Hello forumites!

I have a question. The Edge of the Empire main rulebook specifically calls out the Bounty Hunter: Gadgeteer, Explorer: Fringer and Smuggler: Scoundrel specializations as especially suited for small group play (3 PCs or lower), as these specs were designed to be flexible and fill most roles at least somewhat competently.

Does this hold up? Are these two or three specs enough to cover the bases(at least to begin with)*?

*With the understanding that the GM is expected to tailor the game's challenges to party composition, for the most part.

Note: Stupid divided forum. I'm going to have to ask this question two more times in the other SWRPG forums.

I don't know as I agree with Fringer, but Scoundrel and Gadgeteer are good. For the third I think I'd focus a little more on a techie or a medical option myself.

About the divided forum, you only needed to post in the Edge of the Empire forum as your question pertains to Edge of the Empire.

For your question: I agree with 2P51 about having a Technician spec, I'd say probably Mechanic.

About the divided forum, you only needed to post in the Edge of the Empire forum as your question pertains to Edge of the Empire.

For your question: I agree with 2P51 about having a Technician spec, I'd say probably Mechanic.

I was wondering whether Age of Rebellion and Force and Destiny had similar specs fit for 2-3 player groups, so I asked the relevant questions on those forums.

Would say, Gadgeteer and Scoundrel be enough for just two players, do you think?

Don't underestimate the Scout. Very useful class if you're spending a lot of time outdoors. Gives some ability in Medicine, to boot.

For the other splat books: Demolitionist has a nicely diverse skill set as well, with piloting, computers, and mechanics thrown in.

About the divided forum, you only needed to post in the Edge of the Empire forum as your question pertains to Edge of the Empire.

For your question: I agree with 2P51 about having a Technician spec, I'd say probably Mechanic.

I was wondering whether Age of Rebellion and Force and Destiny had similar specs fit for 2-3 player groups, so I asked the relevant questions on those forums.

Would say, Gadgeteer and Scoundrel be enough for just two players, do you think?

Gadgeteer and Scout would probably. It would be depend on how you tailor the adventure and how your players think in certain scenarios.

People in these forums aren't going to get too fussy about where you post questions, so posting a question about Edge of the Empire like you did and asking if there were similar options in Age of Rebellion and Force and Destiny is fine.

I would say it all depends on the game. If you are planning to run a starship-centric game, I would not pick those 2 to start...then I would pick Pilot and Mechanic. If you are gambling con-men, go with a different pair. But it all depends on what you want to run.

If you are planning to use a wide variety of encounters not specifically tailored for the party (like the pre-gen modules), Gadgeteer and Scoundrel are probably pretty good. But remember that as GM, you can provide an NPC or droid for an area the party is missing. I have found that parties can most readily skip the mechanics and pilots (and thus they stay on the ship, and out of danger...unless the plot calls for it). Most players want to control the fighting, talking and sneaking of the group. Support roles are the slots that are best for NPC's.

About the divided forum, you only needed to post in the Edge of the Empire forum as your question pertains to Edge of the Empire.

For your question: I agree with 2P51 about having a Technician spec, I'd say probably Mechanic.

I was wondering whether Age of Rebellion and Force and Destiny had similar specs fit for 2-3 player groups, so I asked the relevant questions on those forums.

Would say, Gadgeteer and Scoundrel be enough for just two players, do you think?

It's decent but you're going to have medical issues, so maybe a droid NPC for that.

With a small group its more important that the GM is comfortable tailoring the story to those particular characters and their abilities. Basicly anything will work, it just changes the story, the encounters and the types of adversaries the group face.

I would be looking at the skills spread and choosing characters that cover as many of the skills as possible. Same goes for the Characteristics, if its a group of 2 PC's, then split the characteristics in half and make sure between the 2 characters you have a 3 in all of them. By doing this the story options will be as broad as possible.

Aslo get comfortable with the Skilled Assistance method of performing skill checks. Also instead of asking both PC's to roll the same check (initiative is the obvious exception), just have the best at the task do it.

So what should the PC's play? whatever they want! But i would advise against overlap. A Social and a Combat character is probably a good idea just to keep the breadth of story options. Most would agree vehicle combat is the easiest part of the game to push to the side, so a couple of ranks in piloting is really all your going to need. But again its important you and the Players are both fully aware of the themes of the Campaign and the types of encounters that will be in it.

I'm always partial to the enforcer, as they can handle themselves in combat, social situations, and on the street. But, as others have said, it really does depend on the type of adventures you want to run. I would recommend giving the players suggestions for versatile specs and letting them decide, then tailoring an adventure for the chosen specs.

