This isn't D&D, this is Star Wars. We don't see Han and Luke looting dead Stormtrooper gear on the Death Star.

To be fair, that's exactly what Luke and Han do in order to get the stormtrooper armor and blasters they use. We don't see them sell it because it's a movie and that's a boring logistical detail. Looting when you're victorious is both rewarding and something that's generally a given for any armed group that isn't incredibly well equipped. Now, I certainly agree that it'd be a huge pain to sell-off those goods, but (given the significant rule-set for negotiation, items and modding) there has to be some sort of credit generation for the PCs, and if it's not looting, then it's up to the GM to come up with some sort of solution to get the players their cash. The encumbrance rules pretty much make it certain they can't easily load up on seven-hundred items at once.

This isn't D&D, this is Star Wars. We don't see Han and Luke looting dead Stormtrooper gear on the Death Star.

To be fair, that's exactly what Luke and Han do in order to get the stormtrooper armor and blasters they use. We don't see them sell it because it's a movie and that's a boring logistical detail. Looting when you're victorious is both rewarding and something that's generally a given for any armed group that isn't incredibly well equipped. Now, I certainly agree that it'd be a huge pain to sell-off those goods, but (given the significant rule-set for negotiation, items and modding) there has to be some sort of credit generation for the PCs, and if it's not looting, then it's up to the GM to come up with some sort of solution to get the players their cash. The encumbrance rules pretty much make it certain they can't easily load up on seven-hundred items at once.

There's a difference between looting and grabbing a disguise for a mission. Han and Luke grab disguises. At no point do you see them looting through the 3 movies. We have 7 movies and none of it shows our heroes looting.

I've run several Star Wars games in addition to several non D&D games and all of that has taught me that PCs don't have to loot and a GM doesn't have to allow it if he doesn't like it.

Certainly you don't have to allow something if you don't like it; but unless there's a great cultural reason to do so, players will likely get grumpy.

We also don't see most characters eat, or anyone use the restroom, as that'd make for some very boring cinema. Looting is fun for players and serves a purpose. At the end of the day, you're in charge of your world, but it seems to me that it's unnecessarily restrictive to force players to act against their own best interests. As long as the rule book gives its own deterrent to doing this (through a combination of encumbrance and the huge reduction in sale price), I don't see a ton of mechanical advantage for you as GM here. Star Wars has always made no bones about the lack of funding that most characters have. Sure, a well-funded political character might not care so much about mundane weaponry for a few hundred credits, but for all scoundrels and poorly-equipped freedom fighters, looting makes sense in-character (to me).

1. You're occasionally going to get min maxers and that's fine if that's how they want to build their character assuming they have good rp reasons. If they're doing to "to win" though then just give them a friendly reminder that the best stealther in the world won't help if the people following him/her are bumbling fools or that occasionally the party wil get split up, etc. These aren't cheap tactics but simple realities of any rpg and they encourage players to broaden their stats as min maxing a single stay at creation pretty much leaves you terrible at a bunch of things and I'd say weaker overall than a more balanced character.

2. A couple notes, firstly force heal has the same limit as stun packs in that it can only effect a character 5 times per day and indeed these 5 times include stims and force heal together (with diminishing returns on the stims).

This said if time is a concern then not using dark side pips may mean you give your opponent time to catch up and thus there should be consequences for just trying till you get light side pips (what those are depends on why they don't have time to sit there) this said if time is not of any concern don't bog down the game with pointless rolling, just auto heal what they can, count it towards their uses per day and move along with the story.

3. Several things to consider, first gear is only sold for 25% of its normal value to a vendor (though it sells more the further from the core worlds you are, see rarity modifier rules). Second this is assuming the gear is new, used or somewhat damaged gear should sell for less. Third is the gear owned by a gang? The imperials? Etc, if so most merchants won't want anything to do with it and some may actually report the players to authorities or friends and finding someone who won't could be difficult and even less profitable as they reduce buy price to sell gear that could get them in trouble.

Lastly encumbrance could be a concern if time is a big deal (which usually around dead bodies it should be lest someone witness you taking the time to pilfer them).

As for cybernetics just no, those are customized for the individual and pretty useless for anyone else. Also note if any are force sensitive stripping dead bodies for cash is morally worth some conflict id say.

