Hello all, again. This has become quite the discussion. I also want to apologize if my question was difficult to intepret at the original starting post but you guys did figure it out perfectly. I will have the game on monday but might get a chance to talk it out with the group tomorrow.
Except for thanking for more of your kind advices, I want to shed a little more information.
 
The player in question has a reputation of being a minmaxer. In our other games he often tries to optimize on one, single aspect (he also plays in SW Saga edition with a minmaxed character). I told him before starting our game session that I would give him character a chance before forcing a change or revoke his character stats. As expected, he tried to use Charm for every single problem like a one-trick pony and he has no problem at all getting 4-5 successes to the point its almost a Jedi Mind Trick.
On the other hand, the group had no Face character in the party and would no doubt benefit from his skills (especially now that we are playing The Jewel of Yavin story). I was also a bit unclear but its particularly one other player who feels its unfair; the others have been neutral or not dared make a statement about it.

So I think I will follow Hydrospanner's advice and just simply discuss with the group about this. We need to decide on rules for character creation (and even for existing players should their characters die or they want to make a new one) as well as how to balance rapid progression from character creation stage without breaking the game and ruining the thematic growth. As somebody in the topic said; having a fresh hero with top notch 6 doesn't feel justified. There has been no character growth at all. Then again, he could expand on other skills and evolve in character thay way. The problem is that the player himself is a minmaxer.... so I need to know what his visions and intentions are for this game. I honestly wouldn't mind so much with the imbalance in stats as long as we're having fun and building a story together.

Hello all, again. This has become quite the discussion. I also want to apologize if my question was difficult to intepret at the original starting post but you guys did figure it out perfectly. I will have the game on monday but might get a chance to talk it out with the group tomorrow.
Except for thanking for more of your kind advices, I want to shed a little more information.
 
The player in question has a reputation of being a minmaxer. In our other games he often tries to optimize on one, single aspect (he also plays in SW Saga edition with a minmaxed character). I told him before starting our game session that I would give him character a chance before forcing a change or revoke his character stats. As expected, he tried to use Charm for every single problem like a one-trick pony and he has no problem at all getting 4-5 successes to the point its almost a Jedi Mind Trick.
On the other hand, the group had no Face character in the party and would no doubt benefit from his skills (especially now that we are playing The Jewel of Yavin story). I was also a bit unclear but its particularly one other player who feels its unfair; the others have been neutral or not dared make a statement about it.

So I think I will follow Hydrospanner's advice and just simply discuss with the group about this. We need to decide on rules for character creation (and even for existing players should their characters die or they want to make a new one) as well as how to balance rapid progression from character creation stage without breaking the game and ruining the thematic growth. As somebody in the topic said; having a fresh hero with top notch 6 doesn't feel justified. There has been no character growth at all. Then again, he could expand on other skills and evolve in character thay way. The problem is that the player himself is a minmaxer.... so I need to know what his visions and intentions are for this game. I honestly wouldn't mind so much with the imbalance in stats as long as we're having fun and building a story together.

I don't think anyone has missed the point.
 
Rather, I think everyone has just presented their own views on how they might consider handling such a situation (and their reasoning behind it) to help give the OP some perspective.  And I think that, for the most part, those views have ranged from your extreme on the one end of, "Screw the new guy.  If he doesn't like it, send him packing." to the other end, where 2P51 seems to be taking the position of, "Screw the existing party, they can grow up or get packing."
 
Just about everyone else lands somewhere in the middle, seeing the impracticality of the newbie being at a permanent disadvantage as well as the cheapening of the existing players' accomplishments and their lack of an opportunity to optimize like the new guy alike as valid points worth considering and attempting to reconcile in a solution that works for everyone involved.
 
The most important thing that I personally feel our OP can do is to sit down with their group before the start of the next session and have an open, honest discussion, totally out of character, to explain the issue and ask the group to be reasonable adults and work toward resolving the issue in a way everyone can get behind.  Sure, it's possible that some player or players may dig in.  Existing players may say, "He hasn't been in the game as long, so his character just needs to start at square one, and that's the *only* solution I'll accept.  In that case, send that one packing.  It's also possible the new guy might say, "Too bad.  You already told me I could build my character this way, and I'm not changing it."  In that case, he's gotta go.
 
