Star Wars The Broken Empire

Game Master Shanosuke

Okay, I sent you all a character sheet. Let me know when you have it and are ready to start filling it out.

Normally you start the game with one career and one specialization, however, you all have already come quite far and it would be wrong of me to start you off from ground level.

I am currently running through the gameplay thread and recording areas where you would have earned XP. Typically XP is awarded for completing tasks, jobs, missions, or personal goals. The more extreme the task, the more XP is awarded.

Here is how it looks so far.

You all have a starting xp value of somewhere between 100 - 130 each. Your race alters this amount.

Escaping Kuat in the beginning awarded 20xp.

Your success at Chandrila had multiple jobs
1. Gaining info on Adam 20xp
2. Seizing the Lab. 30xp
3. Securing more ships 30xp

Your adventures on Malakai
1. Reaching the Malaki main base 20xp
2. Completing the hunt 25xp
3. Assaulting the Star Destroyer 35xp
4. Resolving the Conflict between the Chiss and Malaki 20xp

Battle of Danaten Station 75xp

Upon completing the battle of Bakura you will have more XP.

We will be using the D20 system throughout the battle of Bakura. Only afterwards will your characters be "Rebuilt" into their new roles. You'll find a much greater variation in the group at that point.

P.S. Arana I am still waiting on your actions in the gameplay thread.

I have the sheet and am ready to work on it, Shanosuke. I do like the plan to stick with D20 through this conflict, so that we don't have to make drastic changes in the midst of the overarching battle.

Got the sheet, busy week for me this week - but I'll try to get moving with it.

I love our party dynamic too. I think its great to have people who can take different positions without feeling the need to disrupt the party dynamic or sabotage the group.

Exactly, I can see Darius' practicality and the common-sense of the soldier as well as the morality of Zaleos trying to ensure that the populace doesn't turn against us. Both of whom are trying to create a better new Empire.

A slight career update.

I got a new splat book with some additional careers in it and I saw two that fit certain characters better.

The first is for Zaleos.
The career is called Commander and the two specializations that work best are Squad leader and Tactician. Both come with great team support and booster abilities. I would suggest starting with squad commander. Some great abilities there.

Second is for Janitor.
Career Solider. Straight soldier. Makes perfect sense.
The two best specializations are either Commando, a melee and wilderness focus tree, or Sharp Shooter, strong emphasis on ranged combat. You know yourself best Janitor.

Now lets go over Characteristics.
These are the six big circles on your characters sheet.
Brawn, Agility, Intellect, Cunning, Willpower, and Presence.

There isn't much to these accept that each skill you have is tagged with one of these. Brawn and Will are the only two with additional effects.

How these work is you match the corresponding characteristics to the ranks in the skill you are trying to use. The higher number of the two determines the number of dice you use and the lower determines how many are upgraded.

Dice start as D8s. When upgraded they become D12s.

Ex a character with intellect four wants to hack a computer. He has two Ranks in his computer skill.

Four Int is the higher number and sets the number of D8s. The two in computer upgrades two D8s to D12s. Then the player has his dice pool.

This also works in reverse. If a player has a three ranks in the computer skill but only a two in intellect, he uses the three has his number of D8 and the two is the number upgraded.

This is the core mechanic of the game. Everything you roll for will work like this.

I like the new career choice for Zaelos here, so I will have Zaelos follow the squad Commander path for now. He may branch out into a different specialization later.

I also really like the party dynamics right now, seeing how everyone deals with their own thoughts on what's happening. Janitor sees this as a mission, as his job, but that also means that he sees the others as his new brothers (or, in Arana's case, sister) in arms, and Zaleos as his commander. He's with you guys for life now.

On the update... Hm. I think the career sounds good, but I'm not sure on the specializations. The Commando sounds promising, but Janitor is a bit more focused on urban warfare than wilderness, and while he's good in melee it's not his main thing... Maybe I'll take Sharpshooter as the starting specialization and pick up Commando after the initial stuff. That's what I'll do now.

