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Huntsekker posted:So I went to the D20 radio/ gamer nation convention yesterday and got to talk one on one with one of the creators of Edge of the Empire, Jay Little for about an hour. I just approached him and asked him about how to GM well since this was my first tabletop RPG, and we found a nice secluded spot and he gave me a ton of great ideas. He said at cons and one off events when he GMs sometimes he will just tell a group basically an endpoint or crazy circumstance and then just say " Ok, now one day earlier...." And see where they take it. Seeing how passionate he is about the system really made me want to buy pretty much anything EotE from here on out. I have known Jay for ~30 years and he has been enthusiastic about games the whole time. He died once or twice in 2011 and has come back even MORE enthusiastic about games, if that's possible. I think I mentioned this before, but one EotE tip he gave me is that when players are rolling something with a significant chance of Despair (so, lots of red dice), ask them before the roll "what's the worst thing that could happen here?" If they roll Despair, it happens.
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Mar 17, 2014 14:13
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Huntsekker posted:So I went to the D20 radio/ gamer nation convention yesterday and got to talk one on one with one of the creators of Edge of the Empire, Jay Little for about an hour. I just approached him and asked him about how to GM well since this was my first tabletop RPG, and we found a nice secluded spot and he gave me a ton of great ideas. He said at cons and one off events when he GMs sometimes he will just tell a group basically an endpoint or crazy circumstance and then just say " Ok, now one day earlier...." And see where they take it. Seeing how passionate he is about the system really made me want to buy pretty much anything EotE from here on out. I'd be curious to hear about these other GMing ideas he gave you if you remember them.
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Mar 17, 2014 14:17
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homullus posted:I have known Jay for ~30 years and he has been enthusiastic about games the whole time. He died once or twice in 2011 and has come back even MORE enthusiastic about games, if that's possible. I think I mentioned this before, but one EotE tip he gave me is that when players are rolling something with a significant chance of Despair (so, lots of red dice), ask them before the roll "what's the worst thing that could happen here?" Yeah, Jay is an awesome guy. He's great to work with, too. I really enjoy working with him because of his passion. He can get me excited about even the most boring assignment.
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Mar 17, 2014 14:17
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My group is really interested in trying this but one player is holding out until Jedis are released. Any word on when that core book is supposed to come out?
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Mar 17, 2014 16:21
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Probably Q2 next year if their release schedule so far is any indication. We should probably start getting the beta book for it in September of this year.
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Mar 17, 2014 16:24
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Excelsiortothemax posted:My group is really interested in trying this but one player is holding out until Jedis are released. Any word on when that core book is supposed to come out? Beta will probably be out this fall. May as well try Shadows of a Black Sun, since it's free and fun  http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/StarWarsRPG/edge-of-the-empire/adventures/Under%20a%20Black%20Sun%20LoRes.pdf
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Mar 17, 2014 16:24
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Thanks all! My group should be very excited to hear this. I have the first core book and plan on picking up the second soon. Any recommendations for supplements to get?
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Mar 17, 2014 16:29
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Excelsiortothemax posted:Thanks all! My group should be very excited to hear this. I have the first core book and plan on picking up the second soon. Any recommendations for supplements to get? I have all of them and would hesitate to call any of them essential, so just get the ones that will be useful for you at the table. If your players are really into scouts or hired guns, or you're really into corellians, get the applicable book. Otherwise you aren't missing out on a ton.
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Mar 17, 2014 16:31
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Excelsiortothemax posted:Thanks all! My group should be very excited to hear this. I have the first core book and plan on picking up the second soon. Any recommendations for supplements to get? By far the meatiest of the supplements is the Suns of Fortune book about the Corellian sector. All of them have been great thus far though, and I've found a use for each of them in the campaign I've been running. It really depends on what you want out of a supplement I guess. If you and your players prefer to make up your own stories and see where things go then Suns is by far the best option since it gives you lots of ships and gear with tons of info on locations and story hooks. It's all suggestions and advice rather than a plotted out adventure like Beyond the Rim. The career supplements are great if you have players really into that career who already have enough experience spent that they need more areas to branch out rather than jumping into other careers. They're probably the least useful though on a regular basis.
