Star Wars RPG hack of TOR, now with space combat! (feedback wanted)

[Laurefindel]

[edit] Documents updated to March 2026 version [/edit]

Two years ago, I started working on a Star Wars RPG using the rules of The One Ring 2e. To avoid necromancy, I'm making a new thread but you can find the original discussions on these forums here.

I finally sat down to complete the Starship Creation and Space Combat rules that were missing. If you have a head for rules and a time to spare, i would appreciate feedback and critique. This is still a second draft so things are still pretty fluid at this point.

Ship Creation and Space Combat (Starship Companion)
Main Star Wars Document (Fallen Empire: Outer Reaches)
Character Sheet

In a nutshell, here's what my Star Wars hack looks like...

• It's a Star Wars RPG using the core mechanics of The One Ring RPG (mostly 2e, with a few elements of the first edition that leaked here and there).
• The game uses a regular d12 instead of TOR' special feat die.
• There are six characters archetypes: Commander, Drifter, Heavy, Technician, Scoundrel, and Force User. These replace TOR's heroic cultures. As in TOR, each offer 6 archetype-specific virtues.
• There are six starship classifications: Bombers, Corvettes, Gunships, Interceptors, Light Freighters, and Starfighter. These are meant to mirror the characters archetypes, including a few class-specific virtues and rewards.
• Species are mostly cosmetic, giving a choice of a favoured skill, a trait, and a starting standard virtue. Ship have their equivalent with manufacturers. Species and manufacturers replace TOR's callings.
• Serenity and Passion replace TOR's Hope and Shadow but essentially work the same. Ships use Reliability and Disrepair instead.
• Equipment and ships are generic on purpose. Special equipment and specific weapons work similarly to rewards and magical weapons/items in TOR.
• Combat is shifted from melee-focused in TOR to something more ranged-combat oriented. Forward/Open/Defensive stances are engaged combat stances, allowing attacks at range and in melee. The Rearward stance is a disengaged stance, allowing for interaction with environment in combat (like using a medkit to stabilise a dying ally). Ships use the same stances.
• Characters aboard a ship have appointed roles between Pilot, Copilots, Gunners, and Engineers. Each role has their own set of combat tasks.
• The Force mostly relies on TOR's concept of magical successes, and the Force User's archetype virtues.
• The game is meant to be played more like a "mini-series" than a "movie", with frequent "offscreen" phases between "aired" episodes. Rest, healing, repairing, acquisition of new equipment and abilities etc. mostly happens offscreen.

Our game has been on hiatus for a while but we played intermittently for about a year - enough to playtest the system and refine the rules to a satisfactory level. Space combat has not yet been playtested.

'findel

 

[Laurefindel]

I edited the three documents with the latest updates (mostly cosmetic but with a few corrections and additions such as a table of content, etc). I didn't remove all the images this time so here they are in all their glorious lavishness.

Still not sure about the power level of the adversaries. High-tiers baddies are the next thing on the playtest table along with space combat. Adversaries stat blocks are the likeliest things to change in a near future.

 

[toddmoonbounce]

@Laurefindel Randomly came across this hack and ran a test session last night. Great work! We didn't get to play as much as I'd had liked - we fussed around with PC creation a bit longer than expected - but I think TOR system is a great baseline for the setting.

Some questions/comments/feedback, in no particular order:

• The 'Opening Crawl' was a fun and interesting use of the 'journey' rules. I'd like to see how it works out a few sessions in a row.
• "Crew Rating" is mentioned but no details are given. I assume it's similar to Fellowship Score from TOR?
• We found ourselves wanting a Lore skill. Something to test our knowledge of various aspects of the galaxy.
• Heavy Blaster Rifle (p23) has knockback, while on p42 it has unbalanced.
• It seems that a Force-User can only get a lightsaber at Valour 2. By design?
• We fought a Rancor in the test combat (should have just fought a group of troopers or something to start). I didn't read up on the Combining Size rules and ran it as normal. The group took the beast down without much difficult (in part by good/bad dice on each side of the table), but the combining size rules seemed like they'd be a huge swing the other way. My PC's weapons would do 0 damage.

