Added new Colonist Career Specializations as well as Colonist Signature Abilities.
Added an "ALL" tree.
for those like me, who just like to know ALL the options.
Also updated the PDFs of all specializations.
Now when you check a Non-ranked Talent, it will mark it off on any other page you have in the pdf.(more useful when you use the new ALL pdf or when you combine multiple pdf together)
Made some spelling corrections to a few things.
Made some background changes to the form fields to help keep track of things more easily.
corrected a few other errors in the content.
have fun.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
death star super laser in game?
I was doing some stuff with ships the other day and playing with weapon damage when I had a thought...
how much damage (in terms of game mechanics) can the Death Stars super laser do?
Had anyone else been around they probably would have seen my eyes glaze over as I quickly became lost in this question and how I might answer it. As soon as my brain had even a slight plan, I set to work. Here is basically my thought process.
a little research suggests that the only full power shot the death laser ever made was at Alderaan.
ok so a full power shot can destroy a planet we all know that... but how much damage is that in game terms?
Damage is taken as Wounds or as Hull Trauma. Ships and large scale objects seem to use Hull Tauma. so now the question is, what is the Hull Trauma Threshold (HTT) of Alderaan?
before that, we have to ask what does Hull Trauma represent?
HTT is a reflection of the objects construction and ability to sustain damage while continuing to function.
ok.... but how do we even start to calculate how much a planet has?
I'll start with an well established baseline for comparison.
Imperial 1-class Star Destroyer on pg 281 of Age of Rebellion is a well documented ship.
It has a HTT of 145.
so whats the HTT of an equivalently sized (average) chunk of Alderaan?
Construction quality?
well Alderaan presumably isn't made of hardned steel and other alloys, but it is relatively solid as compared to the Star Destroyer which is mostly empty space.
Ability to keep functioning?
The star destroyer has a lot of fancy tech that needs to keep working where as the chunk of Alderaan just has to keep being a chunk of Alderaan.
So it seems like the Alderaan chunk likely has a significantly higher HTT than the star destroyer. The Alderaan chunk may lack armor, but its a solid piece of planet and will keep being a solid piece of planet for longer than a star destroyer continues to be a star destroyer.
so an Imperial 1-Class Star Destroyer sized chuck of Alderaan has a HTT of 300 (just picking a number that sounds 'right-ish')
ok. so how many of those chunks make up the whole planet?
Alderaan has a 12,500km diameter. a volume of ~ 102,000,000,000,000 cubic kilometers (3/4πr^3)
An Imperial 1-class Star Destroyer has a volume of... hmm.
got a length of 1600 meters, a beam (width) of ~880 meters and a hight of ~455 meters.
so its basically a flying pyramid.. ok, lets cut off the tower thing so that its 364 meters tall (more of an 'even' pyramid). V=(LWH)/3
An Imperial 1-class Star Destroyer has a volume of ~ 171,000,000 Cubic Meters or 177,000 Cubic Kilometers.
(102,000,000,000,000 / 177,000)
Alderaan is approximately 596,491,228 Imperial Class-1 Star Destroyers.
(300 * 596,491,228)
Alderaan has a Hull Trauma Threshold of ~ 178,947,368,421
That means the Death Star laser does just shy of 179 BILLION damage.
wow. so that's pretty impressive.
the other way to math it out.
*figure out how much energy a Turbolaser (heavy) uses.
there are so many different takes on this but i'm going with the largest estimate i saw of 200 gigatons per shot. some other fun references for this that i didn't use are here and here.
*figure out how much energy it takes to blow up an earth sized planet.
nicest figure i saw was 2.2 x 1032 joules. check this guys maths out.
*divide energy to blow up planet by energy of Turbolaser (heavy).
after converting gigatons to joules and dividing we have a result of 262,906,309,751 Turbolaser shots to equal the energy of one death star shot.
*Multiply result by Turbolaser (heavy) damage of 11.
easy enough. the Death Star Laser does 2,891,969,407,266 Damage.
2 TRILLION 892 Billion !!!!
there is a pretty big discrepancy here.
the second method seems like it requires fewer assumptions.. but the assumption of how much energy a Turbolaser uses is a pretty big one..
in the end not sure what i think about either of these...
but i'm pretty sure that the Death Star super laser is one bad-ass laser
at the end of the day, i would probably go with my first 179 Billion damage calculation.
yeah, its the smaller of the two and that's a bit less cool.