I have the sheet, and I really like that mechanic for skills and such. It makes sense and will probably play out well. What should we have points-wise in each of those attributes? Like, a number of points to spend on them or something.

Now to determine your starting characteristics you need to buy them with XP. Each race has starting numbers in their characteristics and a certain amount of xp to spend depending on starting benefits.

The standard number for each characteristic is 2.

Humans have 2s across the board.

Since you all are some form of human, this is how you start.

Now, when spending XP to raise your characteristics, the amount they cost is ten times the next number. So going from 2 to 3 costs 30xp. If you wanted to go from 2 to 4, you have to pay for each step individually so 30xp to go to 3 and another 40xp to go to 4

Now. You xp assignments are:
Darius and Arana 130 starting XP

Janitor and Karval start with 120XP

And Zaleos has 110Xp to spend.

Please note this is the only time you get to spend XP on characteristics. The only other time a characteristic is raised is when you reach specific points in specializations. Depending on the specialization that can cost anywhere from 75xp to 100xp to get.

Now, Let me know when you all are finished assigning characteristics and we will move on to skills.

If you have any questions do ask.

Oh and if you are left with any remaining XP, it is carried over to be spent on skills and talents.

Zaleos, looking at your options, I think you are going to end up with 10xp leftover no matter what. The reason for this is because your race has a pretty powerful start and that is kind of how starting XP is assembled.

Wait, so is there any reason not to spend all our XP here? Would we need to hold onto some to buy skills or anything else? Answered by previous post.

If not, I think I'm going to increase Brawn and Agility to 4, and then either Intellect or Cunning--what's the difference between the two?

Skills is the only difference between characteristics.

Mechanics covers demolitions in the form of setting explosives and mechanical skills is supported by intellect.

You should look over the skills just to see which you like most and find the most common characteristic shared between them.

As stated before. Your starting XP is all you get to buy characteristics with. You should use as much of it here as you can. I will be dishing out more XP so you guys have the skills and talents to match your progression.

Shanosuke, I am not sure what you mean by that. Does the Mirilukian get an extra bonus to their characteristics? If not, then he would increase Intellect to 3 and Presence to 4. That would leave 10 XP over.

Alright, so I'm going to bump Brawn, Agility, Intellect, and Cunning all to 3 (30 each, so 120). I miscalculated the cost earlier, so my original plan wouldn't work at all.

You mentioned Brawn and Will having additional affects, what are those?

Sorry I should have mentioned those. Brawn adds soak and wouds which basically DR and Hit points

Willpower adds Strain which is like Mental HP. Take too much strain and you pass out. Strain Is essentially nonlethal damage.

Hm. After thinking about it, the bonus to Cunning is switched to Willpower. I think that fits him a little better.

Shanosuke, I'm thinking of raising agility to 4. I'm debating raising two others to 3. Any suggestions? I'm torn between the rest with my order of priority probably being: Cunning, Brawn, Intelligence, Willpower, and Presence.

Any suggestions or thoughts?

Beyond skills, do these come in to play elsewhere?

I am having trouble coming up with a plan to get past the security detail here. I was toying with the idea of sticking to our original disguises, but I am not sure they are good anymore.

Anyone have any ideas here? Perhaps a different disguise? Or possibly trying to steal some Rebel credentials?

I had mentioned picking up equipment to improve our uniforms off the guys we killed. We could look for another access point, or try to bluff our way in.

My only recommendation I can offer for this scenario is to try and treat it like one of those stealth based games. I.e Metal Gear, Assassins Creed, Splinter Cell and the like.

Darius, Given your character's function, I would recommend Intellect because you have displayed computer and technical skills and perhaps Will for Strain and interest in the Force.

That is the layout I see in you.

Once everyone has reported in their characteristics we will go over additional racial abilities and then skills

Once skills are done we can commence with the leveling. Leveling will be a bit of a process for those who do not have books but It isn't a terribly complicated system and I believe you guys will do fine.

My characteristics are as follows: Brawn 3, Agility 3, Intellect 3, Cunning 2, Willpower 3, Presence 2. That takes up the XP from this point of the process.

