Hello all,

I have been lurking on these forums a bit. I have finally finished the Core rulebook, and have only been through the beg. box campaign once. Tomorrow night I am hosting our first session and just had a few questions in order to gain some tips or advice.

1) My PC's consist of 3 1st time RP'ers and and 1 fairly knowledgable person. Do you have any suggestions how to balance the narrative or handholding to accomodate these "skill" gaps?

2) For our first session, we are just building characters (steps 1-10) and probably going over some sample die pool interps. Do you have any suggestions for anything else to cover?

3) I plan on having the sessions last for about 2 hours. Is this a good time? We are probably going to meet only 1-2 times a week.

4) As a GM, should I make sure to keep track of info that the PC's are privey too? I'm a big fan of "if you have a rifle hanging over the fireplace in chapter 2, it should be fired at someone in chapter 10", but I have no idea if this is something that I should keep up with.

Thanks for taking the time to read these.

1) My PC's consist of 3 1st time RP'ers and and 1 fairly knowledgable person. Do you have any suggestions how to balance the narrative or handholding to accomodate these "skill" gaps?

Eh, I'd probably accommodate the newbies, especially towards the start of the game. Even the advanced player - who very well might have a grasp of regular role playing - is still probably new to this engine. Take it slow for the first couple of weeks, learn the system, resign yourself to breaks in the action for plenty of page turning - even from the vet.

2) For our first session, we are just building characters (steps 1-10) and probably going over some sample die pool interps. Do you have any suggestions for anything else to cover?

Naw, that should be more than enough for an evening. Bang out the mechanics, work on the background and story of the characters (sometimes far more important than the numbers) and getting all the ducks in a row should take you a while. Dont try and cram too much in at once.

3) I plan on having the sessions last for about 2 hours. Is this a good time? We are probably going to meet only 1-2 times a week.

Each group is different. Some like to bull around for half the evening and some get down to brass tacks straight away. Figure out your rythem and let the game come naturally. As for mine, we'll get in 5-6 hours (with 4-5 hours of actual game), depending on the weekend.

4) As a GM, should I make sure to keep track of info that the PC's are privey too? I'm a big fan of "if you have a rifle hanging over the fireplace in chapter 2, it should be fired at someone in chapter 10", but I have no idea if this is something that I should keep up with.

Oh god yes. Make notes, get character write-ups, evesdrop on the players going "You know, it would be cool if . . . ", make sure you get copies of backgrounds - everything they say can and should be used against them in the court of GM. . . .

1) My PC's consist of 3 1st time RP'ers and and 1 fairly knowledgable person. Do you have any suggestions how to balance the narrative or handholding to accomodate these "skill" gaps?

I would have the first few sessions be really straightforward story-wise and lead clearly from encounter to encounter. In my experience, new players are usually hesitant to initiate play and often wait for things to happen to respond to. Your group may be different, but don't expect them to take the reigns up front. Let them get comfortable with the game, the setting, and roleplaying in general before throwing open ended situations at them.

Of course, if they start running off the rails on their own, don't stop them.

Excellent advice. Thanks, gentleman. 5-6 hours seems a bit scary! Haha. I planned on running the box campaign with this group, (the other time was with my accommodating wife and brother). Is this a good place to start? I also have the free rpg day adventure, and the one that came with the GM screen. Any suggestions of an order? Or should I just go and make my own after the beg box? (I've been a star wars fan all my life. Lol. Plenty of adventures bouncing in my head.) I just know that the first one is very well structured and introduces each element slowly.

The beginners box is a great place to start - it slowly introduces the concepts of the game, holds your hand the whole way and pretty much is a good way to dip your toe into the Engine. I got it, and we didn't actually play it, but we did use the canned game's encounters to give the game engine a test run before the real game. Worked out pretty well too! If we were actually playing it, it's a bit railroad-y and linear, but as a tutorial for the game? Top marks.