BUT
Lets not forget that the game includes things like Critical Hits, and other weapon properties.
Lets not forget either that the Super Laser of the death star functions differently from a normal turbolaser. The super laser uses exotic materials pulled from Hyperspace to cause more damage than normal. It also causes material it hits to be pushed into hyperspace causing a sort of 'hyperspace' bubble which then 'pops' causing extra damage in real space.
i'm fine with the low end of the damage calculation.
since the super laser likely has several special Keywords or unique critical capabilities that help it be super destructive...
you know... because 179 Billion damage isn't always enough.
last note..
I am not a mathematician. I know I made assumptions. I could, quite possibly be wrong, on everything I did. No I do not need to be corrected on any of it.
I had fun so who cares.
how much damage (in terms of game mechanics) can the Death Stars super laser do?
Had anyone else been around they probably would have seen my eyes glaze over as I quickly became lost in this question and how I might answer it. As soon as my brain had even a slight plan, I set to work. Here is basically my thought process.
a little research suggests that the only full power shot the death laser ever made was at Alderaan.
ok so a full power shot can destroy a planet we all know that... but how much damage is that in game terms?
Damage is taken as Wounds or as Hull Trauma. Ships and large scale objects seem to use Hull Tauma. so now the question is, what is the Hull Trauma Threshold (HTT) of Alderaan?
before that, we have to ask what does Hull Trauma represent?
HTT is a reflection of the objects construction and ability to sustain damage while continuing to function.
ok.... but how do we even start to calculate how much a planet has?
I'll start with an well established baseline for comparison.
Imperial 1-class Star Destroyer on pg 281 of Age of Rebellion is a well documented ship.
It has a HTT of 145.
so whats the HTT of an equivalently sized (average) chunk of Alderaan?
Construction quality?
well Alderaan presumably isn't made of hardned steel and other alloys, but it is relatively solid as compared to the Star Destroyer which is mostly empty space.
Ability to keep functioning?
The star destroyer has a lot of fancy tech that needs to keep working where as the chunk of Alderaan just has to keep being a chunk of Alderaan.
So it seems like the Alderaan chunk likely has a significantly higher HTT than the star destroyer. The Alderaan chunk may lack armor, but its a solid piece of planet and will keep being a solid piece of planet for longer than a star destroyer continues to be a star destroyer.
so an Imperial 1-Class Star Destroyer sized chuck of Alderaan has a HTT of 300 (just picking a number that sounds 'right-ish')
ok. so how many of those chunks make up the whole planet?
Alderaan has a 12,500km diameter. a volume of ~ 102,000,000,000,000 cubic kilometers (3/4πr^3)
An Imperial 1-class Star Destroyer has a volume of... hmm.
got a length of 1600 meters, a beam (width) of ~880 meters and a hight of ~455 meters.
so its basically a flying pyramid.. ok, lets cut off the tower thing so that its 364 meters tall (more of an 'even' pyramid). V=(LWH)/3
An Imperial 1-class Star Destroyer has a volume of ~ 171,000,000 Cubic Meters or 177,000 Cubic Kilometers.
(102,000,000,000,000 / 177,000)
Alderaan is approximately 596,491,228 Imperial Class-1 Star Destroyers.
(300 * 596,491,228)
Alderaan has a Hull Trauma Threshold of ~ 178,947,368,421
That means the Death Star laser does just shy of 179 BILLION damage.
wow. so that's pretty impressive.
the other way to math it out.
*figure out how much energy a Turbolaser (heavy) uses.
there are so many different takes on this but i'm going with the largest estimate i saw of 200 gigatons per shot. some other fun references for this that i didn't use are here and here.
*figure out how much energy it takes to blow up an earth sized planet.
nicest figure i saw was 2.2 x 1032 joules. check this guys maths out.
*divide energy to blow up planet by energy of Turbolaser (heavy).
after converting gigatons to joules and dividing we have a result of 262,906,309,751 Turbolaser shots to equal the energy of one death star shot.
*Multiply result by Turbolaser (heavy) damage of 11.
easy enough. the Death Star Laser does 2,891,969,407,266 Damage.
