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#990333 Thu 30/04/20 08:50 UTC
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[We used FFG's Star Wars RPG ruleset as written as we played through The Force Awakens Beginner Game. We converted to FFG's The End of the World ruleset for the follow-up bonus adventure, A Call For Heroes, on 18/09/20.]

I would like you all to watch this 10 minute video, at your convenience.



The reason for this is that although you don't need to roll any dice in CFH, I want you to learn more about these games as a side benefit. Because they are interesting.

Why, you ask?

Well, one of the design choices was to use a proprietary dice system to obscure the probabilities. The problem these days is that we gamers are so experienced, we can see right through a dice mechanic to the probabilities underneath. So the thinking goes.

Personally I'm not like Han Solo, you can always tell me the odds, I don't mind! lol But the designers' point is, a player who can figure out the probabilities has an advantage over non-mathematical players at the table, and in their view, can lead to non-mathematical players being outshone.

The designers want to embrace mathematical and non-mathematic players---the role-players and the gamers, so to speak---so their system also allows players to creatively manipulate the scene with certain dice results.

Did you roll a Triumph, then maybe your attack activates an iris shutter on the door and cuts that Quarrian ripperganger in half. Looks like it's sushi for lunch.

It's a nice touch. Irl, you rarely have only one type of player in a gaming group. I like all aspects of RPGs, for example, but sometimes I'm in the mood for a lite system, sometimes I want crunch to get my teeth into. FFG's Star Wars RPGs go some way to appealing to all players.

It does make sacrifices along the way, imo. At the table, constructing your dice pool, determining the result and then resolving takes forever. We actually clocked a couple of ftf sessions and found we were spending about 8 minutes per turn!!

I highly recommend the Beginner Games though, if you want to playtest the game at your table. They come in three flavours and one movie tie-in.

Edge of the Empire Beginner Game
Age of Rebellion Beginner Game
Force & Destiny Beginner Game
The Force Awakens Beginner Game

For Rebellion Day, FFG have released two free introductory adventures in the past years.

My favourite is Rescue at Glare Peak, which I actually ran for a friend and his two primary school kids. I really enjoyed it and thought the adventure was excellent. I was tempted to run it here, but no, I never run the same thing twice!

Rescue at Glare Peak

Nominally for the Age of Rebellion line, this introductory adventure contains a remarkably thorough explanation of the system and contains everything you need to play.

Last edited by nemarsde; Fri 18/09/20 21:27 UTC.
nem #990334 Thu 30/04/20 08:50 UTC
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Narrative Dice

The Star Wars RPG (FFG) Wiki has a page explaining the narrative dice.

However, there is some jargon, such as a dice names and the result names that I want to familiarise you with.

[Linked Image]

nem #990403 Fri 01/05/20 07:30 UTC
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OggDude's Star Wars Character Generator and GM Tools

Can you create characters in this system without OggDude's help? I couldn't. I have used his app to create the player characters for this game, and construct the encounters.

OggDude's Star Wars Character Generator and GM Tools

You still need the books if you intend to use this app.

Your Character Sheet

Links to your character sheet can be found at the top of the page in forum view.

Things to note are, your skills, Strain Threshold, Wound Threshold, Soak and Encumbrance all run directly off of your characteristics. There are no checks against characteristics, so you can basically ignore them.

Nearly all checks are against skills, so concentrate on those.

Basically, the coloured shape symbols equal dice. There are positive dice: Yellow, green and blue. And negative dice: Red, purple and black.

As a general rule so as not to blow your mind:

<<Two positive dice of any colour is about average. Three is good. Four is excellent.>>

One yellow dice means you have the potential to roll Triumph on the rare occasion. Triumph equals a tide-turning mechanical or narrative boon.

Two yellow dice means you can reasonably expect to roll a Triumph in a three round combat, frex.

Green dice are better than blue dice, but blue dice are massively better than no dice!

Yellow dice usually derive from your ranks in a skill. Green dice from your characteristics. Blue dice usually come from Talents, equipment and circumstantial effects.

If you have a black dice with a red subtraction symbol in it, that negates one black dice.

In any check, you are always rolling against some purple dice, more for higher difficulty. Black dice are from poor equipment, lack of training, and circumstantial effects. Red dice represent extreme peril and have potential to roll a Despair, a tide-turning mechanical or narrative bane.

So, skills with a yellow dice you have a rank in. If you have only three green dice in a skill, for example, you have no ranks in it but can still use the skill. However, looking to the left of the dice you should see some green ticks. They indicate a career skill.

If a skill has neither a yellow dice or a green tick, you lack training in it, so expect to roll against at least one black dice on your checks using that skill.

In line with the Beginner Game pregren characters, I've given you very generous starting equipment.

