Hello all, thanks for your time.

I am a brand new RPG player. longtime strategy fan and star wars fan. about to start my first game. I've read most of core rulebook and many forum posts. Along with the GM there will be 5 PC (all but 1 PC is a first timer) 1 is a bounty hunter, 1 a explorer, and 1 hired gun. I originally planned on doing a Bounty Hunter class but didn't want to leave our group with combat only players.

I have some great backstory's made which I understand is very important. but I need a little help

I was think of going 2-3-2-3-2-3. however I'm afraid with a group of 5 I may get left useless due to not exceling at 1 area. is that that case or is a jack of all trades decent?? if its not a good idea what's some suggestions?

any experienced smugglers out there willing to help a beginner?

thanks!

I’d keep a 1 somewhere and go for a 4 in Agility, Cunning, or Presence.

That should be reasonable with most species, especially if you’re willing to take some obligation. If you can’t find one that you like which fits that, then you could always take a look through the CSG .

2 hours ago, UnknownMando said:

Hello all, thanks for your time.

I am a brand new RPG player. longtime strategy fan and star wars fan. about to start my first game. I've read most of core rulebook and many forum posts. Along with the GM there will be 5 PC (all but 1 PC is a first timer) 1 is a bounty hunter, 1 a explorer, and 1 hired gun. I originally planned on doing a Bounty Hunter class but didn't want to leave our group with combat only players.

I have some great backstory's made which I understand is very important. but I need a little help

I was think of going 2-3-2-3-2-3. however I'm afraid with a group of 5 I may get left useless due to not exceling at 1 area. is that that case or is a jack of all trades decent?? if its not a good idea what's some suggestions?

any experienced smugglers out there willing to help a beginner?

thanks!

How long will the campaign be? If it's long term go with 3s, if it's a quicker envisioned situation with fewer sessions do an important 4.

2 hours ago, Yaccarus said:

I’d keep a 1 somewhere and go for a 4 in Agility, Cunning, or Presence.

That should be reasonable with most species, especially if you’re willing to take some obligation. If you can’t find one that you like which fits that, then you could always take a look through the CSG .

Thanks!

2 hours ago, 2P51 said:

How long will the campaign be? If it's long term go with 3s, if it's a quicker envisioned situation with fewer sessions do an important 4.

2 months life 4 sessions. The. We can keep our characters but they revert back to OG stats and we start a longer one.

7 hours ago, UnknownMando said:

I'm afraid with a group of 5 I may get left useless due to not exceling at 1 area. is that that case or is a jack of all trades decent?? if its not a good idea what's some suggestions?

any experienced smugglers out there willing to help a beginner?

First off, the best bang for your buck is to put as much of your starting xp into characteristics as possible, as upgrading them takes a substantial amount of time (especially when using the book's suggested rate of xp gain).

While you won't be as strong in any one area, you won't be "left behind" by the others, as this game focuses more on the narrative and the game mechanics (dice, stats) are just there to facilitate, enhance and inform the story your group tells. My personal preference would be to start with a 4 in my character's primary characteristic, that is whichever one their envisioned skillsed works with best. Starting with a mix of 2's and 3's is also fine if that works best for your character concept. Just know that being a "jack of all trades" means you're also a "master of none", at least for a time. I believe the core books suggest everyone somewhat specializing towards the role they are taking on with the party over trying to make every characteristic higher than 1.

Smuggler's primary stat is usually going to be Agility. It covers piloting, stealth, firing ranged weaponry, and other skills which are all characteristic of a Smuggler in Star wars. You can certainly build one differently however, depending on the concept you have. The Gambler and Charmer specs, for instance, might mean you want to put more xp into Cunning for your Deception skill or Presence for your Cool and Negotiation skills. Conversely, a Pilot or a Gunslinger is definitely going to want a high Agility.

Throwing the stat talk aside for a moment, it would be best for you to think of the core idea you have for this character and build the stats to try and match that concept. Is your smuggler a terrible liar but excellent at negotiations? Then consider leaving their Deception skill untrained or low ranks and putting more xp into their Presence. Are they an amazing pilot but can't hit the side of a Bantha at 10 meters? Put more into Piloting than the Ranged combat skills. As neat as it would be to be a legendary hero right off the bat, one of the coolest things about RPG's is seeing your character grow both in their skills and in their personality, which comes with playing regularly. From what it sounds like, if you are unhappy with your choices for the character this go around, a longer campaign and a fresh start would allow you to change things up!

