Templates at Character Creation

[Whill]

[garhkal]

So if they already know "all the skills their backround" would indicate, what goal(s) are there to work towards in regards to new skills?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Whill]

They don't necessarily know all the skills their background would indicate. The idea is that they can't know things that their background couldn't explain.

Your PC has never been off your home planet before the start of the campaign? He can't have the Space Transports skill... Your PC has been an accountant on Alderaan since graduating from Aldera Business School? How did he learn 1D in survival, and 1D in Blaster with a specialty die in blaster rifle on top of that? Oh, growing up he spent every summer with his cousins sharpshooting, camping, tracking and hunting in his rich uncle's private hunting preserve on Rodia? That works.

The idea is that the player has to put effort and thought into making the descriptive character background support his choices for skill allocation.

In my game, PCs can still advance new skills that they don't start with, just like in RAW. Their skill advancement goals are based on what skills they want their character to be better at.
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Star Wars D6 Damage

[Edheldun]

Thanks for the input everyone. My group is comprised of pretty novice players, and our GM last semester struggled with knowing how to move beyond DnD style power gaming and "kick in the door blasters firing" style play. We took a session before we started to talk through the characters people wanted to play and they've all responded pretty well.

As far as the cybernetic arm goes, I talked about it with the player and decided it wasn't totally unreasonable. It tacked on a few thousand more to the debt they owed on their space ship to cover the cost. He has also had to spend a lot of his time making sneak checks to make sure no one notices the enhancement and create a stir with the law. He also takes a dexterity penalty any time he tries to do something that normally takes two hands and can't use it with a space suit on.
I understand and agree with discouraging the players from getting too attached to equipment. In this instance though, the player treats it as an extension of himself, like natural armor or claws.

[garhkal]

Is it just a replacement arm, or an augmentative arm?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[DougRed4]

I think that's quite reasonable, Edheldun. Having some sort of artificial/synthetic arm is very 'Star Wars'.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[Bulldogzeta]

[Barrataria]

I basically agree with what Whill and Garkhal have said, but I'll add that I think that in a game as free-wheeling as SW, with almost limitless character race possibilities, I think templates are a very useful starting point for chargen.

That's particularly true with new players; most of them don't have a fixed character idea in mind, so I like to give them 5 or so templates to pick from. Actually, I'll give each new player a pile of 5 (appropriate to the campaign and to the player if I know them well) to pick from, and suggest that if they don't like any they can trade their pile to another player.

Swapping out this or that feature (particularly changing race) is fine in general, but I'd look askance at cybernetics or custom race abilities.
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"A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing"- George Lucas