Oh, I read all the books a long time ago, and TCWs turned me off of Star Wars for a long time because I am stubborn and my understanding was that Lucas vetted all media concerning Star Wars (including the books) making them canon. I was hoping to see one of the squads from the books in TCW, While waiting for one of the squads to show up there, the episode with Madalore being peaceful came out and I felt betrayed at that point.

When you started asking your questions I had to pull up wookiepedia to reference it all. For anyone one that hasn't read the books, I would if I was you.

To answer a few questions:

1) Setting is 2 years after Order 66 was issued. I'm thinking it may even be around the time of the new Rebels Annimated Series.

2) Padawan will be without her master

3) Beyond the Clone Commando and the Padawan, no hard decisions have been made. I have had interests from players wanting to play a mechanic/demo expert, a smuggler and a Clawdite spy.

Well like I said, by that time the stormtroopers had changed to new armor, so is the clone armor , be it commando or regular maybe not as advanced as what you think it is now. But then again watching the stinking shorts of the show that have come out they still seem to get hurt pretty easy.

It really is up to you and your GM as to what you want to use.

One last question, does this drug also slow down the accelerated growth of the clone?

uhm the Rebels serie happens 4 years before battle of yavin, so 14 years after order 66.

And yes the clones have that accelerated growth problem (btw why use a drug, can't he have the "tumor" surgically removed?).

Howevr i think that some years in Carbonite could solve that probem if you want to campaign to start later

Well I don't know what the tumor is for, I assume Order 66, the accelerated growth in the DNA of all clones except Boba. Just trying to figure out how he is playing this out. The correction for this was found in the books but only used on the squads in the books at the time, but they were trying to get it to the other clones. They were also able to ignore Order 66 but I don't remember how.

i think that the tumor is in reality the biochip implanted in the clones to ensure compliance with order 66. That's why i was asking about surgical removal.

MoonSwingChronicles I would come up with a back story covering Order 66 and the aging (which is easy) and choose the armor that you feel most closely represents your era of play with your character and if your GM approves then go with it. Like I said, I was put almost in the same boat as you and felt i might over power the adventure with what I had. I am pretty happy with what I came up with, but plan on sticking out like a sore thumb wearing my armor.

MoonSwing,

As someone who currently has an off-shoot clone running around, I can post some of my findings (and give you some input, as I see it).

In my case, I have a character that is an early clone (not unlike the Nuls), but it's a female. In back story, we said that early attempts were made to create female clones as people have a harder time expecting the worst from females. They have a better chance of getting into/behind enemy lines. They didn't take into account females having a different logic pattern then males, and found them to be too empathetic to conduct the murders. They wanted to know why the targets needed assassinating, etc... these female clones were soon scrapped, however; the clones were not killed off. They were sent to live their days on an isolated planet. As they were early batches, they were not given the "chip", and they don't have the increased aging process. As they were made to be loyal to the Republic, when they encountered the current events, they are naturally against the Empire. This clone, now in her early 40s, is in the current time line, and because the public wasn't made aware of female clones, no one suspects it. There is a whole squad of them, but only one in my crew (player group). I can go into a ton more detail, but it's really not important to the post... if you'd like it feel free to ask. I don't want to sideline the post.


EDIT: It was late when I was reading the boards, and I read the OP wrong. I took it as he was trying to have a squad of soldiers (clones) and a padawan, and they were running to the edges of space to escape the warzones. In theme, this would make for an awesome group, giving them history and a great base for a story. It is something I've put a great deal of consideration into for my next campaign. I didn't read it as a single soldier. The rest of this post applies to my advise for taking a squad of soldiers into an EtoE setting... if you read it as such, it makes more sense.
Anyway, the best advise I can give you... play in Age of Rebellion.

Edge of the Empire is made to a power level appropriate for gang warfare. The Sharks vs' The Jets would flourish in it. It requires no combat skills to succeed, and why some classes don't get any. Combat can, and should be avoided, in many cases, because it's not the point of the environment, and that is going to be contrary to your players builds. You would essentially be dropping a squad of Master Chiefs (of Halo fame), into The Outsiders. That's if you were to drop them with creation as written. You're talking about adding armor, heavy weapons, light sabers, etc... it's going to be Godzilla vs' baby Bambi.

