J-Bot, aka the best HWK pilot in the galaxy, would've won it if his dice didn't let him down.

Yep. They have all sorts of rolls depending on how they're searching. Slicing for information, fast talking folks, etc.

My games aren't very combat focused in most cases. We quite often do entire sessions with no combat and only investigations, interrogations, and such. They're deeply entwined is a fairly complex series of events and circumstances, and are racing to unravel the truth before the culprits escape. Is the Empire really behind the slaver ring in the Malabor system? What part, if any, do the Hands of Valeon play, and why was that name linked to a 3000 year old, now erased, data archive index entry? Who is Hineni and why is he interfering in their investigation? What are the motives behind the terrorist bombings across the system? Why does the Queen of the Peridot system seem so interested in the events unfolding in the neighboring system? Good times.

Update time! We had another session last week, and the group found themselves split up slightly (2 and 1) and were stopped by some troopers(4) and a sergeant. Using the sergeant's ability to command the troops really changed the stakes. Despite some fast talking that split the troopers up a bit, the 2 players had their hands full while the 3rd was unable to return to help. I think they found a new respect for the ground pounders of the Empire. I've yet to include any of the more devious tricks, but the simple addition of that 1 wound to exceed the WT did wonders for the trooper life spans.

I'm writing all of this down. They've kicked the hornets nest of late, so all of this is fair game from the Imperial side. So far they've been dealing with small time thugs and underlings, but they're starting to garner more attention.

One of the main issues with range and the melee character closing the distance is that our campaign is currently inside a city, with combats most often taking place inside rooms, corridors, and the occasional warehouse/hanger sized room. Range is very rarely an impediment for the melee character to worry about. If he's too far, he'll often eat the strain for extra move. The thing about exceeding the threshold was not something I was aware of. I read it, but obviously didn't process it beyond reducing them by their individual WTs. That will definitely change a few fights here and there. I know they don't typically encounter large groups of enemies, preferring to avoid them if they can, so large fights with multiple minion groups and leaders hasn't been a huge thing yet. However, they've progressed enough in the story that it makes sense for them to start seeing larger groups. I'll give that a try in our next session to see how they fare.

So there's a lot to respond to here, so I'll try to cover it all as best as I can. I have 3 players in the group. 1 has 3 agility, uses a heavy blaster pistol with an +1 damage module upgrade(so 8 damage). He has NO ranks in the skill. With a single success, required to hit, he'll all but kill a single trooper. He often aims, giving him a boost die, and 2 successes is not difficult at all at medium or short range. That's a single trooper easily killed. The combat focused player uses a vibro-ax and has a brawn of 5(he's a Trandoshan). He also has 2 ranks in Melee, so is rolling 3 green,12yellow and ignoring 2 soak. From what we've read, melee combat is always 2 purple dice, so he routinely gets 3+ success or a large number of advantages to convert to crits(or use abilities). The ax does 8 damage(with his brawn), so a single hit is doing 9 damage, ignoring 2 soak, and killing 1 trooper and wounding a second. Keep in mind he only needs 2 advantages to activate the crit(and kill a second), and when the team works together to pass him boost dice it gets insane. The 3rd member doesn't often do much damage as he's a support character(but he can add to the pile pretty quickly). He does the slicing and such, but has an Int of 4 and doesn't struggle with too much on his side. When these 2 go against a group of 4 troopers, they can often down 2 to 3 in a single turn. Anything with lower soak, like typical thugs or gang members(like naval troopers or such) gets slaughtered wholesale. The roll to trick the guards was against a squad of 4 Storm Troopers, not just 1. Admittedly my group has very hot and cold dice, often failing as miserably as they succeed. They all use the dice app, so they let it provide the totals. Now here's the difference that I see, and it's something I have to be extremely cautious with. They will immediately pick up and use a downed trooper's blaster rifle if they are in range to do so. When they infiltrate a base and overwhelm the first set of troopers, all of their numbers suddenly jump. A successful blaster rifle shot(1 success) kills a trooper(9 base +1 success). If 2 players shoot and hit, that's 2 troopers dead(possibly 3) and suddenly the troopers will have a hard time hitting in return with their 1 attack. If we throw in the melee character, they can wipe out a squad of 4 in a turn. As for examples, it's hard to put one down specifically. I post our games to youtube, and when listening back very few of their rolls sound outrageous. From my experience with other systems, something seems off and I have no doubt it's my understanding of the rules. I come from games like Champions and GURPS which are much more combat flexible but also more difficult and quite deadly for players. Maybe I'm just not used to the feeling of imbalance I'm getting from this and everything is normal.

