Star wars - which version?

[Dice4Hire]

I
So, now you have at least one person recommending every version. Good luck out there.

Cheers, -- N

But at least I have not heard anyone advocate a SW clone yet.

 

[Wik]

But at least I have not heard anyone advocate a SW clone yet.

Well played, sir, well played.

***

To answer the question at hand - the revised WEG d6 System is, bar none, the best system out there for mimicking the Star Wars franchise. Character creation is quick and to the point, and the game runs fast. It encourages fast, cinematic play, and lets you do some crazy stuff right out of the gate.

Starship combat actually works, and there's a huge amount of info for the game itself. Plus, I generally find that the system tends to encourage narrative play, which is what you want. I've found players rarely say "I shoot him with my gun" and instead mention their stance as they pull off their two fast shots. We ran an Eberron game using the d6 rules, and even the least descriptive players approached the game entirely differently than when playing with the d20 system.

My favourite scene in SW d6 was escaping from an imperial garrison, with most of the PCs on a hovercar, with one PC on a speeder bike. They were driving THROUGH the garrison, hallways and all, making jumps and flying down stairwells, with the speeder bike triggering elevators and lifts... with the rest of the party using the big guns on the hovercar. SO much fun.

 

[pawsplay]

And here I am disagreeing with the only other person to reply to this thread so far!

As someone who ran a long campaign using the system, I would STRONGLY warn you off the d20 revised edition (and the unrevised edition, which isn't thqt different). Put simply, the maths is broken, and the higher in level you get, the more broken it is. In combat, attack vs defense is imbalanced so everyone will hit everything all the time, and the damage system means that combats will generally only last a round or two. Which just isn't star warsy. Oh, and the space combat system is completely nonfunctional to boot, so much so that after a few months the fighter pilot PC in my game just gave the whole thing up, flew off into the sunset, and we both quit trying on the space combat front which was a crying shame. And the less said about the skill system the better.

I honestly have no idea what humble minion is talking about. I ran a game from 1st level to 15th. The longest battle was probably when the Soldier decided to cover their escape, and single-handedly defeated thirty-six stormtroopers over about twenty rounds. The space combats were quite epic; the real fun started when the pilot began to develop his Force powers and was able to consistently pull off oddball stunts with DCs of 25 or more. Particularly memorable was when they used a lightly armed shuttlecraft to take out six TIE Advanced fighters. The really cool thing about the fights was that every one was a nailbiter. If fights occasionally get cut short, well, look at the throne room scene in Revenge of the Sith. Deaths happen in Star Wars. The skill system is decidedly superior to the one in Saga, which benefits mainly from being simple. Saga has no such thing as a cross-class skill, so 1st and 2nd level characters can be very constrained in concept (e.g. the half-Dathomir Noble in the Young Jedi books, who is trained in both Survival and Persuade, and is proficient with a lightsaber, is an impossibility before level 3).

 

[pukunui]

Saga has no such thing as a cross-class skill, so 1st and 2nd level characters can be very constrained in concept (e.g. the half-Dathomir Noble in the Young Jedi books, who is trained in both Survival and Persuade, and is proficient with a lightsaber, is an impossibility before level 3).

Not if you use the optional Background rules from the Rebellion Era Campaign Guide.

I've also instituted a fairly common house rule allowing someone to choose Skill Training instead of a normal starting feat when multiclassing.

 

[kitsune9]

You can do that in Saga too. For starters, all heroes get triple max hit points at 1st level. Then there's the whole Skill Focus thing which makes Force users and frontmen (Deception/Persuasion) overpowered at low levels.

Hadn't played the WotC versions. I did have the d20 SW, but just couldn't dig it. I do have the Saga core rulebook though, but my players aren't sold on playing Star Wars, so it's going to sit on the shelf for now.

 

[Sean-Khan]

I've GM'd a 15-20? session campaign with first edition D20 - it was fun but especially force rules were cumbersome. I've played a few games using saga, and from current official rules I think they are the best. And there's rumors of new SW rules coming out too, but who knows when and what are they like.

If I would now start a Star Wars game I'd use Savage Worlds and one of the many Star Wars conversions made for it.

 

[ReeboKesh]

Oh I just had to throw my buck fifty into this thread. Having played every version of Star Wars I have to say if you want Star Wars then play the d6 version. It was a tough game and a hell of a lot of fun and you actually feared getting Dark Side points.

A couple of months ago we started the Dawn of the Defiance campaign using the latest WOTC rules and after a couple of sessions I found that running it was no fun at all.

- The Dark Side point system is a joke, my players treat them as a badge of honour when they get them because they have absolutely NO game effect until you get enough to make you an NPC. Get a DSP in d6 and you'll know it.

- One of my players created a spy based character from a race that gives +10 to Disguise check. He pumped points into social skills and charisma and we worked out that if he could build himself a Darth Vader costume he could convince any NPC that he was the Dark Lord of Sith because of the ridiculous skill system. Even so using capture Imperial uniforms they were able to bypass, read “walk through”, any imperial encounters unless I came up with some Dues Ex Machina to mess them up.


- Don't get me started on the Force System, one of the Jedi was able to smash Starships together by 7th level because of once again, the crazy skill system.


Trust me, the SW d6 system is a perfect example of what RPGs used to be, games that required a little bit more creative thought to get through encounter, rather than a cake walk unless the DM throws OP encounters at you.
Reebo

 

[Nilbog]

Seems like its quite a split decision, I guess like any system each will have fans and detractors.

I really would like to try to try the Saga system, as the group is pretty familiar with 3rd/4e DnD and that doesn't seem a big jump mechanics wise, however the scarcity of the books looks like I will run the WeG D6 edition as i've a bunch of these books (I bought them purely as star wars reference years ago, and I agree with a lot of posts here that the background in them is superb) and judging by the replies that won't be a bad choice.

I'm intruiged that a mystery buyer now has the licence, it will be interesting and exciting to see what they come up with, as to me as DnD is my standard fantasy, Star Wars has always been my standard Sci-Fi setting. Whoever gets it, lets hope they do the setting justice

 

[JediSoth]

It would be a hard choice for any pre-episode-4 era since there was no official support for such.
DS

Actually, WEG did release a Tales of the Jedi sourcebook, dealing with Dark Horse comics Old Republic Tales of the Jedi series (in the era BEFORE Knights of the Old Republic). It was pretty good, if I recall.

Granted, WEG lost the license just as the Special Editions were coming out, so nothing official for the Rise of the Empire era or The Dark Times exists. I have seen fairly decent fan-made books for Knights of the Old Republic and Clone Wars, though.

 

[wolff96]

...looks like I will run the WeG D6 edition as i've a bunch of these books (I bought them purely as star wars reference years ago, and I agree with a lot of posts here that the background in them is superb) and judging by the replies that won't be a bad choice.

I think you'll be happy with this decision.

Advancement is pretty slow, but WEG had enough time to smooth most of the wrinkles out of their system -- something I think Hasbro never gave WotC enough time to do. You also have a really rich system for adding all kinds of colorful detail to the world.

One piece of advice: Buy a brick of D6's if you don't have one already. It's always nice to be able to loan out d6's when needed, especially when wild dice are exploding.

Hope you and your group enjoy!