Who Should Make The Next Star Wars TTRPG, And What Should It Look Like?

[Greg K]

I would be happy with any of the following (in no order)
Black Star (Lakeside Games)
Cortex Prime
Outgunned (Two Little Mice)
Savage Worlds

Honorable Mentions: Cinematic Unisystem, Honor+Intrigue (Basic Action Games) with Blasters+Intrigue supplement, Star Wars d6 System (with a few tweaks)

 

[Celebrim]

Out of curiosity, which era or "subgenre" of Star Wars do you usually aim for? The OT stuff is different than the Prequel stuff, and the Jedi stuff is different than the scrappy Rebel or outlaw stuff. I am curious what you aim for, and how the dice make that happen.

I don't make a distinction nor do I agree that they are different. I assume that the only difference between scrappy Andor and Obi Wan Kenobi in the prequels is the level of the character (as it were). And in general, the dice pools do seem to make this happen as large dice pools make for pretty high degrees of consistency.

 

[Reynard]

I don't see how your critique is particular to Star Wars and not basically all heroic fiction, nor do I see how in this sense the prequel era differs.

You don't see a difference between Star wars and, say, Pulp Fiction?

 

[Reynard]

I don't make a distinction nor do I agree that they are different. I assume that the only difference between scrappy Andor and Obi Wan Kenobi in the prequels is the level of the character (as it were). And in general, the dice pools do seem to make this happen as large dice pools make for pretty high degrees of consistency.

I mean, if you spend any effort examining them,they are clearly different.

 

[CleverNickName]

Not a popular answer, but WotC, 5E.2024.

This would increase the likelihood of my gaming group actually trying it, by like a hundredfold.

 

[Reynard]

This would increase the likelihood of my gaming group actually trying it, by like a hundredfold.

I think if WotC got the Star Wars license back it would shatter records

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Not a popular answer, but WotC, 5E.2024.

Agreed.

This would increase the likelihood of my gaming group actually trying it, by like a hundredfold.

And 5e is exactly the kind of system i want for star wars. I mean, a 2024 refinement of the fan made SW5e would already be really close to what i want.

I think if WotC got the Star Wars license back it would shatter records

Absolutely.

 

[Parmandur]

Is there a SRD for that system? I have zero interest in Cosmere stuff but I am curious about the rules.

Not, yet, but there will be. Brotherwise is commuting to Open Gaming and releasing an SRD, they are working on the generic core rules now, with a time line in place:

The game as it exists now is balanced well for one character being a Knight Radiant (a pretty strong equivalent to a Jedi) and another being a noncombatant, so adapted it would allow all the characters from the original movie as PCs on the same team, including the Droids.

 

[Celebrim]

You don't see a difference between Star wars and, say, Pulp Fiction?

Setting obviously. At times, tone, in that one is rated "PG" and the other rated "R" and so there are certain topics that are handled more graphically and less sensitively in one than the other. Pulp Fiction is trying to hit you in the face with blood splatter, and Star Wars typically is more restrained. "Eh chu ta" might carrying the same connotation but it would take a lot of familiarity and emersion to hit you in the same way as Pulp Fiction vulgarity. And of course, Pulp Fiction isn't a single story but is several stories interwoven together somewhat loosely in some cases and stylistically told in a non-linear fashion. But, you could probably do that in Star Wars too as Empire Strikes Back shows.

But I don't see any of those things as system distinctions. It's obvious that we could within a single game system - say D&D - carry out two games with different setting and tone in the same way that the two movies carry out different setting and tone. But as far as the "dice gods" or "narrative gods" go, they seem to work pretty similarly in both universes. There are characters in the stories that succeed against the odds and then fail with the odds at later points, and well, if we just assume that characters in Pulp Fiction are lower level that isn't surprising. Lots of "lower level" characters in Star Wars could have viewpoints very similar to say Vincent Vega. Heck, although he's implied to be more competent than Vincent Vega, still the story of Boba Fett plays out rather similarly. He's an anti-villain who, when encountering a protagonist dies an inglorious death after a moment of inattention.

I don't see it. Do tell me the difference.

 

[Celebrim]

I mean, if you spend any effort examining them, they are clearly different.

I've been running Star Wars as an RPG for the last 4 years or so and I guess I'm not a guy that puts as much attention to the details as you, but I don't see it.

I will say this though, the RPG won't feel like Star Wars to me if you can't have Obi Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, and Cassian Andor believably in the same universe. In fact, there is to me a clear progression that a PC will have in such a game system were Cassian Andor is aspirational, and the Han Solo becomes aspirational, and then Obi Wan Kenobi (or maybe Cal Kestis) becomes aspirational. That's the "zero to hero" sort of arc that I would expect of the system.

And I would expect the system to allow for gritty fire fights at some point, and then facing off against Star Destroyers at some point. Tall order maybe, but I don't think D6 is failing altogether to deliver on that. The only place I feel it is failing is in the ability to plan for combat as well as I can in something like D&D, because the lack of "hit points" at all really means that it doesn't take much variation in power levels to turn possible threat into likely disaster.