Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Rule Book

portunity to perform actions in turn. It is most often

used for players to play through combat situations,

although the CM may decide to employ structured

gameplay in certain non-combat scenes he feels

would benefit from requiring the players to clearly de-

fine their characters' actions within a rule set.

STRUCTURED GAMEPLAY

OVERVIEW

When using structured gameplay, the game is broken
down into a series of rounds, each of which is further
broken down into a series of turns. During a single
round, each Player Character and Non-Player Charac-
ter gets one turn, during which they have the opportu-
nity to accomplish tasks and perform various actions.
Rounds can last for roughly a minute or so in time,
although the elapsed time is deliberately not specified.
Players should keep in mind that a round lasts long
enough for their character to move to a new location
and perform an important action. They should also re-
member that although each round is broken up into
turns that happen sequentially in gameplay, narratively
the turns are occurring at roughly the same time.
Structured gameplay events (also called encounters)
such as combat follow these steps:

STEP 1: DETERMINE INITIATIVE

At the beginning of the first round of combat, all play-

ers and NPCs need to determine in what order the

characters will take their turns. This is referred to as

the Initiative order

To determine the Initiative order, each Player Character

and NPC makes a Simple (-) Cool or Vigilance check

(for more information on which to use, see the Cool or

Vigilance? sidebar). Once all Initiative checks have been

made, the CM notes down the results of each check and

ranks them in order, from highest number of successes

to lowest number of successes. If two checks are tied,

the check with more O is ranked higher. If a Player Char-

acter and an NPC are still tied, the Player Character is

ranked higher This is the Initiative order.

STEP 2: ASSIGN INITIATIVE SLOTS

Once the GM has determined the Initiative order, he

notes which results were generated by Player Char-

acters, and which results were generated by NPCs.

The results generated by Player Characters become

Player Character Initiative slots. The results generated

by NPCs become NPC Initiative slots.

STEP 3: PARTICIPANTS TAKE TURNS

Beginning at the top of the Initiative order, the play-

ers and CM fill each Initiative slot one at a time with a

character turn. If the Initiative slot is a Player Charac-

ter Initiative slot, then the players agree on one Play-

er Character to fill the slot from amongst the Player

Characters who have not acted that round. That Play-

er Character then takes this turn.

If the Initiative slot is an NPC Initiative slot, then the

CM chooses one NPC to fill the slot from amongst the

NPCs who have not acted that round. That NPC then

takes this turn.