Last night I ran our group’s first session of the beta test of Fantasy Flight Games’ new Star Wars RPG, Edge of the Empire. It uses a modified version of the dice pool system FFG used in their Warhammer Fantasy game from a few years ago, and with a bit more freedom and without all the little fiddly bits that Warhammer brought to the table. There are specialized dice with different symbols representing basic success and failure as well as degrees of both that can activate special effects, such as critical hits, bonuses and penalties. You just roll the dice, compare the symbols that cancel one another out, and use what’s left to shape your result. You can have a success that nevertheless produces some kind of negative effect (you hit your target but now they know where you are and get a bonus to hit) or a failure that still provides a benefit (you miss your target but your shot destroys his cover). It’s a really fun, cinematic system that leads to results that help shape the story rather than just being mechanical numbers that amount to “Yes you did” or “No you didn’t.” Three of my players had never used the system before and they took to it pretty easily.
The game is set during the OT, and focuses on the Outer Rim, so there’s lots of smugglers, bounty hunters and Hutts. If you’ve read any of Brian Daley’s Han Solo novels, that’s the sort of feel here. In fact, with a little tweaking, the system would be great for running a Firefly game; it’s got the same kind of “bunch of rogues traveling and doing jobs” aesthetic. FFG is rolling out books similar to what they did with Warhammer 40k, so the next book will focus more on the military aspects of the Alliance and the Empire and the Rebellion itself, and the last book will be the Jedi and Sith. There’s the usual fan grumbling that you can’t play a Jedi right out of the box, but considering the time period, it makes sense. Besides, there’s enough basic info on the Force here that you could kludge together some rules for Jedi pretty easilly.
We played for about two and a half hours and only got through the first episode of the intro adventure in the book, but everyone had a great time. The game encourages cinematic action above all, shying away from grids and hexes and miniatures, which gets a big thumbs up from me. Too many RPGs want to turn their combats into impromptu wargame sessions that bog down in a morass of ranges and arcs and templates. So I had marauding bands of sandpeople and a ticked-off krayt dragon against five players and it all went down pretty well.
Between this and the X-Wing minis game, FFG is really knocking the Star Wars license out of the park so far. And they just announced the Star Wars living card game will be coming later this year, and the card art alone looks amazing. They’re a really solid game company overall, so it’s good to see that Star Wars gaming looks to be in pretty good hands.
I like it, and I’m not much into minis. It’s got a pretty simple resolution mechanic, with enough options to keep it from being straight-up dice luck that determines the outcome. And the models look GREAT. Even if I wasn’t playing the game, I’d probably buy the Falcon that’s coming out later this year.
There’s a beginner’s boxed set coming out later this year, that has a pared-down rulebook, an introductory adventure, dice, markers and some other cool fiddly bits. I believe the actual rulebook comes out either after that or early next year.
Just ordered the miniatures game base set today, along with the Y-Wing and Advanced Tie expansions. Looking forward to giving it a go next week. Thanks for reminding me it was released.
I got the base set and one of each of the expansion (my game store was doing 20% off if you bought one of everything). Most gamers I know bought two core sets so they’d have enough counters and dice for two players.
Apparently one of the more popular builds is either Vader in the TIE Advanced or one of the named TIE pilots and then just a swarm of base TIE Fighters. Use the regular fighters to guide the opponent where you want them to go, then swoop in with the big gun. I’m playing in a tournament this weekend, so I’ll probably see that in action.
Well, they already did the Y-Wing, which is also a heavier fighter/bomber hybrid. And the Slave I is to balance out the Falcon as far and size and firepower goes.
My friend used left-over black floor tiles from the game store he manages. Mounted them 3x3 on a board, did a light coat of black paint so the faux-marble still showed through a little. Made for a nice nebula effect.
