Edge of the Empire General Discussion Thread

[Dizlag]

One definite question we had was about modifiers with engaged opponents. We understand its two difficulty dice if you're in melee with someone, but suppose you're firing a light blaster from medium range at an opponent that is engaged with an ally. Is it still only difficulty dice or would it be three or a two with a setback or is it just GMs call? In the beginner set it never specifies but it seems like it would make sense.

I'm glad you are enjoying the system. Sounds like your group picked it up pretty quick too, so that's always good.

When shooting into "engaged combat", you upgrade the difficulty by 1 die. So, shooting into "engaged combat" from say medium range wouldn't be 2 purple, it would be 3 purple. If you generate a despair with a net success, then the shot hits your ally.

... and during chargen wouldn't let me split my obligation between two sources (I wanted to have debts and a family) not because he was against me taking that much obligation, but because it was 'a headache' in his words, as though it was really strenuous to have an obligation chart with five entries instead of four.

Hmmm, I can see the starting obligation for 4 PCs each being a 10 point obligation but only coming from one source. What your DM should have done was let you take another obligation for either 5 points or 10 points granting your character either more starting credits(1000 or 2500 credits, respectively) or XP (+5 or +10 XP respectively). That is in the rules and the fact that he didn't want to keep track of it is just sad. The more obligation the party has, the greater chance it will trigger and potentially making things more interesting for the players. There's hardly any book keeping the DM has to do in this system, so major bummer there.

Anyways, I'm glad you enjoyed the system and want to continue. And yes, I would suggest prodding another GM because that wouldn't be a good sign to me.

Dizlag

[Rakaydos]

I'm glad you are enjoying the system. Sounds like your group picked it up pretty quick too, so that's always good.

When shooting into "engaged combat", you upgrade the difficulty by 1 die. So, shooting into "engaged combat" from say medium range wouldn't be 2 purple, it would be 3 purple. If you generate a despair with a net success, then the shot hits your ally.

Red and a purple, actually. Upgrading the pool changes dice, only dding more if you run out of dice to upgrade.

So shooting into melee with a Nemisis is a particularly bad idea.

[Dizlag]

Red and a purple, actually. Upgrading the pool changes dice, only dding more if you run out of dice to upgrade.

So shooting into melee with a Nemisis is a particularly bad idea.

DOH! Go figure I would see "upgrading the difficulty" as "increasing the difficulty". =)

And yes, two reds to fire into melee with a Nemesis? Better buy your buddy a drink later. Hehehe

Thanks!

Dizlag

[Invader]

What exactly constitutes a nemesis?

I'm going to change the title and start a general discussion thread for EotE.

[Rakaydos]

There are three "levels" of baddy.

Minions hare handled in groups, and die in droves. Bad ones might be called mooks- those on your side are considered like Redshirts. Storm troopers, Battle Droids, Darth vader's tie wingmen, ANH Biggs and wedge, ESB Dack, ect.

Rivals are more fleshed out, but still not as tough as a PC. Greedo wold be a Rival, as would Movie Boba Fett. (EU Boba fett is a Nemisis) By ESB and RotJ, Wedge is a Rival- a competent, independant pilot of Rogue squadron under Luke's command.

Nemisis characters are ment to be able to beat any one PC, possibly more than one- Enemies like Droidikas, Inquisitors, Jango Fett, Darth Vader, Jabba. Generally have a full name and a backstory, and stick around, as they are just as hard to finish off as a PC. (more, because they have "didnt die onscreen" health insurance. :p) By the EU, Wedge Antillies is a nemeisis level NPC, with as much plot armor as any other the series main characters, as "the man who survived both deathstars."

[Invader]

In the beginner game it stats out the TIE pilots, aside from the info and skills you'd actually use in piloting, is there any reason to know the pilots strain, soak, etc. or do they just add it for GP?

[shadow_archmagi]

Well, what if you wanted to punch one?

