I GM'd my first RPG ever last night and felt like I may have gone a little too combat heavy with the opening of the game. It started out good with the pc's trying to escape a jail cell but once they escaped and started moving through the base the game seemed to get a little bogged down in the combat. They had around 3 encounters getting to their ship and then once they got to their ship they had a battle with some tie fighters. By the time they got to the fighters it seemed like only the pilot was really that engaged. How many encounters do you normally put in a single :dungeon" ?

I'm also using the dice app and wasn't really sure how I should be involving players in the rolling so I ended up making almost all of the rolls. Maybe that had something to do with the combat not being too engaging to them.

That's like asking how high is 'up'? It really depends on the game and the story I'm trying to tell. Some sessions we go the entire time without touching the dice let alone raising a blaster in anger and some sessions it's nothing but fight-fight-fight!

You really have to develop your sense as a GM on how your players are doing and what their interest levels are. Nobody can tell you this for you.

I typically script no more than 2 potential combat encounters into a session. Whether they actually end in combat is another thing entirely -- that's up to the PCs.

On top of this, there are plenty of opportunities for unscripted encounters. These are harder to quantify, and are even more behaviour-triggered than the scripted encounters. For example, mouthing off to drunken bar patrons, doing something conspicuous that gets them noticed by an Imperial patrol, or spectacularly failing a roll.

All told, my PCs will usually encounter 2-3 combat situations per session. Not all of these are full pitched battles: some are quick and dirty.

EDIT: There's not much science behind my reasoning for these numbers, which are a bit on the low side -- except that my group are "heavy RPers", and less interested in combat than I think some other groups I've GMd for.

Just my opinion but you gotta let the players roll their own bones. It gives them a tactile element, a physical investment in their success or failure. Otherwise it just seems like 'story telling'. Ive debated about using the Dice app as it does speed up interpretation but boy, it sure loses something in the atmosphere dept.

Sort of like the difference between using PDFs of your rulebooks. Handy? Sure. Searchable? Obviously. More efficient? Probably, but you just cant beat the look of all those books on your shelf or the feel and smell of the pages when your flipping through them.

That's another 'how long is a piece of string' question. But it sounds like too many. Might be best if you don't think in terms of 'dungeon' too. You don't get XP from fighting, so there's no need for grinding a la D&D/Pathfinder. For the most part, the PCs don't want to get bogged down in needless fights, as they don't have the same reasons (loot, XP) as in other games.

I really try not to let fights last too long. In the movies, fights seem pretty quick and the action keeps moving. Try to make them a little bit different - not everyone fights to the death. When the cause seems lost, have half the survivors drop back or run away. Maybe call for a Coercion check, so a PC (a roaring wookiee or something?) might scare them off. Thugs and even stormtroopers might want to live to fight another day. When you've seen most of your buddies have their arms torn off by an angry Trandoshan, or launched into a wall head-first at terminal velocity by a Force adept, they might decide discretion is the better part of valour.

Or have a PC make a Perception check, spot an alley for a getaway, then turn the battle into a chase. You see that a lot in pulp movies. Doing these things stops the players getting bored, and also challenges their other skills and talents. (For example, in a ship battle, you need a pilot, someone manning the various guns, and someone making repairs).

Also, look at page 323 of the EOE book - one-check resolution combat. When a battle is clearly going to be won and it's just a case of rolling dice, you can call for one check to finish it all off in a cinematic way. This REALLY cuts down on grindy combats, and makes it feel more like a movie.

Lastly... I admit to my loathing of I-phones and 'apps', but as an old lady gamer, NOTHING beats the feel of rolling dice. Put the tech toys away and roll dem bones! And yes, involve the players - they should absolutely be rolling dice for their own checks, every time. The funny shaped dice are your friend - interpreting them will make your fights better (Maybe allies show up on a few Advantages, or the foes get orders to drop back on a Threat, or something).

(And later on, you can find Signature Abilities are great for this... One of the Hired Gun ones - Last Man Standing - kills off everything that's not a Nemesis, and there's a Diplomat one that turns a physical fight into a social encounter...)

p. 323 EoE CRB alternative rules for GMs suggests one check combat resolution. It's suggested as a means to resolve combats where victory is a foregone conclusion for the PCs, but I've started using it to just incorporate more combat into a session without taking up a lot of table time. It's very narrative in that PCs describe their skill and its application in resolving the combat. I am using it as a means to add a higher level of resource stress to them as they advance.

p. 323 EoE CRB alternative rules for GMs suggests one check combat resolution.

Ninja'd ye, me pirate hearty!

Arrr....

I really try not to let fights last too long. In the movies, fights seem pretty quick and the action keeps moving.

That's the thing that's easy to forget - fights don't last all that long in this system. I've noticed that they will last 4 or 5 turns in my games. When I did the Narrate that Saber Fight thread, I think the longest one was 6 rounds. A massive, dice rolling epic of 20-30 turns is WAAAAAY outside the scope of what should be this game, especially when you start throwing in narrative effects on the battlefield.

