4 hours ago, k7e9 said:

That sounds similar to WFRP3ed dice packs where you only get 1 challenge die (purple in WFRP) per pack and difficulties could go up to 4-5 purple dice, but the Warhammer the start box contained about 4-5 dice packs in total. So there you had a good starting dice pool right out of the box.

If I get a regular group together I'll probably aim at getting about 4 dice packs to start with. The beginner boxes seems like a good way to do it as they contain both dice and a lot of other fun stuff, such as adventures. So after some consideration I'll probaby start by getting all the four beginner boxes, and get a feel for each game through the included adventures. Then I'll see which game I'll start collecting first.

Fist-fulls of dice should definitly be flying around the table.

It's awesome when your dice pool's so big you need two hands and dice are almost spilling from your hands. We have a nifty tray that keeps them from becoming cat toys, so we can just go full-Vegas on each roll. I love it!

On 23.1.2017 at 6:56 AM, Desslok said:

I have had zero issue with having non-Jedi being over powered or overshadowed by Jedi. Our current game has three Jedi and an engineer. And sure, the Jedi can lift heavy things with their minds and crush stormtroopers with said heavy things - but lets see them pull a non-stop pile of stuff out of their pockets with the Utility Belt talent, jury rig a Magnetic Shield to prevent a hanger bay full of hostages from venting to space with the Creative Invention Signature Ability or point out that a Dark Jedi's lightsaber hasn't had proper maintenance done to it in years and is about to fail with Bad Motivator.

We're well over 500 points and I am in no way a sidekick to the others. And you'll find that my experience with the engine is what other people are seeing too.

Why I am not surprised.

Anyway, for the dice, well the four beginner sets come with 4 packs of dice. More than those you rarely need, the interpretation of the dice roll works best and fasted when you quickly remove dice which cancel each other out and thus even if you need 2 more red challenge dice, you usually should be able to re-roll without problems nor much extra time needed.

I use 7 packs of dice at my games separated into 2 groups at each end of the table with a few in front of me (the GM), it really cuts down on the amount of dice passing, I currently have 6 players, but one teleconferences in now. I also have 2 other sets of dice in the dice pack plastic that I have put up for a gift to someone in a future where the game is out of print (I might get 2 more packs for this contingency)

I got the Force Awakens box this weekend and soon I'll get the Edge of the Empire beginner box. After looking through the box I was wondering if the other Products for the game (aside from the beginner boxes) contain tokens? To have tokens for characters and NPCs seem like a smart thing to have, especially for combat encounters. But if they are only included in the beginner boxes there's a very limited supply and not much variety.

15 hours ago, k7e9 said:

I got the Force Awakens box this weekend and soon I'll get the Edge of the Empire beginner box. After looking through the box I was wondering if the other Products for the game (aside from the beginner boxes) contain tokens? To have tokens for characters and NPCs seem like a smart thing to have, especially for combat encounters. But if they are only included in the beginner boxes there's a very limited supply and not much variety.

Only the beginner’s boxes include tokens. At least, as far as official FFG products are concerned.

There are plenty of sources for tokens that have been collected on the “Compiled Resources List” thread.

23 hours ago, bradknowles said:

There are plenty of sources for tokens that have been collected on the “Compiled Resources List” thread.

Plus, if you want something a bit more visceral, the WotC minis can still be found for reasonably cheap.

Thanks, mostly I was curious if they were included in more products. But the ones from the beginner boxes should be enough to represent PCs and NPCs in most cases. Especially if I get multiple boxes.

Cardstock paper and a 1" round scrapbooking die punch work great for creating custom tokens.

Use 1.1" x 1.1" pictures printed on the cardstock (the extra .1 just helps make sure your punch can get 100% picture), center the punch, and there you go.

