Hey everyone,

This is my first time GM'ing a game. Although I have had a decent amount of table top player experience before this and I have never struggled with the character creation process.

My girlfriend is attempting to play this game for the first time along with me, she has never had any table top experience and very little gaming experience. Choosing a class for her is proving to be difficult. I also have several other players in the same boat with little to 0 experience although I haven't had the episode 0 yet so I don't know if their character creation process will run into the same kind of walls I am now. I have shown her the "choose your class" section that briefly goes over the "what do you want to do" questions and how it relates to the classes and that helped her a little bit.

My question is has anyone else ran into some kind of situation like this? Or does anyone know if there is one of those multi choice "choose your adventure" type walk through's that at the end recommends what class would be a good choice based on your decisions?

The first step for me (and what I recommend all my players do regardless of the game/rules set) is try and visualise my character with some back story. Then see which of the codified options fits that story best. Examples:-

1/ The Edge game I'm currently playing in (GMed by a certain @MrDodger ) my concept was a Mandalorian merc who had just been released from a penal colony as the last survivor of his clan- the clan having run afoul of a corrupt Imperial Govenor. He had followed in his mother's footsteps as being the clan int/EW opperator. So I started with Hired Gun career with the Mercenary Soldier specialisation and added the Slicer specialisation with the leveling xp I got from joining the campaign ppart way through.

2/ The character I have developped for F&D is an escaped Twi'Lek slave that formerly worked as a croupier in a crime boss's casino using her Sense power to get a read on gamblers to fleece them, and was rescued by a wanderer that somehow survived Order 66. The character lacks the grace of most wi'Lek females so was a poor dancer but was smart, charismmatic and supremely confident and good at bluffing. So all the xp went into increasing Intellect and Willpower. Until I get a lightsabre or a few more force powers or abilities the character is a complete non-combatant.

The other thing that is nice is the beginner boxed sets. You can play through those with some of the pre-generated characters, and see what type of character style you like best.

Also get them to think of some of their favourite Fictional characters, from any source, then find careers that fit closely with that.

I find it very helpful for a newer group to come together and ask "what do WE want to do?" Group cohesion is huge when starting out, and having a coherent goal that they decide on together can help narrow things down.

They could be a rag-tag crew of ne'er-do-wells living day to day and trying to outrun their demons.

They could be prospectors looking to discover a planet nobody else has a claim on and leverage it into a butt-zillion credits.

They could be bounty hunters who specialize in finding people who have been wronged, and making things right.

What you would really want to avoid is three characters, one from each of the previous three examples. Once you have the general group M.O. figured out, people can start trying to see how their character might fit.

If she's never played, then it's hard to imagine the type of character. It's hard to know if you want to be a "face" character if you have no idea how the social skills work, or a mechanic if you have no idea how the technical skills work, or what it all means to the group.

I agree with the beginner box idea, because it can be short, people can pick a character right away, and then after the first session they will have a much better idea of what they want to be able to do. If you want to continue with the PDF followup you can always let them switch to their newly created characters for the next stage of the adventure.

Whenever I'm helping someone new to the system, before we ever crack open a rule book, I ask them "what do you want your character to do/be good at?" Getting the concept and backstory down is the more important part in my eyes, and then build mechanically to fit the character.

Ask them to use pop culture characters, it doesn't have to be from Star Wars or even the sci-fi genre. If they can identify a couple characters from movies or books they like, I can usually steer them towards a career and spec.

Try gathering all your players and asking them what they want to do, and present them with specialisations that fit with what they want to do, like if they want to be a healer, ask them if they want to be a Colonist - Doctor, or a damage dealer, ask them if they want to be a Hired Gun, for example. I'm assuming that you only have the CRB, but if you feel that the benefits would outweigh the costs, consider getting some of the Sourcebooks, or AoR/F&D

I'd add in a vote for the beginner box idea. It will teach your crew the basic rules, obviously, but will definitely give them a feel for what kind of character they might want to try. My fiancé didn't even play the beginner game, being in much the same place experience-wise as your crew, but she sat in on it when my group gave it a go and knew pretty much right away that she wanted in on this and that she wanted to play a Hired Gun. Nak the Trandoshan Bodyguard/Demolitionist began terrorizing Imperials a few week later. Still is.

I've done this a couple of times and I don't even let them look at the rulebook or any pre-gens before we talk. Get everyone together and first, see where everyone is in the Star Wars universe (aka... has everyone seen any movies, if so, which ones?). Then lets start talking about what kind of characters they want to have. Feel free to use any movies at all or books, just a frame of reference if you don't have one that makes you interested.

From that, I'll narrow it down to two options for them as a "world view" (avoid the use of "career" as that label is unfortunate and gives the wrong idea to players). I let them know that they can pick from anything after this if they want to specialize, but this is how their character is going to look at the world. I then have them read through the description and see if that matches up with what they want. For some it has been "here's a career, which specialization do you want?" but others it has been choosing career versus career and then settling on a specialization. For my wife, it was easy. I know her well enough to know that if she is choosing X Career that she would want Y Specialization, but I still made sure that she had a choice... don't make the mistake of not offering a choice because later on they may think you made them play this. The player making a choice on character is very important for buy-in, even if you limit the scope of their choice for them.

Ask them what is their favourite movie or TV character?

The idea is to use their choice as an example to help them decide what they want to be able to do in game and most importantly enjoy it!

Not everyone is that familiar with Star wars let alone science fiction heck before I watched the first episode of Firefly a western set in outer space wasn't that interesting to me unless it involved Star Trek!

Have they watched any of the clone wars animated series?

