Mutants & Masterminds Jedi Game

[Insight]

Insight, I'm curious how you managed your Rebellion era game. I'm also just about to run a Star Wars Rebelion era game that takes place right after the Hoth evacuation. I was going to use the standard Star Wars d20 rules (no jedi classes alowed though). However, I would much rather use the M&M rules. How did your players create characters? Did they just use powers as devices and weapons (i.e. a blaster rifle would just be the engery blast power with the device limitation). Did you treat the classes in the d20 book as templates and allow characters to choose one as a sort of archetype. Just curious.

Actually, I really didn't point the players to the SWD20 book at all, save for source material. They went in without having played SWD20 at all, so there were really no preconceived notions about what roleplaying in Star Wars was like. The classless system worked perfectly for my players, who were able to use the M&M system to make the characters they wanted.

I gave them some guidelines on building certain species (certain ability score ranges and suggested feats, etc). Devices were easy. I didn't worry about wealth or anything (since when do the characters in Star Wars worry about how much money they have?) - they paid points for things that were essentially permanent parts of their characters. For example, if their character pretty much always had a blaster pistol, they paid pp for it. Most items did not cost points, either because the item in question didn't have an associated power, or I didn't feel the utility of the item warranted spending points.

The greatest feeling for me as the GM was that the freedom afforded by a points system as opposed to a class system really made a difference in how the players got involved in the game. The players thought of themselves as their characters, not a class. I find this to be the case in non class systems anyway. But in this case, I believe it led to a better Star Wars experience more true to the genre.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

M&M is an amazing system. Glad it worked well for you.

 

[Mokona]

After reading this thread Mutants & Masterminds seems like a perfect fit for the feel of Star Wars. I asked myself why a superhero system seemed to me so much better than a D&D-style system.

Star Wars (and specifically jedi characters): Extraordinary people caught up in extraordinary events.

D&D: Ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events.

Perhaps this is why my D&D games never go much above 6th level and my group prefers low magic D&D. But that would be a topic for another thread. Sorry for the hijack. Back to the topic.

 

[Breakdaddy]

...(since when do the characters in Star Wars worry about how much money they have?)...

Since Han Solo couldnt afford to pay off Jabba and ended up frozen in Carbonite for it???

 

[SWBaxter]

You may also want to check out the Blue Rose rules by Green Ronin (which is basically the M&M mechanics applied to a fantasy setting). It ties a light side/dark side type mechanic into its magic/alignment/hero point systems.

As well, the magic system was inspired by the SWd20 Force powers, so it closes the loop nicely.

So far as specific suggestions go, energy weapons should default to a Ref save rather than a damage save (not many people absorb lightsabre hits, and those that do seem to have some amount of Protection). Most skills should probably be collapsed into fairly broad skills (Spot/Listen/Search into some kind of Notice skill, Pilot/Drive/Ride into a single skill, etc.) both because of point costs and for movie simulation - characters are broadly competent rather than specialized. I'd probably go with 3d6 or 2d10 instead of a d20 for rolls, otherwise combats will be a lot shorter and more random than in the movies. Probably the toughest part will be vehicles since dogfights and chases are such a big part of Star Wars - character scale vehicles (speeder bikes, for example) are easy enough to stat up, but bigger stuff might be best handled more or less by fiat.

It'd be a good idea to get ground rules for what the Force can and cannot do up front. The movies cover a relatively stable range of Force powers, but some of the EU material gets pretty wild. Best to let players know what sort of Force power level you want, and how flexible you'll be (for example, other than the choke Force-users in the movies don't seem to use telekinetics for any fine control-type powers, whereas players often get creative).

 

[SWBaxter]

Since Han Solo couldnt afford to pay off Jabba and ended up frozen in Carbonite for it???

He could afford to pay off Jabba, he just didn't get around to it in time because he was busy saving Luke (and incidentally the Rebellion) and hitting on Leia. The debt was a plot device, not the sort of thing that requires any kind of wealth system.

 

[direcow]

...(since when do the characters in Star Wars worry about how much money they have?)

Actually, now that I think about it, I never saw Luke pay for his drink in the Cantina. Granted, maybe the bar tender didn't care after Obi-Wan sliced off that one guy's arm. And I never saw Han leave a tip on the table after the Greedo incident. What a bunch of cheapskates.

 

[Breakdaddy]

He could afford to pay off Jabba, he just didn't get around to it in time because he was busy saving Luke (and incidentally the Rebellion) and hitting on Leia. The debt was a plot device, not the sort of thing that requires any kind of wealth system.

Says you. He seemed pretty desperate to get paid off for saving the Princess and get back to Jabba. I will agree, however, that at some point he had the cash and just kept getting sidetracked. Of course, the end result was being a coffee table for Jabba until Luke got in there and threw a beating at Jabba's minions. Lando also mentioned funding/cash (IIRC) as regards his cloud city operation.

 

[SWBaxter]

Says you. He seemed pretty desperate to get paid off for saving the Princess and get back to Jabba.

Not really - as I noted the first time, saving Luke and hitting on Leia was more important to him. The debt is a plot device and can be gamed out perfectly well as such with no explicit monetary system needed. Star Wars is about money management about as much as it's about the ethics of artificial intelligence - which is to say, not at all. You can introduce all sorts of extra stuff into a campaign if you like, but gaming out the movie experience does not in any way require a wealth system.

Lando also mentioned funding/cash (IIRC) as regards his cloud city operation.

Yup. And then he blew off the whole damn operation because he felt guilty about betraying his old friend. There's a trend here...

 

[arkham618]

Actually, now that I think about it, I never saw Luke pay for his drink in the Cantina. Granted, maybe the bar tender didn't care after Obi-Wan sliced off that one guy's arm. And I never saw Han leave a tip on the table after the Greedo incident. What a bunch of cheapskates.

Han tossed the bartender a coin after blasting Greedo.