vagabundo
Adventurer
I started a GMing a Saga game last year. So this is still pretty fresh for me.
There are a tonnes of online fan-made PDFs out there I use while gaming on my laptop. I'll collect some links and post them later.
For the start I'd limit the books. Keep to the Core and maybe an era book. Add books later as you see fit, as players get more comfortable with the rules etc.
Star Wars really benefits from props (pictures , music, etc) for setting the Star Wars mood. Creating interesting free form encounter and getting Players into that mode is the key. It took a bit of practice and prep, but it really pays off. One thing I found hard at first was learning all the Star Wars lore. I knew the films pretty well and a little extra, but running a game there requires you to get into the nitty gritty of the setting or just improvising stuff. Wookiepedia is great for all the background research.
The D20radio Order 66 Podcasts are a fab resource. Start from the 1st episode, they are a little geeky, but easy to listen to and cover tonnes of mechanics. They gave me loads of encounter/story ideas and cleared up some of the finicky rules for me.
The only rules issue I've had is my power gamer gravitated to Jedi and it is easy to trick out a very powerful Jedi character. He tried to use Mind Trick a lot to bypass social encounters. Dark Side points and Jedi code are the only ways to keep Jedi in check, but you need to put some thought into it if you see a player going that way. The Order 66 podcast have some good episodes covering Dark Side points and well worth a listen if you find a player going that way.
I would stay away from Star ship battles for a few levels. Start with throwing in some land vehicles into combat first. Once you get to using Star Ships you will need Star Ships of the Galaxy.
I haven't really used any House Rules yet, because the core rules are pretty good. Most of the minor niggles are worth the hassle of house rules. The only one I did add was a power config rule for star fighters for an encounter, very similar to the X-Wing PC games and that was because most of my players had played those, but I abandoned it as it was way too powerful (we still had a blast though). I would possibly add in mooks/minions rules in some form.
Sorry this post is disorganized, it is just a brain dump.
There are a tonnes of online fan-made PDFs out there I use while gaming on my laptop. I'll collect some links and post them later.
For the start I'd limit the books. Keep to the Core and maybe an era book. Add books later as you see fit, as players get more comfortable with the rules etc.
Star Wars really benefits from props (pictures , music, etc) for setting the Star Wars mood. Creating interesting free form encounter and getting Players into that mode is the key. It took a bit of practice and prep, but it really pays off. One thing I found hard at first was learning all the Star Wars lore. I knew the films pretty well and a little extra, but running a game there requires you to get into the nitty gritty of the setting or just improvising stuff. Wookiepedia is great for all the background research.
The D20radio Order 66 Podcasts are a fab resource. Start from the 1st episode, they are a little geeky, but easy to listen to and cover tonnes of mechanics. They gave me loads of encounter/story ideas and cleared up some of the finicky rules for me.
The only rules issue I've had is my power gamer gravitated to Jedi and it is easy to trick out a very powerful Jedi character. He tried to use Mind Trick a lot to bypass social encounters. Dark Side points and Jedi code are the only ways to keep Jedi in check, but you need to put some thought into it if you see a player going that way. The Order 66 podcast have some good episodes covering Dark Side points and well worth a listen if you find a player going that way.
I would stay away from Star ship battles for a few levels. Start with throwing in some land vehicles into combat first. Once you get to using Star Ships you will need Star Ships of the Galaxy.
I haven't really used any House Rules yet, because the core rules are pretty good. Most of the minor niggles are worth the hassle of house rules. The only one I did add was a power config rule for star fighters for an encounter, very similar to the X-Wing PC games and that was because most of my players had played those, but I abandoned it as it was way too powerful (we still had a blast though). I would possibly add in mooks/minions rules in some form.
Sorry this post is disorganized, it is just a brain dump.