If you see a small stop symbol next to a weapon or item, that means its restricted. It can't be bought on the street full stop. That doesn't matter to you since you already have it.

Last edited by nemarsde; Fri 01/05/20 07:49 UTC.
nem #990941 Thu 07/05/20 19:13 UTC
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Range Bands

Even if you've read the rules, either in Rescue at Glare Peak or in a rule book, you might struggle to get a firm grip on range bands in this system.

That's as designed. They are deliberately vague but if you wanted a more definite example, I've worked out roughly how they would apply in most Star Wars action scenes.

ENGAGED
If two or more targets are close enough to touch or within reach of a lunge or roundhouse kick--about 2 metres--they are considered to be engaged. Engaged also indicates that a person is close enough to an item to use it. Moving to engage with or disengage from an enemy within short range requires one manoeuvre.

SHORT RANGE
Short range indicates a distance of up to about 18 metres. Moving to another spot within short range is usually easy to do and generally requires one manoeuvre. Many thrown weapons and small firearms are most accurate at this range.

MEDIUM RANGE
Medium range is about 18 to 36 metres away. More reliable pistols can reach to medium range, but few thrown weapons can reach this far. Moving from short to medium range generally requires one manoeuvre.

LONG RANGE
Long range is about 36 to 108 metres. Blaster rifles can reliably reach this far without too much trouble. However, moving from medium range to long range requires two manoeuvres.

EXTREME RANGE
Extreme range is the farthest range at which two targets can interact, cinematically about 180 metres. High-tech sniper weaponry and some vehicle-mounted armaments may cover this range. Moving between long and extreme range requires two manoeuvres.

180 metres might not sound extreme based on modern, mountain warfare in Afghanistan, for example.

But check out this video for an idea on distance:

150 yard archery shots

Cinematically, at 137 metres (150 yards) you are already at the limit of most cinematic combat. Even in sniper movies, despite what the script says, the film-makers will often show the target within a couple of hundred metres because it's very difficult to tie a sequence together otherwise.

How does this apply to your character?

Imagine your character seen from a bird's-eye view, sitting in the Mos Eisley Cantina. Imagine concentric auras radiate outwards from them, seen as circles from above. These are your range bands.

[Linked Image]

You shoot first--- a bounty hunter sitting opposite you in the booth at engaged range.

Then you shoot his partner who's standing guard by the exit, at short range.

[Linked Image]

You go to leave. A third bounty hunter is sitting in a speeder across the street at medium range. You see each other at the same time. He goes for his blaster.

Unexpectedly, an assassin droid has been following the bounty hunters and is waiting in ambush for you under an archway, further down the street at long range.

[Linked Image]

After taking them both out, you want to know who's sent an assassin droid to kill you, so you go to investigate and are suddenly shot by a sniper on the tower at the far end of the street, at extreme range.

You duck into the cover of a nearby alley with a black scorch mark on your armour. But your X-30 Precision Blaster Pistol only has a range of 'Long'. You'll have to close in before you can return fire.

Remember: Your range bands move with you.

Last edited by nemarsde; Fri 08/05/20 15:36 UTC.
nem #993790 Wed 24/06/20 13:03 UTC
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Destiny

The PCs are the heroes of our story, and to represent that we have the Destiny Pool.

Each player rolls a Force dice, and for every Dark Side pip rolled we add a Darkside Destiny Token, for every Light Side pip we add a Light Side Destiny Token.

These tokens are often referred to as your group's Destiny Points or Destiny Pool.

angel PCs use Light Side Destiny Tokens, the GM uses Dark Side Destiny Tokens. whip

When a Destiny Point is spent, its token is converted to the other side. A Light Side Token becomes a Dark Side Token, and vice versa.

What can you do with Destiny Tokens?

Some top-tier Talents and Force Powers require you to use Destiny Points to activate special effects.

A PC or the GM can use one of their Destiny Points to upgrade their dice pool before making a skill check. This makes the check easier for themselves and gives a greater chance of rolling Triumph.

Likewise, they can use one of their Destiny Points to upgrade the difficulty of someone else's skill check. This makes the check harder for the other person and gives a greater chance of rolling Despair.

Finally, a PC can use of their Destiny Points to alter the fiction.

If a PC is ambushed on a landing pad, they might spend a Destiny Point to say a heavy loader is parked on the landing pad that they can take cover behind.

If they land on an unknown planet with a poisonous methane atmosphere, they might spend a Destiny Point to say they remembered to pack Breathing Masks. Etc.

Used in this way, Destiny Points are designed to cut down on meticulous planning sessions and give the players more autonomy in describing what their characters are doing in a scene.

Just remember, every Destiny Point you use as a player becomes a Destiny Point the GM can use against you. jk

The Destiny Pool

This is the current Destiny Pool for the group. It will updated whenever Destiny Points are spent, and the tokens are flipped.