It's far, far, more likely, though, that your group will come together and help you out.  Just explain that you want everyone to have a good time, and that you can see the arguments from all sides.

Thank you all for your words of wisdom.
I did agree with Fenrir423 about not really caring as long as everyone was having fun, but the others really are not.
I like the idea of him starting at the bottom like everyone else and granting him bonus XP per session so he can catch up to the rest eventually. Hydrospanner's examples were pretty inspiring.
Iwill try to speak to him about the problem "like adults" and try to find out his intentions. And if it really comes down to him refusing to rebuild and only want to break the game, then I will have to let him go.

Hello forumers. I have a problem and I need some advice.
In our game we have played for a while and the team has amassed around ~350 XP so far (not counting starting XP). And now quite recently we got a new player. To make it fair I just told him he could begin with 300 XP. I didn't realize the problem that he would dump all starting XP on Presence to kick it up to 4 and then easily bought down to Dedication and a new spec, doing the same, and ended up Presence at 6.
The remaining XP he maximized Charm to 5.
 
So... some of my players feel this is very unfair since they had to start legitimately from the bottom to get to their power levels and the highest they've reach in any characteristics is 4. 
 
What is your opinion on this? How should I rule this to make it fair but not too punishing for any sides?

Tired of wearing eraser holes through your wounds and strain boxes on your character sheet?  Can never quite keep track of the duration of conditions on your character?  Have some newer players to the game that don't have all the mechanics memorized yet?  I present my quick reference sheet for feedback and hopefully some helpfulness.
 
Please peruse and provide feedback on my quick reference sheet, and if you like it I hope you'll make good use of it.  I recommend laminating it and using a thin tipped dry erase or a wet erase pen for writing.
 
Combat Quick Reference Sheet
 
Features:
1 A4 sized page printer friendly (a few spots of color for dice representations) tracking space for: wounds, strain, encumbrance, conditions, and critical injuries spending advantage, triumph, threat, and despair spending destiny points actions, maneuvers, incidentals dice shapes/colors and symbols difficulties range bands, attack difficulties, and maneuver costs small notes section: for miscellaneous characteristics such as force rating/dice/# committed, or other small things

I thought much the same, so I went ahead and purchased a Spanish pdf copy and have been working to translate it on my own, being carefully to keep it in line with the existing translations found in Gaia Volume 1. Though I'd love to eventually translate the entire book, thus far I've only translated 30 pages or so, mostly focusing on the parts I've been incorporating into my own game, rather than from front to back. Still, its been better than waiting for an official english release. Maybe if the fans provide the translation it would encourage FFG to publish the book someday. I'd certainly be willing to hand over my work for free if it got it done.

I can appreciate that coming up with ways to spend Advantage and Threat (and Triumph and Despair) can be tough. After thinking about it, using it in my games and listening to how other people try to spend the results, I've come to the conclusion that these are hard for most gamers to spend because you're not talking about the result itself.
 
In other games, you succeed or you fail at an action, and the GM tells you what the consequence of failing or succeeding are. Sometimes there are unintended consequences to the action, but nine times out of ten, if you make a Move Silently roll, for instance, you'll overhear the evil minions drop some hints which could be used to your advantage. If you blow the Move Silently roll, then you're flat-footed against the minions. With EotE (and AoR and FaD), players have a say in what some of these side effects are, and more importantly the side effects don't always stack with the success of the roll! So the trick is to not think about the action itself--it's to think about what happens, good or bad, as a side effect of the action. One of the common things I have to guide my players on (and me, if we're being honest) is NOT to use Advantage and Triumphs to help you get the result you were originally aiming for. If you're trying to Negotiate with a merchant and you fail, for instance, Advantages and Triumphs aren't going to get you the price reduction you wanted. You failed at that attempt. What you could do, though, is say that while you have to pay full price or more, the merchant will throw in some basic gear the player needs as a result, or with a Triumph the merchant might look fondly on you for being such a good sport and paying full price that he gives you the number of a friend who can modify that particular light blaster pistol you just bought from him, or he turns out to be a supplier of black market items. The catch is that neither of those results would be a direct effect of getting successes.
 
