I'm currently creating 5 pre-gen characters for a group who want to try out SW and was wondering - how important do people feel it is to increase attributes at character generation?

If I was just creating a character for myself, I would just do whatever feels 'right' for the character concept and roll with it. As I'm making characters for other people, however, I'm concerned that I'll leave a player feeling weaker than another because I didn't bump his Agility or Brawn (or conversely weaker because I did and now he has fewer skills or talents instead). And, of course, that he'd be stuck with those attributes for most of the game.

So, when you're creating a character, do you always bump up a stat? Or never? Or does it really not matter?

I always spend as many points as possible on Characteristics. Typically, this is about 90 of my starting XP (much more for Droid characters).

The book encourages you to dump as may points as you can into characteristics as possible during character gen. And It makes your guy more useful in a different situations (instead of throwing a lot of yellow at one or two skill rolls, you're throwing a decent number of green at all of them).

And, not to be too powergamey, other than one Dedication talent per Specialisation (and cyberware), it's the only time you can improve them.

If you intend to make the adventure a short one to test the waters, I would spend an additional 150 XP on each character after they have been generated. That way the players can experience playing characters with more than a handful of low ranked skills and little-to-no talents.

I always put as much of my starting XP in characteristics as possible, since character creation is the only time possible to change them. However, if these are just pre-gens for a one-shot or otherwise short campaign, don't worry about it too much. Bump one or two and then buy skills.

And, like kaosoe says, throw some additional XP onto the characters to make them more interesting.

Has anyone done an analysis on all the EotE and AoR pregens to see what percentage of their starting points are spent on characteristics versus skills/talents? I don't have access to all of them.

EotE pregens didn't seem to have been built to points. Instead Pash et al got what the adventure needed them to have.

From a GM perspective: Yes they should put all the points they can into characteristics as over the course of a campaign it will add up, though it's not as critical if the adventure is a one shot.

Watch out for "abuse" though. There have been a few threads where a player dumped everything they had into a single stat like brawn or agility, and proceeded to resolve every encounter with a blaster bolt or vibro axe. In and of itself not an issue, but if they are playing a self aware gun platform and everyone else is playing more conventional balanced characters adventure design gets tough and the character disruptive.

For beginner groups (I've GM'ed several) I recommend upgrading two characteristics (three for humans, six for droids). Don't upgrade anything more than one step (again, except for droids) and don't upgrade the lowest characteristic, so players get a feel for each species' strengths and weaknesses.

The rest of the XP goes towards skills and 1st tier talents, preferably passive ones.

I'd say to do whatever you feel is best for the character.

Note that this doesn't mean "whatever will make the character succeed most at things", but "whatever is appropriate for the concept of the character."

From a tactical point of view, your options for upgrading characteristics are limited after creation, so yeah, that's the time to do it.

However, even though your Slicer or Doctor or Archaeologist might benefit from having an Intellect of 4, that doesn't mean you HAVE to do that.

The most important thing (in my opinion) isn't that your character succeeds at their rolls as much as possible, but that you have a fun concept for a character you enjoy playing. This could mean a Doctor having an INT of 3 but a more rounded skillset, it could mean a Smuggler with an Agility of 3 but a bunch of knowledge skills. Whatever makes your character most fun for you to play.

Just my two cents. Tactically it makes sense to upgrade at creation, but do whatever's best for the character.

I spend all the xp I can on Attributes right at creation, all of it if I can. Prior to all that though I've got the concept ahead of time and have considered the Career/Spec I am building and what particular skills I am most interested in seeing consistent positive results in. If you want a very narrow focus on skills, and by narrow I mean like 2, then you can skip Attributes. If you want to have more depth and be consistent, focus has to be placed on Attributes. All of this also is going to depend on patience. Not focusing on Attributes simply takes longer to be proficient at more stuff, but if you enjoy the slow boat ride to China and plan on playing the character for months or years with lots of sessions, no big deal really.

I am the biggest proponent of Story over Mechanics you'll find around here, and even I will yield on this point. Drop as many points as you can into your attributes at the start, because the skills and talents are cheap at the start and boosting your attributes are an expensive pain the ass.

For a one-off game, however - I think I'd go the other way. Boost one attribute (perhaps two) and dump the rest into fun stuff like talents. Show off the game engine's creative and cool side over optimizing the dice rolling.

I am the biggest proponent of Story over Mechanics you'll find around here, and even I will yield on this point. Drop as many points as you can into your attributes at the start, because the skills and talents are cheap at the start and boosting your attributes are an expensive pain the ass.

For a one-off game, however - I think I'd go the other way. Boost one attribute (perhaps two) and dump the rest into fun stuff like talents. Show off the game engine's creative and cool side over optimizing the dice rolling.

