Hello, FFG Community! I’m a stay-at-home mom and fan of Star Wars. I’ve visited the forums and think this is the right place to post introductions and questions, right?

Before school re-started, my teenage son and I played the Edge of the Empire Beginner Box Set at our local comic book store. We enjoyed it and look to build on this hobby. My partner and I have decades of (LA)RPing experience across lots of games.

My son has Asperger’s Syndrome and attends a vocational aptitude high school. He’s made a lot of friends despite some social challenges and he wants to invite his school chums to play. After talking with their parents, we add (at least) two more teens as long as we try a “PG-13” level of play (and kids do their homework, keep noses clean, etc.).

We began play with “Session Zero” on Saturday. I’ll GM most of the adventures after school once a week for about 90 minutes/2 hours. We’ve one dice app (my phone) and another set of SWRPG dice, snacks, pencils, paper, etc.

We bought the Core Edge of the Empire and Special Modifications * books. I also bought the Scum and Villainy Adversary Deck since it seemed cheaper than any Adventure book to get more NPCs. They’ll start by answering service repairs from that deck's Rivals, who secretly work for an as of yet unknown patron -a Hutt Crime Lord with its own droids and security systems repair needs TBD in the future.

Will an all Technician party work well? With three to four players, what specializations and/or species might you suggest to maintain individuality as well as party cohesion? Which starship may work best for this starting group (and that might also be a good place for their mechanics workshop in the future)? Should I bump up their XP and credits to start – if so, by how much? Having played Shadowrun, I’m initially leery about Slicers maybe needing too much 1 on 1 adventure time…should I be as worried in this system?

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* - Re: Special Modifications. The kids want to play themselves, even as aliens or droids, in the Star Wars universe. This means using their vo-tech skills with a lot of science-fiction mechanics in game. My son’s therapist would like to see how playing the game helps with unplanned social encounters. His Career Counselor will accept a “book report” on the differences between a Star Wars Technician versus a real-life technical job with sample resumes. This book looks like a winner!

First of all, welcome to the forums as well as the hobby. You'll never find a more helpful hive of players and GMs.

An all Technician group should operate just fine. I'm away from my books right now, but from what I recall you can get a good spectrum of skills going if everyone plays a different Specialization within the Career. That said, this is a system that doesn't rely on "balance" in a way that D&D or Shadowrun might. Special Modifications has rules for running slicing and other mechanical challenges in the same structured time as combat, and with a little imagination you can make the same conversion for social challenges.

As for bumping XP, that's your call, but I generally recommend you should start with the basic XP, especially if you have brand new players. In my experience, new players -- even if they have experience with other RPGs -- don't yet grasp how they want to spend XP, and starting them at Knight level (+150 XP) or below usually leads to characters they're lukewarm (at best) about playing. Besides, vanilla starting characters are still capable of doing some pretty awesome stuff, so it's not like their characters won't be competent.

I'd say an all-Tech group should work just fine, as mentioned, they each might want to start with different specializations for the sake of variety (say, a Mechanic, a Slicer, and a Droid Tech, just as an example).

Although it was lighthearted and decidedly outside continuity (both canon and Legends), you could certainly look to elements of the Freemaker Adventures for ideas on how to get an all Tech group into trouble.

If you don't mind purchasing a few more books. There are a number of tech specializations that also handle other roles in the party.

For instance in Stay on Target, the Rigger is a good tech/pilot spec and in Force and Destiny Core Rulebook, the Artisan is a good Tech/Force Sensitive (though these could also be achieved by encouraging your players to invest in more than one spec for diversification).

Keep us up-to-date on the progress of the games. This sounds like a really interesting opportunity.

I like running and playing in single specialization groups. Most "well balanced" parties tend to feel like a mishmash, where character associations can feel forced. As mentioned above, make sure they pick different specializations. And maybe encourage some of them to take a second specialization to change their focus.

Also, best mom ever.

