Hi all. I don't need an uber munchkin character. But I have a habit of being the guy that makes a horse based character to spend the game in a dungeon. Since I'm completely new to this game system what is consider good / status quo? Average for stats? Good skill rank? Talents and skills that get used most?

Thank you.

Hello Rebelarch,

Sounds like you are coming over from a d20 system. You are in good company as most of us have been there. Before we can really help there are a few questions we need answered:

1) What type of game will you be playing?

2) How are the other players built? If they all want to shoot everything in sight building a thief or a face might be limiting to some degree.

3) This is the most important question. What do you want your place in the party to be?

The first thing to consider when building a character is that there are no levels. Second, regardless of what class you take you can expand into just about any field you would like to.

When building your initial character you will want to focus on you characteristics/stat first and foremost. High agility will mean you can shoot most guns and drive most vehicles pretty well. A high intelligence means you will be good with knowledge skills, mechanics (more useful than you would think), medicine, and computers. Like most other games you have likely played Perception is one of the most used skills in the game. Perception, deception, and a few other useful skills are based off of cunning (this would be good for a rogue type character). Brawn has two functions it increases your soak and lets you hit things.

Dice rolling:

1 dice = let someone else do it your going to mess it up.

2 dice = you're not incompetent but you really have no reason to brag.

3 dice = now you are starting to get a little notice on your abilities.

4 dice = you can brag about how good you are with this.

5 dice = you now have a reputation for being good at this.

6 dice = you will succeed nearly all the time and look good doing it.

7+ dice = the GM will now need to adjust encounters taking into account your extreme skill.

More dice is almost always better than upgrading dice. However, upgrading dice allows you to have the chance of rolling triumphs, and triumphs are fun.

I hope this helps and I look forward to hearing what you go with.

As Satchmo said, spend as much of your starting XP on characteristics as you can. Average is 2. If your GM lets you, it's a pretty good deal to take as much extra XP as you can from Obligation and put it towards characteristics. If you're a human, this means you can get four characteristics at 3; or have one 4, one 3, and the rest 2s. Take the former for a character who will be decent in quite a few situations; take the latter if you want to excel in one area. A third option is to take 5 in one characteristic, but then the character will be quite one-dimensional.

Note that the only way to increase characteristics after chargen is to work your way down to the bottom of a Talent tree and take Dedication. That's a long haul...

After that, I think all the options are decent. You aren't locked into any particular path no matter what career you start with. You can easily be a sharp-shooting politico, or a Kung fu doctor, or whatever you want to develop. If you're a bit more specific about the kind of character you want we can help point out options.

TY very much. I especially like the dice description. That was a Greta way to explain it. I'm coming from mostly DND / Pathfinder but have played narratives like aberrant. I prefer the narrative stuff. I'm the role player in my group and my group tends towards looking for combat so I'm expecting that come up a lot.

I like combat too, but not very interested in winning through bonuses. I like doing clever things to win with wits and guile. I've had problems in the past though with making say a scholar who wants to discover secret histories but that not matter to the story or a crafter who never gets to craft. For EOTE I went right towards pilot but don't think we will be in the ship much. We play X wing miniatures and I think most of the group wants EOTE for a Star Wars experience other than dog fighting.

My character is an explorer (not using games terms) who is obsessed with the Jedi order. He spends all his energy and resources on finding out who Jedi were, where their mythic powers could come, and possible have gone. He is not force sensitive, but to him the interest is a kin to if god just disappeared from our world. This doesn't necessarily mean his career is explorer in game terms. I could see him being a scout bc its an explorer spec, but just as easily can be a smuggler to get and hide artifacts, or a mechanic which is how he can get any use out of what he finds or unlock secrets.

I guess I don't know what to expect from gameplay. And don't want to say take up hacking and have that skill have no bearing on the story or astrogation which sounds awesome to me but could end up being a glossed over skill that is a minute of game time that gets us somewhere quicker in game time but no real affect on the plot.

I suggest some agilty (3 is enough), and then focus on some sort of role in the group, cunning roles tend to get overlooked at character gen (at least were in the groups i've played in), and prove to be **** handy in actual play.

If you want a "look into to jedi" class i suggest archaeologist, its got a lot versatility. And you can take well rounded to fill gaps after a couple of sessions.