If you're doing the canned game from the Beginners set, I would follow up with Long Arm of the Hutt - the two games dove tail together, continues the learning experience and add a nice capper to the story arc. Find it here: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3809 )

Awesome! Thanks for all the help. I will let you know how it goes or if I have any questions. So far I'm loving this community!

Let us know how it goes.

My biggest tip for any GM (especially for this game) is being able to improvise and use imagination. The details in the adventure give a framework, but the players will come up with plans and ideas that you won't have notes for, so you need to be able to say "yes" to their plan and go with (and maybe try and steer it back on track).

Also, try to bring the world alive. Describe what the characters see, hear and smell in each scene. Remember that things are happening in the world regardless of the character's involvement.

I've been GMing for 3 or 4 years now. And I still think of myself as a newbie, even though at this point I have enough experience to think otherwise. You will always be constantly learning and fine-tuning your style.

When I first started GMing (which happened to be for Star Wars as well, just Saga Edition) I used a module (an adventure that someone else has made and published with all the story, bad guys, and maps included). Pre-made modules are great for beginner GMs as well as beginner players. It teaches you the GM how an adventure can be laid out and is helpful for giving you a lot of information to use when your players start reacting to things or coming up with new ideas of their own. They are also good for new players because it is very easy for them to choose what to react to as well as decide what their characters can do.

After I had run through two or three modules, I felt comfortable enough to start coming up with my own. And that's when things began to get really fun seeing my players enjoying content that came directly from my brain. But modules make great training wheels. They are also fun to use even for seasoned veterans. It is always fun to use one now and again, regardless of the RP skill level of the group.

I was impressed by the Beginner system's mention of improv comedy and its "yes, and" principle.

In improv comedy, you and the other improvisers are collaboratively creating a scene. If you as a performer start a scene driving a car (moving your hands in the air in front of you, and shifting a gearshift, making driving noises, or whatever), then the other players need to "yes, and" what you're doing.

If the next player steps out and says "why are you standing there moving your hands in the air? We're in a hot air balloon!", that player just completely denied the reality of what you established in your opening. That's a **** move in improv.

In an RPG it's very similar, especially with the narrative focus of EOTE. Be prepared to improvise and adapt to what your players are offering you!

The beginner box does a great job of introducing e game mechanics, setting and style. Followed up with Long Arm of The Hutt it also provides a nice little mini-campaign story arc.

I like to keep copies of the PC character sheets, and take notes on everything. You never know what may become significant later on. Listen to what your players say, especially when hey are trying to guess what is going on. Sometimes their ideas are better than what I had planned. I can also get an idea of where they would like to see the game go. If during he beginner game stuff they talk a lot about taking out Teemo the Hutt and getting their revenge that is a lot different to making plans to flee his control and hide from him. Each is a valid response, but they take the campaign in very different directions.

Welcome aboard, Drewster!

1) My PC's consist of 3 1st time RP'ers and and 1 fairly knowledgable person. Do you have any suggestions how to balance the narrative or handholding to accomodate these "skill" gaps?

As others have suggested, your focus should be on helping the newbies as much as possible. In fact, if it's a viable option, I would recommend recruiting the experienced player as a "helper" for early sessions.

My group, for example, is made up of players who have been playing for between 10 and 30+ years, but one guy, Ed, has a great head for rules, so all of us who GM sometimes make use of his expertise. It's not uncommon for me to continue gameplay with one player while Ed handles setting up the "crunchy bits" on a challenging roll or action for another.

2) For our first session, we are just building characters (steps 1-10) and probably going over some sample die pool interps. Do you have any suggestions for anything else to cover?

Sounds like a good start.

3) I plan on having the sessions last for about 2 hours. Is this a good time? We are probably going to meet only 1-2 times a week.

2 hours is a bit short in my opinion, but it's whatever works best for the group. We schedule for about 8 hours, sometimes go to 9 or 10 (and occasionally over that -- I do my games like TV series and always warn the PCs that "play til we drop" rules are in effect for the Season Finales)... but we also only play monthly.

