The Edge Studio beginner boxed sets are a lot better than the previous Fantasy Flight sets. First up, the boxes are textured, heavy cardboard, meant to be opened and closed many times, with a top cover. This is a huge improvement over the thin cardboard boxes of the original beginner sets, and the components are mostly the same. The bottom cover even has an angled cutout so the game components can be pulled out more easily, and this is a huge improvement over my now-crushed Fantasy Flight beginner boxes.
This is a professionally designed box, and it shows. This box will display well and hold together on a shelf or in a backpack. This is a huge plus.
Why this game isn't more popular, I have no clue. The game is fun, the beginner set is solid, the dicing system beats many narrative games on the market today, and it is a well-thought-through, well-put-together beginner experience. There are three beginner sets; this one is for the Jedi experience.
This should be at least as popular as Call of Cthulhu, and the niche of gamers who love and play it remains strong. I find the beginner experience of these starter sets to be far superior to that of D&D 5E, and the roles and adventures are far more familiar and engaging than generic fantasy. To me, this is a far more gripping and compelling experience than fantasy.
It is unfair to mix the current, inconsistent Star Wars with the classic experience, and I can keep the two apart in my mind and still be a fan of the good stuff. I suppose those really into Star Wars roleplay are on Star Wars: The Old Republic and getting the full experience. I like the world, the lore, and all the action figures and toys of the RPG.
It is good stuff.
Is that a "gun character?" That is cool and an option for those who like shooty-style gameplay. They include a few character types as pregens, and you pick the playstyle you prefer.
There is a small canon break here: there are more Jedi and Sith in Star Wars than just the final few we have in the Star Wars trilogy, around the end of the first Death Star. There are many more Sith and Jedi, and the players play as Jedi initiates in this game, complete with Force powers. There are active Sith as enemies, too. So this universe is already breaking canon for fun and gameplay purposes, and that is cool.
And we get four pregen characters, who all look fun to play and are instantly accessible to beginners. I like the Force Monk; he looks fun to play, and we would be fighting over who gets to play him as kids. This is the type of Star Wars I miss and wish they would make today, that "aw, cool" version of Star Wars we grew up with.
Looks like we have a shooty character, a martial artist, and two saber users, which feels like a good balance and reflects differing gameplay styles.
We get a map and tokens, too, which is very nice and makes this game very beginner-friendly. I love the design of this boxed set, and it is something that D&D never sticks the landing on. You can play quite a few adventures with this set, too, not just the beginning adventure, as it suggests areas to branch out in and continue the fun, for those who need to wait a while to get the game's corebook.
More adventures and the ability to play the game beyond the starter adventure are excellent features that help lower-income and younger players who may need to wait a few weeks or months to play. More value in the beginner box is a huge plus, very generous, and it hooks players in and gets them looking forward to the full game.
Plus, you get a set of special dice! Eventually, you need two of these sets to have a full "four yellow" die roll for higher-level play, but this is good to start. You get one in every beginner set, so you will eventually collect enough, plus you can always pick up a set.
More Jedi is fun, and it fits the power fantasy of this universe well, pulling Episode 4's timeline more in line with the SWTOR "many Jedi and Sith" experience, and it opens the door for players to be actual Jedi instead of wandering around the galaxy and hearing about them. I would love to play in an EP4 universe with rising Jedi and Sith factions, that would be cool and change up the future of the universe. The roleplay would be more like SWTOR, especially if you allowed Sith characters, and the infighting and faction building would be amazing in that timeline.
Most of the Star Wars RP is online and concentrated in SWTOR, but the pen-and-paper games are fun and a part of this universe. Truth be told, the role-playing and universe of SWTOR are better than most anything in the current timeline of Star Wars, and the abundance of Jedi and Sith make this universe feel far more like the true "fantasy genre" of Star Wars. The technology is more primitive, the force users and powers are far more abundant, and the setting feels grounded and approachable.
Force and Destiny sort of brings that feeling forward, but does not make the SWTOR leap of having large Jedi and Sith factions running around. The Sith and Jedi are still around, just not in control of the two sides of the galaxy like they are in SWTOR.
If anything, SWTOR feels like the "real roleplaying universe" of Star Wars, well-hidden and concentrated in the online game, and it has much more of the fantasy vibe going on than anything that came after.
This type of strong "Sith and Jedi fighting in the current timeline" would invalidate the "there is another" of EP6, and the whole Skywalker Saga would be diminished, but it would be more in line with the MMO-style of universe and still fun. Seeing active and growing Jedi and Sith factions would pull in Vader, Luke, Yoda, the Emperor, and many others, and mess up the timeline permanently - but all is good in the pen-and-paper reality, and this game is more for fun than recreating the timeline down to the last event.
If you want it, then have it! This beginner set allows you to play with your action figures and live out those fantasies in this universe, so have fun, drop all the negativity, and play this game like it was 1977 again. Have massive Jedi and Sith factions fighting it out, and live in this galaxy again.
An excellent boxed set, and worth the upgrade.
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