What's Your Favorite System for Star Wars

[overgeeked]

I still prefer the old WEG Star Wars game. Still works mostly fine with a little house rules for OP Jedi. Otherwise a simple generic system like Fate works great.

 

[vpuigdoller]

Haven't played FFG Star Wars but have d20, d20 revised, SAGA, D6 WEG original and revised. My favorite is the original d6 with revised d6 close second. It grabs the feel of the original trilogy perfectly and is very easy to pick up and play.

I also have very fond memories of some of the WEG adventures Tatooine Manhunt and Otherspace come specially to mind.

 

[Stormonu]

WEG D6 forever. I’ve played all of the other versions except FFG’s (whose presentation left me cold), and none of the others even come close to my enjoyment of the original SW version.

 

[Gradine]

Are there any good hacks for D6 to make combat flow faster? The way attacking and dodging are separate actions feels like a bit of needless complexity.

 

[aramis erak]

Are there any good hacks for D6 to make combat flow faster? The way attacking and dodging are separate actions feels like a bit of needless complexity.

Having run a bunch of d6 SW, editions 1, 2, and 2R...

Basing this on 1E:
Remember:

• the round is comprised of segments, and no character takes more than one declared action per segment, and only one reaction per segment. Each segment in 1E is resolved in descending order of skill roll. In 2E, it's descending order of initiative.
• reactions have to be declared BEFORE the attack is rolled. Remember that actions are declared at the start of the round, not the segment, PC and NPC alike, but the GM should restate NPCs targets at start of segment, so players can make the reactions if they wish.
• ALL attackers in the round overcome ONE dodge/parry roll, it's not separate per player.
• Each rules upgrade/edition has changed the defense reactions rules slightly, but the above remains true in all 1e.

No Reactions
Eliminate reaction dodges/parries. Make it just another declared action, one that lasts from the segment taken until the end of the round. If you want to ensure your dodge works, it's your 1st pass action, but then, there's a strong possibility you might not get your second pass. If you make it second pass, you might not get to dodge, but you're going to shoot.

Use the d6 Legends dice mechanic instead of the d6 standard
D6 Legends dice are count successes. 3-6 are successes; 6 on the wild die still succeeds. Difficulties divide by 5, then add 1, pips are ignored except for advancement and breaking ties on resolution order. Modifiers of +2 to +6 are reduced to +1, +7 to +11 are +2 , +12 to +16 are +3, and so on. This reduces resolution times a lot, BUT, it also reduces granularity and swing. Note that the expectation of the die is 2/3 success per die, but the variability is relatively low; a more variable option is instead of 0/0/1/1/1/1, go to 0/0/0/1/1/2 (4-5=1s, 6=2s).

 

[innerdude]

Force uses a d12, not a d6.

And it sounds like you don't have Star Wars - the differences are in char gen, advancement, and paranormal abilities, plus the FFG-SW corebooks each have different thematic abilities. And they are profound differences.

Porting in F&D powers is going to be simple even if you intend to use the Genesys char gen and advancement, but you'll need to understand the way the advancement trees work in SW vs Genesys.

Also, while the symbols on the dice are different in appearance, yes, indeed, they are the same names and distribution as on the SW dice.

The mechanics of play, however, are nearly identical, so there's not a lot to relearn, but there a few differences.

So I finally sat down with the group last night and used Edge of the Empire as the baseline "starting point" to get into FFG Star Wars.

Even though I'm going to GM, I went through a character-building exercise myself just to get a feel for it.

And after looking through the Star Wars talent trees, and comparing it to the more free-form "talent pyramid" setup in Genesys, in your opinion would it break the game if we took a more open approach and went with the Genesys character build option? In looking at the EotE talent trees, as long as you keep the talent costs equivalent to their tier, does it really matter if you allow people to unlock a talent without taking its supposed precursor?

Also, I've read multiple places now that vehicle and space combat in baseline EotE is kind of wonky. What are the best ways to fix that?