2 TRILLION 892 Billion !!!!
there is a pretty big discrepancy here.
the second method seems like it requires fewer assumptions.. but the assumption of how much energy a Turbolaser uses is a pretty big one..
in the end not sure what i think about either of these...
but i'm pretty sure that the Death Star super laser is one bad-ass laser
at the end of the day, i would probably go with my first 179 Billion damage calculation.
yeah, its the smaller of the two and that's a bit less cool.
BUT
Lets not forget that the game includes things like Critical Hits, and other weapon properties.
Lets not forget either that the Super Laser of the death star functions differently from a normal turbolaser. The super laser uses exotic materials pulled from Hyperspace to cause more damage than normal. It also causes material it hits to be pushed into hyperspace causing a sort of 'hyperspace' bubble which then 'pops' causing extra damage in real space.
i'm fine with the low end of the damage calculation.
since the super laser likely has several special Keywords or unique critical capabilities that help it be super destructive...
you know... because 179 Billion damage isn't always enough.
last note..
I am not a mathematician. I know I made assumptions. I could, quite possibly be wrong, on everything I did. No I do not need to be corrected on any of it.
I had fun so who cares.
Friday, October 3, 2014
FOCUS: Aratech Repulsor Company
adding a bunch of Aratech Repulsor Company vehicles.
74-Y speeder Bike
93-B Hovercraft
101-C Medium Military Hover
105-K Lancer Bike
109-Z Armored Cargo Hover
Arrow-23 Landspeeder
Conjo Y41-4LC Fighter
Conjo Y41-C2LC Fighter
Conjo Y41-T Trainer
GX12 Hovervan
REPSUB repulsor-equipped Submersible-Carrier
SkySlayer
Urban Navigator
Z-12 Cargo Master Speeder Truck
74-Y speeder Bike
93-B Hovercraft
101-C Medium Military Hover
105-K Lancer Bike
109-Z Armored Cargo Hover
Arrow-23 Landspeeder
Conjo Y41-4LC Fighter
Conjo Y41-C2LC Fighter
Conjo Y41-T Trainer
GX12 Hovervan
REPSUB repulsor-equipped Submersible-Carrier
SkySlayer
Urban Navigator
Z-12 Cargo Master Speeder Truck
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Hammered out the rest
Managed to hammer out the Universal Trees Recruit and Force Sensitive Emergent as well as the two new force powers.
Recruit is pretty cool..
It feels and sounds like the kind of thing that you would START as... too bad the rules say you have to pick a career first, then buy in to the Recruit tree. that makes it expensive to start in this tree. The tree is obviously meant to be a Military Recruit, not like a noob character starter spot, so I suppose I can forgive the fact that its initial impression doesn't line up with its actual play style. Of course, if your an already established character, then the real appeal of the Recruit tree falters since you should already have many of the skills it grants access to, and probably one or two of its other Talents.
so, i guess Recruit is... only... kind of cool?...
cool in concept.
Force Sensitive Emergent is.... basically Force Sensitive Exile, with a couple different force only Talents. naturally, they are neat talents. over all though, the only significant thing this tree has to offer is a +1 force rating.
Force Power Enhance is circumstantially mediocre. If you invest heavily it could one day save your life and the rest of the time it will still provide you with a neat trick to grab the attention of every imperial who sees you .... oh..
Force Power Foresee.
If your a player this is awesome.. get to know bits about your future, and become the master of initiative and going first, maybe even going first before you go first.
If your a GM, you're going to hate this power with a passion. Get ready to call a time out and think up some way to give your force using character a hint good enough to let him feel his power was useful, without giving him enough to completely murder your carefully laid plans. why does the hint have to make him feel his power was useful?? because there isn't a limitation on it..
If i was a Force user with Foresee, i would spend the vast majority of my time in meditation... basically just rolling a Foresee check as often as possible to troll for information before my GM finally gets mad enough to tell me I have to spend a destiny point in order to use the power at all. of course, maybe you'll get lucky and your players won't be dicks... maybe....
anyway... the point is.. I got all the Careers, Specialization and Force powers up on the Fillable Sheets page.
You no longer have a good excuse to purchase the Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook.
you're welcome.
Recruit is pretty cool..
It feels and sounds like the kind of thing that you would START as... too bad the rules say you have to pick a career first, then buy in to the Recruit tree. that makes it expensive to start in this tree. The tree is obviously meant to be a Military Recruit, not like a noob character starter spot, so I suppose I can forgive the fact that its initial impression doesn't line up with its actual play style. Of course, if your an already established character, then the real appeal of the Recruit tree falters since you should already have many of the skills it grants access to, and probably one or two of its other Talents.
so, i guess Recruit is... only... kind of cool?...
cool in concept.
