Floor It - A Star Wars: Starships and Speeders Review

 

Edge/Lucasfilm

Released two months into 2020, the compilation book Starships and Speeders is currently the last supplement published for Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars roleplaying game system, which includes Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion. It's at least the last one FFG will publish, as Edge Studios now has the license, while fans await further reprints and hold out hope for new books.

In the mean time, we're left with Starships and Speeders. It's more or less what's on the tin: a collection of vehicle profiles for Game Masters to deploy and players to purchase in their games. For the most part, it collects existing stat blocks, though a few new additions have been made, mainly vehicles that showed up in Solo. 

It's an exhaustive selection, including nearly every ship from FFG's X-Wing wargame and a few new ones, like a luxury cruise liner. It's a decent mix of military and civilian vehicles, along with the vessels used by less savory elements. I would have liked some more Legends additions but I understand the further we get into the Disney era, the less likely that is. Starships and Speeders does leave a few nods here and there, like a reference to the Droids cartoon in the A-Wing background.

Edge Studios/Lucasfilm

Starships and Speeders isn't entirely a copy/paste job though, as iconic ships are given unique profiles. For example, there's the YT-1300 entry and then one specifically for the Millennium Falcon.

Dark Times - A Star Wars: Collapse of the Republic Review

 

Fantasy Flight Games/Lucasfilm

Star Wars: Collapse of the Republic

Fantasy Flight Games

Developed by Tim Cox with John Dunn, Lisa Farrel, Sterling Hershey, Keith Kappel, Monte Lin, and Jason Marker

Along with the three "Essential Collection" books, Collapse of the Republic was Fantasy Flight Games parting contribution to their Star Wars roleplaying game line. Intended as a companion to their previous Clone Wars sourcebook Rise of the Separatists, this book covers the latter half of the conflict as well as some of its stranger corners. The team does an excellent job justifying the decision to split the content into two separate books. Rise gives players what they need for adventure serial influenced heroics while Collapse offers a chance to live out the darkest moments of Star Wars history.

Player characters will need every advantage to survive these bleak, final days of the Old Republic, assuming they're willing to pay the toll taken to their health, finances, and very soul.

New Faces of War

While technically a separate supplement from the first Clone Wars book, Collapse still works best as a companion to it. Whereas Rise covers all the basic careers, gear, and NPCs, Collapse takes advantage of that previous work to introduce more unique and "veteran" options. 

2 new Jedi careers are offered, both rooted in seniority and experience; the very much Yoda influenced Master tree and the more martial General path, with talents that flirt with the Dark Side. The talent "Short Path to Power" is also introduced to resolve an oversight in Rise where players were locked out of building Jedi Knight's at character creation due to the Force Rank 2 restriction.

The focus on more experienced characters is also evident in the three new Clone careers: Veteran, ARC Trooper, and Clone Commander. To top it all off, Collapse introduces "Signature" abilities for Jedi and Clones.

Fantasy Flight Games/Lucasfilm

This book also provides more universal specializations, depicting some fan favorite and very specific roles. Mandalorians finally get a proper statline with Death Watch Warrior, sporting talents that make jetpack characters even more imposing but some emphasis on the more social side of the Mando'ade as well.

Which is to say, talents to enhance Coercion.

Nightsisters also emerge from the shadows, offering one of the more genuinely unique and mystical force user talent trees. The first (and only) true Separatist specialization arrives with Separatist Commander, easing the pass for some less explored perspectives. 

Collapse does run into a lot of very "similar" careers. You can make a thematic argument for the clone specializations being so similar but it's still notable how close

Restore Freedom to the Galaxy - A Star Wars: Age of Rebellion Review

Fantasy Flight Games

Star Wars: Age of Rebellion was Fantasy Flight Games' second RPG set in the galaxy far far away. Released in 2014, it came out almost exactly a year after their first foray, Edge of the Empire. Departing from lovable scoundrels and grim bounty hunters, Age of Rebellion instead focused on the ace pilots and daring revolutionaries that made up the Rebel Alliance. Both games employ the same basic mechanics and proprietary "Narrative Dice." As the name implies, Age of Rebellion allows players to play out the Rebellion's desperate struggle against the Galactic Empire. 

 While both games are built around the same foundations, Age of Rebellion does lack a lot of the freedom and flare offered by Edge of the Empire. Even so, this trench run proves to be a successful one.

Second Verse, Same as the First

 Much like FFG's now defunct Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay, every one of their star wars game lines share the same ruleset. Thankfully they've learned well from those days in the Dark Millennium. Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion are truly compatible, in contrast with the constant patching over and quibbling needed to integrate the disparate 40K game lines.

