So, I've decided to try out some new house rules regarding characteristics at character creation and beyond in my next game. I figured I'd post them here if any of you like them and want to use them or you have any suggestions.

1. If you're making a human character you can opt to start with a characteristic of your choice at 3 and a characteristic of your choice at 1 and 100 XP as opposed to 110 XP and a free rank in 2 non-career skills.

2. Since a characteristic score of 2 is the Human Average any non-humans who begin character creation with above and below average characteristics can, throughout the course of the game, raise their above average characteristic to 6 but can only raise their below average characteristic to 4. So an Ithorian, through a lot of dedication talents or cyborg upgrades, could attain 6 Willpower but only 4 Agility.

So, I've decided to try out some new house rules regarding characteristics at character creation and beyond in my next game. I figured I'd post them here if any of you like them and want to use them or you have any suggestions.

1. If you're making a human character you can opt to start with a characteristic of your choice at 3 and a characteristic of your choice at 1 and 100 XP as opposed to 110 XP and a free rank in 2 non-career skills.

2. Since a characteristic score of 2 is the Human Average any non-humans who begin character creation with above and below average characteristics can, throughout the course of the game, raise their above average characteristic to 6 but can only raise their below average characteristic to 4. So an Ithorian, through a lot of dedication talents or cyborg upgrades, could attain 6 Willpower but only 4 Agility.

1. That's a bad deal.

2. That's a totally unnecessary restriction.

Anyone can raise there characteristics to 6 through dedication already, and go all the way to 7 with Cybernetics.

Skills are the things capped at 5, with 6 a possibility only if cybernetics are involved.

Im not sure the point of your house rule, with over 60 species available so far there is enough variety that the ultra generalists Humans don't need to be changed.

Anyone can raise there characteristics to 6 through dedication already, and go all the way to 7 with Cybernetics.

Skills are the things capped at 5, with 6 a possibility only if cybernetics are involved.

Im not sure the point of your house rule, with over 60 species available so far there is enough variety that the ultra generalists Humans don't need to be changed.

They can? Oh... Ooops. I thought characteristics capped at 5.

Nope, only skills (sans cybernetics).

The #1 idea is balanced in terms of math, but it breaks the thematic shtick of humans in the setting: they're generalists, and this is both their advantage and their limitation.

Characteristics are capped at 5 during character creation.

I wouldn't have a problem with #1, it's balanced. I might suggest another species instead, but it wouldn't affect game play in the slightest if they really wanted it.

I like #1 as well. It allows you to make a critically flawed human. Now, the GM may want to overrule some concepts, because this could lead to serious munchkinism. But I have been convinced by many players that any rule (RAW, RAI, or house) can lead to serious munchkinism.

I like #1 as well. It allows you to make a critically flawed human. Now, the GM may want to overrule some concepts, because this could lead to serious munchkinism. But I have been convinced by many players that any rule (RAW, RAI, or house) can lead to serious munchkinism.

I just fail to see the point - statistically for almost any combination there's an alien species which is strictly superior to it (as most species get a 3/2/2/2/2/1 statline, 100 xp, and then a skill and something else on top of that). Unless there's a particular weird attribute combination you want for some reason that no alien species has (and I'm not even sure said combination actually exists, I just don't want to trawl through a pile of books to check), or have a concept that absolutely requires you to be human and absolutely requires you to have an attribute at one, it's fairly useless. If you want to min-max a single attribute, you already can.

I like #1 as well. It allows you to make a critically flawed human. Now, the GM may want to overrule some concepts, because this could lead to serious munchkinism. But I have been convinced by many players that any rule (RAW, RAI, or house) can lead to serious munchkinism.

I just fail to see the point - statistically for almost any combination there's an alien species which is strictly superior to it (as most species get a 3/2/2/2/2/1 statline, 100 xp, and then a skill and something else on top of that).

Why is that "strictly superior"? It's not, they're on par, the tradeoff is fair. And some people simply don't want to play a non-human. Not everyone who plays this game are SW nerds.

I like #1 as well. It allows you to make a critically flawed human. Now, the GM may want to overrule some concepts, because this could lead to serious munchkinism. But I have been convinced by many players that any rule (RAW, RAI, or house) can lead to serious munchkinism.

I just fail to see the point - statistically for almost any combination there's an alien species which is strictly superior to it (as most species get a 3/2/2/2/2/1 statline, 100 xp, and then a skill and something else on top of that).

Why is that "strictly superior"? It's not, they're on par, the tradeoff is fair. And some people simply don't want to play a non-human. Not everyone who plays this game are SW nerds.

...Surely the reason a 3/2/2/2/2/1 statline and 100xp is worse than a 3/2/2/2/2/1 statline, 100xp, a skill and something else is self evident? The latter is no different other than having a skill and something else, both of which are good things*. The latter is therefore superior. The only reason to take this is because you want to be a human with a bad stat.

*I'm specifically comparing to the 'average' species like Bothans or Twileks or Togruta that make up the majority of the species options and fit the stated pattern, rather than the more esoteric ones like Wookies or Hutts.

..Surely the reason a 3/2/2/2/2/1 statline and 100xp is worse than a 3/2/2/2/2/1 statline, 100xp, a skill and something else is self evident? The latter is no different other than having a skill and something else, both of which are good things*.

Edit: now I'm re-reading the OP and I can't tell if you still get the two ranks, or you give them up. I'd assumed you keep them. If you have to give them up, yeah, bad deal. I would still let a player take a human with a 1, with the appropriate XP adjustment.

