Sell me on Star Wars D20

[d4]

There's a binary choice to be made between abandoning yourself to your fear (accepting the penalty) and using it (and thus the Dark Side). Neither option very heroic, or Jedi-like. What about Jedi serenity - having the Force flow through you so strongly that you are beyond fear?

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer..."

oh sorry, wrong universe.

i see your point, though. i'd have to say that the serene thing for a Jedi to do would be to accep the DSP and then use a Force Point to get rid of it. or, just grit your teeth and accept the penalty and continue the fight with the handicap. now that's heroic.

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

i see your point, though. i'd have to say that the serene thing for a Jedi to do would be to accep the DSP and then use a Force Point to get rid of it. or, just grit your teeth and accept the penalty and continue the fight with the handicap. now that's heroic.

I think the idea is that Jedi characters can overcome the fear penalty with their own force powers (Battlemind or Enhance Ability, for instance) or through expending force points.

Anyway, my opinion of Star Wars d20?

Strengths:

Fast-paced action. Fantastic melee system... improves on D&D.

The class/level/stat system actually works better for me than the old d6 system- it's much easier for gamemasters to scale challenges, and players are actually able to make characters as powerful as those in the movies. (One of my players was thrilled when he discovered that his Jedi Master was more capable than Master Yoda in a few areas- in the d6 game, a PC could never even hope to attain those heights of power).

The source material is excellent, the force powers are much more balanced than d6, and there is much more material on the Jedi order available now (of course, the Prequels had not yet come out when the original game was in print).

Familiar system for D&D players- easy to convert.

Weaknesses:

Starship/Vehicle rules and combat are awful, and not terribly exciting- not to mention really tough to work on a gridboard without a lot more work than I'm willing to invest. Of course, I have seen some decent house rule improvements on the net, such as the chase system (that I think was on the DLOS website, but I'm not sure) that help improve this.

All around, though, it's a very good RPG, and I like it better than d6, even though there were areas in which d6 was certainly better.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

So, could someone explain to me the whole logic between taking a Dark Side point to negate the Fear penalty? I get it mechanically, but not conceptually.

 

[Desdichado]

Another strength no-one's mentioned yet: Green Ronin's new Psychic Handbook uses the same mechanic as Jedi force skills for it's psychic powers, expanding the effective list of things Jedi can do.

I also don't particularly like the Revised vehicle combat rules, but then again, I also still have the old version of the book too. I never did understand why folks complained about those rules, I thought they were nice, fast and cinematic. I greatly prefer them to the Revised rules.

 

[JPL]

So, could someone explain to me the whole logic between taking a Dark Side point to negate the Fear penalty? I get it mechanically, but not conceptually.

Learn, you must.

“Beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight.”

“Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight."

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

Seems like taking the Dark Side point represents a character giving into the fear...letting fear turn into more negative emotions, which then give rise to negative actions.

In the short term, letting your fear become anger gets you past the fear, but the way of the Jedi would be...well, to not be afraid of the fear.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

Learn, you must.

“Beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight.”

“Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight."

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

Seems like taking the Dark Side point represents a character giving into the fear...letting fear turn into more negative emotions, which then give rise to negative actions.

In the short term, letting your fear become anger gets you past the fear, but the way of the Jedi would be...well, to not be afraid of the fear.

Right, so captian evil comes up to me and makes me afraid. How is getting over it evil? That's what confuses me. I can see situations where it works (the emperor taunting Luke with the destruction of the rebellion in RoTJ, luke can fight with penalties because he's destracted with worry, but instead gets pissed and attacks). But there's plenty more where it doesn't. How do you describe the simple act of being afraid, and present the option of taking the Dark Force Point to counter it?

"Ok, so you're really scared. But if you get angry, you won't be scared anymore."

"I'd like to take a deep breath and calm myself, recalling my training and all the times people told me I can do it. I'd like to find the serenity that I've been working so hard to find."

"Uh, you can't do that. It doesn't work. You have to take a Dark Force Point to dispell it."

"Why?"

"Because you're getting all angry."

"But I don't want to get all angry. I just want to deal with it."

I just can't think of a way to make it work short of saying "He used fear on you. Take a DSP or a -4 to all actions."

 

[Liquidsabre]

If you think about it, all you have to do is spend a Force Point to cancel the affects of Fear...very simple.

 

[wonderbread]

Right, so captian evil comes up to me and makes me afraid. How is getting over it evil? That's what confuses me. I can see situations where it works (the emperor taunting Luke with the destruction of the rebellion in RoTJ, luke can fight with penalties because he's destracted with worry, but instead gets pissed and attacks). But there's plenty more where it doesn't. How do you describe the simple act of being afraid, and present the option of taking the Dark Force Point to counter it?

"Ok, so you're really scared. But if you get angry, you won't be scared anymore."

"I'd like to take a deep breath and calm myself, recalling my training and all the times people told me I can do it. I'd like to find the serenity that I've been working so hard to find."

Combat is pretty fast in d20 games and fear doesn't last forever. If your willing to actively concentrate on calming yourself and regulating your breathing, that sounds like a very complex activity, and you should take a penalty to your actions while you heroicly fight off the unnatural fear and anger that cloud your mind. If on the other hand you want to take the 'quicker, easier' route then you embrace the strength in your anger and hate, shake off the fear and earn your Dark Side Point.

 

[DeBracy]

Simple maths

Let's face it... how can you go wrong with SW d20? After all, it's 14 better than the d6 version...

 

[Liquidsabre]

Right, so captian evil comes up to me and makes me afraid. How is getting over it evil?

Simple, by getting over it you are essentially giving into your fears. One of the first steps towards the darkside.

As I said, just spend a force point and get rid of that darkside point instantly and you are essentially calling upon the force to overcome these feelings. How is this a problem?