[Linked Image][Linked Image][Linked Image][Linked Image]
[Linked Image][Linked Image][Linked Image][Linked Image]

Last edited by nemarsde; Fri 18/09/20 21:19 UTC.
nem #994227 Tue 30/06/20 11:03 UTC
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Minion Groups

Minions are the lowest tier of enemy in this system. They are the Stormtroopers, the Battle Droids, the Sand People.

Although we can run each Minion individually, we can also group them together.

This has several knock-on effects: One group is quicker to run than many individuals. One group is defensively weaker than many individuals, so shortens the real-time taken to resolve combat. One group is offensively more potent. Although a group has only one attack, its more likely to hit, inflict Wounds and potentially Critical Injuries. Individually, a mob of Minions tends to take much longer to achieve much less.

Because of how the system works, Minion groups are always composed of identical Minions.

A Minion group acts as a single character. The group has one turn, representing the actions of all members of the group. An attack or ability that targets one Minion in the group targets the entire group. The Minion group has a single Wound Threshold, shared by all members of the group. This Group Wound Threshold is equal to the sum of the Wound Thresholds of every member of the group. (For example, a group of three Stormtroopers each with a Wound Threshold of 5 has a Group Wound Threshold of 15.) Each time any member of the group suffers Wounds, the Wounds are applied to the Group Wound Threshold. One member of the group is scratched off each time the total Wounds suffered exceeds the Wound Threshold of an individual member of the group.

For example, when the Stormtrooper group suffers 6 Wounds, one Stormtrooper is downed. When the total Wounds suffered hits 11, the second Stormtrooper is downed. When the total Wounds suffered hits 16, the third and final Stormtrooper is downed.

If a Minion group suffers a Critical Injury, it immediately suffers Wounds equal to the Wound Threshold of one member of the group, ignoring Soak.

When Minions perform skill checks, they use the characteristics of a single member of the group. If the skill is listed in Minion's stat block, the group receives a bonus if there are two or more Minions in the group. For every Minion beyond the first, the group counts as having one rank in that skill to a max of five. For example, a group of three Stormtroopers counts as having two ranks in Ranged(Heavy) and rolls a dice pool of YYG when making Ranged(Heavy) checks. The same group has no ranks of training in Stealth (because that skill is not on the list in the Stormtrooper description) and would roll GGG on Stealth checks no matter how many Stormtroopers were part of the Minion group.

Minion groups only apply the Soak of one individual when receiving a set of damage. For example, a group of three Stormtroopers has a Soak of 5, the same as one Stormtrooper. If it is attacked for 11 damage, the group reduces the damage by 5 Soak and suffers 6 Wounds. If the attacker also triggers a Critical Injury with their roll, the Minion group instead suffers 5 Wounds. The total Wounds from this attack pass the individual Wound Threshold of 5 twice, first at 6 Wounds then at 11 Wounds.

Minions, grouped or not, have no Strain Threshold. They cannot choose to spend Strain on extra manoeuvres or abilities, and if they suffer Strain from an attack it counts as Wounds instead.

Vehicles and starships can also be grouped Minions, such as TIE Fighters. In this case Hull Trauma Threshold takes the place of Wound Threshold.

nem #994356 Thu 02/07/20 08:49 UTC
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Combat Round

Combat in FFG's Star Wars system is divided into rounds like most traditional RPGs.

The initiative order is fixed at the start of combat and doesn't change, but slots don't belong to individual characters. Instead they belong to either the PCs or NPCs as a team. For example:

1st. PC
2nd. PC
3rd. PC
4th. NPC
5th. PC

Each round, when a PC slot is played, the players decide which of their characters will take the slot. The story usually presents an obvious candidate, but all players must have a turn each round. When an NPC slot is played, the GM assigns it to one of his NPCs or Minion groups.

So how long is a combat round in-fiction?

It isn't fixed. The rules state it can be a minute but it depends on the style of the scene.

In a large battle, like the Battle of Hoth, it makes sense for one round to be about one minute. Range bands will also be expanding and contracting in a battle on this scale, as you switch between characters in trenches and in Snowspeeders, etc. The battle becomes a story within a story.

In a small skirmish between Partisans and Stormtroopers on the streets of Jedha City, about ten seconds makes more sense and ties with the range bands. The whole combat takes place on one street and the story intends it to portray a violent ambush that's over as suddenly as it began.

Either way, it's important to remember that on your turn the rules describe your offensive action as attacking or making a combat check. That's because your character doesn't just swing their lightsaber once or pull the trigger once. In the span of a combat round, in the fiction your character can be very busy, blocking, slicing, blazing left and right. The sum of this business is the result of the combat check.


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