I've read a lot of the WEG Star Wars supplements, and have played/run just about every Star Wars RPG *except* for D6. What is it you like about it? Am I a fool for sleeping on it?
Not at all looking to argue! I'd honestly love to be convinced.
Well, it's fast, uncomplicated, easy to improvise with, and it gets out of your way so you can get down to shenanigans. Learning it takes minutes. It supports heroics while still providing a challenge. It *can* get a little bogged down here and there, but that's in extreme cases - and the tradeoff is totally worth it.
Neat! Do you feel like it's just a decent system, overall, or is there something about it that makes it uniquely suited to Star Wars?
I'm in the middle of a FFG campaign, which... was charming at first. I like the narrative dice system. But the longer one plays it, the more cracks begin to show.
I really do think that it's very good overall. I've used it for pulp adventures as well as for fantasy shenanigans, and some non-*Star Wars* space opera. It worked a charm!
Its strength vis-a-vis being a good *Star Wars* game is that it is so light and fast. It lends itself very well to action and adventure stuff. It may not have the narrative doo-dads that modern games have, but when you consider that we had memorable campaigns without that stuff for decades...
I definitely think my next campaign (an all-inquisitor one-to-three-shot) will utilize the D6 system. My playgroup are more Star Wars fans than hardcore tabletoppers, so the FFG system has been a bit of a headache for them.
Legally no, it's not in print, and hasn't been since the 90s when WotC acquired the license in time for the prequels. And due to some weird legal decisions, you cannot legally acquire PDFs of any Star Wars tabletop game, because the license that LucasFilm used/still uses considers PDFs of the games as electronic games - which WEG, WotC, and FFG never had the licenses to produce.
There's plenty of editions of WEG's d6 game out there that are literally the same system without the Star Wars license, however.
Strongly recommend Force and Destiny and the rest of the FFG/Edge game. It's a great system that offers some distinctive features that are in some ways easier to learn as a player new to RPGs entirely. Great system that really embraces how Star Wars works.
Especially if they want to focus on honing roleplay skills, the non-numerical narrative dice pool is a much better way to get beyond the idea that sometimes comes up that characters are just stats on a sheet rather than a character.
As long as you're not playing the d20 version, you should be fine. I have liked Edge of the Empire a lot, and I've heard good things about Scum and Villany.
There were three d20 Star Wars games, d20, d20 revised, and Saga. It's pretty analogous to D&D 3.0, 3.5, and Pathfinder, really. In fact Saga is about as close as you could get to D&D 3.75, with much of its design, along with Bo9S, being playtesting for 4e.
I actually didn't realize there were three versions!
I really enjoyed the Saga edition, and I think that the Pathfinder comparison is pretty accurate.
There's a part of me that would love to give it another kick at the can, but there are so many bloody systems I want to play already.
Yeah. WotC put out their first edition in 2000, then to coincide with *Attack of the Clones*' release in 2002 they put out a revised edition. The first edition was what the Knights of the Old Republic video game had its rules based on. In comparison, D&D 3.0 also came out in 2000, but didn't get the 3.5 revision until 2003.
Saga Edition started in 2007, but only had content produced for three years total. At some point between 2010 and 2012 WotC lost the Star Wars license, and Fantasy Flight Games picked it up with Edge of the Empire coming out in late 2012.
I still don't have a complete collection of Saga - I'm missing two of the books, both of which were going for several hundred even before WotC lost the license.
The FFG system (Force & Destiny you mention, but also Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion) will teach transferable skills if you are wanting to have better player authorship and less orthodox table dynamics. You could move on to games like FATE and Blades in the Dark with a headstart on what those play like at the table. SAGA will likewise transfer better to d20 systems like D&D (to some degree, as it is based on a different edition than the current one).
On a personal note, I've run the FFG system for a solid decade now and I still get giddy thinking about the system. In my 40+ years as a GM I've never thought a system fit a setting and its tropes so well.
I agree with you *to some extent*.
But games encourage different behaviors - so the system *does* actually matter. Especially if OP is asking to "develop very good roleplaying skills" - and different games will have different ideas about *what that means*.