Force Sensitive Emergent is.... basically Force Sensitive Exile, with a couple different force only Talents. naturally, they are neat talents. over all though, the only significant thing this tree has to offer is a +1 force rating.
Force Power Enhance is circumstantially mediocre. If you invest heavily it could one day save your life and the rest of the time it will still provide you with a neat trick to grab the attention of every imperial who sees you .... oh..
Force Power Foresee.
If your a player this is awesome.. get to know bits about your future, and become the master of initiative and going first, maybe even going first before you go first.
If your a GM, you're going to hate this power with a passion. Get ready to call a time out and think up some way to give your force using character a hint good enough to let him feel his power was useful, without giving him enough to completely murder your carefully laid plans. why does the hint have to make him feel his power was useful?? because there isn't a limitation on it..
If i was a Force user with Foresee, i would spend the vast majority of my time in meditation... basically just rolling a Foresee check as often as possible to troll for information before my GM finally gets mad enough to tell me I have to spend a destiny point in order to use the power at all. of course, maybe you'll get lucky and your players won't be dicks... maybe....
anyway... the point is.. I got all the Careers, Specialization and Force powers up on the Fillable Sheets page.
You no longer have a good excuse to purchase the Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook.
you're welcome.
rest of the base AoR careers.
The Diplomat.
The Engineer.
The Soldier.
The Spy.
These are all great classes that take a bunch of the material released in EotE, reorganize it and compile it in a way that makes way more thematic sense. Each career has only a few new things but don't worry. They make up for the lack of new material by using their efficiency of organization to make your EotE character seem like a fool who cant find real direction in life.
The only reason not to like these classes is that each new class takes a bunch of the material released in EotE, reorganize it and compile it in a way that makes way more thematic sense. Each career has only a few new things. They make up for the lack of new material by using their efficiency of organization to make your EotE character seem like a fool who cant find real direction in life.
You can look at any of them on the Fillable Sheets page.
The Engineer.
The Soldier.
The Spy.
These are all great classes that take a bunch of the material released in EotE, reorganize it and compile it in a way that makes way more thematic sense. Each career has only a few new things but don't worry. They make up for the lack of new material by using their efficiency of organization to make your EotE character seem like a fool who cant find real direction in life.
The only reason not to like these classes is that each new class takes a bunch of the material released in EotE, reorganize it and compile it in a way that makes way more thematic sense. Each career has only a few new things. They make up for the lack of new material by using their efficiency of organization to make your EotE character seem like a fool who cant find real direction in life.
You can look at any of them on the Fillable Sheets page.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Ace and Commander
The first two careers out of Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook have been added.
look for them on the fillable sheets page.
The Ace is a nice career.. focused and to the point.. very cohesive concept. Fly anything and be able to shoot shit while you do it.
The Commander is a nice career too. you can lead your fleet, or your squad and do it well. only complaint here is that the three specializations within this one career, seem to have a lot of Talent overlap. Talent over-lap can be good, or not... I'm not sure yet in this case.
anyway.. I will try to get all the new Careers done up as soon as I can.
I want to do my part to make sure no one else really needs to buy Age of Rebellion.
look for them on the fillable sheets page.
The Ace is a nice career.. focused and to the point.. very cohesive concept. Fly anything and be able to shoot shit while you do it.
The Commander is a nice career too. you can lead your fleet, or your squad and do it well. only complaint here is that the three specializations within this one career, seem to have a lot of Talent overlap. Talent over-lap can be good, or not... I'm not sure yet in this case.
anyway.. I will try to get all the new Careers done up as soon as I can.
I want to do my part to make sure no one else really needs to buy Age of Rebellion.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook: review 2 of 2
a book so duplicitous I had to review it twice.
Review 2.
Assumptions:
1* The buyer is not new to role playing games.
2* The buyer owns the Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook
(possibly some other edge of the empire books as well) or at the very minimum
is aware of and familiar with (has played extensively) FFG’s Edge of the Empire
product line.
YOU DO NOT NEED THIS BOOK.