I think one of the best ways to get a feel for how to spend Advantages and Threats is to watch the Indiana Jones movies, particularly the fight scenes. In the fights, stuff happens. For instance, in the Tibetian bar fight scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, you can see threats and despairs being spent when Indy yanks the hot poker out of Toht's hands, only to have it set the drapes on fire. A minion gets killed, only to knock flaming logs out of the fire. Indy gets grappled by a minion, only to have the minion aid him in shooting the Nazi that's going to kill them both.
 
Alternately, Indy is trying to sneak aboard a plane. He makes his Stealth check, with some serious threat. He climbs onto the plane, the pilot unaware, but attracts a rival-level mechanic's notice. He gets into a fight, and the GM unloads a dark side destiny point on his roll and he gets a Despair. Not only does Indy attract the pilot's notice, but now an even bigger rival-level threat has noticed him. And this guy is strong.
 
Personally, the most work that I tend to do in game preparation is come up with interesting ways Advantage, Triumph, Threat and Despair can be spent in the encounters.

Helpful people are helpful:
The Talent Tree is in error. There is no such "add a Setback die" as part of the Signature Talent's ability. Remove Setback, add Boosts, but no "add Setback".

Don't forget the Great Vizago~!

If I were trying to create a character based solely on this random motivation role, I might go with something like this:
 
PC grew up on a remote planet, nowhere planet like Tatooine, raised by his grandfather, who had a beloved "space hound" (for simplicity's sake, let's call the pet Happy). After a hard day of labor on the farm/in the mines/cutting down lumber, young PC and Grandpa would relax on the porch, Happy on Grandpa's lap, watching the sunset, and joke about how "Someday, we're gonna leave this place and watch the sun set on other worlds." "Which worlds, Grandpa?" "All of 'em."
 
But of course, they never left, and one day, Grandpa passed. Maybe he knew it was coming, and on his deathbed, staring out the window at the setting sun, he told the PC, "Don't let this world break you down like it broke me. You sell this house. You get out of here. You take Happy and you go. And as long as he's watching the sunset with you, a part of me will be, too."

Hey guys, I made this thing:
 
http://www.nagnazul.com/whyirun/whyirun.html
 
You might like it. I won't spoil anything; just turn up your speakers/use headphones, since it includes music. The music will take a moment to load and will start playing as soon as it is loaded.
 
Enjoy!

I gave my PCs, after they ran the beginner game, the Ebon Hawk: dynamic class freighter. They don't know it's the Ebon Hawk of course . It's has changed hands and renamed several times and ended up in Trex's hands under the name Krayt Fang.
There was a nice diagram for RPG usage of the interior and I use the same exact stats as the YT1300 for simplicity.
Just pick a ship stat that may fit the bill for simplicity and your good to go.

This is what I am aiming for. The station itself will be the terrain which the party pilots can use to dance with enemy fighters. Then across its walls there will be certain targets that needs to be downed for the mission to be succesful. The bombers need to reach them intact and its the fighters' job to ensure that.
 
This is very good! I will write it down. Really looking forward to the battle. Been studying up on WW2 air combat the whole week for this and who-knows how many times I've rewatched the Battle of Yavin scene.
The party will be flying in squadrons (as per AoR GM toolkit rules) to increase their survivability.

Fly Casual has an orbital defense station. You could downgrade it as desired.

