Thanks for making this post.
 
I don't have my box yet, but I was wondering what others have done to 'fix' the story for their game.
 
I ran the EotE BB game as the start of my family campaign rather than as an introduction to the rules. I made some changes to the adventure so it would make more narrative sense for my game.  I plan on doing the same thing with the AoR BB game. I'm not going to use the pre-gens, and I'm using the characters we had from the EotE game. It will be their first 'real' mission for the Rebels.
 
Since my family game has kids playing I've been happy to just use the Beginner Box rules and adventures. Of course my daughter is pressing me to add unicorns into the game, so we'll see how that goes.

My 10 year old daughter and her best friend just finished the Edge of the Empire Beginner Box. They loved it, and the rules were easy enough.
 
It may be different with boys and girls, but she avoided combat and I let her work her way out of every battle besides the one needed to get on the ship. She would have avoided that one too, but she did not realize that Trex was on the ship.
 
The Beginner Boxes have abbreviated rules, so you could just stick with the shorter rule book when playing with the young ones. I ordered the Age Of Rebellion beginner box even though I already have Edge of the Empire Beginner Box. We rewrote the characters back stories and I already have a hook for how they will end up being part of the Rebellion. Since kids normally don't play marathon sessions I have the two box adventures and the two downloadable extended adventures to use for them. With the simple rules and 3 tiers of talents to advance with, we should be set for a while.

If you are playing the Beginner Box adventure you can always use the droid as a game master PC. He's a doctor type, and that will come in handy without stealing the spotlight from the other players. With a high intelligence he can help with mechanical and computer rolls if your players are not talented in those areas. As a droid there is also little objection to letting the other players do the talking and decision making since droids are used to being part of the background.
 
I did that with my family game to add some humor and a way to heal up. I made it so the droid was malfunctioning a bit and would sing nursery rimes while performing any medical tasks. He also ran around like C-3P0 when the blasters start shooting so I did not have to worry about his combat rolls. He spent half the adventure carrying one of his arms around after the Stormtroopers shot it off.  

This works for me. I stopped reading Star Wars books after they had anti-force lizards and a fighter ship that can destroy planets.
 
Now if they could just get the Clone Wars TV series and film Ep 1-3 to be 'legends'.

This works for me. I stopped reading Star Wars books after they had anti-force lizards and a fighter ship that can destroy planets.
 
Now if they could just get the Clone Wars TV series and film Ep 1-3 to be 'legends'.

For those who play online or were thinking about it:
http://blog.roll20.net/post/82092273480/data-delve-dev-blog-2-introducing-character-sheets
 
 
I saw that Roll20 had added character sheets into their campaign settings, and I checked to make sure there is an EotE one. It looks nice, and does some of the math for you. I think it's a good way to share the character sheet in a way that the game master and the players can both check them during play. 
 
 
 

Sweet. I was just linked to this from another post. There are some good ideas there.

Since Star Wars is space opera you should just say they can't because of the shields on the palace.  If they want to disable the shields they can do so from a secret room under the Hutt's throne room. Not everything has to make science fiction sense when the story and characters are the main driver for the space opera genre.
 
 You really don't want the party to start solving every problem by blasting it from orbit.

Starting with bonuses that degenerate sounds like he just wants to take out a loan to start with his cybernetics.
 
If it's just for his character story and appearance, make all his parts be broken and have them add no bonuses. If he spends the amount it would take to replace the part he can then get the bonuses.

Since Star Wars is space opera you should just say they can't because of the shields on the palace.  If they want to disable the shields they can do so from a secret room under the Hutt's throne room. Not everything has to make science fiction sense when the story and characters are the main driver for the space opera genre.
 
 You really don't want the party to start solving every problem by blasting it from orbit.

Starting with bonuses that degenerate sounds like he just wants to take out a loan to start with his cybernetics.
 
If it's just for his character story and appearance, make all his parts be broken and have them add no bonuses. If he spends the amount it would take to replace the part he can then get the bonuses.

If you are playing the Beginner Box adventure you can always use the droid as a game master PC. He's a doctor type, and that will come in handy without stealing the spotlight from the other players. With a high intelligence he can help with mechanical and computer rolls if your players are not talented in those areas. As a droid there is also little objection to letting the other players do the talking and decision making since droids are used to being part of the background.
 
