I am going to be running my RPG group through Under a Black Sun and was wondering if anyone had any idea how long it "typically" takes to run. I have a group of 5 that I game with regularly. They are mostly used to D&D5e and Pathfinder, though we did a summer of Star Wars WEG a year ago. Most are going to be totally new to the FFG system. Anyway, any thoughts from past experiences that you are willing to share?

It took us about 4 hours to play through it. But if your players are new to the system, it may take an addition 1-2 hours. If you know the rules pretty well, and know enough about what each character to do so you can offer guidance, it may not take too much longer.

I had a group run it in, hmmm let me think...5 sessions I think? of 3hrs each.
My current group which has stalled due to work, is 2 sessions in. I expect they could do it in 5 or less, depending on what they decide to do with the information. And what and/or how many locations they hit.
This group is only 3 people though, so there will probably be less monkeying about. But when they run up to trouble, it could slow them down.

I would aim for upwards of 15hrs, but it can def be done in less than that. It's really about how smart they play it.

Seems my groups tend to do too much lol

Spoiler because of story content:

/spoiler

I don't want to cannibalize this topic, but since it is about "Under a Black Sun": Did anybody elaborate on how the characters get on Coruscant and how they get into the facility where the adventure starts?

I'll rework the adventure (this time very much, for example the reasons why they are looking for the information are totally different) to fit into my campaign, but some advices how the characters get there are appreciated.

/endspoiler

Edit: What are the spoiler tags here?

The adventure was designed as a one-shot that could be run in a con or FLGS for strangers. Because of that, it did not delve deeply in to how the PCs made it to Coruscant. It simply opened up with the premise and threw the players right into the action.

It's important to remember that this adventure was written around the first Year EotE was out. They were still trying to get people interested in the game and trying to attract new players. This was an adventure they released for Free RPG day for that purpose.

Thanks for the information, kaosoe. But my question stands non the less ;-) .

Thank you for the advise, everyone. With the comments above and my own reading, I am betting I will need a couple of 3-4 hour sessions to get through it. I was originally going to flesh out things like the opening chase with vehicle stats and such, but I think I am going to stick to the more slimmed-down system the adventure comes with.

As for getting the characters into the situation, I am treating this as a one-shot, so I am personally not fretting too much about this. Even when I am running a campaign, though, I tend to take my cue from the old WEG games and drop character right into the action, using an opening crawl and scripted dialogue at the top that I give to the players to set up the backstory they need. In the script I am doing for UaBS, The characters are nervously and impatiently waiting for Jovel to finish getting the data and mentioning that they have to rush to Chopper's to get it there and how they were given this gig by their contact on Socorro who has an in with the Pykes. They also mention how they would use their cut to pay down their various Obligations. Just as Jovel says she has the data, the alarm goes off, and they start running and saying that they should need to get to their speeder that is waiting for them. The script ends with Sinoca saying, " I told you I had a bad feeling about - " before TreyEssek shouts, "Shut up!" and then we pick up with the adventure.

I used to think the scripts were corny, but I then realized they were great ways to steer players into he adventure and start to invest them the stakes while providing background and context. Seam, maybe something like this can help you flesh things out for you without having to spend too much time bending an existing plotline.

Thanks again for the words of wisdom. Just thought I would post that in one 3-hour session, we were able to get through the opening chase and scene at Chopper's, Umbra, and Spyder with the party now skulking through Zelcomm Tower. Not bad. The party decided not to play sabaac at Spyder, but have had some good interactions with the NPCs. They got the dice system by the end of the night and really enjoyed the narrative system. In the initial speeder chase, two of the character (Mawtee and Tray) elected to use what was left of their droid driver as cover from the pursuing thugs on speeders and then threw it (combined action Ranged-Light and Athletics rolls) to take out two of the pursuing bikes. They got pretty creative as the night went on with deciding how to spend their Advantages and got into the idea of narratively describing exactly what happened that they were able to spend Advantage into a Boost die to help the next PC in a fight. All in all, a good night had by all!