So it has been 5-ish years since I ran a game in this system and I seem to have forgotten how to figure the number of opponents for an encounter.

Yes, yes, I know it depends on the PCs and their kit and environmental circumstances, etc... I am just looking for where it is in the books and/or the rules of thumb used by my fellow GMs.

For example: 5 PCs with 50XP above starting, would 4 minion groups of 3 opponents each and 4 rivals be way too hard?

I honestly can't recall how I used to "balance" encounters!!

For starter PCs the beginner gsme suggests 1 minion/PC in a group.

2 combat capable rivals can easily wipe a new group (almost happened to me)

3 hours ago, Inquisitor Tremayne said:

Yes, yes, I know it depends on the PCs and their kit and environmental circumstances, etc... I am just looking for where it is in the books and/or the rules of thumb used by my fellow GMs.

There's no D&D DM's Guide equivalent, balancing encounters in this game remains an elusive pursuit.

3 hours ago, Inquisitor Tremayne said:

For example: 5 PCs with 50XP above starting, would 4 minion groups of 3 opponents each and 4 rivals be way too hard?

I think so. Four minion groups and one rival is probably enough, assuming all the PCs have some combat ability.

3 hours ago, Inquisitor Tremayne said:

I honestly can't recall how I used to "balance" encounters!!

The D&D DM's guide has four categories, something like "Easy, Medium, Hard, Deadly". I generally strive for an equivalent of "Medium", that is, I expect the PCs to prevail, but not without some consequence. What this means is the PCs have to: a) bring at least the same number of attack opportunities as the opposition; b) be able to output slightly more damage; c) have dice pools slightly better than the opposition. So if you have four minion groups of stormtroopers with a size of 3, their pool is YYG, which means there needs to be at least four PCs with that dice pool or better (and better weapons than the stormtroopers). Of course it all gets wonky with melee and ranges, cover, etc, but that's the gist of it. If you want to go "Easy, Hard, or Deadly", then just adjust the number of attack opportunities, damage output, and/or dice pools as needed.

I generally go with 3-4 Minions per group, with 2 groups for every 3 PC. Sometimes i'll add a Rival on top of that, but generally if I add a Rival into the mix I'll have fewer Minions, often only one group of 4. This is for my campaign where the PCs have ranged from starting to about +100.

For my campaign that started at heroic-level and is currently about +215, the PCs are playing rather combat-focused Mandalorians and almost all have high Soak. I rarely push the envelope as I generally would prefer them to be less wounded (with a few notable exceptions), but I have found that they can hold their own (and more) quite well against a Rival each or several minion groups (I generally have minion groups of 3-4). It is not rare for me to send two minion groups of 3 each or some similar number after them. We've got a Beskad-wielding Marauder who has a base damage of 9 (4+3+Feral Strength 2) and regularly rolls a Triumph on top of that, often taking out two in a single attack. We've also got a dual-wielder who has taken out three minions in a single attack before.

All that said, I generally throw "balancing" out the window and just go with what I feel is appropriate for the situation, adjusting as necessary on the fly to keep the PCs alive if I sent too much after them (but rarely making things more difficult). I'm not too worried about "punishing" them with wounds. If they skate through a combat, I probably won't mind (excepting the circumstances when I mind very much because it was supposed to be difficult).

Cool, thanks all. I just didn't want to have a TPK in the first encounter. We'll run some skirmishes for session 0 so that should help too. For now I'll just plan to scale things down and run the first few encounters on the low powered end of things until I get the swing of things again. Thanks!

1 hour ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

I generally throw "balancing" out the window and just go with what I feel is appropriate for the situation

I think this is the way to go. I've found that in this game more than others, my players realize that they don't always have to fight. I've found that D&D groups won't flee from anything. If you have dozens of tough monsters approaching, they'll act like you're being unfair, instead of turning tail. Fights in this game have largely been, "Hold those Stormtroopers off while I hack the shield generator!" or "Keep those TIEs off our tail while I make the jump to lightspeed!" or "Oh, heck no! RUN!"

The new Genisys supplement, (Advanced Players Handbook? Or something), apparently does have a good guide for this.