My group is currently in Edge of the Empire. Eventually they are wanting to move into AoR. I was thinking about doing a one of mission that is almost like going through boot camp. If they do a good enough job, rather than giving ex, I was thinking about giving them the Recruit tree.

What do you guys think?

Giving each player a free spec like the recruit could be a bit heavy handed, if its a one off that could lead in to a campaign then you could give the group a duty rank upgrade instead, so they could get equipment upgrade's.

If the player's earn the exp required to to buy a 2nd spec then you could point them to the recruit if that's how you want the player's go down that path, or even you could make them start as recruits, so they could pick the skills they think would be useful and fun to have.

I personally like the idea, as Recruit is an interesting tree that's rarely enticing enough to pick up unless you're really desperate for those career skills, but one thing to keep in mind is that some characters will benefit from it a lot more than others. The Colonist will gain a great deal of versatility just by having it and picking up a couple of cheap talents, while the Hired Gun will get very little from it without investing heavily into talents. If you have combat specialists in the group that don't stand to benefit much from the extra career skills offered by Recruit, you might consider letting them pick up an in-career spec instead. Just have the drill sergeant pull them aside and say "You obviously know the right end of a gun and how not to blow yourself up with a grenade. Let's get you into some specialist training."

I personally like the idea, as Recruit is an interesting tree that's rarely enticing enough to pick up unless you're really desperate for those career skills, but one thing to keep in mind is that some characters will benefit from it a lot more than others. The Colonist will gain a great deal of versatility just by having it and picking up a couple of cheap talents, while the Hired Gun will get very little from it without investing heavily into talents. If you have combat specialists in the group that don't stand to benefit much from the extra career skills offered by Recruit, you might consider letting them pick up an in-career spec instead. Just have the drill sergeant pull them aside and say "You obviously know the right end of a gun and how not to blow yourself up with a grenade. Let's get you into some specialist training."

I currently have a bounty hunter (assassin), a technician (out law tech), a scout (medic), and a colonist (politio).

I'm not sure giving them the Recruit tree instead of XP is a great idea. It's a bit like giving them each a specific amount of XP, which might vary from PC to PC depending on many other specs they already own, and telling them they are only allowed to buy the Recruit spec with it.

I would give them their due XP as usual, but then gift them the Recruit tree on top of it. Or, instead of the Recruit tree, allow each player to gain one Age of Rebellion spec of their choice for free. Then narrate what they picked as the sort of training they individually received in their respective Rebel "boot camps."

Handing out some bonus Duty is a good choice as well. Or let the characters root through the Rebel armory/store for something they want. Limit it to, say, 800 credits and Rarity 6, one item only.

Or, give them their choice of their first mission for the Rebellion. Draw them into the mission briefing room and have the commander talk about an orchestrated plan involving three different teams doing three different sorts of actions. As the best of the latest class of recruits, the commander gives them first choice.

But I wouldn't "give" them something they can spend XP on instead of XP. To me it feels like you're adjudicating how they spend XP.

I did similar by asking everyone in my group to be Force Sensitive, so they had the option of FSEx or FSEm for free. That was at chargen though. It really depends on how valuable Recruit is to everybody. If they can all get the same value and it works for the campaign, then it shouldn't be a problem. But faces and techies are likely to get more out of it than grunts and shooters, so some of your group might feel cheated. Also, Recruit is really only a gateway to other things. It doesn't come with any benefits from having taken it, you have to spend more (on the new bonus career skills, or taking a talent that adds more career skills) before it actually does something for you.

I would give them their due XP as usual, but then gift them the Recruit tree on top of it. Or, instead of the Recruit tree, allow each player to gain one Age of Rebellion spec of their choice for free. Then narrate what they picked as the sort of training they individually received in their respective Rebel "boot camps."

This seems the best option, just adding Recruit (or the player's choice equivalent) to the XP pool.

Maybe instead of giving them a free specialization (others have already given good reasons not to do that), say that the boot camp training gave them just enough knowledge to consider any skills they would learn there and they don't already have to be career skills *for one rank only*. So if for some reason a character didn't have Ranged (Light), the first point of it is considered a career skill, thus lower XP cost.

Heck, if you're feeling particularly generous, you could let them improve skills they already have for reduced cost (though I can't see going that far, since boot camp is very basic instruction and if you already know hand to hand or rifle marksmanship, you're not going to gain as much as someone who's never held a rifle and only been in one fight their entire life).

The way this system is set up, though, I don't know if I'd even do that.

Right now everyone only has one specialization, so picking it up would only be 20 XP. Plus I don't think it would suddenly make any one player OP.

If you do "force" the Recruit spec on everyone then I would suggest making Recruit not count towards there Spec count when buying a new Spec, then everyone would get a "free" spec that doesn't effect the character's and the way xp is spent.

Rather than the full Recruit Specialization, you could consider granting them a free rank of Well Rounded.

Rather than the full Recruit Specialization, you could consider granting them a free rank of Well Rounded.

