Hello everyone. I want to start by saying I am a huge Star Wars fan and new to RPGs and GMing, and I decided to get my start with the FFG version. I have seen how great this community is with helping one another out and I have a couple questions currently (probably more in the future).

Question #1

Does it take a maneuver to move out of cover. For example, I have a character who was in cover behind some crates which was at short range from a squad of stormtroopers. He wanted to move to engage the stormtroopers in melee combat. He used one maneuver to move from short to engaged range, one maneuver with strain to pull out his comba knife, and one action to attack the squad.

Question #2

Do you have to do manevers first before actions in a combat encounter, or can they be done in any order. Example, a character shoots at an enemy, then runs on board a ship.

The answeres may be obvious, but I can not seem to find them. Thanks for all your help.

I'm new too but

1. Makes sense. I'm assuming any type of movement is a maneuver -- even 1. Pop up from cover, 2. action shoot, 3. strain to hide again.

2. I'm assuming any particular order is fine. It would be awkward if it was a set order. Even in real life-- like a quarterback throwing a ball before or after he moved. Or action hero having to shoot than jump through the air dramatically--

1) yes

2) no. they can be done in any order. you can eve take 2 strain and get a second maneuver

1. It sounds to me like you did the right thing. If a PC is at short range from a Stormtrooper, I'd also rule it as being one maneuver to go from short to engaged range, whether the PC was in cover or not.

2. I'm not sure where it says it in the book, but I'm certain that you can take them in any order. You could move, take action, then take a second maneuver for strain if you wanted. (this is how I run it in my games, at least)

1. Makes sense. I'm assuming any type of movement is a maneuver -- even 1. Pop up from cover, 2. action shoot, 3. strain to hide again.

It would take a maneuver to completely get out of cover, but to pop your head over a crate is an incidental.

Narratively the black could die represent the attacker hitting the person under cover at a moment where the defender had popped his or her head out. No need to have them spend a maneuver when it's already baked into the rule.

I only count short range movement as a maneuver, if somebody just wants to move to the other side of a box (or do something in engaged range) I don't really consider that a maneuver. This might not work for your group though if the players are constantly trying to abuse it. Luckily for me my players don't do that (they all think they are Rambo, including the technician).

I'd say do whatever feels right and keeps the game moving quickly. If your game gets bogged down by "tactics" just flip a destiny point and say the box they were hiding behind was filled with explosives! I'm pretty sure flip a destiny point is my answer to everything actually...

Thanks everyone for all your help. I will probably have more questions in the future, but I know I have a good community to turn to for answers.

I've never charged a maneuver to leave cover, only to enter it. The assumption being that in a minute, coming out from behind cover doesn't take much relative time compared to running from in the open. Meanwhile, spotting, running to and getting behind cover in a usable fashion (ie, where you can pop out and shoot from) a much more involved process.

Okay I have a new question. I have not dealt with forums much, so I don't know if it is okay to add to this topic or start a new one with my new question so some of the veteran posters can let me know.

Question #3

The critical Hamstrung states that a character loses their free maneuver. Does this mean that they only get one maneuver that costs two strain, or that they still can get two maneuvers max, but they both cost two strain.

To be honest I'm not sure what the RAW is, but I think we had two PCs who were Hamstrung in a recent session.

I played it such that they could either:

• take an action
• trade their action for a single maneuver
• suffer 2 strain to take a maneuver and then an action

I wouldn't have allowed a PC to spend 2 strain twice to get two maneuvers.

The Hamstrung critical was actually a lot of fun tactically, because the PCs in this particular case were Knight-level PCs who were very successfully hampered by being hamstrung. They could move around the battlefield as well as they'd like, so it made the whole thing very exciting!

Good rule of thumb; Your the GM, its Your and Your Players game.

but in regards to the Hamstrung, it would suck for a player not to be able to run away so we have played it that whilst your free manoeuvre is no longer free you may still take 2 manoeuvres, 1 for the traded action, then another bought with 2 strain.

without hamstrung you may make normally take 2 manoeuvres and an action in a single round at the cost of 2 strain.

essentially you may try to run away from your opponents, but your focusing on running, not shooting back

Thanks everyone for your help. I knew I could get answers from this community, which leads me to my next question.

Question #4

When you make a dice roll and you end up with advantages, threats, triumphs, or despairs, do you always get to spend them. For example: A player is rolling a simple discipline or cool check at the end of an encounter to recover from strain, and they roll an advantage. Do they get to spend the advantage to recover one extra strain even though the roll was to recover strain in the first place? I know when rolling for initiate, anything beyond successes and failures is for settling ties. I hope I am being clear enough. Thanks guys.

You know, strain is a pain in the ass to recover as it is, and they're probably not going to roll all THAT much. I'd like them take the extra if they want.

Like progressions said for #3, you can't spend 2 strain twice to get maneuvers. However, even after losing their "free" maneuver they could still get two maneuvers (the max) by trading their action for one maneuver and taking 2 strain to get the second maneuver.

For Question #4, remember the purpose of the dice. Their purpose isn't to adjudicate success and failure, though they tend to do that, their purpose is to inform and drive the narrative. So, if there's no narrative purpose for the extra advantage and threats, you can ignore them. In the case of recovering strain, sure, why not allow it? Some people might be better at recovering strain or a situation might make it easier (boost dice perhaps).

In general, I'd encourage my player's to tell me what the extra advantage or triumph can give them. For example: I roll 2 advantage and a triumph while recovering strain. I decide that my character went through his pockets in the few minutes we spent recovering and found an extra med-pack he'd forgotten about earlier. Knowing he had it really boosted his confidence (Triumph for the med-pack, 2 advantage for another recovered strain point).

Of course as a GM, if I see threats show up on the dice, it can go the other way. Player #1 rolls to recover strain, recovers most of it with successes, but turns up 2 threat. "You notice some exposed wires on your blaster power pack. It looks functional for now, but I'd hate to see it get wet or dirty."