Fantasy Flight Games

GM Guide: The Hero's Journey

Published 31 July 2017 | The Force Awakens Beginner Game

GM Guide: The Hero's Journey

Narrating Your Star Wars™ Roleplaying Games

"The belonging you seek is not behind you. It is ahead. I am no Jedi, but I know the Force."
–Maz Kanata

There's no more immersive experience of the Star Wars universe than that provided by any or all of the three different Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars™ roleplaying systems — Age of Rebellion™, Edge of the Empire™, and Force and Destiny™.

All three systems allow you and your friends to share thrilling adventures in the Star Wars universe, and all three utilize the same dice and core mechanics. Moreover, you can dive quickly into any of these game lines by starting with its Beginner Game. Regardless of the line, a Star Wars Roleplaying Beginner Game offers a unique and memorable take on the core Star Wars experience, allowing players and Game Masters to learn the game even as they play.

But where do you go from your Beginner Game? Perhaps you have a fantastic series of Star Wars adventures racing through your mind, and you want to share them with your friends. How can you use the game's narrative dice as part of your effort?

Today, guest writer Bryan Young draws upon his experience as a Star Wars roleplaying Game Master in order to help you make the dice your ally.

Guest Writer Bryan Young on Using the Power of the Dice

There are a lot of newer Star Wars gamers who opened up their Star Wars™ Roleplaying Beginner Games, ran the box's well-structured game, and are now looking to make their next game even better.

As you make your way on that journey from gaming Padawan to Master, having adventures of your own in the Star Wars universe, one of the most important things you can learn to improve your gaming experience is to focus on the stories you can tell using the dice.

The Star Wars Roleplaying Games from Fantasy Flight Games are unique from any other game I’ve played. With them, you can have wonderful things happen in tandem with otherwise unsuccessful rolls, but you can also have horrible things happen when you’ve clearly aced a task.

What happens when our heroes successfully convince a crime lord's henchmen to lead them to a secret weapons depot (success and Triumph)—only to find it more heavily guarded than they expected (Threat)?

This apparent contradiction lends itself to the sort of high-adventure storytelling of Star Wars movies, but can be a little difficult for players to get used to. The system asks a lot from the players, but it can create some of the most fun story moments you’ve ever had in a game.

What Stories Will Your Dice Tell?

If your group has players accustomed to other games, it might be difficult to get them to participate in telling stories with the dice, but once you do, you’re going to have a much more collaborative and fun game. Think about all the great moments in Star Wars movies where something good and bad happened at the same time and it helped tell a much more thrilling story.

A really great way to get your players accustomed to this is by offering all sorts of examples you’d find acceptable in play.

One of my favorite moments involved a starfighter battle in an asteroid field. One of my players was chasing a TIE fighter through the asteroids, dodging around back and forth, and rolled to shoot the TIE. Naturally, the difficulty of hitting the TIE fighter was really high, and my player missed the shot. But it still yielded a Triumph result. That’s when my player offered that the stray shot hit an asteroid and altered its trajectory… and that asteroid hit another—right into the TIE fighter!

There are many other ways to use your dice results. Fail that stealth roll but got a Triumph? Maybe the guard took a break to go to the refresher station so your stealthiness doesn’t matter. Or imagine that your players are rolling for their hyperspace navigation and score a bunch of Advantage, even as they fail what they want to do; maybe they manage to come out of hyperspace early, realizing that if they’d have done what they intended, they'd have fallen into a trap.

On the other side of the token, what if your player rolls a success along with a significant amount of Threat? Maybe she manages to blast the stormtrooper as which she's aiming at, and he’s knocked forward into the console he’s guarding, opening the blast door behind him.

Another of my favorite game moments happened when one of my players was shooting at a stormtrooper in the rafters. The player rolled enough Threat that the shot missed the trooper, but hit the rigging that kept a TIE fighter attached to the hangar ceiling. The TIE came crashing down, pinning the players in their position and made the rest of their job a lot more difficult.

