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Fantasy Flight Explore The Tabletop Star Wars Experience
July 2, 2013 by brennon
Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars: Edge of the Empire role-playing game isn't far off now and instead of talking about the mechanics and the numbers they have presented us with a snap shot of a session which you can read HERE.
The snap shot shown in the link above shows how a games master would set the scene, the interaction between players and a nice slice of the world itself as it develops around the characters.
Edge of the Empire, in my opinion, has taken the right track and pushed past the popular Jedi image and into the depths of rogue traders and smugglers on the fringes of the galaxy.
Here I think you're going to get a more Firefly-esque experience and not just solve everything by using the force!
A friend of mine is looking to get a hold of this so hopefully I'll be able to report on how it plays soon!
Are you looking forwards to this one?
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Is this thing ever going to be released? I know we’re talking about Fantasy Flight here, but it seems like this particular game has met with even more delays than usual for them.
Expected July 5, 2013, so this Friday. Here’s hoping they can keep to it!
I hope so. I’ve read so many insider looks at the game on their website I almost feel like I’ve already seen the rulebook. I’m really intrigued by the storytelling dice system (maybe even more than I am by Monte Cook’s gameplay concepts in Numenera, though I’m really looking forward to that as well).
It seems like RPGs are finally trying to offer players the right affordances to achieve the goals of the game (have fun telling stories with your friends). I feel like RPGs were always capable of achieving the goal, but most of them were so lost in the weeds of their own mechanics that you had to have a really good group of players to get the most out of them. This new generation RPGs we’re seeing lately seem to about providing cues to players and GMs so they can focus on the fun part of the game and not spend a lot of time consulting tables or looking for one obscure rule for a particular feat, while still providing enough framework for the players to hang their story on.
The indie rpg scene has been doing this for a long time. The last rpg campaign I ran only had one rule that we resorted to if two or more people disagreed over the direction of the story. Reading that AP reminded me of rp-ing in the 90’s just with really stupid dice.
If you’re an experienced roleplayer a system like White Wolf’s Storyteller represents a lot of freedom for creativity. If not, it’s just a lack of direction. The games of the 90s (and earlier if you count Amber or Paranoia) that tried to go in a more story-centric direction tended to go too far. They eschewed rules to the point where only experienced gamers could possibly play them (because they already knew how). Rules aren’t just a limitation. They can be guideposts, for better or for worse, and new players often benefit from that.
When attracting new gamers you need a happy medium between the extremes. The number crunching of D&D 3 is too tedious. The tactical focus of 4e too confusing (and it encourages the habit of playing RPGs as beat-em-ups rather than stories). The loose practically rules-free style of Amber or the White Wolf games doesn’t provide a new player with very much direction, and you wind up with players getting stuck trying to figure out what to do next. The in-depth character creation of Shadowrun (while awesome) is too complicated for someone who has yet to actually play the game and doesn’t know what any of the options mean.
All of these games have different problems, but they end up with the same result. It’s hard to introduce new players to the game without a few already very experienced players to hold their hand for a while. It’s hard to DM/GM these games. It’s hard to be dynamic and adaptable without breaking your adventure. Good DMs/GMs with experience can do all of that in any game. But how do you make a game that better teaches those skills to new GMs?
I’m glad to see systems try to address that problem. I’m glad to see that we’re trying to push beyond what has been done before (even though some of what came before was very good). I look at the rules for Edge of the Empire, and I see a game that is designed specifically for people who are new to the idea of RPGs, not just this particular game. It’s paired with a popular mainstream fictional setting that will draw interest just for being Star Wars. I see a gateway game. I like gateway games.
Much of that is only true if you have a specific idea of how an rpg should be run based on the trad 90’s model (which Star Wars is very much sticking to). Hand a copy of Primetime Adventures or Dust Devils to a group of people who have never rpg’d before and because they have no preconceived ideas of what they should be doing they’ll have no problems with it.
Mine is arriving tomorrow morning through UPS.
I saw a printed actual physical version of a scenario or something of this for Free-RPG-Day at my FLGS so it’s probably all done and ready
I received word today that the core rulebook, dice set and GM’s screen are in the post. It has been a wait for this to come out…
God, have been waiting along time for this.
My players and i fell in love with this from the first playtest session.
Excellent system – we are really enjoying the narrative dice/play aspect… Book and screen are very nice too 🙂
Nice to play an RPG and not hoping to roll that d20 at 18+ 🙂
Has introduced quite a few friends to RPGing as you only really need to like Star Wars and to have been a kid playing out films in the playground to really enjoy the game.