Very interesting and helpful! I’ve been stockpiling the books out of interest, due to a game I was playing in, and hoping to eventually starting my own. Outlining how to get from books to beginnings is a great tool.
I quickly learned that planning ahead for Edge of the Empire sessions is largely an exercise in futility. Now I just set the stage, make some NPCs and give the players a hook or start in media res and then just sit back and see what happens.
You will want to know where you're going, but, yeah, you don't need to plan every detail. You can go ahead and create a storyline ahead of time, but yeah, it doesn't need too much detail planning.
@@evanlongfellow6849 the problem is you can make plans as a GM but if your players just decide to skip out on the planet and go somewhere else then you're out of luck, granted it's the same for any RPG really, but especially science fiction ones where space travel is easy, having to pull planets out of your ass at the drop of a hat (or trying to remember all the existing planets) is really hard and takes a lot out of you mentally. (it does for me anyway) Best you can hope for is to improvise a couple hooks for them to latch onto (ones that could feasibly be used on any planet) and then once they go for one develop that for next session.
The Star Wars discussion is a huge part of playing this game. I find that this discussion can last for months lol. There seems to be a few ways that star wars is interpreted commonly: EU Comic/Game Star Wars, Original Trilogy Star Wars, and Re-Skinned Sci Fi Star Wars. These are the most common ones I have run into. EU people and Sci Fi Re-skinners are very similar in that they have an anything goes sort of view of adding things in the setting but EU people have a precedent for each thing whereas SF SW people just throw it in. OT people tend to be minimalists who don't supply (or need) an explanation for everything. For Sim players, getting the setting right will be a necessary ingredient in my experience.
It is an important step in any RPG based on a licensed property, I feel. The more material produced, the more...interesting that discussion becomes~ ;)
I am trying to build out a Star Wars D6 west marches style campaign. So far I'm starting it out at 38 BBY in Galgelar system on planet Galgelar in the town of Galgelar Freeport. This is a helpful video for what I am putting together. Thanks.
@@Runeslinger I've been thinking about it for months now but I've finally just taken the dive. I've made a discord for it where I have a campaign Diary that goes over the town and then a job board/rumors around town. So players can self organize and let me know what they want to dive into in a session.
@@martinbowman1993 Good. I find that the more opportunities players have to inhabit the world of their characters as their characters, the more meaningful decisions can be~
@@Runeslinger plus I love emergent story telling. If I want someone to tell me a story I can read a book or watch a movie. Star wars D6 wasn't designed for this style of game play but there is nothing stopping me from using it in this way.
I think you will find it was made for exactly that. In my experience, games from that era and before (until the mid nineties) were mostly assuming that play would produce an experience rather than a story. D6 Games are written the way that they are so that the interaction of the players' characters (decisions) with the GM's presentation of the world in conjunction with everyone's understanding of that world (genres) would create an experience of the poperty being emulated. It was all emergent play. Playing for Story as Product was a learned behavior as more adventures were written by more people for more games, and as genres became less fluid to be more prominent in play as part of the point (such as horror, or mystery, etc). Once that trend toward Story as Product of play became obvious, people began to lean into it as a design principle (such as how D&D evolves by edition away from experience of character toward creation of a story, such as Gunshoe, Fate, etc) OR turn away from it to other interests or stay with Story as a By-product which emerges (if looked for) in hindsight. Don't worry! You won't be fighting the system~
I've learned that writing down the major plot points that I want the PCs to hit is generally the best option for me. By having a general layout of the story I plan to set for them, I can tie everything about the game towards that end. My group is playing Age of Rebellion (AoR) and I've set them on a mission to disable a planet's major defenses before another faction comes in to attack the planet. Now that I have written down the general outline of the major plot points, I can give them missions that generally move towards that goal.
Knowing yourself and your strengths is essential. AoR supports that methodology most easily of the three lines as well, so that was an excellent choice! What have the players wanted to do with their Duty rewards?
