General RPG Rules DiscussionDiscuss the rules of any game except D&D or Pathfinder, such as Arcana Evolved, Mutants & Masterminds, Star Wars Saga, d20 Modern, and the like.
I was surpriced to notice there is not any discussion on this yet. As it is, I am not able to get the book until some time next week at the earliest and I was hoping to see what people have to say about it.
So how about it. Anyone willing to give voice their opinions? And I'd like to hear especially about the new races in the book.
Also, the WotC page for the book lists "All-new adventure content". I am curious as to what this means. Similar miniadventures/encourtes that were in Scum & Villainy?
I haven't bought it yet, but I'm hoping to real soon. Reading the preview thread on the Wizards boards, it seems to have some very useful stuff for me.
Including Barabels. This one likez Barabels.
__________________ "Sometimes things must be broken in order to be rebuilt." --Sith Proverb.
__________________ It is the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules, which is important. NEVER hold to the letter written, nor allow some barracks room lawyer to force quotations from the rule book upon you, IF it goes against the obvious intent of the game. As you hew the line with respect to conformity to major systems and uniformity of play in general, also be certain the game is mastered by you and not by your players. Within the broad parameters give in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Volumes, YOU are creator and final arbiter. By ordering things as they should be, the game as a WHOLE first, your CAMPAIGN next, and your participants thereafter, you will be playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons as it was meant to be. May you find as much pleasure in so doing as the rest of us do.
1. The races are a mixed bag, but strictly for aesthetic reasons; some I would consider classic, and am happy to have new stats for them, but others are less interesting to me.
2. I'm not sure about the new talents, but I'll have a better idea once the last Dawn of Defiance adventure is released. At that point I'll let my players peruse the new books and choose the talents and feats that they like, so hopefully I'll have a chance to see some of them in play. The team feats are intriguing.
3. The new equipment, creatures and starships look solid, definitely adding some new options for a military-style campaign. I think of a D6 SpecForce campaign I played in college, and much of this material would fit nicely into that.
4. I haven't had a chance to see the Organization rules in play, but I like the theory of providing benefits for characters who are willing to commit to a group's hierarchy and ideals (and thus to more easily incorporated adventure hooks). In the aforementioned SpecForce campaign, it was always fun to see characters become decorated and advance in rank, and this provides good information for adding this to the Saga Edition.
5. The Military Campaigns chapter (3) provides more good information for a GM running a game as mentioned previously.
6. The Military Units chapter (4) is also quite solid, providing good details about a variety of organizations from different eras. This is the kind of information that can make a book timeless; I still pull my old D6 books off the shelf because of just this kind of thing.
7. I like the different maps in the chapter on Battlestations (5) because it seems like it would be useful for planning adventures. While I would have liked to see maps of complete installations, these at least give me some building blocks with which to work.
8. Chapter 6 provides seven military-style encounters, ones that look like they'd work well for a quick skirmish or that could be adapted into longer adventures with a little work.
9. As promised, the last part of the book is a twenty-five-page adventure for third-level characters; it's nice to have ones like this and the one in Scum & Villainy for quick play, or as the introduction to a campaign. I don't know how many times I ran the old "Rebel Breakout" adventure in the D6 Star Wars RPG, but it's nice to have something ready-made when introducing a new group of players.
All in all I'm quite satisfied with this addition to the collection. I'm particularly intrigued by the Dark Times era, and would like to see heroes developed in Dawn of Defiance and similar campaigns become the grizzled veterans who help to build the fledgling resistance to the New Order. This material definitely seems like it would help to build the kind of campaign in which the heroes are just beginning to strike out against the Empire, or in other military-style adventures.
-Nate
Last edited by NMC; 29th September 2009 at 12:11 AM..
Team feats are ones that provide bonuses to skill checks, for which the bonus increases based on the number of allies nearby who also possess that feat. For example, one might give a +3 bonus to Stealth checks, with an additional +1 bonus for allies with the feat within ten meters or so.
I'm very pleased with this book. I bought it for the Gear Requisitioning and Rank & Privilege rules, which reminded me of similar systems for gearing up and favour checks in Spycraft. I've had in mind for awhile that a series of linked, covert-ops style missions in the style of Living Spycraft would actually work well in the Star Wars setting, and these rule systems make such a campaign that much easier to implement.
