Thanks for the reminder. I have a couple of posts out there I would be sad to lose. I've saved them locally just to remind myself how to run this game when we can start again post-covid.

Having had to guide some curmudgeons on this aspect a few times, at first it took a lot of hand holding and pointing out examples, and eventually most of them got it. I found at first it was helpful to be more explicit when laying the groundwork in the description of the scene, and at least mentioning potential moving parts (but not in an obvious way). Throwing in suggestive hints from Perception or Vigilance checks can also provide fodder for ideas (I mean vague things like "that switch looks pretty corroded"; I don't mean specifics like "for 3A you can shoot the switch and the doors will open"...that's for the player to ask). Every scene is different, so as part of the GM prep I try to include a few notes on what the narrative axes can be used for, both for and against (borrowing from the Compiled Resources @Bellona mentioned is super helpful).

Of course, but I never liked Cortosis either. No point in either of them, because good stories aren't built around "tech", they are built around characters.

So...Beskar. The more I ponder the season (and let it cool for a rewatch), the less I like it. It's just too much. He's basically superman and there's no kryptonite. I mean, when a dark trooper is punching your head *through the hull* and your skull isn't jello, that's going too far. And now that lightsabers don't work, man...how did the Jedi ever win? Not only does it make no sense in canon, it paints storytelling into a corner. Where's the danger, the risk? What is wrong with people that they can't leave power structures alone? I just think of my son when he was 4, trying to grasp the scale of the world, always wanting things to be bigger-stronger-faster...except these toddlers are middle-aged.

Oh ... great... I can only hope Favreau and Filoni can hold their own on character vs spectacle.

I enjoyed the first half of the finale, but was honestly kind of bored by the second half. First half action and dialogue was great, and Katee killed it all the way. And of course who doesn't like the dynamic of 4 badass chicks laying waste? Moff was predictable, but Giancarlo sold it well. The dark troopers were completely underwhelming. Shot after shot of them marching and thumping but nobody ramped up the tension. They should have at least broken something that needed fixing, or had some consequence other than making the heroes a little more nervous each shot. The troopers move too slow, fire too little, and I can't say I liked that the first one was "toying" with Mando...it's a droid, and only a few droids like R2 have a motive beyond their core programming. Then the Jedi shows up. Honestly, when you're used to Ahsoka's speed, or even the Jedi in E1, watching him just stroll through and destroy them all feels a bit ... yawn-worthy. Nobody was really in danger. It's possible they were making a point about Luke's mastery, but given the rest of the second-half action it's more likely they weren't. I'm mixed about the reveal. I agree with many I thought the face replacement was pretty rough, I'd say it conveyed the fortitude but not the compassion, and Hamill was always able to do both. But for me I could care less about Luke's story at this point. Perhaps E8 (...I haven't even seen E9!) kind of destroyed it for me. Maybe that will change. And then the ending was too long, like Lord of the Rings long. I liked the face reveal, Pedro emotes really well. R2 was pointless and gratuitous. Maybe it was the lack of movement throughout the second half that bugged me. They could have walked down to Luke's ship, Mando tearing on the way. They forgot about the little metal ball (or they are saving it for some future thing). If that little metal ball is never mentioned again, that was a totally wasted opportunity. But overall what a great season! I'm looking forward to more. I will say though, I'm not sure the wider audience is going to care about the "restoration of Mandalore" or whatever. Baby Yoda drew in a lot of people because of cuteness and parent/child emotion, something similar will be needed for the future to keep people watching beyond the core fans. I hope they pull it off.

It shouldn't be that complicated, as the article notes, the law is more friendly to the corporation than the creator. "There are plenty of things that are perfectly legal, but which are completely immoral." Paying these royalties is not going to affect Disney's bottom line one iota, it would be a rounding error on their profits.

I've always assumed it was true for all heavy blaster pistols, unless overridden by the specific blaster info.

If the therapy comes with a catapult, I'm in...

It's functionally identical. Same dice odds, skill progression, character baselines, etc. It's just a bit more customizable, and dispenses with some of the straight-jackets like spec trees (though there's nothing stopping a player from following a basic spec progression if they like).

