"Star Wars: Edge of the Empire core rules and rulebook review" Topic

The Edge of th Empire, core rulebook and first part of the RPG trilogy that Fantasy Flight Games intends to release over the coming years. Edge of the Empire takes place around the time following the destruction of the first Death Star. So this is a original trilogy universe with no connections to the horrible prequels. The theme for the core rulebook is centered around the fringes of society, with outlaws, smugglers and all sorts of shady characters making their living at the edges of the Empire in the outer rim territories. The ongoing rebellion is going on in the background but should not be the primary concern of the adventures. Neither does the game feature the Jedi order or the Sith lords, though there is an option for "force sensitive" characters which I will talk about later. In essence this game allows you to play Han Solo type characters and exploring the Star Wars universe from a less heroic viewpoint which in itself should serve to create (imo) a lot more interesting adventures and stories.

The book itself is of amazing quality, money well spent if you hesitate about the price tag. The binding is superb, the quality of the print and the paper is also top notch and it's hardback. The book includes over 440 pages and has thirteen chapters of which twelve chapters are of rules and information needed to play games and one being a complete adventure for players to play.

1: Playing the game
2: Character creation
3: Skills
4: Talents
5: Gear and Equipment
6: Conflict and combat
7: Starships and vehicles
8: The Force
9: The game master
10: The galaxy
11: Law and society
12: Adversaries
13: Trouble brewing (complete adventure)

Check the full review of the book and the core rule mechanics and concepts over at my blog:

link

Thanks for the review. I'm interested in the game but not sure I want to make the jump into actually purchasing it. Your review answered a lot of questions.

Bad Mood

That's a very thorough review.

Thanks for taking the time to do that, and to share with us.

Sounds like an interesting system.

How much does the main book run?

Do you have to purchase the dice and GM screen separately, or are they sold as a set?

Thank you for the report, help me as well I'm all in.

@Mako
The GM pack with the screen and dice packs have to be purchased separately.

You need two dice packs to have enough of everything. One dice pack will have you re-roll a lot of dice, three or more packs is starting to be excessive. From what I have read you can buy very cheap Beginners Game packs in the US and get a bunch a bunch of tokens and a pack of dice for about the same price as the regular dice packs.

There is also the Star Wars Dice app for iPad and Android tablets but I would advise against it even if it saves you a lot of money – it's a hassle using it and takes a longer time for each roll and it's also harder for everyone to follow the roll on the tablet.

The core rulebook can be found for 40 dollars at Amazon, but you can perhaps find it cheaper if you look harder.

Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it.

That sounds very reasonable for such a large rule book.