GM Chris said:

Well, I can't fault you for being hopeful about how things might change. And frankly, I commend you for making it five years, a lot of those spent doing shows on a weekly basis, something I doubt very many podcasters could do for so long.

As for "explaining every single detail," just to be clear so that nobody tries to stuff words in my mouth, I'm not suggesting that FFG take the 3.X approach, nor do I think that every gamer out there is still stuck in that particular mindset. But sadly, there are gamers that either can't or just simply don't want to grow beyond that mindset.

The only reason I bring up the "Does Force Rating = Characteristic?" question is that it keeps coming up repeatedly. As LethalDose quite cynically noted, it probably really is a blend of wishful thinking and just not bothering to fully read what's given in the rules. I'd really like to think that gamers in general are a cut above the average mass of humanity in terms of intelligence, but sometimes that simply isn't the case.

I'm also thinking ahead to when this game "goes live" and you've got a entire crowd of new players, ones that haven't been playing along since August 2012. The fact that this question keeps coming up with the player/GM base is quite small… sadly, it kinda tells me that same question will be cropping up. Who knows, maybe it can be solved with a simple F.A.Q. sticky thread; the thread you created regarding how grappling was handled in SWSE certainly helped, or at least helped keep the questions in one place.

Maybe I'm being a bit old-fashioned in some respects, particularly the notion that "not everyone is going to visit these forums to get answers." With this game still being in the Beta stage, we've had folks pop-in and start up a thread asking something that's already been discussed to death in several other threads (the Jedi issue being the biggest by far), I'm dreading the torrent of threads cropping up because a new poster was too lazy to at least skim the forums to see if their particularly question has already been asked & answered. Hopefully things won't get as bad as they did at the WotC forums, but then again the WotC forums pretty much went downhill the moment that GM Sarli got relieved of his moderator duties.

But, enough ka-vitching on my part. I simply put forth a suggestion, and it's FFG's call if they want to consider it or not.

Is there a FAQ or wahtever its called to avoid repeating questions that have been asked before but just not been found by the questioner?

copperbell said:

Nope. Then again, having no less than three FAQ-style threads on the WotC did little to avert oft-repeated questions, though how much of that falls at the feet of the laziness of the WotC forum moderators for anything that didn't involve Magic or D&D is up for debate.

Donovan Morningfire said:

I remember my first time ever running "official" WotC Star Wars RPG events at GenCon (RPGA stuff). The entire Sagamore Ballroom (could fit two houses inside of it) filled with a hundred tables, easily. Giant banners devoted to D&D everywhere… And one tiny banner in the corner… where the four Star Wars tables were.

SW was always WotC's red-headed stepchild.

The following year, at GenCon… we didn't even get a banner.

The year after that… we waited… and waited… and eagerly contact the RPGA in the spring-time, asking where the module for this year was. Let us prepare! Let us make our custom minis and terrain tiles and character sheets and initiative cards! "We don't have the module yet… but it's coming…" Was our response. I think David Christ got tired of hearing from me. "Wait…" They'd say. "We don't have it yet." Eventually… July rolled around. With nothing. And we knew what was coming. Rodney Thompson came on the show and made what was (at the time) an unintentionally cryptic comment about how all the work we've done has been so great, and we should be commended for what what we'd done… (with the tone of… "because it's all over now…")

WotC announced the cancelation of the line a couple weeks later. [/sheds a tear]

GM Chris said:

Naw dude, d20 Modern was the red-headed stepchild of the WotC RPG product line. Star Wars they at least made an effort, d20 Modern… not so much.

Donovan Morningfire said:

No way… d20 Modern was the bastard stepchild of the WotC RPG product line. No modules. No support. No official play. Ever. Kinda sad. I played me the hells out of Urban Arcana!

And it's even more sad, due to the fact that d20 Modern was really Saga Edition's grand-pappy… indroducing into d20 the concept of talent trees and concentrated, mulit-options core classes. Saga was the mutant child of 3.5 and d20 Modern, with 3.5 having an adulterous fling with 4e creation concept design during the conception process. Chris Perkins, Owen Stephens, and Rodney Thomspon were mad-scientist gods who baked something new in an increasingly stale mold.

Gary Sarli's work was pretty solid, as well. (Shame his design ethic doesn't translate into kickstarter-funded projects. )