@@Runeslinger They're still a bit early in the game to have accumulated any Contribution Rank, but most of them traded a decent majority of their starting duty for additional XP, giving me a great opportunity to add more missions that go towards their specific duties (Anti-ISB action, Securing Supplies and Sabotage)
I'm really glad you make a point of saying "from a certain point of view." We all remember Ghost Ben saying that to Luke, but we often don't notice that the films are definitely sharing a specific and singular point of view. The Rebels are completely upright and good. The Empire is inherently evil and corrupt and cruel. But we all know life isn't like that, and I'm really getting excited to create a galaxy of adventures where the lines are blurry, and "bad guys" can be good, and "good guys" can do some pretty messed up things. As a new and prospective GM I am so excited to be able to finally play with Star Wars in ways that I've always wanted to but have never experienced or seen from anyone else.
Recently the phrase "all roads lead to Rome" came to mind regarding the path players choose to take in a campaign. It is a common issue for game masters to deal with players veering away from story plots and encounters. Which is why I agree with focusing on the setting and characters that populate it, instead of specific encounters or scenarios. By populating the galaxy with beings and events which have a life of their own despite the players, the flow of the campaign isn't as dependent on the player's choices to keep things in motion. But the player's choice can cause ripples in that universe. Creating layers within the tapestry give it flavor and depth. With over arching themes which can pull the players in specific directions, but filled with a myriad of smaller characters and issues that may not seem to directly relate to the bigger picture. For example the results of the Death Star's destruction has caused a change is Imperial activity. But the players will probably never know this specifically. This in turn has allowed certain crime syndicates in the area to exploit opportunities, or allowed populations wavering on rebelling to rise up. Possibly both happening in concert. These things cause ripples that effect the world around the characters and the things they can directly interact with, but I still haven't created a single scene. I see it as a forest the players are moving through. They walk through the under growth. The things they can interact with and influence. But this is all under the mid canopy, or things that seem slightly out of reach which they may influence. All of which is over shadowed by the upper canopy they know exists but cannot directly influence. While the forces above the canopy they may never see are having effects which change everything underneath. The further the influencing factors are from the characters, the longer it may take for those changes to take place or appear. But the forest has a life of its own and the players are effected by it as much as they effect it. The galaxy that unfolds before the players should allow them to express their characters while both pushing and pulling them in a general direction like a flowing river. All rivers to the ocean, all roads to Rome.
When you said "delicious Star Wars stew," I had a flashback to Harvey Korman cooking bantha surprise in the Holiday Special. You really need to start giving trigger warnings. :-)
Thx for this excellent video. I've been wondering if you've been using the clone wars books (rise of the separatists/age of rebellion). What do you think of them?
@@Runeslinger I haven't used them yet, but really have tge feeling they are well designed. I recently watched the clone wars series and must admit I had underestimated it in the past. I really enjoyed esp. the later seasons. So I'll probably give it a go in ffg sw at some point aswell. Thx again for your videos, always fun to watch!
My main problem as DM is that 1) players have certain expectations from Star Wars as media (sith vs. jedi/Empire vs. Republic conflict and that illusive Star Wars "feel"), 2) Star Wars universe somehow feels "small", like a garden pond, with players have to "squieeze" themselves between movie characters adventures, players achievements feel insignificant compare to ones of movie protagonists. In opposite, I had very positive feedback from my Dark Heresy campaign, that lasted well over one year, compare to SW, that died in month and a half. Despite being similar in size, Star Wars GFFA feels smaller than a single sector of the Imperium. I cannot figure out why. It bugs me.
One thing that can help with the problem you describe is to view the films as one story among many - and just one telling of that story. Like the news, book to movie adaptations, fishing stories, and so on, the events portrayed in the films neither need to be accurate nor even true. The galaxy is not small, it is just that we are seeing them through a keyhole (the films). That keyhole is expanded by your play.
Hey Runeslinger. I am a FFG Star wars GM I have been looking around, and I can't seem to find out some comprehensive explanation of how Player Death works in Star wars (Other than reaching 141+ crit) I was wondering if you had a video somewhere, where you explain it in, or if there is somewhere to look for it.
