This last week has been a very much more positive one in regards to our roleplaying. Not least of all the events this week was the Friday Night Group's run through of the Star Wars Edge of the Empire Beginner Game.
Another one?
Yeah. But, you know what? It's cool.
Star Wars has had a mixed run in the roleplaying world. The excellent (but now dated) West End Games version was most people's favourite. The two editions under Wizard's reign received mixed reviews. We've always quite enjoyed playing Star Wars RPGs and, to be honest, the Saga Edition was one of the better d20 adaptations.
Fantasy Flight Games have, however, managed to really clearly capture the tone and pace of the Star Wars setting in this new system.
Beginner's Game
We ran the game on the fly, with zero prep, in a three hour session on Friday. As GM, I was able to literally open the Adventure Book and run the scenario without any more effort than reading through each section and, on one occasion, reading ahead.
The system is slick, fast and very simple. I loved the dice mechanic, using weird custom dice and symbols, in which you build a pool and roll. Most notably all of the combat scenes ran very, very quickly. Every moment was exciting and fun. What more could we ask?
Pre-generated heroes in very well presented booklets. A set of custom dice. A full adventure, designed to be read as you play and teach everyone the rules as you go through it. Nice simple maps and tokens to help visualise the scenes. Very, very nicely done.
Would we play again?
One player asked if we could run the follow-up free adventure next session. We will play it sometime, although we have another plan for next session. In short, yes we'll play it again.
Why? Star Wars Edge of the Empire is very slick and cool and fun. It just plays so nicely. I'd guarantee a game if I had a series of pre-written adventures and I'd be happy to create some stories if not.
We all want the main Core Rulebook (mostly so we can create our own heroes) but I think we'd be happy to play some more.
Were there any other side-effects?
Yes. We re-discovered how much fun a one-off game can be. Consequently we have decided to played another one-off game next session. To my mind, any game that encourages you to change the way you do things is a good game. I felt inspired.
And I'm totally stealing the Destiny Pool rules.
Thanks to all the lads for playing! Game on!
