I ran my first session of our group's first EotE campaign last night, and within an hour we all recognized the challenge presented by no successes accompanied by a heap of either threats or advantages - especially in non-combat tests. For example, one player failed in trying to strike up a conversation with some bar patrons who weren't inclined to talk with him (using Charm), and yet ended up with 3 advantages. I decided that two of the three guys were disinterested in him, while one was somewhat interested in listening to him.

Or when our group's slicer tried to drop in on some communications of another, failed, and yet garnered a few advantages - I punted and said that while he couldn't listen in, he could tell that the guy's data pad wasn't transmitting much info at that time.

Both those instances worked out okay...but I'm fishing for ideas and such about how to use those, along with triumphs and despairs when there's no success.

Any thoughts, similar experiences, or game aids would be much appreciated.

First example, I would of had that group walk away, but another person overheard them and came over giving the player a second chance at the skill check. Or the group would not answer question on that topic, but like the player and would get a boost die on another check about another topic.

The slicer example, I would have had him either get a boost die on a different check on the same system/network or maybe he taped into a different communication or system that helped the group a different way.

You want to be careful of allowing Advantage to create a success on a failed roll. I always suggest people to listen to the Skill Monkey podcast it's all about skill use and examples of success, failure, advantage, etc.

http://theskillmonkey.blogspot.com

[edited spelling errors]

First example, I would of had that group walk away, but anther person overheard them and came over giving the player a second chance at the skill check. Or the group would answer question on that topic, but like the player and would get a boost die on another check about anther topic.

The slicer example, I would have had him either get a boost die on a different check on the same system/network or maybe he taped into a different communication or system that helped the group a different way.

You want to be careful of allowing Advantage to create a success on a failed roll. I always suggest people to listen to the Skill Monkey podcast it's all about skill use and examples of success, failure, advantage, etc.

http://theskillmonkey.blogspot.com

Thanks! Those are both really good ideas, and I'll check out that podcast, too.