Ooh, that's a good one, too. I was trying to think of terms that encapsulate what the mechanic is meant to signify, and I hadn't thought of that one.

To be fair, using BBY/ABY to mark years in the Star Wars universe is, in fact, an in-universe conceit, adopted by the New Republic government. This has been part of Star Wars canon for quite a long time, and has nothing to do with FFG. Now, to be equally fair, the "canonization" in-universe of the Battle of Yavin as the "fixture point" for the Galactic Standard Calendar didn't happen until 25 ABY anyway. So if you want to let people know what year it is, in-world, 0 ABY is, in fact, Year 35 under the Great ReSynchronization adopted by the Old Republic.

In podcast interviews with the FFG devs, it's come up (more than once) that a lot of folks have issue with the term 'Duty,' mainly due to the unfortunately 'doody' homonym. Moreover, when I look at what the Duty mechanic represents, I'm not entirely sure it's even the right word. Duty is something that you're beholden to, that you're expected and required to do based on your position or the like. The way AoR portrays the different areas of Duty, it sounds much more like it's something that the characters have decided to undertake. The book outright states that it's meant to reflect that "each of them is trying to accomplish," that it's a driving factor for them, something that a character "discovered particular talents for" or which might have been "one of the driving factors" for joining the Alliance in the first place. Moreover, unlike EotE, where Obligation is something that's sketched out in terms of something required of the character, Duty is definitely something that, when it comes up, provides a morale bonus because the character wants to do it, because it's something that they're striving for. The mechanic doesn't have anything to do with the Alliance forcing the character to undertake this particular duty over their own desires, which again, is kind of what the word "duty" means in the first place. I think a much better term for this would be "Focus." As in, this is the area of expertise or importance that the character actively wants to commit to, to devote their efforts toward and to, well, focus on. Also, by carrying out missions and accomplishing your goals in your area of focus, you're effectively improving your Focus score thanks to your commitment--you're not "undertaking" more duty; you're demonstrating that you're good at what motivates you, and you're contributing to the Alliance in a particular area of Focus. Anyhow, the TL;DR version is that I'm a linguistics and semantics nerd, so when I hear that people are iffy on the term "Duty," it behooves me to point out that, based on what the mechanic is meant to represent, the term isn't all that apt anyway, at least IMHO.

I don't think Resilience should be used as the actual combat skill. Yes, it takes some body control to be able to pull off, but that's already reflected in the 3 Strain the user suffers. Being better at soaking up that strain doesn't necessarily mean you're better at directing the attack itself. Personally, I think Ranged (Light) is fine. Realistically, given the strain cost, the player isn't going to be able to use it THAT often, and requiring them to dump extra XP into an "only-sometimes" attack option isn't very fun, in my mind.

Page 108, in the section Imperial Credits: Scipio is mentioned as both the headquarters of the InterGalactic Banking Clan and the homeworld of the Muun. While the IGBC did indeed have holdings on Scipio during the Clone Wars and the Imperial era, it was neither the IGBC capital, nor the homeworld of the Muun (in both cases, that would actually be the planet Muunilinst).

I'm actually really excited for this book. It sounds like FFG is definitely embracing a concept model closer to WEG than Saga, and in what I think is a very good way. This actually makes me think a lot of WEG's Planets of the Galaxy, Volume 3, which was all about the Elrood Sector, specifically, and included a handful of new species, some local-specific equipment, and a bunch of different adventure hooks, adversaries, and starships that related to it all. And I love that book, so I suspect this Corellian Sector book will be right up my alley.

Playing Imperial PCs has been a thing since the earliest days of Star Wars gaming. It's absolutely doable, and there's no "one right way" to handle it. Really, it all comes down to the group, the GM, and what the players want. It takes a certain degree of maturity and even-handedness to ensure that you're dealing with a group of realistic PCs with realistic motivations instead of folks who just want to be cavalier about walking through the streets of Mos Eisley shooting every innocent bystander they see, but there's no reason an Imperials campaign can't be fun and rewarding. Also, don't let anyone else tell you what Star Wars does/should/must mean to you and your group.

Exactly. Once you divorce yourself from the idea that one roll of the dice equals one pull of the trigger, your narrative descriptions are going to benefit drastically.