I never made the players pay for a new spec. Sometimes I even gave them for free at the beginning of a campaign if in Session Zero I got them all on board with a particular theme or concept. The extra point costs are ludicrous, and kind of deflating for the player unless you are pouring out the XP. Besides, the only purpose for the XP cost is to help GMs against players who would otherwise bounce around and, for example, pick up all the cheap Grit or Toughness. It's a brute-force method of control, but thankfully there's a better way to control it if your players are even mildly reasonable. I just asked that the spec either builds on the current character concept, or fits and makes sense with what is happening in the campaign. I also would have limited a player wanting to dive straight to Dedication or Force Rating, or any other super potent Talent, but that was never an issue. I've since dispensed with specs altogether and use something like the Genesys model. It's really liberating and the players like it better because they don't have to grind through the useless stuff (at least half of every spec is pointless fluff). The specs are still a nice template, like, "if you want to be a sniper, here are some good options", but otherwise they are really just a way to sell more books, so there's no need to constrain your game to what is essentially a marketing ploy...a really good one, and necessary, but still.

I thought it was well-directed. The script definitely had it's dumb moments, but that's not necessarily on the director. The Pitch Meeting does a nice job of tearing the script apart, the stupid "infiltration" of the fancy party was probably the worst. Although I admit to guffawing out loud when the two evilz were toying with their prisoners ... "wait, that's not going to save them", "yeah, but they don't know that!" Bwaaahahahahaha! In any case, WW (and Gal Godot) were far better than B****y Resting Face - The Movie...um, I mean "Captain Marvel".

Another stellar episode. Bill Burr either really nails his character, or they just asked him to play himself as far as timing and delivery. He's got more emotional range than I expected though, nice to know. If he's in more episodes, I certainly won't complain. For the rest, I really like the tone, a trust-building/team-building episode. And it seems that gritty reality is getting through the Foundling cult bubble, because he put his helmet back on...

I had no idea this was in the works. 12 episodes about Cassian Andor. While I thought Rogue One was a flawed movie, I did like the premise, and the potential of the characters in it. I also enjoyed the darker and grittier tone...I kind of like my Stars Wars with a hint of Bladerunner, Firefly, and film noir mixed in. So I'm looking forward to this:

I enjoyed the episodes in Season 7, but they aren't my favourite group of characters. But this looks frickin' awesome! I love the crossover to the Empire, that should make for some fun, and hopefully interesting and dynamic character growth. Check it out:

Onderon: S5, E2-5 Umbara: S4, E7-10 Ryloth: S1, E19-21 Heroes on Both Sides: S3, E10 One other possibility to consider is that the PCs are on a planet attempting to be neutral (like Mandalore, or one of the several thousand world it represented). That's probably a far more precarious situation, as if one side invades, the other is sure to follow.

If you can bear to watch them, the TCW Umbaran arc shows almost no droids in the separatist army. They don't really get into why the Umbarans are fighting, but apparently it's for "independence", and that's plenty of motive. Plus they have really cool tech Another arc is the Onderon arc. Sure, the arc is about bringing the planet back into the Republic fold, but you could easily swap out the droids and have clones as the enemy. Clones as potential enemies is more explicitly laid out in the Ryloth arc, where the rebel leader Cham Syndulla is hesitant to allow the Republic to set up a base because he's afraid they will stay after driving off the Seppies. Which ends up being exactly what happens, the Republic falls and becomes the Empire, and the clones are swapped out with stormtroopers. The there's the episode Heroes on Both Sides, which shows the Seppie parliament, which is not run by droids at all. Anyway, similar stories must have played out across the galaxy. You don't really need to know much about the Clone Wars to make the PC's planet a "special case" where maybe they had no Seppie support other than a bit of money, and nary a battle droid to be seen.

...and then, the opposite happened. Them's a lot of rules for a thin slice of pie. Who wants to track all those "Once a Day"s? If you lift the cap, most of those are likely anyway on every roll, which kind of makes once-a-day moot. Eg: by the time you're rolling 6 yellows, your odds of a Triumph approach 50%. As a player, I'd get far better results just rolling than settling for 1 measly Triumph or a tepid "auto success".