4. Auto Fire is quite powerful but keep in mind leadership rules with minion groups in the GM screen for age of rebellion (good pick up if you don't have it), with those a minion under command can take a hit for its leader making that bad guy suddenly a lot scarier if he brought a command squad with him. Second the player won't always produce such great results especially if the foe has nemesis and the smarts to use some cover or worse yet quickly engage melee with the player and corner them. Note perhaps if it's still a concern occasionally flipping a dark side pip to light to upgrade their difficulty and mitigate those rolls against your more powerful NPC's

5. These can be a bit tough and certainly knowing the character and player helps but some examples:

-Mercy/Weakness: A player defeats an enemy who survived but is disarmed and begs to be let go. They could show mercy of kill them just to be safe knowing letting them go could risk them coming back or warning other enemies of their approach making the rest of the immediate adventure more difficult at the cost of making a tough moral decision.

-Pride/Arrogance: A player is mocked or challenged but on a time limit, do they risk the well being of their mission or friends to prove themselves or suck it up and ignore the taunts?

Hmm, is there a summary of these Squad rules somewhere? I know someone posted a reference, but I've already had to buy 1 additional mostly-redundant book and get scalped by Amazon resellers for dice in order to run the game in the first place, I'm getting a bit tired of the financial chiseling. I take it the idea is that a Nemesis or Rival class opponent joins a group of Minions and adds their WT to their WT pool?

As for "they could call for backup and they get strafed by a TIE.." yes, whooptie-doo, the GM can kill the players. But it'd be nice to have a better solution than "if you do this stuff I don't like then rocks fall and everyone dies".

This aside calling in a tie fighter isn't a "be vindictive and kill the players" type moment, it's a common sense moment. You're talking about an adventure where it's been established there's an imperial base that's aware of some presence. It's not any remote stretch of the imagination that when those storm troopers encountered rebel forces (some potentially with lightsaber's) that they'd have the sense of mind to spend an incidental and call into the base. This means backup would be on its way which isn't to say it would arrive during the battle but it would mean the players couldn't just leasurily loot everything unless they wanted to take on whatever that back up is.

In other words the suggestion wasn't harsh it was simply pointing out there are realistic consequences to such actions and if you don't apply them then no wonder your having issues with the players.

Well, I tried running the adventure from Age of Rebellion this time and it went OK, although it didn't go anywhere near how I'd expect it to. The first section in the station took the majority of the time, with the players trying to conceal weapons as they walked around and one having their heavy blaster dismantled and stored in a toolbox to reassemble later. They did get in touch with the governor and managed to impress her into giving them a tour of the docking facilities for an imaginary trade deal, which they took advantage of when later sneaking back in.

Unfortunately the combat scenes continued to be damp squibs. They drove down the corridor on the skiff (thanks a bunch for not putting in a proper map of the ship, FFG), sometimes saw some loading crews, and autofired/lightsabered them in one round. The security detail from the hangar came in on a skiff, so the PCs shot the skiff and raced off faster than they could approach on foot. Come the end, they threatened their way onto the bridge and dropped the two officers in one round each. The adventure was silent on whether blasting the ship off from dock would result in a Zapp Brannigan style blast away from the cargo hold, trapping dockers in the closing hatch and depressurising the docks, so I supposed that wasn't meant to be a thing any more than worrying about depressurization is ever a thing in Star Wars. Two players did get hit once each, dealing criticals, which had no meaningful effect.

But I think I am sharing the problem of the GM who had the players argue a Hutt out of his palace - there's no clear way of dealing with difficulty of opposed rolls. If they're rolling Negotiate and the other guy is rolling Cool/Negotiate there's no space to allow for what they're negotiating for and how difficult it might be for the other guy to provide. Now, I seem to think the idea is that you don't say what you're negotiating for - as in, you can't say "I argue for him to give up his palace, that's what I'm trying to do so on one success I get it" any more than you can say "I try to shoot him for 20 points of damage, that's what I'm trying to do so on one success I get it", but it's hard to actually RP the negotiation without them ending up saying something about exactly what they are negotiating for!