It is left vague in order to help the GM establish the genre. Sometimes death is sudden and final (starfighter combat), and sometimes it is slow, brutal, and ultimately escaped (Anakin). The text clearly shows death by critical injury. It determines death in space similarly. The final element is only implied and provides the vagueness and mystery a GM might want to allow a villain to return or a hero to be rescued (perhaps while injured, unprotected, and unconsciouson an ice planet). This element is 'what happens when you exceed triple the Wound Threshold?' It simply does not say. Death is implied, but not stated as a fact. I take that implication strongly, others might not. The GM chapter and the tone of your campaign should be your guide. I hope that this is helpful~
I am reading through the rules again after 12 sessions of play. I can really feel that I see the rules with all new eyes, and that we played a lot of rules wrong :P (And I think the game will get much better now ^^ )
I am glad that I could help out. Re-reading the book every once in a while is good practice, I think - no matter how well your group knows the rules. Understanding of things changes over time in play.
![Crews in Space Combat 1 [FFG Star Wars]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hnyg73uTSt8/mqdefault.jpg)
![Crews in Space Combat 1 [FFG Star Wars]](/img/tr.png)
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
That beginning is so spot on for my style. I start with art and dream from there.
Very interesting and helpful! I’ve been stockpiling the books out of interest, due to a game I was playing in, and hoping to eventually starting my own. Outlining how to get from books to beginnings is a great tool.
Steven Gerk Thanks for watching and for letting me know you got some value out of this~
I quickly learned that planning ahead for Edge of the Empire sessions is largely an exercise in futility. Now I just set the stage, make some NPCs and give the players a hook or start in media res and then just sit back and see what happens.
I totally agree, though thats why i love GMing it ;)
+Will Mendoza It gives us a broader chance to play~
You will want to know where you're going, but, yeah, you don't need to plan every detail. You can go ahead and create a storyline ahead of time, but yeah, it doesn't need too much detail planning.
@@evanlongfellow6849 the problem is you can make plans as a GM but if your players just decide to skip out on the planet and go somewhere else then you're out of luck, granted it's the same for any RPG really, but especially science fiction ones where space travel is easy, having to pull planets out of your ass at the drop of a hat (or trying to remember all the existing planets) is really hard and takes a lot out of you mentally. (it does for me anyway)
Best you can hope for is to improvise a couple hooks for them to latch onto (ones that could feasibly be used on any planet) and then once they go for one develop that for next session.
The Star Wars discussion is a huge part of playing this game. I find that this discussion can last for months lol. There seems to be a few ways that star wars is interpreted commonly: EU Comic/Game Star Wars, Original Trilogy Star Wars, and Re-Skinned Sci Fi Star Wars. These are the most common ones I have run into. EU people and Sci Fi Re-skinners are very similar in that they have an anything goes sort of view of adding things in the setting but EU people have a precedent for each thing whereas SF SW people just throw it in. OT people tend to be minimalists who don't supply (or need) an explanation for everything. For Sim players, getting the setting right will be a necessary ingredient in my experience.
It is an important step in any RPG based on a licensed property, I feel. The more material produced, the more...interesting that discussion becomes~
;)
I am trying to build out a Star Wars D6 west marches style campaign. So far I'm starting it out at 38 BBY in Galgelar system on planet Galgelar in the town of Galgelar Freeport. This is a helpful video for what I am putting together. Thanks.
Thanks for letting me know! All the best with the campaign~
@@Runeslinger I've been thinking about it for months now but I've finally just taken the dive. I've made a discord for it where I have a campaign Diary that goes over the town and then a job board/rumors around town. So players can self organize and let me know what they want to dive into in a session.
@@martinbowman1993 Good. I find that the more opportunities players have to inhabit the world of their characters as their characters, the more meaningful decisions can be~
@@Runeslinger plus I love emergent story telling. If I want someone to tell me a story I can read a book or watch a movie. Star wars D6 wasn't designed for this style of game play but there is nothing stopping me from using it in this way.
