Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Update

Over on the Fantasy Flight Games site, we have an update on the new Star Wars game and how it will be split up to cover different aspects of the galactic conflict. The game will be split up into three separate, but compatible games:

• Edge of the Empire
• Age of Rebellion
• Force and Destiny

Edge of the Empire seems to be the "Han and Chewie" game that covers smugglers, rogues, and illicit activities on the fringe. I would love full starship combat rules, and a good assortment of non-Millennium Falcon ships. Bonus points if they include rules for merchant trading, mining, speculation, and other non-combat star trader stuff in the Empire. We need to balance the criminal element with how it is to run cargo in the Empire, how much those cargoes are bought and sold for, and how the Imperial Police work. You can't be a space pirate on combat alone, the whole point is making money and avoiding the Imps, so we need to see the legitimate and enforcement sides fleshed out.

Age of Rebellion seems to be the "Leia and the Droids" game of the rebellion, galactic war, and political intrigue. I hope rules for mass battles, star destroyers, and other large scale warfare are in here. I really hope we balance all that with rules for political intrigue, spies, and assassins. Probably the biggest mistake they could make with this book is to focus mostly on war and cool battles - this has to be balanced with the drama and intrigue of governors, planetary leaders, backstabbing senators, and all sorts of gooey dramatic goodness.

Force and Destiny is the "Luke and Ben" game of being the last surviving Jedi in the galaxy fighting to uphold the old ideals. We have an Order 66 retcon here it seems, with more Jedi surviving than we first thought. This is all well and good, since it gives players a chance to create interesting characters around the Jedi (and hopefully Sith), and continue the conflict into the Act IV-VI age of Star Wars. I do hope Sith are in here to balance the game, and it's not just Jedis vs. non-force Empire.

Overall, I like this division of products, and making each a separate standalone game is interesting. We will get a repetition of rules in each book (unfortunately), but this will allow groups to pick what they want to play with, and exclude the rest. If I want to play my "Oceans 11" smuggler and con man game, this frees me up to say "EoE only for this game", and all of a sudden, all my problems of having players spin up Sith and Rebel commandos are gone. It is a trade off, but a good one that lets groups focus on the aspect of Star Wars they like, and include as much as they would like.

So, it is a fun update in Star Wars land today, and something that makes me look forward to the game a little more. May the force be with you....