Scavenger's Guide to Droids

[fireinthedust]

cool!

I think I'll get that, then. I just made up a Twi'Lek Sith Apprentice with Dual wpn mastery... basically my PCs are screwed for a while, as they're 3rd level; but that means I can run around setting off bombs and releasing plagues for them without losing a villain.
Anyway, having Force powers & talents for them to find will come in handy.

So Droids, then Starships if I can find it, then Clone Wars, and Force Unleashed if they survive to it. Cool.

Granted, it's an all-Jedi campaign so far. Maybe KotOR would be a wise investment?

 

[fireinthedust]

I'll start looking for a char-builder for SAGA, myself, but does anyone have a reliable one they're already using? I recall there's that dentist/surgeon/coroner one for other 3.x games, but I'm not sure it's up.

Granted, I'm enjoying the tactile side of using pen/paper for villain design. Ah, sweet graph paper. Builder for the math at the end, though, would be helpful; check my work, that sort of thing.

 

[wingsandsword]

In terms of what books you need:

* Star Wars Saga Edition
* Starships of the Galaxy

In terms of what is neat-o and useful:
* Jedi Academy Training Manual (big book o' Force stuff)
* The various era books (the KOTOR book is hard to find, but spiffy, while the Force Unleashed book is really useful for both the period between Episode III and IV as well as the Rebellion Era as it's mostly a book about the might of the Empire and those on the run from it, as well as some high-powered Force stuff)
* Prior edition sourcebooks, including d6 materials. Don't discount this stuff just because it's old and not the current edition, the "crunch" might be obsolete but they are still vast treasure troves of "fluff".

 

[ValhallaGH]

I think I'll get that, then. I just made up a Twi'Lek Sith Apprentice with Dual wpn mastery... basically my PCs are screwed for a while, as they're 3rd level; but that means I can run around setting off bombs and releasing plagues for them without losing a villain.

Don't count on it.

A wave of PC "I Destiny Point Critical it!" can drop something five or more levels above them. I've seen it. I've been part of it.

My 3 man party, at level 9, took on a bad ass twi'lek cyborg / Sith (around level 15 if I remember) who could deal over 100 hp of damage with a single attack. We "lost" by 4 hp because I dealt stun damage with my last blaster attack; but we redeemed him, and he mentored my "failed apprentice" (never got picked to be a Padawan, was now a 22 y/o 'youngling' and was assigned various support functions for the Order) into full Jedi mastery. He even gave me a light saber with a stun setting (we were a non-lethal team).

Destiny Points are rare but they are incredibly powerful, powerful enough to make supermen out of mortals and gods out of heroes. This is a good thing, as it allows the party ("Good") to win out in the end ("defeat Evil"). But it is something you need to be aware of, as the GM.

Of course, important NPCs can have a couple Destiny Points as well, if they have a Destiny.


Good luck.

 

[fireinthedust]

fair point. I may have to work on that with them. I might not use, them, though: I'm adding in two ways of getting extra healing surges, though the party is likely loathe to use them:

1) sacrifice a clone trooper, get hp back/avoid death.
2) sacrifice a limb, get a healing surge/DR buffer for that shot, go down on conditions (like sever limb plus healing/avoid hit); sort of an emergency supply.

They're going to be able to do more, take more damage. Granted, I may run my own villain party against them, using up droids in the same way. Oh well. That and the cybernetics added in, and the party should be okay without Destiny points until they (I dunno) earn them or something. We'll figure it out.
But I do think my Twi'lek lightsabre Sith is going to be hardcore. Tomorrow morning I'm making up a Sith force wizard, a Sith noble, and maybe some "turned" Jedi. Then I'll try and figure out a Doctor Doom analog... how to stat that: noble or scoundrel with Tech Specialist tree?

 

[ValhallaGH]

Then I'll try and figure out a Doctor Doom analog... how to stat that: noble or scoundrel with Tech Specialist tree?

10 levels of Jedi / 6 Noble / 4 Scoundrel. Doom is a serious mage, one of the top five in the Marvel universe. He's also the scariest villain that lives on Earth (i.e. sane / balanced enough to be allowed to live in the main setting).
Alternatively, go the Noble / Scoundrel route until you can take him into Force Adept and maybe even Force Master. A technical base backed up by later mastery of the Force should make him something that all PCs fear.


