Fantasy Flight Games
Star Wars: Edge of the Empire
Designed by: Jay Little with Sam Stewart, Andrew Fischer, and Tim Flanders
Published by Fantasy Flight Games
Besides being a multi-media behemoth and the face of science fiction in many parts of the world, Star Wars gave root to some high quality roleplaying games over the years. The first official RPG for the galaxy far, far away was published by West End Games in 1987. This robust system developed the setting and kept fans engaged with Star Wars in the absence of major motion pictures. The subsequent Star Wars RPG was produced by Dungeons & Dragons publishers Wizards of the Coast. Released in 2000 for a decade long run, it can't be credited with keeping the franchise alive like the D6 system but it was a worthy offering from the biggest player on the RPG scene.
When Fantasy Flight Games released Star Wars: Edge of the Empire in 2013, it had a herculean task before it. Not only did the game have to capture the essence of the Star Wars universe but it was following some of the most influential RPGs ever published. Luckily FFG succeeded, through a mixture of a unique dice system, story driven game mechanics, and a strong grasp of Star Wars' enduring appeal.
Edge of the Empire lets players live out the adventures of scoundrels inhabiting the underbelly of the galaxy. They might exist outside the laws of the oppressive Galactic Empire but that "freedom" comes at a price. And of course, sometimes the law catches up to you. Danger comes from all sides, as between those pressures, there's the constant threat of crime syndicates, feral monsters, bounty hunters, and business partners. Characters seeking fame and fortune in the galaxy's underworld face disaster and tragedy but however things go, it'll make a good story.
We'll Let Fate Decide
Fantasy Flight Games
FFG wisely came up with a way to immediately distinguish Edge of the Empire and its compatible follow ups from the previous editions. It uses a proprietary, narrative dice system. Much like White Wolf's Storyteller System relies on counting up "successes." Many veteran roleplayers cringe away from any proprietary dice. And with good reason.
At times it does feel like the tabletop equivalent of the crude, invasive anti-piracy methods seen in video games. When FFG dissolved its RPG wing a few months ago and their continued ownership of the Star Wars license seemed uncertain, it occurred to me I'd have no easy way of getting more dice if they ever stopped publishing the game. Edge does provide a chart to convert the rolls of regular D6s, D8s, and D12s but its so unwieldy I've never seen anyone do that. I certainly wouldn't.
All that being sad, Edge makes full use of its "narrative dice" and may very well be the only instance where proprietary dice are justified. The results of each roll have a definitive outcome, while still offering plenty of roleplaying opportunities for players and game masters alike. The dice results are far more interesting than comparing raw numbers and the subjectivity offered is a perfect fit for the fast paced, fantastical stories that define Star Wars.
Never Tell Me the Odds
Fantasy Flight Games
To determine the outcome of an action in Edge of the Empire, characters roll "positive dice," which generate successes, advantages, and (in the case of the 12 sided Proficiency die) triumphs. The dice used in a check depend on the character's abilities, skills, and their circumstances. The "negative dice" are then added, representing the difficulty of the task at hand and outside interference. These dice, the three types mirroring the positive dice, generate failures, threats, and (for the Proficiency's die's evil twin, the Challenge die) Despairs.
This sounds daunting but the core mechanics are pretty simple. The results of the negative and positive dice counter each other, so successes cancel out failures, and advantages cancel out threats. A test passes as long as at least one success remains after adding everything up. Otherwise, it fails. Independent of that, advantages and threats determine how well things actually went. That means a character can have a success that backfires in some way or a failure that somehow benefits them.
Triumphs and despairs represent the system's equivalents of critical successes and failures respectively. When one shows up, fate has either saved or doomed the character, regardless of how the actual check went. Overall, there's a lot of different ways a check can go and it's rarely simply a matter of succeeding or failing. Players usually dictate what their advantages and triumphs mean, while GM's handle the threats and despairs. I'll admit some players struggle with being put on the spot like that, so I do find myself taking over the interpreting more often that not.