I decided I preferred a little more weight to my custom tokens and had someone with access to a 3D printer make me a bunch of 1" round discs the same thickness as the cardboard ones in the beginner Games, use the same process as above, and use a simple glue stick to glue them down. The relative adhesive strength of the glue stick allows me to easily repurpose discs if I so desire. If it's an NPC that I don't anticipate using again, I just use the cardstock disc and don't bother gluing it to anything.

For the larger 2" tokens, while I haven't made any yet, I know that Avery makes 2" round labels that can be used in printers. My 3D printing source has made me a single 2" disc to experiment with.

10 hours ago, Desslok said:

Plus, if you want something a bit more visceral, the WotC minis can still be found for reasonably cheap.

Yeah my players joke that I have a minis addiction/problem, I have over 485 DIFFERENT minis plus enough duplicates to probably bring the total number into the 600-700 range (note this is counting my wotc starship minis). I bought most of them from trollandtoad.com

Just for reference....

The white, orange, and gray thing is the punch. Then, from left to right, we have an honest-to-goodness FFG Beginner Game token, a cardstock only token, and a cardstock token glued to a 3D printed disc.

I caught the punch on sale, so it was about 5-7 bucks (somewhere in there), but normal price is only about $10-12. (It says "thick" because it's designed to punch through thick material like cardboard or foam. My original idea was to use mailing labels to print on, put the labels on foam, and punch through. Foam board was too thick to physically fit into the punch. The thinner, more flexible craft foam was too soft...made for very ragged cuts.)

On 1/23/2017 at 1:01 PM, Desslok said:

HE'S OVER NINE ONE THOUSAAAAAAAND!

I'm still laughing at this!

Those are pretty awesome, Nytwyng!

12 hours ago, Simon Retold said:

Those are pretty awesome, Nytwyng!

Thanks.

I'd considered going the miniature route, but this is much cheaper, with the benefit of being quicker to produce and to customize to characters, creatures, and other objects I've found artwork for.

My preferred "tokens" are 3.75" action figures personally. I used to customize them a lot and made customs of all of the party members from the old campaigns.

11 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

My preferred "tokens" are 3.75" action figures personally. I used to customize them a lot and made customs of all of the party members from the old campaigns.

I started to do that with a couple of old campaigns. My ambition outpaced my skill (and available, suitable figures to use as a foundation).

1 hour ago, Nytwyng said:

I started to do that with a couple of old campaigns. My ambition outpaced my skill (and available, suitable figures to use as a foundation).

Well, I'm lucky there as I'm naturally artistic. I also find that, as a rule, 3.75" action figures to be easier to customize than 25mm minis, though I have done both.

4 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Well, I'm lucky there as I'm naturally artistic. I also find that, as a rule, 3.75" action figures to be easier to customize than 25mm minis, though I have done both.

I can attest to the fact that tramp customized both the 3.75" action figures and the minis. I was a player in one of his old campaigns and i've paid him to customize a handful of minis for me over the years

22 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

I can attest to the fact that tramp customized both the 3.75" action figures and the minis. I was a player in one of his old campaigns and i've paid him to customize a handful of minis for me over the years

This is the most extensively modified miniature tramp has made for me

here are the source miniatures

so despite the obvious switching of heads, the rifle was cut down to a carbine, the sith troopers left arm was repositioned, it was painted a metalic silver, and "packages"/pouches were added to both thighs.

The idea was to make the mini look a bit like this

which not coincidentally looks a lot like I did when I was 25 (and had more hair than I do now)

So I got a bit carried away when I was at my FLGS today and got the beginner box for Age of Rebellion today, so now I'm only missing the Force and Destiny beginner box then I have all four. The plan is to play the adventures from each of the games and see which is most popular with the gaming group and then start collecting that game (if we get a regular game going). I have a hunch that it'll be Edge of the Empire, at least to begin with.

How are the written adventures for EotE? Is it possible to link them together into a larger campaign? Also, is it easy to use adventures from the different games in the same campaign? Between work and the kid I seldom have time to write my own adventure material, so I tend to rely on written adventures when GMing.

