A Star Wars Gaming General Thread

[Reynard]

IMO it feels less like Star Wars if you kill off the bigger characters. What exactly are you getting out of the setting?

I admit I am a little surprised at this from you. I thought setting coherence and lore were the most important things to you? Is there no Star Wars without Luke and Vader? That seems very narrow, especially given how much great media stuff there is in other eras or other corners of the setting.

 

[Sketchpad]

I don't have the time, but I think Saberheart: A Star Wars Hack of Daggerheart would be a worthy project.

See, I think Daggerheart could do Star Wars well. The Hope and Fear mechanic would cater to the Light and Dark Sides of the Force pretty well, and a revised class system might do the setting some justice.

 

[Reynard]

See, I think Daggerheart could do Star Wars well. The Hope and Fear mechanic would cater to the Light and Dark Sides of the Force pretty well, and a revised class system might do the setting some justice.

The core system of DH would work great, especially (as you point out) Hope and Fear. If there is one thing I don't like about the game it is how particular the classes are, and how strongly tied to D&D like fantasy they are. It makes it harder to both reskin and hack.

But I can imagine building classes like Scoundrel, Bounty Hunter and various Jedi/Force users and making domains that work for them. But, as I mentioned, it is a lot of work that I can't dedicate the time to.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I admit I am a little surprised at this from you. I thought setting coherence and lore were the most important things to you? Is there no Star Wars without Luke and Vader? That seems very narrow, especially given how much great media stuff there is in other eras or other corners of the setting.

Yeah, that was a little strong. What parts of the setting did you want to engage? I guess I just find a straight removal like that to be less interesting. My idea of a fun "what if" would be something like Luke turning to the Dark Side in RotJ, or Vader's plan to capture Luke working in Empire, or Vader failing to kill Palpatine. Maybe the Death Star succeeds in destroying the Yavin base, and the Rebellion comes under new leadership, but with most of the mains intact and doing other things. Maybe Luke stays on Dagobah with Yoda and finishes his Jedi training, and Vader resumes his hunt for Luke.

Heck, maybe Vader defeats Obi-Wan on Mustafar and never gets cyborged. Just removing the mains without changing anything else seems almost gamist to me, a rationalization to have the PCs take their place. Of course, there are fun possibilities with that too. It's just not what I would do.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah, that was a little strong. What parts of the setting did you want to engage? I guess I just find a straight removal like that to be less interesting. My idea of a fun "what if" would be something like Luke turning to the Dark Side in RotJ, or Vader's plan to capture Luke working in Empire, or Vader failing to kill Palpatine. Maybe the Death Star succeeds in destroying the Yavin base, and the Rebellion comes under new leadership, but with most of the mains intact and doing other things. Maybe Luke stays on Dagobah with Yoda and finishes his Jedi training, and Vader resumes his hunt for Luke.

Heck, maybe Vader defeats Obi-Wan on Mustafar and never gets cyborged. Just removing the mains without changing anything else seems almost gamist to me, a rationalization to have the PCs take their place. Of course, there are fun possibilities with that too. It's just not what I would do.

Any changes by the GM prior to play would be arbitrary, of course -- but the choices made in the making were "arbitrary" to begin with.

I do think there is value in getting main NPCs out of the way and letting the PCs take lead roles (assuming they want them). But in this case the more important thing is to eliminate the focus of the Rebellion on the Skywalker intrafamilial squabbles. Palpatine exists beyond and without Vader. The Empire is more than a vehicle to tell a single family saga.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Any changes by the GM prior to play would be arbitrary, of course -- but the choices made in the making were "arbitrary" to begin with.

I do think there is value in getting main NPCs out of the way and letting the PCs take lead roles (assuming they want them). But in this case the more important thing is to eliminate the focus of the Rebellion on the Skywalker intrafamilial squabbles. Palpatine exists beyond and without Vader. The Empire is more than a vehicle to tell a single family saga.

If that's the case, why get rid of Han (and Chewie) as well?

 

[Reynard]

If that's the case, why get rid of Han (and Chewie) as well?

Because I don't need those characters in the setting (any more than I need Drizzt, Elminster or Raistlin). Leia is a more interesting and pivotal character and has value to the story of the Rebellion overall. And if only ANH is canon, then she isn't a Skywalker.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Because I don't need those characters in the setting (any more than I need Drizzt, Elminster or Raistlin). Leia is a more interesting and pivotal character and has value to the story of the Rebellion overall. And if only ANH is canon, then she isn't a Skywalker.

Ok, so it is more about replacing mains for PCs then? I thought you were making a partially narrative choice in their removal. No worries. If you're only counting ANH then it's a completely different setting to my mind anyway.

 

[Sketchpad]

The core system of DH would work great, especially (as you point out) Hope and Fear. If there is one thing I don't like about the game it is how particular the classes are, and how strongly tied to D&D like fantasy they are. It makes it harder to both reskin and hack.

But I can imagine building classes like Scoundrel, Bounty Hunter and various Jedi/Force users and making domains that work for them. But, as I mentioned, it is a lot of work that I can't dedicate the time to.

I would look at the d20 Star Wars 2nd Ed for a starting point if you were going that route. And I would definitely compare the Codex style cards with Force powers. Alter, Sense, and Control could be the Domains in DH, with a few different powers on each card (and maybe some larger powers like Force Lightning being cards on their own). It could be a simple "Spend a Hope (or gain a Fear) to use X Force power." Too much Fear could bring a crisis in faith from the GM.

See, character creation is where I think d6 Star Wars shines, as the template system was just so easy to get into and make characters from.

 

[Whisper-Kitten]

Yeah, that was a little strong. What parts of the setting did you want to engage? I guess I just find a straight removal like that to be less interesting. My idea of a fun "what if" would be something like Luke turning to the Dark Side in RotJ, or Vader's plan to capture Luke working in Empire, or Vader failing to kill Palpatine. Maybe the Death Star succeeds in destroying the Yavin base, and the Rebellion comes under new leadership, but with most of the mains intact and doing other things. Maybe Luke stays on Dagobah with Yoda and finishes his Jedi training, and Vader resumes his hunt for Luke.

Heck, maybe Vader defeats Obi-Wan on Mustafar and never gets cyborged. Just removing the mains without changing anything else seems almost gamist to me, a rationalization to have the PCs take their place. Of course, there are fun possibilities with that too. It's just not what I would do.

Maybe Yoda succeeds in his Coup d'`etat against the Emperor and names himself "The chosen one". Then puts out a book of Yodaisms; with such classics as "Let he who is without anger toss the first force boulder", and "The borscht is strong in that one", and of course everyones favorite " Yo Obi-Wan I did it!!"