AFAIK there's a 1st, a 2nd and a 2nd Revised & Expanded edition. What are the differences, which one do you prefer and why?

While there are some solid changes in the later editions. I stick with 1st these days. Mostly because of its simplicity and straightforwardness.  It is also better written, with a tighter tone in its writing.  


There are some changes that just don't work well mechanically. For example:
I dislike the wild die mucking up the game. The wild dies takes the dice pool system and messes it up by making one die special; and screwing over the probabilities, just to add the idea of critical failures or successes to the game that didn't need them. (Success or Failure is enough IMHO.)

On the other hand scaling is better in the later editions, and quite functional. It would be one of the things I would port backwards, if I cared enough to mess with a good thing.

You're wrong! My subjective tastes are obviously objectively superior!

...am I doing it right?

Anyway, I would avoid 2nd edition (non-revised); it's not terrible, it's just the weakest of the three. 2nd Revised is great, but it's mechanically much heavier than 1st edition. To me it's basically rules-weight preference between the two (1st and 2nd Revised).

I first GMed er, first and and liked it, even if I hilariously goofed the Storm Troopers ability to hit anything at all.

I've seen second edition and there was something "off" with it that just couldnt quite place. Possibly just the look and formatting.

I never had 2nd edition.  I do have 2nd edition revised & expanded as well as 1e.

I prefer 1e.  It speaks more to my sense of fun.  The use of promo photos and concept drawings keeps me planted in the Star Wars Universe.  The rules are simpler, leaving artificial complexity at the door while handing what they need to do in a clean and quick style.  The writing is also very good, very conversational and clear.

2eR&E adds a bunch of comic style art evoking the Expanded Universe that I don't care for.  It adds a bunch of original D&D3e style "Iconic Characters" which really only serve to yank me out of any Star Wars vibe I'm into.  The rules get a bunch of extra complexity which honestly does very little for the game, and almost none of it productive improvement.

I guess my attitude about it is like this: 1e presents itself as a STAR WARS RPG.  Meanwhile 2eR&E presents itself as an Expanded Universe (with Dark Horse/Dark Empire flavor) RPG.  Personally, I don't like the latter.

2nd Edition is the weakest one. 2nd Edition, Revised and Expanded has the rules that function the best consistantly. 1st Edition has some of the greatest advice and original ideas to mine.

And if you disagree with my opinion, you are worse than Hitler.

I never owned the first edition core book, just the second edition and then upgraded to the revised and expanded book after the binding dissolved on the 2nd edition one.  I was able to use the first edition Star Wars Sourcebook without any issues on with the second edition corebook, so as everyone else mentions they are fundamentally the same game.

I did like two things from the later editions.  First, starship speeds were in a die code in first edition and changed later to fixed numbers.  I prefer the fixed numbers, although I can see how an experienced pilot in a battered Y-Wing outflying a TIE Interceptor can be viewed as in genre.  Second, the scaling mechanics improved over the editions - the first edition Star Wars Sourcebook having a line like "players attacking a Star Destroyer deserve a quick round of applause for their bravura before you rip up their character sheets" and improving to using die caps in later editions.

For simplicity, go with 1e. For completeness, go 2e R&E. Don't go 2e.

My strong preference is for 1e.

2nd RE was largely redundant if you had 2nd and the Movie Trilogy sourcebook.  But it does pack a lot of content into a single cover.

I personally prefer the wild die.  I think it keeps things swingy without messing up the predictability too much.

Quote from: Silverlion;737275While there are some solid changes in the later editions. I stick with 1st these days. Mostly because of its simplicity and straightforwardness.  It is also better written, with a tighter tone in its writing.  

I could not agree more. There is something very special in the tone and attitude of the 1st edition.

There is an official 1st edition rule upgrade that should not be too difficult to track down and with a little Google Fu you can find any number fairly standard house rules and fixes but even so 1st is certainly where I would start.

I don't get the hate for regular 2e. Did people not like the Vader cover?

I liked the die caps and the combat rules better in 2e than 2e R&E.

Quote from: Skywalker;737313For simplicity, go with 1e. For completeness, go 2e R&E. Don't go 2e.

This is basically it.

1e presented an absolutely brilliant, dead-simple, newbie-friendly core and executed it with aplomb. It is rightly considered one of the great RPGs of all time because of it.

2e was a muddled and rushed effort that, my guess, seems to exist purely for some kind of contractual reason than any actual need to exist. Its book is dull and low-budget and adds little or nothing to the game. It had great sourcebooks still, though, and that lead to R&E.

R&E is almost like a compendium release. It's still basically the 2e rules, but exactly as the title suggests, expanded and revised to be a much better game, and put into a far lovelier looking full-color package to boot. It's a fantastic game as well, and far more complete in some ways than 1e was, but there's a bit more in there to learn and by this late in the game there were some rules issues.

The wild die is probably the biggest point of strain between 1e and R&E: 1e doesn't have it, R&E does. The Wild Die is a love it or hate it thing, and will pretty much define which of the editions you'll like.

Personally, I like both, and the Wild Die is easily enough ignored even in later editions. The bigger problem with the 2E and R&E era is a much wider gap between the named heroes in the movies and books, and how PCs start the game. It also got a bit crazy with the inflated dice pools as well.  

On the whole, though, I'd still play either without a second's hesitation, and it'll ultimately boil down to personal taste.

Does the 1989 rules companion add anything useful or is that just an upgrade to 2E?

It explains that difficulty numbers are a range and not a set 5, 10, 15, etc.  An easy task becomes a 3-5... stuff like that.  It's nothing anyone needed official rules for.

There are some other skill rules like combined actions and stormtrooper combined fire.  I suppose those are useful nuggets.

An optional rule called Uncertainty Dice is provided.  Basically you roll some extra dice.  Some add to your total and others subtract from your total.  It seemed extraneous to me.

There are a couple of pages of movement rules which revolve around rolling dice to move.  These seem pointlessly fiddly.

Some more combat rules are introduced.  These were mostly absorbed into 2e.  You can take a Haste action which makes your action resolve sooner.  This is also the birth of Dodge as a reaction skill which replaces the difficulty number to hit instead of adding to the difficulty number to hit.

It provides the 1e scaling system, which works by die caps.

There's some stuff for converting RPG die codes into stats for the Star Warriors starfighter combat boardgame.

Then there's some stuff about Droids, a Capital Ship combat system, new Force powers, more rules for the Force, and an adventure.

Certainly none of it is critical.  I recall feeling it was a rip off at the $15 I paid for it when it was new, but I played Star Warriors back then and I thought the conversion rules for that game as well as the RPG capital ship combat stuff would be much better and more useful than what it was.

Quote from: 3rik;737400Does the 1989 rules companion add anything useful or is that just an upgrade to 2E?

Though a precursor to 2e, the RC adds some useful stuff without the wholesale shift away from 1e's simpler approach that 2e brought.

If you feel like 1e rules needs some patching, then the Rules Companion is a good way to go. I never found it to be that worthwhile.