The rest of the book doesn't disappoint, either. The Hardware chapter is solid, with a few gems like Ascension Guns, Smoke Grenades and Mortars; the chapters on military organisation and military units are excellent for shaping campaigns; and the Battlestations chapter is great, with lots of detail on individual systems, all scaled in accordance with a facility's intended Challenge Level - and not just numerically, but with sensible gradations in how systems work and respond.
I haven't looked at the encounters or adventure in detail yet, but in general they look useful.
If folks would like a nice overview of Galaxy at War, as well as get a few questions answered about some of the stuff in the book, I humbly suggest checking out Episode 82 of the (ENnie Award-Winning) Order 66 Podcast, which can be found off the d20radio.com homepage (click Podcasts and follow the link to the O66 feedburner page).
Chris and Rodney talk quite abit about G@W, with some third bozo butting in to offer his two coppers' worth every now and again
My order arrived this past Friday, but I have yet to sit down and read it.
__________________ It is the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules, which is important. NEVER hold to the letter written, nor allow some barracks room lawyer to force quotations from the rule book upon you, IF it goes against the obvious intent of the game. As you hew the line with respect to conformity to major systems and uniformity of play in general, also be certain the game is mastered by you and not by your players. Within the broad parameters give in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Volumes, YOU are creator and final arbiter. By ordering things as they should be, the game as a WHOLE first, your CAMPAIGN next, and your participants thereafter, you will be playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons as it was meant to be. May you find as much pleasure in so doing as the rest of us do.
Ya, I have my copy! Not much useful player content in it but as a "settingbuilding" book it seems solid. I like that Taung have received their own racial description and the eguipment section seems best of the supplement books so far.
Not much useful player content in it but as a "settingbuilding" book it seems solid.
On Episode 82 of the Order 66 podcast (not that anybody listens), Rodney mentions that this book has the first of what he's calling "tools to make the GM's job easier." Most of the books beforehand have had a stronger focus on the player content angle as opposed to stuff for the GM (aside from an advice chapter and a bunch of stat blocks that may very well never get used except maybe for idea mining for the GM's own NPCs).
As for useful player content in G@W... what about those Martial Arts training feats or the Martial Arts Master prestige class? I could see an entire campaign built around martial arts characters of different styles.
As for useful player content in G@W... what about those Martial Arts training feats or the Martial Arts Master prestige class? I could see an entire campaign built around martial arts characters of different styles.
Well yeah, if you manage to find a player who wants to play a martial artist ... There is useful player stuff in the book, just not as much as previously. A few feats were very interesting and my Noble player was very keen on the two feats that let you use your cha modifier for will defence, and then will defence for damage treshold.
And as I said, the eguipment section is best of the supplement books so far IMO.
I haven't had a good look through the adventures/encounters yet, but I'm hoping they prove useful. I'm in a need of a short detour in my campaign so maybe one of those will provide.
I finally got a chance to look at my copy of this over the weekend, and all I have to say is...
BATTLESTATION RULES FTW!
It's "page 42" for SWSE, cleverly disguised as rules for building bases. Very clever. Although it could have used some damage ranges.
-The Gneech
Edit: Actually, the damage ranges were in there, just buried in a paragraph and all "build 'em yourself" -- e.g., saying "about 11 points of damage" instead of saying "3d6." Gotta wonder why they went that route.
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C'mon, 5E!
Last edited by The_Gneech; 14th October 2009 at 10:57 PM..
Well yeah, if you manage to find a player who wants to play a martial artist
Not as hard as you'd think if you allow all of the martial arts options from various books. I'd love to play one, but you really need to go on a treasure hunt to make one that stacks up to non-melee characters, and they tend to start off a bit slow.
I could see an entire campaign built around martial arts characters of different styles.
... There is useful player stuff in the book, just not as much as previously. A few feats were very interesting and my Noble player was very keen on the two feats that let you use your cha modifier for will defence, and then will defence for damage treshold.
Although it could have used some damage ranges. 
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