In my experience, we can usually get in about three major encounters or interactions in a session (so that's probably about 3 hours per encounter, including set-up, aftermath, blah blah blah). I haven't played EotE yet, so I'm not sure how fast gameplay is compared to what I'm used to, but a lot of our time is spent on character interaction -- and just plain BS and goofing around.

2 hours should be good to get your players interested and hungry, just don't expect to cover anywhere close to the material of, say, a 2 hour movie in that time.

4) As a GM, should I make sure to keep track of info that the PC's are privey too? I'm a big fan of "if you have a rifle hanging over the fireplace in chapter 2, it should be fired at someone in chapter 10", but I have no idea if this is something that I should keep up with.

You should keep track of everything you can. Personally, I have a notebook (although I rarely use it)... but I also keep a notebook for each of my players, and they use them A LOT. Our campaign has been going since 2002 (and is the sequel to a campaign from 1999), and sometimes it takes 5 years for a plot to pay off!

I know a lot of players like to keep notes themselves, but I like to keep the notebooks (with the players' permission) at my house, so we always know where they are. It's also great for passing secret notes to the GM.

1) My PC's consist of 3 1st time RP'ers and and 1 fairly knowledgable person. Do you have any suggestions how to balance the narrative or handholding to accomodate these "skill" gaps?

Reinforce that it's about the story first and the rules second. This will shorten the skill gap because we can all imagine a story, and for the players, their single role within that story.

I'd remind them to try and play "in character" and that there is no "wrong way to play"... just describe what your character does as you imagine them reacting as if they were in a movie or book.

It sometimes helps to have them pair their character to a famous actor or character from the movies. It makes their job of "acting" easier when everyone knows that they're channeling Chewie.

As this is a skill-based game, knowing what your skills can do will provide the players ideas as to how to contribute to the game. After their skill choices, have them write up the bullet points of the example uses of the skills they've spent points in. You as the GM need to be very familiar with this section, so that when they ask if they can do something, you can suggest the correct skill for the job. Don't stress too much, this is learnt in time - just keep rereading that section.

It may be helpful to watch another group's session online. There are quite a few on youtube.

2) For our first session, we are just building characters (steps 1-10) and probably going over some sample die pool interps. Do you have any suggestions for anything else to cover?

That's enough for the first session. Backgrounds and how the PCs may know each other can take some time to brainstorm. This should be an anything goes period where ideas a thrown around until everyone is happy with the choices. I'd try and keep it rather general at first, ie not to dive straight into the books and trying to codify the player's choice by the mechanics, but rather let the player's imagination form a concept that once formed becomes something codified by the choices choices available in the rules.

3) I plan on having the sessions last for about 2 hours. Is this a good time? We are probably going to meet only 1-2 times a week.

So, 4-5 hours is a good time, even if you meet twice a week. if its too much longer (and you're not consuming red bull and mountain dew) then players attentions can drift and people can get tired. If it's too much shorter, 1) nothing significant is likely to occur each session, 2) not every player may be given the opportunity to shine, 3) the story will progress really slowly, especially in the beginning when you're explaining rules every other encounter.

To help plan your session, put times to your scenes. This will allow you to hit the sessions crescendo by the end of it, because you hurried the dawdling players along when they wee dragging their feet. Or you slowed it right down, and gave the players time to just roleplay out an important conversation.

Keep 15 minutes at the end of the game for feedback. Ask them what they liked, what they didn't, what worked, what didn't. Even if they use this time to say how cool it was to see Bob survive the thermal detonator... that's cool too. Just give everyone a little time to feedback on the session. This will help you gauge how to change up your next session if they for example felt there wasn't enough combat in this one.

4) As a GM, should I make sure to keep track of info that the PC's are privey too? I'm a big fan of "if you have a rifle hanging over the fireplace in chapter 2, it should be fired at someone in chapter 10", but I have no idea if this is something that I should keep up with.

