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Tag Archives: Force and Destiny

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, Force and Destiny: Beginner Box Impressions and Play Report

14 Friday Aug 2015

Posted by Aegeri in Force and Destiny, Reviews, Star Wars

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Advice, FFG, Force and Destiny, Review, Roleplaying, Star Wars, Star Wars RPG, Tabletop

Force and Destiny

After what seemed like an eternity upon the slowest boat ever conceived of*, I was absolutely beyond myself with excitement to pick up Force and Destiny’s Beginner Box. With a rollicking good time in Edge of the Empire and the Age of Rebellion beginner boxes, I had high expectations for Force and Destiny. I can alleviate any worry you might have immediately and say it definitely met them, but it did have a few issues that I ran into I would solve with the benefit of hindsight. In any event, just like Force and Destiny’s predecessors it comes with more dice, a well thought out adventure, a mini-rule book, more tokens and another gorgeous fold out map. As I’ve mentioned before, this is an excellent start for anyone wanting to get into the Star Wars RPG or even roleplaying in general.

I’ve repeatedly praised Fantasy Flight Games terrific support of their products and they again come through with Force and Destiny. Like the other boxed sets, there are two additional characters and an adventure, which expands on the scenario from the book online. Just like before these are all entirely free to download and that is simply terrific to see, with Force and Destiny also showing Age of Rebellions foresight with suitable tokens for the extra characters already in the box (should you choose to use them). Honestly, we don’t need me to go and say “This is truly terrific and if you want to get a start in RPGs buy this” again, do we?

So in terms of the play report for this, I actually did something a little different this time compared to the others. I actually didn’t use either of the extra online characters and I also didn’t choose to use Edge of the Empire/Age of Rebellion elements. This box was pretty much run straight as it comes off the shelf, which I think is actually a really good idea even if you do have the other boxed sets. This adventure does seem to lean very heavily on the party being force sensitive, or at least having access to the force. Naturally enough given the title, but there is a specific moment where they game clearly railroads the players into the “This is how the Force works tutorial of the adventure!”. Non-force sensitive characters are going to find this a bit confusing and difficult to deal with as a result.

Because I ended up just using what was in the box, I ran the adventure with just the four players and so here is my account of the game. Did I mention this was really good and if you want to try getting into the Star Wars RPG you should buy it? I can’t remember if I said that yet.

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The Guild’s latest acquisition…

26 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by Aegeri in Force and Destiny

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Tags

Force and Destiny, Roleplaying, Space Opera, Star Wars, Star Wars RPG, Tabletop

Finally the FFG Slow Boat arrived to Australia a while ago with a very special package on board:

Force and Destiny

To say I am extremely excited to get a chance to run this is an understatement. Especially because both Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion have been truly fantastic. Also immense credit to Fantasy Flight Games excellent support of this product, because I see there is a continuing adventure as well as a couple of extra character portfolios on their site.

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