 

[Widfara]

Bill Roper created a "Star Wars Traveller" rules set that, while by and for fans, is very well done. We just started a campaign using the rules and I'm having a blast.
I found the rules over at Happy Jacks. Here is a link:

Star Wars Traveller 2.0 | Happy Jacks RPG Podcast Forum

It's finally done. After close to 2 years of work, Star Wars Traveller (version 2.0) is completed and ready for

happyjacks.proboards.com

 

[aramis erak]

So I finally sat down with the group last night and used Edge of the Empire as the baseline "starting point" to get into FFG Star Wars.

Even though I'm going to GM, I went through a character-building exercise myself just to get a feel for it.

And after looking through the Star Wars talent trees, and comparing it to the more free-form "talent pyramid" setup in Genesys, in your opinion would it break the game if we took a more open approach and went with the Genesys character build option? In looking at the EotE talent trees, as long as you keep the talent costs equivalent to their tier, does it really matter if you allow people to unlock a talent without taking its supposed precursor?

Also, I've read multiple places now that vehicle and space combat in baseline EotE is kind of wonky. What are the best ways to fix that?

Break it? kind of.... Many of the specialties are balanced by the restrictions on when you can get to X talent. I can tell you that that absolutely is true for the various Smuggler splatbook trees. (You'll find me listed in playtesters on that, and on the Ace one for AoR.)

They are there to emulate the path these types of folk take... and all the really hot stuff is behind borders to slow access to the most powerful; that barrier will disappear with the Genesys mode, and allow much faster hyperspecialization, and reduce the (in SW) enforced breath of abilities.

Keep in mind also - a starting Star Wars character can often have 4 rank 5 talents at 150 XP... 75 for down the straight path to the rank 5s, then 75 to get the other three. But if that path has bends, many are more than 75 away.
Genesys, you have to have at least 75 points per rank 5... because you need another R1, R2, R3, and R4 ton allow that R5.

It won't hurt the game much, but it will "void the warranty" so to speak. It will no longer mechanically enforce certain tropes that the designers put in to emulate the feel.

If you do so on the force power trees, expect horribly OP force users.

I've figured out that Anakin vs VSD? Yes, he can do it. He has to have at least 5 dice, and have boght the full power tree, and made one hell of a roll.... and it's quite obvious from his flop sweat that he used points of both light and dark...

 

[innerdude]

Keep in mind also - a starting Star Wars character can often have 4 rank 5 talents at 150 XP... 75 for down the straight path to the rank 5s, then 75 to get the other three. But if that path has bends, many are more than 75 away.

Genesys, you have to have at least 75 points per rank 5... because you need another R1, R2, R3, and R4 ton allow that R5.

Okay, so I think this answers another question I had --- the talent trees have to be purchased in order both VERTICALLY and HORIZONTALLY.

Meaning, once I buy a 10-point, Tier 2 talent, I don't automatically get to "free float" horizontally anywhere along the Tier 2 path. I have to purchase the talents horizontally along the path in progression to reach my next "downward" path. Am I reading that right?

 

[aramis erak]

Okay, so I think this answers another question I had --- the talent trees have to be purchased in order both VERTICALLY and HORIZONTALLY.

Meaning, once I buy a 10-point, Tier 2 talent, I don't automatically get to "free float" horizontally anywhere along the Tier 2 path. I have to purchase the talents horizontally along the path in progression to reach my next "downward" path. Am I reading that right?

Yes. Well, mostly.

Talent 1​		Talent 2​		Talent 3​		Talent 4
|​				I​		I​
Talent 5​		Talent 6​		talent 7​		talent 8
|​		|​		I​		|​
Talent 9​	—​	talent 10​	—​	talent 11​	—​	talent 12​

To get talents 1-4, just pay the points. Talent 5 requires you have either talent 1 OR Talent 9
Talent 6 requires talent 10,
Talent 7 requires talents 3 or 11.
Talent 8 requores 4 or 12.
10 requires 9 or 11
11 requires 10 or 7 or 12
12 requires 8 or 11
So... to get 6 fastest, either 1-5-9-10-6, or 3-7-11-10-6
Note that 2 isn't required at all for anything else. and to get 6 or anything on the 9 row or later, you have to go 1 & 5, OR 3 and 7, OR, 4 and 8..., and then maybe work across.