FFG Developer Answered Questions

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

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.

In order to properly answer this question, I need to zoom back a bit to explain the general dynamics of most gaming groups I have ever encountered.

Most of us Game Officials (I use that term because every game seems to have a different specific title for the guy behind the screen so I just use Game Official because it can reasonably refer to all of their titles) would love to run games for people who think and game just like we do. Many of us have become better to some degree at running games "for" one or two of the several identifiable "types" of gamer out there. For instance some of us run games more easily and successfully for simulationists while others do so better for collaborators (a relatively new type of gamer whose emerged or been remade from the trend to co-operative gaming that seems to have become much more prevalent in the last decade or so - and please forgive me being overly expository, I just really want to make sure we're all talking about the same things when we use certain words) and so on.

But most of us simply don't have the luxury of gathering together game groups composed wholly of our ideal gamer "type". Many of us live in places where there just aren't that many players to choose from due to population or interest in a specific system or other time concerns, or for whom gaming has become political in that it's become enmeshed with our friendships and relationships in such a way that to simply say "I love having a beer with you but you make me nuts at the gaming table" is simply not possible for any number of reasons that are frankly outside of our right to reprove or reproach. Indeed for most of us, we must make do with the players we can find (indeed often players must make do with the Game Officials they can find, it's certainly a two way street). This means that at any gaming table it's not uncommon to have, say, two math-numbers-love-to-see-the-system-go-clickey-clickey, an immersionist, a simulationist a rules lawyer and someone who really isn't a gamer but is there so they don't have to sit alone and watch cable TV on a Saturday night (or their S.O. is there...). Then you toss in the various quirks and character/behavior stuff that people are prone to at all ages and you can have a pretty potent mixture that can - very quickly - turn on an Official. And when that happens, suddenly it's three to seven (depending on player group size or size of actual honked off party) against one. Now, that's overstating things a little, nobody throws punches at gaming tables (well, not in the civilized world) and usually by the time you hit 30 you're a lot less likely to have screaming matches at gaming tables, but arguments can happen, can become bitter and can end up undermining a lot of things.

Lots of you have different ways to avoid this. Some of you communicate beforehand, some work really hard to either select players who won't become problematic in the first place and you don't know how blessed you are to have that luxury. Still others present an authoritarian face, which becomes a lot harder to do when you realize that you're upsetting your friends and all you want to do is just run an 'effing game. In the end, the easy flippances and throw-away line solutions tend to be successful to varying degrees, but I have found one thing that works more often than it doesn't...

You externalize a portion of the ultimate authority Game Officials are often said to have at your table to the ruleset. Or in other words, you're not God. You're the Prophet - or, in the words of the Comedy Troupe the Vestibules "It's not me eh sir?" People won't argue with a book they respect even a little the same way they'll argue with a person who claims authority. Being able to say "Yeah, hey, I know, the rules suck but I didn't write them." often stops arguments dead in their tracks OR more importantly those arguments are tabled for later. Clear and concise rules stop arguments far more than Game Official Fiat does because they are perceived as less open to challenge - not closed completely, just LESS open to challenge.

Now, that of course does lead to problems when dealing with crunch-light systems because when there isn't a rule for what you want, you can't externalize your authority to it. So what do we do? We go looking for a rule. I personally come here to see what you all think because I know that the Devs just don't have the time to answer every question and sometimes I need an answer pretty quick. But I personally thing asking the Devs directly is the better option.

Assuming they answer in a way that's helpful. If they give an answer that says "handwave it" you're no better off than when you started, which can lead to some serious frustration.

Which leads to another point.

The only thing the Devs brought to this game was mechanics. Any game written about a long established fandom - Star Wars, Star Trek, Dune, Discworld, Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings, what have you - is a game where thinking up brand new ideas for the fluff is not only not that taxing, it's often rigorously constrained by the licensing involved. I am not saying that it's p'shaw nuthin' to assign proper stats to an X-Wing or lightsaber or Gundark. I am saying it's less work than having to dream these things up in the first place AND THEN stat them out.