This sounds like a lot to take in and frankly, it is. In my experience, players have enough trouble with "normal" dice, so narrative dice can pose a unique challenge. It doesn't help that Edge of the Empire doesn't explain the system as well as it could, between the disorganized way information is presented and how vague the examples are. However, once players and the GM get past the learning curve, the narrative dice prove to be worth the trouble.
The complexity and story potential offered by nearly every roll offers more than enough to keep sessions interesting for everyone at all. Honestly, narrative dice has soured me on all but the simplest of dice systems in other RPGs, as I find their complexity can never match the nuance offered by the constant twists and turns of Edge of the Empire. The narrative dice system might be the most challenging aspect of the game but they're also what makes it so exceptional.
Hand of Destiny
Fantasy Flight Games
Even more unique and agency driven than Edge of the Empire's Narrative Dice is the Destiny Point system. At the start of each session, each player rolls the Force Die, a 12 sided die with white and black "pips." Based on their results, they generate either 1-2 Light Side points or 1-2 Dark Side points. The former is used by players and the latter by the GM. When a Light Side point is spent it becomes a dark side point and vice versa.
Destiny points can be spent to upgrade a roll or downgrade its difficulty. This gives character a much needed boost in vital moments and ensures they aren't helpless when forced to use a skill they haven't invested much in.
The more interesting use is spending a Destiny Point to make a minor detail "true." Elements are essentially retconned into thestory, like last minute saves, handy gadgets, and old friends showing up. The only limitations are the GM's discretion. When used like this, Destiny Points aren't just flat mechanical bonuses but offer a way for the players to have even more agency in how the narrative unfolds.
The Destiny Point economy is a major part of FFG's Star Wars systems and one of the aspects I find players appreciate the most. It adds another level of unpredictability to sessions and helps the party feel like they aren't just characters in a script but actively shaping the story. This mechanic is a lot less intimidating than the Narrative Dice, while offering a similar level of player agency.
Rogues Gallery
Fantasy Flight Games
While the narrative dice help capture the rapid fire tone of Star Wars, Edge's character creation system makes the connection to the setting more apparent. There's only six "Careers" but these are broad archetypes that cover everything a player could realistically wants to make. They consist of Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, Hired Gun, Technician, Explorer, and Colonist. Each one has three different specializations that narrow down their skill sets and talents, the latter represented by a very video game like progression tree.
It's not hard to figure out what characters most of these careers are meant to echo. Colonist is the only one that requires more explanation. This career represents the Well-to-do "out of towner" or perhaps the naive farmboy thrust into the cut throat world of spice dealing, carbonite freezing, and death marks. The Colonist's specializations are doctor, scholar, and politico, none of whom are particularly good with a blaster but have access to knowledge and techniques you don't get from the average mercenary.
One thing Edge of the Empire, and FFG's Star Wars line as a whole excels at is providing a range of options. Players can build their Han Solo and Boba Fett types but there's also some less combat oriented routes. It's entirely possible to make a character with no real combat abilities and the game offers enough support to make that a viable choice. Very few high profile, action oriented RPGs do that at all, much less well. The variety of careers really broadens the kind of campaigns you can run with Edge of the Empire.
Alien Encounters
Fantasy Flight Games
Players also have the option to pick their character's species. In contrast with previous Star Wars systems, there's very few real differences between each choice and the standard human. Every character has six characteristics: Brawn, Agility, Intellect, Cunning, Willpower, and Presence. These are on a six point scale and represent the number of positive dice rolled on a check, before adding situational modifiers and skill bonuses.
Humans have a 2 in every characteristic and the same goes for nearly every other species. Most will just have one starting characteristic at 3, with another lowered to one to compensate. Aside from that the only other real difference are some free rank in a culturally relevant skill or an ability representing unique biology. These are all relatively minor and it means that playing an alien character will have more of an impact on the narrative than the actual gameplay.
The one exception is droids. Rather than creating separate profiles for the endless variations of sentient machines in star wars, the system gives you a profile with a 1 in every characteristic, and nearly twice the number of starting experience to spend. The idea is to modify characteristics to represent your choice of droid, ranging from wheeled astromech droids to bipedal protocol droids. Characteristics can't be raised outside of character creation except through expensive implants and rare talents, so this is important. Additionally, droids use mechanical skills and tools in place of medical ones to heal wounds and lack organic weaknesses like eating and breathing.
