I don't understand all the Duros love. Where they mechanically superior in a previous edition of the game or something?

cetiken said:

Nope! They got a few bonuses to astrogation, but the real reason is that they've been present in every edition of the game, I think. They're known for being spacers and having a huge spaceflight culture, having been out in space as long as the Corellians (humanity). They're also almost as ubiquitous as humans are, and their offshoot race the Neimoidians are the big bad guys of the Clone Wars. One of the very first aliens we see in A New Hope is a Duros, and they've been a minor-but-important part of the canon for years. The leader of the Galactic Alliance during the Legacy Era is a Duros - Gar Stazi.

A lot of people have had a lot of Duros characters over the years. They're kind of emblematic of the minor-but-important roles that PCs in these games like to fill.

cetiken said:

I won't go into detail, except to say that once you have experienced Duros love, you will never be the same.

I am just going to say making characters in this game is a breeze. Its easier than making a character, for me, than it was in Saga. The Obligation and Motivation really adds the extra dimension to the characters that was ,IMO, sorely missed in Saga (and previous SW games). I posted my first character on the rpg.net thread, a Bothan Colonist-Doctor with the Betrayal Obligation (she performed unsanctioned medical experiments on someone in her clan) and her Motivation is Ambition (Expertise)… she just wants to be the best doctor she can be and she has no problem with doing… experiments. These mechanics are fun.

1) I'd like to see more species variety in the final release (everyone has their favorite, mine being togruta)

2) I'd like to see a handful of sample PCs to show how you might spend your XP

3) I could use some clarify on the purchase of talents

blaked said:

Yeah, that seems to be the one that really stumps people from what I've seen to date of folks building their characters.

And while I've already made a number of sample characters, having a few official ones in the actual book wouldn't hurt either. If nothing else, it'll give folks that have just picked up the basic book and aren't keen on websites the option of ready-to-play characters if they so desire.

I am posting this here because I think its technically a character creation thing but in my view of the Gand race and comparing it with previous versions I think this version should have a Presence 1 and Intellect 2 as starting characteristics. they are described as being mechanically inclined and always tinkering with their own personal gear and they are not very pretty so it just makes sense these should be switched to me.

Regarding Talents, wee can only purchase Talents from our Specializations chosen, correct? In a way the book was vague to me on this even though it seemed like it was said… it just wasn't clearly specified to me, or I just read it wrong.

Donovan Morningfire said:

It would be nice to see how 'most people' spend their XP - do they bump their attributes and buy a small number of talents? do they leave the attributes and buy a ton of talents? how often are skills purchased? I'm starting to better understand, I think, how the talents are purchased and you have to 'follow' the little lines around the tree.

I'd also be interested to know if people normally buy 1 specialization, 2, or 3 - or if 'normally' doesn't exist and every variation is as valid as another.

One thing regarding character creation that might be a good idea to add is to restrict starting characters to only the 1st and 2nd tiers of their talent trees. This way, it reflects that your hero is capable, but he's more of a Luke Skywalker or Rick Hunter (fresh-faced and new to a life of adventure) than a Han Solo or Roy Fokker (seasoned pro). It also encourages players to spend some of their starting XP on a characteristic score boost or two, as well as fleshing out their skill list.

Another notion, this one a fair more off-kilter, is that since so many folks seem to be spending at least half their starting XP (if not all of it) on raising their characteristics, cut everyone's starting XP allotment in half, and give everyone two free +1s to two different characteristics scores of their choice. You could still buy up your characteristics with starting XP, but not it really is gonna cost you in terms of skills and especially talents, which is where the really cool toys are to be found in this game.

Stacie_GmrGrl said:

I agree, that does make more sense.

I'm definitely a fan of the idea of cutting starting xp values while giving a few free points to add to characteristics. I realize this might take away some peoples' freedom of character customization, but I just feel it could make for more well-rounded character creation. Just give all species 2-3 points, maybe 5-7 for droids, and then somewhere around 30-45 xp to spend on skills talents and specializations.

seadaily said:

Thanks.

Droids I think would need to have an entirely different set-up for their starting characteristics if going this route. As one poster suggested, instead of 1's across the board, give Droids the option of choosing two characteristics to have a starting value of 3, another two to have a 2, and the last two to start at 1. That way, they're not hit as hard by the reduced starting pool of XP; in fact, they could very well be given an XP pool on par with the other species since they don't need to buy up so many ability scores.