I remember when I was a kid maybe 7 or 8 years old. I was obsessed with action figures, specifically alien and predator action figures. I waited for the new ones to come out, kept track of the Toys-R-Us delivery schedule to make sure i could get mine. Each time a new one came out I was ecstatic. My favorite was the special mail away Cloaked Predator figure. it was AWESOME... then I started growing up, and suddenly had the realization that... wait a second.. this is the same exact figure as one that I had from a different pack... then i realized that several of the things i owned were just re-paints of other figures.. and i thought... wow.. I've sort of been cheated here.. i payed money for this stuff that they marketed as cool NEW products... but they are the same damn thing, they just slapped a different color on it and called it by a different name. And my fancy Cloaked Predator that i mailed away for was the worst culprit.. i thought i had something super special and new and different.. when really.. they tricked me in to paying more money for something that in the end, was basically an unfinished version of something i already owned...
That is basically what buying the Age of Rebellion core rule book feels like.
except, now I'm an adult and the regret/disappointment/anger was virtually instantaneous.
Age of Rebellion contains no compelling new material.
If FFG can sue themselves for plagiarism they should.
Here is the first paragraph from chapter 9 'the game master' in the Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook.
Welcome to the first step in becoming an EDGE OF THE EMPIRE Game Master. While running a role-playing game can be challenging, it is also rewarding in ways different from those associated with playing individual characters. This chapter walks new Game Masters through the information needed to become an accomplished and entertaining Star Wars GM. Novice and experienced GMs alike should find useful information and advice for running this game from both a storytelling and mechanical point of view.
and Here is the first paragraph from chapter 9 'the game master' in the Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook.
Welcome to the first step in becoming an Age of Rebellion Game Master. Running a role-playing game comes with both challenges and immense rewards. This chapter focuses on helping a new Game Master get the information needed to run a successful Age of Rebellion game that captures the feel of Star Wars. Both novice and experienced GMs should find that this chapter contains useful information for handling both the rules and the storytelling aspects of the game.
Seriously? This is reminiscent of high school book report plagiarism and the vast majority of the book is like this. Ok, so lets ignore for a moment that you already purchased the vast majority of the information in this book when you bought the Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook and try to focus on what new and different things the Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook brings to the table.
Here is the grand total of NEW material you will receive from the Age of Rebellion core rulebook.
1 new Skill.
6 new Careers, comprised of 13 new Specialties.
17 new Talents.
3 new Items.
2 new Universal Specialty trees.
2 new Force Powers.
21 new ships.
1 new ship attachment.
47 new bad guys.
1 Story.
ok so now your thinking "hey, that's a fair bit of stuff there guy. I think I probably DO need this book". but... sadly, your WRONG. i'll explain. i'll go point by point on the new stuff.
The new Skill is Knowledge (warefare). Sounds neat but the skill itself is somewhat vauge. It might help support your character to say he has the Knowledge (warefare) skill. If roleplay is your focus though, what knowledge the skill does represent can easily be folded into the other skills like Lore and Education thus making this skill completely un-neccessary.
The new Careers aren't too bad really. they offer new progression options and their Specialty trees are more focused to help support the concepts of each career far better than in Edge of the Empire. You still don't need the book though.. because the Specialty tree pages can be copied and you can find them freely on the interwebs (i'll have my own versions up soon). So, you don't need the book to get 90 percent of the info you need to utilize these new Careers. there are 5 duplicated Specialty trees :(
New Talents is always good, they are a sweet honey that we all desire. there are only 1.3 new talents for each new Specialization tree, so that's kind of a bummer. You don't need the book for these either though. Like most talents the blurbs in the Specialty tree lists contain the gist of each talent. You can use the Specialization tree you copied or found on line to get the idea. if you have a question about the details, someone will have answered it already on the forums i bet.
the new items are: Anti-Vehicle Mine, Anti-Personnel Mine, Armor-Piercing Grenade. These are all extremely circumstantial and not terribly likely to come up very often, so feel free to improvise if you like.
The Universal Specialty Trees are the Recruit and the new Force Emergent tree. both pretty cool but again, they are Specialty trees and free to copy. Get yours on-line.
New Force Powers include Foresee and Enhance. I look forward to hearing of all the games ruined by the Foresee power, but once again, you can get these on line just like the Specialty trees.
