beyond character creation, how much XP should a GM give characters in a one-shot adventure? (i.e. a oneshot that's designed for beginners to the system)

Depends on the situation, but I'd generally suggest Heroic-Level (+150XP) as it allows you to use more stuff, both as a GM and as a player. If you go with the starting XP, the PCs won't be able to do all that much and you won't be able to send all that much after them.

17 minutes ago, thinkbomb said:

beyond character creation, how much XP should a GM give characters in a one-shot adventure? (i.e. a oneshot that's designed for beginners to the system)

My usual process for pre-gens that are a bit above the norm but are also intended for people unfamiliar with the system is to give the characters an extra 25XP and an extra 1000 credits to spend on gear. This allows for a character to be a little more fleshed out in terms of their general concept, buying a couple extra skill ranks and/or a couple low rank talents.

More importantly, it also avoids overloading the new players with too much stuff to keep track of, something that can happen with heroic level characters as they quite often have a lot more moving parts with regards to what they can do. The dice system can be daunting enough for new players, so there's no need to add additional stress to them, especially if they're new to RPGs in general, as the last thing you want is to scare them off of RPGs in general.

Ah, I missed the "beginners" part of that. I agree with Donovan on this one, but I'd increase that by a little bit. Maybe 50/2,500.

FFG gives Genesys pre-gens 100 earned XP, so I would start there. That should give you enough XP to let each character shine in their specialty but not enough that there's too much for your players to worry about.

For a one shot? +500 exp minimum.

It also depends on what kind of one shot scenario you're planning but 500 at the least.

1 hour ago, Mark Caliber said:

For a one shot? +500 exp minimum.

It also depends on what kind of one shot scenario you're planning but 500 at the least.

That…would be way too many talents and abilities for those new to the system. You'll overwhelm them with options.

Also, using end-game XP totals can give them the wrong feel for the game. If their first encounter is with +500 earned XP they will think that 500 earned XP is how the game is played. Not a good choice for new players, IMO.

I'm probably going to go base creation then 100xp for abilities and perks.

I think 2-3 special active abilities is manageable for most new players. Here's my reasoning...

• This system is way more reliant on creativity than other systems I've played. I'll have to be a lot more lenient on what can/can't attempt just to be more inviting. (i.e. sure, you could try to start a bar brawl and get everyone else involved, that's going to be a hard check, though. wanna try it?)
• The non-creative base moves are move and attack (heroes will probably only have 2 weapons) ... so that's 2 options
• So having 2-3 mechanics driven active abilities (the talents) would put it to 4-5 options total (2-3 of which are situational and single-ish use)

I think that's a lot more manageable for someone who hasn't had a GOOD ttrpg group to play with yet. (apparently, the other friend said that the last group the new player was with was full of pose-hard sophist activists who were using the game to flaunt their 'social intelligence' or whatever ... not what makes for a fun experience). So just having a handful of options should make it feel like it's good. I'll also build the one-shot to create obvious use chances. ^^; yay.

seriously, thanks again for the help!

p.s. a 500xp oneshot would be hilarious to run, though, with the right group. not gonna lie.

8 hours ago, c__beck said:

. . . using end-game XP totals can give them the wrong feel for the game . . .

End game?

My players STARTED with +650 (in the beginning).

And I just introduced a brand new player* and gave her +850 (Kinda to get her close to the rest of the PC's who are averaging 1,400 exp). She did just fine with character creation.

And things are JUST beginning to get good!

End game? Seriously?

Nah. You guys are seriously missing out if you think 500 exp is the "end."

* Brand new to Role Playing Games. Not just FFG, but an RPG newb!

If they are familiar with the rules give as much as you want to keep up with your bad guys. Just try to limit the sheets they have and number of abilities they have to activate. Too many can make them forget them.

For new players I would focus more on giving skills to help develop the character it is easier to track and can leave to more triumphs giving a better chance to learn the system. Again limit talents that are activated. And limit force powers they are not strong at low levels and cause a lot more to track and understand.

Just my thoughts.

On 11/19/2019 at 11:05 AM, thinkbomb said:

beyond character creation, how much XP should a GM give characters in a one-shot adventure? (i.e. a oneshot that's designed for beginners to the system)

For beginners, enough XP to flesh out a couple of skills, give easy Talents like Quick Draw, Grit, or Toughness; and give them something cool, like a Force power, Lethal Blows, or Scathing Tirade. This means 25-50XP.

For other one-shots, it depends. I find it more fun to run a one-shot with badasses, which requires quite a bit of XP. I've been working on my "Simplified No-Talent" version of the game for friends who can't learn the rules, nor keep track of Talents. My goal is to convert each Talent to be something reflected in the stats or directly on the dice pool. I've gotten as far as coding it so I can generate my own PDFs. In my last one-shot, the PCs were jaded cops in a Bladerunner-like setting, and I must have given them about 600XP or so, but they only had to track 3 or 4 "special" things they could do, so I avoided Talent-overload.

16 hours ago, Mark Caliber said:

End game? Seriously?

Nah. You guys are seriously missing out if you think 500 exp is the "end."

No kidding. 500 is barely a mid-level Padawan, or a bounty hunter with a couple of easy scores. My goal each session is to make the players afraid they haven't spent enough on <insert ignored skill> to handle another situation like last session's debacle...

I kid, but only a little 😉

20-50XP is a good window for system newbies as it will give them some toys to play with, but not so much they have trouble keeping track.

For an introductory One-Shot, you could use a similar approach to the beginners' Box and throw in XP between encounters. Let them start with a blank PC and try out some things. Let them run through the first encounters and give them something like 20 XP to play around with Skillranks and Talents.

Otherwise, you could just use an even simpler method and just hand them packages like 2 Skillranks and 2 Talents and they can spend them whenever they want to.

I can see both having some value for the first Game as the XP method is learning by doing at the Table, while the "get some ranks and Talents"-Way should be a lot faster and keeps a lot of room to experiment in the Setting/System.

I don't even use XP when doing pregens for oneshots. I just build them to be balanced and fit their Role. A certain amount of skills and talents, and make them complementary to each other.

I use the Spec Trees as a guideline, but will use talents from other trees if it fits the concept.

Say I want each character to have 3 ranks in one skill, 2 ranks in three skills, 1 rank in 4 skills. I want each to have a cool high-level talent that can be used once or twice in the oneshot. And a few low-level utility talents, like Quickdraw or Stalker.

For Abilites I just do the same thing. Maybe something like this. One 4, two 3s, two 2s, one 1. Everyone gets a different combo of these for their abilities, depending on their Role.

I just try to keep it balanced and complementary.

I only do it this way for oneshots, before anyone gets mad at me.