Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, Digitally Remastered SWRPG - March GOTM!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, Digitally Remastered SWRPG - March GOTM!

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long-ass nips Diane: Dec 13, 2010; Breathe.

Just picked up my copy and holy hell, I wasn't expecting it to be so huge. I knew adding art would increase the page count but I wasn't expecting over 400 pages.

I didn't keep up with the beta errata but it looks like they fixed a fair few things.

# ? Jul 4, 2013 05:07

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# ? May 23, 2024 13:35

KillerQueen: Jul 13, 2010

Is melee still kind of poo poo? Last time I played this my character was this psychotic little rodian with a vibro-axe and force move powers, and nothing is more frustrating than being a melee character who isn't sticky at all.

edit: also I think it was the errata that did this but melee weapons did really piss-poor damage compared to blasters. I know this is Star Wars and all, but it's pretty weird that at the highest brawn I can start with and have skills, and the best melee weapon besides a lightsaber (which doesn't add strength for reasons), I still only do as much damage as some kid with a light blaster pistol.

KillerQueen fucked around with this message at 06:28 on Jul 4, 2013

# ? Jul 4, 2013 06:23

this troper: Apr 4, 2011; :o

KillerQueen posted:

Is melee still kind of poo poo? Last time I played this my character was this psychotic little rodian with a vibro-axe and force move powers, and nothing is more frustrating than being a melee character who isn't sticky at all.

edit: also I think it was the errata that did this but melee weapons did really piss-poor damage compared to blasters. I know this is Star Wars and all, but it's pretty weird that at the highest brawn I can start with and have skills, and the best melee weapon besides a lightsaber (which doesn't add strength for reasons), I still only do as much damage as some kid with a light blaster pistol.

If I'm reading rightly just from a preview, a heavy blaster pistol does 7 damage which you can easily outdo with a melee weapon and decent brawn. Do keep in mind that Brawn directly lowers the amount of damage you take too, so even if you aren't dealing quite as much damage as somebody with a big gun, you'll very likely be taking less damage than they.

# ? Jul 4, 2013 14:21

TheDemon: Dec 11, 2006; _{...on the plus side I'm feeling much more angry now than I expected so this totally helps me get in character.}

this troper posted:

If I'm reading rightly just from a preview, a heavy blaster pistol does 7 damage which you can easily outdo with a melee weapon and decent brawn. Do keep in mind that Brawn directly lowers the amount of damage you take too, so even if you aren't dealing quite as much damage as somebody with a big gun, you'll very likely be taking less damage than they.

That's the same as the latest beta errata.

A completely specialized character can expect to start with 4 brawn. The very best melee weapon gives +3, which equals your 7 damage. To gain more brawn, you have to take a minimum of 75 experience worth into a talent tree, and in most of them it's more like 100. The beta book suggests 5 exp per session with rare rewards of 5 more, so that's likely 10 to 15 sessions to increase any characteristic.

It's much more typical to start with 3 brawn, that's still a heavy investment but lets you have good dice in one other area.

Stickyness is the real issue, as engaging and disengaging as written in the beta are maneuvers, which you get 1 free and 1 for 2 strain every round. There is no dice or other opposition to disengaging or engaging with this maneuver. The Engaged range band for Melee is 2 difficulty, for Ranged Light is 2 difficulty, for Ranged Heavy is 3 difficulty. Short range band is impossible for melee, and 1 difficulty for all ranged weapons. So since you can disengage for free every turn, ranged is always easier to hit with than melee.

That ties into damage too, because successes = +damage. So given equal damage on weapon and weapon+brawn, the ranged character will do more damage on average and hit significantly more often on average, even when in melee range.

Not to mention, given the extra maneuver for 2 strain it's possible for a character in melee to disengage to Short then move to Medium range in the same round, forcing the melee character to do the same to re-engage. That's fair enough, but it becomes a merry chase to whatever ground the runner prefers, since Medium range is a fair distance in a fistfight. AND they can keep shooting at 1 difficulty during the part of their turn they're at Short range.

It's fairly reasonable to wonder if the above has changed at all since beta. I mean, I don't really mind per se since energy hand weapons are probably powerful in a sci-fi setting, but it would be nice if melee had parity when someone is in your face.

