Star Wars RPG, Regular vs Saga ed?

Xaviar

So I'm starting a new starwars campaign with my group. It's been a good 6-7 months since we've played as our usual DM was off at basic and we were all too lazy to pick up the mantle.

Now he's back and getting married, so he hasn't the time to do all the prep stuff. I've got nothing but time, so he's asked me to run a star wars campaign. Not my first time to the party, but I've recently come into the possession of several saga edition books. Enough to run a campaign from. The changes seem pretty interesting, and I'm wondering if there's anybody out there that's played through both versions and can give me thoughts on the differences?

[edit] Don't know that it matters, but just fyi we usually run Dark Heresy, but are looking for a change of pace.

OptimusZed

If you can afford the $30 to pick up the core Saga rulebook, you should run it. Period.

It's just that good.

Xaviar

Even with the limited character creation options? I mean, the different talent trees look like they'll add a lot of customizability, but still, we're gonna run a no-force sensitive PC campaign, which gives my players, what, 4 classes to choose from? I mean I'm totally willing to give it a run, and maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, but it seems so limiting..

Delmain

Yeah, the classes in Saga can end up being really different with different talent choices. Even with only four classes, you'll have more than enough differentiation once they start taking talents.

OptimusZed

Members of any given class in Saga can look completely different at the table. Remember, since you can pick your own class abilities, the only thing two (let's say) 6th level Scoundrels might share is BAB and a similar number of hit points. Everything else is up for grabs. You can play a heavily armored dreadnought, an ace pilot or a combat medic using the same classes with virtually no skill or talent crossover.

Rainfall

Yep, as a long-time D20 hater, Saga pretty much converted me. Not to mention that that's four classes with multiclassing super-encouraged. You can get wildly different characters out of the core book very, very easily.

Just to clarify on that a bit, in the long-running(almost two years and still going strong) Saga game, we started with the core book and no force-users. We ended up with a hacker-scoundrel, a pilot-scoundrel-gunslinger, a labor-droid turned murder-bot, and a Scout with actual knowledge of the galaxy and the planets around us.
Later, as we got more books, we got a few more characters, but they were all built mostly out of the core and every character has had a very distinct feel. There's really nothing to worry about unless your players are incredibly unimaginative(and I hope they aren't!)