Based on your other post about running the PCs through the Beginner Game adventures, it sounds like you haven't actually played with Obligation in effect yet. That being the case, I strongly recommend giving it a try as-is a few times, first, before trying to retool it drastically from the get-go. The designers of this game built Obligation the way they did for a reason, and it's built into the balance of the game pretty strongly, in terms of what the PCs are able to do with it and how they're able to deal with it. Having the Obligation roll bring in a character's backstory in a narrative sense is a great idea (and one endorsed by the book), but I'd definitely leave it as just one roll for the entire party. Rolling for everyone separately runs the reasonable risk that you're dealing with three or four Obligations at once, and as GM, that's going to derail pretty much everything you've got (not to mention clutter the narrative beyond reasonable suspension of disbelief, in many cases).

Yeah, I find that pretty much everyone digs the dice once they actually try them out. It helps break the mold of the normal d20-type games so many of us have been playing for years and years (sometimes ad nauseam). To be fair, I'd hardly call the Krayt Fan a Millennium Falcon expy. The YT-1300 freighter has been a core part of Star Wars gaming since the early 90s, and even in-universe it's noted as being one of the most commonly seen freighters around. And hey, like you said, your players are enjoying it. The difference between Cool/Discipline and Perception/Vigilance is admittedly one that isn't immediately obvious, but they're far from being duplicates. To help sort of sell the difference between them: Cool is your ability to keep a straight face and act like nothing is wrong (and to act without hesitating). Discipline is much more internal, your sense of actual self-control and not just your outer image. (As it was said by one of the devs: "A Jedi Knight has Discipline; Han Solo has Cool.") Perception is about noticing details and spotting things that are there to be seen. Vigilance is about being ready for things that aren't actually even THERE yet, but which soon will be, and giving you a chance to act once they are. Also, don't worry too much about starting characters not being able to dip into every skill right away. Buying low-levels ranks in skills is actually VERY cheap in this system, and moreover, having decent characteristic values isn't quite the same as it might work in other systems. Having a Prescence of 4 but no ranks in Negotiation still makes you a VERY good negotiator by this system's rules. Likewise, a character with no ranks in any combat skills but an Agility of 3 is still more than a passable shot with a blaster. It's strange to me that you find combat grindy in this system. In my experience, it moves way more quickly and fluidly than combat in just about any other system I've played in years. Rolling Advantage and Triumph can really make short work of otherwise nasty opponents. Given the Jabba situation: that's clearly an instance where the narrative needs to trump the rules, which this system endorses. I don't think the intent there would be for the players and GM to dice it out as Leia tried to choke wound after wound out of Jabba. (Remember, with enough Advantage and Triumph, you can pack on Critical Injury after Critical Injury, which would take out even a Hutt WELL before you exceeded its Wound Threshold). Narratively speaking, you don't need to rule that a successful attack roll with a blaster is a direct hit. That can easily be a shot that wings someone in the shoulder, or which very nearly comes close to hitting someone, forcing them to duck away at just the last moment. A decent attack roll with a heavy blaster pistol or a blaster rifle probably WILL drop most minions as-is, and a Triumph on even a light blaster pistol will still drop a minion outright as per the minion rules, so I don't think you need to 'double-up' on giving them only 1 hit, because that really, really cheapens the value of having ranks in combat skills. Stormtroopers are a little tougher than you might expect because the game wants them to be a credible threat; all jokes about how useless they are in the movies notwithstanding, they ARE supposed to be the Empire's elite, and your average smuggler shouldn't feel invincible going toe-to-toe with a dozen of them. That being said, again, a single Triumph or even three Advantage will still waste one outright, so they're hardly overpowered. Again, I'd caution against making all minions 'one-hit, one-kill,' because that's really going to throw the Advantage/Triumph axis out of whack when rolling combat skill checks. The thing is, if you read the descriptions of the armor types in the rulebook, you'll see that, by this system's logic, what Han Solo wears in the movies IS armor--the vest he wears has energy-absorbing fibers or super lightweight defensive plates inside it. Likewise, even padded armor is very much just the sort of thing you see the typical Rebel trooper wearing. It's not like the game imagines you're walking around in a full suit of stromtrooper-like armor just to get by. All told, it sounds like you're enjoying the game, though, which is awesome! Before making any sweeping rules changes though, I'd really recommend trying to run it a while as-is with the main core rules, since a lot of the conceits of the Beginner Game are gone, and things will probably 'click' better.