I'd be careful with this much forced fore-shadowing. It's one thing to provide the players the tools to solve a situation down the line. It's another thing to only have one solution available to them to succeed, and because you've foreshadowed it, you presume they'll know to use it. 1) This isn't always reliable. The player may completely forget about the rifle or not think to use it in that way . 2) It's rail-roading the players down your preselected path, which is very disempowering to the player. 3) It requires quite a bit of mental juggling from your end to make sure all these fore shadowed elements get used in the right way at the right time.

So, foreshadowing by itself is awesome, but forget about it once you've instantiated it. Put things in place for the players way before they would perhaps be needed, and then rely on them to solve the problem however they see fit. "Fire and forget"

And lastly, just have fun and ask your players regular if they're having fun. It's a game after all.

WOW!

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer all of my questions and really put some thought into your responses. There is no teacher like experience, so your advice is invaluable.

Character creation went well, but I'm afraid that they didn't raise their characteristics high enough. But we shall see how the skills balance that out.

I have also been listening to the Order 66 podcast developer Q&A and that has also been extremely helpful. Thanks again for the warm welcome and please keep the advice coming! Every group is different so all this helps a lot.

We play for 2 hours and meet once a week. Have been doing that for years with no problems, other than character creation can take up the whole session with some systems.

So, I forgot to mention one thing: I have little to no rp'ing experience myself. Haha. This was waaaay more difficult than I thought. I have a newfound respect for the guy who did run the 3-4 sessions I did play in.

So I guess I have questions about actually being a GM. The nuts and bolts of the mechanics (if I may be simultaneously redundant-cliche-punnergraphic) of setting the scene.

1) So, my resume is pretty good. I did forensics in high school, acted, I have read the EU extensively, and I have loved star wars for a good part my quarter century on this earth. How do I now use these skills? I know that seems fundamental, but does it just take a few sessions? The box is pretty on rails, and I feel like it did not offer a lot of opportunities to RP or really get into character as GM.

2) Two of my players are sci-fi players in a star wars universe. (I hope that sentence makes sense.) One is a huge fan but just inexperienced and not quite sure of his RP footing. (I guess really none of them has their sea-legs, yet. I may have also answered my own question.) The other just doesn't say a whole lot, and he has pretty extensive experience, albeit in other systems. (Werewolf and vampire masquerade, I believe.) I'm afraid that my floundering has him either filled with mirth or symapthy. My question here is: How do I help them focus more on what I think EotE is supposed to be about? That sounds rather dictatorish, but what I mean by that is simply I love Star Wars. I love the ups and downs, (Triumph and Despair), the hilarious yet threatening situations, (3PO and the comlink on the death star), and how the characters slowly grow to respect and like each other. So "by what it's supposed to be about" I mean the outcome of the situation because of the dice, not the outcome of the dice. Oh, yea, and then the situation.

3) I saw someone earlier suggested watching youtube videos of a play session. Does anyone have any particular posters or anything they like? Just somewhere to get started would be great.

Thanks, again. Sorry that was so rambly, (if I may be so free with the English language) but I feel as if the first session didn't go as well as I expected.

Also, the PC's seemed terribly OP to the enemies. I also had a few questions about the Begginer Box campaign as well.

1) Does the first group of Gamorreans use minion rules?

2) I tried to buff the minion stormtroopers from 3 to 5. Does this mean they would roll 4G 1Y ? I may just need to reread the section on minions again.

3)Why do the players roll initiative? Does the player who "wins" get to determine what slot he wants? Do you just roll it to determine what slots the PC's get and which the NPC's get? Also, do minions all act in one slot? Or do seperate groups of minions each roll for a slot? Who do minions attack?

4) I have a trandoshan melee weapon user. For him to attack from medium range, does it cost his manuever to go from med -->short then his action to move from short-->close? so he has a "wasted turn" basically? or can he take 2 strain to take the additional manuever and then as an incidental go from short --> engaged and make a melee attack?

5) My wookie wanted a bowcaster, so I gave him one with the profile of a blaster pistol. My assassin BH wanted a carbine to scale off Ranged [Heavy], so i did the same thing, carbine with dmg profile of a blaster. Do I need to do something similar to my melee user's Vibro-axe? Or is part of the disadvantage of using that is closing in and being attacked?