Fantasy Flight Games

The two systems are so similar that entire sections of the core book are almost completely identical, with the occasional reworking to better fit the military context. Consequently, Age of Rebellion takes everything that works from its predecessor. And unfortunately, the few things that didn't.

Injury rules as written are put players out of the fight to soon, while also needlessly limiting the lethality. More frustrating, starship combat is still just as punishing and unsatisfying. Dogfights are such a key part of the Rebellion's identity that it's

In It for the Money: A Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Review

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.

Setting Guide- Star War: Tales of the Jedi

Lucasfilm

The Tom Veitch and Kevin J. Anderson Tales of the Jedi miniseries might not have been the best Star Wars comics ever published. But that's only because they had such stiff competition. Released throughout the 90s by Dark Horse Comics, they depicted the Galaxy Far Far Away four thousand years before the events of A New Hope. The writing and art might have been questionable in places but it was bursting with great ideas. It fleshed out the setting in a way few other licensed works did and laid the groundwork for some strong Expanded Universe stories, most notably Knights of the Old Republic.

Tales of the Jedi's writing had a mythological air surrounding it, featuring characters closer to half-remembered heroes than more traditional protagonists. That created a sense of atmosphere (and some characterization issues) but it also means there's plenty of room for a Game Master and his party to find their niche in the era. Even the central plot points, like Exar Kun and Ulic Qel Droma's armies razing the Republic or the exiled Dark Jedi corrupting the Sith Empire into a vessel for the Dark Side happen in fairly broad strokes, leaving enterprising roleplayers to fill in the gaps.

Tales of the Jedi era stories have a lot of narrative freedom without abandoning the iconic themes and symbols of Star Wars. It also offers a genuinely fresh take on the series, totally divorced from the characters and events of the films. Give your players a chance to forge a name for themselves, whether it be in the name of justice or oppression, without having to worry about a Skywalker stealing their thunder.

Power beyond Imagination

Lucasfilm

By Tales of the Jedi, the Jedi and Sith have solidified into something more or less recognizable. The Jedi uphold peace and justice in the galaxy, while the Sith plot from the shadows and launch ruthless attacks when the time comes. However, their understanding of the Force is still steeped in a superstition and ritual that will fade over the centuries. There's no midichlorians in a Tales of the Jedi story, just mysticism and mystery.


Unlike the arrogant Jedi and Sith of later eras, characters in Tales of the Jedi stories accept the Force is beyond their comprehension. They wield it unpredictably, through spells and prayers, with dramatic, fantastical results. In a Tales of the Jedi story, the Force is almost indistinguishable from magic and the characters will react as such. Force users are less concerned with understanding the power they wield, instead hoping to use it as a means of self-reflection or a path to power. Of course, Exar Kun falls to the dark side in his quest for knowledge, so trying to grasp the impossible isn't totally off the table...

In line with the more mystical depiction of the force, Tales of the Jedi stories are filled with powerful artifacts. Sith amulets and lost holocrons shape the characters' stories, if not the flow of history itself. Regardless of whether someone is seeking enlightenment or domination, they'll have to do some antiquing to get there. Of course, few of these artifacts are just repositories for force power. They will have a lasting effect on the wielder. Especially if the souls of their creators cling to these trinkets. Especially since death has done little to distract them from their personal agendas. Regardless of how it takes shape in Tales of the Jedi, the Force is a barely understood source of power that carries heavy consequences no matter how it's used.

Epic Scale to Personal Struggle

Lucasfilm

Star Wars does struggle with obsessing over huge, galaxy spanning conflicts. While those are nice and all, it's easy to overshadow the characters' personal journeys or generally get too lost in huge battles. Additionally, it's hard for even experience game masters to handle those sorts of narratives in a coherent or satisfying way. This fixation is also a shame because Star Wars often works best at a smaller scale. The Rebel fleet's attack on the Death Star II is impressive but the naval clash doesn't carry the same weight as Darth Vader becoming Anakin Skywalker again.

Thankfully, the Tales of the Jedi era covers all scales of narrative and gives the opportunity to tell big or small stories. Exar Kun and Ulic Qel Droma wage war across the galaxy but that's the culmination of numerous minor events. In Tales of the Jedi stories, protagonists often fight to save a single world, city, or even soul. The absolute peak of this time period is Redemption, an introspective story in which an exiled Ulic Qel Droma copes with the loss of his connection to the Force as well as his monstrous actions as a Sith. The central conflict is nothing larger than his own allies coming to terms with the actions of their former friend and accepting their own failures in the process.

