Role Playing In Fantasy Flight Games’ Star Wars: Edge of the Empire
There are very few mega-pop culture universes as detailed as the Star Wars universe, so it stands to reason one would expect the role-playing game version of this amazing franchise to be the same. With the Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie trailer out in theatres and on the web and the events of “May the 4th Be With You” just around the corner, this is an exciting opportunity for role-players to immerse themselves in the epic wonders of George Lucas’ creation in Role Playing Game format – Star Wars: Edge of the Empire.
Another winner from Fantasy Flight Games, this amazingly immersive RPG allows players to assume a variety of roles, from bodyguards, smugglers, colonists trying their hand at eking out a living on a fringe planet to crime lords and bounty hunters. The wide variety of character types available in this game are actually quite surprising, given that when one watches the film, there is very little thought to how the many peoples in the Lucasfilm universe actually live their lives. It makes sense that people have to eat somehow.
… Except for droids, of course, which is another exciting race/character option a player can choose; with programming options ranging from protocol, technical or healing, a player can be everyone’s favourite sarcastic or adventurous robot. Just make sure your party has a lot of droid lubricant on hand – the sands of Tatooine can be particularly hard on servos and gears!
What is particularly striking about this RPG is the dice system. Star Wars: Edge of the Empire uses polyhedral dice, as any upstanding RPG system should, but doesn’t use a numerical scale to indicate success of failure. It uses a variety of symbols that not only indicate success or failure, but a more narrative way of describing the actions that players take. For example, a number of success icons that contain a few or one failure icon combined in the roll would indicate the character’s action succeeds, but with some negative element defined by the game-master that spurs on the story. For example, the character may level his blaster, take a shot at an opponent and hit, but the failure icon may be interpreted as the charge on the ammo pack runs out of energy afterwards. Conversely, if a character generates more failures yet has an “advantage” icon in the mix, then that could be interpreted as the character falls and misses, but manages to land under cover to protect her from enemy fire.
The Unique Dice of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire
A great feature of this system is that it is truly story-driven and forces both the players and game-master to think on their feet and improvise a story together. There are also dice icons known as “triumphs” that indicate dramatic success that veteran game-players may know as a critical success. This is also open to interpretation that can have significant – and fun – results on the scenario.
At the beginning of each scenario, there are a number of “Force Counters” made available. The party and the GM determine to see if these are predominantly good or representative of the Dark Side of the Force in the adventure. When used, they are flipped over to the opposite side – good or dark. When either a player or the GM makes a roll and uses on, they add an extra dice known as a “Hope” dice to increase the chances of success. Of course, this has the option of giving either the party or the GM an extra dice at some point in the future, but it definitely adds to the spice of the game by providing extra dramatic flair.
Action Packed and Intense Drama are Integral parts of this RPG
In my gaming group’s current adventure, we have a mercenary, a rogue pilot, a Twi’lek bounty hunter, a medical droid and a technician. I play a wookie –a former gladiator-turned-bodyguard. Our recent mission was to assault the palace of a lesser crime lord, Teemo the Hutt. Not a particularly pleasant character, even for a Hutt, but going up against Gamorean bodyguards, bounty hunters and other despicable sorts makes for an exciting adventure; particularly when the Hutt has Imperial connections and the motivation to dispose of him and his crew before storm-troopers arrive on the ground adds to the tempo of the scenario. Whether it’s assembling dismantled battle droids for use in a combat encounter or rallying a bunch of disgruntled and cynical gladiators to turn on their master, there are a variety of dramatic scenarios that can be fully conceived and employed in this game that are true to the hare-brained schemes any Star Warrior can imagine in the films. A player gets a real sense of intensity and action in this game that is set apart from other games by virtue of its unique dice system that allows for real space operatic action. It truly captures the spirit of Star Wars.
While the detail of the gameplay system is certainly outstanding, even the basic game system has an amazing array of items, weapons, and various other sundries catalogued and well-described for players to choose from and outfit their characters. The game creators have certainly done their homework in cataloguing and defining these items that are range from the fairly prominent items discernible by the casual Star Wars fan to the obscure that only a true Sith or Jedi player would recognize. If you know what a thermal detonator is, then you might be curious to see how it fares as a weapon of choice in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire.
Once more, Fantasy Flight Games demonstrates its excellence in creating a gaming experience from rich and imaginative pop-culture universes. There are few more rich and detailed as the Star Wars environment, which makes this a truly detailed playground for the imaginative Star Wars fan out there. After all, who doesn’t want the pleasure of stealing a Trandoshan bounty hunter’s YT-1300 freighter and taking it for your own?
If that last sentence made sense to you, then you definitely need to play Star Wars: Edge of the Empire.
If it didn’t, then you need more Star Wars in your life.
