FFG Developer Answered Questions

By kaosoe, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

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With Move someone you can't control him/her and prevent from attacking (typical scene from videogames where you hold up stormtroopers but they still shooting).

Bind is a more accurate "Stun" than the Influence version I supose (Strain damage).

Move is Push so. Maybe the "Knockdown" is a cinematic "Advantage" effect.

Edited by Josep Maria
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Glad to see that the old house-ruling of using Move for a "Force Push" effect still stands.

As for knocking the target prone (assuming they're not taken out by the damage inflicted), having the player spend a Triumph or perhaps 3 Advantage for that effect makes sense. Granted, in the films where we see a Force push in effect, the target (typically battle droids) are trashed, so it'd be something of a moot point.

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The general sense is that with the Force you are able to destroy tons of minons. Pure cinematic :D

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Honestly, that's a lame response from Sam. It has such a specific effect and is used very frequently especially in the prequels and TCW that a little more official crunch would be very helpful here rather than every table needing a house rule.

Edit: I should clarify that I have a very high regard for Sam and his work on this product. I just think they sometimes carry the "it's narrative" response too far. Force Push is a weapon, with pretty consistent results across XP levels. It needs to be treated as a weapon, with the appropriate damage, qualities, etc.

Edited by whafrog
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The general sensation in the movies/series is that Push doesn't do anything crucial, it's a "minion killer" mainly.

But yes, agree that maybe a more "refined" or extended version would be nice.

Until the moment I will follow Sam's recomendation and I will do it cinematically and will consider Advantages from Discipline :)

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Honestly, that's a lame response from Sam. It has such a specific effect and is used very frequently especially in the prequels and TCW that a little more official crunch would be very helpful here rather than every table needing a house rule.

Edit: I should clarify that I have a very high regard for Sam and his work on this product. I just think they sometimes carry the "it's narrative" response too far. Force Push is a weapon, with pretty consistent results across XP levels. It needs to be treated as a weapon, with the appropriate damage, qualities, etc.

And at what point does it stop being "asking the developer questions" and "begging them to run my game for me"?

While I disagreed with the sentiment of a tweet that Fiddleback made several days ago about some GMs being far too dependent on pestering the devs with questions about every little thing, I have to conceed that he did have a point, and that it seems far too many GMs are asking the devs to cover/explain every little rules situation as opposed to being GMs and deciding for themselves how it works at their table. Frankly, I blame the d20 system and especially 3rd edition and it's knock-off/clones like Pathfinder for that state of affairs, given their insistance/reliance upon "exception-based rules" and "everything has a rule and a rule for everything." Rolemaster narrowly averts being nearly as bad simply by actually having charts for everything, many of which could be safely deep-sixed and still have the game be playable. Now I enjoy hearing the reasons why a game designer made the choices they made for a game system or set of rules (even if I might disagree with them), but I'm enough of an adult that I can make my own decision on how to handle fuzzy patches of the rules when they come up at my table without needing to pester the designer for how to resolve it.

But given that a lot of emphasis has been put on this being a narrative system, maybe the answers are going to reliant upon a narrative solution. As Josep noted, in most cases using Move to attack a Silhouette 1 minion = defeated minion, since it's 10 plus successes damage, minimum of 11, enough to take out pretty much every minion type in the game thus far, so things like crit ratings and weapon qualities really don't come into play. If it's against a Rival or Nemesis that's not going to be taken out with that one hit, then be a GM and make a decision for your game how it works.

Sorry, rant over.

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I have been pretty lazy the past few days. As a result I have not been on the ball with updating the questions list.

As for the spoiler tags in the original posts, It makes grouping easier so folks new to the board aren't paralyzed by the volume of content they would have to scan through. The idea was the someone who was wondering about a particular rules call could find the category that their question best fits in and expand the spoiler tag to see if it had already been asked. I could change it up, but it would take some effort. If there is better value in rearranging the content it might be worth it.

As for the spoiler tags in the update posts, that's probably just a force of habit on my part.

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In any case I have added the following questions. Thanks everyone for continuing to PM me your questions or posting them here:

Increasing Defense Zone limits

Asked by Ghostofman

Vehicle defenses (typically provided by shields) are limited to 4 points in any given zone. (EotE CRB pg 228)

Talents like Defensive Driving increase a vehicles defenses in all zones.

Is Defensive Driving intended to allow you to exceed the 4 point cap or is 4 intended to be a hard cap?

Answered by Sam Stewart :

The limit of 4 is intended to be a hard cap.

Force Push as Move Power

Question asked by Josep Maria

There is any official response about "Force Push" power or it isn't created? It's a variant from Move?

Answered by Sam Stewart :

Force Push, Pull, and Move are all the same thing in our game. Anything you could do with Push, you should be able to do with Move.

Follow-up Question asked by Josep Maria

How do you handle the "Knockdown" effect that we can see sometimes on the movies? Its cinematic or I miss something?

Answered by Sam Stewart :

If it's an opposed check, it would be something you could use Advantage to activate. If it's just a Force power check, then it's probably cinematic (if you're targeting minions or no-name rivals, whether or not they're knocked down probably doesn't make a huge difference either way).

