I don't think the card numbers are meant to correspond to tree positions. I think the numbers within the deck probably just correspond internally with the proper prerequisites.

On page 48, the Squad Leader Talent Tree summary of the Form On Me talent says "All enemies in close range..." The talent's description on page 97 states that this should be a number of allies equal to ranks in Leadership.

Except for the fact that Coercion, more often than not, is going to be targeting an NPC, and if that NPC has any ranks in Cool, boom, there are your Challenge Dice. The roll made for Scathing Tirade is the exception, not the norm.

Well, the only thing that's even been released since then is the AoR Beta, so no, not yet. But since there's plenty more to come (with at least Enter the Unknown and the final AoR book on the charts), I wouldn't be surprised if something comes along soon.

You need to keep a few things in mind, though, before just resorting to cynicism: 1) FFG legally cannot just give out a PDF for the playtest because Lucas Licensing won't let them. 2) A production run for these beta books costs FFG a lot of money to make. 3) Tabletop roleplaying game is very much a niche hobby, as far as corporate profits go. Honestly, that leaves two options, three if you count the bad, stupid one: A) FFG charges for a playtest, gets good feedback, and people who want content early get it. B) FFG doesn't do a playtest, and the final book isn't as good. C) FFG does a playest, doesn't charge for it, and loses a ton of money on a license that already got cost them a lot of money to get.

When I first saw this, I was like, "I bet this is gonna be a stretch..." But then I looked and, yeah, no, that has got to be intentional.

Don't think of it as buying into a tree; the rules make it clear that you're buying into a specialization. In this case, the specialization is Pilot. And once you've bought into it, you've bought into it. Just because two careers have the discounted price for access to it doesn't mean the specialization itself somehow exists twice.

Another thing to point out: even if Age of Rebellion is 95% ready to go right now (and I suspect it's really closer to 70~80%), Edge of the Empire just came out. If FFG released it now, or even later this year, they're competing with themselves at that point, and killing sales for both of their own books. Since it makes sense to wait before releasing AoR regardless, they may as well have a playtest to help put together the best product possible.

Because running at already 45% seems quite crippling for my liking. Don't like to overuse obligation so the group should first get rid of some of it before I throw some more into the fray. Wow, you're thinking of 45 as high? My group started at 80 and has only gone higher. Obligation is meant to be used as a valid PC resource--if the PCs want to call in a favor with the folks at BoSS for a new transponder entry, that's what the Obligation system is designed to let them do. Try not to think of Obligation as an only-bad thing. And don't fret about the Obligation roll 'derailing' your story; just come up with some explanation for why the character is stressed out, causing the lower Strain Threshold. For instance, in my game, I had one of my PCs see news feeds about his political rival's recent successes, putting him off-kilter, but not interfering with the mission at hand directly.

I think many of the GMs that picked up the core rulebook never ran the beginner game. As a result they didn't get the feel for how the dice were used in that before playing the full version. Most of these probably have experience with other RPGs where environmental conditions raise the difficulty so mistakenly add more difficulty dice instead of setback dice. It is just going to take time and experience to get the full hang of the way EotE works. Yeah, exactly. It's a paradigm shift, and one that's admittedly tough to get used to, but I think once folks do, it'll be more fun for everyone. I normally hate the argument of, "Oh, you're just playing your game wrong," but given the way the system is built, it sounds like copious setback dice are intended to be the norm, so that these dice-removing talents get their opportunity to shine. Plus, the ability to just toss setback dice in, from the GM's perspective, is a license for creative improvisation. It's much easier to justify adding a setback for, "Okay, this guy just plain does not like the attitude you're taking with him" than it is to suddenly jack up a random guy's Cool and Discipline out of spite.

Wait, but the Manual Repairs action repairs an additional point of hull trauma per two successes rolled on the check. Is that how this is meant to work, too?

Yeah, I definitely like that Knowledge (Galactic Civil War) includes things like major battles and events, key personages, and other elements of information and intel wrapped up in it, beyond just the tactical aspects of war and combat. I also don't know if I agree with O66's fear that this would be a "god skill," even in a Rebellion Era game. I think that it covers the same amount of knowledge and know-how that skills like Knowledge (Core Worlds) or Knowledge (Outer Rim) do, given that those two skills include things like culture, fashion, trends, geography, and the like. But yes, for the purposes of re-skinning AoR careers into other eras, I think renaming the skill to Knowledge (Warfare) is a fine choice. Not sure if it needs to be changed for the AoR book itself, though.

There's nothing in the RAW on this count, but I don't see it as unbalancing to allow some sort of minor built-in advantage, along the same lines of built-in equipment for droids.