New ships. ok, there are fair amount of new ships.. and i do love me some ships.. you get some really iconic stuff stat'ed out here. like the AT-AT or star destroyers. not a lot of small or mid-range stuff though. so unless you're group is in the habit of hunting down giants, these aren't likely to come up. If they do, there is ONE new rule called 'Massive' and a couple new ship actions to help you deal with their immensity. When they do though, you'll likely be running from them anyway, so having them all stat'ed won't be insanely important to your game experience. "holy fuck! a star destroyer showed up, lets get the fuck out of here. it's shooting towards us! I know! that's why we are leaving!" and then you're gone or dead or captured, and I'm guessing any way that plays out, the stats of the ship weren't super important.
The new ship attachment is the upgraded Comms Array.. nice.. but..... not necessary. There's other important shit you need those hard points for anyway.
New bad guys. 47 new bad guys. most of them are naturally from the rebel and imperial ranks. I admit, that having pre-made baddies on hand is incredibly helpful and useful. Sadly, most of these aren't all that interesting. I know that making bad guys yourself is a pain, but really, you can do it and if you do, your baddies will likely fit your story, your objectives and your needs better than the pre-made guys anyway.
The new story. the 21 page Perlemian Haul story is... well, i'll let you make up your own mind. You don't NEED it though... you can make up your own damn story (isn't that half the point of these games).
so yeah... if you already own the Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook...
YOU DON'T NEED THIS BOOK.
Maybe you have a friend, who is a sucker like me and already shelled out the money.
if that's the case then YOU REALLY SERIOUSLY DON'T NEED THIS BOOK AT ALL as you can simply borrow it for a moment to fill in the gaps.
don't get me wrong though, the new material is compatible with all the old material, and it does allow you a few more options. options are nice. variety is nice.. variety...
This book is a virtual carbon copy of the first core rulebook.
It provides very little new material. The new material it does provide is superfluous, or easily obtainable (legally) without purchasing this book. This book has NO defining characteristics to separate it from EotE or justify calling it a Core Rulebook.
I will use this book... but every time I play my Ace character, i'll shed a small tear inside that will slowly drip down in to the pool of disgust and distrust that is building in my gut for the FFG star wars role playing game franchise(s)
Star Wars Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook: 3/10
DO NOT BUY
I remember when I was a kid maybe 7 or 8 years old. I was obsessed with action figures, specifically alien and predator action figures. I waited for the new ones to come out, kept track of the Toys-R-Us delivery schedule to make sure i could get mine. Each time a new one came out I was ecstatic. My favorite was the special mail away Cloaked Predator figure. it was AWESOME... then I started growing up, and suddenly had the realization that... wait a second.. this is the same exact figure as one that I had from a different pack... then i realized that several of the things i owned were just re-paints of other figures.. and i thought... wow.. I've sort of been cheated here.. i payed money for this stuff that they marketed as cool NEW products... but they are the same damn thing, they just slapped a different color on it and called it by a different name. And my fancy Cloaked Predator that i mailed away for was the worst culprit.. i thought i had something super special and new and different.. when really.. they tricked me in to paying more money for something that in the end, was basically an unfinished version of something i already owned...
That is basically what buying the Age of Rebellion core rule book feels like.
except, now I'm an adult and the regret/disappointment/anger was virtually instantaneous.
Age of Rebellion contains no compelling new material.
If FFG can sue themselves for plagiarism they should.
Here is the first paragraph from chapter 9 'the game master' in the Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook.
Welcome to the first step in becoming an EDGE OF THE EMPIRE Game Master. While running a role-playing game can be challenging, it is also rewarding in ways different from those associated with playing individual characters. This chapter walks new Game Masters through the information needed to become an accomplished and entertaining Star Wars GM. Novice and experienced GMs alike should find useful information and advice for running this game from both a storytelling and mechanical point of view.
and Here is the first paragraph from chapter 9 'the game master' in the Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook.
Welcome to the first step in becoming an Age of Rebellion Game Master. Running a role-playing game comes with both challenges and immense rewards. This chapter focuses on helping a new Game Master get the information needed to run a successful Age of Rebellion game that captures the feel of Star Wars. Both novice and experienced GMs should find that this chapter contains useful information for handling both the rules and the storytelling aspects of the game.
Seriously? This is reminiscent of high school book report plagiarism and the vast majority of the book is like this. Ok, so lets ignore for a moment that you already purchased the vast majority of the information in this book when you bought the Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook and try to focus on what new and different things the Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook brings to the table.