Despite the simplicity of the species, there's only 6 offered in the core book, not counting droids and humans. They include the first things that come to mind, like Rodians and Wookies but also include less obvious ones like Gand and Bothans. With such simple species rules I think they could have added more, though they at least provide a substantial amount of detail on the cultures, dispositions, and biological quirks of each one. All in all, Edge of the Empire includes the strange beings that populate Star Wars' dark places, without making them too mechanically unwieldy.
The Price of Freedom
Fantasy Flight Games
One of the more unique aspects of character creation in Edge is Obligation. This represents the physical, social, or even moral burdens that hamper a character's freedom in their law breaking quest across the galaxy. Example duties include Addiction and Bounty, with more nebulous ones like Family.
Players start with a certain number of Obligation, scaled according to the party size. They can take on a higher obligation to get more starting experience and cash. It ends up hovering around 40, with the potential to reach 60 depending on the group's choices during character creation. At the start of each session, the GM rolls a D100. If it's below the group's total Obligation, one of the player's has been triggered, bringing a psychological toll and possible narrative impacts as their past comes back to haunt them.
Obligation is one of the more notable unique mechanics of a system full of them. It succinctly captures the essence of the suave, carefree Han Solo being hounded by a hired gun moments after his introduction. The game mechanic conveys how the characters might have escaped the norms and laws of galactic society but they're hardly "free." Obligation also provides players a strong incentive to craft an in depth background and gives them a clear sense of direction on how to build their characters. It's the perfect synthesis between mechanics and narrative, in how it frames every character within the central themes of the game.
As a whole, the character creation section is likely the best written part of the book. Aside from the strong mechanics, this offers strong advice on how to build complex characters that fit within the Star Wars. Some good comparisons to the films are made to help clarify the process but there's also a clear understanding of the franchise's deeper themes on display. More importantly, they're all clearly communicated to the players, giving them a sense of how they should go about making a character that feels like Han Solo without being an imitation of him or any other film character.
Highly Paid Professionals
Fantasy Flight Games
Edge of the Empire offers a substantial list of skills. While they're all useful, some are broad while others cover specific niches. They're divided into three different categories, General, Combat, and Knowledge. General is by far the largest and Combat is the smallest. The game wisely chooses to simplify combat without totally sacrificing detail. There's only five Combat skills, with two representing fistfighting and melee weapons. The various types of blasters and laser weapons seen in star wars get more compartmentalization but its still simple. Three skills represent every imaginable ranged weapon. The distinctions are saved for scale rather than weapon type, so a skilled pistol fighter can't just man a capital ship mounted turbolaser with the same skill.
The granularity is saved for the less aggressive tasks. These cover specialized skills, like Mechanics and Medicine, as well as a variety of social skills. There are also a few different skills for more clandestine, heist related activities. The rest of the skills cover more mundane tasks and as a whole the list encompasses everything worth rolling for. My only complaint is the lack of a dedicated gambling skill. Edge of the Empire acknowledges the absence by saying characters should use Cool to represent their poker face and Deception if they opt to cheat.
Knowledge skills cover geographical and social information. These might not seem like obvious picks but it's a big galaxy and the book points out even the lawless have to show a certain level of respect if they want to stay in business. The book establishes the uses and mechanics behind each skill. Most of them use the basic success based Narrative Dice role, with some fun flavor like despairs creating new minor antagonists when some botches a social roll. As complicated as the dice might seem to beginners, Edge of the Empire makes up for it by ensuring that there aren't many mechanics to keep track of, at least when it comes to skills. However, most social skills are opposed rolls, representing that even the smoothest talker will run into trouble with someone whose "seen it all before."
Who shot first?
Fantasy Flight Games
Combat in Edge of the Empire is more in line with traditional action oriented RPGs, though the Narrative Dice still serve as a foundation. Here dice rolls are a little less ambiguous to interpret and a chart is provided for the mechanical benefits advantages can offer. Unlike a lot of RPGs with a more narrative focus, like Vampire the Masquerade, Edge of the Empire uses numbered wounds instead of more nebulous injury states. Every weapon has a set damage value, with a character's "Soak" subtracted from the final result before removing wounds.
