Ran the beginner game tonight with five players (added Sasha, no love for Mathus). Everyone took to the system pretty well, though I had to keep drawing out narrative for their advantage use. Once the players figured out they could add a Boost die to the next guy's roll, they did that a lot (to good effect). But I had to keep asking "how?" to get more narrative then "I add a boost die to the next guy's roll."

I did make choo choo noises now and then to warn them that the adventure was railroading them forward, but they knew it was a pre-published adventure and I warned them it had a tendency to do that so they took it in good humor.

This group of players (which included a new role player) tend to be very mechanical and reactive, even defensive sometimes (earned from some of our past GMs). But once we got into the swing, I was absolutely delighted by their creativity. Some examples:

Spaceport Control . 41-VEX goes in alone, after convincing the door guard droids that he was there for inoculations. This story didn't quite convince Overseer Brynn, but despite failure, he had some advantage so Brynn wasn't suspicious, she apparently just thought it was a mix up. Realizing he was standing next to an empty console and nobody was watching him (he'd been told to shut up and wait a minute), 41-VEX sliced in and undid the docking clamps. Unfortunately he had a Threat, so he set off some kind of alarm. Brynn immediately turns on him, fails to see that he's jacked in, then orders him out. Realizing that he had accomplished what he wanted, 41-VEX leaves.

The Stormtrooper fight . Faced with two sets of four Stormtroopers, the first player flipped a Destiny point to "notice" the barrel of flammable fuel stacked in some trash in the alley. He fired at it, hit, then used his two extra Advantage to have the flames spread all the way across the alley. Thus, for at least a turn, that second set of Stormies was out of the fight. The fight went well (for the players) with descriptions of Advantages used adding to the flavor after some prompting. Then, on the very last shot taking out the last remaining Stormtrooper from the alley group (they got through after I flipped a Destiny to have a astromech-style droid use its fire-suppression spray)... they roll a Triumph. Well, the guy is already down. So a "wasted" Triumph? I urge them to spend it somehow. A second of dithering, and then "Ok, my last shot ricochets off the down Stormtrooper and takes out a shop awning support, basically hiding the alley and us from all the bystanders. This let them make a clean break for Docking Bay Aurek without worrying about pursuit or even identification.

The TIE Fighter battle was just a bit epic. They had their hull threshold at 1, in a tailspin (crit result), frantically shooting at the last remaining TIE with (I think) about 3 system strain left on the Krayt Fang. Despite some serious setbacks due to a critical or three, Lowhrick managed to finish off the final TIE. A few seconds later (the next and final round), the hyperdrive light turned green with a DING! and they leapt safely into hyperspace... with some odd and rather disturbing noises from the aft section.

I really liked using the system, especially the custom dice. Once everyone got used to building the die pool and interpreting the results it was fun and flowed fairly quickly. Not sure how well it would go with the 7 or 8 players that have expressed interest in my campaign, but it doesn't seem like it will be as slow as other systems (4th edition D&D anyone?) once they get farther along and have better pools.

Edit : Side note - they absolutely loved GM Hooly's ship dashboard, especially once I pointed out speed 10 was plaid. We did have to use crayons to mark what was happening, but that's why I had it laminated.

congrats, was this your first session with this system?

Yes, first session with the FFG system. We did run into one question. According to the rules (RAW) you add your successes to damage. Does that include the first success that is basically required to do damage? If yes, that effectively means the minimum damage is always the listed damage +1. There is wording elsewhere in the rules that specifically calls out "... after the first" for other things so it makes sense that the first one would be counted. On the other hand, why would FFG set it up that way where the damage listed is always one less then what you'll be doing? On the gripping hand, that does make for a simpler calculation if you add all the successes instead of all but the first.

You add all the successes to damage, including the first.

Nice write up!

On the gripping hand, that does make for a simpler calculation if you add all the successes instead of all but the first.

Yes add total Successes to base damage. And your quote above is why. Damage = Base + Successes instead of Damage = Base + (Successes - 1).

It's called base damage, not minimum damage.