Also, can I clarify if Linked allows you to hit several members of a minion group? The words say it must be "the same target", which would presumably mean only one member, capping the damage at a single minion's wound threshold - but at the same time the minion rules say they are attacked as a group, so I assumed they could use Linked to attack several of the group.

Certainly you don't have to allow something if you don't like it; but unless there's a great cultural reason to do so, players will likely get grumpy.

Actually, it has been my experience that most players don't get grumpy about the issue. You can even ween D&D players off of looting if you want to. Players don't get grumpy if you don't let them loot, no looting occurs in the current D&D game I'm involved in and everyone in that game is having a blast. Unless they are in the game for the sole purpose of looting. But I find that to be rare.

Well, I tried running the adventure from Age of Rebellion this time and it went OK, although it didn't go anywhere near how I'd expect it to. The first section in the station took the majority of the time, with the players trying to conceal weapons as they walked around and one having their heavy blaster dismantled and stored in a toolbox to reassemble later. They did get in touch with the governor and managed to impress her into giving them a tour of the docking facilities for an imaginary trade deal, which they took advantage of when later sneaking back in.

Unfortunately the combat scenes continued to be damp squibs. They drove down the corridor on the skiff (thanks a bunch for not putting in a proper map of the ship, FFG), sometimes saw some loading crews, and autofired/lightsabered them in one round. The security detail from the hangar came in on a skiff, so the PCs shot the skiff and raced off faster than they could approach on foot. Come the end, they threatened their way onto the bridge and dropped the two officers in one round each. The adventure was silent on whether blasting the ship off from dock would result in a Zapp Brannigan style blast away from the cargo hold, trapping dockers in the closing hatch and depressurising the docks, so I supposed that wasn't meant to be a thing any more than worrying about depressurization is ever a thing in Star Wars. Two players did get hit once each, dealing criticals, which had no meaningful effect.

But I think I am sharing the problem of the GM who had the players argue a Hutt out of his palace - there's no clear way of dealing with difficulty of opposed rolls. If they're rolling Negotiate and the other guy is rolling Cool/Negotiate there's no space to allow for what they're negotiating for and how difficult it might be for the other guy to provide. Now, I seem to think the idea is that you don't say what you're negotiating for - as in, you can't say "I argue for him to give up his palace, that's what I'm trying to do so on one success I get it" any more than you can say "I try to shoot him for 20 points of damage, that's what I'm trying to do so on one success I get it", but it's hard to actually RP the negotiation without them ending up saying something about exactly what they are negotiating for!

Also, can I clarify if Linked allows you to hit several members of a minion group? The words say it must be "the same target", which would presumably mean only one member, capping the damage at a single minion's wound threshold - but at the same time the minion rules say they are attacked as a group, so I assumed they could use Linked to attack several of the group.

For the combat part, I would start using the same tactics they are using against their opponents. Sooooo the enemy opens up with auto fire on their skiff two and sends it crashing down. I would likely increase the number of minion groups. I wouldn't bunch them up. I would spread them out and force the PC's to move around a bit to deal with them. Lightsabres are deadly, you need to start putting in people who know how to counter a lightsabre. Beginning characters aren't going to be good at reflect. Toss in long range snipers to pin down the lighsabre character. Keep him moving from cover to cover so that he's not easily mowed down by autofire. When they bunch up use autofire on them to keep them spread out and thinking. Make sure there is cover. Have NPC's strategically move from cover to cover. This will help them survive autofire.

Things of that nature should help with combat.

For social roles, in opposed roles give the NPC's similar stats to them. That will help in making it harder. Have the PC's give a general idea of what they want to acheive, then roll the dice and then use what turns up in the dice pool to establish what actually happens. If what they are asking to do seems terribly unlikely toss in Challenge dice instead of difficulty. So to use the Hutt, a Hutt wouldn't negotiate away his palace. If a PC were attempting that I would toss in at least one Red die. I would also consider adding blue dice to the NPC or black dice to the PC based on how unlikely I think the situation is to be. Sadly social rolls are sometimes hard to give hard and fast difficulties for because what you're asking for will have bearing on how difficult. In this system there aren't tables for this stuff as it becomes easier for a GM to raise or lower the difficulty if there isn't a hard and fast table.

A lot of this comes down to play experience though. Use those black dice. Use those red dice.