I agree, a one off game should highlight as much of what the game has as opposed to cost effective mechanics.

Bump nothin' but stats so you can pwn the n00bs an wins da game!

Or, decide on a case by case basis what is best representative of your character idea. Is he young with lots of unfocused raw potential or a grizzled vet trying for one last score? The former would be stats, the latter I feel represented by more skills and talents.

Case in point, if you want to be a great pilot, make sure you take the talents, as a high skill rating doesn't necessarily represent being a better pilot, at least in combat.

I generally focus on raising one, maybe two attributes above base, and focus on talents and some skill diversification.

Thanks for the advice. I'd been erring on the conservative side and only increasing 1 attribute (at most). I think I'll do as suggested and give them each some extra xp so they can both have good starting attributes (as they probably would if they were creating the characters themselves) and a decent range of talents and skills.

Thanks all!

Of all the characters I've created, I've had the least fun with those on which I under-developed the Characteristics (two 3s or less). Just my .02 creds.

macd21, I don't think anyone suggested giving the PCs extra XP at character creation, just so they can have good characteristics, did they?

I think the consensus is to use the XP offered by the rules and to spend as much of it as possible on boosting characteristics.

Pardon me if I'm misunderstanding, but IMO it wouldn't be a good idea to grant extra XP just so they can have better stats.

I suggested giving extra XP, but only after character creation was finished to use for talents and skills.

macd21, I don't think anyone suggested giving the PCs extra XP at character creation, just so they can have good characteristics, did they?

I think the consensus is to use the XP offered by the rules and to spend as much of it as possible on boosting characteristics.

Pardon me if I'm misunderstanding, but IMO it wouldn't be a good idea to grant extra XP just so they can have better stats.

I suggested giving extra XP, but only after character creation was finished to use for talents and skills.

This is a pretty standard house rule. Granting an extra 20 - 50 XP to spend "after character generation" can help encourage players to spend the bulk of their XP on characteristics, and then use the extra XP shore up those skill ranks and talents they feel will help to better define their character.

It's totally your call as a GM, though. If you don't mind them coming in with a couple sessions' worth of XP under their belts, it is pretty harmless and can go a long way towards showing players your goodwill.

during chargen, i try to look at the characteristics that will affect the skill sets that i plan to utilize with that character and max them as much as I can. getting a few ranks in career skills after your first session is pretty easy, but the changes you'll be able to make to those characteristics will take time afterwards as they are at the bottom of the specialization trees.

if your pregen characters are only for a one shot though, you may want to focus on skills for the PCs just so that they can do more in the short term, knowing that you aren't really planning to develop them later. so you could balance your decision that way as well.

This is sort of a one shot (will probably last 2-3 sessions), intended as a short 'prequel' to the real campaign. The characters will probably all die at the end of it (the players are aware of this), at which point the players will make up their own characters. This is partially to give the players a feel for the system.

The reason I was concerned about what attributes to give them is because I want them to have an accurate feel for what a character is like. The impression I've gotten here is that failing to increase Attributes at char gen would leave them with characters that wouldn't be able to perform very well in a sufficiently wide range of situations. I think they might feel underwhelmed by such characters. At the same time, I want them to be able to try out a good few skills and talents. So I'm going to give them a bit more xp each (about 30) for a few extra bits and pieces to play with before their pre-gens all croak.

A little XP boost, especially for a mini-campaign, is a good idea IMO.

I would also make sure that the majority of PCs have a 4 in their best characteristic...that way it's much easier for the players to tell what each PC is best at.

A little XP boost, especially for a mini-campaign, is a good idea IMO.

I would also make sure that the majority of PCs have a 4 in their best characteristic...that way it's much easier for the players to tell what each PC is best at.

In my first game, most characters had a 4. In my second game, most opted to take more 3s and everyone bought up low scores to 2, with only one PC having a 4 (Presence on a face type).

A little XP boost, especially for a mini-campaign, is a good idea IMO.

I would also make sure that the majority of PCs have a 4 in their best characteristic...that way it's much easier for the players to tell what each PC is best at.

In my first game, most characters had a 4. In my second game, most opted to take more 3s and everyone bought up low scores to 2, with only one PC having a 4 (Presence on a face type).

Interesting! I suppose if you take the long view of improving skills up to rank 4+, it's nice to have the broad spread of characteristics and shore up those that are exceptionally weak. I guess I've always preferred to start with a 4 in something. Makes me feel more useful to the group right off the bat.

If you are creating 5 characters and make them with all the same basic premise then I see no problem how you do it.

Perhaps you play in an aged vet campaign or perhaps the characters are teens, you only have a problem if you mix methods.