Part of me misses this classic game, the old Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG with the funny dice. Made before the Disney movies came out, this is the last, best window into the world of Classic (Legacy) Star Wars that we have left.
If there is such a thing as an "Old School Revolution" regarding D&D, there is such a thing as "Old School Legacy" when it comes to Star Wars. The OSL regarding these movies and books should be a real force in the galaxy, as powerful as the force itself. If all you want to do is ignore the modern movies, play in the original universe of the movies and the expanded universe, and just bring back all the good times you felt while you were growing up, this is your game.
I give you the power to do this. It is fine to ignore the new movies and just enjoy the old ones. You have my permission. Be a kid again and live in those moments. May the force be with you.
And you can still get this game, now published by Edge Studios and not Fantasy Flight, and I am happy to see it still in print and being sold. This one brings back memories.
I played this game with my brother, and we enjoyed the low-level play before things started to fall apart at higher power levels. Rolling four of those yellow dice for a skill meant you were the best-of-the-best, and you needed to be real stingy about character improvement to make the experience last and have meaningful play for any length of time.
Also slightly annoying was constantly deciphering the symbols on the dice and constantly coming up with "what this means" for every attack for every character. Special dice systems have this problem built into the game, and we often used them as a positive or negative modifier to the next turn's actions to speed things up.
One rule we had was not to "overroll" things and let one roll stand for a longer sequence of events. If you were trying to cross the town and blend in, avoiding Imperial contact, make one streetwise-type roll for the entire scene, interpret the results, and move on to the next scene. Do not make this entire scene six separate skill rolls with cascading special die-result interpretations! You will slow down the game, and, as a result, punish players by "forcing stupid stuff to happen" for every little thing they try to do.
The game played fast, especially if you kept the action macro on, and we even used the macro rule in combat. The turn-by-turn combat for us was more like playing through an action scene where a few blaster bolts were exchanged by each side, and we were not doing a GURPS-level, shot-by-shot, down to the second time tracking of a simulation system. One die roll and its consequences were the simulation of a short combat sequence, like what happens during this 5-10 second cut shot to the character, instead of trying to handle things at too granular a level of simulation.
Another issue the game had was that many of the classes in the "sister games" were too similar to each other, and you could double up by picking one spec in one book, and then cross-training in another spec in another. You will see the same sort of ability reprinted across the games, and some of the classes felt like ability shuffles. Still, the talent trees were fun to build up, and it is a more satisfying game to build a character in than D&D 5E. The build paths here beat the pants off D&D 5E's subclass system by far and allow for greater depth of control and planning your character build.
If you want a detailed, satisfying, talent-by-talent build system, drop the d20 and pick up the OG OSL game for Star Wars, and play through your childhood memories. These characters are fun to progress and build, and you start to become a specialist in areas that actually matter to your character concept. Never did I feel I was being forced to take a worthless power I would never use, and this happens all the time in 5E when you get something at a level, and you are like, "huh."
Since you don't have "magic items" or "levels" and character equipment is pretty static, your talents and experience define character power. The characters, while detailed, are still far easier to run than D&D 5E characters, and today's online character sheet games feel like a mess compared to a clean Legacy Star Wars character in this game.
When you start to add sourcebooks, things get more complicated, and the game begins to slow down. It is best to just stick to the core books when you begin. Have fun with the amazing amount of stuff they give you, and never play with too many expansion books.
Mixing characters between games felt like a "fish out of water" moment for us, and it felt best to keep characters and campaigns in the games where they belonged. You had to do this if you wanted to start adding Jedi into games, and forget canon when it comes to Jedi; there are Jedi everywhere in this game. Order 66 was an obvious failure, and what we saw in the prequel trilogy was the version they released to the press. Fewer than 1% of the Jedi and force-sensitive people were killed, and there are still a lot of these "magic users" running around the galaxy, good and bad.
It is more of a "game view" into this universe than a canon one, and that allows you to do whatever you want. I appreciate the freedom. This is my universe, and I will do what I want to. Also, do not feel beholden to canon in this game; if you want "Gray Jedi" or "Red Jedi," just do it and ignore the huge number of people on YouTube who will complain.
It is YOUR canon now.
Do time travel, mess things up, make Han work with the Imperials like a galactic scumbag. Play the Rebellion game, but play an Imperial campaign where they are the good guys and paint the Rebels as a terrorist faction. Work for the Hutts. Play as students in a Sith temple that backstab each other like it is "Evil High School." Whatever you want to do, you are free to do here, and never let others judge you for your take on Star Wars and "how you play with your action figures."
Because this is an "action figure game" even more so than D&D. You get a bunch of toys put into themed toyboxes, you are given a handful of toy dice, and you go make stories and play with your toys. Every character you make is a new toy; some of them may have short lives as you never want to leave them on for the lawnmower to eat, but, hey, that's life in the galaxy. You are not losing anything, and you get to make a new toy for the next story, next time.
All I want Star Wars to be these days, as a source of happiness, is as a "story simulator" - and that is exactly what I get here. Why am I endlessly watching YouTube complain about Star Wars, when what means more to me is "playing Star Wars" and "telling my own stories."
As a happiness delivery system, the Edge Studio games are more Star Wars to me than anything else right now. This, and the original movies, can deliver decades of happiness, and that is all I care about.
D&D has lost its way. It isn't about "play and fun" anymore, like these games were. D&D feels more like an online identity cosplay system than it does a storytelling game where you play with cool action figures and tell stories. In this game, I create a smuggler, run him around a remote outpost city, and try to steal his ship out of the Imperial impoundment yard, fail a bunch of rolls, get drilled and filled by Stormtrooper blaster bolts (they are a lot more deadly in these games and more accurate), and have him die on the street.
Sad? Yes. But did this serve the purpose of telling a tragic tale in this universe that I will always remember? Definitely. You are not invincible here; it lets you tell stories with a rotating cast of characters who may not make it to the next session, but there could always be a special connection among them. Characters do die or retire in Star Wars, and that is a part of the natural cycle of life in the universe.
My next character would be an eyewitness to the event who is handed the starship's control codes in his dying words, and he tells her, "Have a great life, kid. Take care of her."
And that is where the next story begins...
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