Um...why? Most people play perfectly exciting and satisfying games with a cap of 5. 6s and stuff are reserved for things like Rancors. The game isn't "broken" if you lift the cap, but it does get a) a bit boring because the tone shifts to a "gods vs mortals" game; and b) a bit wonky with the results. The game also isn't broken because you, out of hundreds of players who've marched through these forums, wanna do it different. Probably because demand is low. I've been on here since the beta, and this has come up only a few times. Also, that's just not the Star Wars feel. A campaign would have to go on for years to get a PC that is a Yoda or Palpatine equivalent, but the actual stories of Star Wars are about people who couldn't dream of facing these adversaries head on. The game is also not about just the dice. XP spent on Talents is often much more useful, and each career has signature abilities, all of which is hard to quantify if you're just looking at the power curve of dice pools. Anyway, the FFG police aren't going to show up to stop you lifting the cap, so just do it. Arguing about whether they should have done X or Y is kind of pointless now that the product is in limbo. The Genesys game is the successor mechanically, but as noted the cap is even lower.

The odds get a bit ridiculous after 5 dice, and even with 5 dice it's sometimes ridiculous, depending on the task. It's just overkill, especially with combat, especially at short range. I don't know if you play D&D, but a 3 die differential between positive and negative pools roughly equates to a +10-15; 4 dice is +15-20. I'm pretty liberal with boosts and setback, so the pools aren't exactly limited. Throw in talents that remove setback, and the PCs will have few challenges they can't succeed at. It's not so much about how many stormtroopers they can mow down, but how they handle other tasks. If their Intellect is 7 they'll be an awesome Mechanic...but also an awesome hacker, doctor, and general know it all. There won't be anything they won't know. If their Agility is 7, their shooting will probably kill something every shot, maybe even an entire minion group. But their Piloting will also be incredible, almost nothing they can't fly through. So to make it interesting they'll have to be skating around supernovas on a constant basis, but that's got to have upgrades to reflect the added dangers and... ...this is just subjective, but the more dice in the pools, the wilder the swings. I had a player roll over a dozen dice once, and all the positives had values (including a couple of Triumphs), while the negative dice came up with a single Threat (all the rest were blank). The player was thrilled, but it could have easily been the reverse. Because to make it interesting I have to up the ante, and that increases the odds that the narrative axis will be amazing or devastating. Triumphs and Despairs should mean something, but it's just more work to make them mean something special when they come fast and furious. I don't mind working with extremes that happen once or twice a game, but you'll be dealing with it on a constant basis. All that said, it's worth trying out just to know. Nothing beats experimenting with it yourself.

Well...that was all kinds of awesome! Nail biter from beginning to end. Two catastrophes, two new friends. How very EotE! Dangling threads re-woven. All my reservations from the previous episode...gone. I never cared about Boba Fett, though I thought he was well-handled in TCW. This is the first time though I think he's finally gotten due treatment, to the point of actually giving a ****. That little silver ball is going to be key... Honestly, some of this stuff is predictable, but like they say, there are no new stories, only old stories retold. And they are doing a bang up job of retelling... Edit: also nice to Robert Rodriguez at the helm, even though I dislike most of the movies he writes, he's an excellent director.

Totally agree, but it's also obvious. I guess every year a new crop of blowhards comes online, or an old crop gets more fossilized, so the need for videos like this will never end. Ultimately it's about how it works at the table. If all your friends are one-trick ponies (eg: a Brawn 5 Wookiee with 2s for the rest), while you're running around with base stats because you spend all your initial chargen points on skills and talents, the success differential is going to make it really hard for the GM to scale things appropriately, and really hard for the other players to trust that you'll be effective no matter what task you take on. Even "Easy, with a setback" becomes a real challenge. So you'd need to either conform to the general expectations, or convince the rest to join you in something more flavourful. I do think this game can be a bit more forgiving than D&D in that regard.

Not just that, also kind of a d***. In TCW in the Boba arc, when Boba is captured, he actually comes clean and has a remorseful awakening moment... "I see now I've done terrible things". But he won't forgive Mace for killing his father, and instead of expressing regret or compassion or helping the kid work through his sorrow, he just says "Well, you're going to have to." Basically reinforcing Lucas's point that the Jedi have lost their way.

I think he was barely involved, just overseeing the team. I don't think he had any influence on the content. Resistance was torture, but I made myself watch it because, despite the lead and his sidekick being almost completely unwatchable, the secondary and tertiary characters were actually pretty well done, and once you got past the 2D colour scheme, the animation was really top notch and the sets well done.

Eye of the beholder. I'm sure you've posted more than a few nits of your own...