Need help rebalancing old adventure to the new rules.

[Vinterdraken 35]

Going to run my first Age of Rebellion adventure tomorrow so I thought I would run an old Star Wars adventure from a older rpg I had lying around but never played. Overall Ive managed to change it up so it works, but there is one thing that Im a bit nervous about and that is the balance between stormtroopers and players in fights.

So bascily, how many stormtroopers can a group of players expect to take on in their first game and survive? My group will have 3 players if that helps. Tried looking around the forums a bit for tips and there might be some help with balanced encounters in the books that I have missed.

Dont need any exact science here, mostly looking for input from people who have run the game on how tough stormtroopers are.

[InSilence 31]

The fun thing about this question is that there are a lot of answers.

 

Short answer: 1 Group of 3 STs per player should be a pretty challenging fight for a group of new characters, assuming each one is competent (Rolling at least 3 dice) on at least one combat ability. 

 

An easier fight would be 3 STs per player, folded into groups of 4 each, round down (so two groups of 4 for your party). A character will generally take more damage from multiple successful Combat Checks than one really painful Combat Check.

 

Stormtroopers are tough minions, but they're still minions (so a crit will automatically take one out). If you want to really test your group, replace a minion group with a Sergeant. If you want to be really mean, just thrown a Sergeant in on top of the minions.

 

And, even though you didn't ask for it, here's why from my experience:

 

-The main thing that makes STs tough compared to other minion groups is their 3 Brawn and Agility, plus their laminate armor, resulting in 5 Soak. That means to knock out a single trooper you need to deal at least 11 raw damage on a single attack (assuming you don't score a crit).

-Just by rolling 3 dice on a combat check with their blasters means they'll be painful at medium range. 

-Additionally, they have 3 Willpower, which means they roll 3 Ability dice on initative if your party is trying to get the jump on them. Alternatively, they only have a 1 in Presence, which means they only roll 1 for Cool checks... 

 

And, one more thing, encounters don't occur in a vacuum (unless they do...'cause space). Stormtroopers are known for their front-line combat skill and unwavering discipline and not their creative thinking, so a party that can think on their feet may be able to run circles around a squad of STs.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Edit: Also, disclaimer, I'm not responsible for any potential TPKs that may result from following my advice...

Edited February 14, 2015 by InSilence

[Desslok 13,515]

I would probably look to the EotE beginner game for guidance. That many PCs vs that many minions (dont have the book in arms reach, so no looking up for me). When I ran the beginners game, that struck me as a pretty good balance.

 

At the very least, I would lowball the amount of enemies. You can always send in reinforcements if they're having too easy a time of it.,

[Vinterdraken 35]

Thanks, think Ive got the info I needed.

My biggest concern is rather that they would get blown up instantly then them having to easy of a time. Theres a few times in the adventure there are a bunch of troopers at once. But I think Ive got a good feeling for the numbers now.

[Agatheron 655]

As others have mentioned, it isn't the Stormtroopers themselves that really make the difference but the size of the minion groups you put them in. Beginner players will have a tough time with Stormtroopers grouped into minion groups of 3 or more, so I'd simply pair them up, so that they're throwing fewer yellow dice.

As a comparison, look at a new hope, and how many stormtroopers the core characters ever fought at once without running away. The answer isn't that many, but if you parse the encounter right, then you can still get the feeling of the players taking down a large group.

[awayputurwpn 7,682]

4 groups of 3 troopers is harder for player characters than 3 groups of 4: The more minion groups, the more attack rolls, and the more damage done to PCs.

My advice is to not exceed your PC count when placing minion groups. In other words, don't have more minion groups than you do PCs. After that, an easy encounter is either one with either 1 fewer minion group (size 3-4) than there are PCs, or groups of 2 (or even single minions) equalling the number of PCs you have.

This is generally true for beginning players, but it really depends on how the PCs are built. So that's the best advice I can give you; and after you run a few combat, you should be able to start eyeballing it.

Also as Desslok said, don't be afraid to start small and bring in reinforcements. I like to use Threat rolled to generate reinforcements, myself.