USING A BASE OF
OPERATIONS
Croups of player characters often start the game only
loosely or tangentially affiliated. Many players build
their characters with a particular background and
character story in mind. This is perfectly acceptable
but it does mean that when the group convenes for
the first time, the CM has a collection of individual
characters that may not have a common thread or
backstory to bind them together.
Over time and the course of working together on sev-
eral adventures, the group will become a more cohesive
whole. This happens through the process of working
together to face shared challenges and develop shared
goals. The base of operations serves a two-fold purpose
in this process. First, it provides an initial catalyst for
working together (most starships require several crew
members to operate, after all), and gives every player
character in the group something they can share in and
jointly own. Secondly, it can evolve over time into some
of the goals the player characters share. Improving their
base of operations, protecting it, or even purchasing and
establishing a new one are all goals shared by an entire
group, not just one or two characters.
During gameplay, a base of operations also serves a
valuable purpose as a place groups can return to be-
tween encounters and adventures. This is where they
can safely rest, rearm, and recover from injury. If need
be, this is where they can flee to when in clanger.
This means a base of operations is primarily a nar-
rative concept, rather than a mechanical one. There
may be rules governing the base of operation's physi-
cal form (for example, a starship serving as a base of
operations has a starship profile), but its primary uses
are narrative.RESOURCESThe group's base of operations often serves as a
place to stockpile group resources. While many items
and pieces of gear may be owned by a specific char-
acter (such as personal weapons and armor sets), it
makes more sense for other items to be jointly owned
by a group. For example, it makes more sense for the
group to jointly own one bacta tank (instead of multiple
individual tanks), one astromech droid for navigation, a
single repair kit for starship maintenance, or even one
tent and crash survival kit. The base of operations pro-
vides a place to store these items where any members
of the group can access them as needed.THE GAME MASTER
EDGE OF THE EMPIRE