At its worst, Star Wars tries to combine internal and external conflicts with disastrous results. The small narratives will feel disconnected from the rest of the story and the large narratives will feel soulless without clear character development. Tales of the Jedi constructs a setting where the two are clearly delineated and in which relatively minor events can properly escalate into major disasters and vice versa. When telling Tales of the Jedi stories, a game master taps into a mythology in which narratives of all scales are given equal consideration. That's rare for any series, especially Star Wars.


The Shape of Things to Come

Lucasfilm

As previously mentioned, Tales of the Jedi stories take place millennia before the events of the movies. The few entities that do make an appearance are a far cry from what they become but it's easy to tell where they're heading. For example at this point, the Mandalorians are a united warrior-culture with a single ruler, mostly made up of the alien Taung, waging crusades against the galaxy. That's a far cry from the individualistic mercenaries and tight-knit, multi species clans they become but it's evident what brought them to that point.

Tales of the Jedi stories are in the distant past and they commit to that. Veitch and Anderson show remarkable self-restraint by avoiding any film characters' distant ancestors. Instead, they revealed the ancient history of the organizations prominent in the films and offer insights in how the cards fell the way they did. Admittedly, much of Exar Kun's story was written to flesh out his post-mortem appearance in the Jedi Academy trilogy. But by and large, a Tales of the Jedi story's main connection to "contemporary" Star Wars is how it presents the historic state of a galaxy we know well.

Of course, the main elements of Star Wars are still there. Blasters, lightsabers, droids, and hyperspace are all still prominent features. They're just more recent developments (or rediscoveries) as opposed to being ancient, accepted parts of everyday life. That also means they might not work quite the same way as their modern counterparts. Most of the Tales of the Jedi stories played around with the depiction of these well known objects. Even the overall visual style was much more fantastic and primordial, especially compared to the adjacent Knights of the Old Republic era which played it comparatively safe.

Aside from the more material components of Star Wars, Tales of the Jedi stories also incorporate the fundamental themes of the series. Corruption, redemption, betrayal, selflessness, and holding on to hope all feature prominently. The characters archetypes we've come to associate with Star Wars are also still there. However, they're now isolated from the more immediately recognizable characters and events. By stripping Star Wars down to its fundamental aspects, Tales of the Jedi stories pose a unique challenge to game masters and players alike. By the same merit, it also gives them a chance to create their own take on Star Wars and cut right to what makes us bother with Jedi knights and dark lords in the first place.

Setting Guide- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

 
Most long running franchises have a number of different eras for Game Masters to set their campaigns in. With the advent of youtube and various wikis, it's easy to get the raw details. But it's harder to get a sense of what makes a given fictional time period so special. In this first Setting Guide, I explain what thematic elements make the media based on the classic video game Knights of the Old Republic so special.

Yesterday’s Heroes- and Villains

Falls from grace and unlikely redemption dominate the KOTOR era. Revan and Malak went from being the Republic’s saviors to razing it. That's just the most influential example. The inverse is equally prominent. Nearly every central character works to overcome some past failing, be it moral or otherwise. What makes this element so unique to KOTOR is that the heroes have often committed unimaginable horrors. The struggle comes not just from their quest for forgiveness but determining if they can ever come back from what they did. The conflict between what you were and what you’ve become drives the character arcs of the KOTOR era, if not the entire setting.

Dark Revelations

In the Mandalorian Wars and its subsequent conflicts countless secrets and lies were exposed. The truths range from being personal to galactic in scale. The most obvious example of the former is the famous twist involving the first game’s player character. The first KOTOR game also revealed that the galaxy was shaped by the monstrous Rakatans, from crucial technology like hyperspace drives to the very foundations of worlds like Kashyyyk. Regardless of what form they might take, these truths have massive ramifications. All of KOTOR media was defined by their shocking twists and turns, even more so than the rest of Star Wars. Wherever you might take your KOTOR-era games, make sure the player characters learn something they really didn’t want to.

An Endless Cycle

It’s hard to think of a piece of Star Wars media that doesn’t feature dark lords, dashing rogues, faceless soldiers, and dastardly superweapons. Star Wars has a certain set of tropes it always falls back on. This is especially evident in KOTOR media, though this reliance is used to anchor the more unique elements. With the this era of Star wars, relying on these tropes is vital to establishing the events of your campaign as being a part of the Star Wars universe. KOTOR and its offshoots are so far removed from the entities and characters traditionally associated with the franchise that Game Masters shouldn’t be afraid to lean heavily into Star Wars’ established archetypes. That will give you more of an opportunity to fully exploit the more unique aspects of the KOTOR era.