I'm been going over the Retail kit pregens for a series of demos I'm starting next week. As we all know, these pregens are often made with older versions of the rules that are no longer what we have in front of us now.

In rebalancing these characters against the current rules, I found major discrepancies in spent XP and starting funds, and worked to balance the numbers against one another. I'm not sure if I can share the updated character sheets, but here are the changes I made. I also wanted to see what changes others have done.

First, I figured out that each of the characters has 95 extra XP, rather than 100 (keep reading). That's fine, since that gives players a chance to try different talents and powers that they wouldn't have access to as a normal starting character. Most characters also took the +5 XP and +1000 credits starting options, though a few started with more funds instead.

Next, I remade all of the characters using these numbers, following the Retail kit character sheet, to ensure that they had all of their correct starting skills and that their XP was properly spent. I also added a power to almost every character, since I think everyone had some XP left over.

I assumed that the group has a Master, so a few received later discounts on powers. This was a tough choice since it was completely arbitrary when those powers were bought, but I let the build decide if the power was bought at creation or with the 95 XP after. I looked at the background of the character and how XP was spent elsewhere. If I felt that the power was central to the character or had a lot of upgrades, I usually bought it early at full price. If the concept was a later Force sensitive, advancements led me to believe that a power would have been picked up later, or if I had left over XP after I had everything from the Retail kit's sheet, then they got the discount.

The big kicker were all the dang lightsabers. No. Just no. Starting funds not withstanding, I don't want three players having lightsabers and three players hating the demo because they don't. Also, two character were grossly over budget (a double bladed lightsaber is supposed to cost fasr more than listed, and armored robes and a lightsaber being almost 15 grand). I swapped out the sabers for training sabers, switched out the cortosis staff for a sword, and equalized some of the other gear. I also doubled almost everyone's stimpacks.

The gear and added powers were the biggest changes I made, but I also did things like add the 2 non-career skills for the humans (which always seem to be missing).

Do you like the changes? And what changes have you made or would you make to these characters?

Where do I begin?

I noticed Markus should have had Grit, Toughened and Soresu Technique I'd like to know if you put the non-class skills in Lore and Light Sabre or just Light Sabre of 2.

Did you stick with him being a Protector or made him a Soresu Defender instead?

My reasoning is the 2,500 credits could be used for Laminate armour instead to match his appearance but that would leave him with a training sabre and 100 credits.

One problem is it wouldn't make sense to make him a healer unless you wanted his non-career skills be Medicine of 2 instead.

I will probably just re-make them from scratch.

That's a really good point, copper. Many of them have talents like Toughened that are just added into their profile but not accounted for. That's part of the reason why I had to remake from.

I kept Markus' two Specializations because I liked what that showed off. I also wanted to keep the characters as close to the originals as possible. I also may actually be collaborating with other GMs on this demo, so I want to make sure the experience is as easily transitioned as possible.

I hadn't thought about using Laminate armor; that's certainly an option. I used Leadership and Core Worlds as his non-careers, since I think they fit the concept.