6) Can you spend 3 advantage thusly: 1 Boost die to next PC and 1 boost die to the on deck PC?

Thanks for reading and listening. If any of these have been answered in depth, please feel free to link other boards. I will definitely take the time to read them.

Peace.

It's not star wars but watching the 2010-2012 Acquistions INC live dnd sessions from PAX are great. The cast is Jerry and Mike from Penny Arcade (Tycho and Gabe), Scott Kurtz from PVP and Wil Wheaton. There are podcasts on the wizards site too that fill in some blanks if you're curious beyond those episodes. It won't be a step by step tutorial or anything but can help give you some ideas on how to GM by saying yes. Chris Perkins, the DM pretty much says yes to every crazy idea they have, and while that won't work in every campaign it is a great trait to have as a DM.

While I cannot answer your specific modules as it relates to the beginner adventure, here are some reading links for newbie GMs. There's a lot to read, to learn, to understand about your style of storytelling... so while you can read all you want and get a whole bunch of really good advice, the only way to get better at it is to do it. So, keep playing.

Links:

Tips for gamemasters

Roleplaying tips

A few pearls

Youtube vids:

Dicestormers (they play the beginner box, look for it)

Chris Perkins (D&D DM) (anything)

I havent played the game yet, but i have read the rules including the beginner adventure.

With that in mind, my understanding of it is as follows:

1. No, they don't

2. Osu4fan said it better than me... See below

3. The PC rolls initiative to determine the slots pc gets versus the npc/minions etc. The PC can decide between themselves who goes where. All minions within a minion group act in the same initiative slot yes. I don't have the rulebook in front of me, but when it comes to different groups of minions I would not do every minion group in one slot but roll initiative for every group separately. I'm pretty sure thats what the rules says also. The minions attack whoever you want them to, that's your job to decide. Imagine that you are actually the minion, who would you have fired at?

4. Going from short to engaged cost one maneuver... So it will cost you two maneuves to get from medium ranged to engaged. If your BH spends 2 strain on the second maneuver he can also attack all in the same turn.

5. I don't understand the question, or rather the problem. Do whatever you and your group find natural and fun. There is no right or wrong here.

6. Yes

2. Yes, they would. But why do you need to upgrade them? Are you following the correct use of minions? You are attacking with every minion in the group, right? If you really feel the need to make the fight harder, I would rather put in another group of stormtroopers than upgrading their stats. The whole purpose of minion groups is that you can easily have a lot of enemies in a fight so the players can really feel like heroes as opposed to only a few really hard enemies. (Ofc you can do that too, but thats what nemeses are for )

Your wording here is confusing. Minions attack as a group, so in this encounter the group of stormtroopers make a single attack based on their total number and attack skill. They have equivalant to one rank per member of the group beyond the first. So if they have Range Light as a skill and you have 5 storm troopers it is as if they have 4 ranks which would be 4 ,1 as they die you reduce the number of proficiency die and never add greens.

Hi. I'm also a new GM. Last night I ran my first ever session of this game. It was also my first time GMing anything more intense than Everything is Dolphins. I have to say, it was a blast! I ran the quest that came the GM kit but things sort of got off the rails. Without spoiling anything, my players ended up aquiring several droids and all of the money, getting away scott-free with a truly ballsy and ridiculous deception check. A near impossible check.

But, like I said, this is my first time running a campaign. The players were talking after the session and their plan is to amass, slowly, a veritble droid army. I don't really have a problem with that, and I'd love for the story to kind of go that direction, but I'm not actually sure where to continue the story from here. There was talk of them going to Naboo, which I'm not sure how to plan out. I'm obviously not asking anyone to play my campaign here, but a push in the right direction would be appreciated. I've never made a town or anything before, and I've been doing a lot of research on how to run campaigns, but I was wondering what you experienced SW GMs would have in the way of advice.