[Dizlag]

In the beginner game it stats out the TIE pilots, aside from the info and skills you'd actually use in piloting, is there any reason to know the pilots strain, soak, etc. or do they just add it for GP?

That's a very good question. A pilot can take 2 strain to perform a second maneuver, say aim a weapon after piloting the ship and then firing the weapon. So, you'll need to know that score. Maybe there is an explosion, or fire in the cockpit where the pilot would take damage and can apply soak to the damage. I do think it's there for completion purposes and gives you a full stat-block if you'd like to attack a tie pilot in a landing bay before he/she gets into the tie fighter.

Dizlag

[Fumble Jack]

Since this is now a general thread for the game. I have a minor gripe about the physical dice set. It only has 1 single challenge die per set, which kind of boggles me. You would think you would get at least 2, since you get two Proficiency dice.

At the very least I fall back on the dice app when I have to upgrade a dice pool more than twice. For example: Getting into combat with the Defel Assassin Nemesis in the back of EoE, Adversary 3, yikes!!

[Invader]

That's a very good question. A pilot can take 2 strain to perform a second maneuver, say aim a weapon after piloting the ship and then firing the weapon. So, you'll need to know that score. Maybe there is an explosion, or fire in the cockpit where the pilot would take damage and can apply soak to the damage. I do think it's there for completion purposes and gives you a full stat-block if you'd like to attack a tie pilot in a landing bay before he/she gets into the tie fighter.

Dizlag

This is kind if what I figured I just wasn't sure if there was anything really specific you'd have to know for.

[Fumble Jack]

I was wondering if any one knows a link to a full list of available playable species, not just the 8 from Eoe, 6 from Age(humans and droids are listed there as well so not counting them as the extra 2) & the 8 from the Force and Destiny beta.

[Gamgee]

I don't like the system at all. I love the art, and the books layout is great, and high production values overall. However it just isn't for me or our group, we absolutely disliked it to the extreme. The majority of us think Saga will be the ultimate Star Wars rpg because of its "anything goes" style of play. It's not necessarily tied to any one setting and has splatbooks to customize your game to any style of play. Granted Edge does one specific style of play way better than it. I would rather have the versatility of Saga over Edge any day.

Most of us like Numenera as well. Considering it to be kind of better at what Edge tried to do.

[Rakaydos]

I don't like the system at all. I love the art, and the books layout is great, and high production values overall. However it just isn't for me or our group, we absolutely disliked it to the extreme. The majority of us think Saga will be the ultimate Star Wars rpg because of its "anything goes" style of play. It's not necessarily tied to any one setting and has splatbooks to customize your game to any style of play. Granted Edge does one specific style of play way better than it. I would rather have the versatility of Saga over Edge any day.

Most of us like Numenera as well. Considering it to be kind of better at what Edge tried to do.

Out of curiosity, did you get past character creation? What did you think of the dice system?

[Illogictree]

I was wondering if any one knows a link to a full list of available playable species, not just the 8 from Eoe, 6 from Age(humans and droids are listed there as well so not counting them as the extra 2) & the 8 from the Force and Destiny beta.

http://community.fantasyflightgames....s-master-list/

[Invader]

http://community.fantasyflightgames....s-master-list/

Is there there very much mechanical distinction within the different races such as that which appears with 3.X races or are they much more balanced? I'm always torn between playing an interesting race and with optimizing my character because they usually don't coincide with each other.

[Rakaydos]

Is there there very much mechanical distinction within the different races such as that which appears with 3.X races or are they much more balanced? I'm always torn between playing an interesting race and with optimizing my character because they usually don't coincide with each other.

superior race for any one thing, is droid. The specialize like noone else... *cough* almost like they were made for the role.
Droids pay for it in versitility. While a 2 in every stat is a human baseline, a droid starts with a 1 in every stat before purchacing stat upgrades. (and we already went over how important stats are for a new character) They can afford more upgrades than other races, but if they spread them out to all their stats, they actually end up 30 or so XP behind the other races. This leads to very few general purpose droids... at least off the shelf. As you go without memory wipes (and gain XP), you can use skills to diversify and flesh out your character.

