Fantasy Flight Star Wars

There is a rumor  - please treat this as rumor - of an announcement regarding this game line soon, and in fact, all Fantasy Flight RPGs. Some are saying these games will go to a new company who will manage printing and selling them, and I hope all of the out-of-print books are put back in production. This is really too fun of a game to let die. I also hope they put out PDFs of this and the books - but the books are really nice. If the rumor, and it is still a rumor, is true, I hope they keep the same quality level of print and binding for these.

If they go POD and black-and-white for less cost...I mean, fine to have the info, but I would still pay the original book's higher prices just to have these in color at that same quality level.

Base Books Worked for Us

We got the three main core books, enjoyed Edge of the Empire a lot, and the second Military focused game somewhat, and sort of burned out on the final Jedi book. The supplement books that added builds and classes were fluff for us, and they tended just to reshuffle the abilities and powers of the base builds. If I played this game again these days I would stick to one of the three core books and keep the game focused.

We were super-fans of Edge, so we got into most of the Edge expansion books, but after a while their value and the complexity they offered. We didn't collect the rest of the expansions, and just focused on the core books. That said, Edge was still the center of our game, and the other core books were just "stuff and NPC book" expansions.

Edge was the Game for Us

Edge of the Empire was the most fun for us, since it setup a classic "Grand Theft Auto" type of universe. The Imperials were the perfect "bad guy law enforcement" characters, the grand galactic war presented opportunities to work for (or betray) both sides, and the crime syndicates were the untrustworthy brokers of jobs and backstabbing.

The trouble one could get into, and the strange alliances one could make with either side, made the universe come alive for us. Had a thing for the Imperials? Work for them and hunt rebels. Loved the Rebels? Work for them and blast Imperial scum. Did your own thing? Great, play both sides off each other for maximum profit. Hate the Hutts? Double-cross them too! Or work for them. Or both. The player agency to get into trouble and do their own thing was off the charts.

When we got to Age of the Rebellion the game lost its charm, at least for us. These were just military missions. While the ships and "stuff" was fun to see, the world became a one-sided conflict and we got bored with the one-sided jingoistic warlike nature of the setting. When you are a soldier and you are told to kill and keep killing, the storm-troopers you blast all kind of feel the same. Yes, I know dramatic action where you are freeing planets and saving people in a noble cause, there is fun there, but there wasn't the malicious, cut your own path through the world, ally with who you want to, pick a new side every week, double cross everyone, answer to no one, blast the Imperials and the Hutts, ignore the Rebellion unless they pay good freedom that Edge gave us.

Force and Destiny was kind of a wash for us, and the beginning scenario was kind of a railroad and turned us off to the game. Again, this game was more of a Sith and Jedi "stuff book" for us, and we never really got into the entire Jedi/Sith game and conflict. Like Age of the Rebellion, this became more of a reference guide for us. Some classes were also repeats - like there was a melee build, vehicle build, pilot build, and "fill in the blank" type build across all three books and the need for other games that did what Edge did well did not really appeal to us to collect these books.

Oh...and all of this content resides in the Legacy universe...

Legacy is the True Star Wars

Lucasfilm had years of material and characters from the Expanded Universe to pull from, something like a "Marvel Universe" of stories and legends to pull from in order to build an entirely new cinematic universe.

And they threw it all out. This frustrates me about the current state of the stories in this universe. They created an artificial divide in the fan-base when they did not need to.

They invalidated all this stuff - the stuff in these roleplaying games. The same type of games that kept Star Wars alive in the 80's and 90's when the movies ran out and the toy sales ran dry. The RPGs that rekindled interest in the novels, seeded the videogames to come, and kept the Expanded Universe going.

And then current-day Hollywood complained, "But we have no books or comics to pull stories from to make movies with!"

I have shelves full of content, novels, games, and comics that you still own, but you don't even see. Seriously, if you don't want Legacy Star Wars, please find a good home for it.

There are things I like about the new stories and movies, yes, but if you did a Marvel approach you could have had that plus a legacy of worlds and characters to pull from like a shared mythology we all grew up with. Are the Marvel stories perfectly matching the comic books? No, but they are close enough. They pay respect to what the parents like while bringing us new things for a younger audience.

The force is a balance. So is Star Wars. But I feel it isn't what we really got in the new movies.

These corporate executives took away the stories I grew up with - ones just like those Marvel stories they pull from (but did a better job with). I feel those currently in charge are poor stewards of this legacy. These roleplaying books are some of the last best original universe content out there, and can keep stories and dreams in this universe going despite the current state of the franchise. This is what I grew up with. If I have kids, these are the stories and games I will pass down to them.

Not the ones influenced by the "Dark Side" of corporate pride and hubris.