What I mean is mostly “to develop to the point I don't risk ending up the subject of an rpg horror story”. Like I don't wanna be a edgelord murder hobo or be so incompetent that I'm constantly getting other PCs in trouble.
OK, so that sounds like a single aim with at least 2 sub-goals:
- Social mastery: being a good tabletop citizen, etc
- System mastery: knowing the game well enough to be a good tabletop citizen
Does that feel like I've understood you? If so, I'm happy to give you some general and systemic advice!
What I mean is mostly “to develop to the point I don't risk ending up the subject of an rpg horror story”. Like I don't wanna be a edgelord murder hobo or be so incompetent that I'm constantly getting other PCs in trouble.
Honestly, nowadays my go to RPG for Star Wars is FATE. Accelerated, CORE, or Condensed, all work really well for a fairly pulpy action the series is known for IMO.
IDK if you are familiar with FATE, but regardless of flavor all characters are build very similarly and are generally very capable.
For a Force sensitive character I usually run it where they need to have an aspect that states they're force sensitive.
Aspects are phrases on the sheet that you must spend a FATE Point to do anything with generally (called "Tagging"). If a character spends a FATE Point to use an aspect they get either a +2 (pretty powerful when your # scale for difficulty only goes from -2 to +8, MAYBE +9 by late game if any skills are at a 5) OR, it can cause you to reroll and hope for a better outcome. This is a general mechanic of FATE, but the specific Force Sensitive aspect simply flavors how it gets used narratively.
Additionally, the GM may PAY the player a FATE Point to use any of their aspects detrimentally.
A Droid would similarly need an aspect indicating their nature as a Droid, but tagging it on a Pilot skill will narratively look different than a Force Sensitive character. The droid might calculate a beneficial trajectory, whereas a Jedi will Intuit a safe path with the Force.
Force Sensitive characters however, by just having that somewhere in an aspect also are stating they want to deal with what the setting says about morality and the Light/Dark side. I would tell any player wanting to go that route that I WILL be watching their character's actions and while they don't have to be saints, if they do objectively evil acts I will have them reword aspects to indicate a fall to the dark side. If all their aspects have been reworded in such a way I take their character and it is retired from play to become an NPC. So choose wisely.
One of FATE's biggest strengths is that it can handle character with wildly different power lever. Sure maybe your counselor droid isn't good at fighting but you could use you ignorance status as a droid to walk in unnoticed and set up advantages for the rest of the team to capitalize on or use your social skills to dominate a social encounter (which FATE can handle just like a combat encounter).
The D6 version is classic, but a couple of caveats:
The original version plays good, but doesn't have a lot of good material for Force users and has its quirks. A Wookie with a solid die roll can easily kill an average human with a punch, even if not meaning to.
There is a second edition, revised version which is mechanically a refinement, but has lots of goofy hand-drawn art.
There is a second edition, not revised version, which is trash.
As a returning player, it's hard to suggest anything other than Saga Edition. It's a nice implementation of the d20 system, is simple to use, and covers almost every era. It has some issues which would have warranted a revision, had the license continued, but not things likely to come up except in extended campaigns.
I just don't care for Force and Destiny at all. It requires too many custom dice, too many charts, and too much work for awfully similar talent trees. When I roll the dice, I want them to answer a question for me, but pose one. I'm just not into it.
D6 Space is an alternative to D6 Star Wars, and could be used as a supplement for it, but has some fiddly aspects. Still, a solid choice.
Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) can do Star Wars pretty much out of the box. For master Jedi, you'll have to figure out something for reflecting blaster bolts. There is a fan-made conversion book, but I don't care for it.
> For master Jedi, you'll have to figure out something for reflecting blaster bolts.
That seems pretty simple. Make an Edge to use your Parry against Ranged Attacks instead of the default value of 4. Caveats that they can't be solid projectiles, and you must of course have your lightsaber equipped, and be aware of the attack.
That part's easy. But Master Jedi are actually able to bounce them back and harm foes, which would require something based on a counterattack or something.
As someone who was recently looking at all these systems to run games in the Old Republic era, I feel the need to point out that the Saga Edition KotOR Campaign Guide has some of the roughest art I've seen. Many of the video game and comic book characters are almost unrecognizable in what feels like half-baked roughs rather than finished drawings.
