Hey guys, so I have one of my players wanting to bring their room mate into our game, which I don’t mind at all because I’d love some more players, but my issue is that they’ve never played edge before and the rest of the players are at 300 xp after character gen.

Would it be too much to have the new character just start as the same or work then towards it through steadily giving them more xp each game til they were even?

normally my move in this situation is to just say the new player has as much xp as everyone else, but I’m worried that there might be too much to overwhelm the new player if they end up buying a lot of stuff.

Has anyone else ever had a similar situation?

Slightly similar for me, as the others had about 5 sessions before another person was brought in. They didn't stick around, due to scheduling issues, mostly. I handed them a pre-gen and they caught on fairly quickly, but thank goodness they didn't have to make choices about Talents because they would have been lost. If you've never played the game, the choices are meaningless. "Gearhead, removes setback...why should I care?"

I'd start them fresh, then give them extra XP to slowly catch them up. If the others don't have abilities that completely overshadow the new PC, then scaling shouldn't be too difficult. The player might, after a couple of sessions, identify some specific Talents they want based on their new understanding of the game, in which case just give them the XP to cover it and any prerequisites. They'll probably catch up fairly quickly.

I had this only once in EoTE so far, so can't say I am an expert

I gave the player extra 50xp to spend as a small boost, but that was it. The PC also got access to some of the gear the team had, so there was no real problem in terms of balance. EoTE works smoothly in terms of having PCs of different levels at the same table. Also, we have spent some more time with the PC at character creation to smoothly build in his character into the team. it heled in terms of focusing distribution of the starting XP, sot that the player would be able to take his niche and have his moments to shine from the first session.

Another way to do it - especially with an inexperienced player - would be to give him/her a choice of a few regular NPCs to take over. This way NPCs stats/xp would also be higher than a starting char.

3 minutes ago, whafrog said:

Slightly similar for me, as the others had about 5 sessions before another person was brought in. They didn't stick around, due to scheduling issues, mostly. I handed them a pre-gen and they caught on fairly quickly, but thank goodness they didn't have to make choices about Talents because they would have been lost. If you've never played the game, the choices are meaningless. "Gearhead, removes setback...why should I care?"

I'd start them fresh, then give them extra XP to slowly catch them up. If the others don't have abilities that completely overshadow the new PC, then scaling shouldn't be too difficult. The player might, after a couple of sessions, identify some specific Talents they want based on their new understanding of the game, in which case just give them the XP to cover it and any prerequisites. They'll probably catch up fairly quickly.

This is reassuring actually since this is kind of what I wanted to do.

the rest of the players have over 70 hours of actual play time in on their characters and really have a feel for them, and I want a new player to be able to get that same feel rather than possibly getting bored with a character who is already really good at things and might feel like they don’t have room to grow.

1 minute ago, thesaviour said:

I had this only once in EoTE so far, so can't say I am an expert

I gave the player extra 50xp to spend as a small boost, but that was it. The PC also got access to some of the gear the team had, so there was no real problem in terms of balance. EoTE works smoothly in terms of having PCs of different levels at the same table. Also, we have spent some more time with the PC at character creation to smoothly build in his character into the team. it heled in terms of focusing distribution of the starting XP, sot that the player would be able to take his niche and have his moments to shine from the first session.

Another way to do it - especially with an inexperienced player - would be to give him/her a choice of a few regular NPCs to take over. This way NPCs stats/xp would also be higher than a starting char.

Yea we are having the game session at the players house whose room mate wants to join so I’m already planning on showing up early and having a specific session zero with them and I think that will help the transition, the extra 50 xp sounds like a good idea too.

I was honestly going to discuss with my players about decreasing the amount of xp I give them so that they don’t seem to be improving too quickly based on the passage of time in game, but I’ll likely keep the new players xp increases at the old rate til they are even with the new players.

Sounds like a good plan!

I would not overthink this too much in terms of distribution of xp going forward. just do the first session and see how it goes.

Also, how you play in the new PC from the point of the view of the story can also give a few opportunities to reward the PC with extra xp (e.g. he is a client brining in a new job or a solution to the problem the other PCs are facing).

