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Tell me about Star Wars: Edge of the Empire
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<blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 9823944" data-attributes="member: 85870"><p>So I saw this a few days ago and have been thinking about how I could assist.</p><p></p><p>Obviously I don't know you and your group personally, and what little I do know is from interactions on the forum here.</p><p></p><p>From our interactions, I do recall:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">You have a long-standing house-ruled D&D 3.0 system that is your primary go-to for fantasy. I do seem to recall that you've specifically avoided most if not all of the D&D 3.5 system rules changes as part of your ongoing 3.0 + house rules.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Years ago you looked at GURPS wondering if "realism" was a solution to better gaming but ultimately concluded that whatever "things" GURPS gave in terms of "realism" significantly detracted from other, more important components of your enjoyment of roleplaying generally.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">However, despite not going over to GURPS', I have historically detected from your posts that you generally lean as a GM toward discrete, action-resolution types of mechanics and systems because you feel they provide more internal consistency and verisimilitude, as opposed to more strongly freeform / narrative style mechanics and systems.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Your choice of WEG Star Wars D6 as your current "go to" for Star Wars seems to bear this out.</li> </ul><p>I've just re-read the thread you started, "Star Wars WEG D6 - The Force Point - 'Is it a good thing?'" (<a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/star-wars-weg-d6-the-force-point-is-it-a-good-thing.715569/" target="_blank">link</a>), and tried to get a sense for the reasoning and underlying intent for you posing the question, and the descriptions of play you provided.</p><p></p><p>Quoting one of the exchanges in the thread ---</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I bolded the phrase that stood out to me in the exchange as being most relevant to your approach/review/"grok"-ing of the Edge of the Empire system generally.</p><p></p><p>Despite having lots of "traditional" elements to the system---the character build system of attributes + skills + talents + career paths; the gear and equipment subsystem---the real "edge" to Edge of the Empire (to use a cheesy word-play) comes from the things that break from traditional, discrete action resolution-style gaming.</p><p></p><p>It's hard to get this through line in the rules, because the EotE rules don't really say this out loud, but if you're familiar with PbtA / Ironsworn / BitD style gaming, there's so many things in FFG Star Wars that have parallels to techniques you use in the narrative-style systems. But you won't get this from direct readings of the rules, it will only come through a learning the technique or mindset behind it.</p><p></p><p>Absolutely, 100%, you as a GM will be expected to insert "Quantum ogres" and "Schrodinger's cliffs" (to reference an old, old [USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER] post) all along the way---e.g., <em>the players are trying to escape on horseback </em>(or in the case of Star Wars, a hovercar) <em>through a winding cliffside and canyon, when suddenly the players roll a riding/piloting check to evade their pursuers. The result is a successful evasion (they don't get hit by gunfire) but the dice show threat/disadvantage along with the success. They're safe for now, but suddenly what appeared to be a relatively clear route through the canyon is blocked.</em></p><p></p><p>Or conversely, you're throwing in "Quantum allies arriving from nowhere" and "Schrodinger's loot chests" when advantages and triumphs are rolled. Background elements you were planning to withhold "for internal consistency" may need to suddenly spring into action now, or if you were planning to insert them now, withhold them until later. GM's have to be ready and willing to let "unseen" and "offscreen" come to life on a moment's notice (or conversely hold them back). </p><p></p><p>The dice rolls will literally force you to make snap judgment calls to either insert or remove certain aspects of the game world to follow the narrative the dice are presenting. There are certain things happening both in the moment and in the broader world backstory that you may need to change on a micro- (and occasional macro-) transactional basis, because the dice are showing you that there is a state change or modification to the underlying current of the scene that neither you nor the players were previously aware of. These don't always have to be large changes (though sometimes they may), but the "fictional narrative state" is constantly being pushed/pulled in different directions by the dice rolls.</p><p></p><p>Anecdotally it's my observation that most GMs who express dislike for the FFG "Narrative Dice" system, this is the primary reason.</p><p></p><p>So why does the FFG system do this? In my opinion it's to push GMs into thinking about their games differently. For Star Wars games, it's about pushing GMs to view the game as a <em>"Star Wars story" </em>with Star Wars character arcs and narrative beats. For the generic Genesys system, it's the same, just applied more broadly---what kind of narrative beats are appropriate to the type of game that the system is driving?</p><p></p><p>So I'm saying this out of a desire to just level-set expectations around what your hopes are in trying to gain additional insight about the system. What is it you would like to see or experience or adapt around the FFG system?