star Wars back in the early 2000s, and produced a couple of very successful Star Wars games using the d20 System, which is the engine which powered D&D 3E. In 2010, WotC declined to renew that license, and FFG announced it had picked up the license the year later. Soon followed Star Wars: Edge of Empire, Star Wars: Age of Rebellion, and Star Wars: Force and Destiny, all using the 'narrative dice system' which powered Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (also published by FFG at the time) and which later became the universal Genesys system.

In 2020, the Star Wars license moved to FFG's sister company, Edge Studios. Both companies are owned by Asmodee.

While Edge Studios continued to print and sell the existing Star Wars RPG books, in the six years they've had the license they haven't actually released any new content for it.

And this week, WotC announced that in 2027 there would be a new Dungeons & Dragons powered Star Wars game. Of course, many people immediately asked... what of Edge Studio's Star Wars RPG?

It turns out that Edge has NOT lost the license. The company announced via its Discord server:

We wanted to issue an announcement sharing this news, while also clarifying some of the finer details of the announcement to put misinformation at bay.

Here’s the basic information as announced at Gen Con 2026 from Wizards of the Coast:

With Universes Beyond, we are expanding Dungeons & Dragons into even more worlds we love, like World of Warcraft … Star Wars is coming to Dungeons & Dragons for the first time, bringing the iconic galaxy to our players’ tabletops.​

​

Dungeons & Dragons | Star Wars™ collaboration will take place in the Season of Rebellion, coming 2027.​

Here’s what also remains true:

• This collaboration is part of Dungeons & Dragons new “Universes Beyond” sets. Universe Beyond sets are new to D&D, but are a feature of Wizard’s of the Coast’s other big property Magic: The Gathering.
• Universe Beyond sets are usually single releases, although bigger successes do return. We can imagine a similar set up for D&D.
• This is not a new d20 / 5e based Tabletop RPG.
• EDGE Studios still retains the license for the Star Wars RPG line originally created by FFG.

So, Edge Studios still has the Star Wars license. Whether they intend to use it at any time in the near or distant future remains unknown, given that they haven't put out anything new for Star Wars since they inherited the license from FFG six years ago. In the meantime, it seems likely that WotC's book will be a one-and-done situation, rather than the start of a line of Star Wars/D&D products.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I finally got to play a short one shot of FFG/Edge Star Wars last weekend. It was a blast! I'm glad it will continue in its current zombie state at least (not actually "supported", but the materials aren't rare collectables) for a couple more years or whatever.

But it has become more clear to me that the reason it took over 9 months between me buying some of the books and actually getting to play is that the special dice are just a huge barrier to entry for anyone not committed. I watched a primer video to refresh myself on the dice because I had read the book last Spring then not played, and boy did it sound absurdly complex cramming it all into 10-15 minutes of instructions. Basically you have to have people jazzed enough about Star Wars to do some homework before session 1, or else be a veteran GM who can walk players through how to roll continuously, and neither of those was practically within reach for me. It doesn't even seem to be that complicated a game, fundamentally, it's just that the complexity is front-loaded. Fortunately my local game store had an event.

I will say, even having an excellent GM for this one-shot, we did spend a lot of time contemplating "so what should a failure with three advantage mean" and the like. And sometimes this made for really fun storytelling (and, in fact, very much lends itself to a semi-goofy swashbuckling adventure approach to action which is very Star Wars), but sometimes it just made for an awkward bottleneck to getting on with the story. Which is just to say, I appreciate what they were trying to do with the dice, I kind of like the dice, I'll happily play with the dice, but from a game design perspective I'm not sure the dice were a juice worth the squeeze. I've got a lot issues with Daggerheart, but it seems like the 2d12 there kind of achieves like 80% of what six different color coded custom dice do in Star Wars.

 

[Elvish Lore]

I've got a lot issues with Daggerheart, but it seems like the 2d12 there kind of achieves like 80% of what six different color coded custom dice do in Star Wars.

I think you’re absolutely right. And I say that that someone who’s played plenty of Genesys and recently finished a year long Daggerheart campaign.

DH provides for emergent results without the cognitive load that Genesys is burdened with.

