What's Your Favorite System for Star Wars

[Reynard]

Maybe it's one of the officially licensed RPGs. Maybe it is another sci fi RPG, or a generic system. Maybe it's a game of a different genre altogether that just works for you. It could even be a homebrew. It might even depend on the mode and era of play.

Whatever it is, tell me what your preferred game system is for adventures set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. And why.

Thanks.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

Star Wars Saga Edition. In fact, it's probably my favorite d20 system iteration. I wish more had been done with it.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I plan to use 5e.

 

[Larnievc]

SAGA was really good. I made a decent fist of balancing Jedi. Obviously it failed at that particular issue but it was great if you didn’t have Jedi.

 

[Umbran]

I have not played all the various iterations. But, I had a lot of fun with Star Wars Saga Edition.

Though, to be honest, if a decent GM said they were running a Star Wars game, and invited me to play, I'd not really care which system they were using. The best system is one you get to play.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

SAGA was really good. I made a decent fist of balancing Jedi. Obviously it failed at that particular issue but it was great if you didn’t have Jedi.

Honestly our mundanes never felt overshadowed by Jedi in SWSE.

Well, maybe once the Force Unleashed sourcebook came out.

But if they had put out “battlefield maneuvers” in the same way they had force powers and starship maneuvers, giving mundanes some tools to do more rad stuff in a fight, even that imbalance would have been pretty well invisible for us.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Honestly I think I’d rather make some changes to SWSE than try to port it over to a different system like 5e or use the old d20, or FFG’s weird attempt, or the somewhat cumbersome d6 version.

 

[aramis erak]

Maybe it's one of the officially licensed RPGs. Maybe it is another sci fi RPG, or a generic system. Maybe it's a game of a different genre altogether that just works for you. It could even be a homebrew. It might even depend on the mode and era of play.

Whatever it is, tell me what your preferred game system is for adventures set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. And why.

Thanks.

Depends upon several factors...

Oneshots? Short runs, no Jedi? WEG 2E. Easier to teach than E

Campaigns with jedi-only or mixed force non-force? Full FFG (EotE+AoR+F&D)

No force users, dark times: WEG 2E but adding "Keep 5d" to all the roll codes Caps the needed difficulties, and noting that the wild die has to be kept to be open ended...

Old Republic era? FFG.

I hated the d20 1E and 2E, and never bothered with Saga.

Of the universal systems I've got...

• I've outgrown GURPS, and it would be a piss poor match anyway.
• Hero System is too complicated for non-fans to easily grasp, and I prefer it for fantasy, not sci-fi nor supers.
• EABA is pretty close to the d6 system, but keep 3, and no bonus dice for PC attributes. (I playtested 1E). It's a bit too gritty for star wars, but I could see running it for certain no-jedi styles. The difficulty scale
• CORPS is entirely too deadly, the paranormal powers are too narrow to make jedi affordable.
• Savage Worlds: I have it, but haven't run it. Star Wars is a setting I think might work well, but I already know WEG and FFG, and they do what I want out of a game for star wars...
• World of Darkness: entirely the wrong feel, IMO

Non-universal, genre based:

• Traveller: in addition to "which flavor" issues, None feel right to me.
• Space Opera (FGU): I've run it, and were it not overtaken with complexity, the general level of "clearly inspired by Star Wars, Star Trek, and BSG" is quite high...
• Spacemaster: too lethal. Too much player-facing math.

 

[pemerton]

Of the universal systems I've got

I've read but never played Fate core. It seems like it might do Star Wars.

I feel like Cortex+ should be able to, too, but the version I know is MHRP/Heroic and I'm not sure it's quite the right fit.

Traveller: in addition to "which flavor" issues, None feel right to me.

I've been running Classic Traveller quite a bit over the past couple of years. A great system (in my view) but nothing like Star Wars in feel. Both system and implied setting are too gritty.

 

[Blackrat]

I add my voice for SAGA. It was the d20 system that 4e should have been. I really love the system itself, I just got bored with SW eventually. And yeah, as said, the Jedi don’t overshadow others in saga.