So I understand the rules (mostly) and I've played the beginner game and taken onboard advice on where to go next adventure wise, but I was wondering if anyone had any tips for a new GM?

What are the key elements that make a game fun and enjoyable for the players?

I know it is an open ended question, but I really want to GM and do it well for a mixed group of players ranging from those who have never played an RPG to those that have played before.

When you want to bump the difficulty of a check, reach for setback dice first. They aren't as punishing as adding more difficulty dice, so you have more granular control over the players' chances of success. Plus, some specializations have talents that negate setback dice, so if you're always reaching for more difficulty dice, those talents go to waste (What, my Mechanic? Bitter? Heavens no).

Best tip? Understand the way the funny dice work. That takes a bit of practise, but they really are a great tool when you get used to them.

Many role-players fall into the D&D style binary of pass/fail, but these dice allow for all kinds of outcomes, and encourage the player to narrate what actually just happened.

Get a good understanding of how they work, it's the key to having a fun game with this system.

Oh, and tailor the adventures to your players. If they have a pilot, make sure you include vehicle combat, if you have someone good at diplomacy, ensure there are social encounters. Jedi types should have moral choices that tie into their Morality. Be aware of their Obligation or Duty and make that a part of your story, too.

Also ask them what they expect and what kinds of things they enjoy doing. Getting them on board is very important. You all want to be working together to tell a cool story, not arguing with each other.

Don't over think scenarios and create story pathways that are on a rigid set of rails. Let things unfold as the PCs come up with their ideas, no matter how goofy, and just play through it with the dice falling where they may.

Use the dice. As an example I'm not a fan of giving PCs 4 different doors to try and unlock so they have 4 chances to roll a success, I'd rather just let them through the door with a bad roll indicating the goat rodeo is about to commence.

Create realistic scenarios, as in, it's not realistic for people to go stomping around all the time carrying military grade crew served weapons. You aren't going to be able to carry weapons into a great many places, or at least not big ones that can't be concealed.

Opposed social interaction rolls are fun, so use them.

Know the rules, and in particular the equipment and the weapons. There are plenty of options for dealing with the PC who wants to create the video game avatar who is nothing but a weapon with a name.

I would have a moment with your players before starting your next game. Explicitly state what it is that you want from this game, and listen to what it is that they want from this game. It's a small, subtle step that's often skipped, but it helps everyone get on the same page.

After that, you can start making plans that will be able to meet everyone's expectations.

In addition to the above, there is a Game Masters subforum in this forum, with a lot of good stuff in it.

Understand the vehicle combat rules aren't meant to be a tabletop tactical simulator. They are meant to encourage role playing. A great deal of what tabletop players have come to expect their vehicles to be able to do is included in the various Pilot and Pilot-esque specs. That is an intentional design decision.

There are many checks, many PCs could do, but you need to include all aspects to make that happen. Incorporate jamming of Comms and Missiles, ships with lotsa turrets and such so everyone can be on a gun or something. Things breaking narratively requiring an Engineer to "hold it together". Fires breaking out that need to be extinguished, etc.

The vehicle combat rules are open and interpretive by design, they aren't specific. Stellar phenomena and Chase rules should be incorporated into your combats to help flesh out the feel. If you exclude them it is just rolling dice for gun shots quickly and feels boring.

Understand the two dimensional (four if you count Despair/Triumph) axes of the dice. There's some interplay between them, but not a lot. Success/failure is mostly binary, advantage/threat is logarithmic (Despair/Triumph is discrete).

Accept that the players will have more control over the game than most other systems: spending a DP to "remember" an item or introduce a fact being top among them.

Additionally, in this game more than almost any other I've played, failing forward is expected. Just because an attempt (outside of combat) fails, doesn't mean that the group necessarily fails to accomplish their goal. A "failed" Skulduggery check can still open a door. It could also trigger the alarm, open up to a room full of guards, or any other wacky ideas you might have.

Don't allow rolls related to essential tasks. If it needs to happen for plot, then it happens. The roll only influences how beneficial/detrimental its occurrence is to the party. Rolls should be related to things that aren't absolutely necessary to the story: the how, not the what (e.g. going in through the door rather than the window or blowing a hole in the wall).

On that note, there need to be multiple methods to progress to the next stage of the adventure. If the party runs out of ways forward, then there needs to be at least one more way of progressing (mine the players for ideas if you have to).

And, yes, there's an entire forum dedicated to this stuff with lots of threads that reiterate all of the above points (in my post and in others). Take a few hours going through them and you'll find it time well spent.

So I understand the rules (mostly) and I've played the beginner game and taken onboard advice on where to go next adventure wise, but I was wondering if anyone had any tips for a new GM?

What are the key elements that make a game fun and enjoyable for the players?

I know it is an open ended question, but I really want to GM and do it well for a mixed group of players ranging from those who have never played an RPG to those that have played before.

Improvise, improvise, improvise.

You're going to have a map in your head of how the game is going to go, and inevitably the players will wander off the edge. That's okay so long as you're ready to scribble a new one underneath them as they walk off into the uncharted, and it can actually lead to some interesting developments that surprise even you.

The best way to do this is to have a lot of free-floating elements--locales, characters, events, etc--which aren't tied down to a specific plot event and can be tossed in as needed. Come up with a cool bounty hunter character who can pursue the players if they do something illegal. Draft up a starport town in the middle of nowhere they might wander into. Better yet, take the elements you already have waiting in the wings for whatever plot you've prepared and repurpose them: they didn't cross paths with the Inquisitor because they didn't break into the Imperial Base, so instead he comes after them when a Jedi artifact falls into their lap.

At the end of each session make sure you've got notes on all the major events that happened, with enough little details so that you can take that and modify your game to suit it. Change the trajectory based on where the players seem to be headed rather than trying to forcibly course-correct them back to where you want.

Thanks all, this is great will take a look at the sub forum. I like the idea of flexibility with the story and letting the players do what they want it sounds cool to me.

Well, I was going to comment, but it looks like everything has been covered. nohero, you're in good hands.