Which system for a Star Wars game?

[Sunglar]

Glad to see everyone is still here! I’m just getting back from playing D&D with my regular group and I realized they ARE psyched about playing Star Wars. They were facing a REALLY tough encounter (heck they are level 15, encounters should be tough!) with 7 players, 1 follower and 16 antagonists, plus summoned monsters. It was touch and go there and many of them were saying if there is a TPK we’ll get to play SW sooner!

I guess not everyone would take that as a compliment… I did! (Through planning and smart playing they all survived in case you were worried)

iwat I see some people have taken the route you suggest, letting some levels in other classes apply to the Adept when they cast. Is this necessary, are they otherwise underpowered? Eyebean that is true a Jedi created using the Adept class will have the available power limited to better reflect what a Jedi could be. This is the rute taken by those that have already done the adaptation.

ValhallaGH I still am thankful for some of these rules considerations, and agree with theory two, ditto to what Diggus said!

Any idea on the background things I asked? DO you guys think I should simply star a new thread? I have never posted so often on a thread, and find your help has been great and inspiring.

Talk later!

 

[iwatt]

iwat I see some people have taken the route you suggest, letting some levels in other classes apply to the Adept when they cast. Is this necessary, are they otherwise underpowered? Eyebean that is true a Jedi created using the Adept class will have the available power limited to better reflect what a Jedi could be. This is the rute taken by those that have already done the adaptation.

Valhalla is the one to ask, I haven't had the chance to run TrueStar Wars yet. My players are busy stomping on zombie heads right now.

Personally, I'm split over the matter. I think they're a good fit if you want jedi competitive with warroir of their same level. Enhance ability and Combat Sense are the great equalizer in this sense. A pure adept jedi is going to be lagging behind in combat effectiveness a lot. A warrior with only a few levels of adept won't be much of a jedi, but he'll be scary if he scores some lucky roles on his power checks. I think they can be overpowerful if you're players start "gaming" the system to cheese out. So it'll depend on your players.

 

[eyebeams]

This is a problem of perceptions.
Are Jedi just flat out better than everyone else? Even those rare individuals with an equal amount of experience? Or is it simply that a 'normal' Jedi has been through twice as many life and death experiences as the vast majority of individuals, granting them a level of experience and skill that is unparalleled in most of the galaxy?

Obviously, you subscribe to the first theory. Jedi are simply better than everyone else. They can do anything and everything better than anyone else, even people that have been though just as many equally difficult situations. Whether level one or level one million, such Jedi are always better than their non-Jedi peers.

Not at all. But you're using an analogy from the fiction, not from RPG play. RPG play gives more weight to some character abilities than others. In the SW universe, Jedi are the best close combatants, have an effective way to neutralize ranged attacks (it's only a problem when the Jedia are suprised -- and that's bad for *all* characters) and have superpowers. They're also amazing pilots, detectives and military commanders. A 14 year old Jedia can hold off cloned commandos. In an adventure RPG, that's pure gravy. In Star Wars *fiction* and *film* they're planty of room for tension, but in terms of RPG character power, Jedi have an edge.

They can't do *everything* better, but that can do a lot of adventure tasks better, and it does seem to come right from the start (because we have teenage Jedi who can fight clonetroopers -- the kid loses, but he's taking on an entire squad!). In the setting, other characters have wealth, worldly common sense, political influence and specialized knowledge to stake out a place, but not all of this transfers well to an RPG.

 

[Sunglar]

iwatt we’ll see what Valhalla has to say! My players are usually stomping (insert fantasy opponent here!) head’s! I mostly run Fantasy games peppered by other settings; I hope I can turn the SW adventures into something I can run parallel to the D&D game.

eyebeams so me of those elements that you mentioned are the WHY I am choosing to re-imagine the prequels.

ValhallaGH’s idea, even with the teenager is not far off. That teen that held off the clone tropper had conceivably since childhood been honing his jedi powers, and while a teen of the same age may be learning to drive the hover bike, the one in the jedi temple, can hold his own against the attackers. But still fall under their attack…

Still, I realize no system can accurately translate ANY fictional setting to perfection, from whatever media. Some may come close, but there is always something the writer or the moviemaker comes up with that breaks the built in pre conceptions of RPGs, but the purpose and the function of one vs. the other is very different.