This thread might be interesting to check over. This article I found on d20radio.com might be useful.

kaosoe already mentioned Stay on Target , which I was going to bring up. That book also has some nice gear for Technicians, like the custom tool kit and the workshop manuals. I should also point out that Modder and Rigger are like soul mates, and I don't personally believe that soul mates are a thing that exists; they are really complimentary. A few other thoughts:

• Dangerous Covenants has the Demolitionist, which uses Mechanics, and obviously focuses on explosives. The book itself contains more detail on explosives, but the rest is mostly combat-oriented material.
• If you have a player really interested in armor, Special Modifications does not include the armor crafting rules. You can find that in Keeping the Peace ; other than that and several nice armor attachments, KtP doesn't offer much appealing to a Technician, unless one wants to eventually become Force-sensitive, in which case Armorer is right up their alley.
• If you have a person interested in Cyber Tech, Lords of Nal Hutta has a lot of cybernetics. As much or more than SM? Not sure, but close.
• Speaking of, Lords of Nal Hutta , Suns of Fortune , and Strongholds of Resistance offer nice aides to game masters building their own stories. They are very nice world building aides if you don't have much knowledge to work with. Nexus of Power less so in your circumstance, I would say.
• To be honest, the Beyond the Rim adventure module is an entire quest to find lost technology for a quasi-legal tech company. Sure, there's a hefty chase sequence at the start, and a dangerous trek through the jungle in the middle, but I'm sure a team of techs can make use of it. More Cyber Tech stuff along the way as well.

If I were in your shoes, I an still think of some pretty fun adventures that are pretty epic in scale, although some of my ideas might break the conventions and not be "Star Wars-y" enough for people, and lean on more conventional science fiction where usually Star Wars is space fantasy.

Full-size droid revolutions are not unheard of in Star Wars.

• A droid-operated factory has gone haywire and has been secretly producing legions of droids ready to overthrow the system, and the PCs are the only ones who know about it, and must stop them at the source.
• A wannabe warlord on a poor planet is trying to resurrect a Clone Wars-era battle droid army, and the players have race to stop the reactivation sequence or sabotage the droids.

Large starships controlled and operated entirely by droid brains exist, not to mention the Silentium, an entire species of ship-sized robotic lifeforms.

• The Separatists used to produce large warships operated completely by droid brains. Most were deactivated, but one was reactivated/remained active. Years of entropy have driven it rampant, and has become a thinking weapon, destroying everything in its path and on a course for a nearby colony.
• The Nerfworks is a think tank jointly funded by Corellian Engineering and Loronar Corporation, known to produce automated ships, recently had a malfunction on one of their test models and it jumped to hyperspace. The PCs have been quietly hired to retrieve it before it disappears completely.
• The Silentium are a rumored race of peaceful living machines, and the PCs are searching for them to develop new stuff. Alternatively, a rogue Silentium is on a deadly crusade to destroy all organic life.

An entire droid planet is also a thing.

• The PCs have been hired to track down the fabled droid planet M4-78 for research reasons, although the employer may not be as innocuous as they present themselves.

Those are just things I would do.

No advice in particular right now, but welcome to the forums!

Will an all Technician party work well? With three to four players, what specializations and/or species might you suggest to maintain individuality as well as party cohesion?

I don't see why not. Four players, six careers, plenty of room not to step on each other's toes - the only place there might be some overlap would be the Signature Abilities - once you've been running long enough.

You might want to consider one of the other tech minded careers*, like the three from AoR or the ones from F&D, or the Gadgeteer from the Bounty Hunter.

* And yes, I know you only have the two books, but the trees themselves are easy enough to find and should give you a good idea of "hey, I really like this tree! This might be a worthy investment."

Which starship may work best for this starting group (and that might also be a good place for their mechanics workshop in the future)?

Oh, you gotta go YT-1300. It's one of the most iconic ships in fiction, and the kids will love it. (plus plenty of hard points for modifications down the road)

Should I bump up their XP and credits to start – if so, by how much?

For the first time out, learning the system, I'd leave them as-is. Oh sure, you could throw 150 points at them and let them buy 4 tiers down their tree, but that will just overwhelm with choice. Let them learn what everything does, one game at a time, as they earn it. If anything I'd be heavy handed with the earned XP instead of handing it out straight out of the gate.

What everyone else said.

Welcome to the forum, and have fun!

I can imagine a team of Repo Agents that are all Mechanics of one sort or another.

You’d need a Slicer to break into the computer systems of the delinquents who haven’t made their high interest rate loan payments, or to find them in the first place.

You’d need a Technician to break the physical security of the ship itself, as well as hotwiring the ship as quickly as possible so that they can take the ship back to the “rightful” owners.

So, yeah — lots of hijinks can ensue.

As far as which starship? As Desslok mentioned, the YT-1300 is a good choice. But depending on what you want to do, the Wayfarer could be good, almost as a mobile repair dock. It is larger, and can't dogfight the way a YT-1300 can, but the extra space can be useful, especially for techs.