I think you will find it was made for exactly that. In my experience, games from that era and before (until the mid nineties) were mostly assuming that play would produce an experience rather than a story. D6 Games are written the way that they are so that the interaction of the players' characters (decisions) with the GM's presentation of the world in conjunction with everyone's understanding of that world (genres) would create an experience of the poperty being emulated. It was all emergent play. Playing for Story as Product was a learned behavior as more adventures were written by more people for more games, and as genres became less fluid to be more prominent in play as part of the point (such as horror, or mystery, etc).
Once that trend toward Story as Product of play became obvious, people began to lean into it as a design principle (such as how D&D evolves by edition away from experience of character toward creation of a story, such as Gunshoe, Fate, etc) OR turn away from it to other interests or stay with Story as a By-product which emerges (if looked for) in hindsight. Don't worry! You won't be fighting the system~
I've learned that writing down the major plot points that I want the PCs to hit is generally the best option for me. By having a general layout of the story I plan to set for them, I can tie everything about the game towards that end. My group is playing Age of Rebellion (AoR) and I've set them on a mission to disable a planet's major defenses before another faction comes in to attack the planet. Now that I have written down the general outline of the major plot points, I can give them missions that generally move towards that goal.
Knowing yourself and your strengths is essential. AoR supports that methodology most easily of the three lines as well, so that was an excellent choice!
What have the players wanted to do with their Duty rewards?
@@Runeslinger They're still a bit early in the game to have accumulated any Contribution Rank, but most of them traded a decent majority of their starting duty for additional XP, giving me a great opportunity to add more missions that go towards their specific duties (Anti-ISB action, Securing Supplies and Sabotage)
Good stuff~
Thank you for this articulate and informative video. Great advice indeed and I will apply much of what you said. I will let you know how it goes.
+J H I look forward to it
For me, it's mostly alarm bells. But it's the best articulated alarm bells that I've seen for this game. Very much enjoyed the video. :)
Thank you so much !!!! I know all of this, but i have you on loop for 2h now, until i get it in my head !
Which of the games are you going to play?
I'm really glad you make a point of saying "from a certain point of view." We all remember Ghost Ben saying that to Luke, but we often don't notice that the films are definitely sharing a specific and singular point of view. The Rebels are completely upright and good. The Empire is inherently evil and corrupt and cruel. But we all know life isn't like that, and I'm really getting excited to create a galaxy of adventures where the lines are blurry, and "bad guys" can be good, and "good guys" can do some pretty messed up things. As a new and prospective GM I am so excited to be able to finally play with Star Wars in ways that I've always wanted to but have never experienced or seen from anyone else.
Have fun~
Perfect timing for me to find this video. Thanks
I am glad you were able to find it when you needed it~
Recently the phrase "all roads lead to Rome" came to mind regarding the path players choose to take in a campaign.
It is a common issue for game masters to deal with players veering away from story plots and encounters. Which is why I agree with focusing on the setting and characters that populate it, instead of specific encounters or scenarios.
By populating the galaxy with beings and events which have a life of their own despite the players, the flow of the campaign isn't as dependent on the player's choices to keep things in motion. But the player's choice can cause ripples in that universe.
Creating layers within the tapestry give it flavor and depth. With over arching themes which can pull the players in specific directions, but filled with a myriad of smaller characters and issues that may not seem to directly relate to the bigger picture.
For example the results of the Death Star's destruction has caused a change is Imperial activity. But the players will probably never know this specifically. This in turn has allowed certain crime syndicates in the area to exploit opportunities, or allowed populations wavering on rebelling to rise up. Possibly both happening in concert. These things cause ripples that effect the world around the characters and the things they can directly interact with, but I still haven't created a single scene.
I see it as a forest the players are moving through. They walk through the under growth. The things they can interact with and influence. But this is all under the mid canopy, or things that seem slightly out of reach which they may influence. All of which is over shadowed by the upper canopy they know exists but cannot directly influence. While the forces above the canopy they may never see are having effects which change everything underneath.