These scenarios increase the tension of the situation, sure, and you, as the Game Master, will have to decide what’s appropriate. Some players might not be ready to add too much danger to their games, so you must also make sure they have the tools they need to have fun.

Know Your Role

With FFG's Star Wars Roleplaying Games and the narrative dice system, it’s not just the Game Master who adds to the twists in your story, but it’s important that it's clear the Game Master does have the ultimate say in what is permissible.

It’s also a lot more fun to use the dice to help turn the story on its ear than to use them to add simple bonuses. Being a Game Master who works with the players toward roleplaying of this sort ensures that your sessions are more about storytelling than being a slave to the numbers of the rules. And in my opinion, it creates a much more rewarding style of play.

Work with your players to get more creative in your use of the dice, and I guarantee you’ll have more fun gaming!

When he's not making life difficult for his friends' small band of Rebels, Bryan Young is a writer, podcaster, and gamer. He writes regularly for StarWars.com and Star Wars Insider, and hosts the Star Wars podcast Full of Sith. You can follow him on Twitter @Swankmotron.

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The Queen's Gambit

Published 19 November 2015 | Star Wars: Edge of the Empire

The Queen's Gambit

Mask of the Pirate Queen Is Now Available!

“You needn’t worry about your reward. If money is all that you love, then that’s what you’ll receive.”
–Leia Organa

Capturing one woman could earn you tens of thousands of credits in Mask of the Pirate Queen, an adventure for Star Wars®: Edge of the Empire™, now available at U.S. retailers and in our online store! The question is, if you can find her, will your love for money conquer all or will other priorities, Motivations, and Obligations compel you to let this elusive bounty slip through your fingers?

At the start of Mask of the Pirate Queen, you and your associates are suddenly contacted by a representitive of the Zann Corsortium, an oppressive criminal organization that preys on both the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. That representative offers you a job: bring in the woman known as the Pirate Queen, dead or alive. Your rewards will be an impressive, but unnamed, amount of credits. Knowing the power and reputation of the Zann Consortium, it’s an offer you can’t refuse.

Mask of the Pirate Queen takes you on a trans-galactic bounty hunt, but that doesn’t mean you need a Bounty Hunter in your group to experience it. A smuggling team, company of Hired Guns, or even a group of Force sensitives might take up the job if they need the money badly enough. Regardless, you’ll need a group with a wide range of skills, from Astrogation and Piloting to Negotiation, Streetwise, and possibly even Lightsaber, to lift the veil of mysteries that surrounds the Pirate Queen.

Safe Havens for Scoundrels

In the course of your hunt, you will certainly visit at least two worlds. One, the bustling, criminal haven of Ord Mantell, was the subject of our recent preview. The other is paradisiacal Saleucami, a tropical Outer Rim planet inhabited by its native Pantorans as well as Gran, Twi’lek, and Weequay colonists. Before the Clone Wars, Saleucami was the most successful trading hub in the Outer Rim. Since the Clone Wars, Saleucami has fallen under Imperial control, although the Empire’s presence is comparatively light. The Imperial governor, in turn, is on the payroll of the Zann Consortium, which ensures that business of all varieties continues as usual.

Behind the Veil

The Pirate Queen is the head of a female-led crime organization known as the Veiled Sorority. Her badge of office is the elaborate platinum mask that she always wears in public, setting her apart from the Sorority’s other female leaders and concealing her identity, even the sound of her voice. No one outside of the Sorority knows whether one seemingly immortal woman has kept an iron grip on the position or several different women have served as Queen. Similarly, no one outside of the Sorority knows on what planet the Pirate Queen holds court. And no one knows exactly why the Veiled Sorority has chosen to focus their predatory attentions on the Zann Consortium.

Finding the Pirate Queen, let alone capturing her, requires penetrating the secrecy and security of this organization. You have to earn the trust of its allies and its enemies. You have to sort out the lies the Queen promotes about herself from the truth she aims to conceal. Finally, you have to enter her inner sanctum—and make it back out alive.