 

[Brewhammer]

I have run two campaigns with the Star Wars FFG system - fortunately both were on Roll 20 and the sheet did the dice results for us. We'd check it for accuracy then move on. I doubt I'd like the system as much if I had to do the results in my head each time for each roll.

dies a little inside thinking about it

 

[Jacob Lewis]

I get why people complain about the dice system. It's unlike anything else commonly seen in other RPG games. The dice themselves are not all that complicated, as many people will attest after trying it for the first time. The true struggle, however, is breaking out of old habits and away from familiar expectations taught by more traditional RPGs. That is not an easy hurdle for anyone to clear, myself included.

The narrative dice are aptly named. They are not designed to determine a definitive interpretation based on a unique outcome, but to provide a prompt for players to continue developing an interesting story. Taking time to discuss the potential results of the dice together is the heart of the game. It is not meant to be quick, which is where some people might feel the game isn't working or failing for them. I can assure you it is not.

The game is not for everyone. I say that as an objective statement, not an elitist remark. It took me a long time to get both comfortable and proficient with this system. I don't know that I would have it in me to do it today if I had to start over. But 10+ years ago, I had to look outside my regular group of gamer (D&D) friends to find players who were better suited for this kind of game.

I spent the better part of a year going to different stores, meeting new people, and joining various groups to find the "right" people for me. I had a lot of fun teaching the game using the starter sets, and reigniting my childhood love for all things Star Wars. What surprised me was how much easier non-gamers and new gamers adapted and enjoyed using the dice system than a lot of older, lifetime gamers. Turns out the issue wasn't really the dice themselves, but getting out of the traditional (D&D) mindset. I had to do the same thing, too.

I would eventually find my Star Wars group (who also played D&D), and proceeded to run my first in-person, extended campaign that ran consistently for 6 months (and it would have continued longer if not for COVID!).

Bottom line is that it does take some extra time and effort to get the most out of this system. Most things in life usually do. But it's not something everyone wants (or has) to give, and that's fine. There are other options out there or coming up.

But if you take the time with this one, and find others to commit with you, the rewards and the experience can be beyond anything else.

 

[ART!]

I tried to run the FFG SW game, and could not get past the dice. My players ranged from catching on quickly to generally understanding it. What I don't get is: why go to the trouble of designing this dramatic dice system and then not use it for everything else in the game? I get that at that point I'm criticizing the game for not being what I think it should/could be, but I would have liked to see everything else in the game built in terms of successes and threats and whatnot, rather than the very traditional ttrpg number builds the existing game uses. I found this baffling.

 

[nyvinter]

Apart from the crit tables and obligation/duty/morality — the first would be hard to do with the narrative dice — is there anything else that doesn't use them? Because I can't think of any.

 

[Laurefindel]

I get why people complain about the dice system.
(…)

But if you take the time with this one, and find others to commit with you, the rewards and the experience can be beyond anything else.

It’s admittedly a good system, but it’s one that does require a certain commitment as you mentioned. However, I did not find that the rewards were matching the commitment.

It’s a strange system insofar as it tries to be narrative and crunchy at the same time, and I did notice a significant character-power difference between players who delved into the weapon-customization minigame and those who didn’t care much for it. It’s a dramatic/narrative game that requires a significant amount of system mastery.

But I think that my biggest critique is that it’s a unique system with unique mechanics, but those unique mechanics don’t particularly support the themes and genre of Star Wars.

 

[ART!]

Apart from the crit tables and obligation/duty/morality — the first would be hard to do with the narrative dice — is there anything else that doesn't use them? Because I can't think of any.

I rather obsessively wrote 4 posts about this game on my blog, but for my point here I can cut and paste from the fourth one:

Where I’d really like to infuse the system with this concept is to rate all weapons, armor, and equipment in either the number of extra dice that the item grants you, or in a number of one or more of the six possible dice results you would add to a roll involving that item. For instance, a blaster pistol might give you an extra one of the lowest level of positive dice, a blaster rifle gives you an extra two of those, and a mounted blaster gives you those two as well but also a mid-level positive die. Or you could have a blaster give you one extra Success, a blaster rifle gives you two extra Successes, and a mounted blaster gives you two Successes and an Advantage. Again, I’m just spit-balling here.

Armor would be rated in the number of Successes it negates, or the number of negative dice it adds to the attacker’s roll.

By putting everything on the same scale and relating everything to those six possible outcomes, you eliminate the bigger numbers the system has for various damage thresholds and other stats for weapons, armor, and other equipment.