Life on the angelicdoctor ranch has its good days and its bad days. Today is a good day. The manager approved my four days off for the remainder of the week. This is good because we have my beloved spouse's family coming down for a visit this weekend and the ranch is anything but presentable. The trouble with owning some acreage is one has plenty of space to store that excess stuff you have no idea where else to put. This will be remedied this week.

Well, the goats are milked and put up in the shelter. The pigs are resting in their hoop house as is the cow. The hens and roosters rest comfortably in their coop and the dogs are taking shelter in the barn from the thunderstorm. And I now get to turn my attention to things that don't require my getting my hands dirty: Star Wars Role-playing. Such an opportunity as this is a golden one especially if one realizes that holding a regular nine-to-five as well as running a self-sustaining ranch is no small feat and one that leaves little in the way of free time. As such, it is incumbent upon me, the family's resident game master, to make the most of what little time we have to devote to the hobby of role-playing. My latest endeavor is to find ways I can maximize the play and minimize the 'administrivia' related to the game or games, since we play in multiple types of role-playing, eg. Metamorphosis Alpha, Gamma World, Star Frontiers, Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, Star Wars (D6) and even Star Wars Saga Edition from time to time (there is the matter of attempting to complete the Dawn of Defiance series while the children are yet still living in the home).

To this end, I have now come upon the matter of creating pre-generated characters for an upcoming Edge of the Empire campaign and I hope to simply crack open the book and begin play when the time eventually comes. Recognizing that the Core book has been released for almost a year now and we've had at least that long to run our campaigns in the setting using this wonderful rule set (longer if one has been playing ever since the Beta release in August 2012), in your collective experience what would be the essential six species/specialization combinations that you would recommend that I focus on as I plan my next game and why?

Thank you in advance for your consideration of this question.

When coming up with Pregens, I usually go one of 2 ways. Either pick a very typical race/class combo or something very atypical just so my players can stretch their creative muscles. When it comes to typical combinations these particular matches are a great start. Consider giving at least one of the following a few ranks in mechanics. The doc could cover most of the other intellect based skills.

Wookiee Marauder

Twi'Lek Politico

Droid Doctor

Bothan Thief

Human Pilot

Rodian Hired Gun

For something a bit more creative. These combinations aren't completely inferior but they may not synergize like some of the above would.

Wookiee Doctor (Give some attention to the right side of the tree)

Gand Mercenary Soldier

Trandoshan Force Sensitive: Exile

Droid Thief

Bothan Outlaw Tech

one thing that may help prep time is OggDude's wonderful GM tools. Some of the specific content may not come with the distributed program, but it does give page number and book references.

Thank you for your suggestions! They all appear very reasonable. I like your unusual species/specialization combinations as well and I may use a few of them too.

I would love to use OggDude's character generator, however, as it is based on .NET and therefore a Windows product and since I use Debian Linux, I am afraid that this window of opportunity is closed for me. Thanks, though!

The support page has some pre-gens that would make for a good start. I've not compared them to the final rules to make sure they are legit however.

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/106142-on-pre-generated-characters-for-edge-of-the-empire/

If you want to do them all from scratch you'll probably want to take one from each career so they feel different. When you are done you'll want to look them over to make sure you don't have too much overlap in non-combat abilities so they don't step on each others toes too much. Since this is Star Wars, most of the players should be human, but a droid and wookiee are almost mandatory for the RP elements.

Keep in mind, this is just from the core rule book.

If I were going to make pre-gens for 6 players I would do something like:

Smuggler/scoundrel- Someone is going to want to play the Han Solo type. I'd say scoundrel so he can be the smooth talker so you don't need the more boring (in my opinion) politico character. A Twi'lek or a Bothan would make a good scoundrel and adds some racial variety to the group.

Colonist/doctor- Doctors are almost a must for a group that wants to avoid downtime. This is a good career for a droid if you want one in the party.

Hired Gun/Bodyguard- The bodyguard can stay with the group and still do his job as opposed to the Marauder who keep running away from the teammates and getting in the way of their shots. They also get the Gunnery skill so they can carry big guns and also man the guns on the ship. This is a good place to put a wookiee because big guys guarding their group is always a hit with players. I would not recommend a trandoshan because they are just ugly.

Bounty Hunter/Assassin- I'd say assassin because this would be a good place for a character with stealth skill and they already benefit from high agility. A human, droid, or rodian would be good for this. I like human because it lets you start with a non career skill of coordination.

Technician/Slicer- Computer slicing comes in handy, so this is a good choice for a party. Their main ability is Intellect for computers and mechanics, so a human or droid (if you did not already have a droid assassin or doctor) would be good for this.

Explorer/scout- Most of the skills should be covered at this point except for survival. A bothan would make a good scout, but a human would get early access to weapon skills and other cunning skills with their species special.

So, here would be my short list:

Twi'Lek Smugger/Scoundrel: Presence (Charm, Cool) and Cunning (Streetwise,Deception, Skulduggery)

Droid Colonist/Doctor: Intellect (Medicine, Education)

Wookiee Hired Gun/Bodyguard: Brawn (Athletics, Resilience) and Agility (Gunnery, Ranged -Heavy, Piloting - Planetary)

Human Bounty Hunter/Assassin: Agility (Stealth, Ranged- Heavy, Piloting - Space, Coordination)

Human Technician/Slicer: Intellect (Computers, Mechanics, Astrogation, Knowledge-Underworld)

Human Explorer/Scout: Cunning (Survival, Perception)

My list has no one listed with extra points in Willpower, and that is what is needed for Vigilance (initiative) rolls and Coerce if you want an interrogator. As you look things over you can see where you can work that in.