Anyone want to learn/play Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG with me?

[mauve]

Not sure if this should be here or in RP Signups/Discussions, but...

Calling all adventurers! Come learn a new RPG system with me, or share your current Edge of the Empire knowledge with the rest of us scruffy nerf herders! I'm running a Star Wars RPG campaign and I need people to guide/torment/lead astray into the far corners of the universe!

I recently picked up the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG Beginner's Box, by Fantasy Flight Games. Now, I've never GM'ed a pen-and-paper RP before, and this is my first time playing the Edge of the Empire system, but I'm armed with a beginner's guide, some pre-generated characters and a game scenario and I'm willing to give it a try, if there are a few good women and men willing to join me on an adventure in a galaxy far, far, away.

The Beginner's Game, Escape from Mos Shuuta, is a complete stand-alone adventure for 2-4 players and a GM. The set comes with 4 pre-made character sheets and a full playable scenario which introduces the rules of the game as the story goes on. I would like to try and run this game here on the forum, either as Play By Post in the RP section (using the chat for dice rolls; I'll trust you guys to post them truthfully) or entirely in the chat room in real-time.

Anyone want to join me in the madness? I'm looking for between 2 and 4 players. All levels of experience are welcome: Escape from Mos Shuuta is designed as an introduction to roleplaying as well as an intro to EoE, so newbies can struggle along with me as I try my hand at GMing, and experienced players can share their knowledge of the rules and probably trick me into believing whatever rules they tell me (the box set only comes with a CliffsNotes-esque version of the rulebook). My only requirement is that if you've played this campaign before, please don't spoil things for the new players.

**Disclaimer: Keep in mind this campaign is built to be played in person, so it might take me a little while to present information in a way which doesn't violate copyright law. I want to see if there's actually enough interest in this before I bother with that undertaking though, hence this thread.

ABOUT THE GAME...
Star Wars: Edge of the Empire is a dice-based Roleplaying Game which focuses less on the main conflict between the Jedi, Sith and Rebel Alliance and more on characters like smugglers, pilots, colonists, bounty hunters, mercenaries, etc., all trying to get by on the fringes of the Empire. It takes place during the era of the original Trilogy.

Mechanically, the main difference between EoE and, say, Dungeons and Dragons is the dice: They're custom, with Success/Failure symbols rather than numbers. I've gots me a fancy chart for translating those symbols to numbers, however, so this won't be an issue with our chatroom's dice roller. They're just d6's, d8's, etc., after all.

The campaign comes with 4 pre-built characters: A human smuggler, a twi'lek bounty hunter, a wookiee hired gun, and a droid medic/mechanic.This means you don't need to know how to roll a character in order to play! However, if you're familiar with the game system, you're welcome to make your own characters. No Jedi/Sith.


Escape the clutches of your evil employer, Teemo the Hutt, on the suns-baked world of Tatooine! How will you do this? By obtaining a ship and ditching this hellhole of a planet for good, of course! And fortunately for you, there's one docked nearby! Unfortunately for you, it's already got an owner: A rather unpleasant Trandoshan who probably already hates you. Teemo's hired muscle is closing in, and your options are lookin' a bit limited here. You'd better come up with an escape plan fast, because things aren't looking good.

[Aerozord]

I am definitely interested. Just let me know the format because while I'm fine with play-by-post I know how those tend to go on here. Personally I'd enjoy voice chat if everyone is ok with it, but a chat room might be best

[Flarecobra]

Might be interesting. Especially if I can be a Mandolorian. :D

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Dibs on the walking carpet.

[mauve]

Might be interesting. Especially if I can be a Mandolorian. :D

If you know how to roll characters in EoE, I'll consider a Mandolorian if you can show me some kind of overview/potential level progression for how a Mandolorian works mechanically. Is it considered a class/ profession or a race? All characters start at lvl1. Otherwise, since Mandolorian is a culture rather than a species, to my knowledge anyway, I'd be cool with you tinkering with the Twi'lek bounty hunter's background to make her a Mandolorian. As long as she has a reason to be working for a Hutt and wants to get away from said Hutt.

Aeroz & Shy: Yay!!

[Aerozord]

Last I checked, and admittedly episode 3 wasn't even out last time I checked. The Mandolorians were extinct by the time of the original trilogy.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Huh, what an odd coincidence, a few of my friends are just starting to get into this game. They're all really excited for it, but I'm personally still on the fence, would much rather be doing Dark Heresy.

I would be willing to throw my interest in this just to give it a taste, but time differences may be an issue, so that may rule out my participation unfortunately.

