My experience with playing/running Star Wars, and a tweaked version of Microlite20 to accomodate it...

[Desdichado]

I've been playing Star Wars, as run by another guy in our group, for the last few months. Curiously, although we're pretty heavily invested in the d20 system, we are not using the d20 Star Wars (any of the three versions), but a bunch of house-rules that the GM came up with to the OGL himself. In most respects, it's similar in many ways to one of the d20 versions of Star Wars that preceded SAGA.

I had also proposed a Star Wars game earlier, that we ended up not playing (I ran something else instead) in part because I knew this guy had spent a lot of time and effort on this Star Wars campaign, and I didn't want to undercut his game by doing my own thing with it before that. I hadn't decided on a system for that one, yet, although I presumed that I would be using Star Wars d20 Revised, because I had that book. After a few months of playing his game, I've rethought that somewhat.

First of all, in my experience, the game didn't feel enough like Star Wars, and for the most part, that was driven by legacy issues inherent in the d20 system. The tactical combat wasn't very fluid or swashbucklery, especially for Jedi-type characters. Over time as the campaign developed, I became more and more frustrated with it. Granted, I don't particularly like tactical, battle-mat based combat anyway, but I found it more tolerable in a D&D mileu than in Star Wars.

The other major issue, especially for those of us who played Jedi type characters (and given the nature of the campaign, that was 4 of 6 players) is that we didn't feel particularly Jedi-like until we got to nearly 8th level. Somehow that wasn't right, and doesn't fit the source-material at all either. After all, Ahsoka was pretty capable, and everyone considered her a youngling, fer crying out loud.

Granted; you don't want your Jedi characters to over-power your non-Jedi characters, but I think crocking the Jedi as the way to achieve that inter-class balance is the wrong way to go. Rather, a more generous, swashbucklery approach that ramped the other classes up to Jedi capability is, I think, more desireable.

While I was having these thoughts, I stumbled belatedly onto Microlite20, or m20, which has a bazillion variants to a very simplified version of the d20 ruleset. I loved it! Right up my alley. Plus, better than the rather fiddly d20 at capturing the fast and loose swashbucklery feel of Star Wars, I think. There were, in fact, already two Star Wars variants, but neither one of them was 100% complete, and neither one of them really completely made an effort to capture the feel of the source material (although both were quite good.) So, even though I didn't have any immediate plans to run this, I decided to tinker with them; fuse the variants together, taking the best elements of each, and sprucing up a few small gaps that still remained.

Here, for the perusal of anyone who cares, is the result of that labor. Let me know what you think! I haven't actually play-tested it, but I'm not likely to be interested in serious re-evaluation of any of its core design precepts. But, I'll take feedback anyway.

http://starwarsm20.wikispaces.com/

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I like it.

I've recently added Star Wars to my gaming bucket list and have been looking over a few systems despite having all the d20 Star Wars RPG books and versions. (I just don't have the patience for all that crunch anymore.) I'm going to add this version to my list of rulesets to consider. Thanks for posting!

 

[doghead]

Like a lot of people, I have been looking around a 3rd Edition version that reduced the complexity of the system while keeping something that was easily recognisable by those familiar with 3rd Edition iterations, and reasonably compatible with existing material.

My first thought was that the m20 system presented here was perhaps a little more redacted than I was looking for, in particular the reduction of ability to just three and the skills to just five. But as I read more, I found myself reconsidering that evaluation. Hell, IIRC we played Boot Hill with just two (accuracy and speed) and Car Wars with three (Driving, Gunnery and one more added on for social interaction) attributes/skills.

I particularly liked the way the races were handled. Using a small list of options that can be mixed and matched then named whatever you like is much more appealing than huge lists of pre-formatted options.

One option I would probably look at incorporating would be Ken Hood's Grim and Gritty combat system. In essence this does a number of things I really like; Hit Points don't increase with level, wounds impair performance, avoiding damage and soaking damage are differentiated, and skill levels influence damage output. Despite the name, my experience is that the system creates much more dynamic combat. YMMV.

I would probably also consider changing Knight into Force User, and Light-sabre into Force Weapon. This is a result of my preferred choice of setting (in the period between the third and forth movie) and campaign (the characters are in the service of the empire) as much as anything. I also like the idea of incorporating more non-Jedi style force traditions - witches, shamen, magi, hermetic orders etc.

Anyway, thanks for sharing. Should I ever get around to running another SW game, these rules will definitely be on my list for consideration.

thotd

 

[Desdichado]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I, too, was a bit sceptical for some time of the core conceit of Microlite, which reduces characters to three abilities and actually only four skills (a fifth was added back in for several variants, including the two Star Wars variants that I kitbashed together to get this one.) But the more I looked it over, the more I started warming up to the idea, and eventually, even, completely embraced it.

doghead, I'd certainly encourage you to change the name for your preferred setting (I presume by the era between the third and the fourth you mean between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope and not the era between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, because that doesn't make much sense. I'm a bit of a traditionalist, though--in fact, I refuse in most circumstances to even call the first movie A New Hope, since that wasn't the title when I first saw it, or for some years afterwards.) The change in terminology wouldn't really impact how it plays at all, but it would better fit your setting preferences, it sounds like. The terminology I have best fits mine, so for my games, I'll probably leave it as it is.

 

[doghead]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I, too, was a bit sceptical for some time of the core conceit of Microlite, which reduces characters to three abilities and actually only four skills (a fifth was added back in for several variants, including the two Star Wars variants that I kitbashed together to get this one.) But the more I looked it over, the more I started warming up to the idea, and eventually, even, completely embraced it.

You are welcome. My initial feeling that it 'was missing bits' was a response conditioned somewhat by having mostly played 3rd Ed iterations for a long time. 3rd Ed iterations generally provide very comprehensive and cohesive mechanics for the modelling of 'reality'. Thats not a bad thing in of itself. What surprised me, especially as I knew that I wanted to play something 'simpler and easier', was how accustomed I had become to having rules that covered just about everything.

... I presume by the era between the third and the fourth you mean between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope and not the era between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, because that doesn't make much sense. I'm a bit of a traditionalist, though--in fact, I refuse in most circumstances to even call the first movie A New Hope, since that wasn't the title when I first saw it, or for some years afterwards.) The change in terminology wouldn't really impact how it plays at all, but it would better fit your setting preferences, it sounds like. The terminology I have best fits mine, so for my games, I'll probably leave it as it is.

Yeah, between Revenge of the Sith (which I never finished watching. Still haven't seen the last 20-30 minutes of the movie and don't plan to) and A New Hope. And yeah, the change in terminology won't impact on how it plays, but will shape in some way how the players see to the setting.

Again, thanks for sharing.

thotd