I converted my long term group from d6 to EotE about two months ago. For the most part they like the system and I very much enjoy running it. However, there is still some worry that there is no dodge skill. I'm not hearing major complaints (yet) but I do worry about the higher level game. Since a character cannot do much to lower his chance of being hit other than a setback die from coveror armor I worry about a nemesis blowing away a PC because he went first in initiative.

I don't want to house rule in a skill but I'm not sure what to do. What do some of you GM's think about this?

There is a Dodge Talent that upgrades attacks made against the player. It is not universally available to all specs, but a DP can certainly be flipped to simulate for those specs without access. There are also a couple instances of ranks of Defense in Talent trees which could be narratively explained as being fleet of foot as well. There are a couple other defensive Talents like Side Step, causes range upgrades to attacks made against players, and Defensive Stance, the melee version of it. Guarded Stance is available as a base Maneuver for melee combat to all and it simulates putting up your dukes and dodging like a butterfly so you can sting like a bee....

The thing about Star Wars that I like is there it has parts that mimic real life. There are times when there is nothing you can do but get shot in real life, and guess what that happens in this game too.

The Nemesis issue though, I haven't had that happen at all yet. I have run only a few session so far (5 or 6) and never once did a Nemesis 1 shot a player.

I think you will see the game, with the narrative dice make it more of an assortment of things that can happen than you think and even someone with a Doom style BFG gets realistic issues to make it fit.

Range bands with weapons, shooting with a long range gun from close up, all sorts of things equalize the situation that don't require dodging.

In this game, characters have Soak which reduces damage, which is something different than, for example, Armor which makes your Armor Class higher and thus makes you harder to hit.

I'd recommend just going with it and getting used to the system, I think you'll find it makes sense.

The pirate is right on the money again There's a number of dodge-like abilities, but they're mostly in the form of talents. Also, you can spend advantage to upgrade the difficulty of enemy skill checks, and triumphs to do basically whatever you want. In other words, it's all taken care of narratively, rather than tactically.

Also it's worth noting the huge mechanical differences between the two systems. D6 allowed you to really ramp up skills, not only for success, but also because it's multiple action system needed high skills to function.

By comparison in EotE there's no multiple action system (because it's fixed), and ramping up skills doesn't pay out the same way unless you've crammed everything you have into a specific skill and ability. Not to mention the talent system, which most NPCs don't really have major access to.

If you look, in this game the enemies don't improve by getting better at shooting you, they improve by becoming more like you. Adding skills that don't rely on numbers, a couple talents, and if they are really big bads, they get Strain.

So from a defenses standpoint you don't need a defenses boosting skill like you did in D6 because, generally speaking, the NPCs ability to shoot you doesn't really improve enough to justify it beyond what the players already have access too.

So from a defenses standpoint you don't need a defenses boosting skill like you did in D6 because, generally speaking, the NPCs ability to shoot you doesn't really improve enough to justify it beyond what the players already have access too.

I respect what you're saying; however, I worry about a nemesis with three to five ranks in his combat skill plus whatever talents they possess blasting a well developed hero into atoms.

Some people have essentially said it works out and I should just let the system play out to the higher level game. This is the tact I'm going to take. However, I still have worries.

From a GM perspective, your Nemesis design is recommended to be like a PC. If you make them crazy hard with 5 ranks versus the PCs 2-3, then it is a crazy thing to handle and may fit a story, but doesn't mean he has to kill everyone.

Part of the Rules as Written states the GM can end the fight at any point and finish it narrative. So rather than killing the PCs make the Nemesis happy with some bad injuries and bail from the encounter. Even Darth Vader let Luke escape several times.

If can turn from 1 encounter with the "big bad" to multiple, yes but it make the eventual win that much more epic.

Also it is good to remind players of their mortality, without out right killing them.

In the beginner box for Edge it has a fight that "if you lose" the bad guys beat you up happy with your injuries and then the story continues.

TL:DR, Design big baddies to fit your characters, and if the fight gets out of hand with the Nemesis doing too much crazy damage, back off the fight let the team regroup, and try the fight again in a way designed to have them succeed.

