Star war RPG D20

[Iron_Chef]

Bad news ... Jedi can deflect slugthrowers. That was clarified on pg. 135 of the Galactic Campaign Guide.

Basically, if its a ranged attack and requires and attack roll to hit (blasters, slugthrowers, arrows, spears, thrown weapons, etc.) rather than a saving throw to avoid (grenades, stunners, etc.), a Jedi can deflect it.

Aw, nuts. They really are invincible.

 

[Venport]

From D&D to SWD20

Here is my situation: i started D&D 2 years ago with a group of players who had been playing sence early 2nd edditon. I came in played for about a year and took over as DM (crazy but fun) now the current Dm is ok and this means we need to start planning the next campain so we will have somthing when this campagin ends.

I came accross some free SWD20 stuff and asked the players if they will be interested. So yes this will be the D&D Dm, and players goes starwars... so i will have to make sure it's not played like D&D... and i think that will be the problem...

Here are the potental problems i see...

1: fighting untill you are out of VP and taking damge.... next complain about the system because there is very little healing

2: money... i have not found a level dependent chart on how may credits a player should have. when should they beable to upgrade their weapons, ships ect...

there are others i just can't think of them right now...

can you guys give any advice on how to explian this to you players....


thanks

 

[kenobi65]

One thing I've noticed in Star Wars d20 is that combat can be very deadly at low levels. I hear it's REALLY deadly in the Living Force RPGA campaign.

Not in my experience (and I've played every LF module published). Then again, the group I usually play with, while certainly adept in combat, doesn't always pursue combat as a first option. Then again, if the LF players you've talked to tend to play in a different style than we do, I could see that it's possible.

My PC has come *close* to dying once or twice, but never has had to use either of the certs I have that might allow one to avoid death. Of the literally dozens of LF PCs I've known, I don't know of a single one who's died in combat. (I know of several who died in a module that presented PCs with an opportunity to make a noble sacrifice, and I know one who died under other circumstances...)

 

[DnDChick]

1: fighting untill you are out of VP and taking damge....

After they make characters, run them through a few sample combats so they can get a feel for how things are different than D&D. No plot ... just pure combat so they can get the flow of the game. Them on once side, a bunch of stormstropers on the other side. If they die, it doesn't count. All this is meant to be is an exercise in how the Star Wars d20 combat works. I did this for my group and it really helped out.

next complain about the system because there is very little healing

There is plenty of healing. There are medpacks, which restore Vitality points, and bactra treatments, hospitals, doctors, a few Jedi powers, etc.

Also, reassure them that although it's easy to take lots of Vitality damage in a fight, the points come back in a matter of hours, rather than days like in D&D. I don't remember the formula right off the top of my head, but I think it's like 1 VP per hour per character level. In D&D its 1 point per DAY per character level. So ... there isn't much *instant* healing, but instant healing isn't needed very often because of how quickly Vitality comes back.

Wound points ... that's another matter ... if the characters stick around in a fight for such a long time that they start taking WP damage it is their own fault, not yours or the sytem's. If they start regularly taking WP damage they are outclassed or outgunned and are better off running.

2: money... i have not found a level dependent chart on how may credits a player should have. when should they beable to upgrade their weapons, ships ect...

There is a chart for this in one of the other books ... the Hero's Guide, I think ... I will check when I get home.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

There is a chart for this in one of the other books ... the Hero's Guide, I think ... I will check when I get home.

Yep, Hero's Guide has the recommended credits-per-level table.

 

[kenobi65]

1: fighting untill you are out of VP and taking damge.... next complain about the system because there is very little healing

At very low levels, it's more problematic. Once you get a few levels under your belt, (a) the PCs don't take WP damage nearly as often, and (b) if you have Jedi or Force Adepts in the party, healing WP damage (not to mention VP damage) with Heal Another is a pretty good option.

That said, SW doesn't have to be as combat-intensive as D&D often is. Of course, you *can* run a combat-intensive SW game, but you can be true to the milieu while doing non-combat encounters, too.

Edit: one other thought. If you, as the GM, are really concerned about this, the best way to make sure you don't unintentionally TPK low-level characters is to make sure they get some down time between combat encounters. Don't run them through "dungeon crawls" of combat after combat...that's not really SW. Have a fight, then get on the ship and spend hours (or days) flying to the next encounter...time heals all wounds.

