Hey all,

Thinking about grabbing this and running it for some people; however, I have a playgroup that could get up to 5 people. I know with the web characters I'd have enough characters to do this; however, what I'm not sure of is how the balance would look.

Would it require a lot of alteration to try and upscale the game to deal with 5 players? Any suggestions for things to consider if I were to do so?

My two credits...take them as you will...

The game should have some scaling measures already in place...are there directions to "include 1 [enemy NPC] for each PC" in the combat scenarios? I can't really speak to the balance of things, having not run the beginner game yet, but the fact is that you can always throw a few more enemies into the mix if things are going too easily!

As to my experience, playing the Age of Rebellion Beginner Game with 5 players was a blast. I think the only thing that really gave them an easier time of it was the diversity of skills. Just about every skill check had someone rolling at least three dice, usually with an upgrade or two. And that really does make it more fun for the players, makes them feel like they're contributing in a useful way. But all the combat scenarios, to my memory, had instructions to scale up the threats based on how many PCs were playing. So yeah, it didn't feel like a cakewalk.

Spoilers below of course.

I ran it with 5 PCs. They were never really threatened in combat but a few things come to mind:

I think Belandi can only use heal once per player per encounter and can only use the doctor's kit once per encounter and can only attempt to heal one crit in the session. Important to remember these things. The last fight will be more interesting if they have a few wounds or a crit. If they get a despair or a bunch of threat early spend it to destroy one of their stimpaks. (I hate the video-gamey stimpaks.) My PCs were fully healed after every encounter which takes away from he drama I think.

I really worked hard to make it apparent that the bridge encounter could be something other than a combat with the guards. I had the Gatekeeper hound them that combat was a tool of the ignorant and to impress him perhaps they could get by these guards without a slaughter. Making any challenge non-combat neutralizes their numbers.

Without too much detail they used the cave and I did not pass up the opportunity to place a nasty creature in there, though it was not a combat encounter. There were boulders moved to block a chase.

Make sure to try to jump and focus on one character with the second ice wolf group. The wolves will not win but the final encounter is more interesting if a character is nicked up. Maybe even save the second pack for the person closest to the outside in the final encounter if the pack passes their stealth.

I had Malefax on alert so I gave him a couple of blue dice on his initiative roll. I also gave him Adversary 1, which upgrades all checks against him and I used Destiny points for his defense. In the end the 5 PCs were going to make short work of him so I made it so he held their mentor hostage and they had to think a way out of saving her or leave.

I spent PC threat defensively (guarded stance, move out of engaged, add +1 melee defense).

On one PC Malefax disarmed their lightsaber and a guard grabbed it. One less saber is good. You can do this depending on how the initiative slots play out.

The only things I ran as minions were the ice wolves. I added a couple of guards to the final encounter.

The last encounter was not too tough for them partly becasue they had a good plan, good position, good initiative, and good rolls. I just went with that. It was just their night.

The first combat is scaled to PCs+1 but surprisingly there is little advice for scaling otherwise.

If they have 3 sabers and the healer and are experienced players you really could add a security droid to the end (maybe based on the probe droid stats in the included rulebook). Maybe not if some are pretty wounded. Don’t be afraid to threaten (and follow through) with killing their mentor if they think combat strength is all they need. Heck, makes for good RP down the road and a lesson hard learned.

There are lots of areas they will be blind to in the last encounter so a nasty surprise is easy, unless they use sense , which is pretty cool too.

I wasn't impressed with this adventure at first reading but ended up enjoying it a lot. Give some thought to fun things that can happen if they spot the cave near the bridge.

After the first encounter it's a bit forced/clunky to get them to the ruins so give that some thought. Encounter 2 can interrupt Encounter 1 on a Despair but they are far apart and that was odd for me. It's like you have to take control of the PCs with a narrative but my players went with it.

Edit: I have not read the bonus adventure so maybe give it a peek before killing Romund in case that breaks something. I'm not concerned about that, though.