But, like I said, this is my first time running a campaign. The players were talking after the session and their plan is to amass, slowly, a veritble droid army. I don't really have a problem with that, and I'd love for the story to kind of go that direction, but I'm not actually sure where to continue the story from here. There was talk of them going to Naboo, which I'm not sure how to plan out. I'm obviously not asking anyone to play my campaign here, but a push in the right direction would be appreciated. I've never made a town or anything before, and I've been doing a lot of research on how to run campaigns, but I was wondering what you experienced SW GMs would have in the way of advice.

Are you in the classic era suggested for EotE? If so, the desire for a small droid army and the trip to Naboo seems interesting.

After the Battle of Naboo over two decades previously, there would have been an army of B1 Battle Droids left inoperable on the grasslands somewhere outside of Theed. I would imagine scavengers would have quickly gobbled this army up. If your players on Naboo start asking around, they could catch onto a rumor of a company of disabled Battle Droids that were reportedly gathered then lost, after the Battle of Naboo. Perhaps this company of disabled droids is still hidden and long forgotten someplace. This could lead to many adventures to discover their hiding spot, refurbish them, and reprogram them.

Be careful how many you plan to give them, it could bite you in the arse later. You can easily say many of the droids they found are beyond repair or you need to use parts from one to fix another, etc. I would limit the hidden cache to only Battle Droids, not give them anything stronger. Then, they could use whatever they end up with as several 10-droid minion squads. Try to snag an Age of Rebellion Beta if you are going to let them actually have a large army of droids. AoR is supposed to have mass combat rules.

An interesting twist later could be some of their old programming kicking in at the wrong moment or perhaps a nemesis remotely gaining control of the players' army and turning the tables on them.

I don't think people that have looked at the book have found mass combat in it yet. That being said, I absolutely LOVE that idea!

Yeah, I definitely don't want them to get too powerful too quickly. I was thinking of limiting them to getting two or three droids a session. I'm not entirely sure what inspired them to want to build a droid army, I think it just stems from some quick thinking one of them did in combat. One player had managed to disorient a droid in melee combat and another who was also engaged asked if he could spend a destiny point to slap a restraining bolt they had picked up earlier onto the droid. Being the inexperienced GM that I am, I encouraged this and now I have to give them a droid army. smh...

I am extremely excited for this crazy direction though. It fits in line with the concpet of the New Droid's RIghts Movement, which is a plot point I was already planning to use. What happens when EV gets wind of this droid army? What happens when he inevitably gains control? I love it.

If you're talking about Battle of Naboo era B1 battle droids, you're also talking about the ones that relied on the droid brain aboard the capital ships in orbit to function. Too big for a Silhouette 4 transport (and maybe even a Silhouette 5 one), they'll need either a planet-bound emplacement, or a capital ship (and the corresponding crew), and the corresponding crew to run it.

Also, after the Battle of Naboo and the ensuing Clone Wars, the Empire has passed strict laws regarding the construction and possession of combat capable droids. Basically, it's flat out illegal, and possession is proof of intent to use for criminal purposes from a legal stand point. There are narrowly crafted exemptions for security droids which are limited to stun weapons, but that's about it.

If you're talking about Battle of Naboo era B1 battle droids, you're also talking about the ones that relied on the droid brain aboard the capital ships in orbit to function. Too big for a Silhouette 4 transport (and maybe even a Silhouette 5 one), they'll need either a planet-bound emplacement, or a capital ship (and the corresponding crew), and the corresponding crew to run it.

Also, after the Battle of Naboo and the ensuing Clone Wars, the Empire has passed strict laws regarding the construction and possession of combat capable droids. Basically, it's flat out illegal, and possession is proof of intent to use for criminal purposes from a legal stand point. There are narrowly crafted exemptions for security droids which are limited to stun weapons, but that's about it.

Well, the droid they found was repurposed as a worker droid on a small mining planet. And of course it's illegal. They'll just have to be careful won't they

That'll be perfect to use against them if I think they're getting too strong or complacent. BAM! An Imperial customs check.