Okay, For characteristics I have both Janitor and Zaleos done and ready to move on.

Arana will go with
Brawn 2
Agility 4 70xp
Intellect 3 30xp
Cunning 2
Willpower 3 30xp
Presense 2

130xp used.

May as well have:
Brawn: 3 (30XP)
Agility: 3 (30XP)
Intellect: 3 (30XP)
Cunning: 2
Willpower: 2
Presence: 3 (30XP)

I was thinking about Brawn 4 & saving the points, but Presence sort of fits with his Gladiator background (although Cha is 10) & he has an Int 16 currently.

Darius will mirror Arana, unless you think having a PC with a bump in Cunning would be good:

Brawn 2
Agility 4 70xp
Intellect 3 30xp
Cunning 2
Willpower 3 30xp
Presence 2

130xp used.

I don't have my rulebook handy. Does vitality heal up during the course of a day or would it only be after resting for the night?

It's your level per hour of rest, and Treat Injury ranks once per day if you make a roll DC15.
There was some obscure rule too (on the GM screen) about it too.

1 Wound or Stat point a day.

*Karval and Janitor get 1pt per 4 rounds because the are Mandolorean.

First apply these additional race traits and put them into your talents spot on your character sheets.

My break is done. I will post again in a little over an hour concerning skills.

Okay! Skill Time!

Now what happens during character creation is you will usually start with several free skill ranks. Here I will share with you what career skills you have and give you an idea on what skills you start with.

First this, your race awards you with a rank or two of skills.

Mandelorians: get one free skill rank in any one combat skill.

Humans: get one rank in any two NON-CAREER skills.

Miraluka: get one rank in the skill COOL

Now, both careers and specializations have career skills. These are the same as class skills and you should mark them as such when you see which you have. I have listed your starting careers and specializations and what skills are career skills.

In addition to adding career skills, your starting careers and specializations also give you free ranks in some of those skills.

Starting Career: You can get ONE free rank in FOUR different career skills. This is for the career itself and cannot include specialization awarded career skills.

Starting Specialization: You can get ONE free rank in TWO different career skills provided ONLY by the specialization.

No starting skills are allowed to start above 2 ranks. Example: A Mandelorian gets a free rank in a combat skill, he picks Ranged HVY. Then he takes career Bounty Hunter and puts one of his free ranks in Ranged HVY. He then adds the specialization Assassin which also has the career skill Ranged HVY. This would allow an additional rank in the Ranged HVY skill but it already has two in it. Since the max ranks he can start with is 2, he has to select a different career skill to put his free rank into.

Now I will list the career skills for your starting careers and then followup with the career skills added by your starting specializations. Most skills are self explanatory but I will do my best to explain those that aren't.

Zaleos and Janitor, i do not have the book containing your careers on me at the moment. I will have to post your stuff when I get home.

Darius:
Bounty Hunter Career skill list:
Athletics (Climb, Jump, and Swim skill)
Brawl (Unarmed combat skill)
Perception
Pilot:Planetary (Ground vehicles)
Pilot:Space
Ranged (Hvy)(This covers most two handed firearms)
Streetwise (Kind of a wisdom/Knowledge based skill. Roll it to help avoid doing dumb things)
Vigilance (Initiative vs a surprise combat but has the additional effect of "adding" gear you didn't write down but your character would have thought of. Ex. You forgot to pack rope or climbing cord but a successful vigilance check means your character remembered and just happens to have it on his person.)

Assassin Specialization Additional Career Skills:
Melee (swords and the like)
Ranged Heavy
Skulduggery (Disable device and sleight of hand combined)
Stealth

Now for Karval:

Hired Gun Career Skills.
Athletics (Climb, Jump, and Swim)
Brawl (unarmed combat)
Discipline (Will save basically)
Melee (swords and such)
Pilot:Planetary (All manner of ground vehicles)
Ranged Light (Pistols and other one hand firearms)
Resilience (Fort saves)
Vigilance (Initiative vs a surprise combat but has the additional effect of "adding" gear you didn't write down but your character would have thought of. Ex. You forgot to pack rope or climbing cord but a successful vigilance check means your character remembered and just happens to have it on his person.)