 

[kenobi65]

2: money... i have not found a level dependent chart on how may credits a player should have. when should they beable to upgrade their weapons, ships ect...

Unlearn what you have learned....

SW is not D&D. If you can get your players to learn nothing else, this is it.

While there are certainly ways to upgrade weapons, ships, etc., a SW PC is much less about his phat loot than a D&D PC is.

 

[wingsandsword]

While there are certainly ways to upgrade weapons, ships, etc., a SW PC is much less about his phat loot than a D&D PC is.

This is a very critical difference between D&D and SWRPG, one new SWRPG players need to really learn.

D&D is tightly balanced on the idea that at "X" level PC's will have "Y" equipment, mostly magic items. Star Wars is not like that. This is not a game of "stuff", your characters skills and abilities are much more important than your gear.

There are no magic items in Star Wars (well, there are a handful of things that could be called that, but the game never ever presumes PC's have access to things like that, they are effectively minor or major artifacts in the D&D sense).

Starting money might limit what stuff a PC can start with, but soon thereafter any PC can really have all the stuff they'll need: A blaster pistol or rifle, maybe a suit of armor, some medpacs, a comlink, credit chip and datapad, and maybe a few miscelleaneous things like a field kit.

The biggest thing a PC will ever buy is a starship, and that's almost more of a plot device. If PC's have lots of money, just repairing it and maybe giving it a few upgrades will eat up money even faster than magic items do in D&D.

The wealth of characters in Star Wars may have much more to do with their societal role than their character level. A group of nobles will doubtless have far more money than fringers of the same level. Note that the game had been out 3 years before they even published that. After all, Obi-Wan Kenobi living in exile on Tatooine had little more than his lightsaber and a few odds and ends, which would be amazing for a 16th level D&D character who is waiting to return to action one day. On the other hand, when we first see Princess Leia as a 6th level character, she has a starship, droids, and vast fortunes.

The Heros Guide has a table, but that's mostly just a suggestion.

 

[Venport]

I really like the idea of having the players make their Characters then run them threw a basic fight with no stroy and nothing but a room and some Storm troopers\battle droids.... and if they live a rancor so that they die...

well more because i just pulled one from a ST minitures box and let me tell you he is not a mini... he is huge!!

i have to tell this to someone right now but it is 11:00pm and no one who cares that i know is up right now...

but my girl frinds is staying at her parents tonight so i went by Blockbuster to see if anything was there... nothing that i wanted to waist my money on

then I drove by borders witch was only open for another 10 min i went in got a magazine and decited to get a box of SW min (just started collecting for RPG) i let the lady behind the counter pic. went to the car started the radio and opend my SW minitures... i see the top of the rancor and pull it and the other 6 min out (witch they fall on the floor) this is my first box of the SW minitures huge and only my 3rd of SW min at all... this counts for all three boxes with a Very Rair...

Well thanks for letting me go off topic for a min.... Back to RPG

My next RPG question is what erra should i run??

I'm thinking New Jedi order... i like the yuuzong vong (sp) and most of my player have never heard of them... there is also what was left of the empire and much more but i wanted some imput on he different erras of play....

Also how many referenced to the movies should i touch on... for example i plan on opeing the game up with the evacuating from a planet (they will not know why untill later) as it expolodes they are asked by the captain to main the guns and take out a few tie fighters the captian will later thank them and introduce himself as captain antillies (sp)... i thought this would be cool... the planet will ither be aleran (if in rebelion erra) or a different planet destroyed by the proto star destorer that is in the later SW books... (have not thought much about it if it is in the Rise of the empire era)

is this good??? what about other feferences??? and sugestions??? i think half the reason of playing this is having fun tieing your PC's into the story lies of the books and movies... what dose everyone else thing??

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I'm thinking New Jedi order... i like the yuuzong vong (sp) and most of my player have never heard of them... there is also what was left of the empire and much more but i wanted some imput on he different erras of play....

I love the New Jedi Order Era, but in all honesty, I don't think its a good one for new players. It can be very, very different from the Star Wars that many people are use to, and the Vong's Force Immunity won't exactly help a beginning experience either. The Vong are deadly, even to non-Jedi. They aren't grunts like Stormtroopers are, and since they are melee oriented, that means any non-Jedi is in serious danger from the start.