The uncertainties of combat are instead represented through the narrative dice. Every uncancelled success adds 1 additional damage. Advantages and triumphs can be spent to gain situational advantages, activate weapons qualities, or recover strain. They can also be used to activate a critical hit. Similarly the GM can use threats and despairs to inflict non-lethal but potentially debilitating effects on a character. My personal favorite is how the seemingly bottomless clips of Star Wars blasters are represented by a despair causing a power pack running dry. It's much more fun and intuitive than fiddling with ammo numbers.
Every round a character can use a incidental, maneuver, and actions. Incidentals cover minor actions like speaking, maneuvers are more movement based like changing range bands and gear management, while actions include using complex actions like skills, as well as combat checks.
Otherwise combat is fairly abstracted. There's a chart of bonuses and hazards that stem from the environment, which mainly manifest as additional Boost or Setback dice rather than more numbers to factor in. Combat in Edge of the Empire is very much Theater of the Mind, as best shown by how range is abstracted into five "bands," going from Engaged to Extreme Range. I will say that melee combat feels less nuanced than ranged combat, as most modifiers become irrelevant and nearly all combat checks are made with two difficulty die.
Overall, the combat mechanics capture the fast paced, chaotic battles that characterize Star Wars. Edge of the Empire strikes a nice middle ground between the vagueness of most narrative RPGs and the overly convoluted nature of more action focused systems.
He's Still Alive
Fantasy Flight Games
Firefights can definitely get messy, especially with how easy it is to build up critical injuries. Minions, the vast majority of opponents encountered in a campaign, succumb to a single critical hit. It's a different story for the heroes. In my experience, it's difficult for players to actually die in Edge of the Empire. Critical injuries use a percentile chart, with +10% added for each existing crit, advantages spent, and certain talents. A character is only in lethal danger from results that are 141 or higher, so player characters tend to stick around. Admittedly some of the less lethal results are hardly comforting. "Blinded" is one of the nastier ones, as is the result representing the dismemberment that plagues the Skywalker family.
Healing wounds isn't particularly hard in a galaxy full of stimpacks and bacta tanks. Critical injuries are considerably harder to get rid of, requiring Medicine checks with difficulty dictated by the specific result. Additionally, only one critical injury can be removed a week, which means a character can brute force their way through one character but that becomes progressively more dangerous if they don't scale back.
One aspect of injury I usually house rule is that characters are knocked out of a fight once they hit 0 wounds. Even with how critical injuries stick around, this makes it even harder for them to face a truly lethal threat. It also doesn't fit with most Star Wars stories, where characters stumble around as they get progressively more injured in the most important duels. Additionally, in my experience players find being rendered helpless like this frustrating. It also makes Strain, which represents physical and psychological exhaustion, seem redundant. Generally, I save getting knocked unconscious for Strain damage and leave the most injured characters to fight onward.
The Final Frontier
Fantasy Flight Games
Deep space dogfights and light speed chases are another core element of Star Wars' identity. Space ship combat in Edge of the Empire uses a scaled up version of the normal combat and to some degree is compatible with the fights on the ground. Every ship has a Silhouette value, with the baseline established with Silhouette 1 representing human sized characters. While ship and ground combat are compatible, it shouldn't be surprising that even your tricked out Marauder won't stand up to a stray proton torpedo.
Starships have their own rules to distinguish dogfights from normal combat, such as speed and shields to keep track of. Vehicle profiles are very different from sentient characters, aside from their Soak, Wound, and Strain equivalents. In contrast with the threat level of normal combat, Edge of the Empire is often criticized for the lethality of ship combat. Like the characters, it takes a while for critical hits to destroy ships but most of the defensive abilities characters have just don't exist for starfighters.
Like with Wounds, ships that run out of Hull Trauma are left dead in the water. Unlike with Wounds, this feels more tonally appropriate for me and there's rules for a mechanics check to reignite the engines just long enough to potentially get out of harm's way. This is also why dogfights get so messy, since craft will be left sitting ducks after a few unlucky rounds.