So, when I see something that could use a rule - a proper rule - being handwaved and the people asking for said rule being told to just "rock'n'roll" my response is "Dude, this is your job, and unlike a lot of Game Devs out there you only really have ONE job"

And I think the somewhat castigating tone taken by Donovan Morningfire - at BEST - lets them off the hook and at worst makes Game Officials feel bad. It is NOT a symptom of some sort of failing with the Game Official. and Donovan I hate to break it to you but in an RPG it IS "everything has a rule, and a rule for everything" whether it's the Game Officials making up the rules or the Developers. Some Game Officials have inherited a lucky set of circumstances that allow them to be the ones who make up the rules themselves. Others do not.

So, maybe a little less with the scolding and a little more with the demanding that the people who wrote the game actually FINISH writing it, instead of asking us to do it for them.

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

In order to properly answer this question...

As interesting as this conversation from a couple months ago is, please make comments about the Developer answers in a new thread. This thread should be for developer answers only. Thank you.

I'm just responding to what Devon Morningfire said. I didn't realize he (he?) was a Developer or that responding in that way was incorrect on this part of the forum. My apologies.

I'm just responding to what Donovan Morningfire said. I didn't realize he (he?) was a Developer or that responding in that way was incorrect on this part of the forum. My apologies.

To be clear, I'm not a developer for FFG's Star Wars system. I've been falsely accused of making such a claim, in spite of my making it clear that any Star Wars RPG design work I did was for WotC for their Saga Edition product line. I've already been subjected to a witch-hunt because someone failed to grasp or acknowledge the difference on that particularly topic, and while the primary culprits have since left these forums, I'd prefer not to be subjected to another witch-hunt on such bogus premises.

hmm wrong thread. can I delete posts?

Edited by Alatar1313

No! Your mistake will be here for the rest of the eternity! MWA HA HA HA HA!!!

Sorry, to much sugar in my cereals this morning XD

Edited by Josep Maria

I'm just responding to what Devon Morningfire said. I didn't realize he (he?) was a Developer or that responding in that way was incorrect on this part of the forum. My apologies.

I did not mean to infer that Devon was a developer. What I meant by developer answered questions are the questions sent through the offical FFG rules question tool on this website. Those questions are typically answered by FFG Sam through email. This thread is for forum goers to post their questions and answers they received through that service.

Got a query on the DVI remote ship activator's range-

Rule Question:
Remote DVI Activator (Suns of Fortune)
What's the range on these- Planetary or Personal scale?

The range of the DVI Activator is 5 kilometers. Generally this will be close range in planetary scale, but may also count as short range in planetary scale at the GM’s discretion.
Hope this helps!

Sam Stewart
Senior RPG Producer
Fantasy Flight Games

Added the following questions to the list:

Model 2 Wrist Mount Attachment

Question asked by Awayputurwpn :

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?

Answered by Sam Stewart :

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.

Remote DVI Activator

Question asked by MKX :

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?

Answered by Sam Stewart :

The range of the DVI Activator is 5 kilometers. Generally this will be close range in planetary scale, but may also count as short range in planetary scale at the GM’s discretion.

The Move Force Power

Question asked by Kaosoe :

The book states that "if the player wants to use Move to throw multiple objects at multiple targets, he may do so using all the rules for hitting targets with the Auto-fire quality"

First question:

It's unclear to me if the autofire rules are used when throwing multiple objects due to activating Magnitude upgrades, or when trying to throw multiple objects without using the magnitude upgrades.

For example, if I am a force user wanting throwing a silhouette 0 sized stone at a 2 stormtroopers at short range. Would I...

1.) Use autofire rules and not bother activating the magnitude upgrade.

Or...

2.) Use autofire rules and still have to activate the magnitude upgrade.

