I’ve been a Star Wars fan since my dad first showed seven-year-old me a VHS of Return of the Jedi that he’d taped off a TV broadcast. Some of my earliest adventures in collaborative storytelling took place on the familiar planets of a galaxy far, far away. When I started exploring the TTRPG field, finding a system that felt like a good fit for the themes of the franchise was a Holy Grail of sorts – and in 2013, I finally found it.

Space Opera Gaming

Star Wars fits squarely in the space opera genre of science fiction. It’s a grimy, old galaxy, steeped in dramatic history and far less concerned with the specifics for how things work than why our characters need them to. When Fantasy Flight Games published their Edge of the Empire rulebook to open the gates for the latest iteration of Star Wars TTRPGs, they chose to emphasize the collective drama of the story as the game’s focus, with dice mechanics all aimed at supporting that theme.

Failing Forward (and Succeeding Backward)

The specific dice Star Wars FFG designed for the game allow for a level of interpretive nuance beyond systems that rely on simpler pass/fail mechanics. Depending on the result of their dice pool, a character can fail at a task but still earn helpful side benefits, or succeed wildly but consequently end up in a riskier situation. This interplay of successes, failures, advantages, and threats makes the system flexible and dynamic from the ground up.

Living the Tropes

Everyone has their favorite Star Wars tropes – whether it’s the snap-hiss of an igniting lightsaber in the hands of a Jedi or the sneer of an imposing Imperial officer looking down his nose at the planet’s rabble. FFG ensured their Star Wars was populated with all of them. Their Edge of the Empire book provides a setup for anyone looking to explore the scum and villainy of the Outer Rim and the heroes who scratch their way up from the bottom. For those wanting to engage with the myriad military conflicts and uprisings across the galaxy, Age of Rebellion will be your first stop. If your tale involves the mysteries of the Force and those individuals that can touch and manipulate it, Force and Destiny will be the book for you.

Whatever your Star Wars looks like, you can find it here on StartPlaying – and may the Force be with you!

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Jack Gregory is a Washington-based professional writer, player, and storyteller in the TTRPG industry.
Find him on BlueSky here.