When in rome

By Peroxis, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

I am just wondering how normal i should assume my players to be in contrast to the ordinary people they come past.
Players generally like to play around with acting different than they would in real life or they can get confused getting into character.

Like i have a wookie that wants to grow plants
a pacifist scholar that is interested in a jetpack
And a duros martial arts performer

If i saw any of these in a star wars movie i would probably find it quite odd.
Should the NPCs they encounter think they are odd also?

Do your NPCs commonly have strange reactions to your group of players?

NPC reactions should be based on what the characters are doing, and rumours the NPCs have heard about them.

If your plant growing Wookiee is not acting strangely then the NPCs would react as they would normally to a Wookiee. On the other hand, if she/he insists on carrying a potted plant everywhere and calls it George, they are going to react to that odd behaviour.

If the Duros is just out shopping then NPCs react normally, if she/he is shopping in their martial arts gear, they'll get funny looks, if they are running around doing Bruce Lee impressions then security might get called and ordinary folks will keep their distance. If the Duros is famous, they might get followed or approached by fans whating to talk and get autographs.

My player's characters sometimes get unusual reactions when they start attacting attention by acting odd or being dicks to NPCs but most of the time they are sensible enough to try and keep a low profile.

Edited by DoctorWhat

I find that the most common way that players act out their characters that's in contradiction to the way way they act in normal life (at least, I hope it's not the way they act in normal life) is that they're usually much more murderous, greedy, and deceitful. This is more common amongst younger players who come to the table with a video-game mentality of "if it moves, kill it and loot the corpse," but it can be an issue with players of all ages. It can be a challenge to reign the little murder hobos in without killing them all off in a gun battle with the law after they burn down a town and murder all the fleeing civilians.

So, if all you need to worry about is a treehugging Wookie, a peacenik jet pack aficionado, and a Duros who's seen too many Kung Fu movies, consider yourself lucky :)

But to answer your question: if anyone acts too far out of the norm, other members of society will take notice. In some societies, they'll be considered odd-balls and shunned. In other societies, who may celebrate free-thought, they may be considered eccentric heroes and be invited to all the hip dinner parties. In more rigid societies with strict rules of conduct, they might be considered insane and incarcerated (or thrown in loony bins).

For Star Wars, it really depends on which planet they're on. If they're on a planet with a xenophobic population, pretty much anything you do will be considered weird and scary (unless you're from that planet). If you're on Nar Shadddaa, pretty much anything would be acceptable if you have enough credits to throw around, and if you don't personally annoy a Hutt cartel. Planets with a mixed-species population would probably find a wide range of behaviors to be "acceptable", since nobody would really knows if it's normal or not for a Rodian to constantly squirt blue milk out of his ear funnels. So, just figure out where they are, how weird their behavior really is, and how the population would probably react to it.

haha yeah. Im completely open and want to encourage them being creative. But just i feel the general population should take notice of any weird behaviours. Guess i can think of it like if the people they are around are or arent skilled in xenology lol.
I probably am lucky apart from one player saying their obligation is they have an addiction to killing people, there shouldnt be too much issue with raised villages.

So i guess Duros probably would find the PC Duro a bit odd that he is martial artist since its not common.
I guess with the jetpacks, the thought just only makes me think of Boba Fett which can translate to bounty hunter which can translate to this person is dangerous.?

I guess non bounty hunters could own jet packs as well, but just a bit different picturing it. Is it just so they dont need to use the ladder in the library?, They like have conversations in the air so that they will be in private?
Guess its up to them to find ways to use it which is fine by me, just a money sink for them lol.

Really, it could just be be a hobby. I know most of my money goes to things that don't have anything to do with my occupation. Some people just like flying, then they head home to their desk job.

Yeah, it's a hobby. As long as he doesn't take it with him grocery shopping or whatever, people probably couldn't care less.

Of course... I had one player in a group who played a complete Urkel-like nerd technician. Whenever women were present, he'd freak out and obsess about showing her his droid :) "This is my droid. I made him. Do you want to see my droid?" The really funny thing is that the player thought his character was a real player :D Like, what woman could resist the "droid" line? I actually brought back the character in a cameo and made him the love interest for his new female character. Of course, my version of him was suave and smooth <cue Barry White music now>.

So yeah, you're fine unless you bring your droid to the grocery store. Or something like that. What were we talking about again?

Edited by OggDude

I wouldn't worry about them fitting in unless they take their hobbies out into the public inappropriately. If the wookiee has a bunk area full of plants, or a room in a cantina, that's fine. If he starts taking samples from every tree or flower he passes, that'll get some odd looks and perhaps official action depending on the locale.

Duros into martial arts? Well, how many people do you walk past every day that are in to martial arts? You don't know? Well, exactly. Unless he's displaying his talents, nobody would know.

As for the jetpack scholar; well, being interested in a jetpack and having one at home to work on and perhaps practice with is one thing. Wearing one at the local university or library is another.

It's about the NPCs comfort really. If an NPC is comfortable around a wookiee, then a wookiee interested in botany won't phase them. But most fellow scholars aren't likely to be so adventurous as yours and would be seriously discomfited by someone in a jetpack. If that npc scholar is someplace where you can see a lot of people in jetpacks, then I'm sure he'd be extremely uncomfortable, and wouldn't be reassured to see a fellow scholar wearing one too. It's one thing to bring in a ceremonial dagger to your colleagues at the museum. It's another to wear a sword on your back. :)

SHUN THEM! SHUN THEM ALL!

but seriously, it's a role playing game based on yourplayers characters. base the reactions around what your characters do.