Star Wars Saga, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[drothgery]

In pulp, such as Star Wars, even the non-combative PCs should be capable in combat when push comes to shove. The further you get away from how Star Wars is presented, you will find it harder to use Saga to cover all the options.

... which is why despite investing no discretionary resources in combat ability, below-average Str, and average Dex and Con, Istara Kandorian (the noble/scoundrel NPC I used as an example up-thread) is still quite capable of dropping a standard stormtrooper. Six heroic levels would do that.

 

[Stalker0]

Heck, in the books, the core characters should probably be moving on, too. Luke is, what, 60 by the time of the Legacy of the Force series? Han is probably 65-70? If a 20th level character is reaching age 70 or so (human, anyway), verisimilitude ought to have them retiring or dying, anyway...

That's what I like about the legacy of the force series, they seem to be doing just that. Sure Luke, Han, Leia and the gang are still there, but less and less of the action is focused on them while the spotlight is on the newer generation. It seems to be slowing weaning the readers off of the old guard. I'm sure they won't be gone gone for a very long time if ever, but I do think they are fading from view.

 

[Stalker0]

I have to say that this version of Star Wars does more to make ALL stats important than any other d20 game I've yet seen.

What are they doing with charisma that makes it so useful, I'd love to have some good charisma mechanics.

 

[drothgery]

What are they doing with charisma that makes it so useful, I'd love to have some good charisma mechanics.

Use the Force is a Cha-based skill, and used to power force powers and talents. Feinting in combat works off of deception (Cha-based skill). And a fair number of buffs and debuffs available to the Noble and Jedi core classes and the Officer PrC work off of Persuasion (also a Cha-based skill).

 

[Skywalker]

... which is why despite investing no discretionary resources in combat ability, below-average Str, and average Dex and Con, Istara Kandorian (the noble/scoundrel NPC I used as an example up-thread) is still quite capable of dropping a standard stormtrooper. Six heroic levels would do that.

Exactly. That's how it should be if you play Star Wars the way it is presented in the movies.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

The Bad:
Feats: The first PCs I made were the crew of Firefly and which one was the hardest to create? Kaylee! So many of the feats are combat oriented, creatng a non-combative PC is hard. I had to create a new feat, (Second Chance: that allows you to chose a skill that you are both trained and focused in and you can now re-roll a skill check) The feat list does need to be expanded from just combat.

This one I agree on. A few more non-combat feats would be nice. I do like the idea of the Second Chance feat.

Cybernetic Prosthesis cause a -1 penalty to Use the Force checks, but neither Darth Vader (4 cyber limbs) and Luke Skywalker (1 cyber hand) have any penalties in their stats.

Actually they do have the penalties to their UtF checks included. Check the math on their UtF check bonuses; they're lower than what a character of their level should have by the cybernetics modifier.

Also, Luke's stats are for episode VI, but do not include Force Grip that he used on the Gamorean.

I've seen it argued that Luke didn't use Force Grip per se but Affect Mind/Mind Trick. I'm of the camp that says Force Grip, but maybe the person that wrote the stat block felt differently. After all, I wouldn't give Luke the Weapon Finesse feat, but the authors did.

 

[Vigilance]

I agree there should have been more stuff for non-combat characters included. *Especially* so you could write up Kaylee, allowing me to use this book as written for Firefly too.

I mean, the way Nobles make such great doctors (for Simon), and the way the Scoundrel class works, already make this a great system for Firefly.

But that's a minor quibble. I have to say this is the best RPG I've bought in a long, long time. Since Unearthed Arcana at least.

Chuck

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

If Force Points not replenishing at 20th level is that much of an issue to you and you really want to keep going at 20th level, the simplest solution is to just periodically replenish Force Points every few sessions.

I remember hearing a proposed house rule someplace (I think it was the WotC boards) about Force Points refreshing at the start of a each adventure. The flip side to this is that since the players know they'll have the full Force Point allotment for next adventure, they're going to be willing to spend them a lot more often instead of carefully rationing them out, as tended to happen in the d20 Modern games I played. Of course, if you want the PCs to be able to routinely engage in over-the-top heroics, that just might be the way to go.

 

[Flynn]

I remember hearing a proposed house rule someplace (I think it was the WotC boards) about Force Points refreshing at the start of a each adventure. The flip side to this is that since the players know they'll have the full Force Point allotment for next adventure, they're going to be willing to spend them a lot more often instead of carefully rationing them out, as tended to happen in the d20 Modern games I played. Of course, if you want the PCs to be able to routinely engage in over-the-top heroics, that just might be the way to go.

It was towards the bottom of the previous page on this thread, I think. I posted a variant above on this page (post #122) that limits the Force Points given per session, but still roughly provides for this same basic functionality. It's a bit more moderated, so the over-the-top concerns are limited in impact.

Hope this helps,
Flynn

 

[Henry]

I agree there should have been more stuff for non-combat characters included. *Especially* so you could write up Kaylee, allowing me to use this book as written for Firefly too....But that's a minor quibble. I have to say this is the best RPG I've bought in a long, long time. Since Unearthed Arcana at least.

I'm finding a lot of people telling me that this hammer also makes a pretty decent torque wrench in addition to a great hammer, which to me is a hallmark of a pretty good game design. A couple of my game group is getting disillusioned from what they read, though, precisely because of the lack of fine-tuning that is in the core book. They want to keep an open mind for when we get a chance to play it, but it's disappointed the group's most rabid Star Wars (and expanded universe) fan, and that came as a surprise to me. His biggest complaint? Loss of granularity of the skills.