As for Linked and minions, you can active it against minions. It just applies the damage to the group a second time.

But I think I am sharing the problem of the GM who had the players argue a Hutt out of his palace - there's no clear way of dealing with difficulty of opposed rolls. If they're rolling Negotiate and the other guy is rolling Cool/Negotiate there's no space to allow for what they're negotiating for and how difficult it might be for the other guy to provide. Now, I seem to think the idea is that you don't say what you're negotiating for - as in, you can't say "I argue for him to give up his palace, that's what I'm trying to do so on one success I get it" any more than you can say "I try to shoot him for 20 points of damage, that's what I'm trying to do so on one success I get it", but it's hard to actually RP the negotiation without them ending up saying something about exactly what they are negotiating for!

As the GM you'll have to determine the final difficulty, what the game provides is generally the base, a starting point. You can increase, upgrade, and setback as needed if appropriate. You're also allowed to say No. If there's a line you know the NPC isn't gonna cross, you don't have to allow the players to attempt to get him to cross it. If it's a line you think he might cross if the players say something truly miraculous, you can allow an "impossible" check...

You are right though, the game runs a little better if they keep their intentions more broad/vague and then use the results to generate the narrative. There's nothing wrong with trying to roll for something specific of course, but doing so just gives the GM fuel to increase the difficulty....

Also, can I clarify if Linked allows you to hit several members of a minion group? The words say it must be "the same target", which would presumably mean only one member, capping the damage at a single minion's wound threshold - but at the same time the minion rules say they are attacked as a group, so I assumed they could use Linked to attack several of the group.

Linked essentially works like auto-fire, just without all the futsy parts about increasing difficulty and such. You attack, and can spend 2 advantage to hit an additional time.

In the case of a minion group activating linked allows a second hit on the group so the damage would roll over just as if you'd shot them twice.

Remember that Minion grouping is essentially a trick to allow you to represent a lot of low level NPCs using the mechanics of a single rival-type character. So most times when you attack a minion group they count as one single "target" no matter how many minions are in the group. The only exception would be things that actually a specific set of characters, like Blast.

To clarify a little about the Hutt palace situation, the game started with the group trying to figure out why Sand People were carefully destroying moisure tools for a bunch of farmers. This lead to talking to Hutt reps and meeting a mysterious figure. In order to get an audience with said Hutt (Cupcake) I (as in me) offered our Republic Cruiser (tri engine style from Clone Wars, not sure of the proper name) plus the small compliment of soldiers for merely meeting with us we then landed said cruiser on his front patio. In part to not realizing there ARE Hutt stats in the F&D Core book and the fact this guy is gonna land military grade hardware from the Republic, and my dice roll for deception was EFFING awesome! This lead to (in theory) softening him up for accepting a VERY well written contract. Additionally immedately after said contract was handed over and approved (the purple dice favored me this day severely the probability of how good a roll it was, was really low) the mysterious figure ran off with our Artisan in persuit and found to be a Dark side adept. As of now the rest of the party is unaware of this and as Hutts are long lived he is likely pissed but hey, what's 45 or so years to a dude who will live around 1,000.

What was semi-undecided​ at the time is what the contract actually said, as in the palace is mine buuuut you can stay there and be a front as well as a base of operations IF we need it (after this we're going to fast forward to Order 66), aaaand the Hutt may get grumpy in the mean time since it will be a couple to handful of years which can present problems when one isn't around to enforce said contract. This can still go pretty horribly for our group depending on additional dice rolls.

Ghostofman, that's the issue - if it's an opposed roll the GM doesn't set the difficulty, it's just determined by the opposition skill+stat. And one of the sidebars states that the GM should never upgrade dice unless a rule specifically allows them to, so once it's difficulty 5, that's it.

As for combat - I like the ideas, but I'm just running what's in the adventures. Splitting up does seem to be a good idea but it's a bit difficult with the range bands - in most close environments the largest range they'll get is Short; I presume that prevents using the squad maneuvers, and working out how 4 people can all be Short range from each other in a small area can be a bit complicated!