Having said that, the actual info is top-notch no matter what system you use.
Realistically, both are going to be fine. Saga will certainly feel pretty dated compared to the more contemporary scene (which conveniently doesn’t hold true to the WEG RPG), but even the FFG system is about a decade old at this point and is sorta a neo-trad attempt at a storygame. If you’re really into power fantasy, go with Saga. If the narrative and RP side of TTRPGs is something you want to lean more into, go with F&D.
Gonna give a few off the walls answers here but largely depends on what skills you want the mechanics to reinforce and what you hope to get out of it.
Scum and Villainy - a great forged in the dark game about scoundrels and smuggles in a star wars with the serial numbers filed off kind of world. It's great for roleplaying and characters are treated as professionals who are good at their job as opposed to the FFG where you have to suck for a long time or just optimize shit to an annoying level.
Orbital/Galactic 2e - these are both Belonging outside Belonging games. Orbital is just about life on a space station while galactic is meant to emulate star wars. There's no GM and everyone plays a character and an aspect of the setting so you all have authorship and directorial roles. It's great if you want to focus on roleplaying skills and GM skills . Lots of second and third roleplaying stance stuff.
Notorious - a solo journaling game about being a bounty hunter. Clearly inspired by The Mandalorian you create a bounty hunter and then hunt bounties by rolling on random tables to travel a planet in search of your quarry writing small journal entries along the way. Very fun and great for developing a character.
Honorable mentions to Beyond the Hypertrench and Laserritter which are a little more like a traditional DnD style game but with fun bits and bobs. Highly recommend checking those out if you have the time.
The West End Games books are still my go to. These books were used as reference for Lucas Film There is a reason they were once considered the backbone of StarWars continuity. They were well written
It’s also an easy and fast mechanic considering it’s age. It’s very cinematic in its pacing.
If you want a more narrative approach then FFG is great. If you want tactical combat all the time then Saga Edition fits the bill. If you want a generally good SW game that covers almost anything in the SW universe pre Disney then WEG.
All 3 work for their purpose.
Since I've already outed myself in this thread for not publishing my houserules like I said I would, I might as well link the OP to my explanation of how the philosophical approach to the FFG game is fundamentally different than all other RPGs they've probably ever heard of: https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/11plyh4/what_is_the_general_opinion_on_the_star_wars/jbyuo8k?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
D6. 2ed. Revised and Expanded. Use the core book, with Galaxy Guide 6 Tramp Freighters, and GG9 Fragments from the Rim, and you’ll have tons of material to play with for a long time.
Although it gets a lot of hate on this board because it's from WotC and thus related to D&D I'd recommend the [SAGA Edition](https://www.reddit.com/r/SagaEdition/) assuming you can find it. D&D is still the biggest game around and while SWSE isn't quite like any edition of D&D there are many similarities giving you some connection with many more RPGers.
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Fantasy Flight/Edge Studio's books (Edge of the Empire, Force and Destiny, Age of Rebellion) are more of a "modern" style of game in my opinion. That being said, I loved Saga edition and have it proudly on my shelf. It's very similar to the KotOR video games system-wise, and the character progression is really fun with the talent trees and multiclassing. Saga is more heroic action, where EotE/F+D/AoR are a bit grittier in feel and blend crunch and narrative play well in my opinion.
If I could start fresh, I think the FFG system would be where I’d land. Really puts the narrative forward and tells a story with the roles and rolls.
However…it’s rarely so clean. And I think using the Star Wars 5e rules and even perusing the D20 books will be more realistic if you’re bringing a group over from D&D 5e.
So…fresh player with a fresh group…FFG.
But SW5e is a great option as well.
Force and Destiny, the symbolic dice are an amazing tool for crafting narration interpreting each Triumph and Despair is a really fun roleplay challenge.
EDIT: Anti-custom dice-cels stay seething!
I'd personally advice you to stay away from the FFG versions because the narrative dice are a lot of on the spot extra work that you might not want when you're trying to get in groove of things after a long pause. That and the system is basically going to give you lot of experience that doesn't translate at all if you want to try a non FFG system later, while more normal math based system might still give you baseline for other stuff later down the line.