As for the Destiny thing:
1) Decide if you want to use them at all. They don't fit all campaigns (not all PCs are Destined to do a specific thing). And they are powerful but extremely limited.
2) If you do use them, give appropriate points for the PCs level. If starting at first, they get 1 per level. If starting at 5th or higher, they get 1d4 total, to represent what they've spent to get to this point.
3) Destinies work best when players don't know what they are. The GM should pick ones that fit their backgrounds (and the campaign) and let them know when the other benefits apply.
4) Do not include ways to regain destiny points.


Good luck.

 

[fireinthedust]

I don't know if anyone's still reading this thread, but...


I just bought my copy of Scavenger's Guide to Droids. Excellent book! Yes there are lots of combat droids, but they'll come in handy for games.

The best part of the book is that every droid in it (and I believe the Core book) has a second set of stats that lets them be used as Equipment. This is brilliant, because it means I can let my players use a pile of droids in-game: the droids are equipment you can spend swift actions to order around. This includes firing a shot or moving, plugging into a computer and using skills, that sort of thing. That means players aren't just buying additional PCs and dozens of actions every combat round. Instead, they have the same number of actions to spend among several droids and their own actions.

Which means that PC droids like R2D2 stand out even more, as they do more and "take initiative", if you will.

Other books I picked up include Starships of the Galaxy, and the Force Unleashed campaign guide.

 

[MarkB]

I'm glad you like the book. It took me a couple of read-throughs to fully 'get' the droids-as-equipment rules, but I too think they're excellent - a great way to let players buy whatever droid support they want without bringing the game to a crawl as a result.

I've also just picked up the Force Unleashed guide - couldn't pass it up at the price Amazon had it at. I'm looking forward to reading through it tonight.

 

[fireinthedust]

I read through that one, too. I dunno. I like some of it, other parts I'm not sure of.

The organizations are good, and a great way to include the PCs in the story more, and get them involved in missions that aren't pure profit. The PrCs look okay, I suppose. The races are alright, with the Togruta (ahsoka tano's race) being good.

I haven't used destiny points, and the Unleashed powers look like not much payoff for such a limited source of power for a feat. Like, if I only get a Destiny point every few sessions, but I use a weapon every combat, I'd rather spend a feat on that weapon than a rare and not 100% ability.

I also think I'd have liked to see more stats of famous NPCs from the game or the time period. The main character in the video game would have been a good start, and a few more of the Jedi I believe get hunted down. That's another thing: if the game is about hunting Jedi, it would have been good to have a bit on "so you're Vader's other apprentices, and these are your targets".

Droids: yes, I like the equipment rules the moment I realized what they were (I started from the bakc of the book, and was like "two sets of stats? buh-wuh?").
I don't remember, but do they have the tactician-droid from Clone wars? Maybe that's in the Clone wars guide...

 

[MarkB]

I read through that one, too. I dunno. I like some of it, other parts I'm not sure of.

The organizations are good, and a great way to include the PCs in the story more, and get them involved in missions that aren't pure profit. The PrCs look okay, I suppose. The races are alright, with the Togruta (ahsoka tano's race) being good.

I haven't used destiny points, and the Unleashed powers look like not much payoff for such a limited source of power for a feat. Like, if I only get a Destiny point every few sessions, but I use a weapon every combat, I'd rather spend a feat on that weapon than a rare and not 100% ability.

I also think I'd have liked to see more stats of famous NPCs from the game or the time period. The main character in the video game would have been a good start, and a few more of the Jedi I believe get hunted down. That's another thing: if the game is about hunting Jedi, it would have been good to have a bit on "so you're Vader's other apprentices, and these are your targets".

That's not really the point of the book. It includes some mechanics from the videogames, but it was never intended to be a "how to run The Force Unleashed as a tabletop game" book. Instead, it's a setting book for the Dark Times, during which those games take place. Taken as that, it is an excellent era sourcebook.

That said, it does include the Unleashed mechanic as a means of allowing some of the more excessive Force uses we see in the videogame without unbalancing the game in general. You're right that it's not very useful for PCs, but it does work very well on pivotal NPCs, ones who might have a Destiny Point or two available with which to implement some astonishing set-piece feat of Force power.

And I count four named Jedi statted-up in the book, more than enough for any one supplement.

Droids: yes, I like the equipment rules the moment I realized what they were (I started from the bakc of the book, and was like "two sets of stats? buh-wuh?").
I don't remember, but do they have the tactician-droid from Clone wars? Maybe that's in the Clone wars guide...

That one makes an appearance in Galaxy At War. I don't think they'd shown up by the time the Clone Wars Campaign Guide was published.