Hope your games go well!

All rounders end up failing alot of important roles,

I say pick a specialisation and build on that... In my group I have a engineer, now he can do combat but he has 5 intellect so he uses that to his advantage in combat by slicing into systems to overload terminals near enemies, opening airlocks to suck enemies out... Even our last session the guy used mechanics to turn a water fountain into a bloody cannon... A CANNON!!!... Now it didn't do much damage but the fact he rolled well enough to do that says something for having high stats in one characteristic

You can even go and be the talker of the group and try and negotiate your way in places

Hope this helps

9 hours ago, GroggyGolem said:

First off, the best bang for your buck is to put as much of your starting xp into characteristics as possible, as upgrading them takes a substantial amount of time (especially when using the book's suggested rate of xp gain).

While you won't be as strong in any one area, you won't be "left behind" by the others, as this game focuses more on the narrative and the game mechanics (dice, stats) are just there to facilitate, enhance and inform the story your group tells. My personal preference would be to start with a 4 in my character's primary characteristic, that is whichever one their envisioned skillsed works with best. Starting with a mix of 2's and 3's is also fine if that works best for your character concept. Just know that being a "jack of all trades" means you're also a "master of none", at least for a time. I believe the core books suggest everyone somewhat specializing towards the role they are taking on with the party over trying to make every characteristic higher than 1.

Smuggler's primary stat is usually going to be Agility. It covers piloting, stealth, firing ranged weaponry, and other skills which are all characteristic of a Smuggler in Star wars. You can certainly build one differently however, depending on the concept you have. The Gambler and Charmer specs, for instance, might mean you want to put more xp into Cunning for your Deception skill or Presence for your Cool and Negotiation skills. Conversely, a Pilot or a Gunslinger is definitely going to want a high Agility.

Throwing the stat talk aside for a moment, it would be best for you to think of the core idea you have for this character and build the stats to try and match that concept. Is your smuggler a terrible liar but excellent at negotiations? Then consider leaving their Deception skill untrained or low ranks and putting more xp into their Presence. Are they an amazing pilot but can't hit the side of a Bantha at 10 meters? Put more into Piloting than the Ranged combat skills. As neat as it would be to be a legendary hero right off the bat, one of the coolest things about RPG's is seeing your character grow both in their skills and in their personality, which comes with playing regularly. From what it sounds like, if you are unhappy with your choices for the character this go around, a longer campaign and a fresh start would allow you to change things up!

Hope your games go well!

Y a understand sorry is more important I’ve come up with a couple different ones and made 2 characters

1 is a BH who is 3-4-2s

the other is the smuggler 2-3-2-3-3-3

both fit story’s Nicley. I just wanna make sure I have fun playing them!

8 hours ago, LMasterList said:

All rounders end up failing alot of important roles,

I say pick a specialisation and build on that... In my group I have a engineer, now he can do combat but he has 5 intellect so he uses that to his advantage in combat by slicing into systems to overload terminals near enemies, opening airlocks to suck enemies out... Even our last session the guy used mechanics to turn a water fountain into a bloody cannon... A CANNON!!!... Now it didn't do much damage but the fact he rolled well enough to do that says something for having high stats in one characteristic

You can even go and be the talker of the group and try and negotiate your way in places

Hope this helps

Lol water cannon that’s epic!

Thanks for the tips guys really appreciate!!

12 hours ago, LMasterList said:

All rounders end up failing alot of important roles,

While not untrue, this will vary based on GM, group, and playstyle.

If the GM likes to set difficulties high, and the group likes to stick together and pick and choose who does what, then yes, specialists will perform better.

If the GM likes to set difficulties lower, the party splits, and the action is taken by whoever is taking the action, a character with a little more diversity of capabilities may do a bit better big-picture, even if it means succeeding 70% of the time at two things, instead of 79% of the time at one thing.

30 minutes ago, Ghostofman said:

While not untrue, this will vary based on GM, group, and playstyle.

If the GM likes to set difficulties high, and the group likes to stick together and pick and choose who does what, then yes, specialists will perform better.