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Mar 17, 2014 16:38
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One that I would recommend is the GMs guide. It's got a GMs shield with all of the charts you need for skill, combat, and critical stuff on one side that I actually lay flat and let my guys use instead of flipping pages in the core book, and I really loved the adventure that came with it.
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Mar 17, 2014 17:00
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Mustache Ride posted:One that I would recommend is the GMs guide. It's got a GMs shield with all of the charts you need for skill, combat, and critical stuff on one side that I actually lay flat and let my guys use instead of flipping pages in the core book, and I really loved the adventure that came with it. I recommend all of them, but as much as I like more specializations and the additional species, the GM's Kit is the one that sees the most week-to-week use, because of that screen. It doesn't have the skills on it (I would have liked a list with governing characteristic and principal uses) but that's more of a new-to-the-system complaint. Having the "basic equipment" list there is great for winging encounters.
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Mar 17, 2014 17:05
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My own two cents on the supplements I’ve used: Into the Unknown – Actually got the least out of this one, some sniper rifles were cool I guess and we had a Chiss Fringer who got official rules for his guy. Beyond the Rim – I originally was hesitant on spending 25 bucks for one adventure, but it was a very lengthy one we stretched out for four sessions and I could easily see going on longer depending on your group. Suns of Fortune – Lots of ships, all the weapons were pistols, the races were meh, the random encounter tables have been surprisingly useful for whipping scenarios up quickly. Dangerous Covenants – I’m biased because I played a Hired Gun, but this one is packed with stuff I loved. Lots of weapons including mechanics for explosives you can plant, couple of armor sets, weapon / armor mods (including a few ship mods), a handful of ships, and even a table of mission suggestions for mercenaries complete with pay scale if you wanted to form the A-Team in space.
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Mar 17, 2014 17:50
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For real, Dangerous Covenants has a lot of the gear I didn't even know I wanted until I saw it. Comlinks to the ship built into your helmet, wrist-mounted weapons, ion grenades, military conversions for civilian vehicles. I never knew our airspeeder needed to be one of those weird militia pickup trucks with anti-aircraft guns mounted to the back, but it absolutely does.
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Mar 17, 2014 18:01
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Not to mention you get everything you need for Boba Fett Starter Pack in it: wrist mounted weaponry and back-pack mounted rocket launcher. Also I didn't know anything about them, but the history of the Aqualish as a species is great. They're basically the star wars equivalent of Orks from 40k and I'm definitely going to roll one as my next character.
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Mar 17, 2014 18:15
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Springfield Fatts posted:Also I didn't know anything about them, but the history of the Aqualish as a species is great. They're basically the star wars equivalent of Orks from 40k and I'm definitely going to roll one as my next character. I have to agree with that. Personally, I've always disliked most Star Wars aliens (except for Wookiees and Trandoshans). I really, really liked the Aqualish fluff.
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Mar 17, 2014 18:17
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Jewel of Yavin is now shipping. Should be here this week or next
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Mar 17, 2014 18:20
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Did anyone else's group do the adventure from the back of the core book? My players did, and they hired the free R2 unit as their astrogator and "stay and watch the ship" character. They even split the treasure 5 ways (instead of 4) and the R-unit gets a full treasure share. Just thought I'd share that my players are awesome.
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Mar 17, 2014 18:21
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It's also worth noting that if you really just want the Signature Abilities for your Explorer without buying the book, you can now get those (and the upgrades to them, like the Force powers) via the POD cards. I can only assume they'll add the Hired Gun ones too. I think the books are well worth it, and the stuff at the end of Dangerous Covenants (that Springfield Fatts mentioned) was inspirational for my campaign.
