New to Star Wars RPGs...just bought D6

[halfling rogue]

My gaming days have been few and far between. I cut my teeth on D&D 3.5 and was able to play pretty regularly, but those days have diminished. We got the gang back together again for 5e last year but nothing since.

So now I mostly play with my kids. And while 5e is great and a blast and a game we'll continue to play, with the new Star Wars movie coming out I thought they'd like to play a Star Wars RPG. I thought I could just tweak 5e but that was too much of a chore. So I looked around for something more official and kept hearing how the West End d6 system was a great choice. I've heard (mostly not around here) that it is for many their favorite version. One of the draws is that it was very easy to learn (which is beneficial with younger kids) and that it captures the feel of the movies pretty well. So I did some digging and found that there were a few versions out there, and while I know everyone has their opinion, it seemed to me the majority consensus was that the 2nd edition, revised and expanded (with the millennium falcon on the cover) was the best and most complete (not counting the online d6 space stuff) version.

So I found a pretty good deal on Amazon and purchased a copy. I've never played anything other than D&D and I haven't really dived in to the details of d6 (I don't even have the book yet). And it appears that West End Games produced a TON of sourcebooks, etc to support the game.

I'm sure I'll have some more questions down the line, but I was wondering if simply owning this one core book is enough to start playing the game. I mean, as D&D has the core 3, you can theoretically play and replay forever with just the core books. Can the same be said of this core book? Or is there another 'core' book I'd need to play. It appears it's all I need but I haven't been able to clarify that exactly.

Anyway, looking forward to learning this system and checking in on this forum more often!

 

[LostSoul]

All you need is the core book.

If you're looking to pick up something else, I'd suggest Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim. It's for Han Solo-esque campaigns, though.

 

[aramis erak]

All you really need is the corebook, but having the Star Wars Sourcebook in a matching edition gives you the most iconic OT ships and vehicles.

So, if you got the original "movie poster art" edition, you want the matching 1e Star Wars Sourcebook, and may want the Rules Companion (which is 1e only; it's folded into the 2e rules).
If you got the Blue Vader Front (2e), or the Cartoony art (2 rev & epanded), the revised Star Wars Sourcebook.

Note that the Falcon plans are workable, but don't match any other set, including the YT1300 Haynes Shop Manual.

And if you get the 2nd ed sourcebook while having the 1st ed core, you can make do. The big difference is in how movement capabilities are coded.

And 2E includes the conversion notes somewhere for 1E materials.

 

[halfling rogue]

All you really need is the corebook, but having the Star Wars Sourcebook in a matching edition gives you the most iconic OT ships and vehicles.

So, if you got the original "movie poster art" edition, you want the matching 1e Star Wars Sourcebook, and may want the Rules Companion (which is 1e only; it's folded into the 2e rules).
If you got the Blue Vader Front (2e), or the Cartoony art (2 rev & epanded), the revised Star Wars Sourcebook.

Note that the Falcon plans are workable, but don't match any other set, including the YT1300 Haynes Shop Manual.

And if you get the 2nd ed sourcebook while having the 1st ed core, you can make do. The big difference is in how movement capabilities are coded.

And 2E includes the conversion notes somewhere for 1E materials.

So the one I purchased (I don't have it yet, it's being shipped) is the 2e revised and expanded and has the Millennium Falcon on the cover. So the sourcebook to look for that links with that book would be "The Revised Star Wars Sourcebook"?

 

[ratdebois]

To the best of my knowledge, WEG never released any updated Star Wars Sourcebook for the 2nd Edition Revised and Expanded rules. The one that was released for 2nd edition back in the summer of 1994 (WEG40093), with the blue cover and red lettering, will work fine with the rule set you purchased.

This one here is what you're looking for for the edition you own.



You can find it pretty cheap on Amazon.

I have been playing WEG Star Wars since the late 80s, and I can tell you, I absolutely LOVE the game. I think you and your kids will enjoy it as well. The only negative thing that I can say about it is that as your characters become more and more skilled, you'll eventually be throwing literal handfuls of D6s (not that it's a "BAD" thing!).

Put simply: Easy mechanics, minimal learning curve, and plays really fast.

 

[halfling rogue]

To the best of my knowledge, WEG never released any updated Star Wars Sourcebook for the 2nd Edition Revised and Expanded rules. The one that was released for 2nd edition back in the summer of 1994 (WEG40093), with the blue cover and red lettering, will work fine with the rule set you purchased.

