New Star Wars RPG!

[Plane Sailing]

As I said:

I know I'm swimming against the tide here

It's nice that it works as-is for many people, it doesn't work as-is for my friends and I though.

I will await the arrival of this new edition with interest.

Cheers

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

The ONLY thing I can see as a problem with it is the need for so many skill points to divide between regular and Force skills...but that's not a huge problem, from my experience.

Are you refering to Force-using characters having to split their skill points between the two? In that case, it's done for the sake of that mythological concept known as "game balance," namely to avoid the problems a lot of people had with Jedi in the d6 version, where a handful of skills enable a Jedi character to accomplish all sorts of neat stuff while the bounty hunter and smuggler with their key skills can't pull off half the stuff a Jedi can.

Smuggler: with my 11D pilot skill, I can fly through an asteroid field and not get a scratch.
Bounty Hunter: With my 11D blaster skill, I can peg a fly between the eyeballs.
Jedi: With my 11D Alter skill, I can peg a fly between the eyes with an asteroid.

(a little extreme, but it gets the point across)

I know that in a Jedi Counseling article and as part of the 'Official' RotS web sourcebook, the option was given to roll all the various Force skills under their respective feat (i.e. Control skill, Sense skill, Alter skill; similar to how d6 handled Force skills), and you get one 'power' per rank in that Force skill (5 ranks in Control skill means 5 Control powers).

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Oh, I know why they do it...and I've been playing SWd20 since day 1, with a good amoutn of D6 experience beforehand.

The problem becomes when a character doesn't have enough Skill Points to be good at either their regular skills or their Force skills. I've seen players go all directions...some with more focus on the normal, others more on the Force, and then some trying to balance them.

Either way, this is where I see possibly the point where its hardest to emulate the movies/comics/books/etc. You cannot possibly have enough skill points to be able to do all the things that we see many Jedi/main characters doing. Yes, writeups for the characters are fairly good, but there's always something missing.

Now, I will say this is a MINOR problem at most, and is something that can just be taken as others in the sense of "It has to be done for the sake of the game," but if there's anything that's really a problem with the way the Force works...that's it.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I saw the "can't do both" issue as well, and recognized it for game balance. Force-heavy characters will be skill-weak and vice-versa.

For an all-Jedi game I bumped up skill point aquisition a little and that helped. I gave everybody an extra skill point and a free "2 Skills, +2" type Force feat for free as an origin feat available only to people during The Old Republic.

--fje

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I saw the "can't do both" issue as well, and recognized it for game balance. Force-heavy characters will be skill-weak and vice-versa.

For an all-Jedi game I bumped up skill point aquisition a little and that helped. I gave everybody an extra skill point and a free "2 Skills, +2" type Force feat for free as an origin feat available only to people during The Old Republic.

--fje

I did that in one game and it worked pretty well, but it was just playing with things and I didn't include it in any others.

But its definitely felt the most in the Old Republic era...when Jedi are supposed to be good Diplomats, Pilots, Technicians, Warriors, and Force Users...not all at the same time, but usually a combination of them where it taxes skill points.

Course, I remember D6 and some of the insanities one could get with the Force there so I know how bad it can get...

 

[Ranger REG]

I know I'm swimming against the tide here, but I'd be quite disappointed with that. I think that the way that the force is handled (and force points in particular) could do with a complete overhaul, and much else could be improved too. The idea of using up your forcepoints is completely counter to the films, as is the idea of using the force tiring you out all the time (as the vitality cost does). It really needs a complete re-imagining IMO.

Actually, I like that mechanics. I really cannot stand the old idea of having set number of power use per day, even with a point system that can only be replenished with an 8-hour sleep period. At least with VP, it can be replenished in a short amount of time, and the effect of using the power should be taxing.

 

[Skywalker]

Actually, I like that mechanics. I really cannot stand the old idea of having set number of power use per day, even with a point system that can only be replenished with an 8-hour sleep period. At least with VP, it can be replenished in a short amount of time, and the effect of using the power should be taxing.

