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Tag Archives: Edge of the Empire

Starting New Campaign: Star Wars; Hunters of the Force

24 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by Aegeri in Advice, Age of Rebellion, Edge of the Empire, Force and Destiny, Star Wars

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Advice, Age of Rebellion, Edge of the Empire, Force and Destiny, Hunters of the Force, Roleplaying, Star Wars, Star Wars RPG, Tabletop

Hunters of the ForceThis fantastic scene is a slightly changed color and cropped image of this piece, which was originally drawn by the incredibly talented Simon Goinard.

From the moment I tried Edge of the Empire by running the excellent beginner’s box, I fell in love with and became very interested in Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars Roleplaying system. Of course the tricky complication is that there are actually three separate products making up what FFG’s “Star Wars Roleplaying” actually is with Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion and the most recent addition, Force and Destiny. As I mentioned in the previous reviews, each individual game tackles an aspect of the Star Wars Universe and gives detail on that particular style. Edge of the Empire is about being rogues, bounty hunters and smugglers – effectively Han Solo or Chewie type characters. Age of Rebellion is where you play primarily as soldiers or saboteurs of the Rebel Alliance fighting against the Empire. Force and Destiny on the other hand, covers force sensitive characters hiding from and even trying to piece together the Jedi order from whatever fragments of its lore they can gather.

It is completely possible to run an individually fantastic game in any one of these systems, which are built to give each campaign an individual style and feel. On the other hand you can also do something really ambitious: Combining all three of the products into one and allowing players to make characters sourced from any of these books. This provides some tricky elements in terms of storytelling and is quite daunting from a “running the game” point of view. I say “Daunting” because if you got into this system late to the party like I did, you’re going to be reading three pretty thick books to get up to speed with the ins and outs of each “pillar” of the game. On the other hand to me this extra work isn’t even a consideration for why I would do this, because I really want to capture the feel of Episodes IV and V. In doing so, the source material in these two original films most closely resembles what the game looks like using all three books at once.

So I decided to take the plunge and make Hunters of the Force about all three books at once. Of course, having an idea for running a game and doing so are two different things. The first thing I had to do was determine which of my groups would be interested in a potential change to Star Wars. As my Trail of Cthulhu group had been playing in that system for nearly two years, I thought that would be a good place to start for a potential switch in system. So here’s my first tip on how you propose changing a system, start by bringing it up casually one day and see how your players react. In my case, I started talking about it while everyone was around a bit early before we started playing for the day. I got some enthusiastic supporters immediately from those who were fans of Star Wars, but also got some more skeptical views as well. So here is the second and most important tip: Give them a chance to try the game out first (including yourself).

I invited them all to play the Edge of the Empire Beginner Box, which back then was a new acquisition for me as well, with even the couple of players who were more skeptical being firmly won over. This made the decision to ask “Would people like to play Star Wars after Trail of Cthulhu?” a much easier proposition for me. The enthusiasm my players have for moving from my gritty, tension filled horror game to something that I described as more “Action Adventure in Space” has been great to see. It’s also something I’m looking forward to, as Night’s Black Agents, Shadowrun and the new Trail of Cthulhu game one of my other groups will be starting are pretty dark in tone. Having a game that runs very contrary to those in style, even if there will be moments of darkness or despair, will be good for my writing and plotting in general.

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Star Wars RPG: Edge of the Empire Impressions and Play Report

18 Monday May 2015

Posted by Aegeri in Edge of the Empire, Reviews, Star Wars

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Edge of the Empire, Play Report, Review, Roleplaying, Star Wars

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away….

STAR WARS

EDGE OF THE EMPIRE

It is the 100th Post on the Roleplayer’s Guild and I can think of no better way to do it than by talking about the first of the games Fantasy Flight Games released, Edge of the Empire. With the beginner boxed set in tow and several players keen for some Star Wars action, I decided to run the starter adventure. The question was, would the force be with us and the roleplaying experience be up to our expectations? Would these strange dice covered in odd symbols instead of numbers aid or hinder the experience? How does the advice in the book stack up and allow for some freedom for an experienced DM?

Read on to find out!

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My Favourite Roleplaying Systems (Current List)

07 Thursday May 2015

Posted by Aegeri in Advice, General, Social Commentary

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Tags

13th Age, Age of Rebellion, Call of Cthulhu, Dungeons and Dragons, Edge of the Empire, Gamma World, Night's Black Agents, Paranoia, Promethean The Created, Shadowrun, Star Wars, Trail of Cthulhu

One of my players the other day asked me what my favourite systems were and why. After some thought, I figured it would be worth a post at least and so here are my top 10 roleplaying systems. In many ways the more I’m running something currently or planning to in future, the higher it will appear on this list: After all I tend to run the games I love the most!

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Star Wars Beginner Boxes!

06 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by Aegeri in Age of Rebellion, Edge of the Empire, Reviews, Star Wars

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Tags

Age of Rebellion, Beginner Boxes, Edge of the Empire, Roleplaying, Star Wars

My most recent pair of roleplaying acquisitions:

Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion

Very keen to give these two games a try in future and give some thoughts on the guild! With some luck I will hopefully be able to acquire Force and Destiny’s boxed set and then somehow turn all three into some larger campaign. My initial impression of both boxes is that it seems to be very good and well thought out. I actually really love the presentation of the initial books and especially the wonderfully simple to follow pregenerated characters (which is a real relief given some others I have seen).

Possibly the oddest feeling that the game gives me is the unusual new dice it comes with. Both EotE and AoR use six, eight and twelve sided dice, but they have some unusual symbols and such on them instead of numbers. The symbols, once you’re familiar with what they are, seem easy enough to quickly determine what is going on and I will be interested to see how it goes with actual players. It seems that the dice aspect is one of the more controversial decisions with these boxed sets after doing some reading around. One really good thing I will say is the support from Fantasy Flight Games is fantastic. Both Age of Rebellion and Edge of the Empire have an extra free adventure to continue the basic one, plus some extra characters to download to add (if you have more than 4 players especially).

This is fantastic and is exactly what roleplaying games need. Anyway, more to come once I have tried out the adventures and system for myself!

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