Review: Star Wars RPG Adversary Decks

     So the first time that I ran FFG's Edge of the Empire, I found myself wishing for an easy way to represent enemies.  As you know, Edge of the Empire and the rest of FFG's Star Wars games use special dice, so it's necessary to roll different amounts of differently shaped and colored dice for different opponents depending on their stats and skills.  Now this isn't that hard, and once you get to know the system it's not too bad to figure out, but it can be tricky for GMs that are new to the system.  What I found myself doing was writing down the opponents then doing crude sketches of the dice so that I quickly knew how many combat dice to roll for Thug #1 or Slaver #2.

     When I came across these Adversary Decks at my FLGS I was pretty excited.  I imagined that they would have all of the things that I needed for an encounter in one easy place.  We'll talk about whether or not that turned out to be the case a little bit later.
     First, let's talk about the cards.  There are three decks currently available; Scum and Villainy which has an assortment of smugglers slavers, and bounty hunters; Citizens of the Galaxy, which has things like droids, dancers, and various administrator types; and Imperials and Rebels, which has your various Imperial and Rebel soldiers, leaders, and pilots.  The front of each card has a large full color adversary picture on the front along with all of that individual's stats and skill.  The back of each card lists the adversary's talents, abilities, equipment, and a descriptive writeup to provide some flavor.

Adversary Deck Front

Adversary Deck Back

     I think that these cards were a great idea, and the art is top notch, but sadly, they have what I think is one big drawback for the novice GM, and that is that it is still necessary to figure out the dice on your own.  So, a Hired Thug with an Agility of 2 and a Ranged (Light) skill of 1 would roll... "Hmm, I'll need to figure that out" to attack.  I think that it would have been great to have represented at least the adversary's combat skills in format that was used in the Edge of the Empire Beginner's Box adventures, which used the dice symbols along with the skill ratings.

How I wish they had done them

     Many of the cards have plenty of space on them for it, and I think it would have been possible to have shortened the ones that didn't.  It's really a shame that they didn't do this because I think it would have made these cards a must have for all GMs who are new to the system.  When I compare the Star Wars Adversary Cards to my recently arrived Far Away Land RPG Creature Cards: Series 1, I have to say that the Far Away Land cards are more useful to me as they provide everything that I need with no needs for extra calculations.  But then I'm kind of lazy. :-)

     Overall, I'm going to give The Star Wars Adversary Decks a 3 out of 5 rating.  They are a good idea that could have been great if they had just included the dice symbols.

I Like Star Wars

Let me say it without reservation.  I like Star Wars.  I grew up on star wars and have always wanted to pilot the Milenium Falcon.  I also love role playing games, and have been playing them since I was 10 (which was quite some time ago mind you).  I have however never run a Star Wars Roleplaying game.  Enter Edge of the Empire.  I like the system.  Character creation is a bit heavy lifting for my taste, but it gets the job done and the dice mechanic is very nice and does a great job of providing story/color opportunities for the game.  It would seem that with all of those things lined up that Edge of the Empire would be my go to game, but it's not.  It's just not the genre that really holds me as a Game Master, and that makes me feel bad, because it incorporates a lot of things that I love, and it had a gorgeous rulebook.  I'm a sucker for gorgeous books.  But it's not my own free flowing world that I can craft to reflect my vision.  It's still at some level George's vision.  I am torn.

Star Wars Cantina Fight!

After a two week hiatus due to illness and out of town visitors, we returned tonight to a galaxy far, far away.  The party, fresh off their victory over the Tusken Raiders managed to capture a Bantha and use it to tow the repulsor rickshaw back to Hobo the Hutt's palace outside of Mos Gamos.  Once at the palace, they learned that Meffyx Thar, Hobo's majordomo, who has slipped away during the fight with the Tuskens was in fact helping the Black Suns to move in on Hobo's territory.  Hobo dispatched the party to track Meffyx Thar down and end his miserable life.  The party tracked the errant majordomo to a seedy cantina in one of the roughest parts of Mos Gamos.  Here we see the party as they put their plan for rooting out Meefyx into action:

The cantina just before the fight broke out

Chaph Losac went in through the front door to scout around, while N.O.R.M-4N kept watch over the Kitchen entrance.  After Chaph deiscovered a guarded side room, we called Sair Nartano in throug the kitch to surprise the guard.  Shots were fired and Kelsera came in through the dancer's entrance, while N.O.R.M-4N came in through the kitchen and avoided the wookie cooks who were distracted while dealing with a grease fire.  Sair tricked the pilot into opening the side room door with some splendid mimickry, and he and Chaph shot the two people with Meffyx.  Meffyx threw a stun grenade disguised to look like a thermite grenade and in the confusion fled the bar, only to be gunned down by Kelsera with her Tusken slugthrower.

Last Night in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...

Last night we played the second session of our Star Wars Edge of the Empire.  This week, our "heroes" were joined by two new companions.  The party is now as follows:

 Sair Nartano, a young and impulsive human explorer with a fondness for the ladies
N.O.R.M-4N, a droid mechanic an pilot with a strong attachment to the ship
Chaph LoSec, a human assassin of few words
Kelsera, A Twi'lek bodyguard for the infant leader of her clan

Following the events with the thermal grenade at the moisture farm, the group found themselves attacked in the desert by a horde of Tusken Raiders.  They managed to acquit themselves quite well in combat, killing most of the sand people and driving off the rest, but three of the party were wounded in the battle.  Chaph LoSek made a heroic but sadly unsuccessful attempt to dive onto an out of control speeder, but alas, all of the party's transport, except for a repulsor rickshaw were either destroyed or absconded with.  The party now finds themselves facing the unpleasant task of finding their way back to civilization.

In the heat of the battle, Meffyx Thar, majordomo to the Illustrious Hobo the Hutt fled the scene...

I must say the Edge of the Empire dice system goes pretty well with my tendency to make it up as I go. :-)