Hello all! It's my first time here, so please bear with me!

So, as my title says, I'm running a starter game to try and get me RPG group into the EotE/AoR/FaD system. However, this is my first time playing as well, so I don't have a good grasp on the best way to build characters. Should a starter character focus on Characteristics? Talents? Skills? How much XP should a Force-user commit to Force powers?

As a part of our trial period, I'm going to be running a short adventure of two to three sessions, and I'm going to pre-build the characters so we can dive in. I'm trying to build a wide variety of characters to start with, but I could use some help!

So, what I'm asking for is some sample starting characters (from AoR and FaD, since those are the only two books I have) so I can have some starter characters for my group to choose from. Or, if you don't have a full character stats, then at least some advice on what works best in character building.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

It depends on a lot of little things.

Typically though most people like to focus on Characteristics. Upgrading skills, and getting more talents can be done with simple XP expenditures as the players earn XP. Upgrading Characteristics requires the Dedication talent (usually a bottom tier talent) or Cybernetics (expensive ones).

When it comes to basic Success, 2 green dice will get you more then 1 Yellow, so it's important to get those characteristics up as high as you can since it'll be a long time before you can change them any.

That said, individual situations may vary. If you're doing a one-shot instead of a campaign, you may want to spend more on skills and talents to make the individual characters stand out more.

Hmm, good points! I'll think about what I want to do there. I think I would like to display more of what makes the system unique, so buying up more Talents/Force-powers is probably the way to go for the one-shot.

However, considering character builds for normal games for a moment - I know it's highly dependent on what Specializations you're using and character concept, but is buying up to a 5 ever worth it? How about a 4? Or should you pick 2 or 3 Characteristics that fit best for your character and buy those up to 3 (assuming human starting)? That's 90 XP right there, so...

OK -- here is the thing. Pre-gen characters are all well and good for a dive in and play sorta setup-- but if you don't have a CONCEPT that matches the players idea of "oooo Star Wars, I loved this movie because _______" they may be reluctant. So that being said maybe pre-gening based on the players interest may speed the process up. Because otherwise making a pre-gen for each profession may be a grind.

You could just have them look at the professions or ask them what they want to play-- than pre-gen it for them based on a number of adjectives.

Example: my fiancé has never ever played a TTRPG ever. I wanted her to try and see if she liked it with SW since I'm starting a group. So I said one day, "give me a loose list adjectives that you would like to play as"...use a game you play as a base (in this case she plays skyrim). She said Assassin, sneaky, sniper, athletic and lock pick.

Well-- in this case there is a BH tree... Assassin...perfect start. She likes Khajit so Cathar was perfect.

So just a few adjectives of their play style can really seal a pre-gen up rather quickly. But that's just one way of doing things. I just know personally pre-gens aren't for me so if they are mandatory I hope there would be one really close to my play style---and if everyone thinks that way you may need an array of pre-gens. But that's just an opinion.

EDIT: PS I ran a small prequel to the prequel game I'm running and she loved it. She rolls like a god though literally one shotting minions like it was her profession to roll successes and advantages.

Hmm, good points! I'll think about what I want to do there. I think I would like to display more of what makes the system unique, so buying up more Talents/Force-powers is probably the way to go for the one-shot.

However, considering character builds for normal games for a moment - I know it's highly dependent on what Specializations you're using and character concept, but is buying up to a 5 ever worth it? How about a 4? Or should you pick 2 or 3 Characteristics that fit best for your character and buy those up to 3 (assuming human starting)? That's 90 XP right there, so...

Also depends on what you've got going. For a one-shot, you might want to think about tossing the characters 20-40xp immediately after creation, that's a way to get a little more oomph without making them too overpowered. If you want to go bigger, try 150ish xp. But as a beginner that's probably a bit high.

Going to 5 is also a thing. I've seen it done, but you end up with a pretty weird result if you ask me. You end up with a character that's amazing is a a few areas, and totally pants in everything else. Also you can get some weird combo results based on how skills break down (A 5 agility pilot will also be an amazing sneak thief and expert sniper and gunslinger). In my experience 4 is a slightly more sane top.

Are you familiar with the Beginner Boxes? There are boxes you could get which feature an adventure and pregens specifically designed to teach the system and get new people on board.

I can't speak for the EotE one, but the AoR beginner box is pretty cool. Combined with the free online expansion for it, you get a pretty good selection of pregen characters. The introductory mission isn't bad, it does decent at providing different scenarios to learn rules, but the second part to that adventure, available as a free PDF download, is a huge 13-14 option affair that culminates in a huge land battle.