Having never actually played the game, but I have the Edge book, would it be unbalanced to have advantage dice attached to stats to capture that feeling WEG had with the +1 or +2 (like 2d+2). So instead of jumping from Agility 2, to Agility 3, there was a middle ground of Agility 2+1 advantage die? This would add more flavor to the stats IMO.

Maybe this could happen when you reach the dedication stat and instead of taking a full stat die you could give 2 stats an advantage die.

So, I've decided to try out some new house rules regarding characteristics at character creation and beyond in my next game. I figured I'd post them here if any of you like them and want to use them or you have any suggestions.

1. If you're making a human character you can opt to start with a characteristic of your choice at 3 and a characteristic of your choice at 1 and 100 XP as opposed to 110 XP and a free rank in 2 non-career skills.

2. Since a characteristic score of 2 is the Human Average any non-humans who begin character creation with above and below average characteristics can, throughout the course of the game, raise their above average characteristic to 6 but can only raise their below average characteristic to 4. So an Ithorian, through a lot of dedication talents or cyborg upgrades, could attain 6 Willpower but only 4 Agility.

Why? What's the point?

Having never actually played the game, but I have the Edge book, would it be unbalanced to have advantage dice attached to stats to capture that feeling WEG had with the +1 or +2 (like 2d+2). So instead of jumping from Agility 2, to Agility 3, there was a middle ground of Agility 2+1 advantage die? This would add more flavor to the stats IMO.

Maybe this could happen when you reach the dedication stat and instead of taking a full stat die you could give 2 stats an advantage die.

Why?

So, I've decided to try out some new house rules regarding characteristics at character creation and beyond in my next game. I figured I'd post them here if any of you like them and want to use them or you have any suggestions.

1. If you're making a human character you can opt to start with a characteristic of your choice at 3 and a characteristic of your choice at 1 and 100 XP as opposed to 110 XP and a free rank in 2 non-career skills.

2. Since a characteristic score of 2 is the Human Average any non-humans who begin character creation with above and below average characteristics can, throughout the course of the game, raise their above average characteristic to 6 but can only raise their below average characteristic to 4. So an Ithorian, through a lot of dedication talents or cyborg upgrades, could attain 6 Willpower but only 4 Agility.

Why? What's the point?

Having never actually played the game, but I have the Edge book, would it be unbalanced to have advantage dice attached to stats to capture that feeling WEG had with the +1 or +2 (like 2d+2). So instead of jumping from Agility 2, to Agility 3, there was a middle ground of Agility 2+1 advantage die? This would add more flavor to the stats IMO.

Maybe this could happen when you reach the dedication stat and instead of taking a full stat die you could give 2 stats an advantage die.

Why?

Why?

So, I've decided to try out some new house rules regarding characteristics at character creation and beyond in my next game. I figured I'd post them here if any of you like them and want to use them or you have any suggestions.

1. If you're making a human character you can opt to start with a characteristic of your choice at 3 and a characteristic of your choice at 1 and 100 XP as opposed to 110 XP and a free rank in 2 non-career skills.

2. Since a characteristic score of 2 is the Human Average any non-humans who begin character creation with above and below average characteristics can, throughout the course of the game, raise their above average characteristic to 6 but can only raise their below average characteristic to 4. So an Ithorian, through a lot of dedication talents or cyborg upgrades, could attain 6 Willpower but only 4 Agility.

Why? What's the point?

Having never actually played the game, but I have the Edge book, would it be unbalanced to have advantage dice attached to stats to capture that feeling WEG had with the +1 or +2 (like 2d+2). So instead of jumping from Agility 2, to Agility 3, there was a middle ground of Agility 2+1 advantage die? This would add more flavor to the stats IMO.

Maybe this could happen when you reach the dedication stat and instead of taking a full stat die you could give 2 stats an advantage die.

Why?

Why?

Why, Delilah?

If you want to make humans more of a generalist type rather than their free skills encouraging specialist types, you can use the houserule my group did: Instead of picking 2 free skills and getting ranks in them, you instead get to make them class skills. Otherwise im not really sure what those house rules accomplish?

Wow, I wasn't expecting this much feedback. I misunderstood the rule that you could train characteristic scores to be above 6 over the course of the game so that is kinda dumb. And my main reason for the house rule was I wanted the option to create a flawed human character because I didn't like how humans were always okay at everything and never really had a flaw because all their scores were at 2 and I figure that if you're human you should be well... human, I guess. You should have a flaw.

Wow, I wasn't expecting this much feedback. I misunderstood the rule that you could train characteristic scores to be above 6 over the course of the game so that is kinda dumb. And my main reason for the house rule was I wanted the option to create a flawed human character because I didn't like how humans were always okay at everything and never really had a flaw because all their scores were at 2 and I figure that if you're human you should be well... human, I guess. You should have a flaw.

Having a 1 isn't exactly a flaw. It's just a weak area, one easily overcome. I play a Mirialin in a pbp game on this forum whose "flaw" is not even a flaw since I raised it from 1 to 3 during character generation. And I had more than enough xp leftover to raise another stat to 4 and buy 2 Force powers.

Real flaws aren't having a stat at 1, it's what the player brings to the character and what the GM challenges them with. Human's are plenty flawed without lowering a stat to 1. Stat wise my human character for another pbp game is likely the most flawed character I have since unlike the other characters I have in play he's mediocre at at most things (with potential to be great in some areas) unlike my Nikto, Mirialin, and other human character all of whom have at least one stat at 4 so they'll do exceptionally well in their specialties. Even the one character (the Nikto) that has a stat at 1 is still doing better than my human character since his stat of 1 is more an opportunity for some interesting social rp than any kind of real draw back.

Flaws aren't stats.