How Much Overlap in the Books?

[Jester David]

I've only browsed the books in my LGS. How much content overlaps between the rulebooks? In terms of talents, ships, species, and the like?
Is it just the classes that differ?

 

[aramis erak]

About 1/5 of the vehicles, adversaries, and ships overlap between AoR and EotE.

Two cores have 3 force powers each, with much overlap; all those 5 and 6 more are in the F&D corebook.
None of the force user talent trees overlap.

All three have Lambda's, CR-90's, TIE-LN. Note that there are a few that ONLY appear in the Beta books. (including some old favorite SLFs - like the Ghotroc 720)

IIRC, 6 or 7 of the AoR-line and EotE-line talent trees overlap, but only if you have the expansion books... in the cores alone, I believe it's two.

Races: In the core books... Droids and Humans. In the lines, there are a few more that appear (identically) in both AoR and EotE lines.

Fluff Text: Each is somewhat different. It's harder to codify, because much of it is in fact rewritten in each. The fluff overlaps most in the Galaxy chapter, but generally, takes different slants on the material.

The Worlds: Different in each.

 

[Chimpy]

As mentioned, the character options, ships, enemies and the background material are different. The rules & equipment sections are the same.

 

[Urbanmech]

You can get by with one core book, the careers and specialization lists from the other books can be found online.

If you want to run a force centric game then F&D is the best choice with the full descriptions of force powers and lots of melee weapons and lightsabers. AoR is probably the book with the most iconic content, featuring lots of the classic vehicles and starships. Edge gets you more criminal NPC's to use.

 

[Zaran]

My biggest complaint about Age of Rebellion is that it has so much repeated material from Edge of the Empire. To the point where I would advise not to get Age of Rebellion except to get X-Wings. I also think that the new material in Age of Rebellion just isn't as designed as well as Edge (For example, the Infiltrator spec tree doesn't give Stealth as a class skill).

I do think that the Force and Destiny book is much better.

 

[Chimpy]

Indeed, personally I would only advise getting all 3 core books if someone has lots of disposable income or is a fan of the system.

 

[aramis erak]

My biggest complaint about Age of Rebellion is that it has so much repeated material from Edge of the Empire. To the point where I would advise not to get Age of Rebellion except to get X-Wings. I also think that the new material in Age of Rebellion just isn't as designed as well as Edge (For example, the Infiltrator spec tree doesn't give Stealth as a class skill).

I do think that the Force and Destiny book is much better.

There's a lot of stuff that's not duplicates - about half the talent trees, about half or more of the vehicles, over half the NPC templates, most of the non-rules text. There is some significant overlap...

Ships & Vehicles
Edge: 89
Age: 48
F&D: 29

All three: 6 (BTL-S3, BTL-A4, T4A Lambda, CR-90, CR-92A, TIE/ln)
Edge and Age: 9 (adds Nebulon B, Storm IV cloud car, 74-Z speeder bike)
Edge and F&D: 7 (adds AT-HCT,
Age & F&D: 9 (adds T-65B Xwing, Secutor Class SD, Victory Class SD)

So... Age has 9 39 not in edge, and F&D has 22 not in edge...
only 10% of edge is included elsewhere.
1/5th of Age's craft.

NPC's:
Edge has 69
Age has 58
F&D has 45

In all three: 3 (medical droid, Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper Sergeant)
In Edge and Age: 13
In Edge and Force: 2 (Planetary Defense Force Trooper, Street Tough)
In Age and Force: 1 (Guilded Bounty hunter)

Note, however, there are a lot of similar templates; such as there are police type templates in all three, but they aren't the same.