You are GM and your player group is adventuring in an area you haven't fully prepared. (they took one of those annoying **** plot detours!)

You see the need to introduce a local planetary security element and think a patrol vehicle and a few badge toters will to the trick. Do you....

A. Frantically flip through a couple of your books real quick, google a list or two, then pull out a suitable vehicle (if you can find one) and drag up a listed adversary that sort of fits the part?

B. Take a break and do the above with a bit more care as your players load up on chips.

C. Wing it - throw down some standard NPC attributes, pick a generic weapon or two and guess at some typical stats for a security speeder and go with it?

I have trouble in these areas as I really enjoy the preparatory part of GMing. I've played just one session of EoE and I already have a half dozen custom vehicles generated, a dozen or more specific adversaries and possible allies, a couple new weapon types, several new droids etc. Because when given the time, even the vast amount of core stuff just doesn't always have a fit. Doing this on the fly though during a game is petty daunting... you end up with rushed, generic, sometimes bland, additions to the universe.

If you need NPCs quick, the Adversary decks that can be purchased through FFG's own online store are amazingly handy to have, and can easily be tweaked at a moment's notice to cover most generic character types you might need.

Personally, if those cards weren't an option, I'd just go with Option C, but I'm also pretty comfortable making stuff up on the fly, with my adventure prep being little more than a couple of sentences and few bullet points. I just figure the NPC has a characteristic of 3, one or two ranks in whatever skills would be relevant to their current role in the plot, and that's about it.

Your player's character sheets can be a good measuring stick. Just take their dice pools and figure out whether you think this guy would be their equal, or slightly inferior (downgrade/reduce the ability), or slightly superior (upgrade/increase the ability).

Same with vehicles. Is this vehicle along the same lines as what the PCs are flying? Does it have shields, how good is it's handling, etc.

Depending on how many numbers you need to generate, you could call for a quick bathroom/snack break, and then look at your PC sheets or at the Adversaries/Starships section of the book, and just jot down whatever you need to remember. But usually, if I need to pull stats out of thin air, I just write down a few numbers while my players are rolling initiative (I have one of them manage the initiative track).

Option D: PANIC

(Once Option D. has run its course, see Option C.)

For NPCs, I generally just make up some numbers in my head that fit whether I want them to be a challenge or not. So Option C.

For weapons, I generally use basic weapons from the core books, as that tones down a lot of the looting desires of my group. So, sort of Option C except the list of options is conveniently copied on my GM screens.

For vehicles, I will almost always go find one similar to what I want to use and use the published stats. This is usually Option A, but I generally already have an idea of what speeders I like to use for various task are in which books. Notably, the AA-9 Assault and Rush Troop Transport air speeders in Dangerous Covenants. I find these two are great for random security force response vehicles, so they often get used as such.

Look at my huge list of prepared Rivals from all the books, and fan made adventures. For this specific encounter I have this Stormtrooper adventure someone posted on the forums, and it has a local sherif and a local problem

So, be prepared. But to your options, I would take a break. Always take a break and don't rush it, when you can skim a book in comfort for a rival and an idea.

Option D: PANIC

That would probably go something like this:

Step 1: Crumple up adventure notes

Step 2: Hurl crumpled adventure notes at a player's forehead

Step 3: Say, "Everyone spontaneously explodes."

Step 4: When players argue, call them rules lawyers.

How about Talents? There is such a wealth of them and they really give color to a ally or adversary, but are **** near impossible to "Browse" as they are spread out everywhere.

That's actually pretty good Awayputyurwpn, as a GM that super details his game it absolutely enrages me when my players don't follow the f...ing script! Laugh

I would say I go with option C. I believe it's the book that suggests starting with a character with a base of 2 in all characteristics and 8 wounds/strain. Can be modified from there, items can be added, skill ranks/talents can be added.

How about Talents? There is such a wealth of them and they really give color to a ally or adversary, but are **** near impossible to "Browse" as they are spread out everywhere.

I've got a small list of talents I like to use, that are simple, and that I will actually remember to use. Things like Adversary, Lethal Blows, Durable, Crippling Blow (this one is fun) and that's about it for on-the-fly adversaries. This is done so I can keep NPC actions (in either structured or unstructured time) short and sweet so that the players can shine.

Since most of the time my off the cuff adversaries get dealt generally in a (semi)permanent manner, and aren't meant to reprise a role or anything, I don't see a need for me to put a lot of effort into them. However, I've had a couple NPCs somehow through narrative events kind of stick with my players, so after a session involving them, I take the time to build them much more in depth, and think of back story, and motivation, and other stuff. Most of these get jotted down/typed up on a page of NPCs, but a special few make their way to their own character sheets and become much more inclusive in my stories.

