The Star Wars Roleplaying Game is a tabletop role-playing game set in the Star Wars universe, first published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2012. It consists of different standalone cross-compatible games where each one is a separate themed experience. The sourcebooks support games set from the Clone Wars era to the original Star Wars trilogy era; there is limited support for the Star Wars sequel trilogy era. Since 2020, the game line has been maintained by Asmodee's subsidiary Edge Studio.

Publication history

Fantasy Flight Games (2012–2020) Previous Star Wars roleplaying game publisher Wizards of the Coast declined to renew their license in 2010 after 11 years. At Gen Con 2011, Fantasy Flight Games announced they had acquired the license from Lucasfilm Ltd., and at the following Gen Con announcing Star Wars: Edge of the Empire for 2013, Star Wars: Age of Rebellion for 2014, and Star Wars: Force and Destiny for 2015, while releasing Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beta and Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game later in the same year. These releases revealed that the new RPG was based on Jay Little's Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay third edition, with the dice becoming the narrative dice system.

Age of Rebellions beta version was released in October 2013, a beginner set released on April 25, 2014, and the final version of the game, the Age of Rebellion core rulebook, released on July 3, 2014. The third line of products, Star Wars: Force and Destiny, for playing Jedi characters, was released in beta in September 2014. In August 2018, the sourcebook Rise of the Separatists, set during the Clone Wars, was announced; it was released on May 9, 2019.

Also in 2018, Fantasy Flight Games published a 30th anniversary edition of the original Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (1987–1999).

In 2020, Fantasy Flight Games announced that they were discontinuing their tabletop role-playing game lines. Parent company Asmodee then moved the Star Wars Roleplaying Game license to their subsidiary, Edge Studio.

Edge Studio (2020–present) In October 2021, Edge Studio announced continued support of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game line via future reprints in phase one and new supplements in phase two. Edge Studio's RPG manager Sam Gregor-Stewart, former lead developer of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, "hinted at the possibility of a new" Star Wars roleplaying game system. However, in November 2021, Edge Studio "told Dicebreaker that no standalone Star Wars RPGs are in development, despite the indication last month that it was working on brand new titles in the sci-fi setting".

In October 2022, ComicBook.com reported that "Asmodee has announced a new print run of several Star Wars Roleplaying Game era sourcebooks, ending a multi-year hiatus of sorts for the once-popular game". The titles to be rereleased in November 2022 were: Dawn of the Rebellion, Rise of the Separatists, and Starships and Speeders along with the game master's kits for Age of Rebellion and Edge of Empire. In December 2022, Edge Studio announced the upcoming reprint of eleven books including the Core Rulebooks for Age of the Rebellion, Edge of Empire, and Force and Destiny. The three entry level boxed sets for Age of Rebellion, Edge of the Empire, and Force and Destiny respectively were scheduled to be reprinted and released in December 2023.

At Gen Con 2026, Wizards of the Coast announced a new Universes Beyond program for licensed Dungeons & Dragons partnerships. This program will feature a Star Wars themed sourcebook in 2027. Outlets reported speculation that this indicated Edge Studio had lost the tabletop Star Wars license and that its Star Wars Roleplaying Game was finished. However, Russ Morrissey reported that Edge Studios announced in its Discord server that the company retains the license.

Overview

The Star Wars Roleplaying Game is divided into various themed product lines which can be played as standalone games or as cross-compatible games: Star Wars: Edge of the Empire: for playing bounty hunters, colonists, explorers, hired guns, smugglers, or technicians Star Wars: Age of Rebellion: for playing rebel soldiers and freedom fighters against the Galactic Empire Star Wars: Force and Destiny: for playing Force-sensitives and the last Jedi Knights under the Empire's rule Star Wars: The Force Awakens: set prior to the events of the third Star Wars trilogy Star Wars: Rise of the Separatists & Collapse of the Republic: set during the Clone Wars; players can be Jedi, clone troopers and even work for the Separatists

Supported fictional eras

Star Wars: Rise of the Separatists (2019) is set during the Clone Wars era at the beginning of the Palpatine regime. Star Wars: Collapse of the Republic (2019) is set during the second half of the Clone Wars and the waning of the Republic. Star Wars: Dawn of Rebellion (2018) is set during the ascendance of the Empire. It deals with the events at the time of the animated series Star Wars Rebels and the film Rogue One (2016), in which the Rebellion is divided into factions and is opposing the Empire just as it is consolidating its power.

The first three installments of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game are set within the time period of the original Star Wars trilogy. Star Wars: Edge of the Empire (2013) is set shortly after the destruction of the first Death Star, and deals with characters on the fringes of galactic space. Star Wars: Age of Rebellion (2014) is set around the time of The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and allows players to join the Rebellion. Like Edge of the Empire, Star Wars: Force and Destiny (2015) is set shortly after the destruction of the first Death Star and the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi, when the force sensitives and Jedi slowly start to re-emerge in hopes of rebuilding the Jedi Order.

The Force Awakens Beginner Game is set during the current era depicted in the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), with the adventure provided taking place just before the events of the movie.

Game system

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: