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Hey guys, I'm a relatively new DM. A little background of my DMing, I've only hosted a Star Wars d20 game (which later we switched to Saga edition mid-campaign). And I've hosted a Deathwatch game. Sadly for me, the star wars game was my first one, and it fell apart as I wasn't very experienced. The Deathwatch game got decently far, but I tried adding "intrigue" to a Space Marine game....and it didn't work.

So, I've been looking to reboot both games. I have a campaign in mind set after the original party failed in the Star Wars campaign. And I want to reboot the idea of my campaign from Deathwatch.

My main question to you guys is, I have the PDFs of Star Wars Saga edition and the D20 system, but I'm thinking of branching out and trying Star Wars Force and Destiny. Have any of you guys tried it out? And if so, what do you think compared to the other game systems, if you've tried them? The setting is to have a small band of Jedi fighting against the large Sith Empire which has taken control of the galaxy. Would that system give me smooth gameplay for Jedi characters?

Also, I have a ton of books already for Deathwatch, so it'd be easier to find content for Rogue trader. What do you guys think of that one? Is it a better setting to have an "intrigue" feel to it? To use the Rogue trader system, and use templates and gear from Deathwatch/Black Crusade?

Force and Destiny isn't really out yet; the core book comes out at the end of the month. (July 31st, I believe.)

That said, it runs on (mostly) the same system that Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion do. I'm in the midst of (loosely) running an Edge of the Empire game. I think a couple of my players may read dakka, so I won't get into the details, but I am REALLY enjoying the system.

After years of D&D (2e through 4e), World of Darkness (old and new), Cyberpunk and Shadowrun (20A and 5e) I'm enjoying the far more free-form interpretive system that Fantasy Flight created. The dice pool takes a little bit of getting used to, and sometimes rolls can be challenging to explain (failing with overwhelming amounts of Advantage, for instance), but overall I find it a very, very fluid system that is easy to pick up. Were I not planning a D&D game for later, I would consider using the Fantasy Flight system to run a game of Shadowrun, whose setting I've always adored but whose system has generally always been crap.

For your game, I don't see why the FF system wouldn't work. I also enjoyed Saga for small groups of characters, but found it fell apart when you got more than 4 or 5. That said, I found players tended to take only those talents that directly influenced combat checks, since skill rolls with training and focus were already enough to breeze past most DCs. In EotE however, I have players branching out a bit more.

I have 0 experience with Death Watch or Rogue Trader though, so I can't really help with those.

Ah, I was under the impression that Force and Destiny was already out, as I heard of a few people already playing it. Well, I'll look at the book at the end of the week then.

One thing I do think is cool, since most of my group are more familiar with d20 or d10 based systems, is that Fantasy Flight even has a Dice app for their own system. That's pretty cool in my opinion, and makes it so that my group doesn't have to invest in more specific dice.

I personally loved Saga edition because of all of the extra books, Kotor era being my favorite, and they actually had a book for it, as well as one for the Force Unleashed. The downside was, once the party reached a certain level (I think 10ish out of 20) it was stupid hard for me to actually do any damage to then besides sending end game boss-level characters at them (again, I was also a new DM). They just get so powerful so early on and it seemed ridiculous. So, I'm curious as to how the leveling and power levels are like in the Force and Destiny/Edge of the Empire system.

 krodarklorr wrote:
Ah, I was under the impression that Force and Destiny was already out, as I heard of a few people already playing it. Well, I'll look at the book at the end of the week then.

One thing I do think is cool, since most of my group are more familiar with d20 or d10 based systems, is that Fantasy Flight even has a Dice app for their own system. That's pretty cool in my opinion, and makes it so that my group doesn't have to invest in more specific dice.

I personally loved Saga edition because of all of the extra books, Kotor era being my favorite, and they actually had a book for it, as well as one for the Force Unleashed. The downside was, once the party reached a certain level (I think 10ish out of 20) it was stupid hard for me to actually do any damage to then besides sending end game boss-level characters at them (again, I was also a new DM). They just get so powerful so early on and it seemed ridiculous. So, I'm curious as to how the leveling and power levels are like in the Force and Destiny/Edge of the Empire system.

Well, there were beta rules for Force and Destiny out there, but not the final print book. The Beginner Box for Force and Destiny is out, which includes some dice, maps, tokens, pregen characters and stuff. It has a small rules pamphlet, but not like the full career and specialization descriptions.