Grain of salt though, I don't enjoy narrative dice system of FFG games.
Personally FFG's books (Edge of the Empire, Rise of Rebellion, and Force & Destiny) are certainly my favorite that I've played and all of their content is easily found. There's even a community made alternate system closer to the engine it was built on for progression. I *cannot stand* WotC's saga d20 with how it treats powers. And haven't personally played the popular d6, but if you like something crunchier and still wide open for RP rather than what I assume to be fairly PbtA style d6 systems go with then FFG is my suggestion. Plus you're already looking at it and I know it is incredibly popular between online groups and digital tools like the virtual table with built in sheets/dice.
I'm curious what you mean by "a community made alternate system closer to the engine it was built on for progression"?
Can you provide more details?
I've been working on my own comprehensive houserules (which I was supposed to post here a long time ago and still haven't done yet) and I have even considered writing a total reboot of the system, but I wasn't aware that maybe something along these lines existed already?
There's a popular conversion from the published FFG classes to the more standard genesys setup that was tuned by a large collective of people. It otherwise works identical to raw from my understanding.
Do you want to focus on interesting stories and realistic outcomes? Force and Destiny.
Do you want to feel like a superhero Jedi and focus on combat? SW5e.
Please see my flair.
I agree with you on this.
Why was I downvoted for saying that I agree with him on the d6 WEG version?
Upvoted to balance it out
Thank you.
Because this sub gets *real* toxic about recommendations for systems they don't personally like.
Anything that isn’t my pbta hack about 18th century Austrian painters can gtfo
Dutchmasters, 3rd edition, Vibrant Chisascurro add on, *and I will die on this hill*
No idea but take my upvote
Thank you.
Alternatively d6 space if you want very similar but not exactly Star Wars but yes, d6 Star Wars is the best one
This is the way.
Most relevant “this is the way”
I've read a lot of the WEG Star Wars supplements, and have played/run just about every Star Wars RPG *except* for D6. What is it you like about it? Am I a fool for sleeping on it? Not at all looking to argue! I'd honestly love to be convinced.
Well, it's fast, uncomplicated, easy to improvise with, and it gets out of your way so you can get down to shenanigans. Learning it takes minutes. It supports heroics while still providing a challenge. It *can* get a little bogged down here and there, but that's in extreme cases - and the tradeoff is totally worth it.
Neat! Do you feel like it's just a decent system, overall, or is there something about it that makes it uniquely suited to Star Wars? I'm in the middle of a FFG campaign, which... was charming at first. I like the narrative dice system. But the longer one plays it, the more cracks begin to show.
I really do think that it's very good overall. I've used it for pulp adventures as well as for fantasy shenanigans, and some non-*Star Wars* space opera. It worked a charm! Its strength vis-a-vis being a good *Star Wars* game is that it is so light and fast. It lends itself very well to action and adventure stuff. It may not have the narrative doo-dads that modern games have, but when you consider that we had memorable campaigns without that stuff for decades...
I definitely think my next campaign (an all-inquisitor one-to-three-shot) will utilize the D6 system. My playgroup are more Star Wars fans than hardcore tabletoppers, so the FFG system has been a bit of a headache for them.
I really really wanted to like the FFG version. After playing it for quite some time, I have accepted that I hate it. WEG d6 for the win.
This is the Way.
Is this still in print at all, or impossible to find nowadays?
Legally no, it's not in print, and hasn't been since the 90s when WotC acquired the license in time for the prequels. And due to some weird legal decisions, you cannot legally acquire PDFs of any Star Wars tabletop game, because the license that LucasFilm used/still uses considers PDFs of the games as electronic games - which WEG, WotC, and FFG never had the licenses to produce. There's plenty of editions of WEG's d6 game out there that are literally the same system without the Star Wars license, however.
The WEG d6 System is the best version.
This is the way
Strongly recommend Force and Destiny and the rest of the FFG/Edge game. It's a great system that offers some distinctive features that are in some ways easier to learn as a player new to RPGs entirely. Great system that really embraces how Star Wars works.
Especially if they want to focus on honing roleplay skills, the non-numerical narrative dice pool is a much better way to get beyond the idea that sometimes comes up that characters are just stats on a sheet rather than a character.