Marauder specialization added career skills:
Coercion (Intimidation)
Melee
Resilience
Survival (same as Pathfinder)

Arana starting career skills

Technician Career Skills:
Astrogation (Governs ability to make quick and precise galactic travel)
Computers
Coordination (Acrobatics -Not jump though)
Discipline (Will saves)
Knowledge (Outer Rim)
Mechanics (Governs repairs, crafting, and demolition)
Perception
Pilot: Planetary (ground vehicles)

Outlaw Tech added career skills:
Knowledge education (generic smarts)
Knowledge (Underworld)
Mechanics
Streetwise (governs general wisdom when perform)

Arana, given how this game functions and how far we are in it, I will lift your knowledge ban and you can take ranks in any skill you want. My in game reasoning is your character has had plenty time to learn afew things.

Now, once your have all six starting ranks placed we will move on. Ask questions if you have any.

TO HUMANS: We will worry about your two noncareer ranks once we get all other ranks out of the way.

How does this look:

Bounty Hunter Career skill list:
Athletics (Climb, Jump, and Swim skill) - X
Brawl (Unarmed combat skill)
Perception - X
Pilot:Planetary (Ground vehicles)
Pilot:Space
Ranged (Hvy)(This covers most two handed firearms) - X
Streetwise (Kind of a wisdom/Knowledge based skill. Roll it to help avoid doing dumb things)
Vigilance (Initiative vs a surprise combat but has the additional effect of "adding" gear you didn't write down but your character would have thought of. Ex. You forgot to pack rope or climbing cord but a successful vigilance check means your character remembered and just happens to have it on his person.) - X

(Debated Streetwise instead of Vigilance, thoughts?)

Assassin Specialization Additional Career Skills:
Melee (swords and the like)
Ranged Heavy - X
Skulduggery (Disable device and sleight of hand combined)
Stealth -X

(Debated putting one in Melee instead of Ranged Heavy, thoughts?)

Putting a rank into Ranged heavy now will save you 5 xp in the long run. Also, I have played this game once already and vigilance came up far more often than Streetwise.

@EVERYONE: Given you guys are getting a good amount of spending XP due to game progression, I would recommend optimizing your character by getting two ranks in as many skills as possible using the free ranks. To raise a rank to level 2 costs 10xp normally. Getting that for free saves in the long run.

Just to clarify, we can't put two ranks in anything unless it overlaps between Career and Specialization, correct?

To add on for Zaleos and Janitor, we have the Commander and soldier

Commander career skills:
Coercion (Intimidation)
Cool (best used for initiative but also accounts as sense motive)
Discipline (will saves)
Knowledge (galactic civil war)
Leadership (aids in influencing others and some abilities you will gain depend on it)
Perception (nuff said)
Ranged Light (Pistols and other one hand firearms)
Vigilance (Initiative mainly but can produce mundane necessary items your character would have thought of even if you didn't)

Now the specializations career skills on this one are weird and both trees produce similar talents. So I will post both in this case.

Squad Leader additional career skills:
Gunnery (Rocket launcher, heavy machine guns, gun implacements, vehicle weaponry so on)
Mechanics (core technology skill for repairs, demolitions, improvements, that sort of thing)
Pilot:Planetary (Ground vehicles)
Pilot:Space

Now for tactician you can get the following career skills
Brawl (unarmed combat)
Discipline (Will saves)
Leadership (aids in influencing others) Getting two ranks in this really helps
Ranged Heavy (Most two handed firearms)

You can get both I am just not sure which skills you'd want more.

Janitor for you

Soldier career skills
Athletics (Climb, Jump, and Swim)
Brawl (unarmed combat)
Knowledge (galactic civil war)
Medicine (Getting the most out of stimpacks medpaks, bacta injectors and such)
Melee (swords and such)
Ranged Light
Ranged Heavy
Survival (same as Pathfinder)

Sharpshooter additional career skills
Cool (best used for initiative but also accounts as sense motive)
Perception
Ranged Light
Ranged Heavy

Now let me see the final results!!!