FF's system doesn't use a "level" system. It's an XP advancement system a la White Wolf / World of Darkness or Shadowrun. It's considerably harder to boost your attributes, for instance, since that can only be done with a (usually) end tier specialization talent that takes considerable XP to unlock. The dice rolling app is pretty great, and there's even an add-on for Roll20 or even Google Hangouts that I've used.

That said, the FF setting is pretty much solely dedicated to the original trilogy of movies: Edge of the Empire for A New Hope, Age of Rebellion for Empire Strikes back, and Force and Destiny for Return of the Jedi. But if you still have your saga books, porting the FF system into any new setting should be really easy. Add/remove a few skills if necessary (though the FF list is pretty generic and applicable) and that's pretty much all it takes. Force and Destiny would obviously be your go-to book for a KotOR era game though!

 streamdragon wrote:

Well, there were beta rules for Force and Destiny out there, but not the final print book. The Beginner Box for Force and Destiny is out, which includes some dice, maps, tokens, pregen characters and stuff. It has a small rules pamphlet, but not like the full career and specialization descriptions.

FF's system doesn't use a "level" system. It's an XP advancement system a la White Wolf / World of Darkness or Shadowrun. It's considerably harder to boost your attributes, for instance, since that can only be done with a (usually) end tier specialization talent that takes considerable XP to unlock. The dice rolling app is pretty great, and there's even an add-on for Roll20 or even Google Hangouts that I've used.

That said, the FF setting is pretty much solely dedicated to the original trilogy of movies: Edge of the Empire for A New Hope, Age of Rebellion for Empire Strikes back, and Force and Destiny for Return of the Jedi. But if you still have your saga books, porting the FF system into any new setting should be really easy. Add/remove a few skills if necessary (though the FF list is pretty generic and applicable) and that's pretty much all it takes. Force and Destiny would obviously be your go-to book for a KotOR era game though!

Ah, yes, the experience "leveling". I'm familiar with it from Deathwatch. I personally think it's a bit more realistic, so to speak. And why would Force and Destiny be my go-to book for KotOR if it's focused around the Return of Jedi era?

 krodarklorr wrote:


Ah, yes, the experience "leveling". I'm familiar with it from Deathwatch. I personally think it's a bit more realistic, so to speak. And why would Force and Destiny be my go-to book for KotOR if it's focused around the Return of Jedi era?

I can't speak for the Rebellion book, as I don't own it, but the Edge of Empire book has barely any info on Jedi. So if you want any sort of Jedi presence, you're going to need Force and Destiny. And the Old Republic era has a definite Jedi presence.

Pretty much what Eumerin said.

Edge of the Empire's focus is on fringe characters. Think Han Solo, Chewbacca, Lando et al.

Age of Rebellion's focus is on military campaigns and characters. Think Wedge Antilles, Tarkin and the like.

Force and Destiny focuses on Force Users (not just Jedi). It has the more fully fleshed out rules for Force powers, where EotE and AoR generally have one single specialization each, with no Force using base careers.

So if you want to run a game set in the KotOR era, Force and Destiny has better rules for things like Lightsabers.

 streamdragon wrote:
Pretty much what Eumerin said.

Edge of the Empire's focus is on fringe characters. Think Han Solo, Chewbacca, Lando et al.

Age of Rebellion's focus is on military campaigns and characters. Think Wedge Antilles, Tarkin and the like.

Force and Destiny focuses on Force Users (not just Jedi). It has the more fully fleshed out rules for Force powers, where EotE and AoR generally have one single specialization each, with no Force using base careers.

So if you want to run a game set in the KotOR era, Force and Destiny has better rules for things like Lightsabers.

So I picked up the rulebook. I'm already loving this system more than the older two. Can't wait to try this out.

I ran Rogue Trader, Dark Heresy and Only War, I never did Deathwatch, too much book keeping for my tastes.

But for intrigue, both DH and RT are tops; DH is more low-key, cloak and dagger, Rogue Trader is dealing with Kings and Gods, you got a ship, 20K+ crewmen at your loyal service and top notch gear right off the bat...So DH will deal about some bureaucrat who slice off the top for a cult, while Rogue Trader is about a bureaucrat hiding a whole system of untouched planets and ressources.

Only War you're Guardsmen, so it's about getting a pack of Lho or a flashlight from the quartermaster wihtout having to fill in the paperwork