Just wondering. How many of you flip to the rulebook if you need the stats for a sudden Tie Fighter encounter or maybe a speeder to get away in? Im tempted to make up cheat sheets for the vehicles and ships I use, eventually being able to just pull one out of a folder rather than flip pages but it seems like a waste of time when they are already there in the book. Of course, you have to find them if they aren't something common.
No cards yet for ships I guess.
Whats your take?
I'm sure ship and gear cards are in the planning. If we are doing ship combat I'd look up the TIE. A throw down getaway speeder, I'd make it up.
You might want to try the stat blocks here. Mind you, they're rapidly becoming out of date since they haven't been updated in ages - but they're still pretty useful.
Double-post? Ok, if we are going with this one, this is what I said in the other one:
Only use the books to show my players the pictures. After many years of dnd, I was sick and tired of looking up rules during play. Done with that stuff! I rarely have long structured encounters on the fly, I rather handle the improvised stuff with narrative play or skill checks. Though combat can sometimes be the exception with the adversary cards, but also combat can be handled with a single skill roll.
If my players want to steal a TIE fighter and escape, we don`t need the stats of the fighter(yet). All we need to know is what a TIE-fighter looks like, a skullduggery and a piloting(space) check.
Edit: Though I guess I`ll end up buying ship cards if they do them, the adversary cards are great, the talent cards are ok to have but I don`t feel I need them.
Edited by RodianCloneThere is a great blog listed in the compiled resource list that has been making 'card' version of vehicles, weapons, armor and such. They are pretty cool.
The above resources are good, but for stats I’d use the FFG Star Wars Index at http://swrpg.viluppo.net/
Then Wookieepedia or Google images if I needed pictures of the thing.
EDIT: I would definitely buy lots of ship and vehicle cards, if FFG decided to make them. If not, I might decide to make my own, like I’ve started doing with armor.
Edited by bradknowlesJust wondering. How many of you flip to the rulebook if you need the stats for a sudden Tie Fighter encounter or maybe a speeder to get away in? Im tempted to make up cheat sheets for the vehicles and ships I use, eventually being able to just pull one out of a folder rather than flip pages but it seems like a waste of time when they are already there in the book. Of course, you have to find them if they aren't something common.
No cards yet for ships I guess.
Whats your take?
I have a 30 page binder of stats - every badguy and vehicle design. I pull it out, rather than the books, because I leave most of the books at home.
I have a file (both electronic and hardcopy) at hand that includes the vehicles, weapons, species, planets and so on that I have made up from scratch but hesitate to copy the published stuff just to make it more accessible. Still, it would serve my interests in keeping MY galaxy consistent and complete if everything included in a game was entered into my Holocron or whatever you wanted to call it. Wow, a lot of work though.
Wow, a lot of work though.
Yes, yes it is. Mine's up to 100M and I need to reogranize it.
Edited by themenschI check the book quite frequently still, but i am quite new to the system. ill stop doing that later, but for now i want to make sure i learn it correctly before i start ignoring stuff willfully xD
I've started using tabs in my book with labels, so I can quickly look up or double check important information, including stats. It saves on a lot of page turning and information hunting. One thing you don't want to do in this game is slow down the action!
I've started using tabs in my book with labels, so I can quickly look up or double check important information, including stats. It saves on a lot of page turning and information hunting. One thing you don't want to do in this game is slow down the action!
I’ve done that since Day One. I saw another player at the table who had done that with his CRB, and so I went through and did the same. And I’ve done that with every single FFG SWRPG book that I have bought since then — including the betas.
Really, really good idea. It speeds up things tremendously!
I've started using tabs in my book with labels, so I can quickly look up or double check important information, including stats. It saves on a lot of page turning and information hunting. One thing you don't want to do in this game is slow down the action!
I did this, in fact I went a little overboard and over-tagged. So much useful information in so many different spots.... So if every page has a tag, then that's as good as no page having tags, so I removed them. My solution is to not fumble with books at the table.