Yeah, something like a proper Saber duel - a set-piece like the Maul fight in Phantom Menace - is an exception, really, when you need a detailed battle to end a story.

(and hiya Haley - I see you lurking! Soak up the wisdom from the oldsters, huh? )

In this system? Anywhere from nothing at all to a whole lot! That goes for entire campaigns, not just single sessions.

This is all assuming that your group is new to the game and system. I think for a group playing the system for the first time a GM should do something similar to the beginners game. For example you start off in a situation that lets the players test various skills, in your example it could be the actual breaking out of the prison cells. Then you quickly move on to a combat encounter, in your case would probably be them fighting into the hanger bay to get a ship and get out. Now in the beginners game, you kind of open the game up to the group, but have them needing certain things from certain NPCs in the game world, so they still kind of have a focus to what they are doing. In your game it would need to be a space battle with the tie fighters, so it would jump from ground combat to space, so in that cause I'd probably make the space combat be pretty short. Maybe 2 or 3 tie fighters go after them. So in all, I'd probably have done maybe 2 to 3 encounters for the whole prison break. There is nothing wrong with doing a lot more with that, but if it is a new group who is still learning the system, having them fight through every inch of the prison to escape I think would mess up the flow, and give it a harder learning curve.

Also, you need the dice, or if you are using the app, you need to at least let them input the dice and roll for their characters. What makes this game truly different from other systems is the dice, and if you are rolling for them, then you are taking away half the fun!

Right now, getting the dice can be difficult but I'd recommend picking up the different beginners games. Each one comes with a set of dice and has tokens that you can use as you please for different encounters. Plus running them through those would be a lot of fun and great learning experience for both you and the group.

Also don't forget those NPCs all have motivations. And I am pretty sure get dead is not one of them. At some point they are going to go I am not paid enough to do this and if I am dead I cannot spend my pay. So bye. I am outa here. Of course you get to also decide who actually died. Bring back that rival later with a new cyber limb and a grudge. The most important thing to look at as far as combat goes is are the players having fun. Are they excited by it? Or are they going another fight??? again??? sigh...

Reading your table... it is a skill you as the GM need to learn to do. If they look bored you need to figure out why and change to something else. Learn what they like. Learn what they don't like. Do what they like. avoid what they don't like. And the tricky part is every player likes different things.

This is all assuming that your group is new to the game and system. I think for a group playing the system for the first time a GM should do something similar to the beginners game. For example you start off in a situation that lets the players test various skills, in your example it could be the actual breaking out of the prison cells. Then you quickly move on to a combat encounter, in your case would probably be them fighting into the hanger bay to get a ship and get out. Now in the beginners game, you kind of open the game up to the group, but have them needing certain things from certain NPCs in the game world, so they still kind of have a focus to what they are doing. In your game it would need to be a space battle with the tie fighters, so it would jump from ground combat to space, so in that cause I'd probably make the space combat be pretty short. Maybe 2 or 3 tie fighters go after them. So in all, I'd probably have done maybe 2 to 3 encounters for the whole prison break. There is nothing wrong with doing a lot more with that, but if it is a new group who is still learning the system, having them fight through every inch of the prison to escape I think would mess up the flow, and give it a harder learning curve.

Also, you need the dice, or if you are using the app, you need to at least let them input the dice and roll for their characters. What makes this game truly different from other systems is the dice, and if you are rolling for them, then you are taking away half the fun!

Right now, getting the dice can be difficult but I'd recommend picking up the different beginners games. Each one comes with a set of dice and has tokens that you can use as you please for different encounters. Plus running them through those would be a lot of fun and great learning experience for both you and the group.

Alright thanks for the advice. That's about how much combat I had but I think they may have been disconnected from it from the lack of rolling. The dice just came back in stock on amazon so I'll pick them up.

You really have to take a good look at the group to get a sense of this question; something that separates this system from other systems is that it is not only possible but rather easy to roll a character that has no combat skills. In the live game I'm currently playing, we have a Politico, a Scoundrel, a Gadgeteer, and a Mechanic, and only one of those has any substantial proficiency with personal scale combat, so while we're up for the occasional combat encounter, it's not something that engages the majority of the group. Put us in a ship-based combat or chase, on the other hand, and everyone's on board, so to speak.

People also generally mellow out in space combat; a lot of the time they just assume it's all up to the pilot and seek other ways to occupy their time while he "does his segment.", might be worth keeping a eye on.

How much combat?

Not less than 0%, not more than 95%

How much action-sequence?

Not less than 10%, not more than 100%...

I keep hearing about "one roll combat resolution". Where is it explained?

I tend to script a lot of possible combat but give them every chance to avoid it. My players tend to be a little blood thirsty though and tend to jump into combat. We've had a couple sessions without any combat but average 1-2 combat situations an encounter.

I keep hearing about "one roll combat resolution". Where is it explained?

Page 323, EoE Core Book, as 2P51 and I posted above