First time GMing, advice for a wacky party?

By Obi-Wan Cannoli, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

So I recently started Gming for a new party, which so far has a 224232 kel dor seer, who has the range and hurl upgrades for move and sense with maybe one of the defensive upgrades. I also gave him a "force crafted quaterstaff" ( a truncheon with a linked 1 rating, cortisis, defensive, And -1 damage and +1 encumberance). He said he wants to eventually go down the chirrut Îmwe route. He also has concealing robes. There's another character who is an 133312 droid explorer:driver who has a slugthrower rifle with weapon sling and macrobinoculors and the core rule book environmental gear. He has a couple other exploration items I think but don't really remember. The third PC is a 222413 politico with the galactic domination as his motivation and currently going down the scathing trade side of the tree. He asked for an electropole which I didn't know where to find (probably in nexus of power i guess) so I just gave him a force pike. He didn't want any other equipment. None of them have any ranks in any combat skills, but the seer has the hurl upgrade and a good discipline pool, though is only force rating one. I'm not sure yet how I want to handle npc reactions to obvious force use. It is definitely going to be a edge of the empire style campaign, and I don't think I want to have nemesis inquisitors crashing into hutt palaces and possibly wrecking my non-combat focused PCs. We didn't really use credits for gear, they just said what there ideas were and I just kinda gave it to them. Do you guys think it's balanced? Do you have any suggestions for gear my politico might be interested in? I read out all the stuff from the core rule book and nothing really caught his eye, though maybe if I brought up the disguise kit again, his character does have a very good deception pool. They also wanted me to create a PC/NPC that I could sorta play along with them but that they could also sorta control. What suggestions do you guys have for a fun and intersting character that can fill the holes in the party (mainly combat, but also potentially Medicine, Underworld, Stealth, Skludgerdy, or Computers) wile being able to be easily sidelined and steals as little of the spotlight as possible. Any generic GM advice or problems you might see occurring in what I've outlined is very much welcome as well! We haven't started the campaign yet, only character creation.

4 hours ago, Obi-Wan Cannoli said:

They also wanted me to create a PC/NPC that I could sorta play along with them but that they could also sorta control . What suggestions do you guys have for a fun and intersting character that can fill the holes in the party (mainly combat, but also potentially Medicine, Underworld, Stealth, Skludgerdy, or Computers) wile being able to be easily sidelined and steals as little of the spotlight as possible.

A "GMPC" is entirely possible, but you should be in control of the character, and make decisions in that NPCs best interest (which might generally be in line with the rest of the party, but not at his/her own expense).

Edit to add: The NPC will have moments to shine, but don't abuse your position as GM by making the NPC eclipse the PCs.

Edited by Edgehawk
4 hours ago, Obi-Wan Cannoli said:

The third PC is a 2224 1 3 politico with the galactic domination as his motivation

Seriously? I think Galactic Domination goals should require more than a 1 in Willpower (at least to be taken even remotely seriously).

Edit: IMHO Willpower should not be a dump stat for a Politico, anyway. Maybe try to rework the character a bit?

Lock picks and other sneaky gadgets to compliment his Skulduggery would be in order.

Edited by Edgehawk
14 hours ago, Obi-Wan Cannoli said:

They also wanted me to create a PC/NPC that I could sorta play along with them but that they could also sorta control.

I would suggest a droid for that role;

they're basically property and used to being ordered around by their "masters" (PCs),

but they can, at any point, refuse to obey: "It's against my programming to impersonate a deity."

For example: When the Fringer/Astrogator bought a stock astromech for "skilled assistance" to save XP. He had to learn, that it refused any tasks too risky (like Astrogation against Challenge dice) or too illegal (like slicing an ISB server), for those would put its master's health or liberty in danger.

1 hour ago, Grimmerling said:

[sic] . . . but they can, at any point, refuse to obey: "It's against my programming to impersonate a deity."

For example: When the Fringer/Astrogator bought a stock astromech for "skilled assistance" to save XP. He had to learn, that it refused any tasks too risky (like Astrogation against Challenge dice) or too illegal (like slicing an ISB server), for those would put its master's health or liberty in danger.

Where did I put that spare restraining bolt? Ah gotcah. This'll have to do until we can check out your defective programming!

2 minutes ago, Mark Caliber said:

Where did I put that spare restraining bolt? Ah gotcah. This'll have to do until we can check out your defective programming!

Would you put a slaving collar on an accompanying living NPC just as lightly?

In earnest, I don't believe a mere restraining bolt can override behavioural inhibitors; restrictions on fourth-degree droids would be pointless. At least, that's how I handle it ( Life Preservation Programming ), for what it's worth.

15 hours ago, Edgehawk said:

Seriously? I think Galactic Domination goals should require more than a 1 in Willpower (at least to be taken even remotely seriously).

Edit: IMHO Willpower should not be a dump stat for a Politico, anyway. Maybe try to rework the character a bit?

Lock picks and other sneaky gadgets to compliment his Skulduggery would be in order.

I dunno, I can think of some 1 Willpower people who had serious attempts to take over the world.

Stewie from Family Guy.
Brain from Pinky and the Brain.
Wheatley from Portal 2 , though to be fair to Wheatley....all of his stats were 1, not just Willpower.

:D

Let them crash, let them burn, let their builds shine, let their builds fall apart. I think one of the best aspects of this system is that it is fairly difficult to end up with a totally "unfun" character.

On 4/13/2017 at 7:33 AM, Grimmerling said:

Would you put a slaving collar on an accompanying living NPC just as lightly?

In earnest, I don't believe a mere restraining bolt can override behavioural inhibitors; restrictions on fourth-degree droids would be pointless. At least, that's how I handle it ( Life Preservation Programming ), for what it's worth.

You're talking about a robot. Not a person.

Algorithms can be overwritten, rerouted, altered, etc.

And yeah, according to the RAW restraining bolts can. At the very least it will shut down an recalcitrant droid until they can be repaired.