If you're talking about a fully geared out squad, you're players are going to get bored rather quickly, as the opposition in Edge of the Empire isn't equipped for SEAL team 6.
The big bad evil guy is roughly equivalent to one of your players, while most the other baddies are going to be cannon fodder barely worth the cost of the ammo.

Age of Rebellion is made to take crews of military and provide them with challenges. Your ammosexuals are going to get more out of it, instead of frustrating the crap out of you and requiring a rancor be dropped into every game to provide a worthy foe.

On the opposite side: non-combat encounters in EotE are probably going to pound your guys to the ground, because none of them are equipped to deal with them.

The one good thing you have going for this idea, is that all your party members are on equal footing, so you'll avoid those "my gun-bunny is too much, to challenge him/her, I have to put in bad guys that will one shot the rest of the party". In the same light, those posts provide some insight as to heavy hitters exceeding the systems capabilities to deal with them.

Don't get me wrong, combat heavy campaigns can work in EtoE, you'll just have to escalate bad guys on a super quick scale. More power to you if that's how you choose to address it, but AoR will make your experience, as a GM, a ton easier, as the players you're running are plug and play for it.

Sham,

That was an awesome post, guess I had tunnel vision with my character. I am playing a mechanic that went AWOL from the Imperials that is trying to become a bounty hunter. I agree with what you are saying about AoR vs EotE, but I also believe that the Stormtrooper armor is upgraded from what the clones would have worn during the clone war. Like I said, it's all up to him.

I thought stormtrooper armor was supposed to make sure they die....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym-xHehd4NI

For the record i think Moonswing is the GM, so he has the last word on his players.

Also from what i read around eote isn't that nerfed for combat, i never read anybody complaining about it being too easy on the combat and too hard on the social interaction. Besides Moonswing group starts with 150 xp so it's facing rivals and nemesis or big groups of minions, all well armed i guess. And the group sin't toall combat orientated, there is a smuggler and maybe a mechanic and a spy, so it's pretty balanced.

On the other hand the post Order 66 galaxy can be similar to the Age one, with separatist holdouts, and continuing military actions, but their group also blends in the fringe as they are wanted criminals too.

Your post shamrok is certainly interesting and useful, and you have a nice twist on the clone thing. Good job!

Daeglan, awesome video. Moonshine have fun with what ever you come up with.

Ah Moonshine...If only I could change the name of my profile

Seriously though, thanks for all the advice thus far. For this campaign, I am only using what is actual canon as per LFL for the backstory. So at this point, I will be using the Clone Wars TV Series as the basis for the clone's story, specifically the story in the last season dealing with the Clones who "malfunctioned".

The more I look at it though, the more I think that letting him have a Clone Commando is a bad idea. By way of example, it would appear that a true Clone Commando was at least 12th level in the old SAGA rules. This is not how I would start a campaign. Unfortunately it also means that I'm going to have to let the player know its not going to be possible to play that sort of character in the short term (and I was so looking for ways of saying "Yes"). I think the best I will be able to manage is a Clone Sergeant who has aspirations of becoming a Clone Commando.

On another point, I am a little confused regarding Shamrock 's suggestion to use AoR instead of EotE. First question - Is there a difference other than Duty versus Obligation? I was going to use a mix of all of them (F&D included) in my campaign because I also like the idea of Morality from F&D. I thought it was all the same system?

One last question, does this drug also slow down the accelerated growth of the clone?

Yes. That was the plan. In my story, the drug is highly experimental, and was developed by underworld agents looking to make a fortune from Clones.

The selling point was that it gave the clone its freedom, something the clones throughout the series appeared to yearn for. For the clones however, there was obviously a price. This came in the form of the drugs ability to mess with the biochemistry to shut down or reduce the aging process to normal. The side effect was what the drug did to the bio-chip, as it effectively re-wrote the subroutines so that if the clone stopped taking the drug, not only do they start aging rapidly again, but they aso become a crazed Jedi killing machine. Lets face it, a drug dealer is going to want to ensure return custom, and no clone wanted to end up labotomised.

Shamrock was saying that AoR is a little harder for the careers than EotE, I think its because AoR has more combative type play. I think what he was trying to say is that EotE is more geared towards computer/mechanical/medical type adventures and AoR is more combative, and a mechanic is going to struggle with out combat type training. I don't see how, cause a human with 2 agility can still hit with a blaster, its 2 action dice. The adversaries are still the set up the same.

