Lit Fantasy Flight Games and the Star Wars TCG

Sure; d20 was a bad era for SWRPG. But they did sell a lot of merchandise and not really destroy the brand any more than Lucas did so in terms of being a licence-holder - it's a fair metric.

 

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/10/16/compromised-perimeter/

The daily life of a Spy in service to the Rebellion is one of flexibility and innovation. Every mission poses a new question that must be answered with minimal supplies and personnel against a foe with a surplus of both. The Rebellion relies on the ingenuity and skill of every single operative on their roster. Today, we're going to look a little closer at the secrets revealed in the newest Star Wars™: Age of Rebellion sourcebook, Cyphers and Masks.
Up and Over

In a galaxy filled to bursting with technology and networks and computer systems, tech experts like Slicers access streams of data to manipulate and control the flow of information. However, not everything of value is in code or safe on the holonet. Couriers are spies who specialize in the safe and secure movement of secrets and supplies. Where the previously revealed Sleeper Agent excels at social engineering and a carefully constructed legend, the Courier navigates physical space with similar deftness. Their training and skill at maneuvering through dense urban areas allows them to get where others can’t. Towering buildings, crowds of civilians, clutter-strewn alleys, and more are the preferred environments of the Courier.
Couriers are experts at operating deftly in enemy territory where the watchful eye of the Empire is ever present. Multiple ranks of the Indistinguishable talent upgrade the difficulty of observers to recognize and identify the character, and an Improved version extends this benefit to nearby allies. To represent their ability to navigate their surroundings where others would find difficulty, the talent Freerunning allows the Courier to spend 1 strain to move, even vertically, to any location within short range provided there is a path to do so.
The final tier of the Courier tree includes two potent active talents the PC will find supremely useful in their dangerous line of work. Lose Them requires a Stealth check, but penalizes any pursuers of the Courier with two setback dice for as long as the chase continues or allows an immediate escape if the Courier spends a Triumph from the roll. The setback dice may not seem like a huge detriment for a single check, but over the course of a chase encounter, the failures and threats rolled will steadily wear the enemy down enough for an eventual empty-handed end for the trackers.

​

The Incite Distraction talent calls for a Deception skill check and, upon success, turns an entire crowd of people into difficult terrain for the Courier’s enemies. Paired with Lose Them, a Courier will have little problem making their escape from authorities or anyone else foolish enough to engage pursuit. However, Incite Distraction includes even more utility than that. While certainly useful for escape, the distraction incited is also perfectly suited to establish a trap for anyone the party may be themselves pursuing. The chaos of an incited crowd may provide the perfect opportunity to approach and assassinate or abduct an Imperial officer or troublesome crime lord.
A Poisonous World

As a planet, Balosar is dedicated solely to corporations and their manufacturing and financial interests. As a people, Balosars are subject to distrust and suspicion among the galaxy’s civilized society as well as its criminal underworld. Balosar is home to myriad companies who strain the world’s resources and health, resulting in a planet that is choked environmentally and culturally. The perception of the Balosar people as conniving and untrustworthy is an occasionally fair assessment of the absurd amount of corruption, espionage, and backstabbing that happens at all levels of society on their homeworld. Nearly everyone from the mightiest CEO to the lowest street urchin see this duplicity as a necessary means of survival in a cutthroat culture of their own making. One of the mightiest industries on Balosar is the cultivation of the balo mushroom, of which one of the primary end products is the street narcotic known as the death stick. Very addictive and even more deadly, death sticks are as reviled as they are desired across the galaxy, and this innate connection to the drug further sullies the reputation of Balosars.
Physically, Balosars are remarkably humanlike save for a pair of retractable antennae protruding vertically from their heads. Otherwise, one might mistake a Balosar for a tall, slender, unhealthy-looking human. Generations of living on an overdeveloped corporate world have turned the physique of the Balosars gaunt and sallow.
Balosar characters benefit from a boosted Cunning score and a free rank in the Streetwise skill, both owing to the threatening nature of their culture. Many individuals find their way into the spy or smuggling trade because of this, whether striking out on their own or serving one of the mighty corporations on their home planet. They also receive two automatic advantages when making a Vigilance skill check reflecting their constant need to be aware of their (often dangerous) surroundings.

 

I wouldn't really say it was a 'bad era', especially from the perspective of RPG licensing - witness the LOTR and Star Trek RPGs from WOTC's rival Decipher around the same time. It just took a while for them to get their footing, mostly because they initially focused on the new movie era. WOTC also had more freedom that FFG will ever have, but that's just the nature of beast nowadays.

 

For SWRPG specifically, yes it was. The main issue was WotC had developed the d20 OGL and wanted it used; so Star Wars was shoehorned into it. Remember how you had to spend wound points (when instead of hitpoints you had wound/vitality) to use Force powers? Yeah. Me too.

 

Didn't WotC give us that lovely disaster called the Viscount size issue?

 

I wouldn't have noticed sorry - wrong person to ask. Avoided prequels stuff and get very cross when people mistake RPG sourcebooks for canon guides.

 

As Destiny is set up to allow more than 2 players and there are only 2 factions, you can definitely play good vs good or evil vs evil.