</p><p></p><p>Because to be honest, there's really not a lot of terribly interesting things mechanically about the FFG "Narrative Dice" system otherwise. The physical representation of the rules are massively less important than the mindset ("Be comfortable with 'Quantum ogres' and 'Schrodinger's cliffs'") that lives underneath it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="innerdude, post: 9823944, member: 85870"] So I saw this a few days ago and have been thinking about how I could assist. Obviously I don't know you and your group personally, and what little I do know is from interactions on the forum here. From our interactions, I do recall: [LIST] [*]You have a long-standing house-ruled D&D 3.0 system that is your primary go-to for fantasy. I do seem to recall that you've specifically avoided most if not all of the D&D 3.5 system rules changes as part of your ongoing 3.0 + house rules. [*]Years ago you looked at GURPS wondering if "realism" was a solution to better gaming but ultimately concluded that whatever "things" GURPS gave in terms of "realism" significantly detracted from other, more important components of your enjoyment of roleplaying generally. [*]However, despite not going over to GURPS', I have historically detected from your posts that you generally lean as a GM toward discrete, action-resolution types of mechanics and systems because you feel they provide more internal consistency and verisimilitude, as opposed to more strongly freeform / narrative style mechanics and systems. [*]Your choice of WEG Star Wars D6 as your current "go to" for Star Wars seems to bear this out. [/LIST] I've just re-read the thread you started, "Star Wars WEG D6 - The Force Point - 'Is it a good thing?'" ([URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/star-wars-weg-d6-the-force-point-is-it-a-good-thing.715569/']link[/URL]), and tried to get a sense for the reasoning and underlying intent for you posing the question, and the descriptions of play you provided. Quoting one of the exchanges in the thread --- I bolded the phrase that stood out to me in the exchange as being most relevant to your approach/review/"grok"-ing of the Edge of the Empire system generally. Despite having lots of "traditional" elements to the system---the character build system of attributes + skills + talents + career paths; the gear and equipment subsystem---the real "edge" to Edge of the Empire (to use a cheesy word-play) comes from the things that break from traditional, discrete action resolution-style gaming. It's hard to get this through line in the rules, because the EotE rules don't really say this out loud, but if you're familiar with PbtA / Ironsworn / BitD style gaming, there's so many things in FFG Star Wars that have parallels to techniques you use in the narrative-style systems. But you won't get this from direct readings of the rules, it will only come through a learning the technique or mindset behind it. Absolutely, 100%, you as a GM will be expected to insert "Quantum ogres" and "Schrodinger's cliffs" (to reference an old, old [USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER] post) all along the way---e.g., [I]the players are trying to escape on horseback [/I](or in the case of Star Wars, a hovercar) [I]through a winding cliffside and canyon, when suddenly the players roll a riding/piloting check to evade their pursuers. The result is a successful evasion (they don't get hit by gunfire) but the dice show threat/disadvantage along with the success. They're safe for now, but suddenly what appeared to be a relatively clear route through the canyon is blocked.[/I] Or conversely, you're throwing in "Quantum allies arriving from nowhere" and "Schrodinger's loot chests" when advantages and triumphs are rolled. Background elements you were planning to withhold "for internal consistency" may need to suddenly spring into action now, or if you were planning to insert them now, withhold them until later. GM's have to be ready and willing to let "unseen" and "offscreen" come to life on a moment's notice (or conversely hold them back). The dice rolls will literally force you to make snap judgment calls to either insert or remove certain aspects of the game world to follow the narrative the dice are presenting. There are certain things happening both in the moment and in the broader world backstory that you may need to change on a micro- (and occasional macro-) transactional basis, because the dice are showing you that there is a state change or modification to the underlying current of the scene that neither you nor the players were previously aware of. These don't always have to be large changes (though sometimes they may), but the "fictional narrative state" is constantly being pushed/pulled in different directions by the dice rolls. Anecdotally it's my observation that most GMs who express dislike for the FFG "Narrative Dice" system, this is the primary reason. So why does the FFG system do this? In my opinion it's to push GMs into thinking about their games differently. For Star Wars games, it's about pushing GMs to view the game as a [I]"Star Wars story" [/I]with Star Wars character arcs and narrative beats. For the generic Genesys system, it's the same, just applied more broadly---what kind of narrative beats are appropriate to the type of game that the system is driving? So I'm saying this out of a desire to just level-set expectations around what your hopes are in trying to gain additional insight about the system. What is it you would like to see or experience or adapt around the FFG system? Because to be honest, there's really not a lot of terribly interesting things mechanically about the FFG "Narrative Dice" system otherwise. The physical representation of the rules are massively less important than the mindset ("Be comfortable with 'Quantum ogres' and 'Schrodinger's cliffs'") that lives underneath it. [/QUOTE]
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