I'd give them about half the amount of earned xp as the other players, but spend it all on skills. Then give them double earned xp til they catch up.

That way they are better than a starting character to start with, but no more complexity, they are just rolling better dice, and can learn about the talents as they develop.

In a similar situation, I gave my new player a one-off, pregen character that concentrated mostly on skills with a few choice talents in only one tree. I wanted him to get a feel for the game before committing to his own character. After that session, we sat down for proper character creation and I gave him some bonus XP to start. Every now and then we'll roll a mini encounter before the main game so he can nab 5XP here and there to catch up.

I'm with rogue on this one, hand them something to roll dice now and then recruit your mate to help them roll a character. I generally do this when I bring new players in.

Using a temporary character gives them the freedom to try things out without fearing that they'll permanently break anything.

Also, once they're at the table, don't forget to assign them a game buddy. They're free to ask questions of the table and yourself, of course, but their game buddy can help them with specific issues when you're busy interacting with another player.

I usually have new players (especially if they're new to RPG's) sit in on a session so they can get a feel for the tone, other PC's involved, and so on. Then I'll work with them on a character some time over the course of the week and then introduce them in the next session.

I also like to give new players an NPC to run. If possible, I take an NPC the group has met, stat them out as a decent (but simple) PC, and let them play a session. If you can offer them a choice of 2 characters, even better.

After the session, they can either make a new character, or keep the same one if they like it. Stat-wise, we build him from scratch, and add XP from the one session.

I'm not a big fan of handing over a huge chunk of XP at once, but I give double XP per session until they catch up.

I brought in a new player this past Thursday. He thoroughly read my prep materials and had a career picked out but is busy, and wanted to complement the existing three-PC group as best he could.

So, all 5 of us sat down and built his character before we played. All starting XP in Characteristics, and as close to catch-up XP as estimable for skills (we use fully allocated custom talents, so chargen *is* considerably more straightforward). Just assumed a light blaster pistol on his guy, and off we went. Had a great time.

I might be wrong but regarding XP, I prefer to give the same amount as the original team. If a new PC is joining a team of 200XP, I grant 200XP. It's assumed that he can pull his own weight and he is big contribution to the stablished team. I also ask if its possible to tie one of the obligations with the existing obligations, in order to grant a sense of purpose and partnership.

The new PC does not need to expend all the XP. He or she might want to test the concept of the career / spec. See what works better (Skills, Talents or Force Powers).

Finally, I give a bit more than half the credits for equipment. They can buy a good armor, guns or tools, but not all. I'm considering giving even less credits for future PCs.

On 11/9/2017 at 5:31 PM, whafrog said:

I'd start them fresh, then give them extra XP to slowly catch them up. If the others don't have abilities that completely overshadow the new PC, then scaling shouldn't be too difficult. The player might, after a couple of sessions, identify some specific Talents they want based on their new understanding of the game, in which case just give them the XP to cover it and any prerequisites. They'll probably catch up fairly quickly.

This is what I do, for the same reasons.

On 11/9/2017 at 2:10 PM, Norr-Saba said:

I’m worried that there might be too much to overwhelm the new player if they end up buying a lot of stuff.

****, I've been playing the game since launch and I would get overwhelmed with choice if someone dropped 300 xp on me in one go. Sure, mechanically I'd be able to put something together, but I'd have no idea how any of it worked together or what is a strong build.

The game is pretty good about mismatched characters not overpower and overshadowing each other. I think your plan of having him start a character per normal and then kick him 50% more Xp until caught up is a strong one. 300 Xp isn't all that much, so he'll be up and running in no time.

These are good suggestions. Another option, that I've done with a mid-high level pathfinder game I'm running (which is more complex than Edge in general), is to get together with your new player and help them with the mechanical aspects of character creation. Let them explain what they want to be able to do and you show them how they can do it, or as close as the game comes to what they have in mind anyway. This responsibility can alternatively be delegated to another player who understands the system.

I remember there was a similar question posed when the game was new and the debate then was whether a new player should get the same xp (whether all at once or incrementally) as the existing players, or simply start from scratch. I'm glad nobody seems to be arguing the latter here.