TheDemon fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Jul 4, 2013

# ? Jul 4, 2013 15:19

PantsOptional: Dec 27, 2012; All I wanna do is make you bounce

Engaged should be 1 difficulty if I'm reading the back of the GM screen corectly.

# ? Jul 4, 2013 15:25

TheDemon: Dec 11, 2006; _{...on the plus side I'm feeling much more angry now than I expected so this totally helps me get in character.}

PantsOptional posted:

Engaged should be 1 difficulty if I'm reading the back of the GM screen corectly.

But under what conditions? If they've taken out the conditions then that's another point in favor of Ranged. In the beta Engaged was 1 difficulty but there were modifiers depending on weapon type - 1 more difficulty for ranged light, 2 for ranged heavy, and impossible for gunnery.

This is covered in Chapter VI, Conflict and Combat, under Types of Actions -> Performing a Combat Check. And in the same chapter, under Range Bands there was a table that indicates additional difficulty for Engaged. Might be in a different place now though.

# ? Jul 4, 2013 15:55

this troper: Apr 4, 2011; :o

TheDemon posted:

That's the same as the latest beta errata.

A completely specialized character can expect to start with 4 brawn. The very best melee weapon gives +3, which equals your 7 damage. To gain more brawn, you have to take a minimum of 75 experience worth into a talent tree, and in most of them it's more like 100. The beta book suggests 5 exp per session with rare rewards of 5 more, so that's likely 10 to 15 sessions to increase any characteristic.

It's much more typical to start with 3 brawn, that's still a heavy investment but lets you have good dice in one other area.

Stickyness is the real issue, as engaging and disengaging as written in the beta are maneuvers, which you get 1 free and 1 for 2 strain every round. There is no dice or other opposition to disengaging or engaging with this maneuver. The Engaged range band for Melee is 2 difficulty, for Ranged Light is 2 difficulty, for Ranged Heavy is 3 difficulty. Short range band is impossible for melee, and 1 difficulty for all ranged weapons. So since you can disengage for free every turn, ranged is always easier to hit with than melee.

That ties into damage too, because successes = +damage. So given equal damage on weapon and weapon+brawn, the ranged character will do more damage on average and hit significantly more often on average, even when in melee range.

Not to mention, given the extra maneuver for 2 strain it's possible for a character in melee to disengage to Short then move to Medium range in the same round, forcing the melee character to do the same to re-engage. That's fair enough, but it becomes a merry chase to whatever ground the runner prefers, since Medium range is a fair distance in a fistfight. AND they can keep shooting at 1 difficulty during the part of their turn they're at Short range.

It's fairly reasonable to wonder if the above has changed at all since beta. I mean, I don't really mind per se since energy hand weapons are probably powerful in a sci-fi setting, but it would be nice if melee had parity when someone is in your face.

All valid points, I actually forgot what the damage on the melee weapons was. All I have is the beta and haven't checked errata but odd that they lowered the damage on melee weapons so much, since the Vibro-Ax was like +6 damage which made it extremely competitive to guns. Maybe the complete version is better, but house ruling might be in order. On the other you might have to be careful. Since combat is gridless, there isn't a whole lot stopping somebody from directly getting in somebody's face with a melee weapon. Not that the enemy can't just back away, but giving a melee person tons of stickiness without much way for a ranged opponent to avoid could be exploitable. Though it'd probably be reasonable if melee is inherently as undamaging as people here are indicating.

I'll have to wait and read the finished thing before I can comment further though.

# ? Jul 4, 2013 21:02

jivjov: Sep 13, 2007; But how does it taste? Yummy!; Dinosaur Gum

This is bringing up a point from a couple days ago, but I'm glad the book has some sample play segments in it. While some overstay their welcome or are written cheesily, I like seeing "official" interpretations of some game mechanics. I'm eager to see what the sample play segments say about things like "the roll failed but generated a lot f advantage". I had trouble doing anything besides "you recover some strain" over and over again in the beginner box campaign.

# ? Jul 4, 2013 21:35

PantsOptional: Dec 27, 2012; All I wanna do is make you bounce

TheDemon posted:

But under what conditions? If they've taken out the conditions then that's another point in favor of Ranged. In the beta Engaged was 1 difficulty but there were modifiers depending on weapon type - 1 more difficulty for ranged light, 2 for ranged heavy, and impossible for gunnery.