I went through and used some big Index cards to make stat blocks for most ships. I already bought the adversary cards, so this was something I figured I would use a lot (I totally do). I have like 30 or so made, split into 'Silhouette 5 and up' and smaller starships. I find that I mostly use the starfighters and some of the light freighters, anything else is rare enough that I can just look it up when necessary from the books.
My original plan was to make a card for each ship in the books, but that's way too much work. I would buy ship cards in a hearbeat if they sold them.
My original plan was to make a card for each ship in the books, but that's way too much work. I would buy ship cards in a hearbeat if they sold them.
I’m going to start going down that path at some point, based on what I’ve done for armor cards.
But maybe we can have OggDude do that work for us, before I get there. Or maybe in the future we’ll be able to get that from the FFG SWRPG Master Index at http://swrpg.viluppo.net/
I´m also using Tabs at the critical pages (since I´m in Germany it´s just the corebook and the Explorer-book so not to hard)
that said, I started an Excel-sheet to have special item, returning advasarys and of course ship/vehicles at one glace ^^
I'm surprised that not even everything is statted up by FFG! Like in The Long Arm of the Hutt
(MINOR SPOILER)
The Lylek is dropped into a scene, and then it is explained to use the stats for a rancor if it comes to it. How lazy is that? I was shocked. Yeah, it's a low level group, but you know the first rule of GM planning: If you give it stats, it will be killed. Luckily we have really industrious players in the community who come up with resources for others. Love this community immensely.
The Lylek is dropped into a scene, and then it is explained to use the stats for a rancor if it comes to it. How lazy is that? I was shocked. Yeah, it's a low level group, but you know the first rule of GM planning: If you give it stats, it will be killed. Luckily we have really industrious players in the community who come up with resources for others. Love this community immensely.
Did you see the bounty I described for my Wookiee Maurauder? About being known to use shipboard weapons against ground targets, including defenseless Lylek mothers that are just trying to guard their offspring?
Yeah, that Lylek scared the crap out of us during that adventure. But a few months later, we went back to that planet and devised a trap that would let us draw out the Lylek mother so that we could kill or capture her, but more importantly then capture her offspring so that we could load them into cargo containers and deliver them to a Hutt that we wanted to get rid of.
As it turned out, the pilot rolled really, really well, so on top of the 7 base damage done by the twin Medium Laser Cannons on our ship, he rolled enough extra Successes to get it up to 14 damage, and then rolled lots of Advantage so that we could activate Linked.
That kind of firepower being aimed towards a ground/personal scale target like a Lylek mother? Well, as I recall there wasn’t even a stain left behind.
My Wookiee wasn’t alone in that action, but he was the one who willingly went into the cavern to act as bait and try to draw out the Mother.
The Lylek is dropped into a scene, and then it is explained to use the stats for a rancor if it comes to it. How lazy is that? I was shocked. Yeah, it's a low level group, but you know the first rule of GM planning: If you give it stats, it will be killed. Luckily we have really industrious players in the community who come up with resources for others. Love this community immensely.
Hey, that's not lazy, that's good GMing! Being able to reskin generic NPCs on the fly is an excellent skill to have as a GM, and the same applies to settings. Nobody wants to fiddle around while the GM looks something up, that's how phones come out at the table....
I thought the first rule of GMing was "no plan survives contact with the players!"
The Lylek is dropped into a scene, and then it is explained to use the stats for a rancor if it comes to it. How lazy is that? I was shocked. Yeah, it's a low level group, but you know the first rule of GM planning: If you give it stats, it will be killed. Luckily we have really industrious players in the community who come up with resources for others. Love this community immensely.
Hey, that's not lazy, that's good GMing! Being able to reskin generic NPCs on the fly is an excellent skill to have as a GM, and the same applies to settings. Nobody wants to fiddle around while the GM looks something up, that's how phones come out at the table....
I thought the first rule of GMing was "no plan survives contact with the players!"
Well, I thought it was lazy by FFG, because granted, being able to re-skin on the go is an important ability for GMs, which I have used for my 3 or so years of Dragon Age campaign prior, but it is assumed that anyone running Escape From Mos Shuuta/Long Arm of the Hutt is new to the system, and doesn't have the skill to re-skin just yet.