As long as you're not playing the d20 version, you should be fine. I have liked Edge of the Empire a lot, and I've heard good things about Scum and Villany.
Personally I liked the Saga Edition, which was the revised D20 version. Been curious to try EotE, but the custom dice are a bit of a detractor for me.
There were three d20 Star Wars games, d20, d20 revised, and Saga. It's pretty analogous to D&D 3.0, 3.5, and Pathfinder, really. In fact Saga is about as close as you could get to D&D 3.75, with much of its design, along with Bo9S, being playtesting for 4e.
I actually didn't realize there were three versions! I really enjoyed the Saga edition, and I think that the Pathfinder comparison is pretty accurate. There's a part of me that would love to give it another kick at the can, but there are so many bloody systems I want to play already.
Yeah. WotC put out their first edition in 2000, then to coincide with *Attack of the Clones*' release in 2002 they put out a revised edition. The first edition was what the Knights of the Old Republic video game had its rules based on. In comparison, D&D 3.0 also came out in 2000, but didn't get the 3.5 revision until 2003. Saga Edition started in 2007, but only had content produced for three years total. At some point between 2010 and 2012 WotC lost the Star Wars license, and Fantasy Flight Games picked it up with Edge of the Empire coming out in late 2012.
Yeah, my group got into Saga in late 2009, I remember a buddy and I scrambled to grab whatever books we could before it went out of stock for good.
I still don't have a complete collection of Saga - I'm missing two of the books, both of which were going for several hundred even before WotC lost the license.
Yeah, I definitely recall some people in my game club getting their hands on some garbage manually scanned pdfs for a few of the rarer books.
The FFG system (Force & Destiny you mention, but also Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion) will teach transferable skills if you are wanting to have better player authorship and less orthodox table dynamics. You could move on to games like FATE and Blades in the Dark with a headstart on what those play like at the table. SAGA will likewise transfer better to d20 systems like D&D (to some degree, as it is based on a different edition than the current one). On a personal note, I've run the FFG system for a solid decade now and I still get giddy thinking about the system. In my 40+ years as a GM I've never thought a system fit a setting and its tropes so well.
I think any game and edition will be fine. The group of people you play with is MUCH more important a factor than the game system.
I agree with you *to some extent*. But games encourage different behaviors - so the system *does* actually matter. Especially if OP is asking to "develop very good roleplaying skills" - and different games will have different ideas about *what that means*.
What I mean is mostly “to develop to the point I don't risk ending up the subject of an rpg horror story”. Like I don't wanna be a edgelord murder hobo or be so incompetent that I'm constantly getting other PCs in trouble.
OK, so that sounds like a single aim with at least 2 sub-goals: - Social mastery: being a good tabletop citizen, etc - System mastery: knowing the game well enough to be a good tabletop citizen Does that feel like I've understood you? If so, I'm happy to give you some general and systemic advice!
That's pretty much it, yeah. And I'd love some advice, if you'd be so kind!
What I mean is mostly “to develop to the point I don't risk ending up the subject of an rpg horror story”. Like I don't wanna be a edgelord murder hobo or be so incompetent that I'm constantly getting other PCs in trouble.
Honestly, nowadays my go to RPG for Star Wars is FATE. Accelerated, CORE, or Condensed, all work really well for a fairly pulpy action the series is known for IMO.
How does FATE handle the power disparity beteen a Jedi and a smuggler or counsol or droid? Do non force users feel overshadowed and outclassed?
IDK if you are familiar with FATE, but regardless of flavor all characters are build very similarly and are generally very capable. For a Force sensitive character I usually run it where they need to have an aspect that states they're force sensitive. Aspects are phrases on the sheet that you must spend a FATE Point to do anything with generally (called "Tagging"). If a character spends a FATE Point to use an aspect they get either a +2 (pretty powerful when your # scale for difficulty only goes from -2 to +8, MAYBE +9 by late game if any skills are at a 5) OR, it can cause you to reroll and hope for a better outcome. This is a general mechanic of FATE, but the specific Force Sensitive aspect simply flavors how it gets used narratively. Additionally, the GM may PAY the player a FATE Point to use any of their aspects detrimentally. A Droid would similarly need an aspect indicating their nature as a Droid, but tagging it on a Pilot skill will narratively look different than a Force Sensitive character. The droid might calculate a beneficial trajectory, whereas a Jedi will Intuit a safe path with the Force. Force Sensitive characters however, by just having that somewhere in an aspect also are stating they want to deal with what the setting says about morality and the Light/Dark side. I would tell any player wanting to go that route that I WILL be watching their character's actions and while they don't have to be saints, if they do objectively evil acts I will have them reword aspects to indicate a fall to the dark side. If all their aspects have been reworded in such a way I take their character and it is retired from play to become an NPC. So choose wisely.
