Fly Casual

"...Keep your distance, though, Chewie, but don't *look* like you're trying to keep your distance..."

I just picked up my first Rules Supplement for the FFG Star Wars game: Fly Casual.

What's not to love about Smugglers and their toys? I could not resist this one. New weapons, vehicles, starships, modifications, etc. First, the basics (using Nate's template).

Pages: Contents
1: Crawl
2: Credits
3: Contents
4: Fiction
5-9: Overview and Introduction
10-39 (Chapter I: Free Traders): Backgrounds for Smugglers, including Disadvantaged, Privileged, Ex-Military, Respectable, and Born and Bred; a new Smuggler Obligation chart; three new species, the Falleen, the Gotal, and the Quarren; three new Specializations, the Charmer, the Gambler, and the Gunslinger; some new talents; a new Smuggler Motivation chart; two new Signature Ability trees ("Narrow Escape" and "Unmatched Fortune").
40-63 (Chapter II: Tricks of the Trade): New equipment including 9 energy weapons, 2 slugthrowers, 3 "other" weapons and 1 explosive, 1 Brawl weapon, 3 Melee weapons, 3 new types of armor, a dozen "gear" items (cybernetics, tools, etc), info on two types of drugs, 4 weapon attachments, 2 airspeeders, 3 landspeeders, 3 new starfighters/patrol boats, 11 new freighters and transports, the Interdictor-class cruiser, the Golan I Space Defense Platform, 9 starship/vehicle attachments.
64-96 (Chapter III: It's Just Business): Tips for incorporating Smugglers, smuggling jobs, hyperspace travel, Imperial Customs and other occupational hazards, showdowns and shoot-outs, and smuggling rings into your game.


Impressions
I quite like the look-and-feel of the FFG products, of course. Great artwork, full color interior, hardcover book. Based on my initial perusal, I think there are a couple of inspirational pieces of art that will form the basis for adventure scenes in my future; I also like the ideas concerning Imperial Customs and BoSS. I am very interested in building a legitimate sounding net of Imperials through which the heroes (in AoR or EotE) have to pass from time to time.

I am not planning on using this book for an Edge campaign, but rather filtering it into the Age of Rebellion motif we're working on here. I will likely make great use of the Imperial Customs material, including some of their starships (Imperial Customs Frigate, VT-49 Decimator) and practices at and around starports where the characters have to operate from time to time.

Finally, I am sorely tempted to re-create one of my favorite old WEG characters, a slightly out-of-shape, just past middle aged Gambler who retired to the Coral Vanda casino on Pantolomin.

Side Note
I am very likely to pick up the Stay on Target book in the near future as well. Having an adventure or two where each of the PCs is flying an X-wing out of the Tierfon hangar is simply to compelling to avoid (and that book could help flesh out the characters and their potential range of actions and options a bit more, I think).

Other Edge books I'd consider are Dangerous Covenants (to fill out Bounty Hunters a bit) and the recent Lords of Nal Hutta (for a guided tour of Hutt Space).