Star Wars Roleplaying Game (Fantasy Flight Games)


The Star Wars Roleplaying Game is a tabletop role-playing game set in the Star Wars universe first published by Fantasy Flight Games in August 2012. It consists of three different standalone games, each one conceived to play a particular type of character:
A fourth line, based in the era of the movie , was released in September 2016. It currently only consists of a Beginner Game with no announced plans to expand the line with any other products.

Development

In the 2000s, Wizards of the Coast owned the license for all Star Wars' collectible card and roleplaying games. When the license expired in May 2010, WotC declined the offer to renew it. In August 2011 Fantasy Flight Games acquired the license to produce Star Wars related games from Lucasfilm Ltd. Upon acquisition, Fantasy Flight announced two Star Wars gaming products: the miniatures game X-Wing and the card game Star Wars: The Card Game. A role-playing game was rumored to be in the works until a year later, in August 2012, when the Fantasy Flight announced the publication of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire. Edge of the Empire was to be the first standalone game in a series of three, constituting the Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars Roleplaying Game. The first installment of the "trilogy" was first sold in a beta version in late 2012. The completed version of Edge of the Empire, nearly double the size of the beta, was released on June 25, 2013. Age of Rebellions beta version was released in October 2013, a beginner set released on April 25, 2014, and the final version of the game, the Age of Rebellion core rulebook, released on July 3, 2014. The third line of products, Star Wars: Force and Destiny, for playing Jedi characters, was released in beta in September 2014. In August 2018, the sourcebook Rise of the Separatists, set during the Clone Wars, it was released May 9, 2019.
Fantasy Flight initially drew criticism for releasing a beta version, making people pay twice, and for the extra expense of the unusual custom dice; but reviews after launch were enthusiastic about the dice, with Game Informer saying "In practice, this system offers tremendous flexibility to allow the players to participate in the storytelling process, rather than just waiting for the GM to respond after a die roll. The players talk together about how to interpret a roll of the dice, and shape the results to make the most exciting story. It also speaks strongly to the cinematic nature of the Star Wars universe; characters in the movies often succeed or fail along with potent side effects." and Penny Arcade saying "This dice system is designed to facilitate awesome storytelling and it worked great!"

Release timeline

In the following release timeline, supplements are not included, however the timeline includes dice sets and the principal rule-containing products from all four lines of standalone games, including beta versions, beginner games, and core rulebooks.
All three installments of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game are set within the time period of the original Star Wars trilogy. Star Wars: Edge of the Empire is set shortly after the destruction of the first Death Star, and deals with characters on the fringes of galactic space. Age of Rebellion is set around the time of The Empire Strikes Back, and allows players to join the Rebellion. Like Edge of the Empire, Force and Destiny is set shortly after the destruction of the first Death Star and the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi, when the force sensitives and Jedi slowly start to re-emerge in hopes of rebuilding the Jedi Order.
The Rise of the Separatists Era sourcebook is set during the Clone Wars era at the beginning of the Palpatine regime.
The Dawn of Rebellion Era sourcebook is set during the waning of the Republic and the ascendance of the Empire. It deals with the events of Rogue One, in which the Rebellion is divided into factions and is opposing the Empire just as it is consolidating its power.
The Force Awakens Beginner Game is set during the current era depicted in , with the adventure provided taking place just before the events of the movie.

Game system

Attributes

The Attributes are Brawn, Agility, Intellect, Cunning, Willpower, and Presence. Attribute levels range from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6, although there is a ceiling of 5 during character creation. Each character race has different base Attribute levels, though additional levels in each attribute can be gained during or after character creation, at the cost the value of the next level times 10.. The character can also unlock the Talent Dedication for 25 points, which grants a +1 Attribute increase, once per career Specialization Tree.
Strain is a derived attribute based on a Racial minimum plus the character's Willpower that determines how much physical, mental or emotional stress a character can take before collapsing. Wound Points are a derived attribute based on a Racial minimum plus the character's Brawn that determines how much physical damage a character can take before passing out or slipping into a coma. Soak is the protection granted by the clothing or armor a character is wearing and/or the character's natural toughness.

