Best star wars game for beginners?

[Mystic Muse]

Okay. I want to play some version of Star wars with my cousins. However, I need a rather simple version of the game because their ages are between 9 and 12. So, even when they are paying attention they don't retain information all that well. Is there a relatively simple version of the game? Also, I should mention, they'll probably all want to be Jedi.

[Trixie]

Yoda Stories, of course. After that, KotOR.

Unless you mean pencil and paper? Then 4th Edition, a.k.a. Saga, is the simplest.

[Mystic Muse]

yes. I meant pencil and paper.

[Dienekes]

d6 is about the easiest game I know of, and it's still playably awesome after all these years. You may have to walk them through force powers but once they grasp how the game works the rest is a breeze.

[Mystic Muse]

what are the books called? I'd like to try and get them from my library if possible.

[Saintheart]

The d6 option is known as "Star Wars Role Playing Game", which doesn't help, obviously, but the publisher might: West End Games, who published both the core book and a large number of sourcebooks, though really all you need is the core one, the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, the Imperial Sourcebook, and maybe Galaxy Guide 6: Tramp Freighters to have years' worth of RPG action.

Second edition is the more recent one. All out of print these days, of course, though now that WOTC's dropped Star Wars RPG for d20, you never know...

[Trixie]

d6 is about the easiest game I know of, and it's still playably awesome after all these years. You may have to walk them through force powers but once they grasp how the game works the rest is a breeze.

D6? You meant that old, obsolete mechanics full of holes and exploits, with character advancement being more expensive than Empire State Building, stupid insistence of the writers that after about ~3.5 deeds good for the Empire DM should take your sheet away and tear it up, with them also having no idea how economy or military work, which ended up poisoning EU with so called "minimalism"* for almost a decade?

Name one good thing about WEG's pile of Bantha Podoo. No, being "okay for its era" isn't a good thing today. Or, tell me how "unit scales" and dice buckets are better things than SAGA.

Ok, I'll shut up now to not derail the thread, but taking 20 year old system that was clunky and poorly designed even then isn't a really good idea, as you'll miss the huge amount of house rules that barely make it work.

*minimalism - that is, stupid insistence that Empire with million worlds has smalled military than Second World War Earth, and that Earth today is about as rich as entire sector of Core Worlds in Empire. Yeah, right. Really, WEG's fluff was so full of holes it was declared dis-continuity and/or ret-conned in its entirety, only names of characters and worlds remaining

[raitalin]

Yeah, SAGA's your best bet. Its even more simple when you learn it before D&D, since your not hung up on all the little changes.

[Dienekes]

D6? You meant that old, obsolete mechanics full of holes and exploits, with character advancement being more expensive than Empire State Building, stupid insistence of the writers that after about ~3.5 deeds good for the Empire DM should take your sheet away and tear it up, with them also having no idea how economy or military work, which ended up poisoning EU with so called "minimalism"* for almost a decade?

Name one good thing about WEG's pile of Bantha Podoo. No, being "okay for its era" isn't a good thing today. Or, tell me how "unit scales" and dice buckets are better things than SAGA.

Ok, I'll shut up now to not derail the thread, but taking 20 year old system that was clunky and poorly designed even then isn't a really good idea, as you'll miss the huge amount of house rules that barely make it work.

*minimalism - that is, stupid insistence that Empire with million worlds has smalled military than Second World War Earth, and that Earth today is about as rich as entire sector of Core Worlds in Empire. Yeah, right. Really, WEG's fluff was so full of holes it was declared dis-continuity and/or ret-conned in its entirety, only names of characters and worlds remaining

It was fun, easy to learn and house rule, and didn't force you into classes, allowing you to develop whatever you want at the pace you want. What you can and can't do in a round is left pretty open ended for both the player and the GM.

That said, the dark side bits need work, I'd suggest not taking away player's characters. As for the fluff approach, read the books and you'll feel like you're about to join into some epic star wars game. They put a lot of effort into the style of the books. That said, if you actually go reading for how many imperial soldiers it says there are in the universe or whatnot it might be very low. I honestly never bothered to check.

As for being declared dis-continuity. This is bloody Star Wars! Everything has been declared discontinuity at some point except maybe the Thrawn Trilogy.

Personally mind you. Saga is the better game. But ease was mentioned clearly as desired and the mechanics of d6 are definitely easier to grasp.

[Chaelos]

I preferred Saga to the older d6 edition.

Edit: Especially if they want to be Jedi. It's been a few years since I played it last, but I distinctly remember that just about everything the Jedi did was determined by the "Use the Force" skill, so there's not a whole lot to keep track of.

[Mystic Muse]

Saga edition it is!