Characteristics The
characteristics are
Brawn (physical power),
Agility (physical precision),
Intellect (intelligence and "book smarts"),
Cunning (wisdom and "street smarts"),
Willpower (endurance and focus), and
Presence (charisma and attractiveness). Characteristic levels (called "ratings") range from a minimum rating of one to a maximum rating of six, although there is a ceiling of five during
character creation. Each character race has different base characteristic ratings, though additional ratings in each attribute can be gained during or after character creation. There are additional derived characteristics: •
Strain: determines how much physical, mental or emotional stress a character can take before collapsing. •
Wound Points: determines how much physical damage a character can take before passing out or slipping into a coma. •
Soak: protection granted by the clothing or armor a character is wearing and/or the character's natural toughness. •
Defense: resistance to melee and/or ranged weapon attacks and is granted by armor or certain Talents.
Templates After determining attributes, the player designs their character using a species template. Each species has different racial characteristic minimums, maximums, and additional features such as talents or special abilities. The player then picks a career, and then one of the three or more specializations of that career. Each specialization grants career skills, and a specialization tree grants specialization-based talents. All the career skills listed under the character's career and specialization (whether chosen or not during character creation) can be bought for a flat point cost. The career skills chosen by the player are granted their first level free during initial character creation, but cost the same as other career skills when buying higher levels. 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. The universal careers are generic specializations that can be used by any of the core games. Some allow characters from one game to crossover to the others.
Force Sensitive Exile and
Force Sensitive Emergent allow veteran characters from
Edge of the Empire and
Age of Rebellion to become Force users and use the
Force and Destiny game rules.
Recruit allows
Edge of the Empire characters to cross over to
Age of Rebellion campaigns. They cost the same as if they were specializations under the character's existing career, making them cheaper and more effective than buying a specialization under a different Career.
Skills There are three types of skills in the
Star Wars Roleplaying Game. Knowledge skills cover intellectual pursuits, Combat skills cover confrontational actions, and general skills cover non-combat actions. The game's rules assume that all characters have all the game system's 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 characteristic score. Purchasing a level in a skill (called a rank) makes the character an expert in it. Regular skill rolls substitute a yellow 12-sided proficiency die for a green 8-sided ability die per skill rank. It can also add green ability dice if the character's skill level is higher than their attribute level. 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 difficulty die for an easy complexity task to five difficulty dice for a formidable complexity task. Black 6-sided setback dice are added for disadvantageous events. If the character is being opposed by an NPC antagonist while performing a task, then the
dice pool is based on the NPC's opposing skill. The difficulty pool is created by adding a purple difficulty die for each green ability die the NPC has in the skill and a red 12-sided challenge die for each yellow 12-sided proficiency die the NPC has in the skill. Black setback dice are added 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 the specialization tree. The further down the diagram, the more powerful (and expensive) the talents become. 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 purchase a new career specialization and begin filling out that specialization tree. Talents are split into two groups. Passive talents are abilities that are always on and can be used for the entire duration of the session. Active talents are 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.
Disadvantages Disadvantages can be taken during character creation to offset point costs: •
Edge of the Empire has the obligation disadvantage, something the character is forced or compelled to do. The number of player characters in the group sets 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. •
Age of Rebellion has the duty disadvantage, something the character wants to do. Levels of duty can be cashed in for contribution levels, which establish the individual or group's rank in the rebellion. It also can be used to grant gifts of equipment, vehicles, or resources. •
Force and Destiny has the morality disadvantage, which governs how close a 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 experience points, instead a player wanting to change their alignment must actually role-play a more aggressive character to turn to the
Dark Side, or perform acts of compassion to become a paragon of the
Light Side. Motivation is a character's guiding principle: • In the cynical
Edge of the Empire, it is an ambition, cause or relationship. • In the idealistic
Age of Rebellion, it is a quest, belief or personal connection. • In
Force and Destiny it is an ambition, cause or faith. If a player uses the character's motivation during gameplay, they get an experience point bonus.