Continuing on in my tradition of doing things that make people here uncomfortable, I am putting the XP system in the trashcan and going with a life path style system. I instituted a cap on XP for non-Force characters of 400 XP after a discussion with my main group in which they said they felt 400 XP is the sweet spot, after which it starts to get out of hand. The idea is that at character creation the player has the option of using however much of the 400 xp they want at start of play, but for each increment beyond 110 they have to do Life Path rolls on a table to explain the extra XP.

This puts characters of differing power levels in the group together, with the players being aware of the disparity and working with this as their group dynamic. In reality, having a friend who is a better fighter than me is a net benefit, I will be glad to have him on my side if something goes down. Also competition is healthy when you compete against yourself and not others, so in my group we kind of ditched the "stole my thunder" or "better than me" mindset. I had characters die in an earlier game and have to catch up from a 200 xp deficit and it wasn't that big a deal really. It did require a little bit of jockeying, but in the end I actually felt like it was more exciting to have the varying power level "X-Men" type team dynamic.

On ‎10‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 9:10 AM, Norr-Saba said:

Hey guys, so I have one of my players wanting to bring their room mate into our game, which I don’t mind at all because I’d love some more players, but my issue is that they’ve never played edge before and the rest of the players are at 300 xp after character gen.

Would it be too much to have the new character just start as the same or work then towards it through steadily giving them more xp each game til they were even?

normally my move in this situation is to just say the new player has as much xp as everyone else, but I’m worried that there might be too much to overwhelm the new player if they end up buying a lot of stuff.

Has anyone else ever had a similar situation?

If you don't outright make the character for him, make suggestions so that the PC fits the group. There'd be nothing worse than 2, say, gunslingers in the party. Not because of optimisation - the min/max, need a healer/tank/DPS approach isn't really a factor here - but because they'd struggle to really shine or be unique.

17 hours ago, Endersai said:

If you don't outright make the character for him, make suggestions so that the PC fits the group. There'd be nothing worse than 2, say, gunslingers in the party. Not because of optimisation - the min/max, need a healer/tank/DPS approach isn't really a factor here - but because they'd struggle to really shine or be unique.

Like in any RPG, a party that can cover all it's bases, i.e. Knowledges, Mechanics, Computers, Medicine, Social, Combat, Piloting will be more successful at a variety of tasks than a party that struggles in some of those areas. Obviously, a single character can cover more than one roll, especially if one of them is combat or they involve the same attribute.

You're right though that the issue of being unique and bringing your own set of skills to the party is the most important consideration, apart from what the player wants to play and will enjoy playing. If a player really wants to play a marauder, and you already have a melee character in the group, sure there will be overlap, but the player finding a character they will enjoy playing is paramount.

@Endersai @Kirdan Kenobi my group is pretty small so everyone wears many hats as far as rolls go, with several of them overlapping, primarily because as a group they are very good at diversifying, but they are usually careful not to pick same specializations in order to make it awkward. so it shouldn't be a problem with having a balanced crew as far as skills are concerned, but i will keep it in mind to steer them towards careers and specializations that are not already being used by other players. thank you for the tip.

40 minutes ago, Norr-Saba said:

@Endersai @Kirdan Kenobi my group is pretty small so everyone wears many hats as far as rolls go, with several of them overlapping, primarily because as a group they are very good at diversifying, but they are usually careful not to pick same specializations in order to make it awkward. so it shouldn't be a problem with having a balanced crew as far as skills are concerned, but i will keep it in mind to steer them towards careers and specializations that are not already being used by other players. thank you for the tip.

I'm never a fan of playing this to optimise it across rolls. Because the system is so good for it, we have a few people who are good face characters and that adds for interesting RP. So, I'm not proposing slotting the newbie into a roll because it needs to be filled and nobody else picked, say, the medic. I'm more saying if the experience is to be something that keeps the new player going, then helping them have a unique enough character that decisions are rewarding and they feel important is key. For that, they'll need guidance so it's more - "what roles could they fill; what kind of character from the films etc do they want to be like, and then how do you guys make that happen?"