EotE: Gadgeteer & Charmer/Performer/Politico, add Thief/Fringer for the third PC

You cant create these things in a vacuum. If you were running a campaign where most of the action takes place in one city or village, say coruscants underworld), Then you might not need a pilot and consequently an astrogator. If you are only using a ship to get from A to B, and nothing or little happens in between toss an astromech droid to pilot.

On the other hand a squadron of starfighter pilots could play a completely different set of skills. Sit down with your players and thrash out what you all are looking to get from it and take into account what the players are also looking to play.

A survival campaign where survivors of a crashed ship trying to survive might better served with scouts, survivalists, big game hunters, than city specs like fringer, trader, etc. So once you have good idea of what sort of campaign you can figure out how tight or diverse a set of skills they will need, once you know that you will have a better idea how to place the specs, remember though its not a bad thing to have them short on something and to throw this at them as a reminder that you arent experts at everything.

Current campaign im playing has a starfighter ace with a bit of melee, a warden thats heavy on coercion but can hold his own unarmed, less so with weapons, and a marshal, thats agood mix of face/ranged light. We have a lot of holes there, but when we hit something that is difficult we have to get creative, and someimes we dont overcome the problem and seek other ways round the issue.

Diversity is good , but I could still play or GM with a group totally made up with mercenary soldiers because even then there is enough differences between them.

Diversity is good , but I could still play or GM with a group totally made up with mercenary soldiers because even then there is enough differences between them.

All great points by syrath, but this is important enough to highlight. Any career, in particular those with source books released, could be used to make an entire party and theme the campaign around that. so you inspired me, here is a list of ideas

Bounty Hunters: obvious, its a group of Bounty Hunters

Colonist: the story revolves around the problems a new colony faces somewhere isolated on the outer rim

Explorer: Finding new planets, or trying to find your way home when you get lost

Hired Gun: The Party belong to a mercinary group, with a wide range of jobs from Guard Duty to corporate raids

Smuggler; Conmen, thieves, miscreants... easy

Technician: Chop Shop baby! gone in 60 seconds meets MacGyver

Ace: Rogue Squadron?

Commander: Starship Troopers style working up through the ranks

Diplomat: The Rebelion needs support, who is going to get it for them (Recruit may be needed here for some combat punch)

Engineer: Winning the beaches on D-Day was not enough, you need supply lines and fortifications to keep them, same goes in star wars.

Soldier: Saving Private Ryan? Rambo? Behind Enemy Lines?

Spy: Underground on Coruscant trying to get intel for the Rebellion.

Consular: The galaxy needs knowledge, but I'm short of ideas, need the source book i think

Guardian: People always need protecting from an oppressor, be it in a village, a town, a city, a planet, a sector, a region or the entire galaxy.

Mystic: Some times uncovering the wonders of the Force is a journey on its own, Academics and Archeologists.

Seeker: Things need finding, usually people loose themselves in unknown remote places, a team of finds men looking for lost loved ones, a missing supply ship, or treasures of yore.

Sentinel: Because I'm BATMAN! urban investigators, vigilantes etc.

Warrior: Sometimes offence is the best defence, being skilled in combat can help bring balance to the Force, doing the work others find too unsettling.

the Consular, Mystic and Soldier are the hardest at the moment due to the lack of breadth in their careers with only 3 Specs each. but you get the idea i hope.

I would say it all depends on the game.

This. The GM has full control in tailoring the encounters for the group, and this system gives players the

That being said the GM should provide a variety of encounters and the players should vary their strategies for handling them. Basically, don't make photocopy the same encounter over and over and the players shouldn't solve every one the same way.

The GM can also provide NPCs to fill roles if the players choose a set of characters too specialized, and can easily 'charge' them with Obligation for using their services. That lets them choose to stay specialized or diversify their skills a bit.

I like Medic. Good tough combat spec (mostly from being a soldier) disguised as a healer.

I like Medic. Good tough combat spec (mostly from being a soldier) disguised as a healer.

Plus whatever else you wanna dabble in with Well Rounded.

Or. Human since they get 2 non career skills

We have a pretty small group, just 4 of us. 3 of the PCs are EotE, while a fourth made a character out of FaD (although without a lightsaber) who I believe is a sentinel but I'm not 100% sure. She focuses her Force powers on the "Move" ability and does a lot of leaping around and telekinesis.

One character is a mechanic, another is a doctor, and a third is an assassin/gadgeteer. Everyone has a scattering of combat skills (the BH the most combat-heavy). The BH is also a good enough pilot to get by, a high agility score helps a lot.