That's a good idea. A rank of Well Rounded lets your Technician and Colonist get some basic combat skills as career skills, and the Scout and Bounty Hunter can pick up some skill that they really feel should be on their list already but isn't (there's always something). Maybe pair it with 10 XP, so if they haven't invested in the skills yet, they can buy an initial rank.

Rather than the full Recruit Specialization, you could consider granting them a free rank of Well Rounded.

I like this idea. This is probability the way I'll go.

I think giving them a free tree for doing an entire story mission (which might be several sessions depending on how involved your one off is), is a perfectly valid plan. As others have pointed out, it's basically the same as giving them 20ish XP anyway, but simply controlling how it's spent. Which, I don't know how much xp you normally give in a session, but 20xp isn't that much, that's potentially one night's reward.

So yeah, access to the tree itself as a reward seems perfectly reasonable to me, perhaps also give them all the Duty mechanic at the end, to signify their official inclusion into the Rebellion. Maybe give them a little extra on top of that. If they are a gear heavy team, and rely on their weapons or whatever a lot, perhaps give them a free mod, as the Rebellion techs upgrade their stuff a bit so they are more effective in battle.

I mean, let's use the bits from Rogue One that we've seen in the trailers, as that's sort of comparable to this. They find this little firebrand who is off doing wacky stuff on her own, and decide to bring her into the rebellion. So, basically day one, she's got access to their equipment (which is likely WAAAY better than anything she was using), a ship, a TEAM (who also have their own equipment), and the support of an entire rebel faction. And as far as I can tell from the trailers, she doesn't actually DO anything to earn that. They think she's got a lot of potential, and so they toss stuff at her and hope it works.

So I don't think it's out of character for the Rebellion, to run some people through basic training, and once they get out the other side, to have access to a significant improvement in their situation. Hell that's pretty much how it actually works in the military. "Ok, so you didn't screw up and wash out. Now we will train you in a specific field of expertise, and give you the equipment you need to complete your objectives that we assign you."

So, giving them the class (read as finishing boot), and then some improved gear (to reflect being awarded Duty in the first place), seems reasonable to me. Make it obvious what the benefits of joining a military faction are.

Going WAY back to the original post, I think giving the players the Recruit Tree is an awesome idea.

I'm recommend XP and the Recruit Tree . . .

But I'm a player.

Going WAY back to the original post, I think giving the players the Recruit Tree is an awesome idea.

I'm recommend XP and the Recruit Tree . . .

But I'm a player.

Well the OP was specifically talking about rewards other than XP Which is why I said giving them things like a slight equipment upgrade, along with the talent tree would seem fitting to me. I mean, if I'm the head of a military group, and I just got a ragtag group of misfits through my basic training for the Big War, I'd make sure they had at least some decent stuff to fight with.

Obviously, these are PC's, and they usually try to have the shiniest lewt possible, but I don't know how credit flush this group is. Given the general theme of Edge is that the party is usually scrounging for cash at any given time, they might not have a lot of good gear to work with. Or possibly have a decent base set, but it could really benefit from some modifications that they simply can't afford yet. So give them a mod installed for free on an item of their choice, Give them a slicer kit or medical kit as basic gear if they don't already have one, make them feel like there is an actual benefit (tangible that is) for working with these guys. Not just a new opportunity to get shot at per their orders.

If you do "force" the Recruit spec on everyone then I would suggest making Recruit not count to would there Spec count when buying a new Spec, then everyone would get a "free" spec that doesn't effect the character's and the way xp is spent.

That's basically exactly what I did and it worked pretty well. 2 of my 4 players took that choice, the other two took the 20 XP.

Rather than the full Recruit Specialization, you could consider granting them a free rank of Well Rounded.

Thats also a great idea, really like it.

What do you guys think?

I have no issue with this

Source: did it in my game, ran them through a boot camp then gave them the Recruit tree for free. The game didnt implode and nobody is super overpowered for it.

a good plan that I've used in the past as well. I've also given free force ratings, free ranks in a skill, and debating about a free stat bump in the near future.

a good plan that I've used in the past as well. I've also given free force ratings, free ranks in a skill, and debating about a free stat bump in the near future.

Okay by "Stat" do you mean a characteristic like Brawn, Agility, or Intellect?

NO, no no no no no no no no! Don't do that!

Those characteristics are expensive and growth in those areas should be very rare.

Recruit is a natural option for someone branching out into military duty, but the way that the Rebellion works doesn't necessarily mandate it - and someone going for military training might prefer one of the Soldier specializations instead, so I wouldn't simply hand that to them.

Well-Rounded is an option (although I don't think it has multiple ranks, which may create an issue for someone who already has it, or who gets a tree later that includes it). An even simpler thing to do is allow purchase of relevant skills at-cost during the training period rather than applying the usual 5 XP surcharge; it'll let each player decide how much they want to invest in those skills and which if any fit the characters' theme.