Ah. Surf Nazis Must Die. Such a great movie.

Jaws III is pretty good grounds to disown someone. It's probably a state law, somewhere.

Sorry if this is off topic.

I wanna speak up for Marrcy & That Penguin (Desslok). this forum is really friendly and them sending threads off topic can really help with that. No seriously sometime a Marrcy/Desslok derailment can really cut the tension.

Also welcome to the forums and the game. One thing you may find useful if you have the time is OggDudes character generator. If you have the time is because it only prints the rules and not any of the description for copyright reasons.) However one of the things it does do is print dice pools next to skills to make it easier for the players.

Anything else you need just ask I am sure we will answer.

We could probably do with someone telling people to cut the shenanigans out every once in a while. (Preferably without the thread locks and banhammers.)

So cut it out, everybody, whatever it is that you may or may not be partaking in.

Okay fine but where am I going to put all this gunpowder?!

Thanks for your collective support. I'm more than a little embarrassed by my behavior, but I hope it'll remind me to be less critical of others when I, myself, am new here.

***ON TOPIC: My Trip to the Store!***

It's a short drive for me. To prevent me from being overwhelmed, I chose this strategy for today-

Stick to Edge of the Empire books. Since my son and I have already played the EotE boxed set, I didn't want to have him replay it (although, I image we could take a million new directions). I didn't want to confuse other players with Force users, so opted to steer clear of Force and Destiny titles for the group (me? I may want to dabble more in the Force once I can tread water with EotE CRB). Likewise, Duty and the Rebellion may be difficult to juggle; I don't know yet, so I avoided those titles for purchasing consideration today. I still looked at everything available, but knew the money would be spent on EotE-related products before another product.

The owner welcomed me to browse the books because he knew I'd be buying something today. He even brought me a soda! He's well known and liked for his customer service, which is a reason my son and I participated in the boxed set adventure at the end of summer.

So, what did I get? I bought the EotE GM Screen and Far Horizons. The GM Kit shouldn’t be hard to explain, but I chose Far Horizons too because it offers some non-lethal weapons, lots of droids to encounter, and the (Entrepreneur) specializations seem well-rounded. The Gran’s high Presence and Negotiation may better fit the possible droid tech who wants to make, sell, and use droids in many different situations. I will recommend this species to the player on the fence about their character. I also like the Improving Station modular encounter, and it seems to fit well with a Hutt Crime boss I already have from my one adversary deck! The large sound system looks like something this party may have fun fixing, repairing, etc., too.

Question: Give up a ship? Homesteads can have mechanics shops, while businesses seem less robust in this way. Either option gives up a starship, though. In the adventure I mentioned, players lose their ship from the beginning, so maybe this is something they can recoup later in the game (with directions mentioned how to do it)? I think I could alter/expand the adventure as to pick up after the loss of their ship to quarantine . Would this work?

If I had to do-over, I might opt for Age of Rebellion and the new Soldier book. The species look rough (literally), but the solider career seems diverse with lots of options.

TL;DR: I bought Far Horizons because of its many options.

I did want to see Star Wars in 1977, and did (seems a lot of us here were 7 then!). Many thanks to my Mum though for queuing up with me three times before we actually got to see it!

Much easier now you can reserve seats, but we'd never experienced queues that long!

Thanks for your collective support. I'm more than a little embarrassed by my behavior, but I hope it'll remind me to be less critical of others when I, myself, am new here.

***ON TOPIC: My Trip to the Store!***

It's a short drive for me. To prevent me from being overwhelmed, I chose this strategy for today-

Stick to Edge of the Empire books. Since my son and I have already played the EotE boxed set, I didn't want to have him replay it (although, I image we could take a million new directions). I didn't want to confuse other players with Force users, so opted to steer clear of Force and Destiny titles for the group (me? I may want to dabble more in the Force once I can tread water with EotE CRB). Likewise, Duty and the Rebellion may be difficult to juggle; I don't know yet, so I avoided those titles for purchasing consideration today. I still looked at everything available, but knew the money would be spent on EotE-related products before another product.

The owner welcomed me to browse the books because he knew I'd be buying something today. He even brought me a soda! He's well known and liked for his customer service, which is a reason my son and I participated in the boxed set adventure at the end of summer.

So, what did I get? I bought the EotE GM Screen and Far Horizons. The GM Kit shouldn’t be hard to explain, but I chose Far Horizons too because it offers some non-lethal weapons, lots of droids to encounter, and the (Entrepreneur) specializations seem well-rounded. The Gran’s high Presence and Negotiation may better fit the possible droid tech who wants to make, sell, and use droids in many different situations. I will recommend this species to the player on the fence about their character. I also like the Improving Station modular encounter, and it seems to fit well with a Hutt Crime boss I already have from my one adversary deck! The large sound system looks like something this party may have fun fixing, repairing, etc., too.

