The Unnamed True20 Star Wars Thread [Discussion for now, Recruiting Soon!]

This is intended as a discussion thread for an upcoming True20 Star Wars game. Right now, I'm looking for players interested in such a game, but not character concepts. That will come later, in about a week or so. I will be looking for 3-5 players for this game.

I would also like for people interested in helping with the conversion process, or contributing to the process, to get involved. This can be players, or even people who don't have time/interest to play, but would like to contribute.

So in essence, this is a rules and game thread - for now. It will become solely a game thread once the conversion process is complete.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
The conversion process (changing or creating Star Wars content for True20) will be lengthy (maybe a week or more), while I go through both the D20 Star Wars material and the True20 material. My goals in this are the following:

• Stick to Movie Canon, and add other elements from the Expanded Universe as need be. Don't assume that anything not appearing in a movie is going to exist (but it might!)
• Use as much of the Star Wars D20 rules as seems appropriate both to my sense of the 'feel' of Star Wars and the True20 system. Again, don't assume that your favorite WOTC mechanic is going to reappear in this game.
• Use as much of the True20 rules as seems appropriate, changing or adding mechanics to suit the genre. This is definitely a True20 game, but it will not be 'straight' True20. Expect cool and interesting changes to the base game.

I plan to be the main developer of this conversion, but not necessarily the only developer. If any of you have ideas, comments, concerns, please let them be known.

One more thing that may be quite important. I don't own every Star Wars D20 book known to mankind. I can only convert material for which I have resources. If any of you have something you really want to use, I will convert it and allow it for use if a) it fits with my sense of the Star Wars universe and b) you have the original game rules for it.

CHARACTERS
I am not looking for character concepts at this point, but I will reveal certain elements that will be part of the initial story. What I would like is to find out who is interested in the game, but I don't need your concepts right now. One of the reasons I don't want characters right now is that the rule conversion is still in development. You won't know what you want until it's done. Likewise, I expect the rule conversion to take the majority of my time, and I won't have a chance to look at character ideas until the conversion document is done.

THE STORY:
This game will be set in the Rebellion era, during the events of Empire Strikes Back. The Imperial attack on Hoth has just occurred at the beginning of our game. Your characters are Rebel operatives (or perhaps former Rebel operatives) who did not make the transports leaving Hoth, and have managed to evade the Imperials who landed and scoured the base. You are still on Hoth, and need to find a way off-planet before the Imperials destroy the base.

Other events and details will be revealed as warranted.

UP NEXT:
Forthcoming will be some very general ideas about the conversion that I have already developed. Note that at the end of this will be a conversion document that will fully explain all changes and additions to the True20 rules for the purposes of this game.

Feel free to post your questions or comments as they arise.

OK, I'm here and following this thread.

Rah!

*pounces on thread and bats at it*

Here!

THE FORCE
This is the biggest area of change in the conversion. D20 Star Wars deployed Force powers as skills and a few feats, whereas True20 rules feature supernatural powers as a mechanic separate from skills and feats.

In terms of Force abilities, I am going to move everything into the realm of powers as represented in True20. Access to Force abilities will happen through the acquisition of feats, namely Force Sensitive to begin with, then the feats Alter, Control, Force Training, and Sense. Each of these feats will be presented in their entirety in a future post, and in the final conversion document.

Force abilities as presented in D20 will be merged with each other to create more cohesive abilities (and less abilities, in terms of diversity), and also merged with/replacing/being replaced by True20 powers. The process of determining exactly how to present Force abilities is going to take a while, and I am soliciting opinions and suggestions on how best to do this.

In addition to Force abilities, the Force itself is going to be a more important mechanic to Force-sensitive characters. A character's strength in the Force will be a game mechanic, as will the Force's influence over a character. Both of these new concepts will be introduced in a subsequent post. Feel free to comment on how you would like to see these presented.

In terms of the era and Force users, there will be Force use and influence in our game, even though it is set in the Rebellion era. You guys will probably not be Force users at the beginning of the game, or not very powerful ones if you are, but there will certainly be opportunities to grow in the Force as the game goes on.