Plus you get a map and some cardboard tokens. I think it was worth it!

I was Considering the beginner box, but money issues kept me from grabbing it. I may reconsider yet again...

And I think asking my players what kind of characters they'd want to play isn't a bad idea. If I could grab a list, would you kind people be willing to help me build some? If I decide not to grab the beginner's box, that is?

EDIT: To give a little background on my group and what we're doing, we've been playing TTRPGs for well over a decade, but mostly D&D 3.5. I recently finished running a very long campaign, and now we're going to be doing a series of short adventures in various different settings and systems, both to decide what we want to commit to next, and also to expose the group at large to new systems.

We've got on the docket multiple WoD games (Werewolf and Mage, specifically), Dark Heresy, some homebrew systems of my design, Star Wars, as well as more regular fare for us (D&D/Pathfinder). We decided that the GM for each would stat up the characters for the one -shots to save on time. If we decide to make that system our next ongoing campaign, the players would design their own characters then.

All of the players have very diverse play - styles, and like to try out different party roles. So other than preference on the type of Star Wars character, I'm probably going to be getting a lot of, "whatever you think it's cool."

Well-- what is the timeline? Old republic, pre Yavin, post Yavin, Fate of the JEDI, etc?

There are some pre-made characters on the EotE resource page.

I was Considering the beginner box, but money issues kept me from grabbing it. I may reconsider yet again...

And I think asking my players what kind of characters they'd want to play isn't a bad idea. If I could grab a list, would you kind people be willing to help me build some? If I decide not to grab the beginner's box, that is?

EDIT: To give a little background on my group and what we're doing, we've been playing TTRPGs for well over a decade, but mostly D&D 3.5. I recently finished running a very long campaign, and now we're going to be doing a series of short adventures in various different settings and systems, both to decide what we want to commit to next, and also to expose the group at large to new systems.

We've got on the docket multiple WoD games (Werewolf and Mage, specifically), Dark Heresy, some homebrew systems of my design, Star Wars, as well as more regular fare for us (D&D/Pathfinder). We decided that the GM for each would stat up the characters for the one -shots to save on time. If we decide to make that system our next ongoing campaign, the players would design their own characters then.

All of the players have very diverse play - styles, and like to try out different party roles. So other than preference on the type of Star Wars character, I'm probably going to be getting a lot of, "whatever you think it's cool."

If you do go with the beginner box, be warned, they are super railroad hand hold walkthrough kinda boring. They are great at explaining the system, but they may give the wrong impression as there's several encounters where the players are expected to do one thing specifically or make a specific decision.

Also be advised that FFG's star wars is intended to be played fast and loose, and doesn't account for some of the nitty-gritty that other systems (like D20 based) systems account for. It's a good system that does some nifty things, but there have been some D&D players that have shown up here in the past that had trouble with the transitions to things like range bands and Advantage/Threat interpretation.

Ghostofman brings up a valid point, and my major objection with the beginner box adventure - it's 100% railroad. The free followup is a lot better, but for that initial encounter... I flat out told my players: "Listen, this first pregen adventure is, more than anything, supposed to get us familiar with the rules. It's pretty linear... this won't be how future games are at all, but please bare with me while we all get used to the system."

I've run the EOTE and AOR beginner boxes multiple times for different groups, and never found it to be a problem that the adventures are designed on rails.

Most of the time the players are learning the game system, so the relative simplicity of the adventure itself is part of the design. Once you get through Escape from Mos Schuuta in the Beginner Box, you can download Long Arm of the Hutt for free, and it's a much more sophisticated extension of the story. Or you can dive in and create your own characters after having learned the system.

Yeah, I've run the Edge beginner, and am a player in an Age beginner.
They are good because the ramp up almost perfectly.
The Edge one almost goes like this:

1. Use a skill. See that's how just about everything works.
2. Simple combat, see that's about like skill use but with some details
3. Social encounter, you should have it now.
4. Hybrid encounter: Use different skills and combat checks to accomplish a larger goal.
5. Running combat: Minions are tough as a group, also there's these Rival things.
6. Space/vehicle combat: Here's how this works, it's kinda like melee combat actually, and this is the most boring demo for it in the universe...

If you tell the players it's gonna be lame and to treat it like the tutorial level of a computer game they might not mind. Assuming you have a real adventure as followup of course.