Question: Give up a ship? Homesteads can have mechanics shops, while businesses seem less robust in this way. Either option gives up a starship, though. In the adventure I mentioned, players lose their ship from the beginning, so maybe this is something they can recoup later in the game (with directions mentioned how to do it)? I think I could alter/expand the adventure as to pick up after the loss of their ship to quarantine . Would this work?

If I had to do-over, I might opt for Age of Rebellion and the new Soldier book. The species look rough (literally), but the solider career seems diverse with lots of options.

TL;DR: I bought Far Horizons because of its many options.

Don't feel constrained to choose the homestead or a ship. As the GM, you can declare they have both, one tied to the other. Toss a little more Obligation their way to have both, to signify a backer who enabled both, so they're now beholden to provide services, payments, and/or other favors to.

I believe Far Horizons adds the "Contracted" Obligation. The business/ship may be the party's thing, while the other may be a part of the contract; they have it, as long as they fulfill their contract.

You might want to cross-reference the official errata .

I'm more than a little embarrassed by my behavior,

Ah, it's a classic movie trope that pals always start off on the wrong foot! It's like 'Trains Planes and Automobiles' for sci-fi nerds!

I try to be a cheery smartass, so when I find I'm being a snarky smartass, I swiftly apologise.

And little otherwise embarrasses me. I've been making a fool of myself in front of players for 35 years now. When you've tried rapping in front of your friends in an RPG, you lose any sense of shame.

The species look rough (literally) .

Sore

Point

I did want to see Star Wars in 1977, and did (seems a lot of us here were 7 then!).

*silently puts her hand up* (and yes, the film I saw at seven was called 'Star Wars'! Not 'Episode 77 or A New Hope' or whatever you kids call it these days!)

My dad didn't much care for sci-fi, but after we watched it (in a grotty Newport cinema that's been shut now for nearly 40 years) he turned to my mom and said 'I'm very impressed with that actor who played Captain Solo. I think we're going to see a lot more of him'. Dad always could pick 'em.

Question: Give up a ship? Homesteads can have mechanics shops, while businesses seem less robust in this way. Either option gives up a starship, though. In the adventure I mentioned, players lose their ship from the beginning, so maybe this is something they can recoup later in the game (with directions mentioned how to do it)? I think I could alter/expand the adventure as to pick up after the loss of their ship to quarantine . Would this work?

Why not both?

We did a Homestead heavy game, an KotOR setting game during the Sith Cold War on a planet smack in the neutral zone between the two empires - so lots of Casablanca -ish intrigues and double dealings mixed with San Francisco in the old west, gold rush, lots of immigrants, land barons getting rich on the poor, crime. We had a bar that was the party resource - but my character (a core world princess on the run from her family) had a ship - because face it, it's Star Wars. You are going to want to planet hop, get into dog fights and so on.

The way we handled it? In addition to the usual obligation that everyone started with, I had some extra above and beyond the starting - Debt: Bank Loan for the Ship (she put it up as collateral when the party was strapped for cash and needed some straight away).

It worked fine, no major story issues and the world didn't spin out of control because we doubled down on the starting resource.

Or, if you like, you can always put a shop inside of a ship instead of in a homestead.

There’s a lot of things that will work in either a ship or a homestead, so you should feel free to choose the solution that works best for you.

And it could also be that the homestead *is* a ship.

Special Modifications has info on workshops in ships, too.

[...]

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

If you can, you should have 2 set of dice and don't use the app. Rolling dice is a big part of this kind of game and I find that the app take away a part of this fun.

The app will auto-cancel failure/success and advantage/threat, which can be nice at the start. But it really helps you internalize the game mechanics if you do that process yourself.

One of the narrative hints from the awesome Skill Monkey podcast episodes was to pay close attention to where each type of result comes from. So, if all your success comes from the boost dice, then you know that the assistance you got was critical to your result. Or if they come only from the yellow dice and not the green dice, then you know that your skill and training is what carried you through as opposed to your natural ability.

This kind of understanding can really help you come up with a vivid description of exactly what happens and why, by knowing where each type of result is coming from.

If you use the app, then you don’t really get a chance to do any of that.

If you use the app, then you don’t really get a chance to do any of that.

The one I use actually shows the face of each die in the roll; then it adds a summery beneath that.

The one I use actually shows the face of each die in the roll; then it adds a summery beneath that.

