28 Oct 2013

Test Drive - Edge of the Empire

A recent gaming purchase was Fantasy Flight Games' Edge of the Empire.  In related news, I also got out to Star Wars Identities at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum back in September and created a background for Darhun, a Twi'lek pilot.

Let's see if the two can be combined!

Going in the order of the creation steps as given on page 34, the first step is *Character Concept and Background*.  That has been done, thanks to the exhibit.  Not much else to say, really.  Darhun is one of the down and outs on the fringe, but working to build himself a name.  His greatest thrill is flying.

Next step, *Obligation*.  Every player character has to take one.  Obligations affect how others treat the group, how much trouble the group gets into, and what experience and other rewards the players receive.  In Darhun's background, he got on the wrong side of the Emperor, so Bounty seems like a good one for now.  The value of the obligation will depend on the number of other players in the game, as per page 40.

Step three is *Selecting a Species*.  Way ahead of the process here, at least in choices.  The Twi'let description, starting on page 51, also includes starting experience to spend, starting characteristics, and special abilities.  In Darhun's case, he gets a rank in either Charm or Deception, which cannot go about rank 2 after character creation is complete.  Darhun takes Deception.

Steps 4 and 5 are related; *Choose a Career* and *Choose a Specialization*.  Two careers offer Piloting (Space) - the Explorer and the Smuggler.  The latter career has a specific Pilot specialization, thus, [name]'s career is now Smuggler, with the Pilot specialization.  Darhun now gets to choose four of the career's skills, as listed on page 60, and takes Coordination, Deception, Perception, and Piloting (Space).  He also gets two of the four specialization skills and takes Astrogation and Piloting (Space).

Step 6 is *Invest Experience Points*.  As mentioned, Darhun has 100XP to spend.  Table 2-4 on page 92 shows the costs.  No skill can go beyond rank 2, so Darhun can't improve Piloting (Space) or Deception any further.  However, his other skills can.  He spends 30XP to raise his Agility to 3, 5XP to get Gunnery at 1, 5XP to get Piloting (Planetary) at 1, 5XP to get Skullduggery at 1, 5XP to get Vigilance at 1, 5XP for the Skilled Jockey talent (page 93), 5XP for the Full Throttle talent, 5XP to get the Galaxy Mapper talent, 10XP for Cool at 1, 10XP for Ranged (Light) at 1, 10XP for Outer Rim at 1, and 5 XP for Underworld at 1.

Next up, *Determining Derived Attributes*, in this case, thresholds for wound and strain, defense values, and soak value.  The base for the wound and strain thresholds are based on species.  Defense is zero unless modified by armour.  Soak value is based on Brawn.

Step 8, *Motivations*.  Partially covered in the background back in step 1, motivation helps the GM work out adventure prompts and can provide bonus XP for players.  Players in doubt can roll randomly, but Darhun has a motivation already; non-human rights.  It's tough when being oppressed.

The last step, *Gear and Appearance*, is already partially done.  The Identities link shows Darhun's picture.  Gear, though, begins with 500 credits.  He will need a blaster, armour, and other useful widgets.  He purchases a light blaster pistol for Cr300, heavy clothing for Cr50, a handheld commlink for Cr25, and a datapad for Cr75, leaving Cr50, plus a d100 roll for starting cash.

There is a tenth step, *Select a Ship*, which is done by all players as a group.  Typically, the choice is a freighter, though a generous GM could allow for a snubfighter for an appropriate pilot character.

Total time needed to create the character was twenty minutes, including prepping the blog post.  Perfect for a Star Wars game to get people going right away.

The final character sheet:
Name: Darhun
Species: Twi'lek
Obligation: Bounty
Career: Smuggler
  Specialization: Pilot
Characteristics:
 Brawn: 1
 Agility: 3
 Intellect: 2
 Cunning: 2
 Willpower: 2
 Presence: 3
Wound Threshold: 11
Strain Threshold: 13
Defense:
  Ranged: 1
  Melee: 1
Soak Value: 3
Special Abilities:

Skills Rank
 Astrogation  1
 Charm  1
 Cool  1
 Coordination  1
 Deception  2
 Gunnery  1
 Outer Rim  1
 Perception  1
 Piloting (Planet)1
 Piloting (Space) 2
 Ranged (Light)  1
 Skullduggery  1
 Underworld  1
 Vigilance  1
Weapons & Equipment:
 Light Blaster Pistol
 Heavy Clothing (Defense 1, Soak 2)
 Commlink, handheld
 Datapad

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