Ghostofman, that's the issue - if it's an opposed roll the GM doesn't set the difficulty, it's just determined by the opposition skill+stat. And one of the sidebars states that the GM should never upgrade dice unless a rule specifically allows them to, so once it's difficulty 5, that's it.

As for combat - I like the ideas, but I'm just running what's in the adventures. Splitting up does seem to be a good idea but it's a bit difficult with the range bands - in most close environments the largest range they'll get is Short; I presume that prevents using the squad maneuvers, and working out how 4 people can all be Short range from each other in a small area can be a bit complicated!

As for combat you just pointed out your problem in that you're unwilling to adjust the adventures for your PC's. The premades are not a catch all challenge that will work for every party as groups are going to vary wildly from gear, to skills, to talents to how much exp they've spent etc and thus you should almost never just go flat off what's written in one with 0 alterations ESPECIALLY in your situation where you're complaining that your players aren't being challenged enough. Why on earth ask for advice if you're just going to go with what's written and not alter anything? We can't help you much if that's what you're going to do.

Now given what you should change and how much you should do it (increasing/decreasing stats, adding/removing minions, altering what gear they carry, etc) is something you'll learn with time but you need to be willing to adjust things, this isn't cheap (unless you go way overboard) it's keeping the adventure exciting and challenging as a GM who doesn't challenge the players at all is nearly as bad as one who just makes everything an attempted party whipe.

Hmm.. the thing is, I don't mind tweaking the adventure, but it seems really hard to balance it right in a way that makes sense. Like, in the AoR sample adventure a key point is that there isn't that much trouble on board that station and so the Imperials aren't that worried or alert anymore, and aren't top-end troops. If I suddenly decide those troops are going to be armed with autofiring heavy blasters then that means security is much higher than it is described as being and they'd be many more issues (like the PCs being patted down and searched in advance) that could stop the PCs having weapons at all, and then it wouldn't make sense that the Rebels had sent newbies on that mission.. basically, the PCs having ridiculously powerful weapons is a big Unicorn problem.

Hiya hyphz,

I think that you're doing a great job running the campaign.

Certainly more fun than a campaign where we don't get any loot and everything we do is wrong and we get eaten by a white dragon... (Sorry, still bitter over HOTDQ).

My character is uber awesome and with my amazing double brained conehead abilities is able to make up for the stupidity of my less able comrades. (See, I'm even roleplaying arrogant on the forums. ). Only mistake I've maybe made is that I went for healer rather than the INT based Jedi class. On the bright side, 20 more xp and I get 6 dice on every single INT related roll. Boom!

Jug-Si, the PRE 5 female Twilek does a great job distracting guards with her amazing charisma and what she can get up to with her head tentacles... And soon she will have 5 dice light saber skill by following the way of the PRE Jedi.

Brawny, the BRA 5 guy is great at taking loads of dakka with his soak of 7, and being too obstinate to let me build his light saber with my superior intellect. He just shanks everybody with his vibro knife. More roleplay right there.

Then we've got Mr Agility, of the Agility race, who is really good at pick pocketing, shooting and flying. He also serves an interesting part in the party, mainly shooting people dead with his pimped up heavy blaster. But he can slice people up real good as well with his twin blade light saber following the way of the AG Jedi.

And, finally, Mr WIL, whose job is to warn us of impending ambushes so that Mr Agility can blow the bad guys to bits first. He follows the way of the WIL Jedi for more phat 5 dice light saber antics (Of which 3 are yellow...)

All we lack is a cunning Jedi, which was amusing as almost all of the checks for the scenario were cunning based. Luckily we muddled through.

Only thing I think hyphz may have done wrong was give us too much cash for the 15 looted heavy blasters.

Also, question for the forum guys: We yoinked the bionic arm of the big bad at end of first mission. We got 4 conflict for that. But why? I'm sure they'll give him another one. And it's not like we offed him or anything. Seemed a wee bit harsh to me. Especially funny as it was my idea but I got +1 light side that adventure and everybody else slipped back...

Gaz

Ok dude I'm not sure you want our help. You find a reason to not do most of the advice. At the end of the day it falls upon you to make it more challenging. Most of these adventures are written with beginning characters in mind and must be adjusted to fit the group. If your group is freezing past the challenges then you either make it more challenging or don't.