In what I am attempting to create in the adventures I will run is a level playing field. The idea of jedi taking the force sensitive kids, almost from the cradle, is not there. Some orders, or groups may do this (there is no hegemonic order and their philosophies are much more fractured!) but none of the PCs will have undergone this. Those that desire to be jedis will be force sensitive characters planning to study under amaster or beginning their apprenticeship.

This way, perhaps, all PCs will develop their abilities together.

 

[lukelightning]

Mutants and Masterminds.

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

I can't believe no one has suggested FATAL.

It does have those "What size is your lightsaber?" rules I've used so often.

;-D

Owen K.C. Stephens
d20 Triggerman

Need better cheap magic options?
Get Loot 4 Less II: Rods, Staves and Wands

 

[Diggus Rex]

Wouldnt you like to know the size of my saber?

That kid that held off the Clone Troops is no clear determiner of Jedi superiority. In D20 game terms, looks like he surprised the clones and cleaved. As clones are Thugs like Stormtroopers, they've just got only wounds even if they're five levels higher than the kid. Once the surprise round is over, he get's blasted.

Plus, that was Lucas' son, ya know.

 

[eyebeams]

Wouldnt you like to know the size of my saber?

That kid that held off the Clone Troops is no clear determiner of Jedi superiority. In D20 game terms, looks like he surprised the clones and cleaved. As clones are Thugs like Stormtroopers, they've just got only wounds even if they're five levels higher than the kid. Once the surprise round is over, he get's blasted.

Plus, that was Lucas' son, ya know.

I don't know about that. It looks like he'd been fighting the clonetroopers *before* we see him and it spills out to the walkway. So he's actually *tougher* than his screen time permits. You can't really say the clones just have "wounds," since we're not really assuming any system (though it is a good argument for SWd20).

In any event, the argument that Jedi level up as adolescents always struck me as disingenuous, since few people are going to play 12 year old 1st level Jedi. You can play older 1st level Jedi during the OT era, maybe.

Really, what we know from the movies is that a trained Jedi (or Sith) is:

1) Better than almost any number of average troops, including battledroids.

2) Equal to shielded destroyer droids, *squads* of clones and giant monsters.

3) In the movies, there are purpose-built droids that truly exceptional characters that might beat a Jedi in single combat. We've got one or two bounty hunters, General Grievous, (maybe) his droid guards.

4) Known to be so bad*ss that when Darth Maul shows up, an entire platoon on Naboo decides to take the long way around instead of go through him.

5) Known to be so bad*ss that the Trade Federation is frightened of having 2 Jedi visit them, and terrified when Darth Maul is revealed.

6) Known to be so bad*ss that nobody talks about sending a horde of clones to kill Count Dooku, because that wouldn't be reliable.

Jedi seem pretty good at almost anything they attempt, really. This doesn't mean they *are* good at everything, but this includes a lot of "adventure skills," even if they aren't rich or politically adept (which are things that hose them in the prequels). They also don't seem to pilot big vessels, either and certainly don't know much about "Han Solo" kind of work. I think you can make them no good with hand blasters, too, even though Obi-Wan shoots Grievous nicely, as that's a suprise dramatic kind of thing.

You basically have three canon "hero classes" in the series: Jedi types, Han Solo types (sumggler/rogue/expert) and Leia types. You can add bounty hunters and soldiers to this, even though they're never hero characters in the films. Oddly, even though people like techie and medic types, the indication from the films is that droids do that kind of work. Naturally, that means PC droids, too. But when it comes to equal levels of story influence, Han, Luke and Leia are it.

 

[Diggus Rex]

eyebeams, are you saying a SW game should be limited to the content seen in the movies?

I always saw the flicks as presenting a small segement of the galaxy far far away.

 

[Ranger REG]

eyebeams, are you saying a SW game should be limited to the content seen in the movies?

Only the Saga Edition Core Rulebook. Assuming this is to be the official licensed RPG (approved by LFL).

Add-ons and supplements are on a case-by-case (with approval from LFL) basis. However, feel free to make or re-imagine your own version of Star Wars. Personally, I like mine to be as if Quentin Tarentino directed it.