[Aerozord]

Oh and if we are going with classes, actually the droid sounds interesting to me

[mauve]

Huh, what an odd coincidence, a few of my friends are just starting to get into this game. They're all really excited for it, but I'm personally still on the fence, would much rather be doing Dark Heresy.

I would be willing to throw my interest in this just to give it a taste, but time differences may be an issue, so that may rule out my participation unfortunately.

Yeah, that's why PbP would be a good option. Timezones are wicked conspirators out to destroy fun. We'll see how much interest we get in this and what everyone's preferences are. So far it's an even split for chatroom and pbp. If a lot of people show interest, I might consider running two groups, assuming that much GMing won't kill me.

---------- Post added at 10:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:37 AM ----------

Oh and if we are going with classes, actually the droid sounds interesting to me

Awesome! The droid's official class is "colonist" but he's billed as a mechanic and doctor, and if I remember correctly, he's got a decent diplomacy skill too.

[Aerozord]

I'll be the snarkiest droid ever

[Flarecobra]

Last I checked, and admittedly episode 3 wasn't even out last time I checked. The Mandolorians were extinct by the time of the original trilogy.

Boba Fett would disagree with you.

[Aerozord]

Boba Fett would disagree with you.

he wasn't a mandalorian, he just wore their armor.

Unless Jango Fett was one, I never fully watched episode two or three. Like I said I am kind of out of date

[mauve]

Jango was a Mandolorian, I'm pretty sure.

[Flarecobra]

From Wookieepedia's article on Jango Fett: "Jango Fett was a renowned Mandalorian bounty hunter, assassin, mercenary, and the "father" of Boba Fett, a genetic clone of his, whom he raised as a son."

[mauve]

Ok, so we have two "probably yes" people and two "possibly yes" folks.

Let's talk format: Do you prefer Play-by-Post (similar to the RPs that used to go on here on the forum, with no set meeting times, but with added dice rolls copied from the chat) or chat rp ( real-time live RPs with shorter posts but more traditional interaction wih other players)?

I personally like PbP becuase it doesn't rely on timezones or schedules, but I know a lot of people prefer the interaction and spontaneity of chat. What say you folks? We'll take a poll.

[Aerozord]

I prefer chat but will play any format we decide on.

[Flarecobra]

Over the forums would be more convenient, and as Mauve said, does not rely on people having to show up at X time, only to end up having to run out 20 minutes later because of a RL issue.

[POS Industries]

I'd like to get in on this but I only have my phone with me for at least a few more weeks.

If we decided to do this by chat, maybe a google hangout or something would work? That way scrolling back through chat would be more convenient than ajax.

[Overcast]

If I'm late tell me but I want in.

[mauve]

Neat! With the addition of POS and Overcast, we have enough for two groups of three. That means we could potentially do a chat rp and a pbp group. Does this sound good? ...Hopefully I won't screw this up.

Now, I'm super busy this weekend with Labor Day stuffs, so it's still gonna take me a little while to get all my proverbial ducks in a row. I'm still looking over rules and modifying things to avoid copyright infringement (I won't be using the maps, portraits, etc and won't scan the character sheets, just to be safe). I can still accept up to two more players, if there are any other late arrivals.

In the meantime, please continue to give input on your format preferences (chat or pbp) and voice any concerns or ideas. I've never DM'ed a pen-and-paper rpg before, so input is welcomed!

[tacticslion]

This is awesome!

I'm not going to be able to join, despite being very interested, because 1) I positively suck at online gaming, and 2) I don't have time!

That said, I'd be very interested in possibly following your exploits along the way!

Good gaming!

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

So looks like my friends will be beginning character creation/possibly doing our first short session of this game tomorrow. I spent today looking at the core rulebook, or at least the parts of it that are available for viewing over on scribd and decided I might try out a dual blaster wielding Twi'lek smuggler/pilot.

For Mauves game though I have no preference on what character I am, I'll let others choose first and pick whatever's left. I do wonder though how are you gona resolve combat and dice rolls and such in the pbp format Mauve? Are you just gona make it a little bit more freeform like our forum rps of old?

Also does anyone have any good name ideas for a female dual blaster wielding Twi'lek smuggler/pilot? The random generators are kinda limited and crappy.

[mauve]

Well, for the D&D/Pathfinder pbp, we usually write up what our character is INTENDING to do, along with the dice roll, and the GM either confirms or corrects based on the dice roll. I'm still going over the rules for EoE, but I assume it will work the same.

