Stewart brings us another article, but rather than a retro-review, he has taken his first steps into a larger world as a player (and GM!) of role-playing games with the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game!



A few months back, I played through one of the Star Wars RPG beginner sets with a few friends. This piece will look at the problems I faced Game Mastering (GMing) for the first time. I will also brush on some of the magical moments that can happen when everything works out just right.

People are often scared at the prospect of asking people to play any RPG with them, let alone a Star Wars one. Unfortunately, these stigmas still exist but people are more willing than you probably think.

I have always wanted to play the Star Wars RPG ever since I heard Evan and Leo recount their tales on long past podcasts…Something about capturing an Imperial Class Star Destroyer with 3 people… Anyways, I have wanted to play it but I don’t know anyone who can play or GM.

I decided to buy the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game and GM myself, even though I have never played a tabletop RPG. A little bit of research around the web and listening to/reading the Jodo Cast RPG episodes informed me well enough to build a foundation of the types of interactions that would take place.

I bought the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game and read over the manual a few times to make sure I understood the basic rules and plot, that was the relatively easy part. The next part would be finding people to play with and more importantly, when. Scheduling a 2-4 hour get together with 5 people is pretty difficult as you can’t really just play when you are missing most of the party.

I managed to trick invite some friends over to play, 2 of which know Star Wars to a relative degree and the other 2 that have seen the movies once…Oh and none of them have played an RPG or knew what an RPG was. I was a bit apprehensive about playing, seeing how I was in the same position.

As I found out, playing with people you know/friends is probably a benefit for first timers as there was a lot of rule book referencing and explaining over the course of the game. I would also recommend using an RPG soundboard on a laptop/tablet, tailored background sounds helped a lot with immersion. I used a free web based client that played Star Wars specific loops.

The premade characters were chosen and the party started their epic adventure to escape Mos Shutta. The PCs took a bit of time to understand the free flowing nature of conversations with NPCs (I had to talk them out of killing the first shopkeeper they met). After a while they understood that there are multiple ways of tackling a problem, instead of just murder.

Improvisation was the name of the game and the PCs started to settle into their character archetypes. They discussed their options to tackle situations carefully… most of the time…

As a GM I had to gauge the party’s plans and dish out advantages and disadvantages depending on how legitimate their plan/story was. It was a good incentive for the PCs to roleplay a bit more naturally.

The party managed to evade capture and escape the planet aboard a YT-1300 freighter. I don’t want to spoil the story in case anyone is going to play it but there were a few funny anecdotes that came from the brand new RPG players:

– Finding out you can’t warm-up a hyper-drive by throwing a towel over it.

– People feeling genuinely bad for almost killing a shopkeeper after the encounter ‘‘we almost murdered a guy!’’.

– A Wookie was blinded and fell over because of a misplaced flash bang grenade.

– Every room they entered, the party plotted how to kill everyone. Which is a mantra that pretty much everyone should live by.

– Sneaking into an area with the cover as a repair crew and unintentionally and accidentally fixing a hyper drive, which completely nullified a later plot point.

To GM an RPG is similar to taking a class, more effort you put in, the more you’ll get back. Ambient noise/music, improvising NPC conversations and allowing for non-story book plan really improves immersion for PCs.

The party I played with have been pestering me for another game ever since, I think I would call it a success. If a group of complete RPG newbies love it, I’m sure you could persuade your friends to play too.

All you have to do is ask.