There's a lot of talk about how the original 18 specializations can be underwhelming sometimes, compared to later specializations. It seems as the game progresses, the developers got more comfortable with making fancier talents, leaving the originals in the dust, so to speak. You can see the design mentality of the originals relied a lot on mostly passive, supportive talents and few active talents other than rerolls or the like.

With each career book for Edge of the Empire released, 4/6 career books for each Age of Rebellion and Force and Destiny released, Dawn of Rebellion released, and the Genesys core rulebook released, here's a spec-by-spec of my thoughts on each of the original 18 and how they could be tweaked for better performance.

• Assassin : Overall, not actually that bad, as it does its work well enough. I kind of think having both Targeted Blow and Anatomy Lessons is redundant, but I can't think what to put in either of their places.
• Gadgeteer : Good as is, I think.
• Survivalist : Only 3 active incidental talents, which leaves 17 passive talents. Biggest changes I would make are to incorporate Trailblazer's Cunning Snare into it; you could probably drop the third rank of Expert Tracker. Ambush wouldn't be out of place either thematically, but Stealth is not a career skill for Bounty Hunter or Survivalist.
• Doctor : The only thing missing is perhaps Medic's It's Not That Bad talent and Healer's Physician, but perfectly functional as is.
• Politico : Good as is.
• Scholar : Adding Researcher (Improved), Thorough Assessment, and/or Valuable Facts would be a good start; maybe not all three though. The lone rank of Codebreaker and Confidence both feel like filler to me, so dropping those for two of the above is a good place to start.
• Fringer : Sort of a grab bag of talents with very little focus, other than Astrogation which is an underutilized and often confusing skill. I would look at theming the spec around the Operating skill from Genesys. Other than Astrogation, Ship Captain and Pirate both cover what Fringer wants to be, but better. In other words: where to even start?
• Scout : Not terrible but underwhelming. Stalker feels the most out of place here, which I would switch with either Outdoorsman or Planet Mapper.
• Trader : Good as is.
• Bodyguard : Body Guard (Improved) and (Supreme) would be a good place to start. As a 'tank,' the only thing I'd like to see is a provocation talent of some sort.
• Marauder : I'd like to see it have Berserk (from Genesys) and maybe Force Adherent's Push Aside, but that kind of gives a solid specialization more tools than it already needs.
• Mercenary Soldier : Good as is.
• Pilot : Barrel Roll from Genesys. I'd merge the Dead to Rights talents into one (seems like filler to me) and place Barrel Roll where Dead to Rights (Improved) is now.
• Scoundrel : Seems like an odd halfway point between Charmer and Gunslinger. I feel like Advocate's Blackmail is the best tool you could give Scoundrel, and cut Hidden Storage entirely.
• Thief : More Stalker, less Hidden Storage and Shortcut. Maybe Pirate's Knows the Ropes.
• Mechanic : Overall good. Contraption feels out of place, so I'd swap it with Outlaw Tech's Known Schematic.
• Outlaw Tech : Swap Known Schematic with Mechanic's Contraption. The lone rank of Solid Repairs feels like filler, so maybe Eye for Detail?
• Slicer : On the one hand, good at what it does. On the other hand, it really doesn't do much else. Not really sure how one would improve it.

I was just reviewing the specializations from the EotE core the other day and came to many of the same conclusions you did. I took a stab at changing the Bodyguard which I felt, given its namesake, could be a little better at "bodyguarding". I ended up removing the Gunnery from the skill list and replacing it with Vigilance. I removed all ranks of Barrage, replacing them with two ranks in Keen Eyed and Bodyguard (Supreme). Overall, I felt spotting threats and searching environments fit more with my idea of a bodyguard than being able to use vehicle weapons at long ranges.