This is covered in Chapter VI, Conflict and Combat, under Types of Actions -> Performing a Combat Check. And in the same chapter, under Range Bands there was a table that indicates additional difficulty for Engaged. Might be in a different place now though.

Sorry, was unclear: melee shold be dif 1. Which is a bit of a point in favor of melee.

# ? Jul 5, 2013 00:06

PantsOptional: Dec 27, 2012; All I wanna do is make you bounce

Update: melee difficulty is in fact 1, and now melee attachments/mods exist (they didn't in the beta). While there are some that give extra damage or whatever, it looks like a good few of them inflict conditions, which is nice.

# ? Jul 8, 2013 16:57

homullus: Mar 27, 2009

I realize this won't help most people, but FFG's Event Center (and company store) was still giving away copies of the Free RPG Day adventure when I bought the new Core Rulebook on Saturday. It helps me immensely, because one player in my group has already been through Escape from Mos Shuuta, and I want to introduce the rest of the group to the game.

# ? Jul 8, 2013 16:57

Shart Carbuncle: Aug 4, 2004; Star Trek:
The Motion Picture

Haven't really dug in yet, but this sure is a nice big tome to flip through. Decent art and everything.

If this had come out when I was younger and still loved Star Wars, it would have blown my young mind. I still think it's a setting with great rpg potential, so I'm going to try running it for sure. I hope it isn't as riddled with typographical errors and junk as FFG's other RPG products.

# ? Jul 9, 2013 18:23

Carteret: Nov 10, 2012

I'm just blown away by the potential. Have the PCs figured out a way to steal a capitol ship (with a compliment of 24 starfighters, no less) and want to smuggle illegal drugs across the galaxy? No big deal. :psyduck:

# ? Jul 9, 2013 19:36

Tendales: Mar 9, 2012

Wikipedia Brown posted:

If this had come out when I was younger and still loved Star Wars, it would have blown my young mind. I still think it's a setting with great rpg potential, so I'm going to try running it for sure. I hope it isn't as riddled with typographical errors and junk as FFG's other RPG products.

It's not riddled with errors, but it's still clearly an FFG product. Haven't found any goofs that really affect gameplay, though, fortunately.

# ? Jul 9, 2013 21:08

this troper: Apr 4, 2011; :o

Whoever was worried about melee weapons I'm not sure I would. Seems like the decent melee weapons wholesale have Vicious, Sunder, and very low (good) Crit rating. So even if you're doing less damage up front you're likely to pierce armor and lop off limbs much more easily.

# ? Jul 10, 2013 03:52

PantsOptional: Dec 27, 2012; All I wanna do is make you bounce

Correction to previous post: melee/brawl are in fact difficulty 2 and I am an idiot who can't read charts.

As stated, however, they can get brutalnasty with Attachments. Monomolecular edge on a vibrosword or vibroaxe is terrifying.

# ? Jul 10, 2013 04:22

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

Are they planning on releasing the rulebook in PDF?

# ? Jul 10, 2013 13:11

devilmaydry: Sep 3, 2012; I only take special jobs, if you know what I mean.

From my understanding, FFG has the rights to distribute a book, but not digital media. So no, there won't be a PDF

# ? Jul 10, 2013 13:16

Beer4TheBeerGod: Aug 23, 2004; Exciting Lemon

devilmaydry posted:

From my understanding, FFG has the rights to distribute a book, but not digital media. So no, there won't be a PDF

Gotta love licensing. Guess I'll get this in dead tree format then, thanks for the clarification.

# ? Jul 10, 2013 13:20

Carteret: Nov 10, 2012

It's quite a tome, and looks pretty :3:

Worth it in dead tree format.

# ? Jul 10, 2013 15:47

devilmaydry: Sep 3, 2012; I only take special jobs, if you know what I mean.

I ordered my book and am tracking the order, and it says the book weighs 2 pounds, which I think is wrong. :ohdear:

Should I be worried?

# ? Jul 10, 2013 19:17

TheTofuShop: Aug 28, 2009

devilmaydry posted:

I ordered my book and am tracking the order, and it says the book weighs 2 pounds, which I think is wrong.

Should I be worried?

