Holy sh*t, I listened to the latest Order 66 Podcast about being a better gamer and literally the first thing they told us not to do I realized I do this often... I am constantely hanging over the table "helping" people find out what the result of their rolls is. All. The. time.

And here I am an experienced player with at least 26 years of experience under my belt getting struck out at tip #1.

And the worst thing is that once I heard it, I was like "yeah, of course... That makes absolute sense."

I am ashamed and I will change my ways!

the feeling is mutual here. I am kinda responsible for 2 or 3 of the do nots.

I impatiently add up others results.

I "Suggest" Advantage & Disadvantage results

and I am the one that says " there is a written rule for that."

Infant I did all these in Saturdays game, although I think giving the GM the fear rules actually was appreciated.

one other thing however that came from this is my next time I run I am NOT going to let players describe mechanics for Advantage, Triumph, Threat or Dispare. Instead I will assign mechanics on what they describe in game.

I did help out my GM with space cmbat rules last time, both having our CRB's open and working trhough it. But that too was appreciated and not interruptive. But that part about not letting them do their dice results themselves was so clear when they talked about it and I was really ashamed to think how disruptive I must have been...

Not having listened yet and probably wont have time for a while - do they mean helping as in determining the total result - "2 advantages minus 3 threat and 4 success minus one failure equals 3 successes and 1 threat" - or do they mean "You have no idea what to do with the roll? Well, how about you hit the stormtrooper, but he returns fire wildly, blowing chunks out of the wall next to your head, forcing you to duck and causing a black die on your next roll?"

The first one.

EDIT: Desslok's questions clarified the thread for me.

^and^^ sorry I should have been more clear.

to Clarify the Thread:

In the Order 66 Podcast the Hosts set out a number of guidelines "How to be a better player in FFG Star Wars"

First Guideline was: Never "help" another player figuring out the dice results. Because it will be most likely seen as rude by the helped player, like telling him, that he is too stupid to do it himself.

in my group I did not had this problem, but in half of them I am on roll20, so the Dicepool sorts itself out...

It's because of this that I don't really allow dice rollers at my RL gaming table. People should do the work. It's more fun and it teaches you about the system. This is especially true for new players.

Our game is once a month, so it took a while for a couple of players to get comfortable with the symbols. I am sort-of the unofficial co-GM (at least my GM says so sometimes) so I'd help if someone was struggling.

We've been playing for a long time now so I don't do that. I let people figure it out because they know what they're doing.

I do sometimes make suggestions about what people can do with their results, but others do the same for me so I think it's fine. We play as a team and collaborate both as players and as characters.

If it's a new player, that's one thing, as for those first couple rolls a new player is going to have trouble remembering what cancels what, especially if they don't have a cheat sheet or similar handy to help speed up the process. I've been at tables where a new player just wasn't "getting it" which in turn caused things (especially combats) to begin to drag.

My personal rule of thumb is at the start of a live-table session, extend the offer to the new player that you're willing to help with reading the dice results if they ask for that help. Generally it would be the job of the GM to help the newer players learn the system, but if there's one or more experienced players willing to pitch in, then that's often helpful for the GM.

Of course, the trick is knowing when to step back, which is why I listed the "if they ask" caveat. I probably figure that for the first dozen or so rolls, you may be asked by the newbie to double-check their math, but after that point they should generally be comfortable with reading the dice.

Granted, there are probably some folks for whom reading the "funny symbols" simply doesn't click, and even after months or years of playing the game they have trouble sussing out the dice results. In which case, extending the offer to help if they ask isn't a bad thing. Just make sure to wait for them to ask before offering your input.

I have a player that has been playing now for maybe 20-25 game sessions over the past year and a half, and every time she rolls the dice she looks up helplessly. I'm like, "What did you get?" And she's like, "well I have 2 Successes, and 1 Failure, and 3 Advantages, so...uhhh...I don't know?"

Every. Single. Time. I have to guide her through the elimination process every single time. And she's in her 50s and has a college degree. So, what do I do in that situation?

Every. Single. Time. I have to guide her through the elimination process every single time. And she's in her 50s and has a college degree. So, what do I do in that situation?

Train her to match up pairs? Take that green with the double success and find a mate, be it one double failure purple or two blacks with a single fail - and move them to one side. Wash, rinse, repeat working through the assorted dice matches until you have the odd men out. Whatever is left is the final result.

