Star Wars d20 – share your experiences! (Please)

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I think, this once again proves the weaknesses of Starwars d20:
Starwars is Heroic "Space Fantasy". Nowhere the heroes were deadly hit - only "NHs" (Non-Hero-Character) die.
But in Starwars d20, what do they do: They invent Wound & Vitality Points, and if a hero suffers a critical hit, he is probably dead. (3d8 from a heavy blaster?) That is not Starwars. You may be able to do this in a more realistic setting, but not in Starwars...

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[Lily Inverse]

I think, this once again proves the weaknesses of Starwars d20:
Starwars is Heroic "Space Fantasy". Nowhere the heroes were deadly hit - only "NHs" (Non-Hero-Character) die.
But in Starwars d20, what do they do: They invent Wound & Vitality Points, and if a hero suffers a critical hit, he is probably dead. (3d8 from a heavy blaster?) That is not Starwars. You may be able to do this in a more realistic setting, but not in Starwars...

I get the feeling that this mechanic was designed to make ENEMIES drop more quickly too, but you're definitely right, and here's what I'd generally do about it: Every level, add one point to your Vitality rating. You get slightly more durable every level,. including resistance to Criticals. Of course, higher-level enemies get this too, but they need it just as badly as the heros do.

 

[Psion]

I think, this once again proves the weaknesses of Starwars d20:
Starwars is Heroic "Space Fantasy". Nowhere the heroes were deadly hit - only "NHs" (Non-Hero-Character) die.

I want you to consider for a moment how many heroic characters die in most heroic fiction.

Answer: not many.

I think the thing people need to realize is that with RPGs, we should emulate the setting, not so much the methods that are brought on by conventions of the media. Death of heroes is much more appropriate in RPGs, and lets us transcend some of the limited story modes encouraged by the medium of the source material.

 

[hong]

I think the thing people need to realize is that with RPGs, we should emulate the setting, not so much the methods that are brought on by conventions of the media. Death of heroes is much more appropriate in RPGs, and lets us transcend some of the limited story modes encouraged by the medium of the source material.

Well, what's "appropriate" would depend on what you want out of your game, wouldn't it?

In the case of Star Wars, I think the VP/WP system works against the sort of feel that seems most appropriate for that particular setting. I'm talking about swashbuckling action, where a bunch of no-name heroes can penetrate a the most powerful battle station in the galaxy, rescue the princess, and come back later and blow it up. You typically want your players not to care so much about self-preservation in swashbuckling games, and the direct-to-body crits of VP/WP don't help in that regard.

 

[Ds Da Man]

Ahhh....That was another house rule. Half of crit damage applies to wounds, half to VP. This still allows an ewok with a blaster to roll the almighty d20 and seriously injure or kill a higher level opponet. There is also feats which assissts in boosting your wounds and vitality points.

 

[Salcor]

Around January I started running a quickie star war campaign and I found that I really enjoyed the system and the set up. I had my game set about a year before the phanton mence. The group was made up of 2 jedi (guardian and consular of course), a soldier, and a scoundrel. Would have like to continue it, had some fun things planned. However, I was adding some house rules, because I dislike the base ranged combat system for Wizards D20. I am thinking of adding the Spycraft ranged combat system to star wars, but haven't play tested it yet. I will make it far more lethal, so I am going to change the armor rule to add armor class, as well as damage reduction. (of course this will be tweaked as playing happens). Also I like the vitaliy/wound points system, because it does allow low level character kill a more experienced adversary. Mimicing real life to a certain extent. To deal with some of this, I think that wounds does need to go up with level, so the house rule that I am using is first: rule of max for vitality points (goes for the bad guys too), and then each character gets 1+constitution modifer to their wounds (can't go below zero). These are just some of the things that I am doing. I am also using a house rule from the Prince of Alderaan site, which makes the base Jedi class the padawan, and all other jedi are prestige classes. Kind of like the Ae Sedi in Wheel of Time.

Just my 2 cents.

Salcor

 

[bwgwl]

Well gee, one session isn't going to prove anything! Give it at least three or four sessions. If they're still skulking around in the dark, then you have a problem.

well, the characters in this campaign are now around 3rd-4th level. i had a talk with them early on about what i expected out the campaign (how i wanted it to feel "cinematic" and "like the movies"). the players did eventually take it to heart. it shaping up to be a pretty good campaign.

 

[EarthsShadow]

In our campaign, I allowed them to add +1 WP each time they gained a level to allow this kind of growth, and crits did half damage to WP and half to VP. In a way, though, I kinda think WOTC got their health systems mixed up, HP would probably work better with Star Wars and VP WP might be better with D&D, but who knows. I use VPWP in all my games.

 

[Hopping Vampire]

for one, i think the starwars rpg is boring.

 

[bwgwl]

for one, i think the starwars rpg is boring.

the group i'm running a Star Wars game for is also involved in 2 different D&D campaigns, and all four of the players say they are enjoying SW more than either of the D&D games.

to each his own, i guess.