I'm going to make a series of responses over time that goes specialization by specialization here. Beginning with the Assassin, you might consider swapping out Anatomy Lessons for Genesys's Hamstring Shot. If we compare the Assassin tree's talents to Genesys talents (an imperfect comparison), then depending on your interpretation of what tier which talent should be classified as, the existing assassin tree is thin at Tiers 1 and 2 and bloated at Tiers 3 and 4. If one wanted to putatively Genesys-ify the tree then one might consider making the following swaps:

Anatomy Lessons out --> Hamstring Shot in

1x Dodge out --> 1x Grit in

1x Dodge out (the other one) --> Dirty Tricks in

1x Precise Aim out --> Know the Enemy in

One manner in which the new selection of Talents could be tree-ified is:

More on these other trees as my schedule permits.

14 minutes ago, Vandal Thorne said:

*snip*

The only thing about Know the Enemy is it uses Knowledge (Warfare), which neither Bounty Hunter nor Assassin has access to normally.

Since I originally posted this, Genesys has gotten 3 more books with talents to consider. For example, Bloodhound from Secrets of the Crucible would be perfect for Survivalist. I did consider going more in depth in revising these trees since SotC came out, but I'm not that into playing Stars Wars anymore, so I didn't bother.

Bummer about not being into Star Wars anymore. If you don't mind I'd like to continue contemplating alternative talent trees in this thread. I'm in the process of writing a historical rpg using Genesys and I am finding desconstructing the SW talent trees is helpful for understanding how to build interesting talent trees.

Point taken regarding Know the Enemy. Heightened Awareness is in the same Tier and would provide Assassin a talent that directly benefits their allies. However, considering the solo nature of assassins, perhaps a rank of Physical Training might be better.

I honestly think the Star Wars lines could've taken notes from Genesys and include starting equipment packs for every career.

21 minutes ago, Voltron64 said:

I honestly think the Star Wars lines could've taken notes from Genesys and include starting equipment packs for every career.

Somebody started a houserule set for that a while ago. You might be able to find it if you look for it.

I do believe that Star Wars came out several years before Genesys but, it might be good for Edge to consider a Talent tree update in the same manner that Armada is getting an updated cardset. Kind of a soft 1.5 edition for the SW game.

Continuing the above meditation, I agree whole-heartedly with the OP that Gadgeteer is pretty much good-to-go. However if we compare it to Genesys's pyramid Talent scheme then it does seem to suffer from mid-Tier bloat, albeit not as badly as Assassin was (and depending of course on how one interprets the relative Tiers of SW Talents). One could Genesys-ify the tree by making the following swaps:

Natural Enforcer out --> 1 rank of Grit in

1 rank of Intimidating out --> Redudant Systems in

1 rank of Jury Rigged out --> Jetpack Expertise in

The Genesys-ified tree could look like this:

Survivalist is the first Talent Tree that probably need a lot of help. Agree with the OP that swapping 1 rank of Expert Tracker for Ambush helps the talent tree alot. However I think the bigger issue is that many of the talents in this tree are simply low power. While stacking them mitigates some of the issues, an open question remains of why there aren't both more powerful talents and more active talents used in the tree. Examining the tree in the context of Genesys showcases the problem nicely. Ten of the talents are Tier 1 Talents and six more of them are Tier 2 Talents. This doesn't leave very much space for Talents at Tiers 3 or 4. Genesys-ifying the talent tree calls for some radical revisions. Obvious first steps are to swap 1 rank of Expert Tracker for Ambush and a 2nd rank of Expert Tracker for Cunning Snare. The following additional swaps remove lower Tier Talents in favor of additional higher Tier ones:

Swift dropped --> Improved Blooded gained

1 rank of Hunter dropped --> Life or Death gained

1 rank of Toughened dropped --> Improved Life or Death gained

1 rank of Stalker dropped --> Moving Target gained

The resulting tree looks something like:

Forager Stalker Outdoorsman Expert Tracker

| | |

Outdoorsman --- Toughened --- Cunning Snare --- Soft Spot

| | | |

Grit Hunter Ambush --- Natural Outsdoorsman

| | | |

Blooded Moving Target Life or Death Enduring

| | |

Improved Life or Death --- Dedication --- Improved Blooded Heoric Fortitude

Doctor is an interesting case. Totally agree with the OP regarding Physician and It's Not That Bad. Analyzing the Tier structure in comparison to Genesys's Pyramid scheme reveals that the Doctor is loaded up with lower Tier Talents. This time though it's at the expense of comparatively low-Tier Talents (9x Tier 1 and 1x Tier 2 vs Genesys's 6x Tier 1 and 5x Tier 2). The below Genesys-ification jettisons stamina granting Talents like Grit, Toughened, and Resolve in favor of a more well rounded medical practitioner by making the following swaps:

2 ranks of Grit removed --> 2 ranks of Physician added

remaining rank of Grit removed --> 1 rank of Confidence added

1 rank of Surgeon removed --> a second rank of Confidence added

Toughened removed --> Flash of Insight added

1 rank of Resolve removed --> 1 rank of Physical Training added

Supreme Stim Application removed --> It's Not That Bad added

The resulting tree looks something like:

Surgeon Bacta Specialist Physician Confidence

| |

Stim Application --- Physician --- Surgeon --- Physical Training

| | |

Natural Doctor --- Confidence --- Bacta Specialist Pressure Point

| | | |

Improved Stim Application Flash of Insight Resolve Anatomy Lessons

| | | |

It's Not That Bad --- Master Doctor --- Dedication Dodge

Vis a vis Star Wars RPG, I agree with the OP that Politico is pretty much good as it is. However, comparing it to Genesys's Talent Pyramid we can see that like Assassin and Gadgeteer it suffers from havintg too many mid-Tier Talents and too few low-Tier Talents. One potential Genesys-ification might make the following swaps to balance the books:

Well Rounded dropped --> another rank of Kill With Kindness added

Nobody's Fool dropped --> Adroitness added

Dodge dropped --> Blackmail added

1 rank of Plausible Deniability dropped --> 1 rank of Confidence added

Steely Nerves dropped --> Can't We Talk About This added

The resulting tree might look like:

Kill With Kindness Grit Confidence Toughened

| | | |

Inspiring Rhetoric --- Kill With Kindness Scathing Tirade --- Grit

| |

Kill With Kindness --- Improved Inspiring Rhetoric Improved Scathing Tirade --- Adroitness

| | | |

Plausible Deniability Supreme Inspiring Rhetoric Supreme Scathing Tirade Blackmail

| |

Can't We Talk About This --- Dedication --- Natural Charmer --- Intense Presence

2 hours ago, Vandal Thorne said:

Swift dropped --> Improved Blooded gained

Whoa whoa whoa, don't underestimate Swift. That can be a serious game-changer and is pretty important for a Survivalist. I say keep it.

I don't have many opinions on the rest of it, I like the trees as-is (with a couple exceptions). But I felt the need to step in and defend Swift. In my opinion, if you're in the wilds and it isn't useful, your GM isn't building his encounters properly.

In my opinion, the only talents you should drop from the tree would be one of the two Stalkers, one of the three Expert Trackers, and maybe one of the two Tougheneds. I say keep the others.

17 hours ago, Vandal Thorne said:

Survivalist *snip*

I definitely think Swift shouldn't be dropped, as it's incredibly useful for what Survivalist is.

Also, I believe Life or Death is one of the talents I created back when we were working on the Expanded Genesys Talents after the Genesys CRB came out. In other words, it's not from any of the official books, so you might want to reconsider.

I am persuaded. Also was using the wrong version of the community Expanded Talents doc and didn't realize that Adroitness, and both basic and improved Life or Death had community origins.

