Choosing a Star Wars game

TyrantLobe said:

Any in particular you're aware of to be careful with?

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Well, my comment was intended as a general statement, mainly to avoid power creep. Even with just the Jedi powers in the core rule book, my character was pretty powerful in combat - a true combat monster. Jedi have powers and they have a lot of hitpoints. I built him originally as a force user and loaded up on powers and talents that gave me a hefty selection of powers. I also did the Skill Focus (IIRC) thing with Use the Force that Obryn mentioned above. I didn't do it the first level (to avoid "being that guy") but I did get it in the first few levels. I was flipping over landspeeders and messing with imperial officers (Mind Control) at an early level. It was fun...but something to look out for as a GM.

Now, I've looked at (but don't possess) a few books that gave Jedi even more options. The Jedi Training Manual comes to mind....also the Force Unleashed Campaign Guide too. In any case, the point is that, as a GM, you just have to be careful with allowing splatbooks. I'd start with the core book, see how Jedi play out, and then add more as you go along (usually in the guise of Jedi Masters teaching PCs new tricks).

Hope that helps.

Oh, BTW, I've also played Savage Worlds, but not in a Star Wars setting (I played Deadlands, both old and new). It's a good rule set, one I go to for when I'm in the mood for games that are easy on the mechanics. I still would prefer d6 over SW, just b/c d6 really captured the feel of SW IMHO. But you can't go wrong with SW either.

TyrantLobe said:

I've wondered a few times how the Chase rules would work with a lightsaber battle. The Darth Maul vs. Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon fight seems like it would fit perfectly.

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Yep, the more I think about the idea, the more I like it - especially with amerigoV's suggestion of allowing melee attacks at any range, with the appropriate penalties. You could toss in creative uses for Force powers, too, as ... well, appropriately, a "Force" action from the errata.

-O

BTW I ran WEG d6 Star Wars for several years and I don't recall any issues with Jedi PCs vs other types of character. The system wasn't concerned with micro-fine balance anyway.

Obryn said:

(1) ... give everyone +1 per level regardless of class.

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Only played SWSE myself, and although it had a lot of flaws (like force choke and sever the force), I would have to say that the quote right here I agree with wholeheartedly.

Also, squads make low level guys dangerous again.

My best advice with the D6 system would be to not allow any character get over 8D in any one skill. This is because even "heroic" target numbers start becoming ridiculously easy to hit, and if someone spends a force point, stand back, because it's time to start rolling showers of D6's into trays to count your results. Try to keep the character point progression pretty low if you can, because the book recommended ranges of 4 to 6 points per session can quickly get out of hand. Otherwise, D6 system at beginner character levels worked very well for me when I used to play it... Until people started getting into the10D range and performing 4 or 5 actions at once competently.

Henry said:

My best advice with the D6 system would be to not allow any character get over 8D in any one skill. This is because even "heroic" target numbers start becoming ridiculously easy to hit, and if someone spends a force point, stand back, because it's time to start rolling showers of D6's into trays to count your results. Try to keep the character point progression pretty low if you can, because the book recommended ranges of 4 to 6 points per session can quickly get out of hand. Otherwise, D6 system at beginner character levels worked very well for me when I used to play it... Until people started getting into the10D range and performing 4 or 5 actions at once competently.

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I'd agree, the game basically lets you play "Episode IV"-level characters out the box (5D-6D), 8D puts you around Return of the Jedi protagonist level, 10D is more Palpatine/Yoda level. Some of the 'canon' stats are a bit OTT compared to what we see the characters do in the movies, they tend to treat the characters' greatest exploits as baseline. Force Points can easily make things ridiculous if used optimally, perhaps they should add a flat number of dice (5?) rather than double dice.

I've played every Star Wars RPG to date except the FFG version (which is in beta). SWSE is good but not great and requires some house ruling (see my sig for my campaign and house rules). The biggest house rule every GM does is nerf Skill Focus especially Skill Focus (Use The Force).

The d6 version was fine as long as the Jedi didn't optimize too much, but this always happened in my campaigns. The best d6 Star Wars campaigns had a rule of All Jedi or No Jedi. Jedis in SWSE were close to parity with non-Jedi in SWSE but they could still get out of control (especially for telekinetic powers).

I'm just now getting into Savage Worlds, but it reminds me a lot of d6 Star Wars. In d6 Star Wars, attributes and skills advanced by pips (1d6-1, 1d6, 1d6+1, 1d6+2, 2d6, etc.). In Savage Worlds, attributes and skills advance by die with d12 as max (1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1d12, 1d12+1). This sort of advancement is pretty similar from a statistical point of view although Savage Worlds caps out before advancement gets too out of hand.

If you do decide to do a Savage Worlds conversion, you should check out Pinnacle's forums. There a sub-thread devoted to conversions and I think there are several attempts to convert Star Wars to Savage Worlds already.

EDIT: Here's a thread that points to this conversion doc.

Saga Edition is definitely the way to go. Your defense progression is easily addressed in a number of ways:

1. Autofire - a miss deals half damage
2. Aid Another - each additional member of the fireteam adds plus two to the attack roll
3. Squad rules - combine both of the above for a lethal effect
4. Officers - officers built with noble levels impart all kinds off attack bonuses to the troopers under their command

S'mon said:

BTW I ran WEG d6 Star Wars for several years and I don't recall any issues with Jedi PCs vs other types of character. The system wasn't concerned with micro-fine balance anyway.

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I ran WEG d6 Star Wars for several years, it's still my favorite system to run Star Wars with.

Now, that being said, force users can be more powerful, but only if the players are powergaming and realize certain powers and combos of powers are very powerful.

It's my favorite because it's fairly rules light, very flexible in terms of character creation, and generally does a good job of conveying the atmosphere and feel of Star Wars.

For lower-powered games it's outright wonderful. Some issues crop up with higher powered games or longrunning campaigns, IME, but it's still a great system overall.

Of course, the fact that no support for it was released after 1998 is an issue. There is nothing official for the prequels, or for any EU materials set after the Corellian Trilogy (18 ABY, and that's pretty sparse, most game support materials taper off after the Jedi Academy novels). If you want anything at all for the Yuuzhan Vong, or Legacy Era, or Prequels, you'll have to homebrew it or find it yourself. There actually is one sourcebook for the Old Republic, the Tales of the Jedi Companion, based on one short-lived comic book series that had been released at that point, predating the KOTOR games by several years.

Jar Jar was also a sith. Remember that he seemed immune to Force Persuasion but was always the person who suggested each law that escalated Palpatine's power. Seriously if he wasn't corrupted by the dark side he would have killed himself the moment the jedi purge began or joined Obi wan in killing Anakin. Instead he went to spy on Padme's funeral (most likely with his sith body guard and clone troopers) to make sure none of the heroes paid their respects to her.

-Sent via a cybernetic device.