Sorry for such a dumb question, but I can't seem to find the answer even though I've been looking in the core rulebook and the rulebook that came with the beginner game.

I know that if your strain goes above your strain threshold, you become incapacitated. I know that you can voluntarily take on strain in some ways.

But what does strain actually do. Is there a difference between having a strain of 1 and a strain of 10 if they are both under your strain rating?

I asked somebody who was new to the game as well, and (they weren't sure) but they said that for each point of strain you take, you role a setback die when you do each skill check.... she thinks.....

Can somebody tell me what strain actually does? And if you can point me out to the page in the core rulebook where this is listed, I'd really appreciate it too.

Strain does nothing unless it is over your Threshold.

It's mostly used as a resource to be managed in EotE, for both Starships and People. Spend it to take an extra maneuver, etc., but be careful to not be pushed over your Threshold.

Strain represents how stressed, exhausted, or mentally overwhelmed you are.

As a GM, I apply it to players when environmental effects dictate it, or when something is very stressful or difficult that they're attempting.

When it's super hot, you might take a couple of strain points. If you've spent your maneuver in a round, you exert yourself, pushing yourself even harder, to take another maneuver that round, and take 2 strain because of it.

As a player, I would roleplay this as my character being more mentally exhausted, tired or stressed out. If was a couple of points away from my strain threshold, my character might comment on how "I need a vacation", or make an effort to get out of the sun, get some water to drink, or find a cool place in the shade to rest.

Think of Strain as non-physical trauma or bruising.

Say I rolled to fire at an NPC and I miss and rolled three threat. The GM says not only did I miss, but I take three Strain and cuss up a storm because I get mad. In this case, Strain is like emotional trauma.

Senator calls me into his office to tell me off in front a group of my peers. Turns into a sort of verbal combat. GM lets me use my Willpower as Soak but all damage is Strain.

Now system strain is a little harder for me to visualize. :-)

Now system strain is a little harder for me to visualize. :-)

System strain is just the vehicle's systems being pushed beyond what they're designed for and "overheating", for lack of a better term. Think about it like revving your car's engine up in the red and keeping it there for a while. You're not directly damaging it, but you're not doing it any favours either.

After a bad day where a bunch of Aliens beat he snot out of you, and your orbital shuttle crashes on top of you, you might find yourself saying "Game over man! Game over!"

Now system strain is a little harder for me to visualize. :-)

System strain is just the vehicle's systems being pushed beyond what they're designed for and "overheating", for lack of a better term. Think about it like revving your car's engine up in the red and keeping it there for a while. You're not directly damaging it, but you're not doing it any favours either.

I also think of computers as a metaphor as well--if you've got six browsers open with forty tabs of different websites and you're running Photoshop, and you're downloading a huge torrent AND you're trying to swatch 3 streaming videos and you're defragging your hard drive ... that's going to cause some system strain!

It's the slow, healing factor that confuses me. :-)

It's the slow, healing factor that confuses me. :-)

I think the presumption there is most vehicles and droids have a limited auto-repair capability.

It's the slow, healing factor that confuses me. :-)

Getting 1 and only 1 system strain back, no matter how well you roll seems odd, but as you're able to roll Mechanics every round to recover this it kind of balances out (it's only Hull that can only be shored up once per encounter). Post-combat, I assume I can keep plugging away without rolling - it just takes X turns.

For me, personal strain is weirder. I don't really like that it represents both morale/stress and fatigue or whatever, but that's what we've got. Every roll that generates advantages can be used to regain it (and multiple times per roll), so if I'm focusing on recovering it I find it comes back quite quickly.