We used to have a marauder but the player decided she didn't like that character anymore. We also had a Force-sensitive pilot until the player left the game.

We have no social skills at all. We do have a protocol droid that helps out when needed but mostly in social situations we just roll badly, fail, and shoot our way out of stuff.

It's funny but the clear lack of certain roles in the group isn't a problem. If anything they help define what kind of a crew it is and how our adventures are going to go. We know we're not going to be great at negotiations or bluffing. We generally use a combination of stealth, technical expertise, and brute force to solve problems. Many of our encounters come down to making a careful plan, seeing the plan fail, and blowing something up while running away. It's pretty fun really.

I'd Suggest Gadgeteer, Diplomat and Medic

Not to diss anyone but considering the Gadgeteer is going to have a decent Intelect what's everyone's reasoning for also having some kind of healer in the group? On a meta level of "cover all the bases" having 2 PC's out of 3 with a need for Intelect seems a waste.

Someone is going to cover combat, probably 2 players, one of them will have Agility so piloting is also covered. Someone will want Willpower for sure.

Someone needs to cover Intelect

Someone needs to cover Cunning

Someone needs to cover Presence

A very nice spread for an AoR game is Gunner, Agitator(or Ambassador) and Scout.

The Gunner can focus on Agility and Intelect (for mechanics and Astrogating)

The Agitator can focus on Willpower and Presence

The Scout can focus on Brawn and Cunning (with Agility a close third)

You could prepare 6 slips of paper with the characteristics (and some suggested skills) and let the players divvy up the roles themselves, assuming that each characteristic is going to be equally useful in your game. Players are pretty good at figuring out effective combos.

You could also consider giving them some NPC support, as long as the players aren't overshadowed by it. For example, if you give them an NPC droid, it is likely to be adequate at one task only. I wouldn't give them NPC support for free, but raise their Obligation accordingly (droids aren't cheap, NPCs have desires of their own, etc.)

Reasoning on gadgeteer medic and diplomat is because you cover all the roles. All 3 likely have agi 3 int 3 (as those are incredibly important) medic and gadgeteer probably will go brawn 3 for soak/more implants and diplomat will grab 3 cunning and 3 presence

You end up with 2 heavy hitters in combat in the medic and gadgeteer.

The gadgeteer will have a high defnse/soak

the medic will be able to fight heal

the diplomat/quartermaster will act as the face

All of them can be reasonbly stealthy with 3 agi's a piece, and 3 people covering the massive amount of int skills will be really effective and the quartermaster will have decent cunning 3 for perception and human for 1 rank in the skill, the rest will have to supplement this with gear, all three can make good money during downtime.

These are also some of the most potent specs quick access to dedication and the medic getting one of the best abilities in It's not that bad before dedication.

All three have powerful second specs in their careers

assassin (with 2 ranks in dodge), sharpshooter (single best ranged combat tree) and ambasador (with 2 ranks in dodge)

We have Smuggler/Pilot (piloting stuff), Technician/Mechanic (fixing stuff) and Bounty Hunter/Assasin (killing stuff)... IIRC the 'party gaps' are filled by NPCs - Colonist/Doctor (healing stuff & plot hook), Explorer/Trader (plot hook), and another 'Plot Hook' npc who I can't remember what career she had... doesn't seem like she's a Hired Gun.. but could be and the GM has spent more on extra non-career skills etc

THIS (Demolitionist)

Don't underestimate the Scout. Very useful class if you're spending a lot of time outdoors. Gives some ability in Medicine, to boot.

For the other splat books: Demolitionist has a nicely diverse skill set as well, with piloting, computers, and mechanics thrown in.

don't forget cool and skulduggery (which can be used for gambling and cheating at gambling and picking locks) the demolitionist is a little bit like a hybrid of a hired gun, gadgeteer, and scoundrel... if you're going to limit a party to 2 characters one of them should be a demolitionist in my opinion. BTW a single character that is demolitionist, hired gun, and gadgeteer has pretty awesome synergy among his or her 3 specs in my opinion. strong arm from the hired guns pairs so well with the demolitionist's big bang talents.

Also if you alow a crossing of game lines... engineer:mechanic is pretty great too, cross-spec into doctor and hoo-boy someone who can brawl awesomely (brawl as a career skill, pressure point from doctor), fly decently as a starting character (2 free ranks in pilot space), shoot decently (engineer grants ranged light), and work techno-voodoo (bad motivator), heal men and machines

quartermaster or enforcer for the face.

medic can also fill a bunch of rolls, fighty healy and pick 2 skills thanks to well rounded