A note, The goal of the GM isn't to kill the players, it is lead the story so everyone has fun. If the challenge makes your players happy, let them endure. If they are pissed they are getting destroyed, let them off with some injuries and redesign the fight.

There is nothing that says your idea can't be redesigned on the fly to allow the characters to have fun.

That being said, don't use this device of a redesign too often, realistically you shouldn't use it more than once, but it can turn a disaster into a fun time.

So from a defenses standpoint you don't need a defenses boosting skill like you did in D6 because, generally speaking, the NPCs ability to shoot you doesn't really improve enough to justify it beyond what the players already have access too.

I respect what you're saying; however, I worry about a nemesis with three to five ranks in his combat skill plus whatever talents they possess blasting a well developed hero into atoms.

Some people have essentially said it works out and I should just let the system play out to the higher level game. This is the tact I'm going to take. However, I still have worries.

Midnight_X2, are you familiar with how death works in FFG's Star Wars RP? If you look in the CRB, the only hard rules you'll find for player death are the results on the critical injury table. Mechanically, the only time a character can die is if that character suffers a critical injury 141+ on a d%. So if a character's wounds exceed his or her threshold, that character will not die. They will fall unconcious (and take a critical injury). If all characters fall unconcsious. You get to run a cool prison break adventure or slave auction adventure, or any neat adventure you can think of.

Certainly the baddies could kill the unconcsious PCs, but that may not always be the case.

There's more I would like to say, but it would only be rehashing with previous posters have already said. Pretty much: Not every agile Joe Sixpack can dodge a blaster bolt, only those who are hardened fighters have that kind of combat reflexes. And those archetypes exist in the form of Marauder and other specializations that value defensive qualities.

It's easy coming from games like DnD and pathfinder that use your traits to determine your dodginess to have issues with this system, but I find it more enthralling. SWRP is not d20 and d20 is not SWRP. if the two were similar, I doubt I would be seeing the same faces that I do on these boards.

Sit down by youself and just roll the dice and you'll feel better. Take the player characters, put them in an environment, add the opposition you like, and see what happened.

To an extent you have to design the encounter to match the players. Even in D6 putting admiral Akbar against Boba Fett would end in either fried calamari or a yakity sax accompanied scene of fett chasing Akbar around the building.

But the thing about a nemesis with a high weapons skill is that while he might hit like a ton of bricks, that's going to be mitigated by soak, defenses, cover, dodge, sidestep, toughened, movement and so on. Yeah he might be able to take out one or two of the players, (assuming he's not going against a bunch of noncoms of course) but he won't take them all before he goes down himself.

putting admiral Akbar against Boba Fett would end in either fried calamari or a yakity sax accompanied scene of fett chasing Akbar around the building.

My next game has a new encounter!

So from a defenses standpoint you don't need a defenses boosting skill like you did in D6 because, generally speaking, the NPCs ability to shoot you doesn't really improve enough to justify it beyond what the players already have access too.

I respect what you're saying; however, I worry about a nemesis with three to five ranks in his combat skill plus whatever talents they possess blasting a well developed hero into atoms.

Some people have essentially said it works out and I should just let the system play out to the higher level game. This is the tact I'm going to take. However, I still have worries.

If you're having your players face a Nemesis then they themselves should be somewhat experienced. Many of the specs have direct Talents to provide defensive bonuses directly in the form of upgrades, or bonuses to the amount of defense and soak armor will provide. I would be curious how much xp have your players earned and what are their specs?

To an extent you have to design the encounter to match the players. Even in D6 putting admiral Akbar against Boba Fett would end in either fried calamari or a yakity sax accompanied scene of fett chasing Akbar around the building.

Yay rid the Alliance of Ackbar and his irrational dislike of Alliance friendly smugglers and privateers. Surely there is someone in the Alliance navy who can do his job as well as he can without Ackbar's routine whining about the Alliance using Privateers. (Reminds me of a hilarious scene in a high strategy/role play campaign where the PCs were members of the Alliance High Command in a tmeline where Mon Mothma and most of the Rebel High Command were killed early in the Alliance's history. My character was running the Alliance and issued an order to start recruiting privateer and another player was playing Ackbar who true to character started complaining instantly My PC's response was "If it bothers you that much I'll gladly accept a letter of resignation." He never complained again.