But you have to want to make changes. Right now it sounds like you don't. If that's the case we can't help you.

I don't mind making it more challenging. What I mind is it becoming nuclear war. If I give the bad guys heavy blasters then not only is it weird IC, but if they win initiative they'll drop a PC. I mean, I have no clue how combat with Inquisitors is supposed to go. Obviously they're much higher level than the PCs are now but a good hit from one will tear a PC in half and there isn't that much which increases WT (with Soak being largely irrelevant)

I don't mind making it more challenging. What I mind is it becoming nuclear war. If I give the bad guys heavy blasters then not only is it weird IC, but if they win initiative they'll drop a PC. I mean, I have no clue how combat with Inquisitors is supposed to go. Obviously they're much higher level than the PCs are now but a good hit from one will tear a PC in half and there isn't that much which increases WT (with Soak being largely irrelevant)

You and I have drastically different ideas on what conditions constitute a nuclear war. But I can assure you that giving the bad guys heavy blasters isn't that. And most of us hardly consider it weird for enemies to be armed with a heavy blaster.

Also .... PC's are obviously to low to be facing an Inquisitor. So don't toss one at them till they're more powerful. If you do use one then the purpose of the fight should be escape. Remember not all fights the PC's engage in are meant to be fights they are supposed to win. The occasional battle where they need to retreat is fine and builds tension in the story.

Use those creative juices. They may not even heavily manned if it's the first time they're encountering the PCs but if they had a patrol find them in the caves or a droid catch them heavily armored then by all means they can respond with greater force of what's there instead of a patrol squad. Also this doesn't have to be "nuclear war", simply adding more minions gives the encounter more longevity without providing to much killing power or better yet again use he environment, have the troopers take some hard cover behind rocks or walls, have a sandstorm rip through the canyon, those sand troopers should be used to that kind of thing and have gear to ignore it meaning your players now have 3-4 setback or worse to negate those advantages of hits entirely.

Also if they all get knocked out they won't likely just kill them but take them into custody leading to a whole knew part of the adventure. Point is you're the GM you have litterally everything at your disposal and are only limited by your imagination you've been given a plethora of good suggestions to solve your problems if you refuse to use them then you are your only problem.

The nuclear war issue is that if the enemy has a heavy blaster then whoever gets the highest Initiative roll kills the opponent. Neither enemies nor PCs can take a couple rounds of autofire.

I guess I'm just a bit confused at how combats are supposed to run - many seem to be over in 1-2 rounds which doesn't really convey the Star Wars feel.

What is "Star Wars feel" to you?

There are very few fights that aren't over very fast, unless more opponents show up. IMHO

Which is why you also don't have them fight in an open space where heavy blaster auto fire can be employed. You hit them with heavy blaster to make them sweat. You provide them with cover and things to hide behind so that they don't die right away. You increase the number of minions in a group so that they can survive autofire. You toss rivals at them who lead those groups. You toss more bad guys at them so that it's not as easy as whoever has the highest init kills. Minions rules were made to soak up damage. Don't bunch the NPC's up. Spread them out. Include environmental hazards to make things harder. I've gone against rivals with heavy blaster with beginning PC's and survived. It's not the end all of a situation.

But most importantly you have to get creative if the PC's are breezing through these fights.

Also rounds last for about a minute. So a 1 to 4 round fight is 1 to 4 minutes in game.

Get creative. Toss the environment at them. Start making them think outside their normal tactics. Use their tactics against them. If they are flying above blowing stuff up, have someone blow up their skiff. Toss a sandstorm at them. Have the minions call for back up. Have back up come from different directions. Don't bunch up the NPC's. This is really important.

But also ....heavy blasters aren't the end all be all. Even when used against PC's. Hell being hit by one may make them sweat a bit as they realize this fight won't be easy for them. I have a simple rule for PC's when I GM, never introduce a tactic into the game you don't want used against you. IE if my players start abusing a tactic I turn the tables around and have that same tactic used against them. If they are always resorting to autofire to mow down opposition the opposition starts doing the same. This keeps them from relying on the same old tricks but it also keeps them from exploiting the game. They know that if they start to exploit the game then they are subject to the same outcome. If they fight fair, I fight fair. If they fight dirty, I fight dirty.

