I have a decent sized collection of the old Star Wars Miniatures game.
I know these minis were also marketed for use in the WotC RPG.
Obviously the minis make good stand ins for stuff if you want to have them represented physically, but does anyone use the maps?
Would maps from Miniatures work for EotE?
I use minis and custom built terrain, or just a white board. I don't always use the minis, but sometimes it is cool to get them out. I have a plan for an upcoming adventure to use a ton of minis and my terrain for a big shoot out in a kyrf distillery.
I like the fact that with Edge, you don't have to have them though. In D20 RCR and really in Saga you had to have the minis if you wanted to play. My players are still getting used to the more narrative concept of the game and not having minis and maps all the time for every combat scenario.
I don't use the maps from WotC but you could easily use them. Just ignore the squares, and you will be good to go.
In about a month or so I will be doing my big distillery shoot out, it will take up my whole 7 ft long gaming table! I will make sure I take some photos up post them here on the forum.
I use the minis plenty of times - the maps, not so much. I have a big 4 foot by 6 foot wet erase map that I'll bang out drawings on. Although in theory, I don't see why the WotC maps wouldn't work.
I know GMs who swear by using those maps, and some who swear by going mapless.
Ultimately it's a matter of personal taste for the gaming group, but yeah they totally work.
My suggestion: eschew the grid, as much as possible.
Do what you can to get your players off the grid mentality and use the map for all its creative and narrative possibilities.
I use minis (both WotC ones, and Legos) with a dry erase mat for almost all combat, I have too large of groups for me to keep track of who is where in my head.
I have used some of the maps for when the situation is similar and I can get away with it, but I don't change the story to make use of them. Just if the stars align, then all good.
What sort of maps are available for the miniatures? I tend to scrounge a map when I need one, because I am not good at drawing at all. Any you can recommend that are interesting/fun/etc?
Mini's are by no means necessary in this system, but they can be really nice for a general frame of reference. I'm a terrible map drawer, so I like pre-done ones, but whatever you ahve works fine.
I wish FFG would come out with more Mini's, as I missed out on the WotC ones. I know they have some coming with their new game, but it looks fairly limited. I also must admit, as a lousy artist I like the pre-painted ones.
Split Light, for what it's worth, the WotC minis are pretty cheap at Miniature Market. Most of them are under a dollar.
I would absolutely change the story to match some of these maps. Also, mapsofmastery stuff from Chris West, beautiful stuff that really warrants some scene shifting to make use of it.
In fact, I've heard it recommended (and I agree) on the Order 66 podcast that, if you're using maps, you can and should build your encounters around the maps you've got. Build off the creativity of others to make your story even better than it could be if it was only you pouring your own ideas into it.
Works for me, when I use maps. I tend towards mapless, but every now and then a nicely drawn map is appreciated.
We have a really nice scale map of our ship. That's almost the only map we use, but it's a critical one. But we're in a Wayfarer and that thing's big enough that it will take multiple maneuvers to get from one location to another, particularly when you're team is having a massive shootout up and down the halls.
Most of the time I don't bother with maps, though they can be nice for dealing with extremely complicated areas, or Large Scale maps (living room sized if you were to try and use minis) so players can gage were different buildings/areas are. I usually divide these up into "short" or "medium" sized blocks so it's 1 or 2 maneuvers to move from one "area" to another. This works nicely if they have to fight their way through town or such.
Having bought so many SW minis, I'd feel obligated to use them at least once in a while. Plus they're helpful to differentiate a generic 'gang of thugs', say... the player can say, "no, it's definitely that Weequay I'm after."
That said, lovely as they are, I wouldn't use the maps, myself. My OCD just wouldn't be able to ignore those **** lines. But that's what I love about this system, even when using minis: plonk down a coffee can, kleenex box, and a salt shaker, and there's your terrain!
Warning spoiler about LAOTH.