SPECIES & BACKGROUNDS
Another area of special interest to the character creation part of the game will be the modification of Backgrounds. Whereas in standard True20 Backgrounds represent 'race', in our game, we are going to split this concept into Species. In addition to Species, Background reappears to represent training and upbringing.

Characters will have one and only one Species (for obvious reasons), and one or more Backgrounds. Characters start with one Background, and can acquire additional Backgrounds through feats.

Species will represent very specific innate traits, such as Ability Score modifiers, sensory abilities, etc. Backgrounds will give skill modifiers, access to feats, reputation modifiers, and the like.

*** Note: I do not own Alien Anthology, so the only D20 mechanics I have are for the species in the Core Rules. If you have a pet species you'd like to play, I need the full D20 system mechanics for this species.

More information on Species and Backgrounds will become available. Please post any comments, suggestions, or concerns here.

Echani are basically just Humans, with some unusual cultural stuff going on. In terms of game mechanics, they'd be identical to humans.

Shayuri said:

Echani are basically just Humans, with some unusual cultural stuff going on. In terms of game mechanics, they'd be identical to humans.

Click to expand...

OK. If you want to make an Echani character, I will need more information about their unusual cultural difference. But not now. If the mechanics are the same, we'll leave it at that. However, if there are any Backgrounds that make sense as a result of this Species, that would be good to know. Feel free to suggest anything that comes to mind. If you want to wait until I have posted some sample Species and/or Backgrounds, that would be OK too.

On thread. I'll post some rules ideas/suggestions once I've read through the True20 book. I have all the d20 Star Wars books.

Insight said:

OK. If you want to make an Echani character, I will need more information about their unusual cultural difference. But not now. If the mechanics are the same, we'll leave it at that. However, if there are any Backgrounds that make sense as a result of this Species, that would be good to know. Feel free to suggest anything that comes to mind. If you want to wait until I have posted some sample Species and/or Backgrounds, that would be OK too.

Click to expand...

My goal is to have all Species from the D20 Star Wars Core Rules up on Wednesday. That should give you guys a good idea of where this is heading.

Alrighty then. First, I post link to the Star Wars wiki article...

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Echani

But I'll sum it up here too. Basically the Echani are "warrior race" of humankind, sometimes compared to the Mandalorians, but with a very different tradition. The Echani focus on hand to hand combat with light blades and armor, and unarmed techniques, often in combination with personal shields to protect against energy weapons (thus making melee less suicidal). I recall reading somewhere in fact that it was the Echani (a long time ago) that first worked out how to incorporate cortosis into their vibroblades so they could duel against lightsabers. This is in stark contrast to the Mandalorian tradition of heavy blasters and assault armor they are well known for.

They also differ philosophically. Wheras the Mandalorians are conquerors, seeing warfare as the ultimate proof of a race or species' right to exist, the Echani see combat as a highly advanced form of communication. It is the Echani belief that no two beings can ever truly know each other until they have earnestly fought each other, and masters of Echani techniques are often said to come to astonishingly astute insights into people that they fight. They see each manuever, each attack and feint and dodge, as a sort of language that speaks volumes of one's inner self. Fights that are strictly for mutual self-revelation are generally not to the death, of course. Echani also follow a code of honor that reinforces their beliefs about combat...for example, they tend to dislike weapons that end fights 'too quickly,' or without interacting in some way with the enemy (eg - grenades, blasters, etc) and tend to view such weapons as without honor (though not necessarily DIShonorable unless used in dishonorable ways).

By some congenital hereditary fluke, Echani children tend to resemble their same-sex parents to an astonishing degree. They aren't clones...Echani reproduce in the human norm, and the children are genetically diverse...but for whatever reason, Echani daughters are nearly indistinguishable from their mothers (and hence other daughters of the same mother), and sons similarly resemble their fathers.

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Likely Echani Backgrounds could be:

Nobility (perhaps estranged, or out for a lark, or seeking the Rebellion for idealistic reasons)
Military (very militaristic society, most citizens serve at least one term sometime in their lives)
Security (Echani bodyguards are popular among Galactic royalty due to their loyalty and near-impossibility to bribe or otherwise subvert)
Tech (Echani are a technologically advanced culture, and thus have technicians...they are especially known for their sophisticated blades, light armors, and personal shields)
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More when I find it, or can remember.