Hello, I am a new GM and I have posted in the main EotE forum already but since I am playing through the EotE BG, I figured I would post here as well!

I have never been a GM and our group of 4 (including myself) does not have any tabletop RP experience so we will be learning as we go from the ground up. I was curious how much time I should try to budget for the beginner game and it's expansion Long Arm of the Hutt. I have 4 hours budgeted tomorrow to explain the mechanics and start the BG but I didn't know if I should print off the expansion beforehand in case we breeze right through it.

And before you tell me how much it can vary due to player actions, I do know that there is a fairly wide margin in which this can be played in (depending on side missions and what the players want to do beyond the main encounters) I just wanted to know roughly how long it would it be if those were kept to a minimum and it was fairly straightforward?

I've run the Escape from Mos Shuta in less than four hours at a Con. Most of the players had RP experience, but not with this system.

Escape from Mos Shuuta should take 3-4 hours. Since it's a con game, I wouldn't use any of LAotH, as doing so would tend to leave the group on a cliffhanger without the chance of resolution. Maybe just have a plan of some modular encounters or complications at key points, and keep an eye on the time, so if the group is just breezing through the acts you can slow them down with a combat encounter, or an RP encounter, or some other sort of complication.

You could use characters or other ideas from Long Arm of the Hutt for these complications, but I'd keep the adventure itself contained and focused on Mos Shuuta, and end with the players escaping Tatooine.

Keep it nice and clean.

Also, if you're looking for ideas on how to expand Mos Shuuta, there has been some work done:

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/79796-expanding-mos-shuuta/

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/105525-expanding-mos-shuuta-maps/

Reporting back...I ran the game for the first time on Saturday night and after talking to the other people I was playing with, they said they wanted it to go a bit longer if possible. I added some extra encounters and scenes throughout the game which brought us to a total of 7 hours of gameplay (including the learning part at the beginning).

I was really surprised we went that long and we didn't even notice how late it was getting until 1 AM rolled around and we figured we should finish up! It was a really fun experience, everyone liked the game and enjoyed themselves so I would say it was a win.

When the game is so good you went from PM to AM without noticing; those are the best games.