On the other extreme, Humans are the ultimate generalists. They dont have a strong or dump stat, and they get two free "cross class" skill ranks, allowing them to dabble in many different areas without using any of their plentiful build points.

All the other races are more restrictive- with a "good" and a "bad" stat, they re biased toward certian steriotypes (though there's gnerally enough build points at creation to buck those stereotypes, if you focus on it). Gnerally, they're as good as a droid in their area of specialty, and more well rounded outside it, but not as well rounded as a human. How narrow their "niche" is depends on the race.

So, if you find yourself using "mechanically superior" races, you may find the galaxy full of Humans and Droids, with occasional local color. Which I believe reflects the movies quite well. But you can break the steriotypes and make a perfectly viable character regardless of race/carear mix. (meet my toydarian Ace: Gunner/Heavy)

[Gamgee]

Out of curiosity, did you get past character creation? What did you think of the dice system?

I thought it forced something we already do dynamical. It took a long time and a lot of mistakes, but my players tend to just naturally look for advantages now. Or sometimes advantages/disadvantages just spontaneously flow from their actions and failures. I'm not trying to brag but I'm one of those GM who can make stuff up on the fly with zero planning. So my games have a lot of free form to them which tends to teach players how to approach situations differently.

So we tended to find the dice system would get in the way of our own creativity. It also made for some ridiculous fights like a trained badass soldier for 15 years managing to miss every shot but somehow each and every one of them just luckily happens to help us out. We also like a simulated world and Edge just can't do that well. We like the story to flow from the simulation as well as the freeform open world style of play. Edge just crams it down onto you in one specific way. We all very much disliked it. It didn't help the fights lasted forever! My gods. For such a simple system there is no reason the fights should go on so long. Maybe in 40k system sure, but this? All because we keep missing and blinding each other or getting advantage/disadvantage?

I think for beginners the game is great, but we've moved beyond the group its targeting.

As for the dice system itself? Just smells cheesy tactic to boost sales of dice. No reason they couldn't have used numbers. Sure enough on FFG's website they sell more dice, decks, and other crap than books for their rpg lines. Or will soon surpass them. The fact that they don't even give you enough to play with in one pack is just robbery.

It's trying to turn an RPG into a board game and a service. An expensive one at that. I won't deny the core has a lot of content, but past that the price seems to jump up a lot.

And yet if you want a more narrative focused game with a lot less emphasis on combat. Then your honestly better served by the Cypher system of Numenera since it minimizes dice rolling a lot and makes it extremely quick and simple. With a lot of stuff being arbitrated and handled by the players and gm working as a group to decide the story.

[Mando Knight]

The fact that they don't even give you enough to play with in one pack is just robbery.

To be fair, most dice packs for d20 systems don't really give you enough to play, either... you'll usually want extra d6s at least (which are cheap and common), but Edge of the Empire's predecessor as the SW RPG, WotC's Saga, uses a lot of d8s and d10s for damage rolls.

[Alejandro]

To be fair, most dice packs for d20 systems don't really give you enough to play, either... you'll usually want extra d6s at least (which are cheap and common), but Edge of the Empire's predecessor as the SW RPG, WotC's Saga, uses a lot of d8s and d10s for damage rolls.

Well, many gamers greatly enjoy collecting dice. I can't go a Gencon without adding to my collection. :) So many of us already have plenty of dice to play Saga with, and more dice are cheap. Unlike Fantasy Flight; having seen their setup at Gencon, I'm pretty sure their primary motivation is to sell accessories; Gamgee is right, they could have done everything with regular gaming dice, but used the ones they did to force sales.

[Fumble Jack]

http://community.fantasyflightgames....s-master-list/

Thanks, it's been helpful

[Gamgee]

To be fair, most dice packs for d20 systems don't really give you enough to play, either... you'll usually want extra d6s at least (which are cheap and common), but Edge of the Empire's predecessor as the SW RPG, WotC's Saga, uses a lot of d8s and d10s for damage rolls.

