I just asked this in the general area before noticing this Beginner section of the forum.

I was thinking about picking this up for me and the missus to play a but but somebody said they think it was min 3+ players.

Can anyone confirm? Thanks

3-4 players is nice and small for a "normal" roleplay experience (if there is any such thing!), where you can focus on character-driven story. 4-5 is what I'd call "optimal" (again, if there is such a thing). 6 players is the maximum for the average GM but I've seen groups of 12 done successfully over a short period.

With just 2 players you'll have a "dynamic duo" feel, and you'll usually want to have the players work tightly with each other to craft their individual characters to complement each other, while the GM will have to pay special attention to the fact that it's a very small party.

With 1 player, it's a completely different experience. You'll need to work alongside the player to make a character and then craft a story with the player's input. With Age of Rebellion, it's fairly easy to pull off. Give her lots of XP, have her take a few ranks in leadership, and put her in command of a Rebel cell (the GM Kit for Age of Rebellion has squad rules). But in any case, it is doable, it's just not gonna be the "classic" experience.

I would only buy the Beginners box initially to see how it worked and there would only be me and my wife so 1 gm and 1 player.

If its not a good idea hen no problem.

With the Beginner's Box, you're definitely going to have to tune the encounters so that one person would be able to do it. I did that once as an experiment with a pre-made character from the Beginner's Box and one self-made character that had over 500 XP. Both were doable, but both nearly got knocked out at one point.

1 hour ago, VAYASAN said:

I would only buy the Beginners box initially to see how it worked and there would only be me and my wife so 1 gm and 1 player.

If its not a good idea hen no problem.

You can do it, I play with my son quite regularly. One thing you can do is have the player run a "sidekick"...which is basically the same as 2 PCs but narratively the player only really cares about one of them. You can also, as GM, run another PC, but this can be problematic as it's tempting to "steer" the player's decisions. For this beginner box, I'd recommend the player running 2 PCs, and make sure one is a good shooter.

You will definitely want to scale back the opposition. In this case, the mission is to take over an Imperial base. It will have to be mostly empty, I'd cut the numbers in half or more. One PC who is decent at shooting should be able to handle 1 or 2 stormtroopers, but make sure the stormtroopers have stimpacks that the PC can "find". If the player is running 2 PCs, you might be able to handle 3 stormtroopers, but I'd start with 2 and see how it goes.

4 hours ago, whafrog said:

You can do it, I play with my son quite regularly. One thing you can do is have the player run a "sidekick"...which is basically the same as 2 PCs but narratively the player only really cares about one of them. You can also, as GM, run another PC, but this can be problematic as it's tempting to "steer" the player's decisions. For this beginner box, I'd recommend the player running 2 PCs, and make sure one is a good shooter.

You will definitely want to scale back the opposition. In this case, the mission is to take over an Imperial base. It will have to be mostly empty, I'd cut the numbers in half or more. One PC who is decent at shooting should be able to handle 1 or 2 stormtroopers, but make sure the stormtroopers have stimpacks that the PC can "find". If the player is running 2 PCs, you might be able to handle 3 stormtroopers, but I'd start with 2 and see how it goes.

Ok it sounds possible then.

So if an 'encounter' says 4 stormtroopers run out of the door and open fire, swap it down to 2 (and a stimpack maybe).

What about complexity? Would a newcomer such as my missus have a bit too much info and skills to remember playing fo the first time with 2 characters?

Thanks for the answers.

7 minutes ago, VAYASAN said:

Ok it sounds possible then.

So if an 'encounter' says 4 stormtroopers run out of the door and open fire, swap it down to 2 (and a stimpack maybe).

What about complexity? Would a newcomer such as my missus have a bit too much info and skills to remember playing fo the first time with 2 characters?

Thanks for the answers.

If you're using the pregenerated characters, they are fairly straightforward for someone to follow, so you two should be fine.

42 minutes ago, VAYASAN said:

What about complexity? Would a newcomer such as my missus have a bit too much info and skills to remember playing fo the first time with 2 characters?

I've heard of kids young as 6 playing, and my group of over-50 fossils didn't have a problem. Everything is on the pre-generated character sheet and the skill names should make intuitive sense. There are prompts in the box adventure with hints as to which skills to apply in a certain situation. If you run into trouble where a player wants to try something that you're not prepared for, just pick a skill that seems to make the most sense and move on. You'll probably have lots of questions after your first session, that's what these boards are for.

The one thing not mentioned yet is that this game isn't a competition. You only "win" if everybody had fun. The rules in these games are, in the words of Captain Barbossa, really just guidelines. Apply what you know, wing it when you aren't sure, and enjoy the storytelling