Does this mean the PC can use the control upgrade to move two objects (assuming the necessary pips to activate any other upgrades for range and strength) as long as the difficulty is adjusted using the autofire rules? Or must the character also activate the necessary Magnitude upgrades as well

Second Question:

The Range upgrade says I can spend force points to increase maximum range at which he Force user can move an object. There is some disagreement between me and my players with what this means.

By default a Force user can move an object at short range. If I activate all three range upgrades, would my character be able to move an object that is starting at Extreme range from my character, or just move an object from short range all the way to extreme range if I want?

Answered by Sam Stewart :

To your first question, you would still have to activate Magnitude to throw multiple objects. So you’d have to spend all the Force points, and increase the difficulty, and target the most difficult target.

To your second question, range upgrades increase the range that you can start effecting objects.

Edited by kaosoe

I sent Sam a few questions that have come up in our gaming group:

I have a couple of questions that I asked before, but never got an answer for. So here they come again:

1. What are the rest of the stats for the ESPO Riot gun?
I was thinking of having it be counted as a blaster rifle that had its damage reduced by two and its range reduced to medium in order to add the autofire option, making it Encumbrance 4 with 4 Hard Points.

Hello Mr. Simms,

The ESPO riot gun does not currently have additional stats. If you need to invent an encumbrance and number of hard points for it, however, your estimation is certainly reasonable, though it may or may not match up with the weapon’s stats if this weapon is released in a future supplement as a PC purchasable weapon.
Hope this helps!
Sam Stewart
Senior RPG Producer
Fantasy Flight Games

2. In the forums, I think that a lot of gamers are really misinterpreting the purpose of Brace.
Brace: "As a maneuver, the character may Brace himself. This allows a character to remove one setback die per rank of Brace from the next skill check based on changing conditions, inclement weather, unstable surfaces, zero gravity, or other disruptive physical obstacles that would make a skill check more difficult.

Thus far the only real example given in the book of setback dice being applied for changing conditions is gravity, and according to the book zero gravity doesn't apply any setback dice, so brace is really without examples of use. So, it is really open to a lot of misinterpretation.

I interpret it as being used to Brace himself against changing conditions. Now in that line of thought, cover (while it is a "physical obstacle") is not a changing condition, if anything it is a static condition otherwise it wouldn't be able to be used as cover.

Changing conditions that I would impose setback dice for that could be offset by the use of Brace would include situations like:

Luke bracing himself before he leaps from the back of Leia's speeder bike onto the back of the scout troopers speeder bike, certainly the speeder bikes zipping along at a couple hundred KMH would impose a set back die or two to an athletics check as they are weaving in and out of the trees.

Attempting to scale a cliff or a building in high winds would impose set back dice that could be offset by the climber bracing himself before each climb check to make sure he doesn't lose his footing or his grip.

When you're facing backwards standing up in the seat of your buddies XP-34 land speeder taking shots at the ganger's chasing you. Bracing yourself before taking your shot will offset the setback dice imposed when your buddy swerves to avoid oncoming traffic or stops suddenly to avoid hitting a pedestrian.

Using coordination to walk a tightrope or narrow blank between buildings in windy conditions would benefit from bracing.

Obi-wan and Anakin probably used bracing more than once while fighting on the various pieces of junk floating in the lava on Mustafar, as things tipped and shifted.

Probably dating myself with this one, but the fight scene between Flash Gordon and Prince Barin in the arena in Prince Vultan's flying city, they would have need to brace every time that platform shifted just to stay on their feet.

Trying to Brawl with someone on top of a bullet train.

This is my interpretation of how Brace is supposed to be used, heck it might even be accurate.

The only thing I have a hard time understanding is why so many specialization have access to it, unless it was their intention to prepare a lot of characters to be placed in highly cinematic scenes like this, but then forgot to detail exactly under what circumstances it would come into play.

Could you please offer some clarification on the Brace maneuver?