Regarding the Survivalist, I've revised my swaps to be the following:

1 rank of Expert Tracker out --> Ambush in

Another rank of Expert Tracker out --> Cunning Snare in (this got moved to Tier 3 in the move from v. 4.2 to v. 5)

Grit out --> Improved Blooded in

1 rank of Toughened out --> Moving Target in

1 rank of Stalker out --> Precise Aim in

List of Talents: Expert Tracker, Forager, Outdoorsman x2, Swift, Toughened, Blooded, Hunter x2, Soft Spot, Stalker, Ambush, Cunning Snare, Improved Blooded, Natural Outdoorsman, Enduring, Moving Target, Precise Aim, Dedication, Heroic Fortitude

Am also swapping out Adroitness for Haughty Demeanor for the Politico.

11 minutes ago, Vandal Thorne said:

I am persuaded. Also was using the wrong version of the community Expanded Talents doc and didn't realize that Adroitness, and both basic and improved Life or Death had community origins.

Regarding the Survivalist, I've revised my swaps to be the following:

1 rank of Expert Tracker out --> Ambush in

Another rank of Expert Tracker out --> Cunning Snare in (this got moved to Tier 3 in the move from v. 4.2 to v. 5)

Grit out --> Improved Blooded in

1 rank of Toughened out --> Moving Target in

1 rank of Stalker out --> Precise Aim in

List of Talents: Expert Tracker, Forager, Outdoorsman x2, Swift, Toughened, Blooded, Hunter x2, Soft Spot, Stalker, Ambush, Cunning Snare, Improved Blooded, Natural Outdoorsman, Enduring, Moving Target, Precise Aim, Dedication, Heroic Fortitude

Survivalist should definitely still have 2 Expert Tracker. That's kinda their whole shtick. I suggest you keep Grit, and I don't think Moving Target makes the most sense. Precise Aim also seems a bit extraneous and rather unrelated to the tree as a whole.

Re: Scholar -- I totally agree regarding putting Improved Researcher in. Not so sure about the others. More to my goal though, Genesys-ification of the Scholar's Talent Tree. An examination reveals that Scholar's Talents are end-loaded with more than the pyramid suggested numbers of both Tier 1 and Tier 5 Talents. It takes relatively little tweaking to reduce these and increase the number of mid-Tier Talents if we make the following substitutions:

Brace out --> Flash of Insight in

Toughened out --> Improved Researcher in

Mental Fortress out --> a rank of Nobody's Fool in

Stroke of Genius out --> Improved Speaks Binary in

The resulting skill tree looks like:

Respected Scholar Speaks Binary Grit Knowledge Specialization

| | | |

Researcher --- Respected Scholar Knowledge Specialization --- Researcher

| |

Codebreaker --- Flash of Insight Natural Scholar --- Well Rounded

| |

Improved Speaks Binary Improved Researcher Confidence --- Resolve

| |

Resolve --- Intense Focus --- Dedication --- Nobody's Fool

I was hoping to post my Genesys-ifications for the three Explorer specs but I'm short on time. Hopefully I'll be able to post them later this afternoon or tonight.

Just now, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Survivalist should definitely still have 2 Expert Tracker. That's kinda their whole shtick. I suggest you keep Grit, and I don't think Moving Target makes the most sense. Precise Aim also seems a bit extraneous and rather unrelated to the tree as a whole.

Seems like a matter of interpretation. An issue you're running into is comparative tiers. Grit cannot be kept without sacrificing something else. Ditto Expert Tracker. You could try cutting out a rank of Outdoorsman for something but I personally think it's more important than Expert Tracker or Grit for communicating the idea of Survivalist. Forager has the same problem. The biggest issue when you start converting into Genesys's pyramid is that low-tier talents frequently find themselves on the chopping block. We can see this in more detail when I post my Genesys-ifications for the Explorer specs.

Genesys consolidated all the stacking 'remove setback from so-and-so skills' into Knack for It, which trimmed a lot off at but also makes making trees a little trickier if you're used to SW because they serve as a sort of "filler." They're useful, but not exciting. Going full Genesys would remove them, but it leaves a lot of open spots that would need to be filled.

