FFG's STAR WARS License Renewed - and Includes Episode 7!

There's not much that has come out of GAMA yet (although I'm sure some stuff will), but word has reached me that Fantasy Flight Games - which produces Edge of the Empire and other Star Wars RPGs - has had its license renewed. Not only that, but the license includes material from Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

Edge of the Empire was released in 2012, and has two sequels: Age of Rebellion and Force & Destiny (the beginner game of which is apparently at the printer right now, and the full game expected May-ish).

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[delericho]

I liked the WoD approach better: They put all their common rules in a 'World of Darkness' core book, then released one specific core book for each of the different 'species' populating WoD, that described how they differed from the default.

White Wolf changed their approach when they moved to their "new" World of Darkness, which is as you describe. But the original versions ("Vampire: the Masquerade", "Werewolf: the Apocalypse", et al) had the full rules in a single book, with the vast majority of the underlying rules reprinted almost word-for-word... but with lots of little differences. The nWoD approach was, indeed, better.

It was also a problem with a lot of d20 games as well, where again the rules were reprinted and yet the designers could never quite keep themselves from making lots of tiny changes as they went.

I haven't noticed any actual rule changes. It's mostly just added (or different) 'fluff', examples and clarifications.

Ah. That's a different matter. It's only adjusting the rules (and, in particular, small changes to the rules) that are a problem.

Regarding previous Star Wars RPGs, I only know the version from West End Games. My memory about it is very fuzzy, though - too long ago that I played it. I just remember I didn't like it enough to play more than a few sessions.

Fair enough. At one point or another, I've played every pre-FFG version of Star Wars except West End's "2nd Edition Revised and Expanded". And I've enjoyed both the WEG 2nd Ed and SWSE. But I can well understand that someone might prefer the FFG versions, of course.

 

[Xavian Starsider]

Oh. Never mind then.

That's not a fair assessment. The 'small changes' do not require you to go over all the rules with a fine-toothed comb. A skill description in one book is identical to the same skill in another. The races don't change. The equipment doesn't change. But each book offers a new skill that the other books do not have. So you know that's something to read. It doesn't mean you have to read the other skills. Ditto for new equipment. Reprinted equipment is consistent. New equipment is...new. You can't tell me you have to read the whole thing word by word to be able to recognize the fact that the AT-AT in one book wasn't in the other book.

 

[delericho]

That's not a fair assessment. The 'small changes' do not require you to go over all the rules with a fine-toothed comb. A skill description in one book is identical to the same skill in another. The races don't change. The equipment doesn't change. But each book offers a new skill that the other books do not have. So you know that's something to read. It doesn't mean you have to read the other skills. Ditto for new equipment. Reprinted equipment is consistent. New equipment is...new. You can't tell me you have to read the whole thing word by word to be able to recognize the fact that the AT-AT in one book wasn't in the other book.

I was replying to a specific comment by Jhaelen that there were small differences everywhere. As you'll see above, when he clarified what he meant, I noted that that changed things.

Because details matter.

 

[TrippyHippy]

White Wolf used to do that with all their games. The thing is, if they're meant to be standalone games, they need to do that!

Although it was probably White Wolf’s original WoD games that really kicked off the different-games-in-a-shared-setting style of book releases, which is the same model used by FFGs Star Wars, it is worth pointing out that the OWoD games were pretty rules-lite. Most of those games were much more heavy on setting development (which were actually quite different in each case), and so the actual duplication of rules was reduced accordingly. Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Mage: The Ascension are actually substantially different games to Vampire: The Masquerade - despite the shared setting.

The problem I have with FFG using this model is partially because of the duplication, but mainly because each game tends to just leave stuff out based upon an arbitrary split. The original movies featured smugglers, rebel alliance fighters and diplomats and Jedi all in the same narrative. The division of the games means that you have to get all three in order to run a narrative that covers all those aspects. If 60% of the rules are then duplicated each time, then it just lends itself to that criticism also.

 

[TrippyHippy]

White Wolf changed their approach when they moved to their "new" World of Darkness, which is as you describe. But the original versions ("Vampire: the Masquerade", "Werewolf: the Apocalypse", et al) had the full rules in a single book, with the vast majority of the underlying rules reprinted almost word-for-word... but with lots of little differences. The nWoD approach was, indeed, better.

Well, that is a subjective judgement considering that the 2nd Editions of Vampire: The Requiem and Werewolf: The Forsaken have just reverted to being all-in-one rulebooks due to public demand. The criticism is that rules referencing during a game becomes trickier if you have to navigate through multiple books rather than just one. Secondly, some people are just interested in one game and want to buy it ‘whole’ rather than requiring to buy a separate rulebook.

There is no universal agreement on the best approach - but my point above about the Star Wars games is that, actually, the divisions are arbitrary and don’t actually reflect the character developments of the original movies particularly well.

 

[DerekSTheRed]

I've stumbled on a few small changes in the rules. So far the wording is clearer in the AoR books so we use those rules. No actual rules are different AFAIK.

 

[FreeXenon]

Yea, once you get used to the dice, the system rocks!
This is my favorite system! FFG rocks!
I am happy to hear that there will be more FFG Star Wars goodness! Yea!!!

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Hopefully they got the pdfs written into the agreement too, but probably not.

Yeah, this is what put me off buying the game for a long time - I finally bought "Edge of the Empire" last Friday, and I am glad I did.

Though... €15 for a single dice pack? Of which a player will need at least two to create a full dice pool? Ouch!

 

[Patrick McGill]

Yeah, this is what put me off buying the game for a long time - I finally bought "Edge of the Empire" last Friday, and I am glad I did.

Though... €15 for a single dice pack? Of which a player will need at least two to create a full dice pool? Ouch!

The phone and tablet dice roller app that FFG released has been a life saver in this regard. Some of those I've played with actually prefer it.

 

[aramis erak]

Yeah, this is what put me off buying the game for a long time - I finally bought "Edge of the Empire" last Friday, and I am glad I did.

Though... €15 for a single dice pack? Of which a player will need at least two to create a full dice pool? Ouch!

In general, a table should have 2+(number of people) packs if everyone is sharing one pile of dice. My players generally do/did.