The Book definitely weighs over 2 pounds, its 400+ Pages and has a bunch of setting and illustrations. My only regret is not picking one up from my LGS on release day :ohdear:

# ? Jul 10, 2013 19:37

Shart Carbuncle: Aug 4, 2004; Star Trek:
The Motion Picture

devilmaydry posted:

I ordered my book and am tracking the order, and it says the book weighs 2 pounds, which I think is wrong.

Should I be worried?

It should be 4 at least, but I wouldn't actually worry about it. It could just mean whomever you ordered it from is trying to cheat on shipping costs.

# ? Jul 10, 2013 19:38

treeboy: Nov 13, 2004; James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

my best friend sent me the core book for my birthday last week, it's honestly one of the nicest rulebooks i've ever owned (and a sick gift). Still digging into the rules, but I'm blown away by the amount of subject matter they've covered even with such a limited scope of the Star Wars universe.

The quality is fantastic too, great art, seems to be pretty sturdy binding (kinda hard to tell until you've had it awhile), nice thick glossy pages, and it *smells* good. That's a really weird thing to say but it's true.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 14:51

devilmaydry: Sep 3, 2012; I only take special jobs, if you know what I mean.

Wikipedia Brown posted:

It should be 4 at least, but I wouldn't actually worry about it. It could just mean whomever you ordered it from is trying to cheat on shipping costs.

I'll try not to worry about the weight thing. I ordered from CoolStuffInc, and it was cheaper than normal. So you might be right in thinking they cheated on costs.

treeboy posted:

my best friend sent me the core book for my birthday last week, it's honestly one of the nicest rulebooks i've ever owned (and a sick gift). Still digging into the rules, but I'm blown away by the amount of subject matter they've covered even with such a limited scope of the Star Wars universe.

The quality is fantastic too, great art, seems to be pretty sturdy binding (kinda hard to tell until you've had it awhile), nice thick glossy pages, and it *smells* good. That's a really weird thing to say but it's true.

From what I've heard, they used really high quality paper for the book. I don't usually buy physical copies of anything but I felt alright with buying this book because:

A. It's a new(and very well made, mechanically) Star Wars game

and B. It is a VERY pretty book, and it seems to have literally everything you need to run a game in the Outer Rim.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 15:04

treeboy: Nov 13, 2004; James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

devilmaydry posted:

I'll try not to worry about the weight thing. I ordered from CoolStuffInc, and it was cheaper than normal. So you might be right in thinking they cheated on costs.

From what I've heard, they used really high quality paper for the book. I don't usually buy physical copies of anything but I felt alright with buying this book because:

A. It's a new(and very well made, mechanically) Star Wars game

and B. It is a VERY pretty book, and it seems to have literally everything you need to run a game in the Outer Rim.

the ~50 pages of Starships, Starfighters, Interstellar travel rules, stellar phenomena tables, random stuff that can happen/go wrong, and the beautiful paintings of (i think literally) every starship they list totally sold me on the quality of the work they'd put into it.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 15:06

PantsOptional: Dec 27, 2012; All I wanna do is make you bounce

The chapter on Law and Order alone would've sold me.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 15:12

homullus: Mar 27, 2009

Has anyone run the adventure at the back of the core book? I've done Escape from Mos Shuuta, and I'm running Shadows of a Black Sun now, and planning to go off the rails if there is still interest from the group later, but was thinking of tacking on the one from the core book. I'd rather not, if it sucks in practice. The one in the GM's Guide looks good too, but I'm interested in feedback on that one as well if you've run it.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 18:23

PantsOptional: Dec 27, 2012; All I wanna do is make you bounce

New supplement announced, focusing on the Explorer career. Looks like they'll be doing career-specific supplements.

Points of note:

3 new specializations within explorer
Signature abilities, which seem to be career-exclusive 6th row talents
Extra gear including the blaster sniper rifle and some new vehicles

# ? Jul 11, 2013 19:36

Father Wendigo: Sep 28, 2005; This is, sadly, more important to me than bettering myself.

I was Vex in the start of the starter box adventure last night, and we got as far as getting kicked out of the cantina since we started pretty late. However, I'm enamored with the system... and also disappointed that there are only 8 races to choose from. Have there been any announcements about potential supplements that will be adding races?