The boosters so far aren't available at big box retail (the one exception I've seen is several Gamestop stores had some Awakenings boosters...) Best bet is getting them from your local games store. If you can afford to go for sealed boxes, it is the best bang for your buck as you are guaranteed six legendaries per box and can usually get a deal on the price of the box versus individual boosters.

 

The Order 66 guys often talk about a d20 Radio network podcast called "The Knights of Ren", which is dedicated to Destiny - if anyone is interested.

 

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/10/18/gm-guide-the-ultimate-sacrifice/

Good article.

 

WOTC was steering their focus on the license to their miniatures game, and they wanted a 'Rebellion/New Republic' equivalent ship to the Empire's SSD - so they designated the vaguely-described Viscount-class from the NJO as their ship, despite circumstantial evidence that the author never intended the ship to be that big.

 

Which was made worse when SSDs were made 19,000 meters long, leading to a ridiculous retcon of the Viscount size which then led to the size problem of the Mediator class.

 

Ugh, to this day, one of my biggest pet peeves from the old EU was WOTC's decision to make the Viscount-class Star Defender a SSD equivalent. Nevermind that it was only "twice" the size of a Mediator-class battle cruiser, which itself was literally described as being an new model of the classic Mon Calamari Star Cruiser. Poor Jason Fry has gotten some flak for his final retcon (3km prototype Viscount + two larger final ships), but I give him a ton of credit for making the best of a tough situation.

Thank God for the new canon and it's tighter controls and policies!

--Adm. Nick

 

Did anyone get the addition to Star Wars Rebellion and was it worth it?

 

I did purchase it. I haven't played it yet, but based on my reading of the rule book and the additions/changes, I would say absolutely yes! It adds greater dimension to the game, mixes up space/ground battles, added a lot of new Rebel objective cards (which mixes up how the Rebels can win), and the green dice units are fun. I've honestly been meaning to play it, maybe I'll get around to it this weekend.

--Adm. Nick

 

I always read the Mediator as being an updated Mon Cal "battlecruiser" so a new version of Home One and thus in the 3 Km ish range itself. But that is not FFG, so better suited to another thread.

 

I'm just quoting this because it's nice when people appreciate the proper perspective.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/10/19/begin-your-search-1/

Only a year late, it's fine, it's all good.

This Toydarian is for you guys:

 

This type of hindsight overlooks that the people that allowed that sort of thing to happen are the same people in charge, right now - and that if they had, in fact, defined the damn thing when the book was published, this would've never been a problem in the first place.

... but I digress. My interest in FFG's Star Wars RPG is from the RPG side of things, not from Star Wars - and since the books are supposed to be non-canon, they should be freer of the editorial interference than they have been. I don't want to see their RPG go the way of FASA's Star Trek RPG. Again, I'm treating the upcoming Dawn of Rebellion as a bellwether of how free they actually are to develop their game and whether or not to continue to support the game myself.

 

I've played the expansion twice now (been meaning to play it more, but I've been pretty busy as of late), and YES it's worth it.

I'd say to get it alone just for the combat overhaul. The old tactic cards just added another random number generator onto the dice based combat. Sometimes you'd get a bunch of useless cards while your opponent could spam a bunch of "remove damage" or "deal damage" cards based purely on luck. But with the new system the Rebel and Imperial players each get their own Space and Ground tactic decks. At the start of each round of combat both players pick a card from their deck to reveal. The kicker is you can't reuse that card until you've used all the other cards in your deck. Plus most of the cards have a special bonus if used with a certain unit. This leads to a lot of strategic thinking. "I could use the Tow Cables card now, but maybe I should save it for a battle where I have snow speeders" or "I could play this card, but what if he plays Escape Plan to cancel my card and retreat." This sort of thing is what Rebellion is all about.

The new units are all pretty good. Most of them roll a green die that's blank on 4 sides and Critical Hits on 2 sides. Less chance of hitting their targets, but when they do they can hit large or small units. (Also leaders now let you reroll dice in combat, so that helps).

The new leaders are also cool. I can have Krennic lock down the Death Star Plans, and Chirrut/Jyn have an action card that can kill one stormtrooper (a handy way to stop the Empire's "just put a dude on every planet so they can't move their base" strategy). All the new leaders have some "minor" skill icons that mean when they're opposed on a mission they roll some green dice instead of normal dice. So they're valuable, but risky if you're challenged.


So far in both our games the Rebels have lost, but I think that's because we're just not used to the new Mission and Objective cards (and generally Missions are more important to the Rebel player than the Imperial player). Also the new objectives are mixed with the old one. You don't know if the Rebel player is moving towards Coruscant to get the Heart of the Empire objective, the Threaten the Core objective, or just to psych you out.

 

Sold!

 

X-Wing article for the Gunboat!

I'm excited- lots of flexibility and some interesting tricks. Also, confirms Advanced SLAM nerf coming soon

 

I'm too lazy to walk across the room and see what the current Advanced SLAM card is. What's the nerf?

 

It says "free action" whereas the new card says "free action on your action bar". Bomb dropping is an action - but it's not an action on the action bar of the ship.

Thus, the free action, cannot be "bomb drop" anymore.