Beta Update #2 is Live!

By FFG Andy Fischer, in General Discussion

Hey Age of Rebellion beta testers!
The second update PDF for the Age of Rebellion beta has been posted. Feel free to download it and start using it in your testing:
Also make sure to take a look at our new guidelines for submitting an official playtesting report about the beta. These reports will each be reviewed directly by us on the design team, and are a great way to have you feedback considered.
Thank you. We look forward to hearing your feedback!

Awesome stuff. I am excited to tryout the new talents, especially the Gunner ones, which are way more in line with what a vehicle gunner should be capable of. All the new talents for Gunner make it a very attractive option for space based characters, even ones planning on flying their own starfighters.

I'm also a big fan of adding Crit 2 to that anti-vehicle mines. Even if they don't deal a ton of damage directly, the improved chance to generate a critical makes them very potent.

The retooling of Gunner is by far my favorite part of this update batch. You guys came up with some pretty killer talents, there, and they're all fun, flavorful, and useful. Nice work!

Nice ones! I really like the new talents, brilliant stuff. Work now, pdf later. :ph34r:

Wow. It has already been a week since the last one. It seems like I just blinked and the last week disappeared. This is good, I suppose. It just means that Christmas comes that much sooner.

I, too, like the modifications to the Gunner. :) Fine work, FFG.

Overwhelm defenses seems to want an unsuccessful attack, which seems odd. How can one overwhelm defenses if you don't hit?

Overwhelm defenses seems to want an unsuccessful attack, which seems odd. How can one overwhelm defenses if you don't hit?

I think it is meant to work like this:

The PC misses his target, but rolls a few net advantage...the talent allows the PC to spend 2 of those advantage to drop the value of the target's 'defense zone' (a stack of crates for example). For the rest of the encounter, anyone trying to shoot at a target in that 'defense zone' has one less black die (per rank in Overwhelm Defenses) on their ranged skill check.

Narratively speaking, the PC lays down such a spectacular amount of cover/suppression fire, that the defensive position is compromised in some way, or the minions/adversaries using it are negatively affected by the fulisade to the point of making mistakes and exposing themselves more to incoming attacks.

This is much better than simply passing a blue die to the next PC to target someone in that same 'defense zone.'

Edited by Brother Bart

While I like your interpretation Bart, I think Defense Zone is a reference to a part of the ship. The talent allows one to still benefit from a missed starship attack by making the next attack (assuming he again GtAs) easier. Cinematically, his shot was burned up by the targets shields, but the shields are burnt out now, so it won't happen again.

I like your idea for a ground based version though. Hopefully something along those lines shows up somewhere else. It already is kinda there since you can spend advantage to negate a target's maneuver, including cover.

Ah, that makes sense seeing as how it is a 'gunner' talent. I see what I did there...pulled it out of context. Still, I agree, something like this for a ground based version would be a cool 'soldier' type talent.

Ah, that makes sense seeing as how it is a 'gunner' talent. I see what I did there...pulled it out of context. Still, I agree, something like this for a ground based version would be a cool 'soldier' type talent.

yeah, and it does say "Defense Zone." So since characters don't have Defense Zones, it probably is designed to only work for starships :) But yeah, currently the only way RAW to remove cover from a target is by using Threat rolled by that target. So it might be cool for a PC to have an activated ability.

Ah, that makes sense seeing as how it is a 'gunner' talent. I see what I did there...pulled it out of context. Still, I agree, something like this for a ground based version would be a cool 'soldier' type talent.

yeah, and it does say "Defense Zone." So since characters don't have Defense Zones, it probably is designed to only work for starships :) But yeah, currently the only way RAW to remove cover from a target is by using Threat rolled by that target. So it might be cool for a PC to have an activated ability.

Well, for character-scale options, there's Precise Aim, which negates defense from armor (and which takes a maneuver instead of advantage of activate), plus there's also the ability to spend advantage to remove the benefits of cover or a defensive ability if enough is rolled, so I'm not sure a talent is even necessary at that scale.

Wow. It has already been a week since the last one. It seems like I just blinked and the last week disappeared. This is good, I suppose. It just means that Christmas comes that much sooner.

This was the exact process that FFG followed for the EotE Beta, with an update almost every week, so big surprise that they'd stick to a similar schedule, especially with the much shorter feedback window that the AoR Beta has (6 weeks compared to EotE Beta's 12 weeks).

Wow. It has already been a week since the last one. It seems like I just blinked and the last week disappeared. This is good, I suppose. It just means that Christmas comes that much sooner.

This was the exact process that FFG followed for the EotE Beta, with an update almost every week, so big surprise that they'd stick to a similar schedule, especially with the much shorter feedback window that the AoR Beta has (6 weeks compared to EotE Beta's 12 weeks).

Yes, I understand that. I was around for the EotE Beta as well. It is just that for me, time is flying by pretty fast or so it seems.