Grabbing a bunch of dice and making up stats on the fly, I taught my girlfriend the basic mechanics and story-telling aspects of the game this week. (At her request.)

I outlined how the dice pool is constructed. I went over how the Successes/Failures, Advantages/Threats, Triumphs, and Despairs can be used to create and tell the story. After a few examples, I made up a quick scenario...

She was a Rebel spy (and a traitor) aboard a star destroyer with some espionage mission to complete. In the immediate encounter, she needed to proceed down a passageway, past a couple stormtroopers guarding a door in a perpendicular passageway (a T-section).

We rolled Stealth. After cancelling out the dice, she had no Successes, so the stormtroopers spotted her and called out to her to halt. She had a Triumph, and with that, she said one of their comlinks went off which distracted them enough to not simply pull the alarm at her presence.

She decided to use that distraction to attack them. We rolled Initiative, with her claiming the first slot. With zeal, she told me how she was pulling out two blaster pistols and was going to shoot them.

I said, "okay, using your Maneuvers and Action, you pull out your two pistols, and you're going to murder the stormtroopers."

She was shocked! "Murder?!"

"Well, yeah... you said you wanted to shoot these two stormtroopers that spotted you."

"Rich! I don't want to murder anyone! But.. I guess in essence that's what I'm doing..."

"You know, your blasters have a stun setting."

"Yes! I'll stun them instead!"

She resolved, when and if she ever plays for reals, to never not use the stun setting.

That's great, as long as she only faces opponents at short range, heheh.

It's ok, they're all bad...

Stormtroopers basically aren't people.

I mean, they are, but they intentionally give off that perception with their armor and convention of serial numbers. They're one of the only NPC types I'm okay with wholesale slaughtering, because they're also usually fanatical zealots who tend to put you in kill or be killed situations. But yeah, murder hobo-ing can sometimes be a problem, probably especially in Edge games.

IMO, you can’t PREVENT the murder-hobo.

You can CONVERT the murder-hobo into something else, as the OP seems to have done admirably.

You can HINDER the murder-hobo and make it more difficult for them to do their murder-hobo thing.

You can change the reward system so that there is less reason to murder-hobo.

But I don’t believe that you can ever actually PREVENT the murder-hobo.

Wait... Murder-hobo is a bad thing?

That's great, as long as she only faces opponents at short range, heheh.

Or droids.

It's ok, they're all bad...

I said, "okay, using your Maneuvers and Action, you pull out your two pistols, and you're going to murder the stormtroopers."

You know, I wouldn't worry about it. Gunning down mooks is part and parcel of the action movie genre. Ah-nold mows them down left right and center, as does Sly. James Bond doesn't have a kill count, he has a genocidal running tally.

Yes TX-447 may have kids and a family, dreams and aspirations, and a mother who loves him - but really, he's just there for Our Hero to blow away before moving on to KM-716.

I'll call you Tex, and you'll be Kim.

Kim:"Aw."

'Murder-hobo' is killing neutral NPCs to take their stuff. Killing in self-defence is in no way 'murder'. In the SW movies, we never see any of the heroes getting angst over having to shoot stormtroopers or Hutt goons.

Opening fire on random passers-by is quite another matter.

If there's a war on and they're trying to kill you, there's no issue with killing in self-defence.

(In our campaign, stormtroopers and Jedi clone troopers are all clones, and Alliance personnel are required by law to kill them, because they are bred to be incredibly loyal and fanatical and no amount of torture interrogation will get them to spill the beans. Of course, the fact that they show selfless loyalty, incredible bravery and self-sacrifice means that many of their foes actually have an odd regard for them, especially when you consider most human Imperials are so venal and cowardly. The party Sharpshooter feels sorry for them, and thinks that their souls are trapped in a clone body, and that clean mercy-kills will release them from their unwilling bondage and go to wherever souls are supposed to go. The party Saboteur, on the other hand, likes to take trophies like fingers and teeth, preferably while they are still alive, so the rest of the team have to keep a close eye on her...).

That's great, as long as she only faces opponents at short range, heheh.

Or droids.

Droids take stun damage, surely?

That's great, as long as she only faces opponents at short range, heheh.

Or droids.

Droids take stun damage, surely?

They do, and stop calling me Shirley.

I thought you couldnt stun droids, that you had to zap 'em with Ion Guns? I might be misremembering.

I thought you couldnt stun droids, that you had to zap 'em with Ion Guns? I might be misremembering.

Droids take ion damage as wounds, stun damage goes to strain as normal.