Yes...the other players do that quite well. But she fumbles it literally every time, and then ends up giving up, and asks for help. Maybe I just need to be a bit more empowering in that arena. I'll encourage her to "take her time," and offer a reminder of what cancels what.

Thanks Desslok!

awayputurwpn, perhaps you should suggest she buy the $5 app for her phone/tablet? I'm sure she could figure it out, but, perhaps it's a good investment for her. I can calculate the dice, but, I still love using the app.

I am definitely guilty of being a bit uncreative when it comes to "spending" my Advantages. It's something I need to work on.
My GM is great. He often offers suggestions of what I would like to happen. and I usually end up being like "OH YEAH! THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!" But I know I need to think out of the boost dice / setback dice only mindset.

I have a player that has been playing now for maybe 20-25 game sessions over the past year and a half, and every time she rolls the dice she looks up helplessly. I'm like, "What did you get?" And she's like, "well I have 2 Successes, and 1 Failure, and 3 Advantages, so...uhhh...I don't know?"

Every. Single. Time. I have to guide her through the elimination process every single time. And she's in her 50s and has a college degree. So, what do I do in that situation?

Add it up for her and let her get to the fun part: deciding how to turn the results of dice rolls into narrative.

If she were looking up spell descriptions, but was dyslexic, and asked for help, you could make her read it herself anyway, but that would be cruel. I don't know your player, but I think it unlikely she is _trying_ to slow down the game, but rather more probably is going through a shade of the difficulty matching abstract symbols that dyslexics or dyscalculics experience.

YMMV, and I never listen to The Order 66 anyway (so what do I know?), but I reckon that if a player in a group asks their GM for help with something the GM's first instinct should be to say "yes" and get to the cool stuff quicker.

I have a player that has been playing now for maybe 20-25 game sessions over the past year and a half, and every time she rolls the dice she looks up helplessly. I'm like, "What did you get?" And she's like, "well I have 2 Successes, and 1 Failure, and 3 Advantages, so...uhhh...I don't know?"

Every. Single. Time. I have to guide her through the elimination process every single time. And she's in her 50s and has a college degree. So, what do I do in that situation?

I had that exact issue with my Team50 group. They're all smart, they just got used to me doing it. They also got used to me prompting them every turn (so, do you aim? do you aim twice? do you pass a boost die?) So I finally said I'm not going to do it anymore, I'll have one more session of guidance, and after that if they couldn't figure it out, then nothing happened and they wasted their turn. If they couldn't figure out what to do with their advantages, then they were lost.

They figured it out.

Note I didn't get mad about it, I just said I had too much to do and it was bogging everything down. It was all pretty civil, but I did draw a clear line. And I did acknowledge it was partly my own fault for facilitating their dependency. Our sessions run much better now.

I'm definitely an offender of much of these, so I need to mend my ways and will improve, I noticed myself counting dice for everyone, but in the last few weeks I've realised myself its better to let them do it, I'm also guilty of a few others.

With the new Forged in Battle sourcebook, many tables outline suggestions on using Advantages and Triumphs, and well as other bad things when making a trench, etc.

Special Modifications also threw a lot of tables to help with droid/mechanical crafting.

I consider these great examples of finding out how these dice pool results COULD be interpreted. With enough familiarity, I think FFG hopes these charts can help train newer players and GMs in envisioning their own interpretations.

Whether it's from Order 66 or grandma, good RPGers typically follow the Golden Rule and refrain from stealing another character's spotlight.

You know, most FFG works come with a cheat sheet for things like what the dice mean or most often overlooked rules.

Does this game not have that? Cause a card explaining the dice symbols and which one counters which seems like a no brainer in at least the beginner sets.

Oh, that is there. But it still a major switch for some...

You know, most FFG works come with a cheat sheet for things like what the dice mean or most often overlooked rules.

Does this game not have that? Cause a card explaining the dice symbols and which one counters which seems like a no brainer in at least the beginner sets.

There are, but for some folks even looking stuff up on a chart is time consuming. Ran into this a lot during the EotE Beta when the physical dice didn't exist and folks were instead using regular dice, converting the numeric result to the particular symbol result, and then cancelling out the symbols. Had one player that nearly quit the system entirely out of frustration until she got a hold of the dice app, which made things much easier for her.

I'm actually glad I didn't have to go through that because that would have definitely soured me on the system...

I used the stickers they provided to make my first-ever EotE Beta dice set. Ah, good memories.