Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Roleplaying Game

[Kunoichi]

Just figured I'd check and see if anybody else has a copy of the latest Star Wars tabletop RPG. ^^ Edge of the Empire, as the title implies, is set during the Rebellion Era and has the players play characters who live on the fringes of galactic society, smugglers and bounty hunters and so on.  I just got my own copy of the game today, and so far, it's proven to be pretty fun and interesting to mess around and create characters with, though I haven't gotten any opportunities to actually playtest the system yet.

The system itself looks pretty interesting from a mechanical standpoint, though.  It's a dicepool-based system, but it uses special custom dice to handle everything with.  You basically build your pool of dice from positive dice representing your skill and/or ability scores at whatever action you're attempting, negative dice representing how difficult that action is, and smaller dice that represent any situational boosts or penalties that might apply.  It actually winds up being pretty intuitive, once you get the hang of it.

So, is there anybody else on E who has a copy of the game?

[Chris Brady]

I was in the Beta, and I've played the starter Edition.  If I have the money, I'd have the core book, right now.

I WANTS IT!

[Kunoichi]

I missed out on the Beta, myself, only looking into the game when the Beginner Game boxed set caught my eye one day. ^^; What were your experiences with the game like when you played it?

[Chris Brady]

A hell of a lot of fun!

Actually, I was there when they redid the Droid stuff (if you know anything about KoTOR, I was actually playing a HK model.  A 51, which Bioware actually made canon, as the art in the Beginner guide book of a combat droid is in fact of the famously amusing HK-47 from the Knights of The Old Republic game.)  I was in hock with another player, he was my 'master', which was a lot of fun to play.

It's pretty cinematic and lethal, mind you.  The dice system was annoying because we needed a special app at the time, but luckily we all had a tablet device of some sort within reach, and I actually bought the dice roller app myself.  Now they're selling the dice so that's covered at least.

[Kunoichi]

Ooh, nice. ^^ What career did you pick for your combat droid?  I'm guessing Bounty Hunter or Hired Gun...

[Chris Brady]

Bounty Hunter, Assassin Path of course.  ;)  He's an HK unit after all.  ;D

[RubySlippers]

Do they have anything like the tech person that can fix anything? What about other non-combat heavy careers?

[Chris Brady]

Do they have anything like the tech person that can fix anything? What about other non-combat heavy careers?

Oh don't worry about that!  Remember, this is Star Wars, so there'll be lots of people with Blasters, but you got careers such as Fringers which have three paths (All the careers do, actually) allowing you be a Doctor, a Scientist and I forget the third.  There's also Outlaw Techs which have computer hackers (AKA Slicers) and gear and vehicle specialists.  Even the Smuggler can be more of a charming rogue or just a pilot.  There are only two combat heavy archetypes in the game, Bounty Hunter and Hired Gun.

[Kunoichi]

The Colonist career can take specializations as a Doctor, Politico, or Scholar, and if you want to be a more technical-minded individual, there's always the Technician career path, with specializations as a Mechanic (the 'fix anything' path), Outlaw Tech (illegal modifications, ahoy!), or Computer Slicer (because slicing is the word they use for hacking in Star Wars).

The Smuggler gets to be a Scoundrel, Pilot, or Thief, and even the combat-oriented Bounty Hunter career at least has a Gadgeteer path for those who want to be good with machinery.

Also, in case anyone's worried about restrictive class systems, character creation does involve choosing a career and a specialization within that career, but after that it uses a point buy system, and you can buy additional specializations either within or outside of your career as well. ^^ It's really a much more flexible character creation system than might otherwise be expected.

[Chris Brady]

Which actually went through several iterations.  Unfortunately, I no longer can find my...  Wait, I think I know where it is.  I have the beta book around here somewhere...  Thanks for clarifying, Kuni.  I misplaced some of the names, apparently. :)

[Kunoichi]

You're welcome. ^^ Looking through my own copy of the core book right now, the available careers are Bounty Hunter, Colonist, Explorer, Hired Gun, Smuggler, and Technician, and each career has three listed specializations.  There's also an additional non-career specialization available to anyone, called 'Force Sensitive Exile'...

Was anyone in your group trying out the rules for using the Force, Chris?

[Chris Brady]

Yeap.  Early in the game's cycle there weren't any way of resisting Force Powers, not even other force users, so you could (at the time) literally walk up to Darth Vader and make him your buddy.  They fixed that in, I believe, update 8?  The player made a Twi'lek Marauder with the Force Sensitive overlayed on top.

I find it odd that I love Jedi.  Absolutely adore the whole lightsaber and force powers thing, and yet, I usually gravitate toward Bounty Hunters or Smugglers.  Really weird.

[HairyHeretic]

Who are the fast talkers in this one? My old character was a noble, with a bit of con artist in him.

[Chris Brady]

Scoundrel Smugglers are by default.

The game defaults into preset 'adventurer' archetypes that are common in SW.  Noble isn't seen so much as a career in the edges of SW space, but rather what you were.

[Kunoichi]

Who are the fast talkers in this one? My old character was a noble, with a bit of con artist in him.

Chris already mentioned the Scoundrel Smuggler, but the Politico Colonist and Trader Explorer could also fit in for general social skills and fast-talking, depending on what your build was.  There are plenty of options, really. ^^

[Chris Brady]

Fast talkers is pure Scoundrel.  The Politico is slightly more action driven, from what I remember, but it would be the better 'Noble'.

[Kunoichi]

Actually, looking at the Trader specialization right now, it's got access to talents like Wheel and Deal, Smooth Talker, and Convincing Demeanor right off the bat.  You could make one into a pretty capable con artist fairly easily.

