Tomorrow night (Feb. 26) I'll be running my first game at my FLGS. I've been running D&D Encounters and I have two regular Shadowrun games there already, and I've been a DM/GM for a long time. However, I wanted to reach out here (and I've cross-posted to the Beginner's Box page as well, since I'll be running that my first time), but does anyone have any advice for running this system? Any pitfalls I should watch out for? I'd be happy for any advice from people who have already been runnign the system. Thanks!

Tip #1 Don't run it like D&D Encounters.

Avoid maps the first few times; SW isn't a reliant as D&D on them. If you really need to have one to give everyone a relative idea though, don't draw in the lines.

My main advice for Edge of the Empire, is to keep your mind very open as to possibilities.

Encourage your characters to narrate fun, cinematic descriptions of their actions, and help provide an example for them by narrating events in an interesting way.

"The Stormtrooper shoots at you. You take 6 damage."

versus

"The Stormtrooper ducks around the side of the building, firing off several shots from his blaster rifle. Two of the shots hit the glass window next to you, shards of glass go flying and distract you, causing a Setback die to your next action. One of the bolts grazes your arm, you take 6 damage before Soak."

You don't need to have a tactical understanding of every single object in the environment before you start an encounter. You can make stuff up as you go along.

"The Stormtrooper's shots sail by your head, you can smell the sizzling air but you take no damage. He missed but he rolled a Triumph--from behind you feel a burst of heat as a power convertor on a nearby wall takes a stray shot and explodes. The burning device falls from the wall onto the ground in the alleyway, blocking your escape. You'll need to make an Athletics check to jump over it now."

In this example, this power convertor just came into existence because the guy rolled a Triumph and it seemed like it'd be fun.

That's my favorite part about this game. Most of all, have fun! The rules can be interpreted very loosely so don't get too hung up on the details as you play.

Explain the 2/3 axis of success the narrative dice use, and how it's different from normal 1 axis games before you start.

If you've got D&D players explain that XP is awarded for completing the story, not killing things and looting their stuff. You don't have to kill any stormtroopers to advance. Also explain that this is a more interactive system, the players are expected to contribute and really say what happened when that dice roll comes out.

A round in universe is about a minute or so, not 5 seconds. A single attack can represent a series of shots, swings, punches and kicks, it does not have to represent only one.

The GM should try to say the following as often as possible: "Yes." "Yes, but..." "Yes and..."

Use maps if you must, but at least try it without them, or use the maps but not minis or tokens. The game is designed with a malleable universe in mind so players can inject material as allowed, excessive map use can take away from that. My first game I used maps, after that I kept them for specific encounters only, and largely replaced them with just simple photos of "what it looks like here."

Minions can act as a group, or as individuals, it is up to the GM when he designs the encounter.

NPCs are created as the GM sees fit. They do not follow player rules.

When a player generates advantage/triumph, don't just decide what that means, ask "what do you want to do with that?" and see if they can decide. Offer them the table if it helps, but try not to use it as a crutch.

Modify your difficulty dice pools ALL THE TIME. The difficulties given are the base difficulty and the GM is expected to enhance that. The game largely assumes most difficulty pools will have at least one setback die added.

Purple dice represent how hard something is, Red dice represent how dangerous it is, Black dice represent additional effects that can make a task more difficult, but aren't really part of that task.

If you are using the beginner box preface the space battle at the end with the following statement: "This encounter is going to be boring as hell. It is intended to teach you the basic mechanics of how vehicle combat works, but that's all. Future vehicle encounters will be much more interesting." This needs to be said because it's true, the encounter is boring, but it hits the basics well, once you understand that you can add in additional rule details and effects and it will get more interesting.

Before reading the vehicle rules in the core book, say the following: "I will now read this chapter. I will assume nothing, and compare this to nothing. If it is not in this book, it does not exist. If it is from another game, it does not exist." The vehicle combat system in this game is pretty good, but it's not the way most systems handle it, so I've found it helps to really clear your head before trying to understand them. If after doing this you still don't like the vehicle rules, check back here, there's lots of homebrew options out there.

Practice, practice, practice. If one of your players is handy (or wife, or parent, or little sister) give them a character and try running a simple encounter or three. Makes all the difference in the world.

I'm sure we'll think of a lot more...

I definitely concur on running an encounter if possible before you play.

