Star Wars: Edge of the empire product reviews (core rules 27/7)

[Anatoli]

This is a pretty big step for me  gaming wise, since I have never played or GM'd a pen & paper RPG before. I've played plenty of RPG's on my PC though so I'm not completely unfamiliar with RPG concepts. However, when I heard about Fantasy Flight Game developing an RPG set in the Star Wars universe, and more specifically having a game themed around smugglers and rouges my interest peaked.

Reading up a little on the game concepts and dice mechanics I understood a couple of key things about this game. It is more about plot and interpreting the dice than rolling "67 on a D100 to pass a skill test for sitting down" type of game. This approach suits me quite well, it is both more casual and accessible while allowing both the GM and players to improvize and adapt the gameplay at a higher and more flexible pace.

I will talk about the rules in a post in just a couple of days as I have already familiarized myself with the core mechanics and will have played my first game with my friends when this review is posted on my blog. In the meantime I thought it would be good to show what you get in the various packages that FFG has in their current Edge of the Empire catalogue - starting with the "Beginners Game".

Full review on my blog:

http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.se/2013/07/star-wars-edge-of-empire-beginners-game.html

[Anatoli]

The Game Masters kit features two things, first of course is the foldout high quality thick cardboard game masters screen. This contains a lot of information, mainly covering the most frequently used areas of the game; stats for small arms, how to use the results from the dice, how to apply difficulty levels to skill  checks, critical hits for characters and vehicles and a couple of other things.

It's comprehensive, but it does lack a few minor things that I was instantly missing when playing around with ideas. A quick reference on social interaction, information about item and vehicle repairs and info on gambling is left out and has to be referenced in the core rulebook instead.

Still the information should that is there should be more than enough 90% of the time. The back artwork is extremely well made and really pulls you in, and as stated the quality of the screen is very good. It's sturdy and bound so that you can fold it without the wear and tear of regular cardboard/paper.

More pictures and info on my blog:

http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.se/2013/07/star-wars-edge-of-empire-game-masters.html

[Verderer]

I see it uses similar 'funny' dice that FFG introduced to its WFRP3. At least there aren't mountains of cards, eh?

We're still playing the WEG SW (2nd revised edition), and we're perfectly happy with it. Still, our GM might need some adventure material, once he eventually runs out of the old WEG stuff... maybe he'll look into it.

[Anatoli]

The Edge of th Empire, core rulebook and first part of the RPG trilogy that Fantasy Flight Games intends to release over the coming years. Edge of the Empire takes place around the time following the destruction of the first Death Star. So this is a original trilogy universe with no connections to the horrible prequels. The theme for the core rulebook is centered around the fringes of society, with outlaws, smugglers and all sorts of shady characters making their living at the edges of the Empire in the outer rim territories. The ongoing rebellion is going on in the background but should not be the primary concern of the adventures. Neither does the game feature the Jedi order or the Sith lords, though there is an option for "force sensitive" characters which I will talk about later. In essence this game allows you to play Han Solo type characters and exploring the Star Wars universe from a less heroic viewpoint which in itself should serve to create (imo) a lot more interesting adventures and stories.

The book itself is of amazing quality, money well spent if you hesitate about the price tag. The binding is superb, the quality of the print and the paper is also top notch and it's hardback. The book includes over 440 pages and has thirteen chapters of which twelve chapters are of rules and information needed to play games and one being a complete adventure for players to play.

1: Playing the game
2: Character creation
3: Skills
4: Talents
5: Gear and Equipment
6: Conflict and combat
7: Starships and vehicles
8: The Force
9: The game master
10: The galaxy
11: Law and society
12: Adversaries
13: Trouble brewing (complete adventure)

Check the full review of the book and the core rule mechanics and concepts over at my blog:

http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.se/2013/07/star-wars-edge-of-empire-core-rulebook.html

[YPU]

Fantasy flights role-playing games seem to have a tendency towards custom dice mechanics, with each system having its own dice. I'm not to sure if I like it, on the other hand sticking to "normal" dice just because would be a mayor oversight in game design.

An interesting review to read, I like the fact you go into some game specifics as these are always what interest me most.

[Anatoli]

Glad you found it informative YPU 
It's a ton of information to process and the review would be a lot longer if I covered everything in detail - so I tried to write about what I thought would be most important to know.

[Commander Vyper]

Be interesting to see if this survives the impending licence review by Disney/lucas films.