Hey there fellow Star Wars fans, LadyAspie here. I have a few questions regarding character creation. First of all, how does one allocate certain talents and strengths? Mostly though., how do you develop your characters stats? I ask this because I and a friend of mine run a gane group for people with Asperger's Syndrome, and while quite a few of us adore Star Wars, we cannot make heads or tales out of the character development guide. Please help with this. Thanks.

Do you meant that the book itself is confusing, or that you have a guide that is itself confusing?

If the former, what might help is just trying to do a character creation dry-run yourself (as in, practice) following the directions in Chapter II.

If the latter, go by the book instead and then use the guide to help you educate your other players.

I can think of a couple other remedies though to the chargen conundrum. Namely, these are the Beginner Games...both EotE and AoR now have beginner boxes that have pre-made characters. There also is a free-to-play EotE adventure called "Under a Black Sun" (IIRC) on the EotE support page with pregens.

Those should get you playing without too much muss and fuss.

it's the book itself and the face that nobody really wants to play with premade characters...

First of all, how does one allocate certain talents and strengths? Mostly though., how do you develop your characters stats?

I don't really understand the question, it's pretty broad.

Are you asking for, say, recommended "best practices" (such as putting most of your starting XP into Characteristics because it's the only time you can freely buy them up)?

Or more like help interpreting the chargen rules and the rules for the order you're allowed to buy Talents?

Yes to the first and second. We are used to played by the D and D standards, whih we think are much more straightforward.

It's suddenly gone quiet!

Try downloading Ogg's character generator, it'll run on most PC's (and Windows-emulators for you Mac users)

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/89135-another-character-generator/

(its in his signature)

That's the quickest way I've found for getting a lot of characters made up quickly for new players

Allocation:

Best practice is to devote (at least) around 80% of your starting XP on characteristics. You'll be much happier with your character's performance later on if you do this.

With the remaining XP, you can do 3 things:

1) shore up your career skills (not non-career skills),

2) purchase a few talents

3) become Force Sensitive by buying into the FS Exile Specialization (20 XP, since the specialization is not attached to a career). The Force Sensitive in your group should be rare, and it should be noted that as a starting Force-Sensitive Exile you're more of a River Tam from Firefly (at the beginning of the show) rather than a Luke Skywalker.

Are you confused by how much things cost? If so, that's fairly straightforward:

Characteristics cost 10x the rank you're purchasing. If you're a human and you're going to Brawn 3 from Brawn 2, it's 30 XP. If you want to go all the way to Brawn 4, it's 40 more XP and you've just spent 70 XP. Brawn 5 is out of reach for most humans.*

For a Wookiee already at Brawn 3, it's only 40 XP to buy up to Brawn 4.

Talents are a straight 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 XP depending on where on the tree they're located.

Skill ranks cost 5x the rank you're purchasing. But if you're purchasing a skill outside your career skill list, add 5 XP to the cost. So for a Marauder buying rank 2 in Melee, it's 10 XP. But if a Scholar wanted to get rank 2 in Melee, it'd be 15 (5*2+5).

Specializations (after your first career specialization, which is free) cost 10x the number of specializations you would have after purchasing it. So buying your second career specialization (or the Force Sensitive Exile spec) costs 20 XP. If you're purchasing an out-of-career specialization, add 10 XP to the cost. So if you've already got 2 specializations and you want to buy a third, non-career specialization, it's 40 XP (3*10+10).

EDIT: But seriously, just try creating a character by yourself using the book. Go step-by-step, and I'm sure that the answers you seek will be there. It just takes a little effort from someone in your group to understand the rules, and after seeing them in action it's so much easier.

*If you're playing in a small enough group that everyone has 10 starting Obligation, you can voluntarily accrue 10 more Obligation for +10 XP and thereby reach Brawn 5 as a human, but that'd be ALL your starting XP on one characteristic

This thread had a lot of good tips.

This thread had a lot of good tips.

This is an excellent thread that has helped some of our players flesh out their characters.