Zaelos will select the following skills:

Commander career skills:
Coercion (Intimidation)
Cool (best used for initiative but also accounts as sense motive)
Discipline (will saves)
Knowledge (galactic civil war) - X
Leadership (aids in influencing others and some abilities you will gain depend on it) - X
Perception (nuff said) - X
Ranged Light (Pistols and other one hand firearms) - X
Vigilance (Initiative mainly but can produce mundane necessary items your character would have thought of even if you didn't)

I believe Zaelos would be more of a Tactician than a Squad Leader, so I will pick the following career skills :

Brawl (unarmed combat)
Discipline (Will saves) - X
Leadership (aids in influencing others) Getting two ranks in this really helps) - X (total is 2)
Ranged Heavy (Most two handed firearms)

Also added his Racial traits (Miraluka: get one rank in the skill COOL, plus Force born and Force Sight).

No time today to work on these skills.....tomorrow !

Wait, so I'm a little confused. Would I be able to get a free rank from specialization, in Cool and Perception only, since they're only career skills due to my specialization? Or could I put my specialization's points into Ranged Light or Ranged Heavy?

You get one free rank in any TWO of your specialization career skills. Each specialization has four career skills. If they overlap with the career itself, that means you can end up with two ranks in one skill.

Janitor, the Sharpshooter specialization adds those four career skills to your list of career skills. You can get new specializations as you "level" and they aren't limited to your career. Whenever you add a new specialization, you know have it's four career skills.

It's like cross classing in Pathfinder. Takeing two different classes may get you more class skills. Same idea in a way.

Hope that helps.

Alright, that clears it up. I was just a little confused.

Okay, I have Janitor as follows...

4 Ranks from the Class: Brawl, Ranged (light), Ranged (heavy), and Survival.

2 Ranks from the Specialization: Ranged (light) and Ranged (heavy).

1 Rank from Mandalorian: Brawl.

So 2 ranks in Brawl, Ranged (light), and Ranged (heavy), and 1 in Survival. Set up thus since you talked about getting as many 2-rank skills as possible. If it'd be smarter to put a rank or two in other skills, I'd be open for that.

OK Skills done
4 Technician Ranks : Astrogation, Computers, Coordination(Acrobatics) and Perception

2 Outlaw Tech Ranks : Knowlegd(underground), Streetwise.

That gives:

Astrogation 2
Computer 2
Coordination(Acrobatics) 2
Discipline 1
Knowledge(Outer Rim) 1
Knowledge Education (generic smarts) 1
Knowledge (underworld) 2
Mechanics 2
Perception 2
Pilot(Planetary) 1
Streetwise 2

Let me know if anything's amiss, Shanosuke.

So let's have:

Class Ranks:
Vigilance (Will)/1
Athletics (Br)/1
Ranged Light Weapons (Ag)/1
Resilience (Br)/1

Specialisation:
Resilience (Br)/1
Melee (Br)/1

Mandolorean:
Melee (Br)/1

@Arana, I am not entirely sure on structure you used but your career skills do not start at 1. Anything you did not point your free ranks into should be at 0
So it should look like this:
Astrogation 1
Computer 1
Coordination(Acrobatics) 1
Discipline 0
Knowledge(Outer Rim) 0
Knowledge Education (generic smarts) 0
Knowledge (underworld) 1
Mechanics 1
Perception 1
Pilot(Planetary) 0
Streetwise 1
Like that.

OKAY! Level time!

Zaleos and Janitor, when I get home from work I will tell you guys what your options are for talents in your specializations. The rest of you should be good with the PDFs you have.

NOW! Read carefully and ask questions when confused.

When playing the game, you earn XP at certain points in the campaign. You use XP to buy skills, talents, additional specializations, and so on. Traditionally you gain XP at the end of a session but since we don't have sessions per say, I award xp as you complete tasks. You can buy skills and such at anytime as long as you have the xp to afford it.