We've probably screwed the rules up somewhere, if I had to guess. None of the characters are overpowered, and it feels like I've barely given them any XP or duty. They all use blaster pistols and padded armor is the best anyone has. They might have 1 or 2 skills with a second rank, and most have nothing. They've received a total of maybe 30 xp spread across about 10 sessions(3 hours each) I know we don't use the destiny points much at all. They almost never need them to succeed on even 5 difficulty dice. As a for instance, one character tried to convince some guards that he'd rushed into the base because of the riot outside. He used a destiny point to give himself 1 green and 1 yellow against the guards' 3 red. He had 2 successes, one of which was a Triumph. It may be that they're a very well organized team, only one of which is a combat character, but the weapons just do SO much damage they can kill droves of guys in seconds. That's why I think I've screwed up a rule somewhere. If a player shoots at a group of 4 troopers and does enough damage after soak is removed to kill 2, does he in fact kill 2, or can he only ever kill 1 person per attack?

I've definitely been doing that. The plot they are involved in is fairly complex with lots of moving pieces. They learned early on that their choices have direct impacts on the world around them, and their inaction is just as important. If they have 3 avenues to explore and choose 1, the other 2 don't sit idle, their stories progress as well. It's made for an interesting dynamic where they poor over every choice of direction and investigation, knowing that they might miss important clues. I also let them chat amongst themselves, which is hilarious as a GM since they have a great dynamic, but don't let them press pause. Interrupting their discussion with bad guy activity often results in funny moments as they scramble to react. I don't think they mind that the bad guys fall so quickly, but I'm just worried the big boss folks at the end might seem anti climatic. By the way, if anyone is interesting in listening to our horribly bad play sessions, I have them up on the Shuttle Tydirium youtube page. I know I could use the corrections to our rule problems.

I totally missed the Adversary rule. I need to go back and look at that again. I was just using the stock characters in the back of the rulebook for most encounters. Honestly, I do take it easy on them in combat. Most of the enemies are 'dumb' in that they aren't tactically sound. There are a handful of plot level characters that I play more intelligently. In fact, they ran up against one in our last session after chasing rumors and 'hunting' someone they shouldn't. It was quite the eye-opener for them to run against a single opponent that didn't just sit in cover and shoot, or rush them blindly. After the shock wore off, I think they rather enjoyed the sudden fear they were forced to run from.

I'm currently running a campaign for a few friends and fellow podcasters(Shuttle Tydirium) and I have a few questions about character strength. I apologize if this has been addressed, but I couldn't find it by searching. My players never seem to have any problems with combat. There are 3 of them and they blaze through enemies in large numbers. A 4 man squad of storm troopers will die in a single round, and Nemesis/Rival level characters often die(or get stunned) just as fast. I've had a couple combats where players took damage, but never more than a few points. They also rarely gain strain. On top of this, I don't recall ever using the red d12 for anything except an opposed roll. The players are routinely completing 5 difficulty(purple) die actions with multiple successes. What have I done wrong? What are we missing in our combat and skill checks that is allowing them to so easily complete tasks?

New updates! Session 2 is starting to go online now as the players begin delving into the seedy underbelly of Malabor.

New updates! Session 2 is starting to go online now as the players begin delving into the seedy underbelly of Malabor.

Haha, thanks. These gents are just dipping a toe into the greater plot. I asked them what sort of game they wanted, and now they're paying for it. I need to start cutting session 2 up since we're doing 3 this week.

Howdy all! Some of you might be familiar with The Shuttle Tydirium Podcast. We do X-wing stuff, but recently fell into Age of Rebellion. It was suggested by my crew mates that I put out a shameless plug for our fledgling attempt at AoR. I was forced into GMing for the group, having the most roleplaying XP, and now we're stumbling our way through Age of Rebellion. I've linked the playlist from our YouTube channel and would very much love to have some feedback. This system is completely new to us, outside of the setting, so we're definitely screwing up all sorts of things. If you have suggestions or just want to point and laugh, then come on down. Also, the setting is uniquely my own. I'm not an expert, as you'll seen hear, on all things Star Wars, but my players are. In an effort to balance the playing field I've taken them to a little slice of space that I alone know(being from a fan-fiction-novel I've written) and plunged them deep into its twisting plot lines. In all fairness, they asked for it.