If the GM likes to set difficulties lower, the party splits, and the action is taken by whoever is taking the action, a character with a little more diversity of capabilities may do a bit better big-picture, even if it means succeeding 70% of the time at two things, instead of 79% of the time at one thing.

Got ya thanks for the answer!

I built my very first character as a 2, 3, 4, 3, 1, 2 Gadgeteer. The entire premise was that he was burglar of sorts crossed with the principles of a western movie; his entire motivation is that he was out to kill the Bounty Hunter that unlawfully ended the life of his father, and after living a life of poverty turned to crime to start building up the funding to turn that unhealthy obcession into reality using the skills he had learnt as his fathers apprentice in building mechanical locks and other nicknacks.

Fast forward 4 years, he's a 3*, 4, 5, 4, 1, 2 and a FR 4 force emergant turned artisan, 3 years after he killed his fathers killer, only to turn out the Bounty Hunter never killed his father at all and now the Rodian has to live with the underworld that have put several bounty's on him for raiding a hutt vault, and worse crimes. The one thing that was obvious is that my character will never be as good as a corc and even with 5 skill ranks in Disp, his mental defences are still fairly beatable. What he is however is the best artisan in the galaxy and known as the best vault cracker in this galaxy. The character has evolved significantly beyond his core premise via skill ranks while still being yet a well focused character will have an enduring legacy in their particular field.

As far as I'm aware it's impossible to do it with humans without taking some extra obligation, but I would recommend a 3, 3, 4 statline any day over a quad 3 *unless* your human, in which case you have to put up with lower base stats across the board in exchange for no glaring weakness or your in a smaller group, in which case generalists are much more useful. I found that, in a group of 6 people at the time, that specialists were much more valuable then generalists when it came to role assessment. A generalist can do most things pretty well, but a full out specialist has a chance of fairly reliably preforming difficult checks.

That being said, I consider 3 yellow (an attribute of 3 with 3 skill ranks) superior to 4 green. So it could work either way.

*Buffed with cybernetics. his actual brawn is 1. Being crippled hurts.

On 1/8/2019 at 6:39 PM, LordBritish said:

I built my very first character as a 2, 3, 4, 3, 1, 2 Gadgeteer. The entire premise was that he was burglar of sorts crossed with the principles of a western movie; his entire motivation is that he was out to kill the Bounty Hunter that unlawfully ended the life of his father, and after living a life of poverty turned to crime to start building up the funding to turn that unhealthy obcession into reality using the skills he had learnt as his fathers apprentice in building mechanical locks and other nicknacks.

Fast forward 4 years, he's a 3*, 4, 5, 4, 1, 2 and a FR 4 force emergant turned artisan, 3 years after he killed his fathers killer, only to turn out the Bounty Hunter never killed his father at all and now the Rodian has to live with the underworld that have put several bounty's on him for raiding a hutt vault, and worse crimes. The one thing that was obvious is that my character will never be as good as a corc and even with 5 skill ranks in Disp, his mental defences are still fairly beatable. What he is however is the best artisan in the galaxy and known as the best vault cracker in this galaxy. The character has evolved significantly beyond his core premise via skill ranks while still being yet a well focused character will have an enduring legacy in their particular field.

As far as I'm aware it's impossible to do it with humans without taking some extra obligation, but I would recommend a 3, 3, 4 statline any day over a quad 3 *unless* your human, in which case you have to put up with lower base stats across the board in exchange for no glaring weakness or your in a smaller group, in which case generalists are much more useful. I found that, in a group of 6 people at the time, that specialists were much more valuable then generalists when it came to role assessment. A generalist can do most things pretty well, but a full out specialist has a chance of fairly reliably preforming difficult checks.

That being said, I consider 3 yellow (an attribute of 3 with 3 skill ranks) superior to 4 green. So it could work either way.

*Buffed with cybernetics. his actual brawn is 1. Being crippled hurts.

I thought I read you cannot increase characteristics after creation?

30 minutes ago, UnknownMando said:

I thought I read you cannot increase characteristics after creation?

You can't do so with XP. You can only do so with the Dedication talent found in each Specialization's talent tree.

25 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

You can't do so with XP. You can only do so with the Dedication talent found in each Specialization's talent tree.

Gotcha thanks

On 1/7/2019 at 2:02 PM, UnknownMando said:

Hello all, thanks for your time.