Hello Mr. Simms,

The examples you offered for when to use the Brace maneuver are all spot on, actually. These are exactly the situations the maneuver would be used.

Hope this helps!
Sam Stewart
Senior RPG Producer

Fantasy Flight Games

3. On the opposite side of the spectrum. Defense Zones. On page 228 of the EoTECRB, it states under Silhouette and Defense Zones the following:

"Every ship comes with a pre-set defense rating for each of its defense zones dictated by its computer system and the factory settings of its shield generators. The maximum amount of defense a ship or vehicle can have in any of its defense zones is four points, regardless of its size."

I believe this speaks as to the limitations of the craft, not limitations on the individual piloting it.

In the forums they are convinced that the cap of 4 Defense applies to the talent Defensive Driving and anything similar.

I believe the intention to have talents break that cap, otherwise they would specify within the text of the talent. If Defensive Driving was meant to be beholden to the cap of 4, would it not mention it in the talent's description, also as of this moment it is possible to possess 5 ranks Defensive Driving. 1 from Pilot, 1 from Driver, 1 from Fringer, and 2 from Squadron Leader. When the talent tree for the Hot Shot comes out, there will likely be 1 or 2 more available there.

I believe that Defensive Driving talent allows you to make your Defense exceed that of the ship's spec's, because the idea of Defensive Driving is you making the ship not be where the shots go?

Attributes cap at 6, on page 92 "During the course of play, no characteristic can be increased higher than 6."

On page 134, Dedication "Each rank permanently increases a single characteristic of the player's choice by one point. This cannot bring a characteristic above six."

Defense caps at 4, on Page 228, "The maximum amount of defense a ship or vehicle can have in any of its defense zones is four points, regardless of its size.ā?¯

On page 134, Defensive Driving "Any vehicle the character pilots has its defense rating on all zones increased by one per rank of Defensive Driving."

The is no text in Defensive Driving to suggest that it is limited to the cap set on page 228.

Does the cap of 4 Defense for ships and vehicles apply to talents as well?
~OR~
Are talents meant to take the individual above and beyond the limitations of the vessel he is piloting?

Hello Mr. Simms,


On the other hand, the defense gained from Defensive Driving does fall under the limitation of the no more than defense 4 in any zone. If you managed to purchase five ranks of Defensive Driving across four or five different specializations, the fifth rank would be useless.
Hope this helps!
Sam Stewart
Senior RPG Producer
Fantasy Flight Games

4. On page 159 of the EoTECRB, under repairing gear, it states the following:
The cost of the repairs is equal to a percentage of the weapon's base cost, 25% if it's a minor repair, 50% if it's a moderate repair, and 100% if it requires major work. Reduce the total by 10% for each Advantage received on the Repair roll if the character is doing it himself. [A Non-Player Character weaponsmith won't reduce his price for his skill.]
I interpret this as if the weapons costs 1000 credits and it requires moderate repairs that cost is 500 credits. If the roll generates 5 advantages the 500 credit cost is reduced by 50% to 250 credits.
One of my players interprets this that if the weapons costs 1000 credits and it requires moderate repairs that cost is 50% of the cost of the weapon. If the roll generates 5 advantages, the cost of 50% is reduced by 10% for each advantage and it would actually cost him 0% to repair.
Which of the interpretations is correct?
Calculate an amount and reduce the amount based on the number of advantages generated,
~OR~
Calculate the percentage and reduce the percentage based on the number of advantages generated.

Hello Mr. Simms,

When making repairs, you first determine the total cost of the repair, then you make the roll. So you’d apply the 50% modifier, then make the roll. Any Advantage would reduce the total (50% of 1000 credits, which is 500 credits) by 10%. So 5 Advantage would reduce 500 credits by 50%, meaning the total cost after roll would be 250 credits, not zero credits.
Hope this helps!
Sam Stewart
Senior RPG Producer
Fantasy Flight Games

5. Also to you make the repair roll first to determine what parts you need, then go shopping for them?
~OR~
Do you have to go buy the 500 credits worth of parts and then you are left with parts that you can use next time?
Personally I think that it would be silly to go buy 500 credits worth of parts only to be left with 250 credits worth that the merchant probably won't let you return.