Templates

After determining attributes, the player designs their character using a Racial Template. Each race has different racial attribute minimums and maximums. Some races also have a free level in a racial skill or have a racial talent. As an example, Humans have a racial template that has a score of 2 in all Attributes and can have any two different skills of the player's choice at the start of play. Characters can also pay points to increase starting wealth or raise their racial advantages.
The player then picks a Career, which grants career skills. Then they pick a Specialization which grants more career skills, and a Specialization Tree, which grants specialization-based Talents. Career Skills are granted their first level free during initial character creation. They also cost less than regular Skills when buying additional levels in them. The character's career grants four Career Skills from the Career template skill list and their career specialization grants two more career Skills from the Specialization template skill list. For instance, an Engineer-Mechanic and Technician-Mechanic have the same Specialization Tree but have different specialization template career skills to choose from to depict their different character concepts.
Characters cannot buy a new Career but may buy additional Specializations - whether they are under their Career or not. However, if a character wishes to buy another specialization, it costs less for one under their chosen Career than for one under another Career. For example, the Engineer Career in the core Age of Rebellion book narrows down to the Mechanic, Saboteur, and Scientist specializations. An Engineer - Mechanic who wants to add the Engineer's Scientist specialization would pay less than if they wanted to add the Ace's Pilot specialization. The character can even take a Specialization from one of the other games like the Edge of the Empire Technician's Slicer or Bounty Hunter's Martial Artist specializations.

Skills

The game's rules assume that all characters have all the listed skills at "zero level" if they do not have a level in it. The character's default skill level is equal to the skill's governing Attribute score. "Default" skill rolls use one green 8-sided Ability die per Attribute level.
Purchasing a level in a skill makes the character an expert in it. Skills have a maximum level of 5. Skill levels can be purchased for five points times the level for Career skills, with the additional cost of five additional points for non-Career skills. For instance, buying level one in Athletics skill would cost no points if it was a selected career or specialty skill during character creation, 5 points if it was a non-selected career skill during or after character creation, and 10 points if it was a non-career skill. Buying level two would cost 10 points for a selected or non-selected career skill and 15 points for a non-career skill.
Regular Skill rolls substitute a yellow 12-sided Proficiency die for a green Ability die per Skill level. For instance, a character with a level of 4 in computers skill and a level of 5 in their Intellect attribute would roll four Proficiency dice and one Ability die rather than five Ability dice. It can also add green Ability dice if the character's skill level is higher than their attribute level. Let's say that in the example above the character instead had a level of 5 in computers skill and a level of 4 in their Intellect attribute. They would still roll four Proficiency dice and one Ability die rather than five Proficiency dice until the character's Intellect is raised to 5. Blue 6-sided Boost Dice are added for advantageous events or if another character is helping the player character with the attempt.
Skill rolls are opposed by rolling a pool of purple 8-sided Difficulty Dice. Depending on the complexity of the task the character is attempting it could range from one die for an Easy complexity task to five dice for a Formidable complexity task. If the character is being opposed by an NPC antagonist while performing a task, a red 12-sided Challenge Die is substituted for each yellow 12-sided Proficiency Die the NPC has in a Regular skill. Black 6-sided Setback Dice are added for disadventageous events or if another NPC is helping the antagonist NPC to hinder the player character's attempt.

Talents

Talents are advantages that add flavor to a character and either grant bonuses, benefit allies, remove penalties during play, or penalize adversaries. They cost experience points to buy, and must be unlocked in the order they appear on a diagram called a "Specialization Tree". The further down the diagram, the more expensive the Talents become. This means that sometimes a player has to buy Talents that they do not want or require in order to get to desired talents further down the same branch. However, it avoids having the character cherry-pick the more powerful talents and leaving the rest. The player can only buy a talent on the tree once.
Each Career Specialization has its own Specialization Tree. When the tree is all filled out, the character cannot buy any more talents from it. If the player wishes to obtain more Talents for their character, then they must select a new Career Specialization and begin filling out that Specialization Tree.
Talents are split into two groups. "Passive" talents denote abilities that are considered always on and can be used for the entire duration of the session. "Active" talents denote abilities that require a difficulty roll to turn on prior to use, and in some cases can only be used a limited number of times in a given session. Some talents have levels and can be purchased more than once. The talent's levels stack, even if they are bought for different amounts of experience points.
Example: Grit is a passive Talent that grants a bonus of +1 per level to the character's Strain. Let's say a player bought their character three levels of Grit from one Specialization Tree at a total cost of 45 points. Then they bought one level of Grit on another Specialization Tree at a cost of 10 points. They would cumulatively stack as four levels of Grit.

Disadvantages

Disadvantages can be taken during character creation to offset point costs. Edge of the Empire has Obligations, something the character is forced or compelled to do. Age of Rebellion has Duties, something the character wants to do. The number of Player Characters in the group set the base disadvantage number. The smaller the group, the larger the Disadvantage level that each player must bear. The Game Master rolls percentile dice at the beginning of play to see which character's disadvantage will be used during the session. The character can pay off the disadvantage with experience points in gameplay.
Force and Destiny has Morality, which governs how close the Force-using character is to slipping over to the Dark Side. Unlike the other two games, Morality is governed by a character's actions during gameplay. Conflict is generated whenever they choose to perform a morally questionable action or choose to use the Dark Side of the Force in order to power their abilities. Morality cannot be 'bought' with XP, instead a player wanting to change their alignment must actually role-play a more aggressive character to turn Dark, or perform acts of compassion to become a paragon of the Light.
Motivation is the character's guiding principle. If the player uses the character's Motivation during gameplay, they get an experience point bonus.