The Politico also at least gets Deception as a career skill and the Plausible Deniability talent, though I will agree that things like Inspiring Rhetoric or Scathing Tirade are more for combat situations.

[Chris Brady]

Perhaps, but Trader implies (and yeah, I would totally accept a player wanting to expand his skill outside of) trade dealings mostly.  Not likely to use it for seduction and/or non-material gain.

[Kunoichi]

Eh, I think that view is a bit limiting, personally.  I prefer to look at the mechanics and simply reflavor as needed.

[Chris Brady]

You're a Trader, it's what you do.  Yes, you can expand out of trading and haggling for the best deals, but that's what you do, it's your career, so you're going to use what you know to make the most out of it.

Does it mean you're not charming?  No.  It just means you are more likely to think in terms more related to profit and what you get out of it, as opposed as to fool and lie.  Doesn't mean you can't.

[Kunoichi]

Again, I think that that's a bit of a limiting point of view to take.  Trader is just a name for the package of career skills and talents you've chosen to take.  Which specific skills and talents you pick and what you choose to do with them are your business.

[Chris Brady]

This isn't an all or nothing proposition.  I'm saying it's not the first thing a Trader would typically think of.  Doesn't mean he or she can't.  Unlike the Smuggler/Scoundrel, a Trader would more than likely think of profit and material goods because that's how they trained and focus.  Does NOT mean they can't think outside the box, but for them IT IS thinking outside the box, as opposed to the Scoundrel who wouldn't be typically thinking about money and materials.

It's why Han Solo dumped his cargo as opposed to figuring out how to bribe the Imperials.  He's a scoundrel, not a trader by career choice.

[Kunoichi]

What I'm trying to say is that you don't have to make your character a trader by profession simply because it says 'Trader' on your character sheet.  I'm arguing that being a character with the Trader specialization and doing things that go against what someone of the trader profession would do isn't thinking outside the box, because there's not actually a box there to begin with.

As for Han Solo, dumping that spice shipment was part of his debt obligation. :P Well, either that or he rolled a Despair result when trying to talk his way past that Imperial blockade.

[HairyHeretic]

Can you talk a bit about the dice mechanics. I know it uses some odd pool of dice, but I don't know specifics.

[Chris Brady]

Dice mechanics?  Yes, the game uses specialized dice, built off the basic dice shapes that we're used to, but instead of numbers, they use symbols.  The dice shapes are D6, D8 and D12.  Each die has a specific use and you can use multiples of the same time for a task.  The symbols go from 0 to 2 symbols, however, every die has both positive and negative results.

An example of play:

Let's say you're a hotshot pilot with amazing reflexes.  So your Agility is an incredible 4, and a being a decent space pilot have the skill at 2 (professional quality), unfortunately you've gotten stuck into a dogfight with someone.  Bad luck has them on YOUR tail, and you want to change that, so you're going to try a complex loop maneuver, which means rolling!  So because of the high stat you get four of the 8 siders, which are called Ability Dice.  But because of your skill, you replace two of those with the 'Proficiency' dice, which actually have a better chance of success on average, because they are D12.  That's the base.  Next are the bonus and disadvantage dice, which are called Boost and Setback dice, the GM decides how many, if any, actually apply here.  And unlike the ability and proficiency dice, you get as many of either as applicable, neither replaces the other.  You can end up with more of one than the other, like 3 Boost and 4 Setbacks (Unless you have a talent that removes or adds.).

That's the player side, the GM has a similar set of dice he/she gets to roll, the D8s are called Difficulty dice and the D12 are Challenge dice.  The set difficulty is determined by what you're trying to do.  So in this case could be, 3 Difficulty, but let's say you have the bad luck of having the system's Sun behind you, so one of those dice is 'downgraded' to a Challenge.

Once all that is determined (which is a lot faster than it reads) both sides roll off, and you count symbols.  Which leads into that:

There are two major types of symbols on the main dice (the D8s and D12s), you have Successes, Failures which cancel each other out, and Triumphs and Despairs, which also do the same.  The Triumphs and Despairs also do extra things determined by a chart and how many of each you have remaining.  Each Triumph/Despair symbol counts as a single Success or Failure as the case may be.

The Boost and Setback dice (The D6s) have their own symbols, named Advantage and Threat, but their results are 'side effects'.  For example, Han and Chewbacca meet a squad of stormtroopers in the halls of the Deathstar.  Thinking quickly, both fire their blasters, Chewie roaring and start chasing the startled squad down the hallway.  Lucky for our heroes, they got more successes than failures during their bluff check.  Unfortunately, they got more Threats than Advantages on the Boost/Setback dice, so they chase the troopers to a dead end, which force them to turn and stand their ground, which allows the to see and realize that there are only two guys chasing them, instead of the small battalion they thought they had on their heels.

If you have more Skill that Stat:  Let's say you're a godly pilot, but your agility is average, so a Skill of 4, and Agility of 2.  You actually have the same amount of dice as the original pilot.  For every skill point over your stat, you get an Ability die.  Which in this case is the same as super reflex pilot.

However, bear in mind that if both got into a gun fight, and Super Reflex has a Blaster Pistol skill of 2, he'd still get four dice (2 Ability, 2 Prof), while God Pilot whose an expert shot at a skill of 3 would only get three dice (1 Ability and 2 Proficiency.)

The Force Dice are another situation, and only apply to Force Powers.  You get lightside and darkside points whenever you need to roll.  If you need to do something with your Force power, you roll dice equivalent to power level you have, typically one.  Unfortunately, I'm hazy on the the actual rules, and I'm pretty sure they changed in the end product.

I may have made some mistakes, because my copy and memory are of the beta.  Kuni?  Anything I got wrong?  And could you cover the Force powers?