But, according to the Devs and everything else I have heard, all of them are supposed to be able to mesh including Morality, Duty, and Obligation. I can take a smuggler or other class from EotE and join the rebellion.

Make sense?

Okay, my two cents worth. Read 501st by Karen Traviss. Excellent book, and it will give you ideas for your clone trooper. Nothing like a group of Mandalorians kicking your dealer's door down to get you asking what the hell is going on. As far as the difference between Edge and Age, Edge is more about moral ambiguity and compromises to survive, which is the storytelling tool you have in Obligation, while Age is about doing your bit to do the right thing. You can mix those things up, but ask yourself which feel you and your players are going to enjoy more. Speaking in terms of canon, you have Mon Mothma, Bail Organa and Garm bel Iblis each doing their bit right now to try and fix things, but the Alliance has yet to be put together. You could use Duty, but it's going to be towards one of these people, until they get their acts together and start co-operating. As far as the armor goes, the clone trooper and clone commando armor was much better than the stormtrooper armor. They were packed with all sorts of goodies so you could actually have a field of vision, and were definitely not built by the lowest bidder. Point that out to your player, so he can have a bit of fun griping about how the army's gone to crap.

Moonswing, i think your worries about the clone commando level are exaggerated. This game has nothing to do with levels and especially with D&D abd SAGA level, you can literaly never stop earning xp, while on D&D when you reached level 20 tou kind of had to retire your toon. So forget about SAGA, and it's levels, if you give every charcter the same amount of xp and comparable gear or money they will be balanced.You as a game master wll have to pit them against harder enemies groups of minions and rivalas or nemesis, not only for combat but also for social checks, and apply setback dice liberally (the players have talents to remove them).

To give you an example of the game balance i'll point out to Obi-Wan in episode 1: he does lots of nice combat things against droids, and has a long exciting duel with a sith, well you can easily build a copycat character with 150 XP, which is the amount mandated by the developers for Kinigt-Level play. So if your padawan can do all the things Obi-Wan can (or be less saber focused but more powerful in the Force and with more talents) is it really a problem if the Clone Commando is just as powerful, in his own way? The padwan will rely on the Force to do his thing, while the commando will rely on his gear....and the smuggler on his ship i guess.

Mind you , this is a storytelling system so you can make each of them feel awesome just describing the actions: each time Obi-Wan destroyes a droid is a success on the dice, but the way he does it (cut them in half, beheads them, smashes them , run them through with his saber) it's the game master describing it that way.

So think a second time before teling your player no about the clone commando.

Read 501st by Karen Traviss. Excellent book, and it will give you ideas for your clone trooper. Nothing like a group of Mandalorians kicking your dealer's door down to get you asking what the hell is going on.

I'll see what I can do

You can mix those things up, but ask yourself which feel you and your players are going to enjoy more.

From talking to my players, I think they really want to start in a similar way to Han Solo and gradually they get brought in to help with the creation of the Rebel Alliance. For that reason, I didn't want to use Duty (as that can be added later on when they start helping form the Alliance), but I still wanted to allow players to choose careers from th AoR book.

I should again point out that I have not run any of these systems (EotE, AoR or F&D) before, although I have run years of D6 and RCRd20, and am trying to get my head around the system - not just this back story.

Keep in mind also that I've been approached by players to play certain things. There has been nothing more than, "I'd like to play a Jedi", "I think a Clawdite spy would be awesome", and "I love the Clone Commando novels. I want to play one of them". This is the extent of the information that they have given me. Since then, I've just been running with the possibilities which is what prompted me to post here.

My issue is more that as a new GM and a bunch of new players to the system, I don't want to over burden them with possibilities. I'd like them to grow into their characters.

Also, take into consideration that I'm new to FFG system. I'm still in the belief that a lightsaber does either xD+STR (SAGA) or 5D+Lightsaber combat (D6), so please excuse me while I attempt to get my head around this system (which I feel is by far superior to any of the d20 versions.

I am sure you will love the system as it's very simple and free in how to interpret the dice. Most of it relies on description by the GM or the players or both. The only thing the dice tells you is if you have succeeded or failed and if you have advantages (good things that happen) or Threats (bad things that happen) regardless of the success or fail. How you interpre it makes all the difference. Real example: in my last session my charcter tried to shoot a wounded enemy to stun him, but i failed the roll with an advantage. What does it mean? The GM interpreted it has "you miss the him but manage to shot his gun out of his hand and away from him". See, the possibilites are endless, and it's mostly the description of the action that gives the epic feeling that your player want.