Here is the grand total of NEW material you will receive from the Age of Rebellion core rulebook.
1 new Skill.
6 new Careers, comprised of 13 new Specialties.
17 new Talents.
3 new Items.
2 new Universal Specialty trees.
2 new Force Powers.
21 new ships.
1 new ship attachment.
47 new bad guys.
1 Story.
ok so now your thinking "hey, that's a fair bit of stuff there guy. I think I probably DO need this book". but... sadly, your WRONG. i'll explain. i'll go point by point on the new stuff.
The new Skill is Knowledge (warefare). Sounds neat but the skill itself is somewhat vauge. It might help support your character to say he has the Knowledge (warefare) skill. If roleplay is your focus though, what knowledge the skill does represent can easily be folded into the other skills like Lore and Education thus making this skill completely un-neccessary.
The new Careers aren't too bad really. they offer new progression options and their Specialty trees are more focused to help support the concepts of each career far better than in Edge of the Empire. You still don't need the book though.. because the Specialty tree pages can be copied and you can find them freely on the interwebs (i'll have my own versions up soon). So, you don't need the book to get 90 percent of the info you need to utilize these new Careers. there are 5 duplicated Specialty trees :(
New Talents is always good, they are a sweet honey that we all desire. there are only 1.3 new talents for each new Specialization tree, so that's kind of a bummer. You don't need the book for these either though. Like most talents the blurbs in the Specialty tree lists contain the gist of each talent. You can use the Specialization tree you copied or found on line to get the idea. if you have a question about the details, someone will have answered it already on the forums i bet.
the new items are: Anti-Vehicle Mine, Anti-Personnel Mine, Armor-Piercing Grenade. These are all extremely circumstantial and not terribly likely to come up very often, so feel free to improvise if you like.
The Universal Specialty Trees are the Recruit and the new Force Emergent tree. both pretty cool but again, they are Specialty trees and free to copy. Get yours on-line.
New Force Powers include Foresee and Enhance. I look forward to hearing of all the games ruined by the Foresee power, but once again, you can get these on line just like the Specialty trees.
New ships. ok, there are fair amount of new ships.. and i do love me some ships.. you get some really iconic stuff stat'ed out here. like the AT-AT or star destroyers. not a lot of small or mid-range stuff though. so unless you're group is in the habit of hunting down giants, these aren't likely to come up. If they do, there is ONE new rule called 'Massive' and a couple new ship actions to help you deal with their immensity. When they do though, you'll likely be running from them anyway, so having them all stat'ed won't be insanely important to your game experience. "holy fuck! a star destroyer showed up, lets get the fuck out of here. it's shooting towards us! I know! that's why we are leaving!" and then you're gone or dead or captured, and I'm guessing any way that plays out, the stats of the ship weren't super important.
The new ship attachment is the upgraded Comms Array.. nice.. but..... not necessary. There's other important shit you need those hard points for anyway.
New bad guys. 47 new bad guys. most of them are naturally from the rebel and imperial ranks. I admit, that having pre-made baddies on hand is incredibly helpful and useful. Sadly, most of these aren't all that interesting. I know that making bad guys yourself is a pain, but really, you can do it and if you do, your baddies will likely fit your story, your objectives and your needs better than the pre-made guys anyway.
The new story. the 21 page Perlemian Haul story is... well, i'll let you make up your own mind. You don't NEED it though... you can make up your own damn story (isn't that half the point of these games).
so yeah... if you already own the Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook...
YOU DON'T NEED THIS BOOK.
Maybe you have a friend, who is a sucker like me and already shelled out the money.
if that's the case then YOU REALLY SERIOUSLY DON'T NEED THIS BOOK AT ALL as you can simply borrow it for a moment to fill in the gaps.
don't get me wrong though, the new material is compatible with all the old material, and it does allow you a few more options. options are nice. variety is nice.. variety...
This book is a virtual carbon copy of the first core rulebook.
It provides very little new material. The new material it does provide is superfluous, or easily obtainable (legally) without purchasing this book. This book has NO defining characteristics to separate it from EotE or justify calling it a Core Rulebook.
I will use this book... but every time I play my Ace character, i'll shed a small tear inside that will slowly drip down in to the pool of disgust and distrust that is building in my gut for the FFG star wars role playing game franchise(s)
Star Wars Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook: 3/10
DO NOT BUY
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