The tournament didn’t really materialize. We only had four players show up, so we just did a 2 on 2 skirmish, each player using a 100-point build. We all didn’t hit 100 exactly, but got close enough. I was on the Imperial side, with each of us fielding a squad of Vader in the TIE Advanced and three named TIE Fighter pilots. The Rebel side had a balanced mix of X-Wing and Y-Wings, with Wedge as the leader. We also randomly placed some asteroid tiles on the game mat to give us some obstacles. They would come into play a LOT.
The other Imperial player and I sent our ships to the sides in an attempt to do a pincer movement, but the Rebels decided to commit all their ships to my squadron, figuring they could overwhelm me and cut the Imperial forces in half fairly quickly. It didn’t help that I misread the distance between my ship and the asteroids, as at least three times I ended up colliding when the barest sliver of my base contacted an asteroid tile. I fought the good fight, but with nearly every opposing ship target locking on my guys, my goal was to stay a threat long enough for my partner to get into the fight. I got wiped out, but managed to whittle down some shield and allow my partner to eventually take out the Rebel ships. It did help that two Rebel ships were destroyed by inadvertently flying off the game mat. But I figured that made up for our asteroid follies.
I was a little disappointed with the TIE Advanced. It’s essentially an Imperial X-Wing, tougher than a regular TIE, but with the same amount of firepower, so it didn’t feel like that much of an upgrade. Y-Wings, though, are absolutely lethal. Their ion cannons can fire 360 around the ship, and if they hit, they do one point of damage and have the effect of forcing the target to be able to only move one unit ahead on the next turn. So with one shot, they can wipe out one-third of a TIE’s total hull points AND set them up for the next turn since you’ll know where they’ll be going. Given that the Rebels had three Y-Wings on their side, they caused all kinds of problem.
In all, the whole game took about two and a half hours, and that was with most of us having only played a handful of times and not 100% fluent with everything. And we did have some confusion since my partner and I had duplicate pilots. But it was fun. Ended up buying another core set since the store had them on sale for $30, and now I have enough ships and markers to play with anybody.
The last of my units arrived this morning, can’t wait to do the unboxing tonight. Once I get familiar with the rules and get a few games under my belt, I may invest in another base set.
I bought another Y-Wing and TIE Advanced, which gives me at least two of everything. Think I’m done buying until the next wave comes out later this year.
By the way, here’s a pretty well thought out and playtested Death Star trench run scenario. Requires a good amount of space and a decent number of ships, but it’s a good example of the already impressive amount of fan support for the game.
The RPG is getting the same treatment. There have been some fantastic reference sheets for players and GMs, and there’s a pretty robust thread on the forums statting up the various alien races that don’t appear in the book. Gamers are really taking these games to heart, it would seem.
A little disappointed with Edge of the Empire. I love FFG’s stuff from a quality and artwork perspective, but while I understand the Original Trilogy era is the most popular era of Star Wars, as a lifelong Star Wars fan I’m…sick to death of it. Other eras of the saga hold far more interest for me than anything from the movies. As a guy that buys the rulebooks for “fluff” as much as game purposes I don’t see these books offering much that we haven’t already gotten elsewhere (except possibly “geographic” fluff if they choose to focus on a specific system/sector/what have you the way they did the whole “Calixis Sector” for Dark Heresy).
Interested in the X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter game, but we’ll see. What’s supposed to be in the later series of minis?
There’s a part of me that thinks Edge of the Empire focusing on the Outer Rim and the more underworld-y aspects might have been done to tie in with some of the other projects Lucas has coming up. Plus, it seems like every other Star Wars RPG – pen-and-paper and MMO – eventually turned into “Jedi and everybody else,” so I like having a setting without them.
The next wave of ships will be the Falcon, the Slave-I, the A-Wing and the TIE Interceptor. Beyond that, nothing but rumor and speculation, with guesses including the B-Wing, the TIE Bomber, the Imperial Shuttle, and the Outrider from Shadows of the Empire.
Damn, I wish the official Star Wars Soundboard was iPad compatible. I’d love to just tap the appropriate sound effect for each maneuver in the game, plus voices and music cues. Stupid iPad Flash bullshit…