A future investment should be Far Horizons. They sound like they will need the Homestead rules. You could rule the Homestead to be in their ship, especially if you use the Wayfarer.

As far as which starship? As Desslok mentioned, the YT-1300 is a good choice. But depending on what you want to do, the Wayfarer could be good, almost as a mobile repair dock. It is larger, and can't dogfight the way a YT-1300 can, but the extra space can be useful, especially for techs.

A future investment should be Far Horizons. They sound like they will need the Homestead rules. You could rule the Homestead to be in their ship, especially if you use the Wayfarer.

Seconding props for the Wayfarer. It's the ship in use in the campaign I currently run. It may be a slow ship, but the design and execution are great.

For all techs, the L-2783 deep space recovery vessel in Special Modifications might be worth a look, too.

I would suggest diversity in Characteristics for your group, sure everyone will want an Intellect of 4. But because of the way skill pools are built in this system a Characteristic of 4 with 2 Skill Ranks is the same pool of dice as a Characteristic of 2 and 4 Skill ranks (ie 4 Int + 2 Mechanics = 2 Int + 4 Mechanics = 2 Ability & 2 Proficiency)

So if a character wants to have a good Mechanics roll, but doesn't care for any of the other Intellect related skills then they can spend XP elsewhere for a different flavour of Technician. Gadgeteer is a good example of this, where they really need a good Brawn or Agility (preferably both!) for combat, and a decent Willpower for Coercion, plus Cunning has a lot of uses. To add a high intellect into the mix is impossible.

I would also encourage the players to have a 4 in one Characteristic. That extra dice sets the tone of that character, highlighting that they are very good at anything to do with that skill, even without training. The mechanical effect of this is to make cinematic events more cinematic, they can pull off big stunts. If everyone focuses on different Characteristics then the group will be capable of more diverse encounters.

Yes, it will work nicely. Might be easy to assume one might want to play an R2 unit, another a 3PO protocol droid. Movie-familiar races are good. A Jawa would be cool. You may have to ad-lib the stats since I don't think the race may be covered in a book yet. Same with a ship....a Falcon YT model.

Gadgeteer might be a nice complimentary class since they can use their technical skills to upgrade armor and weapons. Very vo-tech.

I played Shadowrun, too. Slicers can do some cool things aboard starships, too. Cause others weapons or shield to not function. I am not a big fan of the Slicer Tree and wouldn't focus on working against other slicers. Use him more as someone who is good at computer hacking and computers instead of those 1-on-1 slicer vs slicer scenarios.

One of the biggest flexibilities this system allows is splitting the party. You can have 3 or 4 different elements going on in a scene in entirely different locations, but because each round in a turn is a non specific length of time it allows for great "Oceans 11" style adventure structures.

I can imagine a team of Repo Agents that are all Mechanics of one sort or another.

Well, there's my next campaign.

Also, obligatory:

All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me!

We run a campaign with 2/3 are technicians, this can work fine just be sure that everyone choose a specialisation that don't overlap too much (slicer, mechanic, modder, droid tech for exemple) and spend skill point accordingly to this choice. Don't make a too combat heavy scenario because they will lack high rank in combat skill. May be they will be low on social skill too, but an above average presence/cunning for at least 1 character will be enough.

Random advice for new GM/player (especialy with teen) : Let each player read the result of his dices and make the soustraction of opposite symbole. It's not really nice when another player interpret the result for the one who throw the dice ...

Wow- I'm humbled by the outpouring of encouragement and good suggestions! Thank you to everyone who read and replied. You've given me much to ponder.

With my son, I shared how I (finally) registered for an account on these forums. Reading your replies, he leapt into action! He asked if our players could visit after dinner, and promised to finish ALL laundry chores I had planned (to do myself). So, I brought books to the dining room table and made "Death Star" popcorn balls as snacks.

Earlier, I mentioned how a teacher would consider my son's SWRPG experience as a 'book report' of sorts. Well, he opened a new notebook and began writing to chronicle his experience with players, rules, and doodles. I don't think FFG ever really expected their game to have an academic influence, but it exists in our world!

The kids visited from 7:30 til 9ish last night, and I drove them home afterwards. What follows are some questions, ideas, and opportunities for more community feedback.

House Rule:

All players must maintain good standing, like in sports, to remain a part of the game. School grades, attendance, etc. will be considered. I will talk regularly with parents to keep them updated on time changes, bad weather, and overall participation/story outcomes to keep them in the proverbial loop.