I agree.

I think the real issue lies in how VP are defined i.e. along the lines of Hit Points. I think VP are a great resource that cover much more than this limited definition. Essentially, they act as a form of drama points by managing the "screen time" of the PCs i.e. Jedi get to use only so much cool funky power usage, warrior types get only so much arse kicking in combat etc. Vp are in many ways what seperates Luke the farm boy from the better trained Stormtrooper mooks and allow him to escape the Death Star.

So I hope they keep VP and personally I would like to see VP also be able to be spent on other stuff, such as granting bonuses on Skill use etc much like Action Points in d20 Modern. That would allow VP also to manage the screen time of skill users and bring the three main archetypes in line.

In a recent SW d20 game we used the following house rule for great effect:

The GM decides for each PC whether he or she gets 1d6, 1d8 or 1d10 Vitality Points per level depending on the style of play he wants. The more Vitality Points the greater the heroism. A GM may also award lower level PCs with greater Vitality Points to allow those PCs greater flexibility to counter the lower power level.
A PC may spend 5 Vitality Points to do any of the following:
1. Reroll any one d20 roll the PC makes and take the better of the two results. If both results are below 10, treat the roll as a 10. The player must spend the Vitality Points and reroll before the GM announces the result of the roll.
2. Gain an additional action for one round.
3. Ignore the effects of physical conditions such as fatigued, stunned or unconscious for one round.
A PC may spend 10 Vitality Points to do any of the following:
1. Gain the benefits of a feat the PC doesn’t already have for one scene. The PC must be capable of acquiring the feat normally, meaning the PC must meet all the prerequisites.
2. Add a plot twist into the story as approved by the GM.
3. Automatically stabilize the PC or someone the PC is attempting to heal; although, this doesn’t protect the PC from further damage.

 

[Sketchpad]

While I'm sure it won't, I would like it if it incorporated a lot of the stuff from the KOTOR games. That was a more streamlined version of the rules, but also allowed for more , er, droid kicking.

After playing the first one, I was real excited by the SW d20 game. But then I actually got it, and well, it was sort of the other direction. Not bad, but not as action packed as I had hoped based on KOTOR.

I would prefer if they made a KOTOR campaign book like Eberron or the FR CS Include races, state of the galaxy, new pres classes, equipment and any other info needed to run a KOTOR game

 

[wingsandsword]

I would prefer if they made a KOTOR campaign book like Eberron or the FR CS Include races, state of the galaxy, new pres classes, equipment and any other info needed to run a KOTOR game

Why just be limited to the Knights of the Old Republic computer games as your source material for the era? They weren't the only sources for that era. Long before KOTOR was ever made, almost a decade before, the Tales Of The Jedi comic book series was set in the same era (just a few decades before the first KOTOR I believe). The old D6 SWRPG even had a sourcebook for that era a decade ago, so there is plenty of information on that era beyond just KOTOR.

It would make a lot more sense to make an "Old Republic Era Sourcebook" in line with the Rebellion Era Sourcebook and New Jedi Order Sourcebooks that have already been made. Everything from the founding of the Republic and the Jedi, to the Battle of Ruusan in 1000 BBY and the Ruusan Reformation that really changed the Republic and the Jedi from the KOTOR/TotJ way to as we saw it in the prequels.

If they are making a new series of books along with the "Saga Edition" of the SWRPG, I'd hope that era sourcebooks for all the various eras LFL divides Star Wars into would be done (with reprints/updates of the ones already done).

 

[Ranger REG]

I would prefer if they made a KOTOR campaign book like Eberron or the FR CS Include races, state of the galaxy, new pres classes, equipment and any other info needed to run a KOTOR game

Sorry, while Eberron and FR were designed for a certain pen-n-paper RPG in the first place, KOTOR is a computer game and at this time in LucasArts' territory.

WotC could draw on the same elements and reference material that KOTOR is based on, but I don't think they have the permission ... yet ... to publish and distribute a KOTOR-labeled sourcebook.