Also, coming from a Shadowrun background of RPG gaming, I gotta say I like how skills/attributes are handled with dice pools. In SR you often could wind up with something where a character was basically trying to use a skill with little training, but still have a high dice pool by having a high base attribute (or vice versa). This system does an interesting job of rewarding a fairly consistent improvement of both skill and characteristic over time.

KommissarK said:

It's actually this bit that concerns me: Rolling a bunch of dice and everything coming to a screeching halt because you can't figure out what the roll actually means.

selderane said:

The book has a fairly well written out section for how advantages/threats/triumphs/despairs can be handled. Also, since advantages/disadvantages cancel out, there are only:

Success with an advantage - complete what you're trying to do with a benefit

Fail with an Advantage - Fail the goal of the test, but set it up to be done later

Succeed with a disadvantage - Succeed, but take longer than you hoped, set yourself up for difficulty later

Fail with a disadvantage - Fail at what you were trying to do and suffer later

Succeed with neither - Simply succeed

Fail with neither - Simply fail

Then account for crit successes and crit failures (do what you were trying to do spectacularly, but suffer a major consequence, that sorta thing).

In combat there are pretty well laid out tables for how advantages/disadvantages can be applied.

Finally, part of the point is to get the players involved. Crowd source the interpretation of the dice. If some other player makes an excellent interpretation of what the dice could mean, go with it. The point is, have fun.

Example: "I am shooting at the stormtrooper from cover"

Dice pool: 3 agility, 2 skill, no boosts, no setbacks (probably some, but keeping it simple), short range, so one difficulty die

Roll 1 ability, 2 proficiency dice, 1 difficulty die

Result: 4 advantage rolls, 1 success, 1 failure

Response: "You just barely get off a shot at the stormtrooper, but narrowly miss anything important. You do manage to shoot the gun out of their hands (3 advantages spent). You sigh a breath of relief as you at least hit something…. (1 advantage spent, get back 1 strain)"

There are alot of different ways that could of been handled:

Recover 4 strain, recover 2 strain and get a maneuver

Negate the stromtrooper's defenses till next round

Give allies boost dice

The list goes on. Much of this really should get player input, with the GM just applying final say on what is actually going to fly.

 FULONGAMER makes some very cogent points, and I would second them wholeheartedly.

Stickers are a stopgap measure and if you apply them poorly they're not even that.

Using the conversion chart in the book is not a good idea.  When you wanna introduce players to a new, symbol based dice mechanic, it's always best to do so completely and at once, not a little here and a little more there when the dice eventually come out.

FFG, I hope you're listening.  We need those dice NOW.  Either they or for the Dice App to also work on Windows machines.  Come on guys.  You want us to test your game, give us the PROPER tools with which to do so.

I have been playing RPG's for over 20 years and I must say that Shadowrun with its dice pools is one of my all time favourite systems.  I'm a big Star Wars fan and have every Star Wars RPG book, through WEG and WOTC.  I cannot stand D20, so never played WOTC but I could understand it at least.  I have just received Edge of Empire, looked at it and feel like throwing it against a wall.  Why oh why did you have to follow the terrible latest edition of WHFRP.   Until I find a way of converting it to a reasonable number based system I won't waste my time playing it or introducing my players to it.  These dice are just unnecessarily confusing.   

I will not argue with the people that don't like the dice, I will just say this:

I have been roleplaying for around 17 years, I have played nearly every system I could get my hands on, (certainly not every system, but enough to get a good idea of what is out there) and Warhammer Fantasy 3rd edition is my single favorite system in roleplaying.   I love WHFRP3, and I love Edge of the Empire, I love them because of the dice, and I love all of the tools that you get with WHF3.

If you don't like them, that is your choice, but there are those of us that do, and we are grateful to have them.  Some people like apple juice, some like Orange juice.  If it is not your thing, please just let it go, and let those of us that want it have this one without having to hear all of the complaining.

I will gladly support any game that makes use of this system or these custom dice.

Callidon said:

5 times? Try 7 licensed commercial ones…

WEG: 1E, 2E, 2R&E, LARP
D20: CRB & RCRB
Saga D20

Plus there are at least 4 homebrew rulesets floating the internet with fully developed rules.

And two universal systems with close pastiches…

And then there are powersword psionicists in the Spacemaster setting… and it's easy to do them in Space Opera. SO even has flying wedge capital ships.

Its really sad the dice mechanic is coming under such attack…why is a new mechanic so scary?  Traditional numbered dice have some serious flaws…and while FFGs approach may not be perfect (nto to say it isn't…I haven't run through it enough yet) at least they're trying

mjprogue1 said:

mjprogue1 said:

Because some people just like to bitch and moan about how they (or their players) can't be uber-awesome on every single roll, that they can't game the system the way the can most pass/fail based game systems to ensure their success on every single roll they make of a given type.

And there's a few people, not just here but on on other official forums (particularly the "big-box" companies) who are willing to be downright hostile to the developers/designers when such folks are willing to take time out of their day to explain "hey, here's a look at some of the thought process that lead us to this system."  I think the Pinnacle Forums are the only place that I've routinely seen PEG mainstays like Shane Lacy Hensley, John Goff, and Clint Black routinely post, but that's because the PEG boards are a friendly community that understands and apprecaites the work these folks have done.

Me?  I love the dice system, and I really enjoyed reading Jay Little's articles about how the EotE dice system came into being.  Sadly, I doubt we'll get any kind of follow-up given the harrassment he got from some people and bitch-fests that erupted over on the main EotE forum over Jay not spilling all the beans in one go (guess those people have never heard of "industry secrets")