I did that with my family game to add some humor and a way to heal up. I made it so the droid was malfunctioning a bit and would sing nursery rimes while performing any medical tasks. He also ran around like C-3P0 when the blasters start shooting so I did not have to worry about his combat rolls. He spent half the adventure carrying one of his arms around after the Stormtroopers shot it off.  

The support page has some pre-gens that would make for a good start. I've not compared them to the final rules to make sure they are legit however. 
 
http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/106142-on-pre-generated-characters-for-edge-of-the-empire/
 
If you want to do them all from scratch you'll probably want to take one from each career so they feel different. When you are done you'll want to look them over to make sure you don't have too much overlap in non-combat abilities so they don't step on each others toes too much. Since this is Star Wars, most of the players should be human, but a droid and wookiee are almost mandatory for the RP elements. 
 
Keep in mind, this is just from the core rule book.
 
If I were going to make pre-gens for 6 players I would do something like:
 
Smuggler/scoundrel- Someone is going to want to play the Han Solo type. I'd say scoundrel so he can be the smooth talker so you don't need the more boring (in my opinion) politico character. A Twi'lek or a Bothan would make a good scoundrel and adds some racial variety to the group. 
 
Colonist/doctor- Doctors are almost a must for a group that wants to avoid downtime. This is a good career for a droid if you want one in the party. 
 
Hired Gun/Bodyguard- The bodyguard can stay with the group and still do his job as opposed to the Marauder who keep running away from the teammates and getting in the way of their shots. They also get the Gunnery skill so they can carry big guns and also man the guns on the ship. This is a good place to put a wookiee because big guys guarding their group is always a hit with players. I would not recommend a trandoshan because they are just ugly. 
 
Bounty Hunter/Assassin- I'd say assassin because this would be a good place for a character with stealth skill and they already benefit from high agility. A  human, droid, or rodian would be good for this. I like human because it lets you start with a non career skill of coordination.
 
Technician/Slicer- Computer slicing comes in handy, so this is a good choice for a party. Their main ability is Intellect for computers and mechanics, so a human or droid (if you did not already have a droid assassin or doctor) would be good for this. 
 
Explorer/scout- Most of the skills should be covered at this point except for survival. A bothan would make a good scout, but a human would get early access to weapon skills and other cunning skills with their species special.  
 
So, here would be my short list:
Twi'Lek Smugger/Scoundrel: Presence (Charm, Cool) and Cunning (Streetwise,Deception, Skulduggery)
Droid Colonist/Doctor:  Intellect  (Medicine, Education)
Wookiee Hired Gun/Bodyguard: Brawn (Athletics, Resilience) and Agility (Gunnery, Ranged -Heavy, Piloting - Planetary)
Human Bounty Hunter/Assassin:  Agility (Stealth, Ranged- Heavy, Piloting - Space, Coordination)
Human Technician/Slicer: Intellect (Computers, Mechanics, Astrogation, Knowledge-Underworld)
Human Explorer/Scout: Cunning (Survival, Perception)
 
My list has no one listed with extra points in Willpower, and that is what is needed for Vigilance (initiative) rolls and Coerce if you want an interrogator. As you look things over you can see where you can work that in.

I think there is something you can do in OggDude's application that should work.
 
I wanted a single page character sheet so I went into the GM tools - Encounter Builder and then added my character to an encounter (I also added the ship) and then I printed out the encounter without initiative tracker (and I included vehicle). That gives a one page character sheet, but does not list the skills you don't have trained.
 
Another sweet thing in the app is also in the GM tools. If you click on the player character in the Adversaries window and they select the 'Stat Block' button in the lower right hand corner it gives a clean looking stat block. I added a picture of the character as a background and then saved it as a .png file. 

The support page has some pre-gens that would make for a good start. I've not compared them to the final rules to make sure they are legit however. 
 
http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/106142-on-pre-generated-characters-for-edge-of-the-empire/
 
If you want to do them all from scratch you'll probably want to take one from each career so they feel different. When you are done you'll want to look them over to make sure you don't have too much overlap in non-combat abilities so they don't step on each others toes too much. Since this is Star Wars, most of the players should be human, but a droid and wookiee are almost mandatory for the RP elements. 
 
Keep in mind, this is just from the core rule book.
 
If I were going to make pre-gens for 6 players I would do something like:
 
Smuggler/scoundrel- Someone is going to want to play the Han Solo type. I'd say scoundrel so he can be the smooth talker so you don't need the more boring (in my opinion) politico character. A Twi'lek or a Bothan would make a good scoundrel and adds some racial variety to the group. 
 