The padawan successfully deflects one or two blaster bolts? Describe her clamly parrying them in sequence while the enemies watch not believing their eyes.

As for your players i think that their ideas are perfectly viable charcter concepts: ask the Jedi to decide what type she wnats to be, a saber swinging badass like Obi Wan? a wise Force user seer like Yoda? someone like Ashoka Tano? then build her charcter accordingly.

The Clone Commando? You have three specs that are perfect for it: Commando if he wants to be a jack of all trades combat badass, shsrpshooter if he wanbts to use his marksman abilities, or medic if he prefers to be more support oriented.

I admit i don't know what a clawdite is, but for spy, there are three specs too, each slightly different.

Trust me with 150 xp you can make well rounded and effective charcters without unbalancing the game or making them overpowered.

And you can also buy multiple specs (for an xp price) so they can literaly become what they want.

Given the background i think it's perfectly acceptable to have slithgly experienced characters as they are war veterans.

Practical advice: let them get +10 xp for +10 obligation (so they have between 110 and 120 starting XP depending on race) and tell them to put them all in raising their characteristics have 4 charcteristics at 3 or one at 4 and the others at 3 or 2, and you will have broadly capable charcters. After this phase, give them 150 xp to buy skills and talents and force powers and let them loose. In the end their charcters will be a stisfactory mix of capablilty without being too powerful. Add the gear, and they are ready to go.

(btw remind the jedi to invest in the force power upgrades: it's more effective to have two upgraded powers than 3 or 4 basic one, cuase you make the most of the force die rolls, even with only 1 force die).

Another suggestion is to buy the beginner game for edge or even Age and play it with your new players, using the pregen chars. It's anice introduction in how the game wroks, and after that introductory game, get the real charceters and jump in your story!

Though, one of the things I'd recommend somebody who spends a lot of time in armor taking is Gadgeteer, does wonderful, wonderful things at higher levels of ability.

One thing. I highly recommend you give the padawan a lightsaber from Force and destiny. Not the one in the AoR or the EotE books. the latter have mods already installed and are more powerful. Let the padawan do those mods over time.

Some of these have already been touched on by others, but I will reiterate them in case it has been lost in the shuffle.

• Have all the players create characters normally, taking obligation and/or morality. I would suggest they use the extra obligation/morality for more XP as you will be giving them 10000 cr as per the "knight-level" option. You can start them all with obligation or obligation and morality, or whatever combination works best for you. Just remember there tends to be a restriction on the maximum amount of obligation or duty or morality (too, I think) that can be taken depending on the size of the group.
• Mixing from the three lines is fine, but keep in mind that F&D is still in beta so any character created from said book may need to be adjusted in the future. Otherwise you can have scoundrels, commandos and guardians all together.
• After they have created their base characters, then give the "knight-level" 150 XP to bump themselves up. This should give good robust starting characters.
• Equipment doesn't have to be optimal. My suggestion for the clone commando armour was a full blown set (it was also of the cuff as I was in a hurry when I typed it up). You could have something that falls within the 10000 cr and it could be explained as older armour that he just hasn't been able to keep up due to lack of funds or other resources having been on the run. The same could be said for his rifle. Follow the advice of using lightsabers from F&D. The ones in EotE and AoR are like having +5 vorpal swords.
• An example of clone commando starting gear could be a suit of Katarn class Commando Armour--Heavy Battle Armour 5000cr with an Enhanced Optics Suite 1750 cr and Multi-band Commlink (DC*) 200 cr, a Prax Arms S-1 Vamblade (DC*) 500 cr, and a DC-17m rifle that is no longer interchangeable for now due to lack of parts or whatever (reskinned DH-X Heavy Blaster rifle from DC*) 1900 cr. All for a total of 9350 cr, leaving some for stimpacks or other sundries. As I said, equipment could be worn down from use or lack of parts or whatever. Part of future adventures could be finding the parts to get his equipment back up to what it was before.

Just some thoughts.

* DC=Dangerous Covenants source book.

Mouthymerc, Now that is a better way of saying what I was trying to say, I went about it way wrong.