How about Talents? There is such a wealth of them and they really give color to a ally or adversary, but are **** near impossible to "Browse" as they are spread out everywhere.

The Adversary talent is the most important one. It's designed to abstractly represent all those other talents that are hard to remember/bookkeep.

Other than that, if you're going on the fly, you can just make stuff up:

This dude gets 2 Boost dice to all Ranged (Light) checks made from within Short range

This dude makes you perform a Hard Fear check when he engages with you

This dude can use Threat on your combat checks to heal wounds (or strain)

This dude gets +20 to all critical injury rolls against his enemies

But like Werewyvernx says, make sure that will actually remember the talent

I prefer Option E.

Option E:

1. Incapacitate all the characters.

2. Strip them naked.

3. Have them wake up.

4. They are forced to walk the airlock.

5. Tell them to create new characters and this time to follow the script.

6. Run for your life as if it depended on it.

or you can just use Option C.

I usually pick a mix of A and C. I'll grab the adversary cards for a quick minion or rival. If I don't like their gear I'll alter that on the fly. For vehicles I'll usually just make something up.

I'm visually impaired and the stat blocks for vehicles in the books are small, with a terrible font, and I just can't read them. It's usually easier for me to make something up rather then find my magnifier or ask another player to please translate. (My biggest complaint about this game. It's the only game I play that causes me problems)

I read a lot of sci-fi, and keep general notes: names, appearances, personalities, occupations. And I find myself mocking up these characters in my head as I read, so those thoughts make into the notes, too.

I also spend a lot of time writing. I'll have ideas for full blown story arcs contained in two or three sentences.

I suppose it helps the setting isn't Star Wars-centric; I know where everything fits.

I prepare generic encounters ahead of time to fill in for 'random' avenues that PCs take during game play.

1. Random encounter with security force X armed with an in Vehicle Y.

2. Random encounter with pirates

3. Standard Stomtrooper patrol with X, Y, Z for grenades.

etc

Then I just take out what I need at table time.

In regards to including every Talent, I just feel no need. Between Adversary and things like Imperial Valor, opponents are not short changed imo.

I read a lot of sci-fi, and keep general notes: names, appearances, personalities, occupations. And I find myself mocking up these characters in my head as I read, so those thoughts make into the notes, too.

I also spend a lot of time writing. I'll have ideas for full blown story arcs contained in two or three sentences.

I suppose it helps the setting isn't Star Wars-centric; I know where everything fits.

I do the same -- and am maybe *too* good at it. This is not bragging -- I am so good at spin-off scenarios that sometimes I have trouble keeping the PCs on track. They are like me, in that they tend to wander, like heavily armed sheep.

If you ever want a great read with the occasional (often sardonic) gem of advice (or commiseration) for the Star Wars GM, I highly recommend Darths & Droids (if you aren't already aware of it!).

In this fictitious d20-based game, the GM is constantly preparing detailed adventures, only to have his players fly in the completely different direction. It's funny to read the "Campaign Notes" that the GM was planning on running, in light of how the adventure actually turns out.

C. Wing it - throw down some standard NPC attributes, pick a generic weapon or two and guess at some typical stats for a security speeder and go with it?

...(snip)...

Doing this on the fly though during a game is petty daunting... you end up with rushed, generic, sometimes bland, additions to the universe.

Winging it takes some practice, and you need some tools. I find it useful when faced with an unexpected turn to ask critical questions and use random dice rolls to answer the questions until my own imagination takes over. It also helps to use the player's dice results to inform your narrative. If the PCs need a shopkeeper, a simple "what's the shopkeeper's mood on a D6" can trigger a whole character build in your mind. Maybe the result is he's grumpy, the next question might be "human or non-human", so he's a grumpy non-human. In the context of the adventure, maybe the planet is human-dominated, so he's a grumpy non-human stuck on a human planet. Use more questions as needed, but usually by the third (at most, for me at least) there's some idea of what this NPC is like and what their motivation is.

To me fleshing out the NPC's character and motivations are the most important part. Nobody remembers "that group with those special blasters", they remember "the old Ithorian desperately trying to signal that some thugs are in the back waiting for the PCs to leave so they can shake him down"...

...because stats are easy, especially (as noted above) if you have the adversary decks. For minions you can start with:

Weak: Soak 3, WT 4, Damage 4

Middling: Soak 4, WT 6, Damage 6

Tough: Soak 6, WT 8, Damage 8+

I have some handy reference pdfs that I've collected, including adversaries that are split up into easy categories. This saves me the trouble of looking through books if I just want to pull out a quick stock NPC enemy.

If you wanted to quickly build a custom NPC, check out OggDude's Character Builder. It includes an adversary builder that you could use while the players take a short break. You could also load it with both stock and custom NPCs, which you can assign to custom categories to make them easy to find.