So a group of coworkers want to play this game together. Since I'm a big Star Wars fan and do creative writing for other projects I casually volunteered to GM. I have watched DnD streams in the past and felt like I could get the hang of GMing pretty quickly. Only now I'm reading the core rulebook and while I think I can nail the collective storytelling elements, I feel like combat is going to be daunting for me to do correctly. There are so many attachments and abilities to keep track of that I feel like I'm absolutely going to screw things up repeatedly.

Fortunately, I have until the new year to get ready and I'm taking a few weeks off for the holidays so I've got some time to prepare. Are there some like... premade combat scenarios out there that I could run through one step at a time to learn the ropes? Just practice knowing which dice to roll for each type of combat scenario so I can resolve damage + effects enough times to feel confident doing it for real players? Are any of you GMs running a session in the next month that where I could watch you do your GM thing? I'm willing to put in the practice to do this right, but some guidance would be greatly appreciated. I just want my coworkers to have a good time.

You're in luck!

There are four different "beginner's kits" available to help you run your first game. They are each set up to guide you through the basic rules and mechanics as you play out the adventure.

The kits come in a box and include an introductory adventure, pre-gen characters, maps, tokens, and a set of dice.

After the introductory adventure, you can dig into the FFG site to download the follow up adventure and more pre-gen characters.

After that, if you and your friends enjoyed it, you can break out the core rulebook for the non-basic rules and character creation stuff and hit the hyper lanes running.

Also, don't be hard on yourself.

Always remember you are not alone at the table. Your players will manage their own things if you are clear about that at the start. You can always ask for help tracking initiative or other things. It's not your whole job to run the game

On 12/9/2020 at 2:33 AM, Argonaut1 said:

There are so many attachments and abilities to keep track of that I feel like I'm absolutely going to screw things up repeatedly.

For player attachments and abilities, you should let each player be responsible for knowing their own, including the mechanics of how they work. You will drive yourself crazy trying to keep track of them all, especially just starting out.

On 12/9/2020 at 2:33 AM, Argonaut1 said:

Are any of you GMs running a session in the next month that where I could watch you do your GM thing?

You have arrived just in time! These forums are shutting down, end of next month. But for now, there are a number of PBPs (play-by-posts) here, mostly in the beginner forums. The OOC (out-of-character) threads will have the game mechanics and rolls shown, while the IC carries the story.

Good luck, and have fun!

2 hours ago, Edgehawk said:

You have arrived just in time! These forums are shutting down, end of next month. But for now, there are a number of PBPs (play-by-posts) here, mostly in the beginner forums. The OOC (out-of-character) threads will have the game mechanics and rolls shown, while the IC carries the story.

Good luck, and have fun!

@Argonaut1 , in the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game forum, there are three recent PbP games. Two have just been put on hiatus because we're moving them to Discord, but Tales from the Fringe is active.

All three of them are fairly extensive and reading back through them can give you a pretty good picture of combat, both personal-scale and planetary-scale.

In the FaD forum, there are three active games, Cyclone Squad, Clone Wars AU, and Revan's War.

In the AoR forum, there are two active games, one much younger than the other. Reach of the Empire has been around for a couple years, Rise Against the Reach is relatively new.

Here's an OOC thread at the start of a combat:

Here's an IC thread at the start of a combat:

It would be remiss by post #5 to not mention the Order 66 podcast as a resource.

/Bangs that 🥁

I will be returning to gameplay within the next few months. I schedule online games via Discord for Tabletop Simulator, with one-offs of the beginner EotE box set etc. for new players. Look me up on the SWRPG Discord, and I'll save you a spot when I post my next game.

You need to go ahead and dive in, don't get caught in preparation. You don't need to know all of the details yet, just the dice and a few other basic concepts. It's a simple, yet very different, system.

I had the same anxiety when I first started learning this narrative system under Warhammer. I completely overprepped and never thought I was going to actually play. I finally just dove in for a simple starting adventure after someone at these forums (the Warhammer threads) told me to dive in, trust me. It then was so natural and easy. Trust me.

On 12/23/2020 at 9:07 AM, Rimsen said:

Also, don't be hard on yourself.

Always remember you are not alone at the table. Your players will manage their own things if you are clear about that at the start. You can always ask for help tracking initiative or other things. It's not your whole job to run the game

+1.... those days are loong gone, besides if you can't remember any ruling for a dice roll add a Boost or Setback, don't forget to Use Destiny points. Shop around, if possible, for another CRB for the players to reference - my buddy found one for £3.50 in a Cancer Research shop in the UK - i kid you not!! or on Eb*y thought they are few and far between..print off skill trees for each PC career so hte players can quick reference too..

Listen to all of these short bits by Skill Monkey, they give great examples of how the dice system works, they're not too long, and pretty entertaining. They are in reverse order so click all the way down and start with the oldest ones because the examples get progressively more complicated.
http://theskillmonkey.blogspot.com