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Star Wars: Edge of the Empire

Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Roleplaying Game Beta

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Star Wars™: Edge of the Empire is a standalone roleplaying game experience that places players in the roles of hard-hearted bounty hunters, roguish scoundrels, charming smugglers, or fearless explorers trying to survive and thrive on the edges of civilization...and the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire beta test is your chance to be among the first to play!

This limited edition, 224-page softcover rulebook provides you a chance to lead these galactic explorers. This is a complete and playable version of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, and (compared to the final version) it excludes only art and certain thematic material.

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2012

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Jay Little

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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
164 reviews3 followers
March 31, 2013
An interesting new take on the setting. We tried the Beginner's Box Set a few weeks ago, and most of the group enjoyed it. There's a gap between the typical grid-map and minis and this more fluid and old-school style game, but the system of successes, failures, advantages, and threats makes the game so interesting with a GM that can think on his or her feet that no roll doesn't have some form of impact on the game. I'm certainly looking forward to the final version later this year.
Profile Image for Pedro.
510 reviews4 followers
July 22, 2018
Hay tres aspectos que me gustarían reseñar por separado en esta adaptación del universo Star Wars a RPG de Fantasy Flight Games.
En primer lugar, el setting me encanta y está muy bien descrito. Hay cientos de detalles para la creación de personajes y sus aventuras en la inmensidad del Imperio Galáctico. Hay muchísimas referencias y descripciones de planetas, sistemas, burocracia, organizaciones y tecnología; y además muchísimos ganchos para interactuar con el Imperio, la Alianza Rebelde, las redes criminales y los "fringers" de la galaxia.
En segundo lugar, el sistema me parece bien adaptado a la espectacularidad y cinemática de la saga pero me parece un poco complicado. El uso de dados especiales que usan símbolos en lugar de números me parece poco intuitivo y difícil de entender al principio. En general coloca todo el peso sobre el GM. Adicionalmente me parece poco trabajado el mecanismo de combate espacial y de persecución; algo que es sumamente importante en SW.
En tercer lugar, el arte del libro y su diseño es llamativo y las ilustraciones son fantásticas pero hacen falta muchas más. Entiendo que es muy sencillo encontrar millones de ilustraciones de cualquier vehículo, arma o especie bien sea en Wookiepedia, Pinterest o simplemente en Google Imágenes; pero puede ser molesto interrumpir la lectura para buscar como es un Gran, un Ghtroc Light Freighter, o un BlasTech DL-19C Blaster Pistol.
En resumen, es un juego que me gustaría jugar pero no estoy seguro de que me gustaría ser el GM.
Profile Image for Sean Herndon.
3 reviews
June 2, 2017
I love Star Wars, and FFG is doing a great service to the fans, but I am not really a fan of the dice rolling system. I like the Warhammer Fantasy 2nd/40k systems a lot better than the gimmicky dice system. This game is pretty balanced - a Human can be as strong as a Wookiee - but I think that also detracts from the game at times. The book doesn't really go into enough detail on the difficulty of enemies either, and this takes a lot of fine tuning to get right (there are no character levels). The combat system is designed to provide additional options in case you fail a roll, if you roll an "advantage", but it fails to specify what can be done or what the limits of this are. This game is designed to tell a story and less so a challenge, in my opinion. That being said this is a fun game, and I will get them all... because it's Star Wars.
Profile Image for Travis.
208 reviews5 followers
December 23, 2019
While I personally would probably default to the old West End Games D6 system and sourcebooks for any Star Wars related tabletop fun, this is pretty solid, albeit not as versatile (three different main books are required to cover the whole scoundrel/rebel/Jedi gamut of possibilities). Still, there's a wealth of background material and advice here. Not sure about the custom dice, though.
Profile Image for Darren.
9 reviews1 follower
November 30, 2014
It's an interesting game, especially the dice mechanics, but I think the thing that I resented about this edition of Star Wars is that Fantasy Flight separated out the Star Wars universe into three games (much like they did with the Warhammer 40K license in the three games Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader and Deathwatch). The three Star Wars games are Edge of Empire, which focuses on playing smugglers and bounty hunters; Age of Rebellion, which focuses on playing soliders, pilots or spies for the Rebel Alliance, and Force and Destiny, which is about playing Jedi and Sith.
When all three games will have been released, you'll be able to have a mixed party, but until then you can only play what you have rules for (without having to write your own).
For my part, the thing that makes it Star Wars are Jedi and Sith, so I'm waiting until Force and Destiny comes out to take another look at the game.
Each of the games comes out first as a boxed set beginner game, which is not a bad way to introduce new players to the system.
The dice system
Instead of having numbers, they have symbols that are unique to this game, and each specific dice has a different color. You have Ability die (green d8), proficiency die (yellow d12), difficulty die (purple d8), challenge die (red d12), boost die (pale blue d6), setback die (black d6), and a force die (white d12).
"Proficiency, and Boost dice provide beneficial symbols, and represent a character’s basic aptitude, advanced training, and environmental advantages. Conversely, Difficulty, Challenge, and Setback dice provide negative symbols, and represent a task’s inherent complexity, active opposition, and environmental disadvantages."
You pretty much almost never use Force die because Jedi and Sith don't exist until Force and Destiny comes out.
The most basic example of task resolution is if you have more successes than failures, you succeed.
To further complicate things, there may be factors like advantages and threats, these cause characters to suffer or recover "strain", physical or mental stress. Where it starts to get really interesting is when you add narrative opportunities, such as "you succeed breaking into a building, but unbeknownst to you trip a silent alarm" or "you fail in a conversation with a smuggler, but you learn about a weakness of his."

Edge of Empire is an interesting game, and you should definitely check it out if you enjoy Star Wars. The lack of Jedi and Sith just means I'm going to wait for the Force and Destiny in 2015.
Profile Image for Nikola.
3 reviews6 followers
August 21, 2016
Edge of the Empire is pretty top tier all around – amazing art, good layout, good writing, system doesn’t have any obvious holes at the first sight. Ultimately, the relative dearth of player character species options is the only one that seems lacking any real way (the Saga Edition Star Wars RPG, by comparison, had 17 PC species options in the core book). I could comment on what I think of it as a setting but, again, it’s Star Wars – I suspect that at this point you either like it or you don’t as a roleplaying setting.
Profile Image for E.W. Pierce.
Author 6 books7 followers
May 7, 2015
Great introduction to FFG's take on Star Wars roleplaying. Included adventure is a bit rail-roady but does a good job of slowly introducing the unique dice mechanics. Only real complaint: the box itself is really flimsy.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews

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