So, the first time out with my current group we all made our characters in a vacuum. Goals and motivations were a cluster **** and we ended up scrapping and restarting. What we did for the second roll was to have a pre-game session to talk about what sort of game we all wanted to play. I cannot suggest this strategy enough. Knowing what type of adventure you will be going on, along with what types of characters you'll have in the party will go a long way to helping you know what will be useful and effective.

Based on what you've told us I have a couple thoughts. You seem to be after a character with some Skullduggery and Lore. I'd suggest a Scoundrel from the CRB. It won't give you lore, but you'll be decent at combat and you'll have a trick or two up your sleeve. Some Agility, Cunning, and Presence will all be boons.

If your group is going to be heavily combat focused, maybe try a Demolitionist with Intelligence and Cunning? It will be harder to get the Jedi scholar bit in there, but if you want to waste badguys with some underhanded tricks, this is a great choice.

TY very much. I especially like the dice description. That was a Greta way to explain it.

I'll have to disagree a bit with Satchmo on the dice...I find upgrades more rewarding and more interesting. I know the stats show a slight improvement of *success* with more dice, but it's not that hard to get those extra dice through talents or passing boost dice around. Advantages and Triumphs are what drive the game narrative, and those are more frequently had through upgrades. IOW, I think I'd rather roll 3 yellows than 2 yellows and 2 greens. But that's just me.

My character is an explorer (not using games terms) who is obsessed with the Jedi order.

Agree with Plan b, the Archeologist sounds like the right spec, though you'll need the Enter the Unknown sourcebook for it. (Or you can check the Talent tree here, it gives you the bonus career skills and talent descriptions: http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/110220-updated-talent-sheets-including-age-of-rebellion/ )

Actually the whole Explorer career fits really well, you could start out as Archeologist, add the Scout and Trader specs in the future. Trader is especially useful if you want to wheel and deal. Nice thing too about the Archeologist is the Well Rounded talent, it gives you two more career skills, very handy if you're planning ahead and none of the options give you everything you want.

I'll endorse planb and whatfrog's recommendation on the Archaeologist. That sounds right up your alley for what you want to do, pitch perfect and the Archaeologist has some great talents to really make your character type rock. Coming from Pathfinder and other d20 systems, the Star Wars RPG isn't about optimization. While it can be done, the benefit one gains isn't as nearly dramatic as Pathfinder or D&D. Rather, all-rounder characters tend to do better, rather than highly specialized ones. Talents, obligation, and motivation are what give your character a distinctive flavour.

Go for the Archaeologist. You won't regret it.

I will point out that dropping an Archaeologist into a combat group will need to have some tweaking, or you may be sitting on your duff for long periods of time as the combat guys trade math. I would say build him more like Indiana Jones (pick a combat skill and get some ranks in it), and spend some credits to get attachments/mods on your weapons. This will make you effective in combat against the minions, and allow you to use the advantages gained on your rolls to affect the scene through the narrative uses you put your advantages to, rather than simply applying more damage. Start changing the environment and/or passing around boosts and setbacks to friends/enemies to increase the storytelling value of the scene. The whole point of the skill in something combat related is to generate the advantages you need to start messing with the environment. You do not need a lot, as a little will go a long way to increasing the fun around the table.

Agility 3 (maybe a point in the skill) and a blaster, ANY blaster is all that is needed in most combats.

I will point out that dropping an Archaeologist into a combat group will need to have some tweaking, or you may be sitting on your duff for long periods of time as the combat guys trade math.

Not really. Agility 3 + Well-rounded gives Ranged Light as a career skill and a decent shot. Work up to skill rank 3 and you're rolling YYY, which is good enough for dual wielding pistols, or a good single shot with decent chance at a critical. If nothing else, the decent crop of advantages mean passing boost dice through cover fire or some other narrative.

My wife plays an Archaeologist in our party and she uses a Force Pike to pretty decent effect.

To toss my own two credits in:

For your goal, Archaeologist really is the way to go.Sure, it's not a major combat spec, but it'll cover just about everything else you need, and it's got a great way to lead into other careers with narrative purpose ("What, you mean the Ancient Massassi who migrated to the Outer Rim used this odd fighting style with a spear? I'm going to learn it!" And thus Marauder was added).

In my group, one of my players is bringing in an Archaeologist/Marauder who uses a Gaffi Stick, as he spent a great deal of time around Tuskens as he was learning about their history and determining just how true is the rumor they were connected to an ancient species that also lead to the Jawas. Granted, the character is a little crazy, but it's rather amusing.

