[Star Wars] Force Skills

[Pillsbury]

Hi all,
My friends and I are planning to start up a Star Wars campaign, and I had a quick question about Force skill use and the VP cost. Does this system work well? Or would a Force point system work better? It seems to me that the current system penalizes the character for using his skills. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks
Pillsbury
Co-founder Pillsbury Light Infantry
Paintball Scenario Team

 

[Gospog]

Hi Pilsbury,

I've found that, as it stands, the "VP for Force use" system keeps Force users from dominating every fight in the game (and other scenes besides).

It also allows smart bad guys to wear down "invincible" Jedi with waves of cheap droids (for example).

If you are running a game in which everyone is a Force user, balance might not be as big an issue. And you might want to look into other systems.

I hope that helps. Good luck!

-Tom

 

[Dominic]

I agree with Gospog.

My homebrew Star Wars campaign has a mix of character classes, and it seems to balance well. Jedi will also be reluctant to spend skill ranks on anything that isn't a force skill, and that makes them dependant on other party members in some cases.

Our two Jedi Guardians take at least the first round of any combat to 'buff' themselves with force skills - thus expending VP. It's like an automatic first round hit from the badguys.

Lastly the VP system is integrated into combat well in Star Wars IMO, and changing it would cause other problems.

Good luck, and check out the Living Force RPGA campaign at a Con if you can. It's a good introduction to D20 Star Wars.

 

[Pillsbury]

Thanks for the input. The players in my group are a little paranoid about rules that cause characters to basicly damage themselves to use abilities. I guess i've been a little hard on them in our D&D campaigns, so anything that lowers what are basicly hitpoints is a bad thing to them. I guess the best thing to do would be run a quick tutorial campaign with the rules as written and then make any house rules after we have some experience.


Thanks
Pillsbury
Co-founder Pillsbury Light Infantry
Paintball Scenario Team

 

[Dominic]

Pillsbury,

Make sure to point out the flipside of this, in that it is very easy to get VP back - 1 point per level per hour with rest, and the force users with heal self can do it pretty much for free once per hour.

 

[Pillsbury]

Dominic,

I didn't really think of that. It's going to take a little time to get used to the VP/WP as opposed to HP system. We're a bunch of D&D players since the early 80's, and it's taken me almost 20 years to get them to agree to play a game other than D&D. So it's going to take some time to get our minds wrapped around a new system. Although since it's d20 the learning curve shouldn't be too steep. The only reason I think they agreed to play at all is due to the fact that it is d20 and it's Star Wars.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Try not to think of Vitality as damage. It isn't. Instead, its the character getting a bit more tired. You aren't damaging yourself by using the Force, you're using effort to use the Force.

I've run a bunch of Star Wars games, some with Force Users, some without. Never had a problem with the VP using Force skills. Even in my all-Jedi game here on the boards, its never been a problem.

 

[humble minion]

Adding my voice to the chorus - it works pretty well in my experience. Jedi will still kick butt, but they can't do it all day long. You'd be well advised, however, to check out the errata (available at http://www.swrpgnetwork.com, because some of the Force skills - notably Fear and Friendship - are very problematic indeed if used as written.

 

[Skywalker]

Adding my voice to the chorus - it works pretty well in my experience. Jedi will still kick butt, but they can't do it all day long. You'd be well advised, however, to check out the errata (available at http://www.swrpgnetwork.com, because some of the Force skills - notably Fear and Friendship - are very problematic indeed if used as written.

Another option rather than VP is to use the concept of fatigue in Blue Rose which has a magic system akin to SW. Essentially, roll a Will Save at DC 10 + half rank of Force Skill. If you fail you take 1 level of Fatigue.

There are four levels of Fatigue.

1 - Winded: -2 to Str and Dex, cannot move all out or charge.
2 - Fatigued: -4 to Str and Dex, cannot move all out or charge (the same as the Fatigued Condition in SW).
3 - Exhausted: -6 to Str and Dex, cannot move all out or charge, move at half speed.
4 - Unconscious.

 

[Henry]

Another option rather than VP is to use the concept of fatigue in Blue Rose which has a magic system akin to SW. Essentially, roll a Will Save at DC 10 + half rank of Force Skill. If you fail you take 1 level of Fatigue.

One thing's for sure - faced with that or the vitality loss, I'd take the vitality loss. Fatigue levels could be MURDER to a Jedi Guardian!