# ? Jul 11, 2013 19:48

alg: Mar 14, 2007; A wolf was no less a wolf because a whim of chance caused him to run with the watch-dogs.

PantsOptional posted:

New supplement announced, focusing on the Explorer career. Looks like they'll be doing career-specific supplements.

Points of note:

3 new specializations within explorer

Signature abilities, which seem to be career-exclusive 6th row talents

Extra gear including the blaster sniper rifle and some new vehicles

This is actually really cool, assuming it is < $20.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 19:56

ImpactVector: Feb 24, 2007; HAHAHAHA FOOLS!!
I AM SO SMART!

Uh oh. What did he do now?; Nap Ghost

Ugh, this is making me desperately wish for a PDF option. The book is beautiful and I don't regret buying it at all, but I don't want to dedicate an entire shelf to the game if they're going to release a book for each career.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 20:00

treeboy: Nov 13, 2004; James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

Father Wendigo posted:

I was Vex in the start of the starter box adventure last night, and we got as far as getting kicked out of the cantina since we started pretty late. However, I'm enamored with the system... and also disappointed that there are only 8 races to choose from. Have there been any announcements about potential supplements that will be adding races?

The Explorer supplement shows a Chiss on the front cover, so I would assume it's quite possible

# ? Jul 11, 2013 20:03

PantsOptional: Dec 27, 2012; All I wanna do is make you bounce

Is there really anything about the Chiss that prevents them from simply falling under the banner of Human since they're near-humans?

# ? Jul 11, 2013 20:20

Servetus: Apr 1, 2010

PantsOptional posted:

Is there really anything about the Chiss that prevents them from simply falling under the banner of Human since they're near-humans?

Apart from racial modifiers from extreme smugness? No reason whatsoever.

Frankly the only near-human group that would really need to be done seperately would be the Miraluka, and possibly the Zeltrons.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 21:43

Shrecknet: Jan 2, 2005

Purgey posted:

So long as I'm in this thread, I've got a big box full of Star Wars collectible miniatures if anyone is looking for that sort of thing. Somewhere around 20-30 stormtroopers of various stripes, officers, maybe 20 or so rebels and a few other odds and ends. I can scare up a picture later and give an accurate count.

Do you still have these? searching eBay for "bulk loose star wars" is hopeless

# ? Jul 11, 2013 23:08

treeboy: Nov 13, 2004; James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

reading the rule book and delving back into the art thread has me itching to draw some star wars scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells (and other denizens of the fringe)

If anyone has a character concept they want illustrated I'm looking for some inspiration for drawing up some 'doodles'

# ? Jul 12, 2013 18:45

homullus: Mar 27, 2009

treeboy posted:

reading the rule book and delving back into the art thread has me itching to draw some star wars scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells (and other denizens of the fringe)

If anyone has a character concept they want illustrated I'm looking for some inspiration for drawing up some 'doodles'

If you can stand it, there aren't many pictures of scoundrel-y Bothans. If you can draw a Bothan that a non-furry would see and think "hey, I wanna be that character" . . . well, I'll be impressed, I guess? I don't have much to offer.

# ? Jul 12, 2013 18:51

Hulk Smash!: Jul 14, 2004

treeboy posted:

reading the rule book and delving back into the art thread has me itching to draw some star wars scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells (and other denizens of the fringe)

If anyone has a character concept they want illustrated I'm looking for some inspiration for drawing up some 'doodles'

For that matter there aren't many pictures of Sullustans at all. Scroundrely or not. How about a Sullustan gunslinger, dual blaster pistols, duster, toothpick, narrow-eyed gaze (well, narrow for a Sullustan anyway) high-noon, the works.

# ? Jul 12, 2013 19:28

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# ? May 23, 2024 13:35

treeboy: Nov 13, 2004; James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life.

homullus posted:

If you can stand it, there aren't many pictures of scoundrel-y Bothans. If you can draw a Bothan that a non-furry would see and think "hey, I wanna be that character" . . . well, I'll be impressed, I guess? I don't have much to offer.

that's because most artists depict them with horse faces which tends to look dumb no matter what, i always saw them as more of a cat/canine mix. Mixing up some sketches for these guys, they're a good break from the ordinary!

# ? Jul 13, 2013 20:17

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