Sam didn't answer this one, but I can gather that based on the answer to number 4, that you make the roll, then go shopping for the parts.

6. Multiple Crits on minion groups.
If you are using a vibro-knfe with a mono-molecular edge and get 3 advantage on a successful hit against a minion group of 4 do you instantly kill 3 and apply whatever wounds you inflict on the last?
In other words, If you achieve multiple critical hits against a minion group, do you instantly kill one minion per critical hit inflicted?

Hello Mr. Simms,

You can only generate one Critical Injury per hit, so one hit against a minion group can only generate one Critical Injury. Therefore the additional Advantage would not kill additional minions.
Hope this helps!
Sam Stewart
Senior RPG Producer
Fantasy Flight Games

7. Clarification on Jury Rigged

The "decrease the Advantage cost on its Critical, or any single other effect by one to a minimum of one" effect of the Jury Rigged Talent can be applied to Stun Gloves to reduce the cost to activate the Stun effect to only one advantage, or applied to Brass Knuckles to reduce the cost to activate Disorient to only 1 advantage.

Is that correctly applied in both cases?

Likewise, can it be applied to a weapon with autofire to reduce the cost to activate autofire to only 1 advantage?

Hello Mr. Simms,

You are correct in all three cases.
Hope this helps!
Sam Stewart
Senior RPG Producer
Fantasy Flight Games

8. None of the Classes in Force and Destiny say that you "Gain Force Rating of 1" on their talent trees like the Force using Universal Specializations from EotE and AoR.

If you begin with a class that was not Force Sensitive from EotE or AoR (say Colonist/ Doctor).
Can you choose to purchase Healer as your second class, becoming Force Sensitive and granting access to the Force, or must you purchase either Force Sensitive Exile, or Force Sensitive Emergent before you could add Healer?

Hello Mr. Simms,

You are correct, none of the specializations in Force and Destiny give you Force Rating 1. So if your career does not make you Force Sensitive (as Force and Destiny's careers do) you must take Exile or Emergent to become Force Sensitive. Note, this does not stop you from taking Healer as a tree, but you will be unable to use any Force talents (including talents that increase your Force Rating; those will be "dormant" until you gain Force Rating 1).
Hope this helps!
Sam Stewart
Senior RPG Producer
Fantasy Flight Games
Edited by Dakkar98

Added the following questions to the list:

Model 2 Wrist Mount Attachment

Question asked by Awayputurwpn :

When a blaster with this attachment is worn on a being's wrist, …

Remote DVI Activator

Question asked by MKX :

when a blaster with this attachment is worn on a being's wrist, …

Whoops! Accidentally cut-n-pasted the same paragraph twice, for two different questions.

Otherwise, good stuff! Thanks!

Added the following question

Brace

Question asked by FuriousGreg :

Can you use the Brace Maneuver to negate the Setback provided by Cover?

Answered by Sam Stewart :

NO.

Edited by kaosoe

So.. I just thought of something that i can't easily find the answer to. Maybe Im not looking hard enough, but I'll try here anyways.

One of my players recently got himself a therm-axe. And the burn quality got me wondering something.

Does each successful hit deal a separate instance of "burn" to the same target?

Say, he decides to get another hotblade down the line and dual wields. If he hits twice, are there two burn quality damage instances the target takes?

And if the burn lasts multiple rounds, and he scored another hit with the same weapon and applied burn again, would that be considered a totally different instance of burn on top of the previous ones?

Or would the burn quality just be extended? Each hit adding rounds to the duration equal to the burn rating?

Or would each hit "reset" the burn quality back to the beginning of it's burn rating duration?