And if a tactic is just being to problematic I ask them to stop as it's ruining my fun as the GM. Never forget that they are supposed to be your friends and if you come to them and ask them to knock off with the constant auto fire that they may agree so that they keep the game fun. Let them know that if all they are going to do is sit there and hit autofire you'll have to resort to the same to give them a challenge and to make the fights last longer than 1 round.

Like if you simply do not want to employ our advice then you're left with either talking to them like they're adults, and reasonable ones at that, or you kinda just have to endure.

The nuclear war issue is that if the enemy has a heavy blaster then whoever gets the highest Initiative roll kills the opponent. Neither enemies nor PCs can take a couple rounds of autofire.

I guess I'm just a bit confused at how combats are supposed to run - many seem to be over in 1-2 rounds which doesn't really convey the Star Wars feel.

First off you can't always use them they're large bulky attention getters and in cities or other such areas your bound to be confronted by authority with heavier fire power when you're reported. Second again you're assuming that they not only win innitiative but also hit and generate a good number of advantages a problem already remedied by handing out reasonable amounts of setback dice from the environment or others actions/cover let alone simply just adding more enemy targets.

Again you seem to be showing you have a problem and you don't want to solve it, you've been given the fixes and you always have an excuse to ignore them.

The nuclear war issue is that if the enemy has a heavy blaster then whoever gets the highest Initiative roll kills the opponent. Neither enemies nor PCs can take a couple rounds of autofire.

I guess I'm just a bit confused at how combats are supposed to run - many seem to be over in 1-2 rounds which doesn't really convey the Star Wars feel.

While it sounds like you might be making the occasional typical oopsie it sounds like you at least have all the basics down. I'm partially suspecting that part of the problem is just the min/max issue in full focus. An Agility 5 character with 3-4 ranks in ranged heavy and a light repeater is, for the purposes of combat encounter design, a high level character. But outside of that he's still pretty n00bish, making GMing really hard as you have to custom design all your encounters to really do a lot to challenge him in Agility related areas, but outside of that stick to more typical scales of difficulty. Factor in the 5 Brawn and 5 Int guy and, between the three of them they have a lot of the brute-force bases covered.

Could you please:

Post the player stats? I think they need a good look over, just to ensure it's all on the level.

Give us a short rundown of a combat encounter? I just want to see what you're throwing at them and how they are handling it.

Well, that really comes into another question which is that I could use some help making gunfights interesting. I totally get the idea of using cover and the environment but that's really hard for me to manage when there's no maps of the areas and given the abstracted range rulings (it hurts my head a bit working out triangulations between enemies especially). If a PC says "well, I find some cover" it's hard for me to ever refuse if there's not a map, but as I understand it it only adds one setback die to attack?

For the characters:

1: Sullustan Seeker->Ataru Striker 2/5/2/1/2/2 Athletics 1 Lightsaber 1 Piloting (both) 1 Ranged Heavy 1, Jump Up, Ataru Technique, Parry 2, Reflect 1, Saber Swarm, Heavy Blaster Rifle w/Weapon Harness, Laminate Armor, Rubat/Ilum Double-bladed Lightsaber w/Curved Hilt and Triumph rolled during building for -1 Enc (is there a way to represent that in OggDude's program?). He is over Enc by 1 point because he swapped to Double Bladed Lightsaber from regular Saber without checking but we're fixing that next session. This guy ends most combats in 1 round.

2: Nautolan Guardian->Protector 5/2/2/2/1/2 Athletics 2 Cool 1 Mechanics 1 Melee 3 Resilience 1 Vigilance 1, Toughened 1, Force Protection, Center of Being, Padded Armor w/Mono-molectular edge w/Serrated edge.

3: Cerean Consular->Healer 2/1/5/2/2/2 Cool 1 Discipline 1 Lore 1 Medicine 1 Vigilance 1, Surgeon, Healing Trance, Physician, Force Heal Basic Power, Rubat/Ilum Lightsaber w/Critical Reduction mod free from self building. Outside of combat this guy is probably the sillest one of the lot - because there seem to be no untrained skill rules, Intellect 5 means he just mysteriously knows everything about everything! I think he's made every Knowledge roll so far in spite of having ranks in only 1 of the skills (and I'm not sure he knew he had that because it was down on his sheet as "Law")

4: Twilek Mystic->Makashi Duelist 1/2/2/2/2/5 Charm 3 Lightsaber 1 Perception 1 Vigilance 1, Resist Disarm, Makashi Technique, Duelist's Training, Parry 1, Ilum/Rubat Lightsaber unmodified.