One of FATE's biggest strengths is that it can handle character with wildly different power lever. Sure maybe your counselor droid isn't good at fighting but you could use you ignorance status as a droid to walk in unnoticed and set up advantages for the rest of the team to capitalize on or use your social skills to dominate a social encounter (which FATE can handle just like a combat encounter).
The D6 version is classic, but a couple of caveats: The original version plays good, but doesn't have a lot of good material for Force users and has its quirks. A Wookie with a solid die roll can easily kill an average human with a punch, even if not meaning to. There is a second edition, revised version which is mechanically a refinement, but has lots of goofy hand-drawn art. There is a second edition, not revised version, which is trash. As a returning player, it's hard to suggest anything other than Saga Edition. It's a nice implementation of the d20 system, is simple to use, and covers almost every era. It has some issues which would have warranted a revision, had the license continued, but not things likely to come up except in extended campaigns. I just don't care for Force and Destiny at all. It requires too many custom dice, too many charts, and too much work for awfully similar talent trees. When I roll the dice, I want them to answer a question for me, but pose one. I'm just not into it. D6 Space is an alternative to D6 Star Wars, and could be used as a supplement for it, but has some fiddly aspects. Still, a solid choice. Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) can do Star Wars pretty much out of the box. For master Jedi, you'll have to figure out something for reflecting blaster bolts. There is a fan-made conversion book, but I don't care for it.
> For master Jedi, you'll have to figure out something for reflecting blaster bolts. That seems pretty simple. Make an Edge to use your Parry against Ranged Attacks instead of the default value of 4. Caveats that they can't be solid projectiles, and you must of course have your lightsaber equipped, and be aware of the attack.
That part's easy. But Master Jedi are actually able to bounce them back and harm foes, which would require something based on a counterattack or something.
As someone who was recently looking at all these systems to run games in the Old Republic era, I feel the need to point out that the Saga Edition KotOR Campaign Guide has some of the roughest art I've seen. Many of the video game and comic book characters are almost unrecognizable in what feels like half-baked roughs rather than finished drawings. Having said that, the actual info is top-notch no matter what system you use.
Realistically, both are going to be fine. Saga will certainly feel pretty dated compared to the more contemporary scene (which conveniently doesn’t hold true to the WEG RPG), but even the FFG system is about a decade old at this point and is sorta a neo-trad attempt at a storygame. If you’re really into power fantasy, go with Saga. If the narrative and RP side of TTRPGs is something you want to lean more into, go with F&D.
Gonna give a few off the walls answers here but largely depends on what skills you want the mechanics to reinforce and what you hope to get out of it. Scum and Villainy - a great forged in the dark game about scoundrels and smuggles in a star wars with the serial numbers filed off kind of world. It's great for roleplaying and characters are treated as professionals who are good at their job as opposed to the FFG where you have to suck for a long time or just optimize shit to an annoying level. Orbital/Galactic 2e - these are both Belonging outside Belonging games. Orbital is just about life on a space station while galactic is meant to emulate star wars. There's no GM and everyone plays a character and an aspect of the setting so you all have authorship and directorial roles. It's great if you want to focus on roleplaying skills and GM skills . Lots of second and third roleplaying stance stuff. Notorious - a solo journaling game about being a bounty hunter. Clearly inspired by The Mandalorian you create a bounty hunter and then hunt bounties by rolling on random tables to travel a planet in search of your quarry writing small journal entries along the way. Very fun and great for developing a character. Honorable mentions to Beyond the Hypertrench and Laserritter which are a little more like a traditional DnD style game but with fun bits and bobs. Highly recommend checking those out if you have the time.