Ex:
Player: She brought down the greataxe in a swinging arc, aiming for the goblin's head. (Dice roll info goes here, or is in swap text over the sentence)

GM: The goblin stood no chance. The axe sliced through the unfortunate goblin's body like a warm knife through butter, and it fell over dead.

So yeah, it can be pretty freeform like the ones we used to run here, and we just work in dice rolls where they're needed.

[POS Industries]

Looking over the race and class options, I'm super duper tempted to try droid politico if possible.

[Overcast]

Found a pretty good character generator online if anyone wants to get a jump on creation. It is kinda huge, but that kinda comes with its effectiveness.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/89135-another-character-generator/

Link to the forum page for maximum credit to creator Oggdude.

Oh and I'm making a Gand Mechanic.

[mauve]

Please keep in mind that I don't have access to the full core rulebook, just the beginner game guide. There doesn't appear to be an official online SRD available either, so I'll only allow custom characters if you can provide me details on the race and class and how they work. Keep in mind I'm new to this game, so if you wander too far into unknown territory I have no way of helping you. But if you have experience with the game, that's great! Original characters would solve the copyright issue and there's sure to be questions along the way that someone with more experience could answer for the group.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Yeah I've just been having a mess around with that generator Overcast linked. Actual character building seems pretty straight forward, although a lot of the talent info and such is not filled in on there for legal reasons. The only thing that still confuses me slightly is the obligation system; Exactly how much can/should you take? I'm guessing the base minimum is party size dependent, but can you keep taking more until you get all 4 of those extra benefits or what? Or can you just get 1, and if so why would you not take the extra 2500 credits right from the start every time?

Also what's better, beefing up skills early/as fast as possible, or going down your specialization trees early/as fast as possible, or mix and match?

[Overcast]

Theoretically you can take as much to get all those advantages. You wouldn't likely to escape the troubles that an Obligation can bring on you and your people. I myself decided to stick mostly to skills, and up at least one important stat. I figured specialization should coordinate with my own skill level, like I shouldn't take the talent that requires a hard mechanics check till I have hard level mechanics.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Yeah I went skill heavy as well, seemed better.

Personally I find the idea of racking up a ludicrous amount of obligation and having bounty hunters, family members, the empire and all sorts of other shit turning up every session to cause trouble hilarious, especially as long as I've already gotten cash and extra xp. I mean we're gona be doing missions and adventuring and story things anyway, so it doesn't much matter if it's obligation based or not.

[Aerozord]

I have GMed alot and know what its like to be running a game you are new to. I think it would be best if we make this easy on Mauve and just go with the pre-made characters. If afterwards we get a good handle on the game we can get into making new characters. If you guys are really familar, probably best if you are in group two while us new players go with the pre-made

[mauve]

I have GMed alot and know what its like to be running a game you are new to. I think it would be best if we make this easy on Mauve and just go with the pre-made characters. If afterwards we get a good handle on the game we can get into making new characters. If you guys are really familar, probably best if you are in group two while us new players go with the pre-made

Thanks, that would be really helpful if the majority of folks kept with the pre-gen'd characters.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Oh yeah I wasn't building a new character for this, it was for my friends game. I'll pretty much take whoever's left after others have chosen.

[Overcast]

Got it, getting a read on the game though and building a character really does help one learn a bit about the system. But yes I shall keep to the pregen as well.

[mauve]

Yeah, I can see your point. This is a pretty short adventure though, designed specifically for these characters. If it ends up being a really fun game system, maybe I'll splurge on the full rulebook next time it goes on sale and we can play the full game with new character creation.

Anywho, I'm back from vacation and I'll try to get some character info up in the next few days so you guys can get a better idea of the pre-gens and their strengths. You are all completely welcome to change the characters' names, genders and backstories, as long as they have a reason to be in the Hutt's employ and be familiar with at least one of the other player characters.

[Aerozord]

as a heads up I'm going to a con thur-sunday. If we could start in like a week that would be great

[mauve]

Yup, no worries there. I'm going to a con on Saturday, so I'll be busy too.

[Aerozord]

so, we still doing this?

[mauve]

Yeah, sorry. The polite answer is that I ended up getting super busy with work after Labor Day and lost track of time. The honest answer is I got busy with work after Labor Day and then got hit with a huge wave of anxiety that kept me second guessing my ability/right to do this and have been sitting on a completed "ground rules" PM I wrote for everyone the past few weeks. AND I lost track of time.

[POS Industries]

Well, the good news is that I'm moved into a more permanent residence and should have my computer again by next week, so you're under no obligation to rush.

[Overcast]

I may have a hiccup in time at some point in like January to February, but until then I'm pretty much clear. Take your time.