First off, welcome to the world of GMing! You're taking your first steps into a really rewarding aspect of the hobby. To answer your questions: 1) Once Advantage is spent, it's spent, and cannot be triggered again. So, for example, if a weapon has a Crit Rating of 3, and it has two other qualities that could be triggered for 2 Advantage apiece, if the player rolls 4 Advantage, they can either activate the Crit Rating, or they can activate the two qualities, but not both (or they could activate one of the qualities and take a free maneuver, for instance). 2) This actually sounds like a really good way to handle a PC being a Mandalorian (as opposed to the folks that seem to want to make a race template and give them special bonus perks). I'd suggest looking up the Wookieepedia entry here for a good overview. What's most important, though, is that that the player should determine what being a Mandalorian means to him, and he should stick to his guns (no pun intended) as the Obligation comes up in play. 3) I haven't run the in-book adventure, but I've read it, and having been a GM for a long time, it looks pretty solid for a starting adventure (which I think is the point). It has a number of interludes that introduce other elements of the system, has a good mix of combat and social encounters, and includes starship stuff, so I think if you're confident in running, it's not a bad adventure to pick.

You certainly don't need to buy up your Characteristics any higher than you already have them, and the extra XP not spent on Characteristics now will let you start with other cool abilities instead (case in point, becoming Force Sensitive takes less XP than any further Characteristic bumps you could make right now). One thing to point about Brawn, however: note that a lot of higher-end ranged weapon does have a Cumbersome rating of 3 or higher, which means you'll need a Brawn of at least that amount to wield those weapons without penalty. Now, if you don't plan on using any of those weapons, that's not an issue. Also, there are attachments you can get that will reduce the Cumbersome rating of those weapons (though that of course takes away hard points that could be used for something else). My overall advice, though, is to play what you want to play. As has been said, this system does not need to be minmaxed to make very effective characters, so go with your gut.

I guess I don't really see Mechanics as a "god skill" because, honestly, how often do you expect weapon repair and other obscure things to even come up in the course of the game? I mean, if the campaign you're running is set somewhere where regular weapon maintenance is going to be an issue (like a wet jungle or a sandy desert, gumming up the works often), and you want that complication to be a recurring problem, then a separate skill is probably warranted, and thankfully the system allows for that skill to be created. In a standard Edge game, though, I don't see how the once-in-a-blue-moon odds of someone's weapon taking damage and needing to be fixed suddenly makes Mechanics too good.

I actually did something similar to this in a game session I ran yesterday. One of the PCs is a Wookiee doctor with a high Intellect and a rank in Mechanics, and he wanted to check something out on an HK-model assassin droid. I threw in a setback die on the check to account for the fact that this sort of thing was very much outside of his realm of experience.

Looks like this might be one for the errata, yeah.

When you've made a successful hit with a weapon that has the Pierce of Breach qualities, does damage still bypass Soak if you don't do enough damage to exceed Soak? This probably comes up with Breach more often than Pierce, but here's an example: The Missile Tube deals 20 damage (or 2 points of damage at starship scale). If I make a successful hit against a YT-2400, with Armor 4, do I deal no damage to the ship, or do I still deal a single point of damage since the weapon still has Breach 1?

Looking at the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game, I think that setback dice should be used more often than folks might think coming into this system (which is a major paradigm shift from a lot of the systems we're already familiar with). Even in the Beginner Game alone, which is fairly rules-light, setback dice are a common thing. For social rolls, they crop up for things ranging from "this guy hates droids" to "this person is just a foul-tempered person." I think the idea is that GMs should be very liberal in the assigning of these dice. For instance, I can easily see assigning a setback die for any situation where someone is trying to either Charm or Coerce someone to do something that might get them in trouble--the base difficulty is set by the opponent's attributes, and the setback is there for the added fact that the check isn't as simple as "can I reason with this person?"

I think the RAI here is that the talent allows the character to tweak items to the group's benefit. If the items get lost or stolen or are otherwise not in play for the group anymore, then the PC isn't getting the benefit of a talent they paid for, and that's no fun.

Moreover, I caution against letting any skill become a "god skill" that's useful in so many situations that maxing it out at the expense of any other skill becomes a no-brainer.

Nice job on this, dude! I did a "test roll" to generate a job, and with barely any effort at all I was able to frame it out into a scenario that would fit my group.

The second paragraph is pretty much verbatim. Slightly different wording, but the exact same point: There's no Lightsaber skill, choose either Agility or Brawn if you want to attack with one, GM can create a custom skill if they want to. Actually, the AoR Beta doesn't mention the "Choose Brawn or Agility" the way EotE does. Perhaps that's something that needs to be fixed or otherwise called out?

Elrood is another good example. It's a far-flung Outer Rim world, but developed, well-behaved, and cultured, if a bit of a backwater, and they specifically outlaw personal armor of any kind.