I have several hundred of the wotc minis. I just started up a group playing the beginners game. We are finished episode 1 of LAotH a large part of my prep time goes into choosing appropriate minis (and I've got my minis subsorted in bags. Force Users (lightsaber) are in one gallon bag with dark side (red lightsaber) in a quart size bag and light side in another quart bag inside that gallon bag. I have another gallon bag for Droid (with B1b battle Droid in a quart inside of the gallon, and super battle Droid inside a sandwich bag, inside of it, etc. I have a gallon bag for aliens, with snack size bags for various species in thrre, if there are only a few of a particular species they don't get their own snack bag in that gallon. I have a gallon bag for humans which are also subdivided (I have enough of a few of the same mini to make squads of adversaries of the same type. I have a separate quart size bag for stormtroopers. The point is that my minis are pretty well organized and picking out appropriate minis still takes quite a bit of time. When I don't have a map I layout several sheets of gaming paper (1 inch squares) just to give them an idea of the size of the space . I don't carry much in the way of terrain to the game store (we game at active imagination in Albuquerque NM) because my gaming bag is already so heavy from the books (we are going to switch to the full game after we finish LAotH, and I have been giving them time to look through the books to think about what kind of characters they want to create. I've taken screen shots of the maps in LAOTH, and then printed just the maps (no border) on 8.5 by 11 inch paper and put minis on (or near) the map to indicate position. You should have seen my players eyes bug out when the reek (sp?) Showed up on the old life den map (the reek was the closest thing I had to a lilek). The players also dig the ambient star wars music I play on my smartphone during the session
Edited by EliasWindriderI use them all the time,
As stated before i use them on free hand maps. Some times i use the printed maps from the mini-game when the area is very VERY similar to what the PC's are entering.
MAIN RULE when using minis..
Dont measure distance.. as was stated before DISTANCE IS WHAT THE GM DECLARES!!!!
Many of my players had a hard time working that out coming over from pathfinder, with its requirement in having a masters in absolute temporal distance scale mechanics... @#$!# pathfinder..
I think miniatures are a great aid for when you are in combat. That way you can have a little more specificity as to where everything is. Especially when you have a map, so I can say "I move behind this crate" or "I toss a grenade at this specific location"
Not necessary, but they greatly aid in making encounters where your exact position is important run smoothly.
I tend to agree. I use maps of locations and deck plans for vessels, along with minis to represent where the characters are located. For example, going into a space battle, I'll have the players place their figures based on where they're stationed in the ship. I agree about not fretting over the grid.
-Nate
Our group uses the minis and a gridded dry erase mat for combat as well. It helps us keep track of where everything is, especially since we've become lethal enough our GM has to throw dozens of bad guys at us.
It also stops "Totallynotnearthatbouncinggrenade-itis"
Yes, i use them. and cheesex mat. and legos. (this was from my Beyond the Rim episode 1)
We use a mixture of narrative and maps. My prior WEG d6 games we used maps all the time. Keeping in the spirit of Edge of the Empire I like to describe the action and keep it in our imaginations. However, sometimes the heroes want to plot a tactical response to a threat and in those cases I break out the map and draw out the buildings, ships, and such. I have a ton of the miniatures that WOTC put out (lots of stormtroopers, droids, random spacers, etc.).
I wasn't sure how my group would adapt to the narrative instead of maps all the time but I must say it's been a hit so far. It makes applying Advantages and Threats easier when it's in a narrative.
I've found that people get really "static" when there are miniatures on the table. It's also a lot harder to break out of the 1 turn = 5-10 seconds feeling. I like having maps (a picture's worth 1000 words and all that) but I don't put minis/markers down on it. In our group, at least, it's done a lot to help get people running from bench to bench to keep cover as they cross the cantina, or otherwise shuffling during their narrative descriptions of actions. (it also helps we let people "shift" within their range band for free, as long as it seems reasonable, ie a dozen feet or so.)