Ski said:

Agreed. Got yer back, Jack.

 I kinda feel sorry for game companies these days, because in many ways they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.

If they released one set of core rules and then a bunch of supps, they run into problems because people don't wanna flip through two books to run a game (the core and the relative supps).  Oh, they say they can hack it - particularly in comparison to flipping through multiple core books, but they'll bitch.  Worse yet, particularly with a new system, they'll have to tweak the rules by addition and refinement in many of the supps because, well, for instance, fleet combat likely won't be covered in the one document core rules, even though it should.  Indeed, even though theoretically every rule should be covered in the central document, it won't be, because then you get a document the size of the HERO system and the industry has convinced itself gamers won't buy a book that big (personally, I think gamers will buy books that big, even though they'll grouse about their size and intimidation value, but hey, what do I know).  So, every supp will have extra rules.

Then there's also the New Players Inaugural Whine - you know, the one that gets cited all the time as an excuse to keep rebooting Editions "There are thirty books in this game line, new players will feel intimidated and put upon trying to get into the game."  I think some companies take waaaay too much advantage of that *cough Wizards cough* but I think FF is trying to split the difference by allowing GM's and players to refine their focus such that if they want to run a game with just Rebel soldiers they can.  Thereby reducing the New Player Inaugural Whine as much as possible.  If you dislike having to buy three core books, imagine having to buy them every four years or so.

IMO, Star Wars games that have tried to just chuck all the possible classes/careers into one core player's guide/book have never been able to do any single one of them justice.  You hadda wait for a supp. to really flesh out some of the classes/careers - particularly when dealing with Force users.  Hell, sometimes for the complete shebang with Force users you hadda wait for a number of supps to come out.  I think giving them their own book is a good idea, particularly if they're treated as being an order of magnitude more powerful than other characters, which I think they should be.  They should be the Space Marines of this iteration of SW.  Some people disagree with me that Force users are an order of magnitude more powerful, but frankly when they disagree, they cite the prominent Force users of the Rebellion era and compared to the Republic era (Old or Dissolution to Empire) those guys are pretty sad.  Skywalker, even by Episode VI wasn't a stellar Jedi by Republic standards, Darth Vader had to use most of his power just to move around in the suit and not go bonkers (BTW, quick note, there's a passage in the novel Rise of a Dark Lord that explains in exquisite detail what living as Vader with the suit and the substandard reconstruction is like - if you never felt sorry for poor old Black-Noggin, you will when you're done reading that passage, I guarantee it), Palpatine's body could barely contain his own power, Kenobi fought with his lightsaber like my Uncle, with his bad hip, reaches for the peanut butter in the kitchen cupboard.  And even if Yoda wasn't a puppet in Episode V, he looked like he was another one whose body was barely able to contain the power it had access to.  These guys were not Mace Windu's or Kai Adi Mundis or Assaj Ventress or Count Dooku or young Obi-wans.

One thing I urge you not to kid yourselves about (particularly you old timers) is that when it comes to RPG products, we have always been unpaid playtesters.  Except that whereas now the game is called a Beta, back in the day, they called it a first edition.  And honestly, we were damn lucky if the company even bothered to make any errata or new editions.  Some companies just put stuff out and never looked back.  Now, are those the most successful companies in the business, but hey, Palladium has been around for about a quarter century and they ain't puttin' out a new edition of their core rules for nobody!  Now companies are being innovative and yeah, a bit sneaky, they want you to pay to do something you used to do for nothing.  Frankly I think it's clever and in a way it's actually likely to get us a better product than in the past.

Just my thoughts.

 A modicum of maturity and understanding from us, the community of fans and players, will go a long way in this regard. I assure you, the designers working on Edge of the Empire have put their hearts and souls into this project, probably working a lot of long hours to get the beta book published for GenCon. Now the fruits of that labor are in our hands, and it's up to us to react and give feedback.

Hopefully most of us will focus on helping to make the game better, rather than fixating on matters that are entirely out of the designers' hands, such as creating PDFs. There's nothing wrong with expressing dissatisfaction over some aspect of the game's production, but it's beginning to feel as if we're belaboring the point.

I personally just realized what totally made this book's purchase worth it for me--there is a distinct possibility that things I like will be removed from the game by the time the "final" version is released. Having the beta book means that I still have the original rules, and can use them instead, knowing that at least at one point, they fit into the game design, so should still work pretty well.

Inksplat said:

Inksplat said:

Well said sir!

And on the flip side, having the beta means there is still a chance to get things you might not like changed.  Especially if you are articulate and argue the point well enough that others agree - or they already agree in which case you're helping add fuel to the fire to get things changed so it is a more perfect game.

And honestly, I do believe a lot of the doom and gloom so far is from those of us still waiting for the book to arrive. ;)