5: Kel Dor Consular->Niman Disciple 1/2/2/2/5/2 Vigilance 2 Cool 1 Discipline 1 Education 1 Leadership 1 Lightsaber 1 Negotiation 1, Nobody's Fool, Niman Technique, Ilum/Rubat Lightsaber unmodified.

So far the typical combat goes:

- Everyone rolls initiative

- Char. 5 uses yyggg to win initiative and gives his slot to Char. 1 (yes, Char 5 is basically an initiative canary)
- Char. 1 autofires heavy blaster with ygggg and autofires to kill a minion group or rival/nemesis in one hit

- In a significant number of the given encounters that's all there is, but if not 2 will charge in

Well, that really comes into another question which is that I could use some help making gunfights interesting. I totally get the idea of using cover and the environment but that's really hard for me to manage when there's no maps of the areas and given the abstracted range rulings (it hurts my head a bit working out triangulations between enemies especially). If a PC says "well, I find some cover" it's hard for me to ever refuse if there's not a map, but as I understand it it only adds one setback die to attack?

Do a rough sketch then. This game works on the theatre of the mind and that works great for some people. But if you need a visual then do some pregame prep and sketch out the battlefield in advance so you know where cover is. The range band thing is gotten around with by not trying to sketch it to scale. A general idea of what is where and about how far it is from other objects is enough.

Don't let the fact that FFG didn't provide a map stop you from drawing a map if you need one. They have a different vision for their game but that vision isn't going to work for all and if it doesn't work for you you'll need to make adjustments yourself.

Also your PC's look to be glass cannons. They are great in one thing and that one thing only. Start hitting them where they are weak. Make minion groups larger so they can soak up auto fire. Toss in more minion groups and spread them out. Also don't reveal all the bad guys at once. Have back up arrive after the autofire is layed down. Have it come from different directions. Have bad guys get in the face of the ranged guy meanwhile keep people at range and behind cover to deal with the melee guy.

Or .... ask them to restat more balanced characters. I can not stress this enough but if the way they are gaming is making things to hard for you you need to sit down and tell them so and explain all the ways in which they are making the game harder for your to GM for and thus less fun.

Well, that really comes into another question which is that I could use some help making gunfights interesting. I totally get the idea of using cover and the environment but that's really hard for me to manage when there's no maps of the areas and given the abstracted range rulings (it hurts my head a bit working out triangulations between enemies especially). If a PC says "well, I find some cover" it's hard for me to ever refuse if there's not a map, but as I understand it it only adds one setback die to attack?

Don't let the fact that FFG didn't provide a map stop you from drawing a map if you need one. They have a different vision for their game but that vision isn't going to work for all and if it doesn't work for you you'll need to make adjustments yourself.

Also your PC's look to be glass cannons. They are great in one thing and that one thing only. Start hitting them where they are weak. Make minion groups larger so they can soak up auto fire. Toss in more minion groups and spread them out. Also don't reveal all the bad guys at once. Have back up arrive after the autofire is layed down. Have it come from different directions. Have bad guys get in the face of the ranged guy meanwhile keep people at range and behind cover to deal with the melee guy.

Or .... ask them to restat more balanced characters. I can not stress this enough but if the way they are gaming is making things to hard for you you need to sit down and tell them so and explain all the ways in which they are making the game harder for your to GM for and thus less fun.

Cool, but ok, how is it supposed to work within the vision of the game? I get there are other ways to do it but at the same time I'd like to know what the original intent was. If it involves the players acting differently then, well, how should they change their approach?

The problem with range bands is that even if we're just going with Theater of the Mind, any room more complex than a flat circular room only a few metres in radius runs the risk of at least one Medium range band existing inside it and this becomes very difficult to define if things aren't more precise. Most TOTM games use semantic or perception based ranged bands but SW invokes numbers of meters and thus still uses geometric ones.