There should be something they fancy playing encouraging them to forage will make it easier for you as it sounds almost your entire group is in the same boat!

Have them get involved in a group session to explain why they're adventuring together maybe see if they're interested in watching the Titansgrave Ashes of Valkana series on YouTube that should help especially if you tell me them its set in outer space?

I also would recommend the beginner box idea (remember that there are 2 more characters for each on on the FFG site). After they have played that and they making there own characters, I highly recommend using

Character Development Worksheet from Simon Fix

http://simonretold.c...opmentSheet.pdf

This will allow the Players to knit their characters together by allowing them to have pre-existing backgrounds together (think Han, Chiew, and Lando or R2, Leia, C-3PO) and have a reason to work together besideds "You are all in the Hutt Cantina when..."

Wow thanks for all the help guys! This gives me a lot to work with I really appreciate it!

Update: I did get the beginner adventure box when I bought the core rule book, I talked to her about using one of the pre-made characters just to see how she likes it but she feels that is cheating and wants to make her own character. Its just something I will have to work with her on. I think the other players will be open to using the starter characters.

So... have you asked her about Star Wars Rebels?

Specifically Hera or maybe Sabine might be of interest?

So... have you asked her about Star Wars Rebels?

Specifically Hera or maybe Sabine might be of interest?

I haven't, she hasnt seen that show. She decided on smuggler / pilot which I think is a good fit for her. The full group starts episode 0 tomorrow and I am pretty excited!

On an unrelated note. Does anyone have any recommendations for a few campaign missions? I have the beginners guide and I am going to run them through the beginning adventure first so everyone knows the rules. After that I have 2 premade adventures to run, one is debts to pay from the GM screen, and the other one is the stock adventure in the back of the core book. I am leaning towards running them through debts to pay as I think I can easily work the transition from the beginning adventure to debts to pay then either go into custom content or run the adventure in the core book.

I know it in large depends on the group that is running the adventure and what they want to do but I just wanted to see if anyone had suggestions on campaigns / easy transitions.

Thanks!

There are at least 2 follow up adventures on the web site (Long arm of the Hutt and one other) for EoE, and 1 for AOR

Start writing down ideas now... you'll be amazed at how fast content will flow through your fingers in the heat of the cinematic moment. It's good... and makes for interesting and exciting lives for the player's characters, but it will have you scrambling sooner rather than later.

I have gone back through older RPG sources and looked at general plotlines, I have written down dreams, I have gone through my book collection... anything I can find that gives me ideas. I haven't used them all up yet, but I'm using more than I thought I would when we started off with just the beginner box. I'm working on my second little black book (not counting all my NPC groups with names and what adversary cards they get their stats from).

Don't get me wrong, I order adventure modules as fast as I can get them, but we've cleared beginner boxes in a night. I'm learning how to throw other content in to stretch my purchased material. I'm also learning how to be a better FFG GM. One of the things I love about the adventures they provide is there will often be situations listed for skill checks that I never thought about. I am now adding my own events and am more prepared by pre-thinking it in unorthodox ways to be prepared for what they will try to do to conquer the event. Not saying you should always think of "100 Skillchecks to Success!" but by figuring out how they might conquer it, I've found that I'm putting more detail in what I tell them which also encourages them to do things in a more cinematic action sequence than just "I move forward 4 squares and hit the monster" mentality that d20 put so many people in.

Update: I did get the beginner adventure box when I bought the core rule book, I talked to her about using one of the pre-made characters just to see how she likes it but she feels that is cheating and wants to make her own character. Its just something I will have to work with her on. I think the other players will be open to using the starter characters.

The starter characters are not built using the rules for making a new character. I would not mix and match. I would, though come up with some of your own pregens and offer them to your group. This way everyone is on an even keel.

I would also sit down and work on a character at the same time as your girlfriend/wife (not going back to check, sorry) and let her watch what you're doing and just use one another as a sounding board.

If you go to the FFG products page for the Beginner Box you got there is a PDF on the support page that's a continuation of the adventure (Long arm of the Hut for Edge, Operation Shadowpoint for Age. Force and Destiny extension is not released yet)

Actually the Force and Destiny Adventure module for the Beginner Game is called "Lure of the Lost" and has been available for over a month

Click the link and then it is under player resources at the bottom of the page

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/star-wars-force-and-destiny-beginner-game/

Palms face.... Missed that one!

Update: I did get the beginner adventure box when I bought the core rule book, I talked to her about using one of the pre-made characters just to see how she likes it but she feels that is cheating and wants to make her own character. Its just something I will have to work with her on. I think the other players will be open to using the starter characters.

The starter characters are not built using the rules for making a new character. I would not mix and match. I would, though come up with some of your own pregens and offer them to your group. This way everyone is on an even keel.

I would also sit down and work on a character at the same time as your girlfriend/wife (not going back to check, sorry) and let her watch what you're doing and just use one another as a sounding board.

Whats so different about starting characters vs premade adventure characters? I noticed a stat bonus but that is easy enough to reverse engineer and deduct the right amount of xp spent in stat points to give the proper amount to be spent on skills and traits.

I think it would be a little work but easy enough to accomplish, or am I missing something?

They aren't radically different. I'm AFB at the moment, but I believe the Beginner box only outlines one Knowledge skill, whereas there are 6 (or 7) that somebody doing Core-based chargen could spend on, so that can account for some difference.

If you use OggDude's character generator, it's very easy to reverse engineer. With the EotE beginner box I think I only had to add 10 XP to account for Oskara compared to Pash, but if you're not concerned with exactitudes it's easy to do.