darkrose50 said:

In some cases for some players the answer is yes. Some players love being awesome at one thing. We have a player in our group that is a combat junkie, his RP is minimal but he loves smashing things so 5 dice with 2 yellow on his Ranged Heavy roll just obliterates enemies, he is getting Critical Wounds left and right. When the party is doing things outside of combat he lets them handle the rolls and just enjoys the story.

Some people who dislike sucking at anything are going to hate Droids, others who love being awesome at something will love them.

I guess with humans that math looks alright to me, when I think about it though, any race with a 3 can get to a 5 and have 10xp left over so I guess droids are still getting a little shortchanged, 200 is probably too much but another 10 or 15 xp should be sufficient in my mind.

GM Chris said:

I don't think I explained what I meant very well. Sorry about that. My point was that first off, droids differ from people in certain ways. Like the point you've made about droids wearing armour. A sidebar acknowledging this, or perhaps even rules for upgrading droids with armour bits (beyond cybernetics) would be a good idea (and if they don't, I can easily house rule it, but I don't use house rules while beta testing the game).

When I say that droids should be different from other speicies, I don't actually mean that the char-gen rules for them should be different (although I wouldn't hate seeing a selectable "droid-type" option, a bit like the Gand get to pick between longs and no-lungs). What I mean is that I don't think the current rules are really equal to another species choice. I like the current droid rules, but don't think they are really balanced against the other species options. I also don't think they should be balanced against the other species.

To me, it seems like they are more of an "advanced", or "roleplay" (*gasp*), choice and I think presenting them in the species chapter as just another option is a bit misleading. So, I'd like to see a section that goes into a little more detail about the implications of playing a droid.

Honestly, I just want FFG to explain why droids are statted the way they are. We can find all sorts of explanations, but are we missing the way droids are intended to be played? If we knew the goal, could we effectively judge whether or not the stats match the goal?

Don't forget that both Droids and Humans can take 10 additional xp from extra Obligations. This way Humans too can start with 5 in one Attribute. Yes, they won't have skills, but will catch quickly up in a few sessions… so they will be able to do anything a specialized droid can do, and many more things.

I still think Droids should get something unique like "Droid Parts" beyhond the standard Cybernetics and without the "6 parts" limit. Well, this limitation makes no sense for living creatures too (see Grievous… ok he's a full Cyborg).
The only limit should be physical (maybe defined by a TAG descriptor of the various parts). So if you want to have 4 Hands, you must have 4 Limbs.

For now, I'm looking at something "smaller" than a complete "Droid Parts" solution. I've already posted a series of Attribute modifiers for Droids (based upon their "Frame"), but I'm now trying to keep the 175 XP (+10 XP for any one skill) for character creation.

Class 1 Droid Frame (Medical, Biological Science, Physical Science, Mathematics)
+2d6 (Blue dice) to Intellect rolls.

Class 2 Droid Frame (Astromech, Exploration, Environmental, Engineering)
+1d6 (Blue die) to Intellect rolls, +1d6 (Blue die) to Cunning rolls

Class 3 Droid Frame (Protocol, Servant, Tutor, Child Care)
+2d6 (Blue dice) to Presence rolls

Class 4 Droid Frame (Security, Gladiator, Battle, Assassin)
+1d6 (Blue die) to Agility rolls, +1d6 (Blue die) to Brawn rolls

Class 5 Droid Frame (General Labor, Specialist Labor, Hazardous-service)
+2d6 (Blue dice) to Brawn rolls.

I think this would give them something unique without giving away too much "power".

Efidm, I like the way you think! Perhaps a choice for class 2 and class 4 droids as to where the +2 boost dice are allocated during character generation. Class 2 Droid Frame allocates 2 boost die to Intellect and cunning (allocating 0-2 in each).

Mayhaps droids can have a Droid tree, similar to that of the force powers (one could also make a cyborg tree). Maybee droids could have a career tree and each class of droid could have a specialization! A career / specialization that could not be dropped. That would be a way to hold them back.

Create five talents in the droid tree: Upgrade I, Upgrade II, Upgrade III, Upgrade IV, and Upgrade V. Each level adds one (1) level of the characteristic. The costs would be 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 points respectively. Create six upgrades, one for each characteristic. Each level of Upgrade allows the character to select one of the characteristic upgrades (each upgrade may only be selected once).

The result would be that the droid could gain a net gain of 25-points (75 points for the five Upgrade talents, each effectively raising a different racial characteristic from 1 to 2, and each racial characteristic of 2 is worth 20-points, thus 100-points of characteristics for 75-points). Perhaps something can be done to make the cost 100-points. Or perhaps the credit cost can offset that fact. Perhaps effectively limiting them to two career trees would be worth the 25-points.

Cost for parts and an equal amount for labor. That way another PC can do the upgrade and feel useful. Free if selected during character creation. Also note that the Upgrade talent only raises the characteristic by one point, the costs below are for the quality of upgrade parts needed.
Upgrades the attribute up to 2 [1,000 Credits]
Upgrades the attribute up to 3 [2,000 Credits]
Upgrades the attribute up to 4 [4,000 Credits]
Upgrades the attribute up to 5 [8,000 Credits]
Upgrades the attribute up to 6 [16,000 Credits]
Upgrades the attribute up to 7 [36,000 Credits]

-Perhaps the droid tree could have the limitation that a characteristic could not be raised over 6 in order to balance things.
-Perhaps the droid tree could open additional cybernetic slots
-Perhaps the droid can have a “duel core” slot option allowing the same cybernetic attachment to be installed twice.
-Perhaps the credit cost should be optional or zero (and be explained away within the story).

Slaunyeh said:

Ah. Dude… that's completely reasonable. And you know, the beta has "no fluff" in it. I quite imagine the final product will delve deeply into the roleplaying realities faced for a droid character. At least, I hope so. ;-)