Lastly, I see that there are a lot of different decks (specialization, advesary, critical hit, etc) for the games, are these just for convenience instead of looking things up in the books? Or do the decks add new elements to the game?

31 minutes ago, k7e9 said:

So I got a bit carried away when I was at my FLGS today and got the beginner box for Age of Rebellion today, so now I'm only missing the Force and Destiny beginner box then I have all four. The plan is to play the adventures from each of the games and see which is most popular with the gaming group and then start collecting that game (if we get a regular game going). I have a hunch that it'll be Edge of the Empire, at least to begin with.

How are the written adventures for EotE? Is it possible to link them together into a larger campaign? Also, is it easy to use adventures from the different games in the same campaign? Between work and the kid I seldom have time to write my own adventure material, so I tend to rely on written adventures when GMing.

Lastly, I see that there are a lot of different decks (specialization, advesary, critical hit, etc) for the games, are these just for convenience instead of looking things up in the books? Or do the decks add new elements to the game?

almost anything is "possible" in fiction/roleplaying games, but the adventures weren't explicitly designed for stringing together. However all but the first few books in the EotE line have chapter in the back about modular encounters that should help decrease prep time.

The general consensus on the decks is: get the adversary decks, skip the specialization decks, and the critical hit decks have mixed reviews. I bought 2 specialization decks, 1 signature ability deck (Hired Gun), and the first 3 adversary decks... I don't actually use ANY of them.

Adversary decks are fantastic, but, yes, primarily to concentrate search for NPC's rather than flipping through book after book. I use them all the time. They're also great for those inevitable times when your group goes off-script and you have to quickly find NPC's/adversaries for them.

Since I use OggDude's Character Generator, the specialization decks are, frankly, of no use to me, as I print out the appropriate specialization trees with the characters. I don't bother with the crit decks, either.

So far, the only pre-published adventure I've run as GM is Debts to Pay from the Gamemaster's Kit, and it went smoothly. I've ideas on using the others, but since many of my players (and I) are in other groups with a different GM, he's run some of the published adventures, and I don't want my players to roll their eyes saying, "THIS one again?" so I may skip them. I do, however, find them great for mining ideas.

And, you say you'll stick to one line...but we'll see. Seriously, though...while some do stick to one or two lines, I've found something of value in every book published so far. I have no regrets about picking them all up.

So the different decks are similar to some of the decks used in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP). Adversary decks are similar to creature cards, I find those really useful so I'll probably focus on getting those first. But are all adversaries from the books represented on cards? Or are there some that only appear in the books, or only in the decks for that matter?

Crit decks must be the equivalent of critical wound deck, except in WFRP the deck is much larger. I like the idea of using decks to randomize criticals as I find it's more visual to have a critical card, rather than writing the wound it down on the character sheet. Specialization decks sounds a bit like action cards or talents from WFRP (i.e. handy rule cards for the PCs abilities), since they are tied to specific specialization I'm guessing I could get my players to buy the deck(s) that apply to their character.

I say I'll stick to one line to convince myself to start buying into the game. But I already know that in the end I'll want everything! (as usual)

EDIT: One question regarding the beginner box adventures. Can they usually be played in one day/evening? Or are they longer than that?

On 1/27/2017 at 2:33 PM, EliasWindrider said:

I use 7 packs of dice at my games separated into 2 groups at each end of the table with a few in front of me (the GM), it really cuts down on the amount of dice passing, I currently have 6 players, but one teleconferences in now. I also have 2 other sets of dice in the dice pack plastic that I have put up for a gift to someone in a future where the game is out of print (I might get 2 more packs for this contingency)

I bought 3 packs of dice when they were available at reasonable UK prices.One for £6 (the set from a starter box that someone didn't want as they already had four sets. BARGAIN!) and two for £12. I'm pretty sure that one set for £12 was bought on ebay.usa as UK prices started going silly. The prices have leveled off a bit now but I've just gone on ebay.uk and there's a listing for £49.50 + £2.80 postage!!!!