This one here is what you're looking for for the edition you own.

View attachment 72000

You can find it pretty cheap on Amazon.

I have been playing WEG Star Wars since the late 80s, and I can tell you, I absolutely LOVE the game. I think you and your kids will enjoy it as well. The only negative thing that I can say about it is that as your characters become more and more skilled, you'll eventually be throwing literal handfuls of D6s (not that it's a "BAD" thing!).

Put simply: Easy mechanics, minimal learning curve, and plays really fast.

Thanks for the info! I've added it to my amazon list, and yep it's not a bad price at all.

I'm not too worried about long term adventures. We've been playing the Starter for 5e sporadically since it came out and we're only at level 5 (and I'm kind of dreading any more level ups because it'll just be more than they can remember.) I've heard SW d6 does away with levels in the same way dnd does it. And heard it has a quick char-gen, all of which is a big draw for gaming with kids.

I've heard all sorts of praise for playing the game, but how about Gming?

 

[aramis erak]

The mechanical differences between 2 and 2E&R don't affect the data profiles at all. The ones between 1E and 2E do.

The 1E/2E break affects how force users are written, specifically what they can do with their force abilities, and how speeds are noted for everything. In 1E, speeds are in dice codes and only for vehicles and ships; in 2E, everything has a fixed movement speed.

 

[halfling rogue]

Okay!

So I've read through great chunks of the book and have the sourcebook mentioned above on deck at Amazon. After reading through, I'm beginning to see how this game can be really fun. The fan resources on some sites are pretty great. It's good to see folks supporting the game even beyond its shelf-life. I think I'll try to find some 'in game' sessions on youtube or something. I'm still kind of having a hard time visualizing what combat looks like at the table with each 'group' rather than players going back and forth. It's probably easier than I'm thinking...My only experience is d20 so I'm trying to unlearn as I learn

Character creation seems like it will be easy once I get the hang of it. As I was making my first character (template) I found myself confused at a few places. I think a more organized checklist or step-by-step handholding would be helpful. The directions they have work, but could be better for someone pretty raw. Again, this could be my d20 showing.

Lastly (for now), as I was reading over the combat, etc. I thought, Holy smokes, that's a LOT of dice! Which, isn't necessarily a problem. Rolling dice is fun. But it made me wonder, how much dice should one bring to play? I mean, it's obvious that someone could play with just a few d6's and reroll if necessary, but say you'd like to roll once?

If I were GMing and providing the dice for, let's say 4 players. How many d6's should I have on hand? How many d6's would a player typically need?

 

[ratdebois]

Well, I think that starting characters wouldn't need more than 6 or 7 d6s to begin with.

Of course, as they advance, that number will grow. Big time. But hey, who DOESN'T love throwing hands full of dice?

PM me later, as a reminder, and I'll try to cobble together a character generation worksheet to help you out. Shouldn't take too long.

 

[halfling rogue]

Thanks for your help so far everybody! I'm really enjoying reading through this and thinking through the system, especially with the new movie dropping. I had a couple more questions though (keep in mind I'm planning for the most part to run this with younger kids, they've played D&D up to 5th level with fighters):

So as someone who hasn't even seen this played, much less played it m'self, I find myself wondering if the initiative rules and the combat 'turns' in general are fun. Because it sounds a bit more difficult to keep track of everything when one side does all action, then another side does their actions, and in between keeping track of who dodges/reacts, etc. Would it just wreck the game or feel if we did a traditional initiative/combat turns (ala D&D?).

Also, for the force rules. I've read in a few places that GMs should just not allow Jedi characters, mostly because of game imbalance, but the first thing my son wanted to do when I told him about the game was create a Jedi character (of course! I would too...). But I'm wondering how big of a deal it would be to really (really) smooth out the force rules to make it even simpler. I'm still parsing through it, but I'm beginning to think it might get confusing for the kids. I was already planning on mashing together some of the skills (ie, so you don't have 3 different kinds of piloting skills) to keep it simple, so I was trying to think of an easier way to convey using the force (as a Jedi) in game as well. So far I'm stuck. Thoughts? Or should I just suck it up and run it as written because I'm not seeing something (really, that could be the issue).

Thanks all!