Any help to clarify this before my player realizes to ask me these things would be appreciated.

Rzrfrictionless -- this thread exists to allow people to post answers that they have asked the developers by e-mail, along with the responses that the developers have given.

If you want to ask questions of the general forum populace (and not the developers), then post them elsewhere in the forum.

The developers do not officially monitor any of these forums and post any answers. There are a couple of writers who participate here unofficially, but that’s entirely unofficial and on their own time. And they don’t post in this thread.

Thanks!

Just to be clear, in order to contact the game developers about “Rules Questions”, there is a web form at http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_faq.asp which I believe we are supposed to use.

I'm certain this must of been asked already but could not spot it so I'll ask..

Will there be future editions of the core rulebooks with the supplements included or alternativly will the supplementals be gathered and published in one volume themselves?

I'm certain this must of been asked already but could not spot it so I'll ask..

Will there be future editions of the core rulebooks with the supplements included or alternativly will the supplementals be gathered and published in one volume themselves?

First off, FFG's default answer on any future products is "we can't discuss that."

Also, highly doubtful. FFG is a "for profit" company and exists to make money. Bottom line, supplements sell, so there's very little incentive for FFG to combine everything into a single volume, particularly as said book would be extremely heavy and very expensive. Remember, there's currently no provision in their license to publish for-sale PDF products, so that approach is off the table entirely.

I have a question that my GM wasn't able really answer, so we thought we'd ask here.

Could the force power move be used to force choke someone?

I have a question that my GM wasn't able really answer, so we thought we'd ask here.

Could the force power move be used to force choke someone?

In the Force and Destiny beta book, there is a power called Bind that is specifically noted as representing the "Force choke" ability. You can certainly reflavor move to be a poor man's force choke, but Bind might have the better effect.

About Stats

Josep Maria

I have a doubt about stats. Maybe I missed something.

"Characteristic ratings for both PCs and NPCs generally range from one to six. Some exception exist, especially in powerful or unique cases - for example, a rancor likely has a Brawn rating much higer than one of the PC's. NPCs like Darth Vader, Yoda, Han Solo, and other exceptional individual from the Star Wars universe likely have abilities well beyond the scope of your typical starting NPC."

I missed something in my explanation here http://community.fan...6/#entry1366973 or there is something I haven't catch about general mechanics? Not sure of that sentence from the book was a "pre-concept" idea and after that you changed Rancors Attributes with alternative stats like extra damage or Soak.

Take care!

Sam

Hi Josep,

Well, at a Brawn of 6, a Rancor probably does have a Brawn rating higher than most PCs! Kidding aside, though, the sentence leaves open the idea that some NPCs could have a very high Brawn. However in most cases, we don't want to do too high of a characteristic rating so that the dice pool doesn't get out of hand. Extra damage and soak can also be used to help simulate particularly big beasts.

Cheers,

Sam

A long one linked to "Force Aid"

Josep

Two (or even more) Force users try to pull up somethimg with Move. I imagine that the Discipline (or other skill in other cases) will follow the cooperation rules.

a. Use one Ranks and the other Attribute
b. Add boosts.

No problem here, pretty clear. But, with Force Rating, they just stack their FR?

So, two users with FR 2 and 3, will roll FR 5 or there is anything else that I miss.

Thanks a lot!

Sam

Hi Josep,

As to your main question, though, right now there is no way for Force users to add their Force Ratings together for a combined check. It's something that we're staying away from at the moment, because of the silliness that could occur especially at low level gameplay. So according to the rules as written, you could contribute skill ranks or characteristic ranks, or you could add Boost dice, but you wouldn't add Force rating.

Hope that helps clear things up!

Josep

About Powers and FR. I suppose that you watch (as a good SW geek XD) Clone Wars and Rebels. There are a few chapters where Jedi use Force together like:

- Doing an Influence: Control to Cad Bane (Obi, Windu, Anakin)

- Using Protect to create and extend a bubble (Obi, Anakin and a third Jedi?)