Dice and Destiny Tokens (rear) used in the game Using the storytelling dice from their earlier
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (third edition) as its basis, Fantasy Flight Games altered the design to make a dice pool system that was more evocative of the
Star Wars universe. It renamed the dice types, uses a 12-sided dice instead of 10-sided dice, and does not use the exploding die mechanic, and removes the stance dice. The narrative dice system uses seven different types of dice. They use symbols rather than numbers and are interpreted on two axes: succeed / fail and lucky / unlucky. You can succeed, but have negative complications or fail but have positive advantages. • Ability uses a green 8-sided die, and represents the character's
characteristic level (one to six dice). It is used if they are using a skill to perform a task that they are untrained in. • Proficiency uses a yellow 12-sided die], and presents the character's skill. Every rank of skill (one to five dice) substitutes a proficiency die for an ability die. • Boost uses light blue 6-sided die, and is used to aid a skill roll due to advantageous factors (like being assisted by an ally). • Difficulty uses purple 8-sided die], and is used to oppose a skill roll by how difficult the task is (normally rated from one to five dice). They are also used if the task is being opposed by an untrained character and is based on their Attribute level (one to six dice). • Challenge uses a red 12-sided die, and is used when a skill roll is being opposed by a skilled character with ranks in a skill. Each rank of proficiency (one to five dice) replaces a difficulty die with a challenge die. • Setback uses a black 6-sided die, and is used to penalize a skill roll due to disadvantageous factors. • Force uses a white 12-sided die, and is used to determine the number of destiny points that go into the destiny pool at the beginning of play. It is also used for luck rolls and the use of force powers. • Percentile dice, are used to roll on the critical injury and
critical hit charts. They are not included in the narrative dice set. The facets contain either a blank or one of six results. • Success and failure are positive and negative results on the succeed / fail axis. If the sum is positive, the action succeeds, but if the sum is neutral or negative, then it fails. • Advantage and threat are positive and negative results on the lucky / unlucky axis. If the sum is positive, the action has positive side-effects. If the sum is negative, then the action has negative side-effects. • Triumph is only found on proficiency dice, and is a critical success that counts as a success result and can unlock special abilities or cause critical damage in combat. • Despair is only found on challenge dice, and is a critical failure that counts as a failure result. It also causes a powerful negative effect.
Destiny tokens Destiny tokens are small black and white sided game tokens. They represent the party's pool of destiny points. They are granted based on force dice rolls at the beginning of each session. The player characters' party gets the tokens of one color and the game master gets the remaining tokens of the opposing color.''
White tokens represent the Light side
of the Force, black tokens Dark side''. The party's affiliation determines which color they get. A destiny point can be spent to award a bonus die for a character's action, or inflict a penalty die to the opposition's effort. Destiny points can also be used to change a situation or cancel out or re-roll an unfavorable result. Each time a destiny point is used by the party or the game master, a tokens is flipped and added to the opposite side's pool.'''' The game is intended for a relatively regular flow of destiny points back and forth.
Combat rules The first step in combat is to figure out Initiative,'''' by making a cool or vigilance skill check. The results (best to worst) indicate the order in which the characters and their adversaries act. The combat skills are: • Brawl, covers unarmed combat. • Melee, covers armed combat. • Lightsaber, covers armed combat with a lightsabers, and includes phase daggers and lightwhips. Anyone can learn to use a lightsaber, but a character has to be a force sensitive in order to wield it effectively. • Ranged (light) are small ranged weapons that can be carried and fired with one hand. • Ranged (heavy) are large ranged weapons that need to be carried with two hands. • Gunnery covers
pintle-mounted or
turreted ranged weapons, usually mounted on vehicles and starships. It also covers fixed-firing on-board weapon systems like a starfighter's laser cannons, ion cannons, and proton torpedo launchers. Combat modifiers are calculated using range bands.
Non-player characters in combat In combat the player characters have three kinds of adversaries: • Minions are nameless individuals who provide muscle to flesh out encounters. They have group soak and wound threshold ratings. Every time the damage exceeds the wound threshold, a minion "succumbs" and the group loses a member. If the damage doesn't exceed the threshold, the minion is fine and can continue fighting. If an individual minion takes a critical injury, they are incapacitated; an area-effect attack on a minion group that inflicts a critical injury incapacitates one minion per critical injury scored. • Rivals are named adversaries that are more dangerous than minions but still inferior to most player characters. They act as minor antagonists and/or lieutenants to major antagonists. They suffer wounds and critical injuries normally, but can die if their wound threshold is exceeded. • A
nemeses are usually more powerful than the character in order for them to be a challenge - not just for the character, but for the whole party. They are treated like player characters when they fight, make skill checks, and take damage. The main thing that separates a Nemesis from a rival is that they are the major antagonist. ==Reception==