Honestly, I had meant to be a little more punctual in updating this blog. But, you know that saying about the plans of mice and men, right? Yeah.
So, what's been going on? Frankly, not a whole lot really. Been playing a fair amount of AEG products, namely Legend of the Five Rings (4th edition) and 7th Seas, as well as a bi-weekly D&D 4e game that's (currently at least) set in Dark Sun, though the GM has dropped a hint or two that he may shift the setting on us in the nearer-than-we-might-think future.
I've haven't done that much regarding my Ways of the Force supplement since v1.02, other than updating a few skill names to match up with what the non-Beta EotE core rulebook is using, which is pretty darn minor and not really worth publishing as an updated version. Also looking at revising the wording of the Healing and Injure Control Upgrades, particularly where Force Point costs are concerned, as well as re-evaluating where I've placed the ability to use the Healing power to remove a critical injury. Much as I really don't want to, I'm thinking said upgrade will wind up on the 5th Row simply to maintain some sense of balance and to keep critical injuries from being something a concern for most groups even if the have a Force Healer. At least with it being a 5th Row talent, it'll take a decent amount of XP to obtain said ability.
I did get the chance to partake in Free RPG Day, though the only items I picked up was a custom Free RPG Day d6 and FFG's "Shadows of a Black Sun" module. If you're curious as to my thoughts about the module, you can read them over at the GSA in the write-up I did.
http://gsa.thegamernation.org/2013/06/17/in-the-shadows-of-a-black-sun-an-edge-of-the-empire-adventure-review/
It was a pretty fun adventure, though sadly I lost the business card that had the e-mail address of the gentleman that ran it, so hopefully he stumbles upon that article and sees the praise that I gave him for the excellent job he did running the adventure, especially with a table of players that, sans me, had no prior experience with the system.
Mostly, I've been working. A lot. Like nearly an extra week's worth of overtime kind of a lot. Granted, the extra money will be nice once August rolls around as that will give me some extra spending funds for GenCon this year. And with the way work had been going (roller coaster much?), I'm really looking forward to GenCon, mostly for a chance to meet & greet folks from the d20 Radio forums.
Other EotE-related things I've been doing are revamping the EotE form-fillable Word character sheet that I snagged from the FFG EotE Beta forums several months ago. Most of the focus was in making it look prettier, but I've also been tweaking it to include a column for listing out a character's dice pool courtesy of an EotE-based font that I picked up from the same EotE Beta forums, a font that turns out you can embed in a document, something I wasn't aware off how to do until fellow d20 Radio forumite Awayputyrwpn pointed it out to GM Chris and myself. You can see the non-dice pool version in Phil aka Darth GM's most recent GSA article, this one discussing the process of converting an existing character over to a new system (in this case, Saga Edition over to Edge of the Empire). It's pretty interesting to see the challenges of such a task laid out, especially if you're one of those GMs who is thinking of doing the same thing.
http://gsa.thegamernation.org/2013/06/21/fantasy-flight-imports-bringing-saga-to-the-edge/
I've also been taking a fresh look at the Unofficial Species Menagerie, which again I've updated (but not released) to include the updated skill names, but also taking a second look at a number of the species, in particular the Falleen and the Zeltrons with their respective Pheromone abilities. A bit of a spoiler, but the "Shadows of a Black Sun" adventure does feature a Falleen NPC as an antagonist, giving them a quality called "Allelochemical Transmitters." That's cool and all, just the problem is that it's a species ability that anyone can already do in the EotE rules, that being spending Threat generated on a roll to inflict a point of Strain on a one-per-one basis. That doesn't mean I couldn't take advantage of the idea and spin it off into something that actually is a special species ability.
Right now, I'm looking at allowing a Falleen character the ability to spend an Action to make a Deception check against a single target within Short Range, with each success generated by the Falleen inflicting one point of Strain; Threat and Advantage would be spent normally as the player (or NPC) sees fit. It's opposed by Discipline, which I think fits that most folks that are able to resist a Falleen's phenomenal charms do so through willpower. I also added a "if you don't have to breathe or are using a breath mask, you're good" caveat. It still might be too powerful though.
For the Zeltron, I'm looking at expanding their Pheromones ability to apply a boost die on any Charm, Deception, or Negotiation checks made against targets at Short Range. Certainly beefs the ability up from it's currently published version (limited to Engaged, only Charm or Deceit checks), and makes it more worth the reduced Starting XP that Zeltrons get. I thought about making their Pheromones the ability to remove a setback die, but there's already talents that negate setback dice to those checks. Empathy also needed a bit of cleaning up in terms of how it applies. Not sure if this revised Pheromones ability is too good, and I may wind up dropping the free rank in Charm to offset it.
The last EotE-related project I've been trying to finish up is a conversion of the excellent fan made Star Wars Saga Edition adventure "A Much Larger Galaxy." I've only had to make a few tweaks to the NPCs to account for the differences in systems, something that was a pleasant surprise. Of course, doing the system conversions in my head while running is a lot easier than typing it all up and making it look better than just a bunch of hastily-thrown together notes.
I was hoping to begin delving into the hows and whys of the three Force-sensitive specializations I created, but that may have to wait until I reach a point where my brain hasn't been bludgeoned into clay by the day job. Though at the rate things are going, my next update might not be until after the EotE core rulebook is released. FFG had said they were targeting the first week in July, and I really hope that remains the case. The previews I've seen of the book so far really make me want to own a copy, even if I already do have most of the crunch material courtesy of the Beta rulebook and the Final Week Beta Update.