I don't think the space combat rules get a fair shake, at least for Edge of the Empire. Han Solo's claim to fame is outrunning Star Destroyers, not gunning them down. The focus of most parties should be jumping to hyperspace with their goods, not fighting every blip on their radar. The game also gives non-pilot or gunner characters something to do in the form of quick repairs or copiloting. Profiles are provided for basically all of the iconic vessels and a few of the Expanded Universe staples. So while space combat might be somewhat underdeveloped, the system gives you enough to recreate the traditional Star Wars story.
The Galactic Bazaar
Fantasy Flight Games
A glut of gadgets and high tech tools are a big part of any science fiction setting's appeal. That's especially true for Star Wars. In Edge of the Empire, weapons are largely simplified, represented by broad profiles that reflect their class and caliber more than the specific make and model. Some esoteric but tonally appropriate weapons like bolas and Gaffi sticks ensures that variety hasn't been sacrificed for the wide focus. The range of modifications help add a sense of variety, while ensuring the core arsenal isn't overwhelming.
Rather appropriately for Star Wars, there's a good choice of armor but none of it is much help. It literally weighs a character down and offers little real protection against high powered energy weapons. That's setting appropriate, as the writers are quick to acknowledge the potentially frustrated player.
There's a substantial range of less combat oriented gear on offer. Often seen iconic Star Wars gear, like holo messengers and datapads, get brief but insightful descriptions. This is paired with other, equally useful aids like scanner goggles and space suits. While Encumbrance numbers and prices are provided, few entries have direct mechanical effects, aside from medical items. This keeps players and GMs alike from getting bogged down in their arsenal's effects. Gear is still useful, as Edge of the Empire points out you can't make a call to your ship without a communicator.
The most iconic weapon of Star Wars is more than adequately represented. Lightsabers deal double digit damage, ignore most defenses, have the lowest critical hit threshold of any weapon, and have a better chance of dealing a lethal blow. Edge of the Empire lightsabers were so monstrously good at carving through enemies they had to be scaled down in future books. The tradeoff here is that Lightsabers have a massive price tag and GMs are encouraged not to give one to their players for tonal reasons. The lack of a dedicated Lightsaber skill is a deliberate choice on the part of the system, representing that if a character came to play Jedi, they came to the wrong place...
Luminous Beings
Fantasy Flight Games
While explicitly stated to be contrary to the focus of the system, no Star Wars game can skip over the Force. Edge of the Empire is no exception and dedicates an entire chapter to it. It's a brief page count and bare bones mechanically, but the core rules are sound. Force sensitive characters have access to three powers, Sense, Move, and Influence. The descriptions are fairly broad but they cover the basic actions players expect a Jedi to be capable of.
These powers ignore most of the narrative dice system, usually relying on a roll of the force dice. This is entirely appropriate, even for a game with such subjective rules. White pips can be spent to activate the power and additional effects. Black pips can also be used, but this represent characters tapping into the dark side and so a Light side destiny point has to be spent. In Edge of the Empire, there's no grey area with the force, players either accomplish what they set out to do, or they don't.
Keeping in line with the setting and Edge of the Empire's themes, Force imbued characters require a massive buy in. The "Force-Sensitive Exile," representing Jedi in hiding, has a massive price tag. Force powers themselves are expensive and require considerable upgrades to reach anything close to what's seen in the movies. Even after multiple campaigns, force sensitive characters will still be a far cry from a true Jedi. Especially since the rules as written offer no way to get the lightsaber skill and powers are still difficult to pull off, even after maxing out the Exile talent tree.
This difficulty is part of why this is the only Star Wars RPG to properly capture the metaphysical heart of the series. The Force is not common, it's not easy, and you can't learn it in an afternoon. It's distinctly not "magic," so it isn't just a character flinging fireballs. The Force of Edge of the Empire truly comes off as a little understood, spiritual power that requires intense training and wisdom to harness. And you don't find that kind of lost knowledge in the sabacc games and spice dens of the Outer Rim.