I made up an adventure for my wife and we played it over a couple of sessions before I introduced our whole group to the Beginner's Adventure. This helped a lot, plus it helped get my wife excited about the system!

She still tells people the story of how she defeated the gundark in her first adventure

Let them be what they Star Wars want to be within reason and dont let them think they have to min/max to be successful.

About the narration: I wouldn't go overboard the first time around if your players are D20 aficionados. It's hard for people new to it to know the limits of what they can do. But when the advantages and triumphs show up on the dice, and the player wants to do something (even passing a boost die to another player) ask them "how does that happen?" Maybe give them a hint: "there's a half mug of beer on the table, you could fling it in the Gamorrean's eyes...". I've been pretty generous the first few games, giving extra boost dice for clever, inventive, or hilarious description or roleplay. Just doing that a couple times has greatly encouraged a more imaginative approach

You know I just had a funny idea... if you have a map use it but it doesn't have to be the map of the adventure just there when you need to give them an example for example they're in a fire fight and want to know what to use for cover... throw some spare dice on a section of the map and explain what they can see using the dice as an example for crates or even their characters in relation to their foes.

If they ask what the map is actually for during the game its just so they're able to get comfortable thinking they know what to expect and then show them what Star Wars is really all about!

Lots of great advice here, but I haven't seen this one: pick up an extra set of dice (or two or three if you like the game.)

Use maps if you think they're useful; but if you use them, take pains to emphasise that all positioning and movement is very approximate. "He's about there, she's over there, yeah, I reckon she could sprint there for a manoeuvre."

More importantly, pay attention to the different axes of resolution (success/failure vs advantage/threat). Take your time thinking about what the dice tell you is going on and solicit ideas from the table. Be careful that you don't fall into the trap of treating advantages as low-grade successes; it may help if you clarify what people are trying to achieve with each roll and reserve advantages & threats for everything else that's going on.

Cool narration is good, but I find it mostly comes from trying to make sense of the dice results. "Roll Stealth to cross the canyon without the bounty hunter seeing you. A success and three threats. Umm.. OK. You cross the canyon without being seen, you duck behind some cover, and disturb a womp rat who was sleeping there."

I like the O66 point about making use of the maps if your group is used to them. It's like a transition prop, or "wooby." If your group has never RP'ed without a map and minis, use them. They will have a hard enough time absorbing the new system (no matter how great it is). So get out the maps and tokens/minis/lego guys and have fun.

The key to using them though is pumping the abstract range system. IGNORE THE GRID, and enforce range bands.

In our first session, with the BB, I used examples from our surroundings, ie. Engaged is melee range, short range is from one side of the FLGS (Game On, in Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada) to the other, medium is across the parking lot, and long is to the bridge down the street..."

I wasn't mean about it, but if players started trying to quantify distance into a hard number, I just gave it a from here to there real world reference. It actually helped a lot, and since then nobody in the group uses foot/meter measurements anymore.

Also, you may notice that the BB doesn't give maps for every encounter. This gives some nice examples of role-playing without maps, especially if the group decides to steal the HMRI from the crotchety old bugger.

By using the provided maps, you run a nice set of map scales. The cantina and spaceport authority are good examples of a semi-detailed map that allows token placement without the two things being to scale with each other. The streets of Mos Shutta goes even further, providing more of a visual aid than anything, and the Krayt Fang map allows for greater detail at scale.

I still use my battlemat and markers, but I make use of all of those map sizes, and I don't think any of my group even see the grid anymore, as I purposefully draw on the hex and square sides, as well as sometimes going out of my way to skew my lines "off grid." Also, I only use maps for complex scenes or set pieces. The rest is all imagination...

Hope you had fun and that all went well...

Be familliar with the story and system as much as you can be.

Learn what the dice mean, what they can be used for and how to enhance the results using them.

Get an idea of how the rules should work. The Beginner Game is awesome in the sense that it's exactly like the tutorial levels in a video game; you don't have access to all the features right away, you don't do everything in the proper order right away, but when it's time to use a new feature, it gets introduced. As I'm sure you know, players always like to push their boundaries and test rules - be prepared for this.

Also just like with every other system/pre-made story, learn where the story is taking them and all the little side shops and areas (found in the back of the Beginner Adventure book), so if/when they go for a side-trekk, it flows smoothly.