Colonist/doctor- Doctors are almost a must for a group that wants to avoid downtime. This is a good career for a droid if you want one in the party. 
 
Hired Gun/Bodyguard- The bodyguard can stay with the group and still do his job as opposed to the Marauder who keep running away from the teammates and getting in the way of their shots. They also get the Gunnery skill so they can carry big guns and also man the guns on the ship. This is a good place to put a wookiee because big guys guarding their group is always a hit with players. I would not recommend a trandoshan because they are just ugly. 
 
Bounty Hunter/Assassin- I'd say assassin because this would be a good place for a character with stealth skill and they already benefit from high agility. A  human, droid, or rodian would be good for this. I like human because it lets you start with a non career skill of coordination.
 
Technician/Slicer- Computer slicing comes in handy, so this is a good choice for a party. Their main ability is Intellect for computers and mechanics, so a human or droid (if you did not already have a droid assassin or doctor) would be good for this. 
 
Explorer/scout- Most of the skills should be covered at this point except for survival. A bothan would make a good scout, but a human would get early access to weapon skills and other cunning skills with their species special.  
 
So, here would be my short list:
Twi'Lek Smugger/Scoundrel: Presence (Charm, Cool) and Cunning (Streetwise,Deception, Skulduggery)
Droid Colonist/Doctor:  Intellect  (Medicine, Education)
Wookiee Hired Gun/Bodyguard: Brawn (Athletics, Resilience) and Agility (Gunnery, Ranged -Heavy, Piloting - Planetary)
Human Bounty Hunter/Assassin:  Agility (Stealth, Ranged- Heavy, Piloting - Space, Coordination)
Human Technician/Slicer: Intellect (Computers, Mechanics, Astrogation, Knowledge-Underworld)
Human Explorer/Scout: Cunning (Survival, Perception)
 
My list has no one listed with extra points in Willpower, and that is what is needed for Vigilance (initiative) rolls and Coerce if you want an interrogator. As you look things over you can see where you can work that in.

Yep. Google Hangouts provides webcam chat, and people that are camera shy can just play with microphones. It's got a nifty EotE Hangout Tool that lets you do public rolls, so no cheating, hehe. Google Hangouts also has Roll20 which lets you put up tokens and maps...which is nice if you plan on actually utilizing it, otherwise just consider it a bonus. It's relatively easy to setup.

Sounds like you had a lot of fun. This is what sets a tabletop RPG apart from the computer games. It's nice to play without programing limits.

Thanks for making this post.
 
I don't have my box yet, but I was wondering what others have done to 'fix' the story for their game.
 
I ran the EotE BB game as the start of my family campaign rather than as an introduction to the rules. I made some changes to the adventure so it would make more narrative sense for my game.  I plan on doing the same thing with the AoR BB game. I'm not going to use the pre-gens, and I'm using the characters we had from the EotE game. It will be their first 'real' mission for the Rebels.
 
Since my family game has kids playing I've been happy to just use the Beginner Box rules and adventures. Of course my daughter is pressing me to add unicorns into the game, so we'll see how that goes.

Of  course Darth and the Emperor are not Omnipotent. However, I don't want to play a 'Jedi' who has to keep his head down and not be a hero because he needs to avoid the notice of any Imperial who would ID them as a Jedi.
 
The only reason Ben and Yoda avoided notice was to hide who they are. Yoda had to go to a planet with a high amount of Dark Side interference so he would not be noticed. If at any point in the years between order 66 and the Battle of Endor Ben and Yoda had taken out their lightsaber and gone all Jedi hero on some Imperials, then he would have been dealing with The Emperor and Darth.
 
I guess that no mater when the official timeline for the adventures set in Force and Destiny, I'll just move my campaign to after the Battle of Endor. I want my players to be the new heroes of the Jedi and not some guys hiding while waiting for 'The Only Hope' to save the day.

My 10 year old daughter and her best friend just finished the Edge of the Empire Beginner Box. They loved it, and the rules were easy enough.
 
It may be different with boys and girls, but she avoided combat and I let her work her way out of every battle besides the one needed to get on the ship. She would have avoided that one too, but she did not realize that Trex was on the ship.
 