- Doing a massive Farseeing (Jedi Council)

- Open a door lock (Move: Control - Fine manipulation) with the Force (Ezra and Kanan)

On those samples, probably only the first two gets clear benefits of cooperation with Boosts or combining higher Ranks/Attributes. The other two ones doesn't seem that get benefit from cooperation rules, ony "extra pips" would helpe there.

So, in those cases you let it to cinematic scenes or maybe cooperation with the Force would have some extra benefits?

Thanks again for the quick answer :)

Sam

Hi Josep,

I think in the second two cases, the farseeing and the door unlocking, they could be a situation where the GM has both people attempt the check. It's not so much a case of cooperation (mechanically speaking) as it could be a case where the task is too much for one person, so both must succeed to accomplish it.

Then again, you could simply treat it as a cinematic scene. The reason we don't have an "aid to add Force Rating" action is because adding a Force die to a check is way more powerful than adding a Boost die, and can even be more potent than combining skills and characteristics. Simply put, it could short-circuit some aspect of the game system.

Take care,

Sam

Two-part question regarding Attachments and Modifications answered by Sam Stewart. Answers inserted below:

1. When modifying attachments, does the difficulty increase with each subsequent modification (i.e. Hard for the first mod, Daunting, for the second mod, Formidable for the third mod)?

1. Yes.

2. Assuming that the difficulty increase is cumulative, what is the procedure for the fourth mod? Are more difficulty dice added beyond five, are difficulty dice upgraded to challenge dice, or is the Impossible task sidebar followed?

2. The GM is the final arbitrator as to which procedure to use, but generally I recommend that the GM allow the player to make the check, upgrading the check once for each increase beyond Formidable.

You may share this answer with others.

Sam Stewart
RPG Manager
Fantasy Flight Games
Edited by Domingo

Added the following question:

Question Asked by Domingo :
When modifying attachments, does the difficulty increase with each subsequent modification (i.e. Hard for the first mod, Daunting, for the second mod, Formidable for the third mod)?

Answered by Sam Stewart : Yes.

Followup Question Asked by Domingo : Assuming that the difficulty increase is cumulative, what is the procedure for the fourth mod? Are more difficulty dice added beyond five, are difficulty dice upgraded to challenge dice, or is the Impossible task sidebar followed?

Answered By Sam Stewart : The GM is the final arbitrator as to which procedure to use, but generally I recommend that the GM allow the player to make the check, upgrading the check once for each increase beyond Formidable.

Edited by kaosoe

I asked:

The Master Merchant talent for Entrepreneur says "when buying or selling goods, take 2 strain to buy for 25% more or 25% less" - does that apply to all transactions?

Of course it'll apply to the crate of blasters that our merchant will be selling on the secondary market, but what about one off items like "Oh, I just dropped my blaster off a cliff and I need a new one". Or big ticket items like ships? It seems to run counter to the theme of the character to buy things at a discount for personal use versus several crates that he's going to flip at the next port of call.

TL;DNR version: does Master Merchant apply to everything the Entrepreneur buys or just wholesale items only?

Sam says:

It applies to everything he buys or sells, so long as the GM agrees (some situations may not allow for discounts no matter how skilled the merchant is).

I just received an answer, straight from Sam Stewart, for a Force and Destiny Beta related question, which I'm sure will still be valid at release:

Question: Can you use Improved Parry or Improved Reflect with Circle of Shelter? Could you, for example, use the Threats/Despairs generated on a Hit against your ally to riposte back with a reflected blaster bolt or lightsaber hit, for instance?

Hello BarbeChenue,

Sorry for the late reply, but generally we like to encourage people to submit questions via the rules question function on our forums. To answer your question, though; yes you can use Improved Parry or Reflect with Circle of Shelter.

I guess the "beta forums" probably won't get much traffic in the future, so I cross-posted this here just in case.