The dice are a huge hit. Everybody suddenly cares about everyone's rolls. We're still getting the hang of how to interpret threats on successes and advantages on failures, but it's not stopping us from having a real good time - we just need more hours rolling dice
. There is a tremendous amount of Star Wars goodness in rolling a handful of dice and hoping for a triumph. We're hooked.
I love to turn of a light side point to upgrade their difficulty, because it adds drama (don't roll the despair) and it gives the players a light side point to use later when I know things will be really tense.
As to the story, what I'm really enjoying is that the PCs are broke, no ship, down on their luck (they lost their last credits in a Sabacc tournament), stuck on a desert planet in the outer rim trying to make deals to get them into the badlands, where there is a half sunken ship which hopefully still works... it's a great humble origin story, where they are working hard and working together to achieve their common goal: get that ship before anyone else. Every small win is a tremendous step toward victory. Their opponents have been a little tougher than they have been, to simulate their inexperience and this has led to them respecting the dangers of the city. I can imagine 20 sessions from now, they'll be badass with multiple ranks in a whole range of skills and all the equipment and weapons they could possible need, and my hope is that they'll look back on this time with fondness in what they went through to get their ship and how valuable it is to them. Although that's all narrative and could arguably be achieved in any system, the dice dictate the flow and ebb of the story, which makes them feel like they've really earned it... as opposed to me just rewarding them after enough hardships.
Yesterday in the game, the old Trade Federation built barter droid in the party rolled 2 triumphs and 4 successes on a negotiation to hire the pack animals required to trek into the desert. This normally would've cost 5000 credits (remember they have less than 100 credits between them), but the droid managed to convince the tradesman to hire his animals free of charge on promise of delivery of 50 tonnes of Tangean Grass Root before the next breeding cycle. The player went on at length about the nutritive powers of the grass and how his pack animals would benefit from its rich composition. By the end of it, the tradesman felt he had made the better deal and the players got the pack animals they need. As written in the adventure, had the players actually won the Sabacc tournament (and it was only a bad beat right at the final hand that caused them to lose), they would've had the necessary finances to arrange their trip. By losing they've made their lives harder, but perhaps more interesting. That wouldn't have happened without the narrative dice.
Just want to say thanks to this community for providing insights and rules clarifications, and to FFG for producing a stellar game.
Edited by torquemadaza