Edited by kaosoe
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But given that a lot of emphasis has been put on this being a narrative system, maybe the answers are going to reliant upon a narrative solution. As Josep noted, in most cases using Move to attack a Silhouette 1 minion = defeated minion, since it's 10 plus successes damage, minimum of 11, enough to take out pretty much every minion type in the game thus far, so things like crit ratings and weapon qualities really don't come into play. If it's against a Rival or Nemesis that's not going to be taken out with that one hit, then be a GM and make a decision for your game how it works.

It's really simple: it's a weapon, and should be treated as such. It needs to account for range, and multiple targets, and qualities like knockdown or disorient.

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Here's a question about two-weapon combat:

Question:
I have a question about two-weapon combat. In many cases, certain skills or certain weapons will have various modifiers applied to them, such as boost dice, setback dice, or the ability to remove setback dice. How are these applied when you use two-weapon combat?
Example 1: You're shooting two blasters. One of them has the actuating module, while the other one doesn't. For the first weapon, you add a setback die to all attacks, but not for the second weapon. How would this apply if 1) the first blaster is your primary weapon, or 2) the second blaster is your primary weapon? Or does it matter?
Example 2: You're attacking with both a vibroknife and your fists (unarmed). The first uses Melee, the second uses Brawl. For whatever reason (talent, weapon mod, etc), your vibroknife attack removes a setback, and your unarmed adds a boost. How would these features be applied, again, with 1) the vibroknife as your primary, or 2) unarmed as your primary?
The same question could go for multiple modifier dice. If one attack adds 2 boosts, and the other adds 1, which applies? If one adds 2 setback, and the other 1 setback, which applies? Or maybe there's a combination of boosts, setbacks, and the ability to remove setbacks, divided out in different numbers between the attacks. How are these situations resolved?
Answer (from Sam Stewart):
The weapon used sets the pool. The second weapon is only used if you gain two Advantage to trigger the second hit. So only the first weapon sets the pool. So if the second weapon has penalties or bonuses that would affect the pool, such as adding Boost or Setback dice, these would not apply. However, if the second weapon has penalties or bonuses that are applied after the pool has been rolled, then those penalties or bonuses do apply if you trigger the second weapon to hit. So If your second weapon is Accurate, you won't get Boost dice. But if your second weapon has a laser sight that gives you an Advantage on a successful attack, then if you're successful and you trigger the second hit, then you gain the additional Advantage as well.

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I asked about using Scathing Tirade and Coercion.

Rule Question:
Hello,

I play a Politico who uses the Scathing Tirade talent in combat. My GM and I have a question as to how Scathing Tirade interacts with the Coercion skill rules.

Scathing Tirade allows the user to inflict strain damage to enemies. The user can affect a number of enemies equal to the number of success and can deal additional damage per advantage. This is with a "Scathing Tirade" action, which uses a "Coercion check". The Coercion skill rules also have the ability to inflict strain on targets for successes, add targets for advantages, and even break the will of a target with a triumph.

The question is: how does Scathing Tirade interact with the base Coercion rules found in the skill description? Do they interact with one of the following interpretations?

1. When using a talent which gives an action, such as Scathing Tirade, only the text in the talent can be used. When Scathing Tirade is used, the only way to add targets is with success and the only way to deal more damage is with advantages, as depicted in the talent. All text in the skill description is disregarded when using a talent.

2. When a talent is used which calls for a skill check, the rules for the check found in the skill can also be applied. When Scathing Tirade is used, targets can be added with success per the talent and advantages per the skill, extra damage can be inflicted with advantages per the talent and successes per the skill, and the targets will can be broken with a triumph.

3. There is some other interaction between skills and talents that wasn't described above.

Thank you for a help on this issue.

Answer from Sam:

Scathing Tirade is a separate and discrete action that follows the rules listed in it, and nothing else. The rules offered in the skills chapter are simply guidelines for using those skills if no other rules apply. They do not stack.
Hope this helps!
Sam Stewart
Senior RPG Producer
Fantasy Flight Games
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Inspired by the How Do Homesteads Work thread, I asked this

Rule Question:

Question about homesteads and businesses from Far Horizons. Lets assume that the party has a business (in this case, a bar), and they've invested in the upgrade where they're actually turning a profit every month. Does the Entrepreneur talent +10% Wheel and Deal bonus have any effect on that monthly profit?

The player is selling, but its only in an abstract sort of way. It's a "This is how many drinks we sold over the month" instead of one "You can have this crate of blasters" transaction.

Answer from Sam:

That's a decision I would leave firmly in the hands of your GM, although if the amount of money isn't ludicrous (and I don't think it would be), I wouldn't have a problem with it at my table. It certainly makes sense that an Entrepreneur (or Trader) is good at selling things!

Which was pretty much the answer I was anticipating - if it doesn't break things at your table, then there's no good reason not to go for it. (I would then put forth that there's a good reason to allow it, if you're not in a heavy smuggler's game and someone has Entrepreneur - it makes their talents useful instead of waiting around for the team to go sell a crate of blasters).