The Hunt Begins

Countless Bounty Hunters, Smugglers, and other scoundrels across the galaxy are eager to get their hands on the Zann Consortium’s money and enter the headquarters of the Veiled Sorority. Are you canny enough to reach the Pirate Queen before they do? Or will you become caught in a deadly rivalry between two powerful criminal organizations and find yourself outmaneuvered by them both?

The bounty hunt begins now. Pick up Mask of the Pirate Queen from your local retailer or order it from our online store today!

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Laws of a Lawless Region

Published 12 August 2015 | Star Wars: Edge of the Empire

Laws of a Lawless Region

A New FAQ for Star Wars®: Edge of the Empire™ Has Been Posted

“Now look, don’t get any funny ideas…”
–Han Solo

Even in the lawless wildernesses of the Outer Rim, there are still a few things you should know and rules you should follow in order to survive. The new FAQ and Errata for Star Wars®: Edge of the Empire™ helps fill out your knowledge of the grim and gritty parts of the Star Wars universe. You can download it now from the support section of the Edge of the Empire™ minisite.

This FAQ includes new information about resolving results when using talents and Force powers, and adds errata for several Edge of the Empire™ adventure books and Career supplements including the Colonist sourcebook Far Horizons and the Hutt Space sourcebook, Lords of Nal Hutta.

Expand your horizons. Download the FAQ and use your newfound knowledge to become a more devious Smuggler, a hardier Colonist, and a craftier Technician, fully equipped for all the grim and gritty Outer Rim adventures that await you in Edge of the Empire.

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The Force Will Be With You

Published 17 April 2015 | Star Wars: Armada

The Force Will Be With You

Celebrate May the 4th at the Fantasy Flight Games Center

“For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us, and binds us.”
–Yoda, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce our May the 4th celebration: an evening of Star Wars™ gaming at the Fantasy Flight Games Center!

An Event of Galactic Adventure

This May 4th at 6 pm, you can join us at the Fantasy Flight Games Center in Roseville, Minnesota for an evening of excitement and fun with all our Star Wars games. This event has grown larger every year and we're thrilled to be a part of this worldwide celebration of all things Star Wars!

The Star Wars experience is filled with fearless heroes and deadly villains, set against a backdrop of a war that spans the galaxy. At this event, you can play out the classic stories of Star Wars, battling in space with starfighters and capital ships or fighting alongside iconic characters like Han Solo, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, or Emperor Palpatine. Whether you’re roleplaying an aspiring Jedi in Force and Destiny, commanding the movements of the Rebel fleet in Star Wars: Armada, or leading a deadly strike team in Imperial Assault, our May the 4th event offers games for every aspect of the Star Wars experience.

Come to play the games you love and learn some new games during the event – we'll be offering demoes of all our Star Wars games. You can learn to survive the perils of the Outer Rim in Edge of the Empire, or pit dark side against light side in Star Wars: The Card Game. In addition to these demoes, every game will have open play available for you and other attendees. You can meet and play games with other members of the Star Wars community. You may fly against your friends in a game of X-Wing™ or help other players complete a daring raid in an Age of Rebellion session. Every game offers a chance to make new friends as you adventure in the Star Wars universe.

What's more, you'll also have the chance to test your skills against each game's designers! Fantasy Flight staff and developers will be on hand to meet attendees and challenge you in our Star Wars games throughout the evening. Can you outfly the ace pilots of Fantasy Flight, or lead your strike team better than our top generals? The May the 4th celebration at the Fantasy Flight Games Center is your chance to challenge the staff at your favorite Star Wars games.

Join Us on May the 4th at the Fantasy Flight Games Center

Your starfighter is ready. Your strike team awaits your command. The Imperial Navy is prepared for your arrival. Join us on May 4th at 6 pm in the Fantasy Flight Games Center for a celebration of Star Wars tabletop gaming!

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