House Rule:

No favoritism. While I GM my son and some players are closer friends to each other over others, nobody gets any in-game breaks. The kids know that I prefer to 'parent-first' over being their 'friends,' and this includes my son.

House Rule:

Treat everyone with respect, and let the person who rolled the dice interpret the results with the option to ask for help if needed or they draw a blank. No player-versus-player battles will happen; I'll adjudicate that all such participants will lose more than they hope to gain.

House Rule:

Only shared resources can be used. Currently, this means the Edge of the Empire Core Rules and Special Modifications sourcebook. Players can bring other resources to the table for consideration, like their own purchases or errata they find. Two kids pooled their money and offered it to me to buy a new book, with their parents' permission (they actually wrote a note, and consider $50 'payment' for quasi-babysitting). I can buy a book (or more?) - so help me prioritize! Far Horizons? Stay on Target? Between their stores, our local comic book store can order stuff for us if not already on shelves, and I get my subscription discount, too (10%)!

NOTE: I called, and Far Horizons is in stock today, if I want it.

House Rule:

Players clean up after themselves after each session. I will build-in ten minutes each session for this to happen. For this, they get an XP, as well as about 10 per week when we game for a little less than two hours.

Any other suggestions for general house rules?

EDIT because adding Nytwyng's suggestion of no electronics at the table, aside from MY cell phone with the dice app.

All seem pretty reasonable.

To give some perspective on your buying power with that $50 offer (which is quite nice of them! And there's a joke in there somewhere about even GMing for adults being "quasi-babysitting" , SRP for the career books like Far Horizons or Stay on Target is $29.95, while SRP for the sector books ( Suns of Fortune , Lords of Nal Hutta , etc) is $39.95. Best advice would be, assuming convenient access to the store(s), is to take a look at each of them to see which might be of the most immediate value to the campaign.

Upon reflection, with a group that age, another good house rule might be no personal electronics at the table. My son is 14, and mildly on the spectrum, as well. He plays in 2 groups that I play in (one with my wife, as well), and the one that I run. Quite by accident after his phone was broken (and still hasn't been replaced), we've found that his attention, quality of RP, and facility at translating the dice improved tremendously without a screen to shove his face in when his character wasn't actively doing anything.

Character Concepts, Backgrounds, and Obligations will be drawn from Special Modifications, too, unless someone wants to play another career.

Owing to the lack of Technicians' combat skills, one player asked if Bounty Hunter: Gadgeteer could be used. I said I will strongly consider it, and post his request to the forums. Humans, Dugs, Northern Mustafarians, Trandoshans, and Wookiees all have an option for some combat skills. Mechanics and Modders also get a rank in Brawl and Gunnery, respectively.

Is it just me, or are Edge of the Empire species - even those IN the Technician sourcebook - unusually stupid? With such a dependence on Intellect (Computers, Mechanics), not one core species nor splatbook species starts with an Intellect over 2. Sigh...

A player noticed how the Outlaw Tech has the Utinni! talent, but we have no Jawas. I searched the forums and found a pdf of the species. Are they printed anywhere else yet? Is it balanced for inclusion? Any suggestions about it, because that player has a hankerin' for Jawa after seeing the Outlaw Tech.

"Utinni!" is just a fun name for the talent. No Jawas are harmed or required for its use.

No official PC stats for a Jawa at this time. That said, a player in one of the groups I'm in has a Jawa tech using the Unofficial Species Menagerie stats (with GM approval), and it works just fine.

You may or may not want to let your prospective Jawa player know that the one in my group has a cyber-Nexu with blaster eyes as a mount.

After the kids went home and dust settled, we are likely looking at the following:

A Dug Modder who functions as our TBD starship pilot and vehicle repair specialist.

A Droid Slicer whose presence around computers as a LE-V0 model seems innocuous.

A hopeful Jawa Outlaw Tech with the Utinni! talent, at least. Feedback requested (see above) about Jawa. If no Jawa, he'll likely skip it for something else.

And one on the fence, choosing between a Droid Tech and lots of leadership to guide them, or a Bounty Hunter: Gadgeteer to add more oomph in combat. Suggestions on which may work well with the group, and suggestions on a species, too?

I'll swing by the store today after lunch and browse...oops- maybe a little later than that now! Time flies when we're having fun! I know (because I asked) they have Far Horizons on the shelf. Does that book offer any smarter species? If not, at least everyone is in the same boat regarding Intellect and ranged weapon career skills.

I'll post later today or tomorrow, but will still visit when I've time! Thanks again!!!