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Mar 17, 2014 18:57
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Tharizdun posted:Did anyone else's group do the adventure from the back of the core book? My players did, and they hired the free R2 unit as their astrogator and "stay and watch the ship" character. They even split the treasure 5 ways (instead of 4) and the R-unit gets a full treasure share. My players are dicks. They promised him 2k of the 10k bounty they thought they were getting. When they instead went to the Hutt and only got 5k they gave him 1k and he was pissed. One player wanted to use a restraining bolt to shut him off until they could sell him for his valuable route knowledge (our droid player disagreed). He swore revenge as he did his little R2-D2 trundle. His threats were not taken seriously. They will regret what they did.
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Mar 17, 2014 19:36
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Sounds like you need to run the GMs kit adventure and have him pop back up in the mining facility as the astromech there that starts the droid revolution.
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Mar 17, 2014 20:09
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Mustache Ride posted:Sounds like you need to run the GMs kit adventure and have him pop back up in the mining facility as the astromech there that starts the droid revolution. 
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Mar 17, 2014 20:36
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Hulk Smash! posted:I'd be curious to hear about these other GMing ideas he gave you if you remember them. He advised coming up with narrative when bonus die are passed on to other players, to keep them engaged when it is not their turn. Example: Because the Wookie covered you, you were able to slice into the console. He advised on always giving out setback die, even if people's skills remove them, to help players feel like the skills they have taken were worth it, and to not just say, "well, I was going to add a setback but since you have that skill.." We talked about how I realized GMing is very much improv, at which point he lit up and said exactly! But to remember to not only yes and, but also yes if. He talked about going into Gming with nothing prepared, just asking for each person's obligation, then asking each player to name a letter of the alphabet. He would then go around coming up with something Star Wars related to every letter. Example: H: okay, we are on Hoth. M: we are looking for a Mon Calamari there, etc. He suggested this method only for one offs, not for full campaigns. All very useful stuff. It really got me pumped to GM again. Huntsekker fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Mar 18, 2014 |
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Mar 18, 2014 06:30
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Mustache Ride posted:Sounds like you need to run the GMs kit adventure and have him pop back up in the mining facility as the astromech there that starts the droid revolution. You need to do exactly this. That adventure really threw my group for a loop, and I used the after effects of the ending much later on. My group almost never, ever trusts droids after that one. Huntsekker fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Mar 18, 2014 |
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Mar 18, 2014 06:32
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Huntsekker posted:All very useful stuff. It really got me pumped to GM again. It was great having the flexibility with my schedule to be able to sit down and talk one-on-one with gamers from across the country -- and quite a few from Canada, as well. I'm glad you found the conversation helpful. Sure, I designed the game, but I'm also it's biggest fan. I love playing Edge of the Empire, and it's easily my favorite game to GM. Huntsekker pointed out one of my favorite Con approaches to GMing Edge -- Jot down everyone's Obligations and ask folks for a letter of the alphabet. Sometimes, I'll ask passersby to give us a word for the letters chosen. I also make sure one of the character's Obligation gets triggered. For a one-shot or Con experience where folks at the game may not know each other, sharing their Obligations and jointly brainstorming letters and words helps establish some camaraderie at the table. I ran seven or eight Edge of the Empire sessions at GamerNationCon, and no two were alike. Here are just a few of the narratives that developed for games which I arrived at the table with no notes, no plans, and nothing but the enthusiasm of the other players to go on: - One of the PCs was given false information on Imperial troop movements. He sold the information to the Hutts, and when they found out it was bad intel, the PC had to make things right. He had to track down the intel's provider -- a Mon Calamari informant whose last known location was Hoth after the Imperial siege and bombardment. When one of the players said, "A Mon Calamari on Hoth? How the hell does he survive on Hoth?" I replied, "Yeah, exciting, isn't it? We get to find out just how that happened." And we did. It was awesome. - A doctor was criminalized for bio-genetic experimentation on Quarrens -- essentially creating Cthulhu critters for his own purposes. His most recent experiment, Subject 131, escaped containment and was smuggled off planet by a Black Sun operative. They needed to track it down and recover Subject 131 before the doctor's research fell into the wrong hands. After establishing that premise, someone from the group said, "Ooh, I've got a great title for this episode -- The One That Got Away." And *boom* we had everything we needed to dive in. - The PCs started the session on Ryloth with an astromech which was recovered from the smoking ruins of a suspected Rebel base. It had blueprints for a new line of sensor arrays the Rebels were working on to be able to pick up and decode encrypted Imperial communications. The Rebels want the astromech. The Imperials want the astromech. And somehow the local Twi'lek regent found out about the astromech, as well. So they're being heavily pursued by three vastly different groups which each desperately want to get their hands on the droid.