I can pick up regular gaming dice for about 21-51 cents per dice at my FLGS depending on what that dice is. It's far more of an expensive rip off when buying their specialty dice since to get one or two specific dice you need to buy a whole pack of crap you don't need. I still have a small collection of useless Edge dice thanks to me testing out the system. You think I could find one person to sell the core, gm screen, and three sets of dice to for 30 dollars? Nope.

I feel kind of bad for my FLGS they thought it would be a big "seller" of an rpg, but it's turned out to be a pretty big dud. I see tons of core books never being sold for it. And all of their Star Wars lines. The new Age of Rebellion did a little better, but not much.

[Rakaydos]

ou think I could find one person to sell the core, gm screen, and three sets of dice to for 30 dollars? Nope. [/QUOTE]

Can you handle shipping to the west coast?

[Invader]

To be fair there's a pretty simple conversion so you can use regular dice (iirc its actually provided by fantasy flight but I could be wrong) and there's free dice rollers online so there's really no need to buy dice if you're reeally against it.

We must have vastly different dm'ing experiences with the combat. The ones I DM'd moved along much more quickly than any d20 combats im used to and all of them were largely more cinematic than mechanical.

Gamgee, I'll gladly pay you $30 for the core book, dice, and screen plus shipping costs!

[Fumble Jack]

To be fair there's a pretty simple conversion so you can use regular dice (iirc its actually provided by fantasy flight but I could be wrong) and there's free dice rollers online so there's really no need to buy dice if you're reeally against it.

We must have vastly different dm'ing experiences with the combat. The ones I DM'd moved along much more quickly than any d20 combats im used to and all of them were largely more cinematic than mechanical.

Gamgee, I'll gladly pay you $30 for the core book, dice, and screen plus shipping costs!

In the Edge Core pg 12 they have the conversion table, I bought my own set of the actual dice, which does help my group understand the game, their a visual group. Considering that cost, that is a bargain worth the price.

Have to agree with Invader, fights, especially with ones, with blaster rifles involved or specialized melee/brawler types can do a number on wound points.

@ Gamgee : Could be your player had bad luck with the dice, or as you described your group as a whole wasn't feeling the game. I do agree with you, that the dice for the game, in package are not enough for a game, if you don't want to do the number crunching with regular dice. Only one Challenge die to a package bugs me.

[zilvar]

$0.02. Really enjoy the game and have sung its praises to many friends.

Good for my very narrative-focused players who aren't as interested in the shooty bits and want to help put together a great narrative story that everyone is telling together. Makes for some great evenings.

Absolutely love that you can chastise someone into submission. Even in combat. Hilarious. :) This is a thing. :)

I keep looking around for system conversions because I think this is something that is extensible to any game where you're at least as interesting in HOW something happened as you are whether or not something happened at all, if that makes any sense.

[Fumble Jack]

http://community.fantasyflightgames....ther-settings/

Not sure if that may help with conversions you're looking for but it's a start.

[Invader]

Had our second session today and another question popped up. At one point one of yhe players had to make a mechanics check to determine some random droid parts were with keeping. He passed the check but had a number of threats. Does there necessarily have to be an advantage or threat take place on certain roles? In this instance there's not much that could go wrong especially since he passed the check.

[Rakaydos]

Had our second session today and another question popped up. At one point one of yhe players had to make a mechanics check to determine some random droid parts were with keeping. He passed the check but had a number of threats. Does there necessarily have to be an advantage or threat take place on certain roles? In this instance there's not much that could go wrong especially since he passed the check.

If the GM doesnt really want to use the threat, you can alwys bleed it off as "there was a power surge that inflicted X strain" or simply say it takes extra time.

[Fumble Jack]

It could also be said there were more parts damaged than salvageable, but that's Gm interpretation in the end.

[Invader]

I guess I'm just not sold on the fact that some good/bad happens the majority of the time. Sometimes just failing or succeeding is sufficient.