I bought that amount for several reasons. You need five of those yellow bad boys when you're top notch in a skill I could practice working out my dice result in between early games, It meant the GM didn't have to keep knocking his screen over when he passed us dice and it made the early games run quicker as we could all roll simultaneously for initiative/perception checks etc

5 hours ago, k7e9 said:

So the different decks are similar to some of the decks used in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP). Adversary decks are similar to creature cards, I find those really useful so I'll probably focus on getting those first. But are all adversaries from the books represented on cards? Or are there some that only appear in the books, or only in the decks for that matter?

Crit decks must be the equivalent of critical wound deck, except in WFRP the deck is much larger. I like the idea of using decks to randomize criticals as I find it's more visual to have a critical card, rather than writing the wound it down on the character sheet. Specialization decks sounds a bit like action cards or talents from WFRP (i.e. handy rule cards for the PCs abilities), since they are tied to specific specialization I'm guessing I could get my players to buy the deck(s) that apply to their character.

I say I'll stick to one line to convince myself to start buying into the game. But I already know that in the end I'll want everything! (as usual)

EDIT: One question regarding the beginner box adventures. Can they usually be played in one day/evening? Or are they longer than that?

I haven't gone through to take that detailed an inventory of the adversary cards and their sources, but there's a healthy mix in each deck, bundled by theme rather than source. Note that they're print on demand, so you'll probably save yourself a lot of time chasing them down by ordering direct from FFG.

I've played 2 of the Beginner Games (AoR and EotE), and both were done in a single session. In fact, with the AoR box, we managed to bypass most of the adventure by way of the crazy plan we hatched, and were done in about an hour. Our GM was prepared with the follow-up adventure that he'd downloaded, so we moved on into that.

On ‎2017‎-‎02‎-‎05 at 11:52 AM, ExpandingUniverse said:

I bought 3 packs of dice when they were available at reasonable UK prices.One for £6 (the set from a starter box that someone didn't want as they already had four sets. BARGAIN!) and two for £12. I'm pretty sure that one set for £12 was bought on ebay.usa as UK prices started going silly. The prices have leveled off a bit now but I've just gone on ebay.uk and there's a listing for £49.50 + £2.80 postage!!!!

I bought that amount for several reasons. You need five of those yellow bad boys when you're top notch in a skill I could practice working out my dice result in between early games, It meant the GM didn't have to keep knocking his screen over when he passed us dice and it made the early games run quicker as we could all roll simultaneously for initiative/perception checks etc

I have noticed that there's a distinct lack of dice in any of the online and physical stores here in Sweden. I'm guessing it's not better anywhere else. Strangely WFRP had the same issue with extreme prices on the dice (I was an WFRP early adopter, so I did not have that problem though). You'd think FFG would learn to make enough dice to cover the need.

Anyways I'll soon get the fourth beginner box, and then I'll have 4 sets of dice total, which I hope should be enough to begin with. Hopefully FFG will restock the dice so I can pick up a few more packs.

The same seems to be the case for the core rulebooks (and some of the other books as well). But it seems that some re-prints are on the boat at least.

22 hours ago, Nytwyng said:

I haven't gone through to take that detailed an inventory of the adversary cards and their sources, but there's a healthy mix in each deck, bundled by theme rather than source. Note that they're print on demand, so you'll probably save yourself a lot of time chasing them down by ordering direct from FFG.

I've played 2 of the Beginner Games (AoR and EotE), and both were done in a single session. In fact, with the AoR box, we managed to bypass most of the adventure by way of the crazy plan we hatched, and were done in about an hour. Our GM was prepared with the follow-up adventure that he'd downloaded, so we moved on into that.

Regrettably I'm located in Sweden and the shipping costs are quite high (about $20). Luckey for me several Swedish gaming stores stock FFG print on demand products, so I can usually get them at a resonable price.

Good to know, I'll prepare a backup adventure if we move through one of the beginner adventures too swiftly. Thanks!