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Mar 18, 2014 16:56
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How do I get my players to go along with crazy sounding plans? I tasked my players with collecting protection money from a casino owner who broke ties with the hutt they work for. One player's genius idea was to fly their firespray up to the casino, blast out the windows of the guy's office, fast rope in like badasses and take him hostage or something until he payed up. Sounds like an awesome plan, right? Everyone else was too timid to do this and they instead opted to just start smashing up businesses he owns in less reputable parts of town and emailing threats to him. I even told them that I loved the idea and if they went with the cool idea things would mostly work out, but no dice. We're coming from Dark Heresy, which can be much less forgiving of silly nonsense. Anything I can do to show them to kick it up a notch?
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Mar 19, 2014 18:18
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Have a rival group beat them to it using the same “quick hit and run” tactics they eschewed? Tell them “never tell me the odds?” Have one of the smaller businesses be home to several nasty Gamorrans? Have one of the e-mails come back with a virus of some sort that taunts their lineage (this works great if one of the PC's is a Rodian)?
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Mar 19, 2014 18:32
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Have the casino owner reply to the emails saying he won't be intimidated by 2 bit amateur criminals who just break a few windows.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:44
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Clanpot Shake posted:We're coming from Dark Heresy, which can be much less forgiving of silly nonsense. Really? I never played the rpgs but I played tabletop and the 40k universe gets silly as poo poo. I mean covered in skulls, but still silly.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:44
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Springfield Fatts posted:Really? I never played the rpgs but I played tabletop and the 40k universe gets silly as poo poo. I mean covered in skulls, but still silly. I mean in the sense that if you go in guns blazing to the den of a known criminal the game (RAW) can be pretty lethal, and not to the PCs benefit. Goals are much more safely accomplished by byzantine schemes where you're not even in the same room. The setting though... you're totally right about that. e; I will definitely try one or more of those ideas. I love the idea of them going back to the casino to find it the site of a daring daylight kidnapping and now the guy whose money they're supposed to get is unreachable. \/\/\/ To give a concrete example of that, our penultimate DH game ended when I, the psyker, completely subverted the GM's plot with a ridiculous, byzantine scheme involving two demonic pacts, not kill the BBEG, but to become the BBEG, then set to dismantling her plans as her. My glorious plan ended when I rolled on the bad-things-happen-when-you-do-magic table and got the 'tear up your character sheet, you cease to exist' result. Clanpot Shake fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Mar 19, 2014 |
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Mar 19, 2014 19:24
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Springfield Fatts posted:Really? I never played the rpgs but I played tabletop and the 40k universe gets silly as poo poo. I mean covered in skulls, but still silly. As a occasional Dark Heresy/40k RPG player and GM, Dark Heresy is still very silly - but it's also potentially a very unforgiving game in terms of PC survival rates. For example, it's pretty much a given that a PC psyker will explode at some point, the only real question is how many other PCs he takes with him. I could see a group of players getting pretty risk-averse from a game like that. Edit: What he said. ^^^^
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Mar 19, 2014 19:30
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make them watch the Original Trilogy like this so they understand what Star Wars is.