I am a brand new RPG player. longtime strategy fan and star wars fan. about to start my first game. I've read most of core rulebook and many forum posts. Along with the GM there will be 5 PC (all but 1 PC is a first timer) 1 is a bounty hunter, 1 a explorer, and 1 hired gun. I originally planned on doing a Bounty Hunter class but didn't want to leave our group with combat only players.

I have some great backstory's made which I understand is very important. but I need a little help

I was think of going 2-3-2-3-2-3. however I'm afraid with a group of 5 I may get left useless due to not exceling at 1 area. is that that case or is a jack of all trades decent?? if its not a good idea what's some suggestions?

any experienced smugglers out there willing to help a beginner?

thanks!

Look at specs in the pdfs in the above to decide what books to buy... on to the advice

Use ogg dude's character generator to build your character

you might want to play a pantoran (force and destiny endless vigil, but it's in the character generator so don't worry about buying endless vigil unless you want to craft a lightsaber)

http://swrpg.viluppo.net/character/species/3491/

if you don't want to play a human. 110 xp, a 1 in willpower, 3 in presence, a free rank in cool or negotiation both of which are good for a smuggler.

Take 10 obligation for 10 extra xp to get you to 120 xp. then put 20 xp into willpower to get it up to 2, raise agility to 4 for another 70 xp, and then you can put any other attribute you want up to 3 to get any other secondary focus you want.

The reason to put a 4 in agility is it makes you great at shooting, stealth and piloting (which are the smuggler's bread and butter) from the get go.

In terms of statistics of succeeding, 3 yellow dice is a close equivalent to 4 green dice. With the cost of skills I recommend EVENTUALLY putting 3 skill ranks into skills you want to be awesome at, it's more important and cost effective to have a high attribute. The only reason I personally put more than 3 ranks in a skill is if I have a talent that keys off the number of ranks in that particular skill.

pick the kst-100 (dawn of rebellion) as your starting ship (see below for stats to justify the purchase, it also had 6 kickass universal specializations, padawan survivor is the best universal spec for transitioning from a muggle to a jedi) the stats are awesome and it looks freaking cool.

https://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/KST-100_Kestrel_light_executive_transport

However, you can play a smuggler without taking the smuggler career/specializations... bounty hunter/operator (from no disintegrations) is the spec I'd start with if I was making a pilot, it's the only pilot spec in the game with the offensive driving talent which is crazy fun. My second spec would be squadron leader from age of rebellion (I think the core book) because it has 2 ranks of defensive driving which has crazy awesome synergy with offensive driving.

The bounty hunter career also has 2 very cool signature abilities.

So here are the ship stats

kst-100

sil 3;  speed 4; handling +1; def 1/-/-/1; armor 2

ht threshold 25; ss threshold 20;

Hull Type/Model: Light Freighter/KST-100

Manufacturer: Corellian Engineering Corporation

Hyperdrive: Primary: Class 3, Backup: Class 12

Navicomputer: Yes

Sensor Range: Short

Ship's Compliment: One pilot, one co-pilot

Encumbrance Capacity: 70

Passenger Capacity: 4

Consumables: Two Months.

Price/Rarity: 120,000 credits/7.

Customization Hard Points: 4.

Weapons  :  Forward-mounte   d light laser cannons (Fire Arc Forward; Damage 5; Critical 3; Range [Close]; Linked 1).   

Not part of the question but in any player in your group likes the mechanic specialization in technician, it also appears under the age of rebellion engineer career which has ranged light as a career skill. Mechanic has a talent called bad motivator which is one of the most fun talents in the game. A smuggler pilot having a mechanic team mate (e.g. han and chewie) is very star wars.

13 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

Look at specs in the pdfs in the above to decide what books to buy... on to the advice

Use ogg dude's character generator to build your character

you might want to play a pantoran (force and destiny endless vigil, but it's in the character generator so don't worry about buying endless vigil unless you want to craft a lightsaber)

http://swrpg.viluppo.net/character/species/3491/

if you don't want to play a human. 110 xp, a 1 in willpower, 3 in presence, a free rank in cool or negotiation both of which are good for a smuggler.

Take 10 obligation for 10 extra xp to get you to 120 xp. then put 20 xp into willpower to get it up to 2, raise agility to 4 for another 70 xp, and then you can put any other attribute you want up to 3 to get any other secondary focus you want.

