Great Green God's page

I don't know . . . we are talking about a campaign setting the size of a galaxy here. If you free a planet of a crime lord or stop the Imperials from destroying a population in this or that system, you could still feel pretty important, even while being light years away from the characters and events of the movies. The main issue during the movie timeline is the lack of jedi characters that you can play, though that doesn't bother me that much.

I agree with KnightErrantJR, and as a (ICE) MERP player/GM I have to disagree with the idea of a books and movies not converting well to the role-playing environment. First of all as KnightErrantJR said, it's a big galaxy and even something as small as Middle-Earth (where it took several months to walk from the Shire to Mordor) is still very expansive and players have all sorts of opportunity to make a difference even without bumping into the main heroes. The only real limiting factor in any table-top RPG is the imagination of the people playing it. Trying to recreate even a single scene from a book or movie is kinda asking for trouble as you never know what your improv troupe will do next.

If you are set on recreating something from a book with the characters as the protagonists mix it up. Using MERP as an example: Have a simple dwarven baker from Blue Mountains stumble on the One Ring. Perhaps the elven master of the Grey Havans istructs him to go by sea to Gondor and seek wisdom there. Now instead of an overland trek you have an epic sea voyage. The ship is sent off course after an encounter with corsairs and makes landfall south of Tharbad. The crew now needs to brave the ancient half-mired ruin of a town to make the main road and from there the Gap of Rohan where Saruman awaits, but trolls and dunman stand in their way and so they make for the ruins Ost-in-Edhil instead. Here they find the ancient forges of the elven smiths who unlocked the secret of ring-making only to be tricked by Sauron into creating the rings of power. Sauron destroyed this land long ago but ancient elven weapons can be found if the characters can get by the "watch dog" Sauron's armies left behind at the end of the Second Age, the terrible dragon Turukulon. Etc.... As for the group the party could be as ad-hoc as the players like with some characters being there because of the strength of their friendship rather than the strength of their weapon arm.

As for level dependence, D20 is far more variable than previous editions of D&D were (what with Feats, skill points, multi-classing, etc...) and therefore the level issue is not as bad as old timers might think. Combat (as always in Star Wars) is still mostly blasters unless you have a compelling reason to fight otherwise, but is doesn't last as long anymore thanks to Vitality and Wound Points. The classes are more balanced than d6's templates so jedi don't always show everyone up anymore although they also can't compete with all the powers ascribed to jedi in books, movies and cartoons. The powers are listed but you'll never get all of them to fit on one character.

As game systems go I would say both 6d and d20 versions of Star Wars where okay. Making them more than okay is the job of the gaming group.

Have fun,
GGG

Great Green God wrote:

2. The land the character's castle is built on is sacred, cursed, the meeting place of fairies once every century, located on a faultline, strategic position between rival nations or planes.

I can see it!

"People said I was daft, building a castle on a sacred, cursed, meeting place of fairies once every century, located on faultline that is in a strategic position between rival nations *and* planes... but I built it anyways. Then it fell into the swamp."

"So I built another and when that one sank beneath the Earth's crust I built another. That one burned down, so we built this one on top. And no singing!"

GGG

I was born in 1977!

Good for you.

That means you missed most of the 70's.

I started buying Dragon sporatically with issue 116. That issue featured an overview of an RGP game based on a TV show I had never heard of before, Doctor Who. It was love at first sight and the fact that a local PBS station was about to start broadcasting it in about six months kept me geeked for most of the summer. Thanks Dragon you introduced me to my favorite sci-fi show ever.

On the whole though I never really got into magazine because it never had any ICE Middle-Earth Roleplaying in it (my first RPG). I just picked up the ones with modules in them. Issue 100 was killer and when Dungeon came out I was in heaven. I finally did get into it because I started running games from the various "colored boxes." Right around 1987 was my high point in the magazine. In my never-humble opinion it was one of the best years of Dragon ever. Then Forgotten Realms became an 800lb. gorilla and my beloved Known World went AD&D - a system I dispise to this day. And that was the last you saw of me until 3.0. I didn't even know there was a second edition. ;) For a long time I hung out in the realms of DC Heroes (BEST SUPERS GAME - PERIOD), or in the classic World of Darkness with occasional forays into the D&D Rules Cyclopedia.

I liked the fact that multiple RPGs were included in the magazine once upon a time. I realize that won't be happening again but still it's a shame.

Great Green God