The Beginner Boxes have abbreviated rules, so you could just stick with the shorter rule book when playing with the young ones. I ordered the Age Of Rebellion beginner box even though I already have Edge of the Empire Beginner Box. We rewrote the characters back stories and I already have a hook for how they will end up being part of the Rebellion. Since kids normally don't play marathon sessions I have the two box adventures and the two downloadable extended adventures to use for them. With the simple rules and 3 tiers of talents to advance with, we should be set for a while.

The new kids cartoon 'Rebels' has a Jedi who has been in hiding and a force sensitive young kid.  I'm going to be interested in seeing how they make that show 'canon' while still maintaining that Luke was the 'Only Hope'.
 
Ben: That boy is our only hope.
Yoda: No...there is, another.
Ben: Are you talking about Leia?
Yoda: No, I mean that guy that's been running around for many seasons fighting imperials as a full Jedi while I've let this partially trained kid go fight Vader.
Ben: Speaking of that, why didn't you just go fight Vader? The end of the Clone Wars showed how amazing you are with the force 'and' a lightsaber.  Also, why did you drop your annoying backwards talking thing just now?
Yoda: My butt you can kiss. hehehehe...

I noticed that in another adventure as well. In Long Arm of the Hutt they have you upgrade the difficulty of all checks while an alarm and loud music are playing in the ship. I would think that the difficulty would not change, but they should add two setback die instead. Then they should remove a setback die when one of the factors has been fixed.
 
I think GMs should use setback dice more often so that the players will feel like they're XPs are well spent if they are able to remove multiple setback die on a roll because of talents they've purchased.

The new kids cartoon 'Rebels' has a Jedi who has been in hiding and a force sensitive young kid.  I'm going to be interested in seeing how they make that show 'canon' while still maintaining that Luke was the 'Only Hope'.
 
Ben: That boy is our only hope.
Yoda: No...there is, another.
Ben: Are you talking about Leia?
Yoda: No, I mean that guy that's been running around for many seasons fighting imperials as a full Jedi while I've let this partially trained kid go fight Vader.
Ben: Speaking of that, why didn't you just go fight Vader? The end of the Clone Wars showed how amazing you are with the force 'and' a lightsaber.  Also, why did you drop your annoying backwards talking thing just now?
Yoda: My butt you can kiss. hehehehe...

I found the Dice Stormers YouTube video of them playing the EotE Beginner Box fairly helpful. They just opened the box and started playing, so they fumbled around a bit, but it was interesting to watch them.  The adventure will be different than what you are playing, but the easing into the rules will be the same.
 
The minis may come in handy. Just don't try to get a 'to scale' grid game going. This game is meant to be played mostly narratively. The figures would come in handy just to show approximations on where everyone is. Even the beginner box maps are not scaled to show grid combat like people used to Dungeons and Dragons are familiar with.
 
After the Beginner Box you may be better off getting a dry erase board to sketch things for your players and having them put their figures wherever they want. I don't think time spent digging around in a box of figures will be time well spent in this game.
 
I've just been using a tablet to show pictures of planets and aliens that the characters may not know. If I've not found links ahead of time, there are enough Star Wars visuals from a quick Google search for most things. 

If their characters don't really have a reason to help the Rebellion they I don't see any reason to force them to be Rebels.
 
If their background does not include a reason to join the Rebellion, then you will need to make an in-game reason for them to hate the Empire enough to take up arms.
 
Luke was going to stay on his farm until the Empire killed his family, and even Han was going to take his money and leave until he decided he cared more about his bromance with Luke than he did about staying out of the conflict.
 
Have the Empire do something bad to the team. Did the Empire hire the group to deliver an important item to a construction site and then try to kill them instead of pay them to keep the construction site secret? Did the team have family on Alderaan? Is someone they love part of the Rebellion and in trouble?
 
If you are transitioning from Obligation to Duty then you can work with the players to get a Duty (hehehe...I said Duty) that works as a motivation for their character to run missions for the Rebels. You can have them resolve their Obligation and not give them a new one if that works with the story.
 
It also looks like they are not too keen on being full time Rebels. Not every Rebel is sitting in a secret base waiting for missions. If they are specialists they'd be waiting for orders for big missions rather than standing guard on a shipyard. If they are doing the tough jobs there will also be times they need to lay low. Covert Rebels don't wander around with uniforms and military markings on their vehicles, so I don't see any reason why they would not be able to slip into Coruscant. They'd just need to take some precautions and check to see if they are on any 'capture/kill' lists. It could end up introducing some interesting story moments if things get complicated or they end up with a good target of opportunity.