Jump to Hyperspace
Fantasy Flight Games
Star Wars: Edge of the Empire was released nearly a full year before Disney rendered the franchise's 35 year old assortment of tie-in books, games, and comics its own separate continuity. But this system draws directly from that storied (and at times questionable) literary canon. Like most good Legends era sourcebooks, it keeps the breathtaking scale, cooler aspects, and leaves out most of the nonsense.
The game outlines various planets that campaigns can take place on but only a few get substantial information. More importantly, the background section breaks down important contextual information that isn't necessarily obvious on screen. The mechanics of Hyperspace and major geographical regions of the galaxy are established. Edge of the Empire, distills the "personality" of each important region of space, which is more valuable than a profile for any one planet.
Similarly, the major powers of the galaxy are explained at length, whether they be the "legitimate" authority of the Empire or ruthless criminal syndicates like the Hutts. Considerable detail is given to how the Empire actually runs its territories and how the government is structured. GMs and players are given a good sense of what laws they're actually breaking, the heavy consequences of those actions, and who's going to be punishing them.
The underworld gets the same treatment. There's plenty of information on the less "by the books" enterprises that player characters can get work from or alternatively, provoke. Edge of the Empire doesn't just coast on the Star Wars name when it comes to fleshing out the setting, instead painting a vivid image of the opportunities and hazards found in the galactic underworld.
The Adversaries section follows suit and a wide variety of potential foes are on offer, whether they be Imperial, criminal, or something even worse. The game veers away from abstraction here, leaning heavily into very specific but colorful personalities like Emperor's Hands and Ithorian Storytellers in addition to the standard array of Hutts and stormtroopers.
All adversaries are divided into three categories, Minions, Rivals, and Nemeses. Minions are the rank and file, fairly brittle but able to form "groups" to speed up combat and add to their durability. Rivals are slightly more imposing, usually representing low level leaders like sergeants. Nemeses are the beefiest, using most of the same mechanics as player characters. They're meant to represent the major antagonists of a campaign. It's a logical progression and one that helps bring some order to the wide variety of opponents on offer.
Visions
Fantasy Flight Games
Unlike future FFG Star Wars books, Edge of the Empire incorporates preexisting comic and guidebook art. Unless you're as hopelessly invested in Legends content as I am, you're unlikely to notice. Even if you do, I'd hardly complain about seeing Chris Trevas and Ralph McQuarrie artwork. Most of the art is new however and spans a wide variety of styles. It's high quality stuff and very much in line invokes Star Wars, even outside of featuring the iconic aliens and technology. The career portraits are particularly high quality and definitely get you in the mood to build an embittered, hard talking rogue.
That being said, some of the designs in the artwork looks a little too modern for my tastes and stray too much from the franchises' intentionally archaic look. There's also some botched digital and photoshop effects but it's rare to pick up an RPG book where every piece of art is a winner.
The Next Gig
Fantasy Flight Games
Fantasy Flight published what might be the best modern RPG with Edge of the Empire, in terms of mechanics and tone. Unfortunately, they could have presented it better. Certain sections are a joy to read but others drag in places or fail to inspire. The "in universe" text in the background section and the starter session Trouble Brewing are pretty lacking. While that's merely mediocre, the poor presentation of the rules is a real problem. At times it comes down to the way the book is laid out. The text will be blocked weirdly and there's a bad habit of heavily referencing rules they haven't explained yet. Even the order of the chapters comes off as unintuitive in places.
The poor presentation is a real problem with Edge of the Empire and it's hard to ignore. The game master chapter is more about clarifying previously introduced mechanics than building an Edge of the Empire campaign. This is my favorite RPG to be published in the last two decades but I'll be the first to admit this core rulebook feels disorganized in places.
Aside from that, this is probably the most complete Star Wars roleplaying experience. Edge of the Empire's chosen focus, on the sordid underbelly of the galaxy, creates a powerful, distinct hook beyond the Star Wars brand name. Additionally, it offers the mechanics and narrative tools to explore nearly any genre and tone. Most importantly, Edge of the Empire makes it easy to replicate the Star Wars experience, both the intense, threatening situations and that childlike sense of awe.
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