Going full Genesys doesn't really remove them. Just think of them as versions of Knack For It with pre-chosen skills. It does mean there are a few more Tier 1 Talents to deal with for Politico and Scholar though since Talents like SW's Plausible Deniability are actually Tier 1 Talents.

Quick fixes could be to, for Politico minus Toughened, Dodge, Nobody's Foll, and Steely Nerves. Add Blackmail, Confidence, Haughty Demeanor, and Can't We Talk About This?

And for Scholar, which has 10 Tier 1 Talents, minus the following: Brace, Codebreaker, Grit, Toughened, Mental Fortress, and Stroke of Genius. Add Flash of Insight, Know-It-All, Probing Question, Improved Researcher, Nobody's Fool, and Improved Speaks Binary.

Moving on the Explorer career's Specializations we can see that this problem hits all-new highs. If Fringer and Trader seem bland, it's because they each have 14 Tier 1 Talents. And Scout is not far behind with 10 Tier 1 Talents.

Fringer has the additional problem of Skilled Jockey and Defensive Driving which are Talents for skills it doesn't actually have (partial exception for Piloting [Space] but without Piloting [Planetary]...). A potential Genesys-ification of Fringer which better focuses the specialization on abilities that better model a drifter sort could be as follows:

Remove the following Talents: Durable, 1x Grit, Jump Up, 2x Rapid Recovery, Skilled Jockey, 1x Street Smarts, 1x Toughened, and Defensive Driving

Add the following Talents: Go Without, Heroic Recovery, Parkour!, Time to Go, Forgot to Count?, Nobody's Fool, Back-to-Back, Defensive, and Savvy Negotiator

The resulting tree could look like this:

Galaxy Mapper Parkour! Rapid Recovery Street Smarts

| | |

Go Without --- Galaxy Mapper Time to Go --- Toughened

| | | |

Dodge --- Nobody's Fool Heroic Recovery Grit

| | |

Back-to-Back --- Defensive --- Dodge Knockdown

| | |

Dedication --- Forgot to Count? Master Starhopper --- Savvy Negotiator

The Scout specialization not only has 10 Tier 1 Talents, it also has 7 Tier 2 Talents and only 3 Talents at Tiers 3 and 5 (skipping 4 altogether). A potential Genesys-ification might be to:

Remove the following Talents: 1x Grit, 1x Quick Strike, 2x Rapid Recovery, Toughened, 1x Disorient, and 1x Stalker

Add the following Talents: 1x Outdoorsman, 1x Dodge, Improved Shortcut, 2x Defensive, 1x Enduring, and Indomitable

The resulting tree might look like this:

Outdoorsman Stalker Grit Familiar Suns

| | | |

Forager --- Quick Strike --- Disorient --- Shortcut

| | | |

Let's Ride Natural Hunter Shortcut Dodge

| | | |

Enduring Heightened Awareness Improved Shortcut Defensive

| | |

Utility Belt --- Dedication --- Defensive Indomitable

Finally Trader is similarly sparse from a Genesys point of view with 14 Tier 1 Talents, 3 Tier 3 Talents, and 3 Tier 5 Talents. One potential Genesys-ification would be to do the following:

Remove the following Talents: Convincing Demeanor, Grit, 2x Know Somebody, 1x Smooth Talker, Spare Clip, Toughened, 1x Wheel and Deal, and Steely Nerves

Add the following Talents: Counteroffer, Cutting Question, 2x Speaks Binary, Special Use Permit, 1x Congenial, Double-Talk, Improved Speaks Binary, and Savvy Negotiator

The resulting tree could look like this:

Know Somebody Speaks Binary Wheel and Deal Smooth Talker

|

Wheel and Deal --- Cutting Question --- Counteroffer --- Black Market Contacts

|

Speaks Binary --- Nobody's Fool --- Nobody's Fool --- Black Market Contacts

|

Congenial --- Savvy Negotiator --- Double-Talk --- Improved Speaks Binary

| |

Special Use Permit --- Natural Negotiator --- Dedication --- Master Merchant

On 12/4/2020 at 1:35 PM, Voltron64 said:

I honestly think the Star Wars lines could've taken notes from Genesys and include starting equipment packs for every career.