I think if it came to it, I would have to base something around the Rancor as suggested, but then rule in all of its nasty preying mantis style slashy bits, perhaps as a "weapon quality".
Less Wounds than rancor maybe, but more stuff like vicious/pierce.
Stats aren`t always needed to do an encounter, not even a combat encounter! Escaping or fight a rancor or a bunch of storm troopers can be done with a series of skill checks, narrative dice are great for that!
Looking up stats all the time just ruins the flow of the game.
If it is:
just a bunch of goons to kill - I create them on the fly
just some Stormtroopers - I already rember them completly
something special you don´t kill every day, like a rancor, hutt or the evil little fleetcommander? well no body dies if you take a look at the book.
an sometimes you create your own Monsteradvasarys... so strong you know those players should run... and then they don´t do it...until the first one goes down onehitted...(sweet agony)
Edited by NightoneCheat sheets are great. Back in the day I had a bunch of index cards with a bunch of stats on them. By the time we started using the CR/RCR system, books stats were a lot more important. For anyone who ran or played Saga, like me, I'm sure they always had their books open. As the GM, if I tried to to make a WAG, a guesstimate, an assumption, or "if I thought", then everything the player had built could be thrown off... So yeah, we spent more time at the table in the books, than in the game.
With FFG, I know the contents and the layout of the books pretty well, so if I need the stats for a TIE, then I don't feel bad taking the ONE minute to get to the right page. At least with this system, I can make up an NPC off the fly and say, well, they would have this skill at this level, and this talent. I like the fact that NPC's don't follow the Character building rules. I have had some players who don't like that fact, but it right there in the CRB.
I also don't usually flip through the books for special gear either. If for whatever reason I want some flavor for a special gun, I just kind of make it up on the spot, and run with it. I always let the player know that we will look it up later, and the book will take precedence, but stuff like that rarely comes up in my games. For me, I have read the books a lot, and know hem pretty well. When I am conflicted about a ruling, for the most, I usually just make a "Table Call" and go with it. My players don't have a problem with this as they see me as a fair GM, and I'm not out "to get" the players. They understand my main focus is trying to tell a fun story, not kill their characters, or have them continually loose. (They win like 99% of the time!)
On the rare occasion that an argument or disagreement does come up, and a player does not agree with me, well, things can go badly. I am not one to give in, and can get...well, "moody" quick. Again, it's because I want to tell a story and I want to the players to win, not just always beat them up, so when a player wants to argue, it just really irritates me. Once, I used a little known rule where a Rival can have a Strain Threshold and a player wanted to argue with me that they can not have Strain. The game had derailed, and another player was picking a fight with some NPCs that were in the game as some Flavor Text, and not meant to be fought. I really wasn't happy that the players just decided to go pick a fight with these guys, so I made them to be pretty tough. Also the players were all around 900 XP each. So a player wanted to argue that I can not have NPC Rivals with Strain. I said, as the GM, yes I can, and also, besides the fact that I am the GM, it is also in accordance with the CRB. Mind you, this player was also a "GM"... After a few minutes of arguing and him not relenting and letting the game continue, I pulled out the book, found the section, and read it out loud to the table verbatim. He was pretty upset and left the table for awhile. I was ready for him to leave the game!
Sorry for my rant there. Sometimes having the book out and open is a must, sometimes it is not. It depends on the GMs knowledge of the rules, the players knowledge of the rules, and what the Group as a whole wants. My first few times running, I spent a lot of time in the book. Some players didn't like it. I bluntly told then don't come back then. I explained it was a new game, I was new to running it, and was going to run it right, not just wing it. There is no point in buying the **** book if we weren't going to use it. I was also the only one who had it, so no one else was reading it.
For the newer players and GMs, there is nothing wrong with using the book a lot. Get some post it notes, or the sign here tabs and tab out the chapters or main sections you need. As you become more experienced with the system and feel more comfortable with it, you will to rely on the books less. But there is nothing worse than thinking this how something should work, then later on finding out it is not. I also use Oggdude's Char gen program, so if I need to look up equipment, that is a real time saver!!!