The reason to put a 4 in agility is it makes you great at shooting, stealth and piloting (which are the smuggler's bread and butter) from the get go.

In terms of statistics of succeeding, 3 yellow dice is a close equivalent to 4 green dice. With the cost of skills I recommend EVENTUALLY putting 3 skill ranks into skills you want to be awesome at, it's more important and cost effective to have a high attribute. The only reason I personally put more than 3 ranks in a skill is if I have a talent that keys off the number of ranks in that particular skill.

pick the kst-100 (dawn of rebellion) as your starting ship (see below for stats to justify the purchase, it also had 6 kickass universal specializations, padawan survivor is the best universal spec for transitioning from a muggle to a jedi) the stats are awesome and it looks freaking cool.

https://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/KST-100_Kestrel_light_executive_transport

However, you can play a smuggler without taking the smuggler career/specializations... bounty hunter/operator (from no disintegrations) is the spec I'd start with if I was making a pilot, it's the only pilot spec in the game with the offensive driving talent which is crazy fun. My second spec would be squadron leader from age of rebellion (I think the core book) because it has 2 ranks of defensive driving which has crazy awesome synergy with offensive driving.

The bounty hunter career also has 2 very cool signature abilities.

So here are the ship stats

kst-100

sil 3;  speed 4; handling +1; def 1/-/-/1; armor 2

ht threshold 25; ss threshold 20;

Hull Type/Model: Light Freighter/KST-100

Manufacturer: Corellian Engineering Corporation

Hyperdrive: Primary: Class 3, Backup: Class 12

Navicomputer: Yes

Sensor Range: Short

Ship's Compliment: One pilot, one co-pilot

Encumbrance Capacity: 70

Passenger Capacity: 4

Consumables: Two Months.

Price/Rarity: 120,000 credits/7.

Customization Hard Points: 4.

Weapons  :  Forward-mounte   d light laser cannons (Fire Arc Forward; Damage 5; Critical 3; Range [Close]; Linked 1).   

Not part of the question but in any player in your group likes the mechanic specialization in technician, it also appears under the age of rebellion engineer career which has ranged light as a career skill. Mechanic has a talent called bad motivator which is one of the most fun talents in the game. A smuggler pilot having a mechanic team mate (e.g. han and chewie) is very star wars.

Thanks so much for all the info

26 minutes ago, UnknownMando said:

Thanks so much for all the info

Your welcome, I hope you find it helpful, pantorans are the game mechanically perfect species for playing a face. They're slightly over powered because george Lucas played a pantoran in the prequels but it's some what balanced by requiring a 3 in presence which makes them have less combat potential but they're awesome for face characters/particularly smugglers.

Following this I got a chance to make a starting character in an online time... a requirement was the chaudiracter had to have a FaD career and starting spec so I'm going with a pantoran sentinel/racer (endless vigil)... sentinel/racer is pretty much the FaD spec that fits best into Edge as a force sensitive smuggler/pilot. Will flesh out the character with "sage" (a consular specialization, FaD core book, adds astrogation and charm as career skills, has natural negotiator which let's reroll one cool or negotiation check, cool also used for quick draws and gambling, has 2 force rating talents and no dedication) and "gadgeteer" adds 4 new skills including mechanics ranged light coercion and brawl, with a quick path down the second column to dedication, and a couple of side purchases to help with being a gunslinger. Note I'm going to take less than half of the sage and gadgeteer trees, so it won't be that expensive. Starting with performers attire (boost dice to perform or attract attention) going to put armor inserts (470 credits from masks and cyphers AoR spy book) in them. Using this as a character portrait

https://www.deviantart.com/oreliane/art/Neltari-by-Daekazu-641963040

Technically it's a chiss rather than a pantoran but other than the eyes it could be either so close enough)

Going to start with a 4 in agility, 3 in cunning and presence, 2's in everything else so stereotypical smuggler, going for the enhance force power which with left column upgrades will let me add force dice to piloting checks. Will take foresee power and upgrade to add force dice to initiative checks and sense defense upgrades. Will put dedications into agility and intelligence to help with being a gear head.

So can make a crazy powerful force sensitive but otherwise stereotypical smuggler with about the xp needed to buy 2 full specialization trees worth of talents.