Yeah, but you’re still not doing all the math in your head to cancel out success/failure and advantage/threat, which is actually a key part of taking emotional ownership of the roll.

Sure, you see the dice. But someone (or something) else tells you what the total result is, and because you didn’t put any “work” into that process, you don’t feel any ownership of the results.

You might want to get the age of rebellion core rulebook for the engineer career which has mechanic, saboteur, and scientist in it, I personally prefer the engineer:mechanic over the technician:mechanic because, among other reasons the engineer provides ranged light as a career skill... and you might want to consider bounty hunter:gadgeteer it could be described/fluffed as a guy who made gadgets for bounty hunters rather than personally having gone on bounty hunts in the past

So, I hadn't noticed the custom tool kit until now, very cool, I was wondering if there are rules for a specialty tool kit, in particular one that is good (boost die) with heavy fabric (the reinforced clothing and light armor templates from keeping the peace) but bad (black die) at everything else, and hopefully lighter and cheaper, i'm pretty sure there won't be something spec'd out for light weight armor crafting but was wondering about more general rules for specialty tool kits

By the way, the op may be interested in the shistavanen (sp?) Combat utility vibroblade in forged in battle (the aor soldier book) it's basically a future tech survival knife that includes a very small emergency tool kit (you get a black die on mechanics check but at least you can attempt mechanics checks and it's only 2 enc, and it helps with survival checks too, in addition to being a melee weapon)

Well, we had session 0 on Saturday as planned. Today Tonight is Tuesday, so you might guess that I am still recovering from the fallout. Honestly, I'm not even sure where to begin to ask for redirection or help. If the kids continue to plot against themselves and me, we won't have any games. That's it, I guess. There're a lot of hurt feelings, and I'm going into mom mode more than GM. Thanks for your help, everyone. Unless I revisit this post, I doubt I'll stick around to post other stuff and just read other posts.

Well, we had session 0 on Saturday as planned. Today Tonight is Tuesday, so you might guess that I am still recovering from the fallout. Honestly, I'm not even sure where to begin to ask for redirection or help. If the kids continue to plot against themselves and me, we won't have any games. That's it, I guess. There're a lot of hurt feelings, and I'm going into mom mode more than GM. Thanks for your help, everyone. Unless I revisit this post, I doubt I'll stick around to post other stuff and just read other posts.

Ok, so what happened?

How did hurt feelings enter in?

How are they plotting against themselves and you?

Gimme something to go on, and I'll be glad to add some thoughts.

Yeah — I realize that the damage may already be done, but if you can give us some details then maybe we can still help.

EDIT: And if the details are too difficult to share publicly on this forum, then you’ve got friends here that you can contact privately.

2nd EDIT: And in case the previous comment isn’t obvious enough, I offer myself as a person who will be happy to talk to you in private, if that’s what you prefer. I’m sure there are others who would be happy to do the same, but I will allow them to identify and speak for themselves.

I won’t claim to be the best person to talk to, either in private or public, but I’m happy to offer what assistance and advice that I can. And I’m sure there are plenty of others here who feel the same.

I'm running a game for my nephews, 12 and 8 years old, sometimes they have short attention plans... the game is in the Rifts setting but using a system I created (kind of similar to 2 parts cortex plus, 1 part ffg star wars, 1 part saga, spiced with fate, weg star wars, fuzion plus my own secret sauce)... my 8 year old nephew at least once per session says his character is going to kill his older brother's character, giggles, sometimes it devolves into a wrestling match, and there's not much I can do to stop that because I'm in new mexico, they're in Virginia and i'my running this over Google hangouts. So I get the challenges of running games for kids. Autism can be a whole other challenge, I have a very mild case of Asperger syndrome (sometimes I have a real hard time understanding what people mean when they aren't being literal, and I miss a lot of subtleties/nuances of conversation), full blown autism his a whole other level of challenge.

As a piece of advice... maybe you should start them on a beginner game (there are 4 of them out there) to teach them the basic rules before they have to incorporate role playing their characters. I'm guessing that they are approaching this as a game to win or lose, and they're all trying to win... because all the games they'very previously played have winners and looser and they identify with their characters personally, this "need to win" is something a lot of gamers struggle with, it really should be expected in first time gamer kids who are playing versions of themselves. A beginner box game could be just the thing to help them separate themselves form their characters and learn to game with the objective of cooperatively telling a story rather than beating the other players.

Yikes!

Yes, go ahead and give us what details you can and perhaps you can tap the Hive Mind for assistance. At the very least, venting to other (occasionally mature) adults might be cathartic for you.