Needing advice on my game I am running. The group consists of a Smuggler, Explorer, Technician, Colonist, Hired Gun, and we recently added a Guardian. I know it will be a challenge to do a fair mix of adventures for my Force and Destiny character with Edge of the Empire characters. But my challenge is that my Colonist Doctor character feels out of place with the group. I am not sure how to make everyone feel they are all essential just because a player have force powers. Any tips?

Hurt them a lot, that should keep doc busy...

What other skills does the doctor have the others don't? Anything knowledge related?

I will be willing to give you advices, but we are going to need a bit more details.

First importqnt thing is to tell us the sort of group dynamic that was occuring before. What are the roles peoples in your group were assuming? What were the situations your players stepped up, and what was their preferres playstyles/plots?

Then, i will also need a quick summary of your overall gamestyles and campaign plot, just so we have a better grounding on your situation.

Yiur problem may be arising from a multitude of situations, and.its best we adress the core of the issue rather than making a superficial patch. I can understand players fearing a Jedi become a spotlight stealer, but maybe its not that. After all, why would a Doctor be the one feeling infringed upon by a Jedi Soldier? Shouldn't it be the Hired Gun be the one feeling the competition?

The Smuggler is a pilot was once a cadet for the empire and was abandoned and he later met the exployer. Those characters are the unofficial leaders of the group.

The technician and the Colonist usually follow the others lead on most issues but the Colonist is wanting to do more.

The Hired Gun and the Guardian are new to the group and the Guardian is the focus of the current session and will be for 3 sessions.

I can give specific info about the Colonist when I get home this evening from work.

Both you and the Player should watch the film Serenity and the Firefly series. The Doctor character in that series was far from being incapable of doing anything else. Besides being a top doctor and surgeon he was very tech savvy (Computers), knowledgeable (Education, Lore), and socially competent (Charm, Negotiation, Deception etc.), plus he's well connected with useful groups. He's actually one of the more vital characters in the crew.

So the smuggler is an ex-imperial cadet believed dead by them?

Who does the explorer work for?

The hired gun I assume is either Jayne or Zoe?

The tech is the Kaylee?

The guardian is River but not as stable?

So your doctor is a Healer?

What are their obligations?

More importantly do they have any set goals?

The technician and the Colonist usually follow the others lead on most issues but the Colonist is wanting to do more.

In general terms this comes down to a few things:

- first, try to introduce something related to the Colonist's backstory that only they are privy to, contacts that only trust them, etc;

- second, make sure when you plan your session you include a challenge that requires each character's involvement. Maybe something needs researching, and it's best for the "smart guy" to do it. Maybe the session is a showcase for one or more character's capabilities...a gunslinger standoff followed by healing an important NPC of an uncommon species (requires Xenology);

- third, shake things up and pull the character out of their comfort zone. The key thing here is making sure everyone is on a clock and/or busy, because otherwise the players tend to default to "let the expert do it". Don't give them that option. So maybe the slicer is busy slicing, and the melee monster is busy guarding, and "the only one who can climb up the conduit pipe to plug the wires back in" is the doctor. Of course, you'd scale the Athletics check appropriately...

Hmm..i can see the challenges related to a Doctor character wanting to do more, being dissatisfied with his current essential, but nevertheless repetitive role.

I mean, what does he do? He patches up the team after a fight. He finds cure to poisons. Thats about it. And now that he might have wanted more things to do, arrives a flippin' Jedi who will be at the centre of the action while he remains a waterboy.

Despite medicine, what does he bring to the group? Has he ever done anything more rhan just rolling heal checks?

The doctor in my group had the same problem (although we didn't have force users). I gave some advice on character advancement to help make the character a little more well-rounded in other situations (particularly combat) which helped out a lot. I can't say exactly what without knowing all the characters but just look for other gaps the party has. One thing my group learned was the value of redundancy. You may think one mechanic is enough, until the primary mechanic goes down at a critical moment (not induced by me, it just happened often enough through the course of play), or the party splits up and both sub-groups have need of that capability.

Our doctor is the primary medic and mechanic, took a few social skills (which the party is sorely lacking in), and took a second specialization to provide extra combat ability. You don't need to be the best at something to be useful. Also, how about a pilot/co-pilot/astrogator? We've found that you can never have too many competent pilots.

I think the first question that needs to be answered is for what reasons did the player choose to play a doctor. Was it because he/ she wanted to play a doctor, or was it because the play group felt they lacked "healing" so doctor was chosen as a default to fill the gap?

Something that was barely touched, session 00, or Why the Group Banded Together? This can affect the overall dynamic of the group, mostly Out of Character.

Players should strive to include all character in the happening. In my group, although the Wookie mechanic has the highest Intelligence, he rarely handles computers as we have a Thief styled as a slicer as well... our pilot used to serve as our Face, but once we got a Twi'lek charmer, the dynamic shifted to him to take that place.

Also I echo the words of the rest, very solid advice.

Sorry for the late reply, just ran another session tonight and after speaking to the player she tweaked her character before the game and really enjoyed the session. I also kiled my first PC tonight, which shocked my group and made the PC that was killed extremely happy. The group formed from the pregen characters from the starter game and later modified. The group is really a wild mix characters and I am surprised they are able to accomplish goals without piss in each other off. I will post more later.

Well, the chance for a clean slate would please some players. Plus, i am happy you killed two birds with onw stone (joke intended)

Allowing a player to change his character AND "shocking" the table with someone's death? Best. Outcome. Possible. +1 my friebd.

I will throw my hat and concede the Hat Trick if you also managed to advance the plot.