Hello, Can someone help with this simple, and possibly stupid question please.

What is the difference between the Begineers Box set and the New Core Book, and which one should I get?

Thanks

But don't wait for the Core book to come out! Grab a copy of the Beginner Game and you'll have yourself a good look at how the game will work and a sweet set of dice (and no, I don't work for FFG). ;)

I. J. Thompson said:

The insinuation being that the Beginner Box set is a glorified "Quick Starter" of sorts? and I will only have the complete game if I wait for the "Core" book and get a set of custom dice as a seperate purchase?

You also get a full set of dice that you would have to pick up later for $15 anyway, plus an introductory adventure with a pdf followup you can download, some maps, destiny tokens, and character and enemy tokens.  It's a pretty solid deal considering what you get.

The beginner box is missing many things that the core book will have. However, it offers several benefits. Firstly, it's out now and you and your friends can get accustomed to the general rules and how to play starting today. Secondly, it comes with /everything/ you need to play. As was mentioned, it has  maps, tokens, dice, counters an adventure to get you started and a rule book with enough information to keep you going if you want to. 

The core book, when released, will add full character generation and likely more gear, adversaries, ships, etc.. Basically, more of what you already have. It doesn't have the dice needed to play. It has no maps or tokens. Probably adds another adventure to what you have available to you. But the biggest thing really, is the character creation rules so that you and your friends can make your own characters to play instead of using the pregenerated (but still quite fun and interesting) characters.

Both are excellent products and, really, I'd probably recommend getting both in time. The other thing mentioned already is that the core book isn't going to be out for likely about 3-4 months and the beginner box, for what you are getting, is really quite affordable and a great deal of fun.

Can you please define, "Full" character generation, and how does the beginner box set  not do this?

From what I am getting, the BBS has some pregen PC's and thats it.

Rimmer1 said:

You're correct, only pregen PC, no character creation in the Beginner Game. Also, the talent Trees used, are a mixed of the specialisation, so there is some small update to make to a "standard" character.

Well, thats somewhat disapointing, if I had known that I would have not ordered it from my FLGS.

I guess glorified Quick Starter is a very apt discription.

Rimmer1 said:

I wouldn't be too sore about having ordered it. It really is a well-done set, and having it means you're not going to have to buy a dice pack later on (though you might want to, anyway). Plus, Destiny tokens are helpful.

And as far as generating unique PCs goes, I'd wager that between what's in the Beginner game and the Beta book, you should be able to whip something up…

Rimmer1 said:

The beginner box is exactly what most (not all) beginner box sets tend to be. Enough rules to learn and pay the game with some pre-created characters and some options for advancing those characters but not the full game. If the beginner box was the complete game system with all the rules they wouldn't need to print a separate core book, and certainly not one that comes at twice the cost.

That being said, this beginner box is one of the more fun ones I've played with all the information the GM needs to keep the game running well past the provided adventure. Just not what the players need if they want to make their own unique characters. Still, for $30 you get $15 worth of dice, an adventure, the core essentials of the rules and enough information to continue playing your own adventures and get well acquainted with the system. That is a pretty fair price I'd say.

I am hoping that some of that extra space in the core book over the beta book will be used to offer a few more species to play however. The Star Wars Galaxy is full of so many interesting and unusual species after all.

The beginners box really is a beginners box. But it is very good at being so.
By beginners I mean a guided walkthrough on how to not only handle the rules, but the beginnings of roleplay as a concept.
you get all you need for the task at hand - leading a bunch of totaly new players through their first game ever.
And it is handled and presented very well.

Whilst it does not though give you character generation or any of the advanced concepts like Jedi powers etc. It does provide enough to get budding GM's and players going long enough to decide if they will continue on to further adventures. At which point the Core book starts to look very juicy. Though there is enough in the beginners box set to tide them over for a few more adventures at least.

Of course the Core set gives you all the rules. So an experienced GM and group can skip the beginners box if they want. But the the beginners box goes through the rules in a clear well laid out manner - with all the major rule details on the character booklets. So would work well as an introduction to the system itself for the group. 

ShiKage said:

Excellent point. What did you want the Beginners' Game to be, Rimmer1?

I. J. Thompson said:

I wanted it to be a role playing game, not a glorified quick start.

Rimmer1 said:

Sadly, that frame of mind seems to have died out with the Basic D&D Red Box.

Still, FFG did provide a separate rulebook with all the basics needed for GMs to create their own adventures, including quite a few NPCs that aren't used in the pre-packed adventure.  So as long as your GM has a little free time and some creativity, they can certainly create and tell their own stories in EotE using just the BBox material.  There's also the fact that each of the player folios (including the online ones) have a talent tree with them, and info is provided on raising skill ranks.  So while there's no rules for making your own characters, the ones presented can easily be played for a quite a few adventures.

So while it's not a full rule system in and of itself, it's a damn sight better than the 4e Essentials Red Box that WotC published a few years ago, which really was just a glorified quick-start adventure.

Rimmer1 said:

Honestly, by definition it is a roleplaying game. It has all the elements of being able to play the role of a character. It even has all the rules needed by the GM to continue to create their own adventures and stories beyond the one provided in their adventure book. It has a rulebook with all the necessary rules to play. Sure, there is more content within the Core Book; more adversaries, more gear options, more class and specialty options and, most notably, a full character generation ruleset for making your own characters. However, that doesn't make the beginner box not a roleplaying game. The characters they provide come with a full talent tree and specialization to allow you to easily advance well beyond where the starting adventure takes you.

Given the $30 price point, what they provided is quite a reasonable offering. I'll certainly be one of the first to say I feel $60 for the core book is pretty steep but then it's 450 pages of gaming goodness and likely hardcover and full color based on my experiences with their Anima books. To expect everything you need to play, including dice, maps and tokens, along with their entire RPG ruleset for $30 is a bit unreasonable.