Edited by Desslok
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Added questions asked by OggDude , Jamwes , and Desslok . Thank you all for letting me know.

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Is there a possibility we could get these answers gathered in a PDF resource like a FAQ?

Yancy

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Gallandro, I could export my personal document as a PDF, but it's unlikely that I will update it as often. It's also not very well organized.

I also added the following:

Question Asked by Osprey (Paraphrased)

The description for the Dueling Pistol in Suns of Fortune says that they are “almost invariably” sold in pairs. Is the price listed in the book for one pistol, or a pair?

Answered by Sam Stewart :

Although the description notes how they're generally sold, the price is listed for one pistol.

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Here's one for the list about Modding:

The Question:

Modding Attachments:

The rules, EotE pg 187:

"If he succeeds, he successfully installs the mod on his gear, and the item now benefits from the bonus provided by the mod. If he fails, however, the mod is not installed, and he may not attempt to install that mod again. If he failed and his check generated at least one [Despair], the attachment is also rendered useless by his tinkering.

The part I'm curious about is this line: "If he fails, however, the mod is not installed, and he may not attempt to install that mod again."

I have encountered two interpretations, I'll give an example:

PC buys a Balanced Hilt mod for his Vibro-Axe and installs it. The Axe gets the Accurate +1 Quality from the Attachment and has 2 Mods available. PC buys the first mod (100 creds) and tries to install the Decrease Encumbrance by 1 mod. He fails.

By one interpretation that Attachment can never have the Decrease Encumbrance Mod. It's a "ruined slot".

By another, the PC spends another 100 credits and tries again.

Which interpretation is the correct one?

The Answer:

Hello sir,

In your example, if he attempts to install the Decrease Encumbrance mod and fails, he may not attempt to install the Decrease Encumbrance mod again. He may attempt to install the Accurate +1 Quality mod, however.

In another example, let's look at the Augmented Spin Barrel. The Spin Barrel has two "Damage +1" Mods. If the PC attempts to install one Damage +1 mod and fails, he does not install that mod and may not install it again. However, he may attempt install the other Damage +1 mod.

Hope that helps!

Sam Stewart

Senior RPG Producer

Fantasy Flight Games

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Added Evileyore's question on modifying equipmen t.

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I don't know if ever anyone had the same confusion as me, in any case here it goes:

Question:

Dear,

The item "Bacta (full tank) listed under the Medical label of table 5-8 in the Edge of the Empire core rulebook. Is it the bacta tank (recipient) plus electronics plus the bacta liquid? or is it only the amount bacta liquid you need fill one of those tanks?

Kind regards,

Yepes,

Answer:

Hello Yepes,

The "tank" is just the fluid needed to fill a tank.
Hope this helps, and sorry the response has taken so long. We're pretty swamped with Force and Destiny's beta over here!
Sam Stewart
Senior RPG Producer
Fantasy Flight Games
By the way, at the end of his email I found the following text:
The information contained in this electronic message is privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the recipient named above. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.

anyone got the same? does it mean I cannot share his answers?

Edited by Yepesnopes
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FFG have never objected to the sharing of their answers on this forum.

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That bit about the bacta tank is interesting.

Did you send a follow up question asking what the cost of an actual tank should be? Or is that something left to GM discresion?

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That bit about the bacta tank is interesting.

Did you send a follow up question asking what the cost of an actual tank should be? Or is that something left to GM discresion?

I did not ask that.

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Yepesnapes answer has been added.

I suspect that Sam's email signature is automatically added to all external emails he sends out. He's been very gracious about letting us share his rule clarifications.

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Forgot to post this up here a few weeks back. Question regarding wrist-mounter blasters being "drawn" or not.

Dangerous Covenants page 52 has the highly useful Corellian Arms Model 2 Wrist Mount attachment.

My question is this: when a blaster with this attachment is worn on a being's wrist, does the character consider the weapon to be "drawn?" More to the point, must the character take a maneuver to "ready" the wrist-blaster, or is it just always ready to be used once it's mounted on your wrist?


And the answer

Hello Josiah,

Your character does count as having the weapon out and ready if it's worn on his wrist, unless other circumstances (such as wearing a spacesuit over it!) would make this impractical.

Hope this helps,


Sam Stewart
Senior RPG Producer
Fantasy Flight Games

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I don't intend to type up a manuscript of all the questions and answer given from the Order66 or podcast or any other podcast, but I did dig up the work that Venthrac has already done .

A note to Venthrac: I am not trying to cheat you out of the hard work you have done. I just wanted to get this in one place rather than revive the thread you had started.

No worries, man. I really appreciate your work in compiling and organizing this thread. All I've ever wanted was to help out the community when and how I could, and I am very grateful for anyone else who does the same. There are many players who have worked to make this amazing game even better, and I think that's pretty awesome.

And of course I'd be remiss not to also give a shout out to Sam Stewart, whom I've had the privilege not only to meet in person, but also to play EotE with. He is a great guy, and I think we can all agree that the time he spends answering our questions is hugely appreciated.

Rock on, game developers and fellow EotE players!

Edited by Venthrac