The further the influencing factors are from the characters, the longer it may take for those changes to take place or appear. But the forest has a life of its own and the players are effected by it as much as they effect it.
The galaxy that unfolds before the players should allow them to express their characters while both pushing and pulling them in a general direction like a flowing river. All rivers to the ocean, all roads to Rome.
I find that my enjoyment is greater if the destination is the journey, but I appreciate and understand the sentiment~
@@Runeslinger agreed, the journey is the most enriching part of the experience.
Always informative, always insightful.
Thanks, Runeslinger! :)
Thank you~
Love your channel, keep up the good work!
Thank you, I am glad that you find it to be useful~
This video was awesome. Thanks tons
My pleasure~
I like that bounty hunter idea!
Go for it~
Thank you so much!
My pleasure~
very well put!
Creative Play and Podcast Network LLC Thank you~
When you said "delicious Star Wars stew," I had a flashback to Harvey Korman cooking bantha surprise in the Holiday Special. You really need to start giving trigger warnings. :-)
Alefiend Luke, in the hut with Yoda. Luke, when his head he bumped~
STIR, WHIP, STIR, WHIP! WHIP, WHIP, STIR!
Do you have a book on your thoughts and advice of FFG's SWRPG? I would definitely buy that
I don't, but thanks for the kind words~
Thx for this excellent video. I've been wondering if you've been using the clone wars books (rise of the separatists/age of rebellion). What do you think of them?
I haven't looked at them. Do you have thoughts about them?
@@Runeslinger I haven't used them yet, but really have tge feeling they are well designed. I recently watched the clone wars series and must admit I had underestimated it in the past. I really enjoyed esp. the later seasons. So I'll probably give it a go in ffg sw at some point aswell. Thx again for your videos, always fun to watch!
Glad to hear it~
My main problem as DM is that 1) players have certain expectations from Star Wars as media (sith vs. jedi/Empire vs. Republic conflict and that illusive Star Wars "feel"), 2) Star Wars universe somehow feels "small", like a garden pond, with players have to "squieeze" themselves between movie characters adventures, players achievements feel insignificant compare to ones of movie protagonists. In opposite, I had very positive feedback from my Dark Heresy campaign, that lasted well over one year, compare to SW, that died in month and a half. Despite being similar in size, Star Wars GFFA feels smaller than a single sector of the Imperium. I cannot figure out why. It bugs me.
One thing that can help with the problem you describe is to view the films as one story among many - and just one telling of that story. Like the news, book to movie adaptations, fishing stories, and so on, the events portrayed in the films neither need to be accurate nor even true.
The galaxy is not small, it is just that we are seeing them through a keyhole (the films). That keyhole is expanded by your play.
Hey Runeslinger.
I am a FFG Star wars GM
I have been looking around, and I can't seem to find out some comprehensive explanation of how Player Death works in Star wars (Other than reaching 141+ crit)
I was wondering if you had a video somewhere, where you explain it in, or if there is somewhere to look for it.
It is left vague in order to help the GM establish the genre. Sometimes death is sudden and final (starfighter combat), and sometimes it is slow, brutal, and ultimately escaped (Anakin).
The text clearly shows death by critical injury. It determines death in space similarly. The final element is only implied and provides the vagueness and mystery a GM might want to allow a villain to return or a hero to be rescued (perhaps while injured, unprotected, and unconsciouson an ice planet).
This element is 'what happens when you exceed triple the Wound Threshold?' It simply does not say. Death is implied, but not stated as a fact. I take that implication strongly, others might not. The GM chapter and the tone of your campaign should be your guide.
I hope that this is helpful~
Thanks alot for the good and indepth answer ^^
I am reading through the rules again after 12 sessions of play. I can really feel that I see the rules with all new eyes, and that we played a lot of rules wrong :P (And I think the game will get much better now ^^ )
I am glad that I could help out. Re-reading the book every once in a while is good practice, I think - no matter how well your group knows the rules. Understanding of things changes over time in play.