This is what I can think of now. I hope to play more though and get a better feel for things (we usually run a TOR campaign but were a player down this week hence the test of your hack). Many of your tweaks to the base TOR system for this are really good.

 

[Laurefindel]

@Laurefindel Randomly came across this hack and ran a test session last night. Great work! We didn't get to play as much as I'd had liked - we fussed around with PC creation a bit longer than expected - but I think TOR system is a great baseline for the setting.

Some questions/comments/feedback, in no particular order:

• The 'Opening Crawl' was a fun and interesting use of the 'journey' rules. I'd like to see how it works out a few sessions in a row.
• "Crew Rating" is mentioned but no details are given. I assume it's similar to Fellowship Score from TOR?
• We found ourselves wanting a Lore skill. Something to test our knowledge of various aspects of the galaxy.
• Heavy Blaster Rifle (p23) has knockback, while on p42 it has unbalanced.
• It seems that a Force-User can only get a lightsaber at Valour 2. By design?
• We fought a Rancor in the test combat (should have just fought a group of troopers or something to start). I didn't read up on the Combining Size rules and ran it as normal. The group took the beast down without much difficult (in part by good/bad dice on each side of the table), but the combining size rules seemed like they'd be a huge swing the other way. My PC's weapons would do 0 damage.

This is what I can think of now. I hope to play more though and get a better feel for things (we usually run a TOR campaign but were a player down this week hence the test of your hack). Many of your tweaks to the base TOR system for this are really good.

Whoa! I didn’t think anyone payed much attention to this, let alone played it!

Thanks for your comments. Work is keeping me busy so I want to take the time to properly reply when I have a day off. Which should come soon. Hopefully…

 

[Laurefindel]

I randomly came across this hack and ran a test session last night. Great work! We didn't get to play as much as I'd had liked - we fussed around with PC creation a bit longer than expected - but I think TOR system is a great baseline for the setting.

Thanks for giving it a try!

Some questions/comments/feedback, in no particular order:

• The 'Opening Crawl' was a fun and interesting use of the 'journey' rules. I'd like to see how it works out a few sessions in a row.

Truth be told, sometimes it works well, sometimes if feels gimmicky.

• "Crew Rating" is mentioned but no details are given. I assume it's similar to Fellowship Score from TOR?

That was indeed the idea. It has a description in the Resting and Healing section now.

• We found ourselves wanting a Lore skill. Something to test our knowledge of various aspects of the galaxy.

Streetwise was the intended as "know who's who" skill that would replace Lore. Reading the description of Streetwise, that wasn't made evident...

• Heavy Blaster Rifle (p23) has knockback, while on p42 it has unbalanced.

Well-spotted, that had slipped even in my latest revision. In earlier iterations, a few weapons had a knockback special damage option that forced enemies to lose their action recovering. It was broken and eventually became unbalance, which is on the weak side... I'm open to suggestions.

• It seems that a Force-User can only get a lightsaber at Valour 2. By design?

More a consequence of making the "basic" lightsaber a special reward item. The newer version has a box text allowing Force-Users to swap their starting Reward with a lightsaber. It's admittedly clunky.

• We fought a Rancor in the test combat (should have just fought a group of troopers or something to start). I didn't read up on the Combining Size rules and ran it as normal. The group took the beast down without much difficult (in part by good/bad dice on each side of the table), but the combining size rules seemed like they'd be a huge swing the other way. My PC's weapons would do 0 damage.

The Adversaries are perhaps the least playtested elements of the document. We've only had one fight using the vehicle scale. It played well and as intended, but it was only one instance.

This is what I can think of now. I hope to play more though and get a better feel for things (we usually run a TOR campaign but were a player down this week hence the test of your hack). Many of your tweaks to the base TOR system for this are really good.

If you happen to play again, I'd love to hear what worked and what didn't.

I have updated the links with the newest versions of the documents. It has a few added paragraphs, Adversaries have been refined a bit , and spaceships now have 6 Virtues per class and access to special weaponry similar to those of PCs.