Dice

The system requires custom polyhedral dice. The beta version of the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire softcover rulebook came with a sheet of stickers to convert 14 ordinary polyhedral dice of the right size to Star Wars dice.
The custom dice enable the dice having results on two axes; how successful the skill check was, and how lucky the attempt was with other factors. Normally only one success on the pass–fail axis is needed to succeed. There are both positive and negative types of dice, which can be added to a skill check roll to represent advantages or disadvantages.
The facets on the dice are Success /Failure, Advantage /Threat, or Triumph /Despair. Blank faces confer no benefit or penalty. The result depends on subtracting the lower result from the higher result on an axis.
The total results mean that the character made the Skill roll with a bonus of 1 Success, but suffered 3 Threats and 1 Despair as well. The Game Master would interpret the result to indicate what problems and difficulties would happen next.

Destiny Tokens

Destiny Tokens are granted based on Force Dice rolls at the beginning of the session. Each player in the party rolls a Force Die and the number of White and Black dots are added up. The Player Characters' party gets the tokens of one color and the game master gets the tokens of the opposing color. White Tokens are for the Good Guys and Black Tokens are for the Bad Guys. The party's affiliation determines which color they get
Every time a Destiny Token is used by the party or the game master, it is flipped over to change its color. It then awards either a bonus die for a character's action, or a penalty die to the opposition's effort. This flipped token can now be added to the opposite side's pool. Players have to decide whether they want to spend a point that may be needed later or not spend it to limit the game master's ability to help a named NPC antagonist or penalize a player character.
The tokens can also be used like "Fate Points" in High Adventure Role Playing and FATE Core / Fate Accelerated Edition, "Possibility Points" in TORG, or "Bennies" in Savage Worlds. They can change the situation or cancel out or re-roll an unfavorable result like a fatal hit or pivotal skill-check failure.
Example: "I'm drawing my pistol..." "Did you remember to retrieve your pistol when you fell down that hillside last scene?"

Books and supplements for the ''Star Wars Roleplaying Game''

These items can be used with Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion and/or Force and Destiny.

• Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Critical Damage Decks


  • Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Characters - Critical Injury Deck
  • Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Ships and Vehicles - Critical Hit Deck


• Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Adversary Decks


  • Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Scum and Villainy Adversary Deck
  • Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Imperials and Rebels Adversary Deck
  • Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Citizens of the Galaxy Adversary Deck
  • Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Creatures of the Galaxy Adversary Deck
  • Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Imperials and Rebels II Adversary Deck
  • Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Hunters and Force Users Adversary Deck
  • Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Imperials and Rebels III Adversary Deck
  • Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Republic and Separatist Adversary Deck
  • Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Republic and Separatist II Adversary Deck


• Star Wars: Edge of the Empire - Class Signature Abilities Decks


  • Edge of the Empire: Explorer Signature Abilities Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Hired Gun Signature Abilities Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Colonist Signature Abilities Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Smuggler Signature Abilities Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Technician Signature Abilities Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Bounty Hunter Signature Abilities Deck


• Star Wars: Edge of the Empire - Class Specialization Decks


  • Edge of the Empire: Universal - Force Sensitive Exile Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Explorer - Fringer Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Explorer – Trader Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Explorer - Scout Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Explorer - Archeologist Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Explorer – Big Game Hunter Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Explorer - Driver Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Hired Gun – Mercenary Soldier Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Hired Gun - Marauder Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Hired Gun - Bodyguard Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Hired Gun - Enforcer Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Hired Gun - Heavy Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Hired Gun - Demolitionist Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Colonist - Doctor Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Colonist - Politico Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Colonist - Scholar Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Colonist - Performer Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Colonist - Entrepreneur Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Colonist - Marshall Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Smuggler - Scoundrel Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Smuggler - Thief Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Smuggler - Pilot Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Smuggler - Charmer Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Smuggler - Gambler Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Smuggler - Gunslinger Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Technician - Mechanic Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Technician – Outlaw Tech Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Technician - Slicer Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Technician – Cyber Tech Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Technician - Droid Tech Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Technician - Modder Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Bounty Hunter - Assassin Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Bounty Hunter - Gageteer Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Bounty Hunter - Survivalist Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Bounty Hunter – Skip Tracer Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Bounty Hunter – Martial Artist Specialization Deck
  • Edge of the Empire: Bounty Hunter - Operator Specialization Deck

Star Wars: Force and Destiny won the Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Game and Fan Favorite Role-Playing Game for 2015.
Star Wars: Edge of the Empire won the Origins Award for Fan Favorite Role-Playing Game for 2016.