I want to run Edge of the Empire for a single player and need help identifying a suitable adventure to get us started.

I was hoping to start with the adventure in the beginner box as we are both new to the system (but not to roleplaying or Star Wars), but if this is a bad choice for a single player to handle and there is a better adventure I'll happily buy that (fan made adventures are also welcome). I want our first experience to start with a bang!

I also welcome suggestions for adjusting the system, encounters, challenges and character generation to provide a good experience for a single player. I don't want to have to fudge things and favour small but elegant tweaks.

Run EotE's Beginner Game. It gives you a solid taste of what to expect and there are a handful of posts in this forum about following up in Mos Shuuta. I'd strongly recommend you run a DM-PC (as a sort of sidekick to the fellow player) with appropriate complimentary skills (things with Computer, Mechanics, and Medicine come to mind). Little tweaking necessary to the encounters. If the security droids prove to be too much of a pain in the butt, drop their wounds and/or soak a couple points.

If you aren't adverse to the idea, feel free to provide your lone hero with an extra thousand credits (that would be an extra 5 obligation's worth, up to you if you want his starting obligation potentially as high as 25).

It's a little weird but can be done.

The big thing will be to just sale down the encounters, most are made for 4 or 5 players. Sometimes it may just be a matter of taking the minions, lightening up their numbers and leaving them ungrouped.

Yep, for every solo game I've ever run, regardless of system, I provide the player with at least one loyal NPC if for no other reason than drama . The player gets to run him like a second PC to be tactically deployed in any reasonable manner, but the GM determines the NPC's game attributes and provides the NPC's voice.

In SW, droids of course can be perfect for this role.

Scale down encounters -- if 1 PC and 1 NPC (or a party of 2 PCs), you can field 4 minions, 2 rivals or one Nemesis and have a good challenge.

I've played a couple different campaigns with my son as the only player. First time he played his own PC plus a sidekick...which is completely doable once the player knows the rules. I also had an allied NPC gunslinger type.

After a while we found the extra PCs/allies weren't necessary. Current he's playing solo, a scholar who can barely shoot, and I've learned to scale the challenges and opposition. A couple times I over did it and/or he got cocky...but incapacitated is not "dead", capture is a viable way to continue the story, and having the occasional cavalry come to the rescue is no great sin as long as it feel reasonable.

My single player is accruing a crew for her ship. I use them for flavor, to fill in skill gaps (rather than having a favorite doctor she to whom she returns the doctor comes along instead), and to buffer combat a little. However, she often decides what they do and always rolls their dice. If any of the crew are with her it's only one, occasionally two - they've got their own things to do.

My wife and I duo on one of our campaigns. I run it and she has the main character. I run another character and roll his checks and all, but do not have him make any game breaking conversation or decisions, just tactical ones and how he runs his mouth. He's also the technician / mechanic so gets to fix things a lot. I know she is not a fan of droids as much, so I had her free a ship full of Wookies. After returning them to Kashyyyk and doing some other favors for his clan, one of them will join her. He is a hired gun / bodyguard. She gets to run him and I do Wookiee sounds when needed.

Our first adventure together was the Edge Beginner Box. With two characters we were able to make our way to the end encounter fairly well (we did run from the Stormtroopers and were able to roll enough successes to hide from them). When we hit the ship we were able to act like we were delivering the part (her idea, not mine! yay!) and make it into the ship, where things took a dicey turn. In the end, freeing some angry Wookiees though can help you overcome difficult obstacles. Cinematically she had the Wookiee drop the Trandoshan slaver out of his own ship as we lifted into atmosphere. No checks for loot or any of the keys he had on him. See ya armor and gun upgrade. Goodbye melee weapon. It was still very cinematic and rewarding.

It is also important that the player knows and trusts that anything said to the sidekick is done "in confidence" to you in your role as the GM. In other words, if the player is discussing with the sidekick about a course of action, the details of that conversation should not be privy to the villains to circumvent nor should the sidekick spoon feed the PC plausible bad ideas that will get them killed or captured.

Here is a excellent video with advice on how to run the FFG system with 1 player

It is also important that the player knows and trusts that anything said to the sidekick is done "in confidence" to you in your role as the GM. In other words, if the player is discussing with the sidekick about a course of action, the details of that conversation should not be privy to the villains to circumvent nor should the sidekick spoon feed the PC plausible bad ideas that will get them killed or captured.

Here is a excellent video with advice on how to run the FFG system with 1 player

Great advice! But his video style makes me feel like I'm tied-up in a basement...

Great advice! But his video style makes me feel like I'm tied-up in a basement...

Do you see?