Sounds exciting.  I know you want to create a dramatic battle and show the effects of their actions without getting into a huge mathematical exercise.  I recommend the following:
Don't worry about HT and ST. A proton torpedo or concussion missile (or crashing starship) knocks out one feature (a shield generator, gun emplacement, or missle defense system). Each feature is Sil 2 for the purpose of targeting with a shield rating (setback dice) equal to the number of generators. Each shield generator destroyed drops the shield rating by 1. Each gun emplacement is a Light Turbolaser Battery. Missile defense systems act like the upgraded ECMs from the attachments section, but protect the other features. After the destruction of so many space station defense weapons, shields, escort fighters, etc. The cruisers are able to close and knock out the station in a huge cinematic finale.

My group has had prevoious encounters with an NPC who is enjoys Big Game hunting as a hobby. They have accompanied him on one hunt which went really well.
 
I am about to have this NPC make a comeback into the game and start hiring the party for a bunch of tasks some of which will be acompaning/ transporting him on his hunting trips.
 
The problem is that i am not that familure with big game in the starwars universe. If anybody knows of rare/ exotic/ or just plain tough creatures that would make for a good story please let me know what they are so I can do some research into them.
 
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

If you feel cruel you can tell them about the flying rancor dragons and watch them have trouble sleeping that night

Hey
 
I'm curious to know if any FFG manuals addresses any economic concerns about smuggling runs.
I'm currently reviewing ships to offer a selection of them for my players to buy, but i'm not sure about the effective importance of cargo space.
I'd be really interested in a manual depicting the dangers and expected profits from a smuggling run.
 
Currently, i'm thinking of "winging" it, providing the opportunity for the players to perform one smuggling run of their choice inbetween adventures, choosing among the routes they discovered.
I'd give a basic difficulty for "not getting caught" and i'd provide expected costs for fuel (astrogation reduces) and expected profit per unit of cargo devoted to smuggling (modified by negotation) (so the ship they use actually matters)
 
For example:
Long arm of the hutt has provided my players with the ability to smuggle Ryll, after they recovered the mining operation and negotiated with Duke Piddock. They wanted to take advantage of that, and i'd like something better than "narrating" they get X credits out of that.
 
So i'm thinking of something like this:
 
PCs now know a new route: Ryloth -> Geonosis
The systems are close by and in the outer rim -- let's say difficulty 2 to not get caught by difficulties (empire, hutts, whatever else) (which skill?)
As the systems are really close by, i'd go with something like 1.000 Cr for fuel, plus anything they need to spend on landing fees (let's say another 1k per route, but they might want to negotiate better terms if they plan to stay). This can be reduced by Astrogation, where each success is -10% and each advantage is -5% (same for failure/threats)
Smuggling Ryll - Looking at it from a "gamist" perspective, i'd say this is a basic, low-risk route and so should have low payout, especially because it's the first route the PCs found. Let's say they can get an average profit of 60 cr per unit of encumbrance delivered, modified by negotiations. Starter freighters have around 140-160 cargo space. If you bring 130 encumbrance worth of Ryll to Geonosis, you are looking at 7800 Cr of income, minus average operating costs of 2000 Cr, that's a net profit of around 6000 Cr before negotiations and fuel saving. A good crew might get 10.000 Cr net profit out of that.
 
As a once-per-adventure affair, that looks interesting to me, and also allows players to choose the right ship for them, balancing combat prowess with cargo space.
Over time, the PCs might build a list of possible trade/smuggling routes, with each of them having different difficulties, time required, profits, etc for them to choose each time they want to attempt one.
 
Of course, this is all homebrew and eye-balled. It would be great if any manuals exists (even non-FFG) that can provide more interesting things to have for smuggling runs.

Unfortunately there is little solid data on modern designs in the 1000 BBY era. Other then the Consular the earliest ship model introduced after 3000 BBY I recall having more then vague data is the Xanter which came out around 500 BBY

OK THEN!
 
Galactic Republic (post-war era)
Peace-keeping Military
Importance: Protection, Security, Symbol
Doctrine: Downgraded military, use of Jedi Knights and judicial forces, strength in few numbers
Resources: Manpower-moderately limited, Materiel-moderately unlimited
 
OK so downgraded military could mean a couple different things, but I'll make some Star-Warsise assumptions and see waht we can get....
 