I've been running a Saga Edition game for about four-plus years now, and for the first year and a half of it, the campaign was set entirely on Ord Mantell (during the Legacy Era). The players took on roles of folks who were working on building up a resistance movement against the Sith Empire on-planet. It had a sort of noir feel to it, and the players dug it a lot and it worked out really well. Keeping the action and the plot localized to a single planet meant greater options for having recurring NPCs and ongoing conflicts, and the players got to feel like they were part of a really dynamic world. I can definitely see the same thing working in either an Age of Rebellion or Edge of the Empire setting.

Nicely done! And thanks!

Well except that same section also implies that retrieving extra ammo and reloading your weapon is also a single maneuver, so I don't see why a stimpack would be different. This game is much more about narrative flair and fluid combat rounds, not the "economy of actions" embodied by d20.

Yeah, I think the idea is that 'retrieving and using a stimpack' is just a maneuver. It's already a maneuver to retrieve something on your person, and the way stimpacks are described as working, you literally just push it up against your skin and it auto-injects the good juice into you, which wouldn't take more than an incidental anyway. As for the free hand thing, don't worry about that either. It's simple enough to hold onto your carbine with one hand for the few seconds it takes to grab your stimpack and shoot yourself up with it. Now, if you're hanging from the bottom of Cloud City or something, maybe a Coordination check is in order...

To be fair, the type of book in question (like the old WEG Alien Guide) went into multiple pages of fleshed-out detail on the culture of each of the different species, which was entirely the point.

I have a dice bag I got from a d20 radio Kickstarter project, where I keep my EotE dice and Destiny Point tokens. My campaign bible is just a spiral bound notebook, and I keep sheets and handouts in a regular Mead folder.

Yeah, firing arcs are largely left up to the narrative of events. In general, during a 'basic' starship encounter, ships are presumed to be maneuvering for optimal firing solutions. This changes somewhat for Silhouette 5 ships and larger, which requires more GM adjudication for where other ships are in relation to the craft.

Besides that if they are ever in a situation where they can't use their single trick they become very vulnerable. That is why I don't have a problem with my players making builds like this. They may end up dominating a few encounters but then are going to be absolutely useless at best and dead at worst when they can't use their trick. Not to mention that it can be very hard to cash in on a bounty when you have literally zero proof that you killed the individual in question.

This is certainly backed up by the rules. There's no Threat on the roll to make things worse, so all the roll really says is "you didn't succeed."

What makes this a "tough sell" for folks is that we have Wookieepedia, which has all of this information for free. Back in the early 90s, in the Dark Times known as "pre-Internet," WEG had awesome stuff with their "Alien Species" Galaxy Guide, which laid out all of this cool cultural stuff. And that was great at the time, but now all the cultural notes about species are online and easily accessible to most if not all gamers. Combined with the fact that most NPCs don't even bother with species adjustments for templates, and there's really little call for FFG to put out such a book for the modern system.

Here's my attempt: Silhouette: 3 Speed: 4 Handling: -1 Defense: Fore 1/Aft 1 Armor: 3 Hull Trauma: 9 System Strain: 8 Hyperdrive: none Sensor Range: Close Ship's Compliment: One pilot Encumbrance Capacity: 7 Passenger Capacity: 0 Consumables: One day Customization Hard Points: 1 Weapons: Heavy Laser Cannons, Concussion missile launchers (as per book)

Excellent suggestions here. I might personally give the next modification check an upgrade to the PCs roll (instead of decreasing the difficulty), but really, it's a six-of-one type situation.

As awesome as that would be, unfortunately, that isn't FFG's decision.The Lucas licensing agreement limits what can be released in digital form.

You only succeed on a check if you have at least one success. A 'null' result (no success, no failures) means 0 successes, which means you fail.

In the real world, just because bullets eventually do keep going after you shoot them, it doesn't mean that snipers try to take out targets with a pistol instead of a rifle. Effective range of a weapon is a real thing, and these narrative rules take that into consideration.