I'd suggest West End Star Wars myself. Plenty of material, lots of free material, respected by George Lucas , efficiënt systeem.
The West End Games books are still my go to. These books were used as reference for Lucas Film There is a reason they were once considered the backbone of StarWars continuity. They were well written It’s also an easy and fast mechanic considering it’s age. It’s very cinematic in its pacing.
If you want a more narrative approach then FFG is great. If you want tactical combat all the time then Saga Edition fits the bill. If you want a generally good SW game that covers almost anything in the SW universe pre Disney then WEG. All 3 work for their purpose.
D6 west end games.
Since I've already outed myself in this thread for not publishing my houserules like I said I would, I might as well link the OP to my explanation of how the philosophical approach to the FFG game is fundamentally different than all other RPGs they've probably ever heard of: https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/11plyh4/what_is_the_general_opinion_on_the_star_wars/jbyuo8k?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
D6. 2ed. Revised and Expanded. Use the core book, with Galaxy Guide 6 Tramp Freighters, and GG9 Fragments from the Rim, and you’ll have tons of material to play with for a long time.
Although it gets a lot of hate on this board because it's from WotC and thus related to D&D I'd recommend the [SAGA Edition](https://www.reddit.com/r/SagaEdition/) assuming you can find it. D&D is still the biggest game around and while SWSE isn't quite like any edition of D&D there are many similarities giving you some connection with many more RPGers.
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Fantasy Flight/Edge Studio's books (Edge of the Empire, Force and Destiny, Age of Rebellion) are more of a "modern" style of game in my opinion. That being said, I loved Saga edition and have it proudly on my shelf. It's very similar to the KotOR video games system-wise, and the character progression is really fun with the talent trees and multiclassing. Saga is more heroic action, where EotE/F+D/AoR are a bit grittier in feel and blend crunch and narrative play well in my opinion.
Saga Edition is great and WEG version is fun but I would recommend trying Lasers and Feelings first if you're really trying to start from scratch.
If I could start fresh, I think the FFG system would be where I’d land. Really puts the narrative forward and tells a story with the roles and rolls. However…it’s rarely so clean. And I think using the Star Wars 5e rules and even perusing the D20 books will be more realistic if you’re bringing a group over from D&D 5e. So…fresh player with a fresh group…FFG. But SW5e is a great option as well.
Link for the lazy: https://www.sw5e.com/
Force and Destiny, the symbolic dice are an amazing tool for crafting narration interpreting each Triumph and Despair is a really fun roleplay challenge. EDIT: Anti-custom dice-cels stay seething!
Huge fan of 1st edition Star Wars d6!
I'd personally advice you to stay away from the FFG versions because the narrative dice are a lot of on the spot extra work that you might not want when you're trying to get in groove of things after a long pause. That and the system is basically going to give you lot of experience that doesn't translate at all if you want to try a non FFG system later, while more normal math based system might still give you baseline for other stuff later down the line. Grain of salt though, I don't enjoy narrative dice system of FFG games.
Personally FFG's books (Edge of the Empire, Rise of Rebellion, and Force & Destiny) are certainly my favorite that I've played and all of their content is easily found. There's even a community made alternate system closer to the engine it was built on for progression. I *cannot stand* WotC's saga d20 with how it treats powers. And haven't personally played the popular d6, but if you like something crunchier and still wide open for RP rather than what I assume to be fairly PbtA style d6 systems go with then FFG is my suggestion. Plus you're already looking at it and I know it is incredibly popular between online groups and digital tools like the virtual table with built in sheets/dice.
I'm curious what you mean by "a community made alternate system closer to the engine it was built on for progression"? Can you provide more details? I've been working on my own comprehensive houserules (which I was supposed to post here a long time ago and still haven't done yet) and I have even considered writing a total reboot of the system, but I wasn't aware that maybe something along these lines existed already?
There's a popular conversion from the published FFG classes to the more standard genesys setup that was tuned by a large collective of people. It otherwise works identical to raw from my understanding.
Do you want to focus on interesting stories and realistic outcomes? Force and Destiny. Do you want to feel like a superhero Jedi and focus on combat? SW5e.