I did a very generic "starting equipment" the first time I ran a game. The idea that it wasn't included absolutely astounded me.

2 hours ago, False God said:

I did a very generic "starting equipment" the first time I ran a game. The idea that it wasn't included absolutely astounded me.

Agree, like to borrow an example from Genesys in case no one knows what I'm referring to;

Starting Gear: Players with a Scholar character may choose to start with the following gear instead of spending currency during Step 7 of character creation:
• A dagger
• An alchemists’ kit or a sword
• A lantern or healing herbs
• A fine cloak or traveling gear consisting
of a backpack, a bedroll, a rope, flint
and steel, 3 torches, and a waterskin
• 1d100 silver coins

I would've loved for Edge, Age, and Force & Destiny to have had something like that.

Just be careful when messing around with the Specialization trees. Unlike those in the supplements the Core Specializations were play tested pretty extensively and the Talents within were chosen not just for their usefulness but also as part of the overall Career and Character balance structure. Not all of the Talents within the trees are supposed to be the best they also act as buffers before getting "better" talents. It's also assumed that a character will have more than one Specialization over the course of their lives. To make it worth the EXP to take a second or third Specialization they all have to have something worth having the another Specialization doesn't. There is a method to the madness, mess with it at your peril.

This work is in no way meant to detract from the efforts of playtesters and professional developers. Everything here is more of a incubating thought process for home brewing. That said, I'll wrap up my thoughts on the Edge career specializations.

While we can have no doubt that things were thoroughly playtested, one of the issues for all games is that what looks perfectly balanced at Time 1 begins to look dated and underwhelming later at Time 2 when a larger number of game components have been produced. Of the original specializations none highlight this issue better than Bodyguard. Between its skills and talents it's definitely more like a Mercenary Soldier than an actual Bodyguard. A tempting fix is to swap the Bodyguard and Vanguard's talent trees; however, while this makes Bodyguard actually good at its named job, it still feels more like a soldier than an actual bodyguard. As part of the problem are the skillset, switching those out for Piloting (Planetary), Ranged (Light), Resilience, and Vigilance goes a long ways towards making your Bodyguard feel like they do that task professionally.

Looking at the Talent tree from a Genesys perspective reveals that it has too many Tier 2 talents and not enough Talents at higher Tiers. One approach to Genesys-ifying the Bodyguard's tree then would be to take the following steps (NOTE: this does not use the tree swap I mentioned above):

Remove: all 3 ranks of Barrage, 1 rank of Side Step, and Improved Hard Headed.

Add: Heroic Fortitude, Improved Toughened, Defensive Driving, Improved Body Guard, and Supreme Body Guard.

I'm going to skip illustrating any more trees and instead attach the excel I keep my notes in. The trees are illustrated there.

Examining the Marauder from the perspective of Genesys, we can see that it has the problem of way too many Tier 3 talents and not enough talents are lower and higher tiers. One potential Genesys-ification would be to:

Remove: 2x Feral Strength, 2x Frenzied Attack, 2x Lethal Blows

Add: Bullrush, 1x Durable, Berserk, 2x Fearsome, Death Rage, and Crushing Blow.