So the military would be downsized, trying to do the same mission with less money, unless you want to get in on the whole space blackwater contractor  thing, that means we're likely to see a combination of older stuff, specialized stuff, and droidy stuff. I'm thinking an older fighter design that's been through a modernization program. You know, same airframe, but totally new avionics, weapons, sensors ect.
 
The Z-95 Heavy. It's less maneuverable, but it's got better weapons, a droid, hyperdrive. It's no X-wing, but it will be able to keep up with one if you need it to. That would be they fighter of the line as it were. If you don't have Stay on Target, take the cloakshape and add 2 points of shields, a hyperdrive, astromech, and make the laser cannons medium and you'll be in the same ballpark.
If you don't want to copy/paste then at least that's your base to mod off of.
 
For the Jedi... depends on your take. If you're thinking Nebulon Ranger, or Ebon Hawk, the YT-1300 or a relative are probably what you want to look at as your base, with the Lambda as an alternative base. If you wan more Jedi starfighter, the Aethersprite from F&D is probably your man. No F&D, give a TIE fighter a point of shields and an astromech and you'll be close enough.
 
Now, I'm gonna go crazy with close air support/torpedo bomber. Take something like a cloakshape, swap the missiles for torpedoes, and give it a droid pilot. The military is cutting costs and pilots are expensive. So they replace their manned torpedo bombers with unmanned drones they pair up with manned craft. So your players will be flying with a minion squadron.
eh?
 
On the capital end of things, the consular or it's predecessor is your corvette, the Citadel would make a fine flexible patrol boat, with the gunship as your average light warship and a Nebulon or it's predecessor as your typical heavy warship. No star destroyers, or if so, only every now and then. The Republic Navy is downgrading from big bulk cruisers to smaller ships that can do more missions with less crew. It'll go great as long as the Sith don't sudden rise again and show up with a Star Destroyer...
 
 
Well? That help you any?

The Movie:
The Inglorious Bastards (The 1978 version, not the Tarantino version) starring Fred The Hammer Williamson
 
The Elevator Pitch:
In 1942, A squad of soldiers are sentenced to death for their assorted crimes and are shipped to a prisoners' camp During the journey, the prison convoy is attacked by a German air raid. The five criminals take advantage of the attack and escape. The commanding officer prison takes charge of the group and decides to find a way to neutral Switzerland.
 
How is it:
Really good. Enzo G. Castellari is one of my favorite italian exploitation directors and he really shines here.
 
Game suitability: 50%
Once you get past the set up - convicts behind enemy lines - it's a pretty smooth ride. Steal the MacGuffin, evade the enemy, get out alive. Not a bad story to steal.

I have the impression that the technology in the Galaxy already peaked many millennia ago. So although ships might look a bit different a thousand years before, they are basically the same.

It definitely needs Pierce 5 or so. Armor and muscles should not be any good against Force electricity or cold. Soak can get high in this game and it's a shame to see such an iconic power fizzle. Remember you do need to do damage to crit.

The main thing to remember for choosing what skills to use where and how to represent "a thing" or "an event" or whatever is that a "dice roll" is not for 1 second in time. It can be for 5 minutes, or 30, or 2 minutes.
 
So you could represent a chase as an Athletics vs Athletics roll. Then the threat/advantage/etc tell the story of the chase.
 
If it is just an un-cancelled success, they get away and nothing too exciting or dramatic happens, it is just through sheer choice of the right spots to put their feet they got away. Un-cancelled failure would be the chaser was faster and caught them. Threat can be tripping and falling, Advantage could be someone gets in the way of the chaser to give you more distance between you. Despair can represent as 1 person being caught, or someone running into something... hard. Triumph could be they knock something over and a chaser gets hurt.  
Just visualize what you want to happen and what CAN happen and translate that to dice symbols.
 
For reference of some wonderful chases:
The first scene in Casino Royale (with Daniel Craig) Any of the Bourne movies Firefly  
Edit: added chase references.