COSTS:

Talents
The specialization trees you have show the cost of talents. The progression is the same for every specialization, even if isn't a career specialization. The base costs 5xp and the max cost 25. You have to pay for each individual step.

Skills

Skills costs vary depending on whether or not they are career skills. Career Skills cost 5 x the next rank number. Example would be, to buy the first rank costs 5x1 = 5 or to go from rank 2 to rank 3 costs 5 x 3 = 15. You have to pay for each individual step. To purchase ranks in NON-career skills, you simply add 10 to the cost.

Specialization
You can buy access to other specializations, both career and NON-career. There are two benefits to this. First is you gain access to the talents in the new specialization. Second you gain the four career skills that go with it as career skills. Thjs is simply to be able to rank up skills at a reduced costs. The force sensitive tree is a specialization and you can buy it like any specialization.

Specializations have 2 costs. To purchase a second specialization in your choice career, it costs 10 time the number of specializations you would have after you added the new specialization. To go from 1 to 2 specializations, it costs 20. To go from 2 to 3 it costs 30.

To purchase a NON-career specialization, it costs the same as above but add an additional 10 to the cost.

Force sensitive exile is a universal specialization and therefore doesn't add the additional 10 to the cost.

Force Sensitive Note:[b]
At this point, only Arana and Zaleos can have any force sensitive anything. Once the battle of Bakura ends, I will allow the rest of you to purchase the force specialization tree as well.

[B] Your Starting XP

You all have a total of 275xp to spend + whatever you have leftover from raising your characteristics.

If you have any questions please ask.

GM, I am thinking of adding the Gadgeteer Specialization under Bounty Hunter. It costs me 20XP for this purchase.

Once, I make this purchase, I do not gain any additional ranks to put in skills, correct?

Next, I assume the specialization trees require that I follow the tree to get to a particular specialization. I can't just jump around and pick what I want. Is that right?

Lastly, I assume I have to buy a specialization before I can take items from that tree. Is that correct?

Darius you are correct on all accounts.

You do not get additional ranks in skills but you have reduced the cost of the four skills associated with your new specialization if they weren't already career skills.

The abilities in the specialization trees are called "Talents" if you look you will see they are connected by black lines in some places. It is basically a prerequisite path. You start with a 5 cost talent and work your way from there.

You must purchase a specialization before you can take talents in it.

So yeah, you pretty much have it down Darius.

Shanosuke, I'm not sure what a lot of the items in the talents are.

Can you tell me a brief idea of what the following are:
Strain Threshold
Wound Threshold
Destiny Points
Soak

Can you tell me what type of permanent improvements can be put on weapons and armor via jury rigged?

How do critical injury results occur?

Thank you.

Sorry to keep hitting you with questions.

Can you give us an idea of what is Good/Average/Bad for ranks in a skill?
Are there any prohibitions in using skills without ranks in them?

I'm also trying to figure out if Talents are more important or Skills are more important.

Thanks.

Fair questions. I will explain. Always easier for me to explain things as they come up.

Wound and Strain threasholds are essentially two different types of HP. Wounds would be considered lethal and strain is something like non-lethal. Thing is, you only go unconscious if you too much on one kind.

For example: a character has a wound threashold of 13 and a strain threashold of 14. These numbers indicate how much of each kind of damage you take before being incapacitated. However, unlike lethal and non lethal in Pathfinder, the two scorse don't add up. Using the example above, 7 wounds and 7 strain do not knock you out. Only when one of the two meets its threashold.

To determine how much of each threashold you have, wounds is racial starting score + brawn and strain is racial score + willpower.

For humans it is a base of 10 + characteristics for both.

Mandelorians have a starting 11 + brawn for wounds and 9 + will for strain

Miraluka have 9 + brawn for wounds and a 11 + will for strain.

Certain talents available in ever tree increase thses values.

Soak is essentially DR. Same thing. It is determined by Brawn + Armor. Armor offers 2 soak at its highest.

I will go over the other details in a bit.