Ironically(?), the Mercenary Soldier is the most like a Genesys talent tree with regards to numbers of talents per relative tier. It has slightly too many at Tiers 3 and 5 and slightly too few at Tier 1. One possible Genesys-ification would be to:

Remove: 1x Point Blank, 1x True Aim

Add: 1x Grit, 1x Toughened

In Genesys terms, the good old Pilot suffers from too many low Tier talents (and 1 too many at the top) and not enough mid-Tier talents. One potential Genesys-ification would be to:

Remove: 1x Grit, Rapid Recovery, Toughened, Supreme Full Throttle

Add: 2x Daring Aviator, Hold Together, 1x Shortcut

Scoundrel takes the Pilot issue and doubles down on it (3/4 of its talents are Tier 1). One potential Genesys-ification would be to:

Remove: 2x Black Market Contacts, 2x Convincing Demeanor, 1x Hidden Storage, Quick Draw, 1x Quick Strike, 1x Rapid Recovery, and 1x Toughened

Add: Blackmail, Dirty Tricks, 1x Congenial, Laugh It Off, You Owe Me One, Back-to-Back, Can't We Talk About This?, Improved You Owe Me One, and Just Kidding!

Thief is very nearly as bad as Scoundrel from the Genesys perspective (14 Tier 1 talents). One potential Genesys-ification would be to:

Remove: 1x Black Market Contacts, 1x Bypass Security, both ranks of Grit, Hidden Storage, Jump Up, Rapid Reaction, and Stalker

Add: 1x Confidence, 1x Distracting Behavior, Knows the Ropes, 1x Shortcut, Nimble, Careful Planning, Lose Them, and 1x Moving Target

Mechanic is more typical in that it has simply too many Tier 1 talents and not enough at any of the other tiers, at least from the Genesys perspective. One potential Genesys-ification would be to:

Remove: Grit, 2x Solid Repairs, 1x Toughened

Add: Quick Fix, Eye for Detail, Resourceful Refit, and Master Artisan

From the Genesys perspective, Outlaw Tech splits its problem between Tiers 1 and 2 (i.e., there are too many here and not enough at higher tiers). One potential Genesys-ification would be to:

Remove: 1x Brace, Defensive Stance, 1x Inventor, Side Step, and 1x Speaks Binary

Add: Bad Habit, 1x Dodge, 1x Nobody's Fool, How Convenient!, and Thorough Assessment

From the Genesys perspective, Slicer is more like Mechanic. Too many talents at Tier 1 and not enough at any other Tier. One potential Genesys-ification would be to:

Remove: 1x Bypass Security, 1x Defensive Slicing, all 3 ranks of Grit, and Mental Fortress

Add: 2x Speaks Binary, Distinctive Style, Encoded Communique, Eye for Detail, and Improved Speaks Binary.

Revisions_Edge_of_Empire_Specs.xlsx

One observation: In Genesys, ranked talents can be taken multiple times; each time the talent becomes one tier higher than the last time it was taken. This repetition offers the character the option to double down on a trademark ability. In other words, multiple ranks of a single talent isn't necessarily something that needs fixing.

That said, I love theory-crafting as much as the next guy, so please carry on with proposed replacements.

On 12/12/2020 at 9:34 PM, Vandal Thorne said:

This work is in no way meant to detract from the efforts of playtesters and professional developers. Everything here is more of a incubating thought process for home brewing. That said, I'll wrap up my thoughts on the Edge career specializations.

While we can have no doubt that things were thoroughly playtested, one of the issues for all games is that what looks perfectly balanced at Time 1 begins to look dated and underwhelming later at Time 2 when a larger number of game components have been produced.

Plus as well, the environment in the pre-release playtesting can differ substantially from the game as it's played in the wild. The playtest GMs must have made much more use of setback dice than most GMs actually turned out to, and even most of the published adventures did. Nothing wrong with adjusting for that. Almost every game now has post-release balance patches, even RPGs like D&D. At a certain level of mechanical complexity (which SWRPG definitely reaches) they're a necessity.

Have you considered building one or a few of these trees in OggDude's? It would be a lot easier to consider and discuss them if they were presented side-by-side with the originals, for example.