Speaking of the Gand, I see that Trandoshan's have regeneration, yet the Gand do not. In the X-Wing novel series, as well as previous versions of the RPG the Gand have had that ability. It might be nice instead of giving the Lunged Gand an extra 10xp as the new update states, that instead you list a few possible choices of racial abilities that one could use to make different subspecies of the Gand. One of those choices should be Regeneration. Another possible choice might be natural armor, as in a carapace for the insectoid race. Other options may be some sort of sight or hearing based sense, that is beyond the norm of most other races.

Jim

=) That was me. I think droids should get the following characteristics: 3 [50 XP], 3 [50XP], 2 [0 XP], and three 1's [0 XP] = 120 "race characteristic" XP. This would balance against humans getting 2's acroos to board [20 XP * 6] = 120 "race characteristic" XP.

I made and remade what I think is an optimized droid and an optimized human. The human has 65-points more of stuff (not counting the cost of droid racial abilities).

I just got my copy today and am going through it now and this in particular sticks out as I make my first character. This was mentioned in part by another poster, but I find the following needs clarification:

When one chooses a career and specialization, only the Bounty Hunter specializations explicitly states that you can take a free point in two of the specialist skills. None of the other career specialties state this.

500 credits is way too low for starting credits. A character should be able to get equipment that fits their skills without having to gain extra obligation. 500 credits doesn't even buy a blaster rifle.

I think that if a character has a skill they should get an item associated with it. A free medpac comes with Medicine. A free tool kit comes with mechanics. A free blaster pistol comes with Ranged (Light) . Even if the game is designed so that players spend extra obligation to buy equipment that means a group of 4 will peg 100 if they each take on 10 obligation.

Zar said:

And 100 is fine. It's over 100 that the penalty kicks in.

But regardless, why does everyone need to start with a blaster? You can loot one in your first fight no problem. It's a choice to make things interesting--do you want gear and to be a combatant right out of the gate, or do you want skills and flexibility?

The adventure in the book, for example, only has 2 combat encounters. Combat is not the end all be all of EotE.

Land holy god your method would totally be unbalanced. A blaster rifle costs way more than the nothing you'd get from a Knowledge skill, or social skill.

Zar said:

Myself and a few other GMs over on the d20 Radio Boards have been using a default value of 1000 credits for beginning character equipment. This gives enough for a decent blaster as well as some other career-related equipment. I would say that if your character (namely a bounty hunter) wants more gear than that, they are going to have to forgo the bonus XP and instead take the extra credits from increasing their Obligation, or suffer a +15 hit to their starting Obligation if they want both. Granted, that last one only works if you've got four or less characters since you can't take extra Obligation at the start of the game greater than your starting value, and you only get to choose each option once.

Inksplat said:

And?

Why does everybody have to be cookie-cutter with exactly the same everything? For one thing, since you actually choose your skills, should one guy get all knowledge skills and no equipment from it, and another gets a blaster rifle, a blaster pistol, a tool kit, a medikit, force axe,and a hand scanner, well then they actually did choose to do that.

I would also point out that the examples Zar had were mostly non-combat, just like the skills. I would also point out that just cause you havent thought of a good piece of equipment for a knowledge skill, that dosent mean someone else wont.

I'm confused. How is not giving people free gear making them cookie cutter? In fact, giving people free gear is much more likely to make it sure everyone takes the Obligation for XP. This at least makes it a tougher choice.

I have made umpteen characters now, about 30, with various people. As for the creation mechanics and process itself, we found it very easy and had no issues (once I learned where to find everything).

The one complaint I have gotten from about 5 of the 30 people were that the number of available species were rather slim. As one player put it, "It's Star Wars, I expect to be flooded with species options." It is understood that this is only the first book, but 8 is about the standard of race/species options in most role playing games. Not wanting all species out the gate, but 12-16 species options would go a long way to giving the "feel" of star wars.

Just our .02.

$hamrock

I disagree. Major characters were always human. With the exception of a pair of droids a wookie and an abomination. I find the fact that humans are mechanicly inferior to be more problamatIc.

cetiken said:

An abomination?

GoblynByte said:

I'd call that a pretty good description of Jar Jar Binks.

$hamrock,
As far as limited species, I and a bunch of others are hoping that the final version will include more options.

In the meantime however, Cyril and myself are working on a compilation of unofficial species options, including some of the more iconic species such as Duros, Gamorreans, Ithorians, Mon Cal, and Zabraks. We've got about 20 on the docket so far, and I'm hoping to reach a solid 24 when it's said and done.