We're looking at 3 Brawn, 3 Intellect and 3 Cunning for him. He was debating on raising Presence to 3 (as Tuskens have Storytellers), but he might sidestep that since his character is a bit unstable.

If it also helps: the best combatants in my previous game were a Doctor (snagged Marauder) and a Politico (snagged Assassin). It just goes to show that any career can focus on other tasks, but it's just a matter of how well it can focus on those tasks.

As I explained to one of my new guys: Anyone can pick up a blaster, but the Hired Guns and Bounty Hunters know all the juicy spots to shoot you. Anyone can pilot a ship, but only a Pilot has the skills to promise getting you through that asteroid field before the TIEs can even catch up. Anyone can pick up a hydrospanner, but only a mechanic can make a hyperdrive dance a jig with one arm tied behind his back.

So you can do anything with any career, just remember the career gives you the edge to be better than the average bloke.

Hi all. I don't need an uber munchkin character. But I have a habit of being the guy that makes a horse based character to spend the game in a dungeon. Since I'm completely new to this game system what is consider good / status quo? Average for stats? Good skill rank? Talents and skills that get used most?

Thank you.

You know, I wouldn't worry about building what you think will get used most and build what you think sounds fun. A good GM will tailor their games with the players in mind - I would never send an all politico squad into a all-firefight game, and I'd never have a bunch of soldiers at game centered around peace talks (at least a game where they were expected to do the heavy lifting, other than being bodyguards).

Also, a good GM will (or at least should) provide a Crowning Moment of Awesome for a player every so often. Every game? Probably not, but every so often, the players should get their "****, I'm good!" moment.

Oh, also, you should see about a breaking in period for the whole table. Say, 3 or 4 sessions in which time any player can go "You know, this build isn't really working for me. I'm going to swap from Scholar to Doctor and change my Obligations from X to Y and Z" and nobody bats an eye. The whole point of the game is to have fun, and if something like a character build is getting in the way, then change it!

Hi all. I don't need an uber munchkin character. But I have a habit of being the guy that makes a horse based character to spend the game in a dungeon. Since I'm completely new to this game system what is consider good / status quo? Average for stats? Good skill rank? Talents and skills that get used most?

Thank you.

I'd be able to provide better information if you could tell me what the party is composed of, already.

If you're completely new to the system... I tend to tell people to make "fighters" as they tend to be the easiest to play. That isn't the best advice for Edge though, as fighting isn't necessary to the game, nor character growth. Really it depends on what your concept is and what the other players are bringing, not that 2 Bounty hunters are a bad deal, but parties tend to do better with more diversity. Every career has its merits/flaws.

As for making the guy/gal... if it's indeed just a starting character and no extra xp.. then bump stats as much as possible. This is the only chance you're going to be able to do this for free without big disadvantages (cybernetics), or serious XP (talents in the bottom rows). What stats you bump the most should be determined by your career, but all stats are important to some degree, and they all affect multiple skills. Personally I get them all up to two and get a few 3s and 4s if I can.

Whatever remainder starting xp you have, use on skills or talents.

Don't worry about species career combos, the bonus is minimal, in most cases and quickly xp overrides it. Play the species that you want to play.

Try to stay away from droids as PCs... at least until you learn the system. They tend to work very differently then the rest of the party, and can be bothersome if your GM is new to the system too.

Depending on the size of the party, yous may want to agree on a limit of any additional starting bonus xp. If there are 6 in your party, and each of you opted for the extra 10, you could easily be over the obligation threshold and not be allowed to spend xp or level from the very start of the game. That's not really fun, nor a good intro to the game. There are ways around it, what we did was each took extra 5, and the group bought a ship with that, instead of the pilot putting up all the debt and taking 20. But if you think about it, if you guys really need a ship/weapons/ etc... to advance the story... any GM is going to make ways available to you, or her game ends. Taxis etc... In other words, don't sweat the small stuff.

Let me know what the party consists of and I'll be more then happy to toss in some better, more specific, advise.

As most have pointed out - given your discription of what you wish to play- the Archeologist is in order. This is good as most other party members aren't going to pick this one. Imagine Indiana Jones hunting for jedi gear. The career is found in Enter the Unknown, explorer's handbook.