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Mar 19, 2014 20:28
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Clanpot Shake posted:How do I get my players to go along with crazy sounding plans? ... Anything I can do to show them to kick it up a notch? First, I love CobiWann's idea of having a rival group use the same tactic... Sometimes it might take a quick OOC moment to explain to the players that you love the idea and think it would make for a really exciting storyline -- you can encourage them by flipping a destiny point for the brilliant idea or granting a few boost dice to any related actions for their bravado. Or straight up ask them what their concerns are for trying the more daring, dramatic course of action. The suggested course of action you describe is exactly the sort of stuff I want happening in the games I GM. For severely risk-averse groups, though, that can be a tough response to overcome. EotE combat and confrontations are less lethal than some systems, but still pack a punch with wounds, strain and the potential for lingering critical injuries... but it can still mess you up something fierce if players make foolish decisions. Do you think it might be an issue of not understanding some of the rules, or the severity of potential repercussions for failure or other complications? That could be something addressed with a quick rundown of some rules questions they might have. Otherwise, ultimately, as the GM I accept the fact that they are driving the story just as much as much as I am. If the group chooses to take a different approach, I'm not going to punish them for it. But I will leave bread crumbs that will hopefully lead them to encounters and decisions I think will have an interesting impact on that story...
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Mar 19, 2014 20:42
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I've always gone into 40K games expecting for my character to die, and as such when tasked with busting into a known den of criminals I do it the only way that is actually acceptable: I kick in the door while dual-wielding bolt pistols and blow whatever I find on the other side of the door into a goddamn cloud of heretic mist. For The Emperor. Et cetera. If the rest of the party bursts in right behind you on the surprise round like you all planned, then by the time the criminals get to act half of them are dead and the other half have no idea what's happening. Warhammer isn't about subtlety, people. As for your party, if they want to come up with some sort of Machiavellian scheme to get the hutt to pay up, figure out a way to let them know that breaking windows isn't going to do anything other than make said hutt think they're too chicken poo poo to actually threaten him in any way. Then start putting some muscle in these shops, after a few close firefights they might be more inclined to do something awesome.
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Mar 19, 2014 20:47
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I have a few questions, nerds! Firstly: Let's say I have 1P (Yellow) and 2A (Green) for my Stealth skill. I have a stealth field generator that lets me upgrade my roll twice. So now I have 3P (Yellow). Right? Right. Let's say I spend XP to raise my 2A both to 2P. Now when I roll I have 3P (3 Yellows). But, I still possess my stealth field generator. How do I upgrade my roll twice if all of my dice are at Yellow already? Engaged, for ranged, is 1D (purple). Engaged for Melee is 2D (purple). Why the hell is that? I'd think it'd be the same 1D it is at range, wouldn't it? Why would it possibly be easier to shoot someone with a gun at point blank than to hit them with a lightsabre?
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Mar 19, 2014 22:17
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Swags posted:How do I upgrade my roll twice if all of my dice are at Yellow already?
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Mar 19, 2014 22:22
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Swags posted:I have a few questions, nerds! For this first question at least the way you upgrade an already full Proficiency (Yellow) dice skill check is to add Ability dice (Green). So with your given example you'd have 3P (3 Yellows) from your characteristics and skills plus 1A (Green) which is then upgraded to 1P (Yellow) from your stealth field generator upgrading it twice. Hope that helps. edit: Edited to remove my stupidity. Also beaten. The Wolfen fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Mar 19, 2014 |
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Mar 19, 2014 22:23
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Swags posted:I have a few questions, nerds! I haven't actually played the game yet, only skimmed the rules, so I could be (am probably) wrong, but I think when you upgrade after getting all Proficiency dice on a skill, you start adding Ability. So if you have 3P and upgrade twice, you'll have 3P and 2A.
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Mar 19, 2014 22:24
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nelson posted:First upgrade adds a green die. Second changes it to yellow. This is incorrect. The Wolfen posted:For this first question at least the way you upgrade an already full Proficiency (Yellow) dice skill check is to add Ability dice (Green). So with your given example you'd have 3P (3 Yellows) from your characteristics and skills plus 2A (2 Greens) from your stealth field generator upgrading it twice. Hope that helps. This is correct.
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Mar 19, 2014 22:24
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drat, now I don't even know for sure. I was convinced my original one was right, but the post above mine seemed to make sense too. Anyway, Fuzz is probably right, so go with what I said that he/she agreed with.
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Mar 19, 2014 22:27
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I still think I'm correct but someone quote the relevant section of the rules so we can resolve this. I'm at work otherwise I'd look it up myself.
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Mar 19, 2014 22:34
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