Quote from: Omega;877321The players dont need either. The DM technically doesnt need the PHB. And lets not forget that you only need one copy of those three books and the dice for everyone to play.

5e example. I am the only group member with the books. Oh noes! No one else can play! yeah riiight. (and 5e is structured such that you can actually play with just the PHB. Limited. But playable.)

FFG SW is all in one book for the most part. I dont know how essential the stuff in the expansions is. I assume not very?

You need one core book. Anything and everything else is just a bonus.

You need one set of dice.

They buy in is comparable to just about any other game. Even including the dice, since yes we all bought our own at some point and probably a lot of them.

Quote from: Omega;877321FFG SW is all in one book for the most part. I dont know how essential the stuff in the expansions is. I assume not very?

It depends on theme, actually.

Edge of The Empire focuses on outcasts, criminals and other unwanted types, so all the gear, the ships, the antagonists (which is in the core book) you need are dedicated to those types of characters.  Continuing with EoE, you'll find villains like Hutts, other Bounty Hunters, Crime Lords.  Very few will be force sensitive, much less Jedi/Sith.  The gear will be blasters and durasteel armour, customizable starships and speeders.

In Force and Destiny, you'll find all the Force doods and doodettes you'd need to fight, not to mention that the focus of the gear is mostly what a Jedi/Sith will be interested in, melee weapons, cloth robes, Holocrons, with a light touch of vehicles.

In Age of Rebellion (which I don't own, but should pick up at some point) it's all military focused, with I'm assuming things you'd find in the hands of Rebels and Imperials, walkers, starfighters, military grade uniforms and weapons.  The villains are likely going to be fanatical and maybe not-so-fanatic Imps.

So, just to throw a bunch of shit on the fire, because the thought just occurred to me:

Should FFG have used the Warhammer 40k rpg system for Star Wars?

Heh, which one?
Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Deathwatch, Black Crusade, Only War and Dark Heresy II might be similar systems, but they have enough differences to be only loosely compatible with a metric fuckton of tweaking.

Quote from: David Johansen;877334So, just to throw a bunch of shit on the fire, because the thought just occurred to me:

Should FFG have used the Warhammer 40k rpg system for Star Wars?

I would say no. The various incarnations of that system worked great back in WFRP when there were no blasters, automatic fire, etc. Dealing with the transition to 40k technology caused a lot of headaches in that system, the same sort of headaches you'd have to deal with in Star Wars. And those are much grittier games as well. The system just wouldn't feel right without the critical wound location tables, and those really wouldn't suit a Star Wars game. Apart from maybe lightsaber dismemberment...

Quote from: Spinachcat;877313Part of me likes this, but only if wasn't so common. I love Crits and Fumbles, but if those each have a 5% chance to show, then 9 out of 10 rolls happen without these special events. For me that works.

Honor+Intrigue uses 12 and 2 for critical Which is just over 5% per roll of one or the other occurring.

QuoteWhat's the math on these special modifiers in Star Wars?

Don't know. Since you have Triumph, Despair, Advantage, and Threat I'm guessing at least one of the four shows up more than 10% of the time. But it doesn't look like there is a simple, single answer as there are different die types and (I think) a variable number of dice that may be rolled.

Does anybody know the probabilities? (It's probably simplest to calculate the odds of getting nothing except success or failure and subtract that from 100% to get the odds of something special showing up on any give roll.)

Quote from: Spinachcat;877313Part of me likes this, but only if wasn't so common. I love Crits and Fumbles, but if those each have a 5% chance to show, then 9 out of 10 rolls happen without these special events. For me that works.

What's the math on these special modifiers in Star Wars?

AKA, how many times in 10 rolls will you encounter Threat / Despair / Triumph occurring?

Theres an 8.3% chance of getting a Despair and a 50% chance of a Threat and 50% chance of getting a Failure on the red die. The Yellow die are much the same. 8.3 for a Triumph, 50 for Advantage and 58 for a Success. So weighted slightly in the players favour. The 8-siders are weighted slightly against the player from the looks of it.

I could ask on BGG and see what the professional number crunchers come up with if someone has not allready.

It sounds like one rolls 1 red die and 1 yellow die each time you roll. Is that right?

• Assuming it is there is an 11/12 chance of not getting a Despair and an 11/12 chance of not getting a Triumph. So to not get either is 84% = (11/12) * (11/12).

So a 16% chance every time the dice are rolled of getting Triumph, Despair, or Triumph+Despair.

Quote from: Bren;877432It sounds like one rolls 1 red die and 1 yellow die each time you roll. Is that right?

• Assuming it is there is an 11/12 chance of not getting a Despair and an 11/12 chance of not getting a Triumph. So to not get either is 84% = (11/12) * (11/12).

So a 16% chance every time the dice are rolled of getting Triumph, Despair, or Triumph+Despair.

No. Difficulty dice are 1-5 purple. Red dice come from upgrades.

Quote from: Warboss Squee;877179Well thank god DnD is fully playable with just the players guide.  Totally don't need a monster manuel or DMG.

It is fully playable. If you want to run the game, the other books are helpful though.

Quote from: rawma;877156It doesn't seem to be required; alternatives, some fairly cheap, are available. Compare with OD&D; the three booklet set was $10 back when and a set of polyhedral dice easily more than $2 (as I recall) and not many good alternatives then; was that a marketing gimmick?

Did the OD&D box come with dice? I know my 'blue box' came with dice (not those awful chits, later).

Its hard to say if was a marketing gimmick or not. If TSR were the only source of those dice, then yes, though apparently they were around. You could also get some dice through educational stores.

But despite your pointing out indirectly that the dice would have been a 20% increase, the distribution game chances once your per unit price hits certain levels, and also industry specific variables as well in how they treat really cheap stuff (magazines vs candy bars vs long shelf life stuff, etc).

Quote from: Lynn;877446It is fully playable. If you want to run the game, the other books are helpful though.

Hey. Turns out supplements can add to a gaming experience. Whodathunk?

To be fair, FFG has done a superb job of avoiding power creep. Which is something I never thought I'd say. About anything.

Quote from: Lynn;877446It is fully playable. If you want to run the game, the other books are helpful though.

Now, you're just being disingenuous.  I've run D&D in it's various forms for a measly 31 years, and I can tell you, if you want magical items and other rewards for your players, and some monsters that aren't other classes and races in the PHB, the other two books are more than helpful, they're mandatory.

So you're shelling out $120-160 in one go, assuming you actually have dice, which depending on the style can run you up anywhere from $5-14 more.

The real 'barrier' to FFG's SW games is the funky symbols, not the price.

Quote from: Lynn;877448Did the OD&D box come with dice? I know my 'blue box' came with dice (not those awful chits, later).

I recall that it came with one set of dice with 1 for each Platonic Solid (D4, D6, D8, D12, D20). They were pretty crappy dice as the plastic wasn't hard enough to stand up to repeated use. The corners rounded off with use so that the D20s became sort of spherical.

OD&D hasn't been sold for decades.  Why does it even matter?