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RULES Because the randomness inherent to 1st and 2nd level D&D is much, much higher than what I want from an RPG (or most any game, really). Because low-level characters in D&D are *monumentally* incompetent, able to fail at otherwise trivial tasks. SAGA fixes both. CHARACTER Because the...

Fantasy HERO seems like a good fit: low(er) magic fantasy, non-percentile, lots of tactical choices including parrying and dodging, armor as DR. You would need at least the Fantasy HERO book. I'm not sure if you need the HERO 5th Edition core book, or at least the Sidekick 'light' rules...

Laptop case for my laptop/character sheet/game notes; it also has room for 1-4 books, a dice bag and a PC mini. A plastic box totes any additional minis I may need.

IIRC, two sentences of boxed text is considered pretty much the upper limit; I know it's what I try to stick to. Anything beyond that and the typical player's eyes start to gloss over. GM narration (as described in the Save My Game article) is usually not distinguishable from boxed text if...

For "gaming groups," four or more. However, that includes board games, Star Wars Minis and Magic: the Gathering. For just RPGs, I'd have to say one as of a month ago, since the two games I'm in currently (one as a GM, the other as a player) are both unusually limited for our circle and involve...

And a soldier with Battle Armor will have a Reflex defense of 20 at 1st level against *every* attack, without spending a single talent, not to mention a boost to his Fortitude defense that also applies to his damage threshold. Since Jedi get to play with two talents, we'll give the Soldier two...

I don't even freaking LIKE Star Wars, Felon. I loved the X-Wing vs. Tie-Fighter PC game and enjoyed the original trilogy. But compared to Final Fantasy or Conan or even something I only like, rather than love, such as Barsoom/John Carter of Mars, I could take or leave Star Wars. In other...

Raises hand. And I've never been happier with a system. It's the best developed game I've ever seen, taking the crown from Spirit of the Century. Is it the *best*? That I'm not sure of, and not even sure it's possible to judge; it's definitely in the tactical, D&D-derived subset of RPGs and...

Ugh. WotC's handling of their IPs has been pretty awful outside the stuff they directly control (tabletop games and novels), TSR's was even worse, and Hasbro looks to continue the trend. Unless WotC/Hasbro is getting more from the licensing rights than they would from their take on the games...

Actually, what other characters can't do is cut things to pieces with a lightsaber in really creative ways, or use the Force in place of other skills. Non-Jedi can be quite capable as 'mages' under Saga; a Force Sensitive noble is probably the closest to the spellcasting classes in D&D, for...

QFT. WotC has shown they can design a strictly-better d20 rulesset than 3.5 without making it incompatible with a majority of 3.5 crunch: Star Wars Saga. Heck, they managed to do that while going cross-genre and attempting (with a fair degree of success) to emulate source material outside...

Giving yet another good reason for why Jedi being mechanically unbalanced for their level is a problem. The PCs in my campaign encountered a minor Dark Side user (Jedi 4/Soldier 2) as the 'boss' of their first session. They might have fled or cut a deal; instead, they fought. The party's two...

A level-based system has no reason to make Jedi 'just better' than other characters; if the average Jedi is a major badass (and he is), that just means he averages a higher level. In Saga, a typical, fully trained Jedi (with the Force as his ally, etc.) is at least 7th level, when he can take...

Yes, although often it's between GM and player rather than between players (though I've had that, too). I'd rather everyone have laptops, a LAN and instant messaging to do this, but my group isn't properly equipped - yet. :]

Except that this is no longer true. d20 and d6 Star Wars suffered from this problem; Saga does not. Perhaps not below 5th level, but past that I'll take a tricked out soldier over a tricked out Jedi for dueling. The only major advantage Jedi have is block/deflect (lightsabers are no better...

Not once they save up for a ring of spell turning (dispel magic). Or, for a much, much cheaper solution: a contingent spell. Dispel magic with a trigger of 'becomes the target of dispel magic.' Anti-magic fields will shut them down, but those generally aren't much fun for heavy use.

I'm mostly not going to list ones I saw as a player or GM in this section. On to... As a GM I've used: Courtier (Rokugan) An absolute must-have. The ideal party face/skill monkey, and a great class for important but combat-incompetent NPCs. I've used it again and again, always to great...

As a GM or other player, I've seen: Akashic (Arcana Evolved) I want to say 'weak' because the character in question essentially couldn't fight. But, he was the most effective skill monkey I've ever seen, one of the most fun characters I've ever seen in a game, and hugely influential in the...

Cleric or Druid zilla. Referring to a completely buffed (and thus larger-than-man-sized) cleric or druid, who thus completely outshines other PCs. The term comes from Wizards of the Coast's character optimization boards, where the CoDzilla is widely acknowledge as the most powerful character...

I don't like coming up with names, but feel compelled to show regional consistency when doing so. It's... ugly. :(