KOTOR d20?

[Menexenus]

Recently I've been playing Knights of the Old Republic II, and it has got me thinking about trying a Star Wars d20 game with my gaming group. So I dusted off my copy of Star Wars (Revised) from Wizards of the Coast. And as I look more closely at the mechanics, I find that I like the mechanics in the computer game better.

One of my main beefs with the Wizards of the Coast version is that Force powers are treated as "skills". I see why this was necessary from a game balance perspective. The Wizards of the Coast game wants non-Force-users to still have an important role in the game and not be too over-shadowed by the Jedi. However, that is not a concern for me, because I was planning to run an all-Jedi game anyway. So I am just fine with the idea of having Jedi characters be significantly more powerful than non-Jedi characters. Consequently, I prefer the system that KOTOR uses, where there are skills, there are feats, and there are also Force powers which are separate from skills and feats.

So here's my question: has anyone attempted to reproduce the KOTOR d20 system in a way that would be useable as a paper-and-pencil role-playing game? If so, please help me out and point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dragonblade]

I suggest picking up the KOTOR 2 Xbox strategy guide at a video game shop before it goes out of print.

I was working on a conversion a while back (but had to put it aside because I didn't have the time to work on it) and the strategy guide was immensely useful. It has details on all the character classes, feats, abilities, and force powers in the game. Most of it was already in d20 terms and just needs some tweaks to use it with the SW d20 rules.

The biggest changes are basically dumping a lot of the Force skills and feats in SW d20 and replacing them with KOTOR versions. Some of the other character classes are affected by this as well because some KOTOR feats are better or outright different than the standard SW d20 versions.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I can say from experience that its still a good idea to keep the SWd20 system as is. It works. I've run many, many all Jedi games, and the skills are the best way to do it. It actually forces the player to think about what they want to be able to do. You can't be the best at everything, so it gives others a chance to shine and diversify Jedi.

If the Force becomes a spellcaster type class, then how are you going to pay for it? You could use the Vitality point cost, but then you'd need to tweak with the powers so that they're skills...but not. It really is easier to just keep them as is.

The biggest problem with KotOR to SWd20 is that, simply, what works in a single player video game doesn't always work in a group oriented RPG.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Someone put together a KotOR I net-guide PDF already, that you could look for. They went the route of leaving things as-is and put together some of the new powers, I think, along with details on the time period, new items based on the stuff in the game, new power crystals, etc. It doesn't cover KII, but looked pretty interesting. KotOR got me thinking about a Tales of the Jedi (earlier) era Jedi-Oriented style game myself.

I'm still trying to decide if I want to use SWRPG as is (seems limiting as there are only 2 jedi classes), use the WEG game (but I can't get my hands on their Tales of the Jedi Companion), or convert it over to Talents and Feats for Grim Tales (letting people have more choice in character creation).

--fje

 

[Breakdaddy]

Anyone got a good link to the KOTOR web sourcebook? My copy died in a HD crash and I've had no luck finding it lately.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

You can find it either over at the www.swrpgnetwork.com boards or over on the WotC Star Wars RPG board.

 

[Breakdaddy]

You can find it either over at the www.swrpgnetwork.com boards or over on the WotC Star Wars RPG board.

Thanks, A-MG, but Ive had a hard time finding it at swrpgnet so far. I tried KOTOR and KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC as keywords with little luck. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for the help.

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

In a game with both Force users and non-Force users, there are good and important reasons to do things the way the SWRPG(r) does them.

When moving to an all-Force user game (of any set of Force traditions), you can add house rules to get a different feel if you wish. For example, I once ran an all Jedi-student game, which gave all Force users a template with extra skills points and feats only to be used on Force powers. That meant I could have players be Soldiers, Fringers, Scouts and Nobles, and still act like Jedi. It wouldn't have worked in another kind of game, but it was just fine for this campagin since everyone ahd access to Force abilities.

Owen K.C. Stephens
d20 Triggerman

 

[Ranger REG]

Someone put together a KotOR I net-guide PDF already, that you could look for. They went the route of leaving things as-is and put together some of the new powers, I think, along with details on the time period, new items based on the stuff in the game, new power crystals, etc. It doesn't cover KII, but looked pretty interesting. KotOR got me thinking about a Tales of the Jedi (earlier) era Jedi-Oriented style game myself.

Rumor has it, Ghengis_Ska is <air quotes> "researching" KOTOR II as we speak.

Hopefully, he will get into the Influence System.

I'm still trying to decide if I want to use SWRPG as is (seems limiting as there are only 2 jedi classes), use the WEG game (but I can't get my hands on their Tales of the Jedi Companion), or convert it over to Talents and Feats for Grim Tales (letting people have more choice in character creation).

Well, even though there are only 2 Jedi character class, you can always personalize/customize by adding levels of Jedi-based prestige classes. And if you're not the type to play in Living Force tournaments, nor willing to ignore standard Star Wars Universe conventions (or canon), go ahead and adapt other d20-based prestige class to Star Wars. For example, if you want a two-lightsaber dueling specialist, adapt the Tempest from Complete Adventurer.